Post by Fitz Kreiner on Mar 11, 2009 22:08:46 GMT
Suzanne Ashfield closed the cupboard door and turned round to look round the kitchen. Her husband had been away for a week now and was due back later that afternoon. That was the one part of his new job that she didn’t like, the long times he spent away from home. Still, she’d done the shopping and later would prepare his favourite meal for his return; in the meantime, the housework needed doing.
Opening the cupboard under the stairs, Suzanne wheeled the vacuum cleaner out and plugged it into the socket in the kitchen. Her hand moved towards the on switch when the ringing of the telephone made her jump. Mentally chastising herself for jumping at the sound, she turned and picked up the receiver.
“Hello? Ashfield residence,” she said. “Hello?”
Suzanne took the receiver from her ear and looked at it puzzled. A strange tone was coming from it. It must be a crossed line or the other person disconnected, she thought as she put it back in the cradle.
Turning, Suzanne went back to the vacuum cleaner and switched the power on. The roar of the vacuum cleaner filled the room and drowned out the sound of the phone ringing again. Shaking the cable free of tangles, Suzanne pushed the vacuum cleaner into the kitchen. The sound of the telephone table in the hallway crashing to the floor made her turn around. The cable to the vacuum cleaner had got tangled with the flex for the phone and pulled it over. She was reaching for the switch to turn off the vacuum cleaner so she could sort the mess out when a blur of motion caught her attention.
Fearing there was an intruder in the house, Suzanne spun round reaching out for the block of knives on the worktop. She was almost in reach when the cable of the vacuum cleaner flashed over her head and round her neck. Choking in shock, Suzanne staggered backwards, the knife block clattered over, the knives scattering away from her reach. Scared and panicking, Suzanne reached to her neck to try to prise the garrotte from her throat, but to no avail. Her vision starting to cloud, she hit and kicked behind her, hoping to catch her attacker and loosen the cord. Her eyes bulged as the cord tightened round her throat and her swipes and kicks hit thin air.
Gasping for her last breath, her eyes fell onto the kitchen window, and the figure stood in the garden staring at her. A bald man, with a seemingly plain, blank face, stood motionless and unfazed at the drama unfolding before him. As her world grew dark, Suzanne could have been sure that the man had no eyes, or any discernable features. It was the last thought to ever cross her mind.
It was dark, a black in which no light could penetrate. They were all around him. He couldn’t see them but he could feel their presence. He could feel them closing in on him and could almost see their blank faces and cold, blank, dead eyes. They were getting closer. Closer in the dark. He still couldn’t see anything, but he could feel them. Then; the voice. That voice. That flat, emotionless voice cutting through him like-
Tom awoke with a start, a cry escaping his lips as he sat bolt upright breathing heavily. It had been the same dream again. How long had it been? Maybe he should talk to the Doctor about the dreams? The sound of the ringing bell soon distracted him from his thoughts.
“What the hell is that?” He muttered, swinging his legs off the bed.
Yawning and stretching, he reached for the dressing gown, slung across the chair not too far from the bed. Pulling it on, Tom rubbed his eyes and made for the door to his room. Opening it, the ringing seemed to get louder, yet strangely it seemed to have a source, the opposite direction to the console room.
“Doctor, what have you done now?” He sighed, setting off towards the source of the ringing.
Reaching out from her bed, Jess fumbled on the bedside cabinet for her alarm clock. Hitting the snooze button, she slammed her hand down on it when the ringing didn’t stop. Crying out, she grabbed it and threw it at the wall before sitting up and looking about. The ringing wasn’t her alarm clock. Throwing the covers back, Jess climbed groggily out of her bed. The ringing wasn’t coming from her room at all. Crossing to the door she flung it open. The ringing was louder outside.
Looking round, she saw Tom walking down the corridor towards her. The young Time Lord’s dark brown hair looked tousled and fell loose down his shoulders. He was wearing a long black dressing gown. It seemed that the ringing had awoken him too. She looked at him questioningly, one eyebrow raised.
“I’ve no idea!” He said, anticipating her question. “But it seems to be coming from this direction.”
Jess watched as he set off in the direction he’d pointed. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she set off after him, at a jog, her bare feet slapping against the cold floor of the TARDIS corridor.
“Where d’you think it’s coming from?” She asked after she’d caught up with him.
“Not a clue,” Tom replied pausing at a corridor intersection and looking both ways trying to figure out from which way the ringing was coming. Pointing one way, Tom turned and made off down the opposite direction.
Jess shivered and looked down at the baggy t-shirt and cotton shorts that she wore to bed. The TARDIS seemed colder, when normally it was comfortably warm. She wished she’d put a dressing gown on over her bed clothes. Looking up, she saw Tom disappear around another corner, and jogged to catch up. She was just about to say something when she collided with a dark velvet pillar. It took her a couple of seconds to realise that she’d just run slap bang into the Doctor, who was now extraditing himself from her, hands on her shoulders. Looking up, he seemed to be wearing a worried expression and looking past her and Tom.
“Ah, good, you’re up.” He muttered quietly, yet easily audible over the ringing. “I take it you heard the bell.”
“Well, it’s not exactly hard to miss.” Jess replied.
“What is it? What’s gone wrong now?” Tom asked, brushing stray strands of hair behind his ear.
The Doctor looked over Tom before blinking and looking at his two companions. “Hmm? What? Oh, I don’t know, at least, not yet.” He said.
“That doesn’t help.” Jess said. “What is it? Where’s it coming from?”
“The space/time telegraph.” The Doctor said absently looking over Tom’s shoulder again. “But it’s where it is and what it’s looking like now since the old girl regenerated herself.”
“Oh great,” Tom sighed. “Needle in a haystack.”
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” The Doctor smiled. “I trust the old girl.”
Jess looked over at Tom, a questioning look on her face as the Doctor breezed past them and back down the corridor they’d just come down. Shrugging, Tom returned the confused look and they both turned to follow the Doctor. The Time Lord was already some way ahead of them. He was just walking but seemed to moving surprisingly quickly. Jess was finding that she had to jog to catch up to him. Although she was pleased to note that Tom had to do the same. Rounding the corner the Doctor had just turned, Jess skidding to a halt, nearly tripping over her feet as she nearly ran into a dead end.
Composing herself, Jess looked round. Tom was looking stunned at the sudden appearance of the dead end as well. The Doctor was stood grinning at them both.
“Told you the old girl wouldn’t let me down.” He said.
Jess looked past the Time Lord. On the back wall there was what she took to be an old fashioned telephone, one attached to the wall. The ringing was coming from the two bells on the top of the box. Turning to it, the Doctor picked up the ear piece and held it to his ear, stopping the ringing. Crouching so his mouth was lever with the mouthpiece he spoke into it.
“Hello?” Falling silent, the Doctor listened, straightening up, before replacing the earpiece and turning to face Jess and Tom. “Well, it seems we’re being called back to Earth. By UNIT no less.”
“UNIT?” Jess asked.
“Yes,” the Doctor replied. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to make an unscheduled landing.”
“So much for sleep.” Tom muttered.
“Can’t we do it in the morning, or at least later, when we’re awake?” Jess yawned. “I mean, this is a time machine.”
The Doctor looked thoughtfully at the device on the wall, his fingers thoughtfully playing on his lips. Now he had moved to the side, Jess could see a small glass panel in the middle, revealing what looked like the blue electric strands from the inside of a plasma ball, and some other strange technology.
“Yes, ok.” He said finally, turning and smiling. “We’d work better after a good sleep. I’ll meet you in the console room later.”
She’d been stood staring at the spot in the corner of the room for a couple of minutes now. She wasn’t sure what to expect to happen. Glancing across, she saw Captain Morris stood impassively beside her, one hand resting on the strange gizmo on the table. A long tube on the top was pulsing with a blue light, indicating that it was working.
Suddenly the room seemed to fill with a light breeze which started to get stronger, strong enough to cause the papers in the file on the desk to move. Then came the sound, the sound that she remembered. She’d heard it only the once before, but she’d always remembered it; an unearthly sound, like wheezing and groaning.
Glancing at the windows that ran above the desks on one side of the room, she could see several Privates gathering, staring through the glass, their attention caught by the noise. Moving from where she was stood by the outside of the door, Corporal Loding soon moved over to usher them away and back to their duties.
Looking back to the corner of the room, a familiar blue shape was starting to form, rapidly gaining solidarity. The light on the top of the Police Box was pulsing, in time with the blue light on the device beside Morris. The alien sound and it’s echoing round the room, died away as the TARDIS fully solidified and sat in the corner of the room.
“Which one do you think it is, Sergeant?” Morris asked, glancing down at one of the files beside him, before picking it up.
“No idea, Sir.” She replied. “We’ll have to wait and see when he comes out.”
As if timed to the end of her sentence, the TARDIS door opened, and a head with long floppy, curly brown hair poked out and looked around.
“Corporal Lovatt!” The Doctor exclaimed as he spotted her, emerging from the TARDIS and vigorously shaking her hand.
“It’s sergeant now.” She smiled, pointing to the stripes on her arm before noticing Morris out of the corner of her eye. “Courtesy of our mutual friend in MI6.”
“Good old Harry.” The Doctor grinned before Morris cleared his throat loudly and purposefully.
“Oh, Doctor, Captain Morris. Sir, this is the Doctor.” Lovatt said, swiftly introducing the two men.
Morris glanced down at the file in his hands, before looking up at the Doctor and smiled. “Ah yes, the Edwardian one.”
Furrowing his brow, the Doctor looked at Morris. “I’m just the Doctor, Captain.”
“That’s all we need.” Morris replied gently leading the Doctor away.
Lovatt looked back at the TARDIS; two more figures had emerged. She recognised them immediately, Jess and Tom. Still looking at the door, she was surprised to see just them emerge. She smiled as they looked at her, recognising her.
“Just the two of you?” She asked, walking over to them. “Where’s Tifa?”
“She went back to her own people a few weeks ago.” Jess replied.
“Captain, Captain, Captain,” the Doctor said loudly, causing everyone to stop and look at him. “Enough prevaricating, you called us out of time for a reason, what was it?”
“Very well, Doctor.” Morris sighed; dropping the file he was holding onto the desk and picking up another. “A series of rather brutal and unprecedented murders have been sweeping across the country, more precisely, the Home Counties. Now, these murders have been occurring in the homes of the victims; politicians, high ranking police officers, army personnel, why just the other day Sir Robert Darcy, the Commissioner of the metropolitan police force, was killed in his home.”
“Murders? You brought us back for murders?” The Doctor interrupted, holding his hands up. “Don’t get me wrong, no murder is right, but I’m not a detective.”
“Yeah, isn’t this normally the role of the police?” Jess interjected.
“If you’d hear me out, please?” Morris protested. “The police have passed some of the case over to us due to certain circumstances. No motive was present, other than the victims are all VIP’s, the murders occurred in their own homes, most cases these homes had elaborate security systems in place.” Morris paused dramatically looking at the faces of the Doctor and his companions.
“Well?” Tom urged. “That’s not all, surely?”
“Very observant, sir.” Morris agreed pacing about the room. “In every case, the murderer left no traces, clues, DNA or any marks or fingerprints of any kind. It seems as though he’s able to pass through solid matter undetected. He’s not been caught on any CCTV and to make matters all the more interesting; he uses the victims own household items to commit these murders. Bizarre items as well, not the sort of thing’s you’d expect for a murder.”
“Household items? What sort of household items?” The Doctor asked, his head snapping up.
Morris walked over to the desk the Doctor was stood by and opened the file in his hands. Carefully he laid down some photographs from the folder for the Time Lord to see, aware that the Doctor’s companions were crowding in behind him to look at them as well. Glancing up at the Doctor, he saw that the Time Lord was holding his hands up to his face, palms pressed together as though he were praying, and gently tapping his index fingers against his lower lip. A worried and thoughtful expression was paying across his face. Clearly, his companions had spotted it as well, as had Sergeant Lovatt.
“What is it, Doctor?” Jess asked.
“Trouble, I’ll bet.” Tom muttered, leaning in to look at the photos.
The Doctor nodded sadly, looking up first at his companions before turning to Captain Morris, his mouth open to speak. Before he could talk, the door to the room was flung open and Corporal Loding burst in.
“Sorry to interrupt, sir.” She said, crashing to attention and saluting. “It’s just come through from the police, there’s been another murder.”
Opening the cupboard under the stairs, Suzanne wheeled the vacuum cleaner out and plugged it into the socket in the kitchen. Her hand moved towards the on switch when the ringing of the telephone made her jump. Mentally chastising herself for jumping at the sound, she turned and picked up the receiver.
“Hello? Ashfield residence,” she said. “Hello?”
Suzanne took the receiver from her ear and looked at it puzzled. A strange tone was coming from it. It must be a crossed line or the other person disconnected, she thought as she put it back in the cradle.
Turning, Suzanne went back to the vacuum cleaner and switched the power on. The roar of the vacuum cleaner filled the room and drowned out the sound of the phone ringing again. Shaking the cable free of tangles, Suzanne pushed the vacuum cleaner into the kitchen. The sound of the telephone table in the hallway crashing to the floor made her turn around. The cable to the vacuum cleaner had got tangled with the flex for the phone and pulled it over. She was reaching for the switch to turn off the vacuum cleaner so she could sort the mess out when a blur of motion caught her attention.
Fearing there was an intruder in the house, Suzanne spun round reaching out for the block of knives on the worktop. She was almost in reach when the cable of the vacuum cleaner flashed over her head and round her neck. Choking in shock, Suzanne staggered backwards, the knife block clattered over, the knives scattering away from her reach. Scared and panicking, Suzanne reached to her neck to try to prise the garrotte from her throat, but to no avail. Her vision starting to cloud, she hit and kicked behind her, hoping to catch her attacker and loosen the cord. Her eyes bulged as the cord tightened round her throat and her swipes and kicks hit thin air.
Gasping for her last breath, her eyes fell onto the kitchen window, and the figure stood in the garden staring at her. A bald man, with a seemingly plain, blank face, stood motionless and unfazed at the drama unfolding before him. As her world grew dark, Suzanne could have been sure that the man had no eyes, or any discernable features. It was the last thought to ever cross her mind.
*
It was dark, a black in which no light could penetrate. They were all around him. He couldn’t see them but he could feel their presence. He could feel them closing in on him and could almost see their blank faces and cold, blank, dead eyes. They were getting closer. Closer in the dark. He still couldn’t see anything, but he could feel them. Then; the voice. That voice. That flat, emotionless voice cutting through him like-
Tom awoke with a start, a cry escaping his lips as he sat bolt upright breathing heavily. It had been the same dream again. How long had it been? Maybe he should talk to the Doctor about the dreams? The sound of the ringing bell soon distracted him from his thoughts.
“What the hell is that?” He muttered, swinging his legs off the bed.
Yawning and stretching, he reached for the dressing gown, slung across the chair not too far from the bed. Pulling it on, Tom rubbed his eyes and made for the door to his room. Opening it, the ringing seemed to get louder, yet strangely it seemed to have a source, the opposite direction to the console room.
“Doctor, what have you done now?” He sighed, setting off towards the source of the ringing.
*
Reaching out from her bed, Jess fumbled on the bedside cabinet for her alarm clock. Hitting the snooze button, she slammed her hand down on it when the ringing didn’t stop. Crying out, she grabbed it and threw it at the wall before sitting up and looking about. The ringing wasn’t her alarm clock. Throwing the covers back, Jess climbed groggily out of her bed. The ringing wasn’t coming from her room at all. Crossing to the door she flung it open. The ringing was louder outside.
Looking round, she saw Tom walking down the corridor towards her. The young Time Lord’s dark brown hair looked tousled and fell loose down his shoulders. He was wearing a long black dressing gown. It seemed that the ringing had awoken him too. She looked at him questioningly, one eyebrow raised.
“I’ve no idea!” He said, anticipating her question. “But it seems to be coming from this direction.”
Jess watched as he set off in the direction he’d pointed. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she set off after him, at a jog, her bare feet slapping against the cold floor of the TARDIS corridor.
“Where d’you think it’s coming from?” She asked after she’d caught up with him.
“Not a clue,” Tom replied pausing at a corridor intersection and looking both ways trying to figure out from which way the ringing was coming. Pointing one way, Tom turned and made off down the opposite direction.
Jess shivered and looked down at the baggy t-shirt and cotton shorts that she wore to bed. The TARDIS seemed colder, when normally it was comfortably warm. She wished she’d put a dressing gown on over her bed clothes. Looking up, she saw Tom disappear around another corner, and jogged to catch up. She was just about to say something when she collided with a dark velvet pillar. It took her a couple of seconds to realise that she’d just run slap bang into the Doctor, who was now extraditing himself from her, hands on her shoulders. Looking up, he seemed to be wearing a worried expression and looking past her and Tom.
“Ah, good, you’re up.” He muttered quietly, yet easily audible over the ringing. “I take it you heard the bell.”
“Well, it’s not exactly hard to miss.” Jess replied.
“What is it? What’s gone wrong now?” Tom asked, brushing stray strands of hair behind his ear.
The Doctor looked over Tom before blinking and looking at his two companions. “Hmm? What? Oh, I don’t know, at least, not yet.” He said.
“That doesn’t help.” Jess said. “What is it? Where’s it coming from?”
“The space/time telegraph.” The Doctor said absently looking over Tom’s shoulder again. “But it’s where it is and what it’s looking like now since the old girl regenerated herself.”
“Oh great,” Tom sighed. “Needle in a haystack.”
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” The Doctor smiled. “I trust the old girl.”
Jess looked over at Tom, a questioning look on her face as the Doctor breezed past them and back down the corridor they’d just come down. Shrugging, Tom returned the confused look and they both turned to follow the Doctor. The Time Lord was already some way ahead of them. He was just walking but seemed to moving surprisingly quickly. Jess was finding that she had to jog to catch up to him. Although she was pleased to note that Tom had to do the same. Rounding the corner the Doctor had just turned, Jess skidding to a halt, nearly tripping over her feet as she nearly ran into a dead end.
Composing herself, Jess looked round. Tom was looking stunned at the sudden appearance of the dead end as well. The Doctor was stood grinning at them both.
“Told you the old girl wouldn’t let me down.” He said.
Jess looked past the Time Lord. On the back wall there was what she took to be an old fashioned telephone, one attached to the wall. The ringing was coming from the two bells on the top of the box. Turning to it, the Doctor picked up the ear piece and held it to his ear, stopping the ringing. Crouching so his mouth was lever with the mouthpiece he spoke into it.
“Hello?” Falling silent, the Doctor listened, straightening up, before replacing the earpiece and turning to face Jess and Tom. “Well, it seems we’re being called back to Earth. By UNIT no less.”
“UNIT?” Jess asked.
“Yes,” the Doctor replied. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to make an unscheduled landing.”
“So much for sleep.” Tom muttered.
“Can’t we do it in the morning, or at least later, when we’re awake?” Jess yawned. “I mean, this is a time machine.”
The Doctor looked thoughtfully at the device on the wall, his fingers thoughtfully playing on his lips. Now he had moved to the side, Jess could see a small glass panel in the middle, revealing what looked like the blue electric strands from the inside of a plasma ball, and some other strange technology.
“Yes, ok.” He said finally, turning and smiling. “We’d work better after a good sleep. I’ll meet you in the console room later.”
*
She’d been stood staring at the spot in the corner of the room for a couple of minutes now. She wasn’t sure what to expect to happen. Glancing across, she saw Captain Morris stood impassively beside her, one hand resting on the strange gizmo on the table. A long tube on the top was pulsing with a blue light, indicating that it was working.
Suddenly the room seemed to fill with a light breeze which started to get stronger, strong enough to cause the papers in the file on the desk to move. Then came the sound, the sound that she remembered. She’d heard it only the once before, but she’d always remembered it; an unearthly sound, like wheezing and groaning.
Glancing at the windows that ran above the desks on one side of the room, she could see several Privates gathering, staring through the glass, their attention caught by the noise. Moving from where she was stood by the outside of the door, Corporal Loding soon moved over to usher them away and back to their duties.
Looking back to the corner of the room, a familiar blue shape was starting to form, rapidly gaining solidarity. The light on the top of the Police Box was pulsing, in time with the blue light on the device beside Morris. The alien sound and it’s echoing round the room, died away as the TARDIS fully solidified and sat in the corner of the room.
“Which one do you think it is, Sergeant?” Morris asked, glancing down at one of the files beside him, before picking it up.
“No idea, Sir.” She replied. “We’ll have to wait and see when he comes out.”
As if timed to the end of her sentence, the TARDIS door opened, and a head with long floppy, curly brown hair poked out and looked around.
“Corporal Lovatt!” The Doctor exclaimed as he spotted her, emerging from the TARDIS and vigorously shaking her hand.
“It’s sergeant now.” She smiled, pointing to the stripes on her arm before noticing Morris out of the corner of her eye. “Courtesy of our mutual friend in MI6.”
“Good old Harry.” The Doctor grinned before Morris cleared his throat loudly and purposefully.
“Oh, Doctor, Captain Morris. Sir, this is the Doctor.” Lovatt said, swiftly introducing the two men.
Morris glanced down at the file in his hands, before looking up at the Doctor and smiled. “Ah yes, the Edwardian one.”
Furrowing his brow, the Doctor looked at Morris. “I’m just the Doctor, Captain.”
“That’s all we need.” Morris replied gently leading the Doctor away.
Lovatt looked back at the TARDIS; two more figures had emerged. She recognised them immediately, Jess and Tom. Still looking at the door, she was surprised to see just them emerge. She smiled as they looked at her, recognising her.
“Just the two of you?” She asked, walking over to them. “Where’s Tifa?”
“She went back to her own people a few weeks ago.” Jess replied.
“Captain, Captain, Captain,” the Doctor said loudly, causing everyone to stop and look at him. “Enough prevaricating, you called us out of time for a reason, what was it?”
“Very well, Doctor.” Morris sighed; dropping the file he was holding onto the desk and picking up another. “A series of rather brutal and unprecedented murders have been sweeping across the country, more precisely, the Home Counties. Now, these murders have been occurring in the homes of the victims; politicians, high ranking police officers, army personnel, why just the other day Sir Robert Darcy, the Commissioner of the metropolitan police force, was killed in his home.”
“Murders? You brought us back for murders?” The Doctor interrupted, holding his hands up. “Don’t get me wrong, no murder is right, but I’m not a detective.”
“Yeah, isn’t this normally the role of the police?” Jess interjected.
“If you’d hear me out, please?” Morris protested. “The police have passed some of the case over to us due to certain circumstances. No motive was present, other than the victims are all VIP’s, the murders occurred in their own homes, most cases these homes had elaborate security systems in place.” Morris paused dramatically looking at the faces of the Doctor and his companions.
“Well?” Tom urged. “That’s not all, surely?”
“Very observant, sir.” Morris agreed pacing about the room. “In every case, the murderer left no traces, clues, DNA or any marks or fingerprints of any kind. It seems as though he’s able to pass through solid matter undetected. He’s not been caught on any CCTV and to make matters all the more interesting; he uses the victims own household items to commit these murders. Bizarre items as well, not the sort of thing’s you’d expect for a murder.”
“Household items? What sort of household items?” The Doctor asked, his head snapping up.
Morris walked over to the desk the Doctor was stood by and opened the file in his hands. Carefully he laid down some photographs from the folder for the Time Lord to see, aware that the Doctor’s companions were crowding in behind him to look at them as well. Glancing up at the Doctor, he saw that the Time Lord was holding his hands up to his face, palms pressed together as though he were praying, and gently tapping his index fingers against his lower lip. A worried and thoughtful expression was paying across his face. Clearly, his companions had spotted it as well, as had Sergeant Lovatt.
“What is it, Doctor?” Jess asked.
“Trouble, I’ll bet.” Tom muttered, leaning in to look at the photos.
The Doctor nodded sadly, looking up first at his companions before turning to Captain Morris, his mouth open to speak. Before he could talk, the door to the room was flung open and Corporal Loding burst in.
“Sorry to interrupt, sir.” She said, crashing to attention and saluting. “It’s just come through from the police, there’s been another murder.”