Shooting Star // Eternalian Chronicles Book 1

38) .Depression and The Destroyer.

(Edited)

.Vincent and the Doctor.

~Catherine Wood~

I woke up to the sun in my eyes, the night before a blur. I had hardly remembered falling asleep on the sofa, Reid on my lap since there was hardly enough room in the small house for all of us. I didn't even know where Amelia and the Doctor slept. Why we didn't just sleep in the TARDIS, I didn't know. 

Reid pulled me from the couch and into the yard where there seemed to be something good cooking. I assumed it was eggs, and immediately was awake. They did say breakfast is the most important meal of the day for a reason. I was sure, most mornings, that's the only reason I woke up. 

"Wakey, wakey, rise and shine!" I heard the Doctor call from up the stairs in Vincent's room. "Breakfast is served in the courtyard. Whoa!" He came out into the sunlight, his eyes needing to adjust for a moment. He caught my eye and gave me a wink. "What a morning. Come on." He turned back. "And Amy's got a little surprise for you." 

The yard was full of sunflowers. How Amelia was up so early to pick them all amazed me. Perhaps she didn't sleep at all.  I picked one of them from the vases and held it to my nose to intake the stench ... and immediately coughed. It was a bit too strong of pollen. I suppose for someone like Vincent who would end up painting them, it was just perfect. Speaking of ... Vincent came from his room to behold the sight, his eyes widening slightly. 

"I thought I'd brighten things up to thank you for saving me last night," Amelia called up to him. 

Vincent smiled at her kind gesture. I couldn't help but think what a pair the two would be. Though Rory was gone, and Amelia had forgotten him, I knew in my mind I should keep the memory alive, so I thought no more of it.

"Perhaps you could paint them," Reid suggested, picking one of his own and examining it. "It might be a good challenge for you. 

"Yes, well, they're not my favorite flower," Vincent said sadly. 

Amelia gasped. "You mean that you don't like sunflowers?"

"No, it's not that I don't like them," he rephrased quickly. "I find them complex. Always somewhere between living and dying. Half-human as they turn to the sun. A little disgusting. But, you know, like the boy said, they are a challenge." 

I smiled at that. He must had liked Amelia much more than he liked the rest of us if he would have done anything to get her approval. Perhaps that was what that last painting in the Musee d'Orsay was, the sunflowers for Amelia. 

"I'm sure you'll rise to it!" I called up, "but for now, the Doctor and I have something we need to show you." 

*~~~~~*~~~~~*

Vincent examined the picture he held, the one the Doctor and I had printed from the gizmo we had used to identify the Krafayis. Vincent's eyes widened in surprise upon seeing it. "That's him! And the eyes, without mercy."

"This is a creature called the Krafayis," I told him, a sour look on my face, like I thought it shouldn't be called merciless. "They travel in space. They travel as a pack, scavenging across the universe. And sometimes one of them gets left behind. And because they are a brutal race, the others never come back. So, dotted all around the universe are individual, utterly abandoned Krafayis. And what they do is, well, kill, until they're killed. Which they usually aren't. Because other creatures can't see them."

"But the boy and I can," Vincent pointed out. 

I nodded. "Yes. I am from space too. There, they call me the Destroyer. When I shook your hand, Vincent, for the first time, some of my ... alien energy passed onto you, so you were given the gifts I have started to loose in the process of becoming more human."