Burning Stars {A Doctor Who Fan Fiction} [REWRITE IN PROGRESS!]

Chapter 30

"No hurry," Annabelle replied, putting on a fake smile. "None at all. Except...I do suddenly have the fleeting urge to run - you haven't seen any mirrors lately, have you?"

A flash of anger spread over the boy's eyes until he started grinning again. "Oh, why should I need to, with such a pretty face in front of me?"

Annabelle pulled a grimace laced with disgust, indiscreetly attempting to back away from him. His friends had started coming closer, all with the identical smirks on their face.

In a couple of the following moments, her mind had woven a complicated pattern around the thoughts that should have been prominent.

Hearing the boy who still had a grip on her mention faces, she couldn't help but think of overheard conversations between Amy and Rory, with their stupid face thing. And, following that, she thought of their deaths, and then how Harley was basically... dead.

And then came those men in Simeon's courtyard. She should've stopped the snowmen. She should've felt something for them. But she had fallen numb to emotions somewhere along the way.

Those snowmen. If Harley had still been around, he surely would have gotten too close to one...if he were still there, she wouldn't be hearing the screaming of the boys.

It hit her that screaming wasn't normal at this point of the encounter.

The tight hand on her shoulder let go; Annabelle slipped away before the boy could regain control. Startled, she looked behind him - one of Simeon's snowmen.

"Haven't you heard, dear? I'm the new Snow Miser! I'm just too much!" Annabelle taunted. The boys had started backing away. She dared to take a step closer to the snowman, cautiously gauging the distance between them.

Snow crunched; she winced, feeling the air hit her back. More snowmen had materialized.

Keeping up with the act, she continued. "Y'know, Mister White Christmas, Mister Snow? Mister Icicle - Mister Ten-Below!" By the time she had laughed, all six of the lot were legging it.

Once they were around the corner, she didn't stop, spinning around to face the Snowmen. "Friends call me Snow Miser; whatever I touch," she sang. "turns to snow in my clutch - I'm too much!"

Annabelle stared the Snowmen down, challenging them. She hummed as she stepped away from them - "He's Mister White Christmas, he's Mister Snow. He's Mister Icicle, he's Mister Ten-Below."

She looked behind herself, making sure she wasn't about to trip over anything. Glancing back up upon hearing snow crunching again, the Snowmen had moved closer.

"So you're gonna work that way, huh? Play the quantum-locked game - sort of, at least?" The Snowman leading the the two behind it snarled. "Well, uh, I'm just gonna go and gather the Heat Miser - I don't have to go through with the whole he's Mister Hundred-and-One thing, do I? - and get back to you."

On cue, the Snowmen reacted as the line rang through her mind. Friends call me Heat Miser - the Snowmen stopped grinning, instead positioning their mouths into angry frowns - whatever I touch, starts to melt in my clutch.

In a small-scale explosion of water, or, the remains of the things, the Snowmen dissipated. Some of it - them - splashed onto her, making the cold that much more unbearable.

I'm too much!

+++++

"Did you get them?"

Annabelle grimaced, her plans to get back into the TARDIS unnoticed foiled by the Doctor. "Get what?" she asked, shivering slightly. Little patches of ice had formed on her jacket, where the Snowmen had melted onto it.