There was a horrid cry of a scream. The Doctor and Rita jolted up in bed, jumped up then sprinted out of the room as Martha sat up groggily getting up only a moment after them. They ran across to where the noise came from. Shakespeare room.
"What? What was that?" Shakespear looked at them oblivious to what happened. The Doctor and Rita ran over to the woman known as Dolly and felt her neck for any possible heart beat as Martha moved to the window. her eyes widened as what looked like a classic white flew away on a broomstick, silhouetted against the moon.
"Her heart gave out." The Doctor informed them.
"She died of fright," Rita added.
"Stone? Doctor?" Martha agitatedly looked at them.
They both sprang to their feet moving over to the window and looking out of it staring into the London night, the only light glowing the outside area coming from the glistening moon. "What did you see? "
Martha gulped looking at them both in worry. "A witch."
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After sunrise, the Doctor Rita and Martha were back in the Shakespeare room sitting at the table trying to think about what it could be that possibly killed the woman and the man last night. "Oh, sweet Dolly Bailey. She sat out three bouts of the plague in this place when we all ran like rats." Shakespear said to the three at the table while staring out o the window/ "But what could have scared her so? She had such enormous spirit." He turned and sat down opposite them.
The Doctor muttered quietly, quoting Dylan Thomas. "Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Rita thought about glaring at the Doctor, but he was a Time Lord to be fair, he knew the repercussions of his actions, if he did say that then he surely would know that Shakespear would not use it.
"I might use that," Shakespear said.
The Time Lords shook their heads and the Doctor warned: "You can't. It's someone else's."
"But the thing is, Lynley drowned on dry land, Dolly died of fright, and they were both connected to you." Martha nodded at Shakespear.
He frowned and said in an offended voice: "You're accusing me?"
Martha shook her head not meaning what she said in that way. "No, but I saw a witch, big as you like, flying, cackling away, and you've written about witches." Rita groaned.
"I have? When was that?" Shakespear looked at Martha strangely.
The Doctor looked over to her and quietly whispered to her. "Not, not quite yet."
"Peter Streete spoke of witches." Shakespeare thought mumbling out loud.
Martha frowned not understanding who he was talking about. "Who's Peter Streete?"
"Our builder. He sketched the plans to the Globe."
"The architect." The Doctor thought then looked at Rita who was also thinking. "Hold on. The architect!" He shouted and slammed his hands on the table, Rita slightly jumped losing any thought she had at that moment. "The architect! The Globe! Come on!" He ran out and Rita sprinted after him with Martha and Shakespear following her. "
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When entering the theatre the Doctor started pacing around thinking, Rita and Martha along with Shakespear headed onto the stage. Rita then sat down on the edge letting her feet dangle as she thought. "The columns there, right? Fourteen sides." The Doctor asked continuing to pace around. "I've always wondered, but I never asked. Tell me, Will. Why fourteen sides?"
"It was the shape Peter Streete thought best, that's all. Said it carried the sound well."
"Fourteen. Why does that ring a bell? Fourteen, Rita is it the same with you?" He looked at her.
"Hmm it is" She hummed. "Fourteen but what does it mean?"
"There's fourteen lines in a sonnet." Martha pointed out and Rita turned to look at her grinning.
"So there is. Good point. Words and shapes following the same design. Fourteen lines, fourteen sides, fourteen facets. Oh, my head." He ran his a hand through his hair and lightly hit his own head with the palms of his hands. "Tetradecagon. Think, think, think! Words, letters, numbers, lines!"
"Fourteen lines and fourteen sides" Rita repeated what the Doctor had said. "But what is it for?"
"This is just a theatre." Rita and the Doctor both stopped, he stopped moving and she stopped swinging her legs. The Doctor walked over standing beside where Rita was sitting he face deadly serious just like hers.
"But a theatre is magic isn't it?" Rita asked Shakespeare. "Out of anyone you should know." She then jumped up and widened her arms. "Stand on this very stage, Say the right words at the right time. You can make men weep, or cry with joy, you can make them fall in love or make their hearts break. You can change them. You can change people's minds just with words in this place. Imagine using the right emphasis as well." She said in awe lowering her arms. "Did I ever mention that I love your plays" She pointed at Shakespeare. "And that is exactly why!" She waved her hand across her chest and clicked her fingers grinning.
"It's like your police box." Martha called to the Doctor. "Small wooden box with all that POWER inside."
"Oh Martha you are brilliant" Rita smiled then jumped off the stage landing completely fine.
"Oh!" The Doctor looked at her. "Oh, Martha Jones, I like you." Rita nodded in agreement. "Tell you what, though." He looked at Shakespeare. "Peter Streete would know. Can I talk to him?"
Shakespeare's face saddened a little. "You won't get an answer. A month after finishing this place, lost his mind."
"Why? What happened?" Martha asked.
"Started raving about witches, hearing voices, babbling. His mind was addled."
"Witches? If that's the case with what Martha told us earlier we have to talk to him" Rita told Shakespeare walking over to the Doctor.
"And where is he now?" The Doctor added.
"Bedlam." Rita shivered at Shakespeare words knowing exactly what it was. She faintly remembered learning about it in her college history class while a human. Shaking the memory out of her mind she continued to listen to the conversation.
"What's Bedlam?" Martha asked.
"Bethlem Hospital. The madhouse." Shakespeare told her.
The Doctor placed his hands in his pockets and started to walk off. Rita ran over to him and walked with him. "We're going to go there. Right now. Come on." He ordered Martha to follow.
"Wait!" Shakespeare shouted running off of the stage following Martha follow them. "I'm coming with you. I want to witness this at first hand."
The Doctor and Rita passed two young men entering the global. She noticed that Shakespeare had stopped yet she continued to walk.
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"So, tell me of Freedonia, where women can be doctors, writers, actors." Shakespeare asked after catching up with the three in the street.
"This country's ruled by a woman. Martha protested.
"Ah, she's royal. That's God's business. Though you are a royal beauty." He attempted to flirt with her. Martha eyes widened and she stopped turning to him and firmly speaking. "Whoa, Nelly. I know for a fact you've got a wife in the country."
"But Martha, this is Town." He protested. Rita and the Doctor heard their conversation and groaned turning back.
"Come on. We can all have a good flirt later." The Doctor told Martha and Shakespeare.
"You lot can. I'm staying out of that" Rita pointed at them and then turned to walk off.
"She is feisty" Shakespeare grinned.
The Doctors eyes grew cold and burned into Shakespeares. "She loves your plays and made it clear she was not interested yesterday. The Stone does not want comments like that trust me you're lucky she didn't hear you." He continued to narrow his eyes at the man. "She personally told me herself that she is not interested. Now move!" he warned Shakespeare before swiftly turning and catching up with the blonde.
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Upon arriving at Bedlam the four could hear the screams and crys of people inside. The stench of human waste filled the air and escaped into the open as they walked inside. People inside of cells begged to be let out, screaming, crying and shouting as well as hitting the bars of the cells.
"And I used to wonder why you hated hospitals" Rita muttered walking beside the Doctor cautiously not going near any of the cells.
"Does my Lord Doctor wish some entertainment while he waits?" The keeper walking ahead asked. "I'd whip these madmen. They'll put on a good show for you. Mad dog in Bedlam."
"No, he does not!" Rita snapped in a growl then coughed in apology knowing that they didn't exactly have the evidence of knowledge for modern day medicine.
"Lord Doctor?" The keeper pressed on ignoring Rita.
"Lasy Stone was right" the Doctor then snapped. "Don't ignore her"
"Well, wait here, my lords, while I make him decent for the ladies." The keeper then walked on down the corridor leaving the four alone with all of the people in their cells creating a mixture of sounds.
"So this is what you call a hospital, yeah? Where the patients are whipped to entertain the gentry? And you put your friend in here?" Martha snapped at Shakespeare.
"Oh, it's all so different in Freedonia." He hummed annoyed.
"But you're clever. Do you honestly think this place is any good?" Martha asked him.
"I've been mad. I've lost my mind. Fear of this place set me right again. It serves its purpose."
"Mad in what way?" Martha asked obviously not a big fan of Shakespeare's plays.
"You lost your son." Rita swallowed.
"My only boy. The Black Death took him. I wasn't even there."
"Sounds like something that happened to me, except the black dead part, and it being my parents" Martha looked between Shakespeare and Rita regretting her words. The Doctor inched over to Rita a little and took her hand in comfort rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.
"I didn't know. I'm sorry." Martha said sincerely to both of them.
"It made me question everything. The futility of this fleeting existence. To be or not to be." He quoted his own play and Rita smiled a little recognising it from Hamlet. "Oh, that's quite good." He thought aloud.
"Perhaps and you write that down," Rita suggested.
"Maybe not. A bit pretentious?"
"Possibly" Rita shrugged. They then turned their heads in the direction of the Keepers voice beckoning them over. Still keeping hold on Rita's hand the Doctor headed first with the brunette beside him, Martha next and Shakespeare last.
The guard unlocked the cell and they all stepped inside.
"They can be dangerous, my lord. Don't know their own strength. The guard warned.
The Doctor snapped shouting at him. "I think it helps if you don't whip them. Now get out!" The guard did as he was told exiting the cell and shutting the door.
The Doctor let go of Rita's hand, slowly walked over and crouched down beside the man shaking and looking at the floor curled in a ball. "Peter? Peter Streete?" He softly said. Rita walked over and knelt beside the Doctor watching.
"He's the same as he was. You'll get nothing out of him." Shakespeare told them standing back with Martha.
"You don't ever know until you try," Rita told him over her shoulder.
"Peter?" The Doctor gently touched the mans shoulder and his head snapped up, his eyes wide and staring into the Doctors with fear plastered over his face. The Doctor placed his fingers on Peter's temples using a mind meld. "Peter, I'm the Doctor. Go into the past. One year ago. Let your mind go back. Back to when everything was fine and shining. Everything that happened in this year since happened to somebody else. It was just a story. A Winter's Tale. Let go." Peter begam to relax his eyes still fixed yet his body wasn't shaking as much. "That's it. That's it, just let go." He gently let Peter lie down on his cot his body still slightly shaking. He then stood up with Rita. "Tell me the story, Peter. Tell me about the witches."
Peter then started to explain in 3rd person as if what he said was true. "Witches spoke to Peter. In the night, they whispered. They whispered." He started to wave his hand next to his ear as if he could hear it. "Got Peter to build the Globe to their design. Their design! The fourteen walls. Always fourteen. When the work was done they snapped poor Peter's wits."
"Where did Peter see the witches? Where in the city? Peter, tell me. You've got to tell me where were they?" The Doctor demanded.
"All Hallows Street."
"Too many words." A woman who looked very much like a witch appeared. The Doctor jumped back putting the Time Lady with him.
"What the hell?" Martha gasped.
"Just one touch of the heart." The woman cackled pointing her finger and motioning down towards Peter. "No!" The Doctor and Rita shouted. The woman obviously a witch then touched Peters chest who then died instantly.
Shakespeare's eyes widened and he cried out. "Witch! I'm seeing a witch!"
The woman moved her finger towards them, the Doctor and Rita lent back away. "Now, who would be next, hmm?" She hissed. "Just one touch. Oh, oh, I'll stop your frantic hearts. Poor, fragile mortals." Martha ran to the cell bars and frantically started shaking them, screaming: "Let us out! Let us out!"
"Martha that won't work. Almost the whole building's shouting that" Rita said over her shoulder closely watching the witch.
"Who will die first, hmm?" The witch looked between the four of them.
"If you insist on asking" Rita stepped forward but was pulled back by her arm the Doctor holding a firm grasp on her.
"No! Don't!" Martha shouted.
"No way" he wrapped an arm round her waist keeping Rita firmly in place and slightly behind her. She looked at him raising a brow and he quickly moved his arm away.
"Stone, Doctor. can you stop her?" Shakespeare asked.
"No mortal has power over me." The which cackled to them.
"Oh, but there's a power in words." The Doctor stated.
"And if we can find just the right one, if we can just know you" Rita added
"None on Earth has knowledge of us."
"Then it's a good thing we're here." The Doctor said glancing over to Rita. "Now think, think, think. Humanoid female, uses shapes and words to channel energy."
Rita's eyes widened realising what it was and shouted: "The fourteen stars of the Rexel planetary configuration!"
The Doctor looked at her realising what she was talking about and the witch looked a little worried at them both. He pointed at it and shouted loudly: "Creature, I name you Carrionite!"
The witch screamed painfully and then vanished in a white light.
"What did you do?" Martha asked the Doctor.
"I named her. The power of a name. That's old magic."
"But there's no such thing as magic." Martha looked at them confused.
"It's sort of magic" Rita explained. "Different sort of science. You lot, chose mathematics"
"Given the right string of numbers, the right equation, you can split the atom. Carrionites use words instead." The Doctor finished.
"Use them for what?"
Rita sighed. "The end of the world."
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They headed back to Shakespeares room, the Doctor and Rita paced around in thought. "The Carrionites disappeared way back at the dawn of the universe. Nobody was sure if they were real or legend."
"I always thought they were legend, that was until you mentioned fourteen" Rita nodded to him.
"Well, I'm going for real," Shakespeare added.
Martha looked at them. "But what do they want?"
"A world of bones, blood and witchcraft. The Carrionites want a new empire on Earth." Rita explained.
"But how?"
The Doctor moved his gaze over to Shakespeare. "I'm looking at the man with the words."
"Me? But I've done nothing." Shakespeare protested.
"Hold on, though. What were you doing last night, when that Carrionite was in the room?" Martha asked him.
"Finishing the play."
"Shakespeare, what exactly happens on the last page?" Rita asked.
"The boys get the girls. They have a bit of a dance. It's all as funny and thought provoking as usual." He then frowned. "Except those last few lines. Funny thing is, I don't actually remember writing them."
"That's it!" The Doctor pointed in understanding. "They used you. They gave you the final words like a spell, like a code. Love's Labours Won. It's a weapon."
"The right combination of words, spoken at the right place, with the shape of the Globe as an energy converter!" Rita shouted. "You see! The power of words!"
"The play's the thing!" The Doctor quoted from Hamlet. "And yes, you can have that."
"But All Hallows Street, that's what he said" Rita looked at Shakespeare. "Do you have a map?" He nodded and walked over to a draw rummaging around in it before bringing out a man and placing it on the table. "There" she pointed at it
"All Hallows Street. Stone, Martha, we'll track them down." He looked at them and they nodded. "Will, you get to the Globe. Whatever you do, stop that play."
"I'll do it. All these years I've been the cleverest man around. Next, to you, I know nothing."
"Oh, the Stone is definitely smarter than I am."
"I wish" she rolled her eyes.
"Oh, don't complain," Martha said to the three of them.
"I'm not. It's marvellous. Good luck, Doctor."
"Good luck, Shakespeare. Once more unto the breach." He quoted from Henry V then ran out.
"I like that." He nodded in thought then looked up. "Wait a minute, that's one of mine!"
The Doctor poked his head around the door. "Oh, just shift!" He ordered before the grumble of Rita was heard and he jolted away at the force of her pulling on his arm.
A/N: How are you enjoying the second book? I am definitely enjoying writing the 3rd series. Please vote and comment your ideas for what you think will happen!