December 12th, 2007
Walking down the street these days was dangerous. I was in the center of Manchester, at the Christmas Markets. It was somewhat beautiful though at Christmas. Stalls filled with Christmassy bits, like beautiful gold bauble, or maybe just some coffee. Manchester was only ever majestic at Christmas, it's the only time that people here can be nice, to some extent. I had to pass through here to get home from the college. I passed a Starbucks on my way, and decided to pick up a latte, to fuel the day ahead.
I enrolled at Pendleton College as soon as I was old enough, it was a change of scenery. Scary, no doubt, but beautiful nonetheless. Chase had enrolled at this college when he turned 16, he took Law, Public Services and English, finished with C's and B's. Then at 18 instead of going to University decided to join the police straight away. Now, it's my turn however. Chase had always told me how amazing it was here, and with my brother knowing the teachers knowing Chase already, I thought I'd give it a go. And like always, Chase was right.
It was wonderful. The teachers were always so kind, and the students, sometimes a little stupid but overall a pleasure. After getting the bus to closest stop to my college, I walked down the long road. I tucked my blonde hair behind my ear, before running through the gates. I saw Sadie, with a silly Santa hat on her head. I laughed. "What are you doing?" I smiled. "It's Christmas, Malia. I'm spreading some cheer." She giggled, grabbing my arm and linking it. "Oh God. You sound like an american high school girl in a typical high school musical." I chuckled. "Whatever, Grinch. Now, come on those cute drama girls are singing again." She giggled. "I'm straight!" I exclaimed loudly, as she ran off and I followed. Her hair was a dark chocolate brown, and if that wasn't beautiful enough her eyes were a burning brown.
She was definitely the looker out of the two of us. I was never particularly confident in my face or my body, but I was confident in my mind. I may never be a model, or an actress, but my mind will save me. I had blonde hair that came just past my shoulders, and pale green eyes. They said it reminded them of the Amazonite gemstone. That's how I hear some people call them.
Eventually I caught up to Sadie. "Sades. I have class, meet me at dinner?" I asked, watching her, watching the pretty drama girls sing. "Sure!" She replied, without paying attention. I just laughed. "See you later, stalker." I shouted. Then I watched as Sadie ran away, when the girls looked at her. I giggled and walked up the stairs to my English class. My teacher Julie, was young, probably only just out of University herself.
"Okay, hey guys. So, we're gonna analyze 'The Handmaid's Tale' up to page 60. Hope you did your reading?" She smiled. I smiled as I sat in my seat, in the back, opening the book.
After an hour and a half class, I decided to grab another coffee. There was a Starbucks around the corner from my college, which was convenient. It's almost as if they knew. As I walked down the road alone, I started to hear it again. It had been with me since I was a child, at first I felt like it was a gift from God. He must be speaking to me. I used to think. But now frankly, it felt like a curse.
It grew since I was little. It had started as a mere whisper, a lone, cold winter's night. I though maybe it was a bird, and I had misheard. But eventually it became undeniable. Now, it was like a symphony in my head. Loud. Growing louder. Building.
But, it was only for a few.
There was always this word, that had circled around my head. It was random, at random points in the day. Sometimes even twice a day. It would echo around my head, bouncing around in mt memories, shifting them. It had been there since I was seven, and I don't know why. Nothing special happened when I was seven. Except from my dad and Tina dying.
But nothing else.
This disembodied voice had been here for too long. The word, sounded like nothing I had ever heard, I think that's why I knew I wasn't making it up. Like I couldn't blame it on the grief, because how could I make up a word like that. I didn't even know how to spell it. But I thought once that, maybe it was a name. Like a foreign name.
But I tried searching history books, to find something that looked remotely like what was said in my head. I tried phonetically spelling it, but nothing came up on the internet. And every time this unidentifiable word would come into my head, a statement would follow it. It was a man's voice. I had never heard it. But it would say these words, that made a sentence that I could understand. Sort of.
It would say: "Children can hear it, sometimes. If their hearts are in the right place and the stars are too."
I never knew what it meant, still don't. I tried googling that too, thinking that maybe it was part of a poem. You know, something poetic and metaphorical. But nothing came up. I guess that means I'm on the train to crazy town. I tried to giggle at that, but I decided not to.
Walking down the street giggling at nothing, would definitely send me on the path to crazy. I arrived at Starbucks after 5 minutes and ordered my usual, another latte. I even ordered a chocolate chip muffin, how dangerous. I laughed, in my head. I stayed in the cafe and drank my latte. I got my laptop out of my bag and worked on my history assignment. Our newest assignment was Queen Elizabeth the first, also known as the Virgin Queen. Good on her.
It was strange. I searched her up. Then my WiFi, went down. "Excuse me? Do you have WiFi here?" I asked, smiling with my coffee raised to my lips. "Of course. It should be there. If you have any problems, call me over and I'll come and fix it." The man said. "Thank you." I smiled, before looking back to my laptop.
I clicked on my WiFi button and searched down the list, none of them said Starbucks' WiFi, but I saw one that had full bars, and no key. It was named: 'DUoNcItTo06r'. I assumed it was this one. "Found it, miss?" He asked, with a stray black hair cascading over his eye. "Yes, I think. Thanks." I said. I searched again, and it worked.
Then I noticed a painting of Queen Elizabeth I, stood next to a man, in dress of that day. But he looked so out of place. He had a smirk plastered on his face. It was strange, almost as if I had seen it before. But the man, I had never met him.
So, why did he feel so familiar? I clicked on the photo and it took me to a blocked site.
THIS PAGE IS BLOCKED BY THE UNIFIED INTELLIGENCE TASKFORCE. "Hmm. I guess I could always try breaking down some firewalls." I whispered, looking around to make sure no one could witness what I was about to do. Since I was a child I'd been excessively good at, well, everything. For some reason, things like that just crumbled down so they became bricks in my hands, ready to build something. Intelligence had always been my strength.
I began trying to hack into this website, but nothing worked. I tried numerous algorithms, and languages but it seemed all was lost. I closed my laptop lid, and sighed. I put it back in my bag. Suddenly, I got a phone call.
'Sadie'
"Malia, where are you?" She asked, stuttering and panicked. "Sadie? What's wrong?" I gasped. "Something happened at college. Where are you? Are you okay?" She asked, crying. "I'm fine, I just went to Starbucks." I gushed. "You need to get back here." She cried. "Okay, I'm coming. Stay on the phone with me." I urged, as I threw my bag on my back.
I ran out the door. "What's happening?" I shouted. "I don't know, just get back here." I stayed on the phone with her as I heard her crying and panicking. I heard the distant screams over the phone. I took the shortcut through the back streets, still running to get to her. As soon as I got to the college I saw nothing. It looked fine.
I ran to the college, I couldn't hear anything from here, no screaming, no panicked voices. But through the phone I could hear it. So I ran further, until I got through the gates.
Then it became real. The college from outside the gates looked perfectly fine. But when I entered I looked up, and saw a UFO. It wasn't like how they presented it in the media, not a little flying saucer, with green aliens. I thought of how impossible this was, but then realised how true this was. The incident with Big Ben. That was aliens. Obviously aliens.
This ship was like a brick, but it filled the sky. It must have had some sort of device to cloak itself outside the college grounds. I pushed the gates together, making sure no one could get in. But that meant that no one could get out.
Am I locking everyone in, or locking people out?
I locked it anyway. I could get them out. I saw a couple at the front. "Hey, get out. Get out the grounds." I yelled. I watched them leave then, saw their confusion on their face as they saw it disappear. "Just go." I shouted. I ran into the building and gathered as many kids I could at a time, normally only groups of 10. Most of them had gone out for dinner, the food sucked here. But there were always ones that lingered.
In the center of the campus I saw a couple people had passed out. I used a water bottle that I had to wake them up and told them to run out of the school grounds. I still hadn't seen Sadie. Her phone had abruptly hung up about ten minutes ago. I called her back.
"Malia?" She whispered, still whimpering. "Sadie, where are you?" I asked, keeping to the sides of the building, so nothing saw me. "Girls bathroom, second floor." She whispered. I still hadn't seen what had invaded us. "Okay, I'm coming." I replied, checking the corner. When I saw nothing there I ran past. "Okay, hurry." She whispered. Then I noticed...
"Wait... Sadie? Why are you whispering?" I asked.
She whimpered quietly again, and took a small, quiet breathe. "Because I think there's something in here with me." She whimpered. And with those words... I knew the danger was imminent. "Okay. I have a plan. Listen closely."
I explained my plan, whilst checking everywhere for other kids, but there was no one left. And the teachers had took out the students that they had been with and anyone they found. Just me and Sadie left. I took a breathe, and took out my laptop. I opened the door to the dance studio, plugging in my laptop to the speakers. I thought of the loudest song that I knew. Set a timer for it to play, and turned up the speakers.
I opened the elevator sat in it. And heard as the music started to play. I heard colossal footsteps travel down the stairs. "Have they gone, Sadie?" I whispered.
"Yeah." She sounded a little better, but still teary-eyed. "Don't move. I'm coming to you." I replied. I still hadn't seen the creatures, but my question would soon be answered, as I watched them storm downstairs. On the stairs I saw big black leather boots. They wore all leather and looked to be about 6 feet tall, and weighed a considerable amount.
They were walking in sync and on this one stair case, there were at least 20. But that wasn't the scariest detail. On top of their leather-bound bodies was the head of a rhino. "You could of told me that they were rhino's." I whispered. "Rhino's?" She asked. I had no time to answer. "Still remember the plan?" I asked. "Yeah." She replied. I pushed the button to the second floor. When I eventually got out, Sadie was stood waiting. She hugged me, tighter than ever. She kissed my cheek. "OMG. I love you." She smiled.
I was going to say that I was straight again, but I thought it would be completely uncalled for. "I love you too, Sades." I smiled, she knew I meant as in a friend way. We both sat waiting in the elevator for the music on this floor to kick in. The music stopped down stairs, about 5 minutes ago. "I hope they smashed the speaker and not my laptop?" I whispered. "Is that what you're worried about right now?" Sadie asked. "I'm trying to distract us." I replied. "Oh, well it didn't work." She added.
I nodded. Then we heard the footsteps. "Where did you put the music?" I whispered. "The Computer Science room at the end of the left corridor. The speaker was already on, they normally have music on in there for some reason." Sadie replied, whispering. The door had closed, some time ago, so I couldn't see if they had passed. But when the footsteps had moved away and we couldn't hear anymore movement. We pushed the button to open the elevator and run down to the ground floor, it wasn't that far away. The music had stopped already. "They're coming this way. They know there's someone here." Sadie said. "I know. I know. Just run for the exit." I said, as we reached the bottom of the stairs. Then we saw a man outside.
We ran outside. He was stood in the center of the campus. "What are you doing in here? Are you crazy, run?" I shouted. "Malia? Malia? Just run." Sadie tried to drag me away. "We can't leave him." I said. The man turned to me, looking at me with a gleam in his eye.
I watched the man in the striped suit, as the rhino men walked outside. Sadie decided at this point to run. I hadn't even noticed that she had got out. "Hey, mister. Come this way." I shouted, using my hands as a funnel. He looked over to me and shouted. "Look out!" He yelled. I spun around, and saw that they were behind me. I screamed. One of them grabbed me by the arm and threw me over the shoulder.
"Let her go. Do NOT harm that girl!" He yelled. "Judoon. It's me. I know you know. Put down that girl." He screamed. Judoon? What the hell is a Judoon? Obviously, this thing. The creature, judoon, walked over to the man and dropped me beside him. He bent down to my size. "Are you okay?" He asked, his voice calm. "Erm, yeah. I guess. Are you?" I asked. "Me? I'm fine, just a little run in, with the Judoon though." He said, standing up, and helping me off the floor. "Now, why are you here? I got everyone out." He said. "No you didn't. My friend was hid in the girl's bathroom, I went in there and helped her." I replied.
"How? This place was filled with Judoon." He asked. Then realised. "Oh, you're the one who was using the music?" He asked. "Yeah. Used it to lure them away, so they wouldn't hear the elevator and then lured them back again to get out." I said. He smirked. "Nice." He said.
That smirk? It felt so... familiar.
"Now. Judoon, mind explaining why you are on Earth?" He asked. But all that followed was silence. "Come on... Don't pretend you can't speak English, I saw you assimilate the language before." He stated. "We are looking for the creature that killed the Queen of Tiaanamat, which orbits Akhaten." The Judoon spoke. "How long would this creature have been living on Earth?" He asked. "An estimate was taken to be 3 to 4 earthly weeks." The Judoon replied.
"Mr. Presten?" I whispered. "What?" The man asked. "A new science teacher, came about 3 weeks ago. No one even knew he was coming, just showed up one day." I replied.
"That is him. Is he still here, human?" The Judoon asked. "No, I saw him run." I added. "We must find him, and take him for trial." The Judoon bellowed. We can look up on the College data base, maybe he put an address!" I asked.
"Take us to the database!" The Judoon demanded, taking out a small red gun. "Okay." I replied, putting my hands in the air. "No. No guns, she's following orders." The man said. We both ran to the front desk, he seemed surprised I could keep up. He smirked again. That damn smile, why did it feel... right? Like he was here... before.
But like I did all my queries, I pushed it away.
"I'll let you. You seem like you know what you're doing." He said. I jumped over the counter to the main desk and punched in his name. "It doesn't have an address." I said, searching desperately. Then we heard something from the cafeteria beside us. "That's him." I pointed, seeing him through the glass window. "After him." The Judoon bellowed.
We ran as fast as we could towards him, the doors behind him were locked. "HALT! PRISONER 523!" The Judoon pointed the gun to him. He sneered. "How did you know it was me? I shifted." He yelled. "Prisoner 523, you are charged with the crime of killing the Queen of Tiaanamat, orbiting Akhaten. How do you plea?" They beckoned.
"Oh please. Of course I killed her, she hated our kind. So, I gave her a reason, shifted as her own daughter as I slit her throat." He laughed.
"Jesus." I whispered, making the man with the striped suit look down at me. He frowned. "A little too horror movie for me." I whispered. "Same."
A little over half an hour and the prisoner had been taken with the Rhino men, Judoon. Me and the man had stayed in the college. "How did that man get here, how did he pass himself as a teacher here?" I asked. "He may have had some sort of mind control over he receptionist, seems like a reasonable explanation." He smiled. "I guess. But still I have a lot of questions." I began. "Like what?" He asked. "I wasn't in college at the time of the invasion. My friend calked me and told me to come back. When I got to college I saw nothing, until I walked through the gates, then I could. What's that about?" I asked.
"Must be a perception filter. Just one of incredible strength." He replied. How do you know this?" I asked. "I'm an intellect." He smiled. I nodded. "Me too." I smiled, back. He looked at me. He gave me a look that was weird. "What?" I asked. He shook his head. "It was Malia? Wasn't it?" He asked.
"Yeah, Malia Quinn." I replied. He jumped up. "Malia Quinn?" He asked, he seemed scared and sad. And... guilty. "What?" I asked. "I just remembered, I-I. I have to go." He said, before running away. I followed. "Wait. Wait, please." I yelled.
He stopped dead. At the back of the college, near the car park, he just stopped. We were both out of breath, and about two meter apart. "Wait. Who are you?" I asked, calling out over the distance. "You don't know?" He asked. "Should I?" I asked.
He looked away. "Wait. Why do you think I know you?"
"I'm called The Doctor." He said. "The Doctor?" I asked. "You know me? How do you know me?" I asked. He walked towards me slowly. He looked at the ring on my finger. "What do you know of this ring?" He asked. "Not much, I've had it since I was a kid." I replied. He nodded. "I know, I'm the one who gave it to you. When you were seven, the night your father died." He said. "I don't remember that. I mean, I remember mt dad dying, but I don't know you." I whimpered.
"Take off the ring." He insisted. I didn't want to. "I don't want to." I replied. "That's the ring speaking. I gave you that ring so you'd forget about me. As a child you knew me, because the ring didn't fit. I was like a story in your head. But ever since the ring fit, you forgot. If you take that ring off, you'll remember. Everything." He said. I looked down to the ring. "Do you trust me?" He asked.
I don't know why, but I did. I nodded. "Okay." I took a breath. I grabbed the ring on my finger and slowly slid it off my finger.
Then everything came flooding back.