The Doctor's Daughter (#Wattys 2014)

Merry Christmas

Melody's POV

I shoved people aside as I ran through the streets of London. I didn't care that they were yelling at me. I had places to be.

I broke away from the busy part of London and came to the cemetery. I pushed on the gates, only to find that they were chained shut. I cursed and pulled out my laser-light. I was about to sonic it open when I heard a voice. "Oi! Whadda you think you're doing?"

The police. Great. I turned around with my hands in the air. "Nothing."

"Yeah, right. I know you. You're the girl who comes into the cemetery every other night," the policeman approached me. "You shouldn't be here."

"What if I do it for the hell of it?" I asked. "Have you ever checked? I've never left any damage."

"Just for the hell of it, you say? So you're just visiting just to walk around?" he asked. "Yeah, right."

"It's very peaceful. And besides, there's no one else here. What's the point of the chains?" I gestured to the chains with my head. "Grave robbers? Graffiti? Me?"

"None of your business. Go home, kid," the policeman snapped.

"I'm not a kid. You see, I turned of age last night," I smiled and took off running.

As I sprinted away from the policeman, I realized something: the policeman didn't know why the chains were on there. They weren't on there before.

Which probably meant Liliana didn't want to face me.

No, the system. They had to be run by living were-cats. They had to have put the chains on there. 

Did they?

I slowed to a walk. I had to go there, but there were policemen.

Fortunately, I knew another way in.

I turned around and continued running. Once I was in an area where I knew no one could see me, I turned into a cat. I was virtually invisible. I could get in.

I got to the cemetery, avoiding the policeman's sweeping beam, and slid through the fence surrounding the cemetery. I was in.

I continued as a cat until I reached Liliana's grave. I transformed and muttered, "I know what you are. I know you're not real. You're just a system. And you've been shut down in my mind."

You think?

The voice startled me. I fell backwards off my heels. "You were shut down in my mind! You can't talk to me anymore!"

Oh, but I can. You see, I can never be shut down.

"Oh, great," I grumbled. I turned to my heel and ran, transforming into a cat as I did. I slid through the fence posts and continued home.

"Melody," Ella said once I entered the apartment. "you shouldn't have gone."

"Well, I did," I said, flopping down on the couch. I fingered the necklace around my neck. It was Dad's gift to me. It was very simple, with a round TARDIS-blue stone hanging off a thin silver chain. Made by were-cats. When Dad went out to get it, the matter of Anastasia was settled.

Queen Alexandra had come by and told her that although she had been under the influence of Liliana, she had been the one who committed the murders and therefore was condemned to the third floor the mansion. "For other people's lives and sake," Queen Alexandra had explained.

Afterwards, when Dad came home, we had a little celebration for my eighteenth birthday. On Thorn, I really wasn't turning of age-I still had two more years to go-but it was a day worth celebrating nevertheless.