Chapter 1: The Castle of Terrors
"How long are you planning on staying with me?" Smiling, as though he already knew the answer, the slim, tall man who wore what seemed to have been a tailor made brown pinstriped suit asked. His hazel colored hair wafting in the breeze of a foreign world, his eyes shimmering brightly, while in his hand, he held onto the hand of his companion. His two hearts beating for two reasons: to keep her safe, and to keep her by his side for as long as possible.
She laughed and with a squeeze of her hand whispered, "I've already told you Doctor, I'm going to stay with you forever."
The man known as the Doctor peered at the girl's face from out of the corner of his eyes. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail, her smile, though he couldn't see it clearly, was still visible enough to mesmerize him for a moment. "Forever you say?" He looked down, and with his eyes only halfway opened, nodded. "Rose Tyler, you know that I wouldn't have it any other way."
Beneath his smile and his happiness, the Doctor felt as though forever would never amount to the measure of time that he and Rose both desired...he knew, that eventually, the fate of every companion he'd ever had would become Rose's fate as well.
"I'll hold onto her for as long as I can, but the time to let her go...will get here all but too soon..."
As a veil that is lifted from a person's face, the white mist that had begun to consume the wonderful dream, slowly dissipated, leaving behind the cold and lonely truth. It had been months since the Doctor had seen Rose, and he doubted that he ever would again, yet, even though he understood the reason behind their separation, the pain of losing her was still fresh, and he felt in his mind, that there would never be an easy fix, and that the pain would maybe never end.
Rubbing his eyes, he tried to force the remnants of the dream away, or to at least, keep it at bay for a few hours. "Oh, this is what I get for living this long...I meet someone that I can rely on...only," he took a deep ragged breath and trying his hardest to keep his voice level, nearly cried out, "Only to lose her when I need her the most!"
Both of his hearts were racing, and for an instant, he wondered what would happen if he failed to calm himself down.
Would they both just give out after having been broken?
Or...would they just continue as they were? Racing like mad, as though he'd been running for hours on end from hellfire.
The Doctor sighed and quietly got to his feet, the tan converse shoes that he wore, barely making any noise as they hit the metallic flooring. Standing, he dared to glance around the room he was in, daring to hold onto the faintest of glimmering hope that Rose was still with him. That he'd just been stuck inside a terrible nightmare.
A hope, that he knew, would be short lived.
And just as he had feared, he really was alone inside of the control room of the TARDIS, the blue wooden phone box, that surprisingly enough, was his mode of transportation. The round panel in the room was covered with a multitude of buttons, levers and several other small objects that seemed to have been out of place. Nodding, the Doctor set to work, distracting himself by picking a random place in history that he fancied visiting. "No time to waste. No rest for the weary. No consolation for the broken hearted. Time must move on, and there is no one who knows that any better than I do...Time Lords might be able to visit most places in time and space, but..." He gently began to pump one of the many oddly placed knobs that the control panel consisted of, his brown eyes downcast, and a few strands of his unruly hair fell into his view. "But to risk it all to cross over into a parallel world...I'd really have to be a cruel man to sacrifice all 12 billion people that live between both this world and then the next..."
His sentence falling short, just as the whooshing sound that was caused by the TARDIS when it landed was heard, and grabbing a pair of black framed glasses from between two buttons on the panel, the Doctor gently fit them on, his vision improving a bit as he did so. His right hand reached out and took hold of the tan duster coat, which he had draped over one of the many tall, vein-like structures that were all throughout the inside of the TARDIS, and hurrying into it, he quickly checked one of the coat's front pockets. "Right...I've got everything, I do believe..." He whispered as he felt the cold, metal object that to most would appear to be an ordinary novelty, or even a replica of something from a sci-fi series. Then with a single nod, he silently strode towards the TARDIS doors and opening one, stepped out.
Darkness.
Outside of the TARDIS that was all that the Doctor could see.
Nothing but a darkness that was deep enough to engulf an entire world.
"This isn't right..." Cautious, he waved his arms in front of his body, trying to find anything that could have been of any help. He felt nothing but thin air, exasperated, he muttered, "Torch! I need a torch! Rose, can you look in the TARDIS for on-"
Silence fell, as he realized what he'd just said. "That's right...Rose isn't here...And how so very easily I find myself forgetting that fact! It. Isn't. Fair!" Sobbing, he felt a few tears roll down his cheeks. The stubble on his chin and upper lip caught hold of the salty proof of his sadness, forcing it to stop in its tracks.
Over his continued cried of pain and sorrow, the Doctor didn't notice the sound of footsteps approaching him. The steps were timid, as if the person was unsure of if they should really approach the distraught man. However, within a few moments, the person spoke, their voice barely above a whisper, "You mustn't do that. You mustn't make such noise...if you do..."
Snapping back to reality, the Doctor began to look around, his wild eyes roving over every inch of the impenetrable darkness. "Who - Who's there?"
"Don't be afraid. In this place of terrors, I am the least deadly thing you are likely to find." It was a girl, in her early twenties from the sound of it, and the tremble in her voice told the Doctor that she was beyond terrified. "But, sir, I must implore you from making any noise...at least... any noise that is above a whisper..."
"What is it? What's got you so afraid that you dare not speak any louder?"
The girl shuddered, "I don't wish to talk of it...for the bane of my waking nightmares is a creature...a creature so terrible that none who have encountered it before are believed to have survived..."
Closing the door of the TARDIS behind him, the Doctor headed, as silently as he could manage, in the direction that the girl's voice was coming from. "Well, that's not good. So tell me, what's your name? And if you're so scared of this place, then why'd you even come here?"
"My name is Allison. Allison Church. As for why I'm here...I-I really don't know. I don't remember..."
The outline of Allison's body slowly began to come into view and reaching out, he whispered, "It's just me, don't be afraid." He saw her head bob up and down for a fraction of a second, then as his fingertips brushed against a few strands of her hair, he blindly worked his way towards her shoulders, which felt frail beneath his hands. "So, Allison, what's the last thing you do remember?"
With a quiet whimper, she said, "I went to bed...but this place...it just doesn't feel right...Oh God...I'm so scared!" Her entire body shook with what the Doctor guessed were silent cries of desperation.
"Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh. It's fine, I've got you. See? Nothing to worry about now."
"That's where you're wrong. No one is safe in this place." As she wiped away her tears, she began to explain. "There used to be six of us...but one by one they all have just disappeared...I'm the only one left." Sighing, she finally asked a question of her own, "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor." He tried to further sooth the frightened girl by stroking her hair.
"The Doctor? Is that the name you were born with?"
With a soft chuckle, the Doctor replied, "Yeah, my parents didn't believe in following the crowd." He tried to keep Allison's mind away from what terrified her, so he asked the first question that came to him. "Tell me about your parents. What are they like?"
Shaking her head, she whispered, "I don't remember. They both died when I was a child."
"Oh..." He looked down, the smile he'd been wearing, was now nothing but a ghost. "I'm sorry."
She was silent, and he began to worry that he'd upset her. After all had been quiet for a while, the Doctor pulled the girl, whom to him was still just a small child compared to his own life, which he'd been living for nearly one thousand years, in close to his body and embraced her. "I can get you out of here, but you have to trust me. So..." Glancing down, he whispered, "Do you trust me?"
He waited, resisting the almost unbearable urge to say, "Come on, come on, come on, come on! Trust me!" but he held his tongue, and allowed himself a small smile when he felt Allison nod her head. "Molto bene! So first things first, you need to tell me the answers to a few simple questions, okay?"
"Okay." Her voice was hardly audible, but despite that, the Doctor was still able to hear her perfectly fine.
Slowly, he led the way back to the TARDIS, and surprised at how well the pitch blackness hid it from view. Which was something he'd normally laugh at, but at that particular moment, he was facing a long series of mysteries that were begging to get unraveled.
Every now and then, out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor would notice Allison fidget a little, always she seemed to be on high alert. Twisting her body around to look behind her, as if she was expecting to see something or someone that she so desperately feared looming in the shadows, ready to strike her down at any moments notice.
Unable to take the silence, the Doctor began to work his way down his list of questions, "So, Allison, before you found yourself here, where were you living? Where are you from?"
She jumped, startled by the sudden break in the library-silent hall, and as soon as she'd recovered, she replied, "The United States of America."
"And the year?"
"Year?" She sounded perplexed by his simple question.
"Yeah, year. Day, month, hour, second. Humor me, and I promise that you will soon understand the method to my madness."
"The year was 2013."
The Doctor stopped and with his free hand, he pulled gently on his right ear lobe. "You're sure it was 2013?"
Nodding, she confirmed his question. "Yeah...I think I'd know the year, and the year was definitely 2013. The month was September. The day was a Monday."
"But that's impossible..." Releasing his grip on her hand, he hurried over to what he guessed was a wall, and quickly licked it once. "Ah...Just as I thought...made of stone...we're in some kind of castle..." Rubbing a hand over his scrunched up brow, he began to mutter his words more rapidly, the tone of his voice rising in excitement. "Castles haven't been made of stone like this in years! Centuries even!" He dropped down onto a single knee and gently began to rap the knuckle of his left index finger on the floor. "Ah ha!" Without much warning, the Doctor erupted into a chorus of exuberant laughter. "Well aren't you beautiful!"
"What is it?" Allison asked, the curiosity in her voice now out weighing her fear.
Turning around so that once more he was facing the girl, who was apparently just as out of her own time as he was, a twinkle of undiluted enthusiasm present in his eyes, he asked, "How do you feel about a little spelunking?"