A/N: I wrote this for my Science Fiction class. I didn't intend for it to be a crossover but that's what happens when you're bored. I DO NOT own Doctor Who or The Illustrated Man.
The Illustrated Man meets the Witch
I was walking on a clear forest path one day, just clearing my head and figuring out what my next move was. I had just broken my leg in a freak accident with a tiger, but I won't get into that. As I was walking, I heard someone giggle behind me.
I turned around to see a very old woman standing there. I turned back to see if there was anyone else behind me and as I turned back to face the old woman, she was gone. In her place was a young woman in her mid-twenties. She was petite with dark red hair and bright green eyes. In short, she was beautiful.
"What is so funny ma'am?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing" she replied in a strange accent.
Ok, I thought. "What is your name?"
"Amelia Pond. And yours?" she asked.
"Jonathan Blake" I said.
We fell into a silence. I began to inspect her a bit more. I hadn't realized what she was wearing and it was a very strange pick of clothes. She was wearing a red sweater like shirt but it had no buttons and it had a hood in the back. She was also wearing a man's trousers that ended mid thigh with black tights underneath them.
"You know, it's rude to stare," she said.
I blinked and replied, "I'm sorry ma'am. You are just so strangely dressed."
"As you are to me," she muttered.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing."
We went back to that silence. I couldn't place her accent to anywhere near here and as if she read my mind she said,
"If you are trying to figure out where I'm from, I'll make it easy for you. I'm from Scotland."
That makes sense, I thought.
"If you don't mind me asking ma'am, why are you here?"
"I'm here to help you get a job" she said.
She is definitely crazy, I thought. But I decided to humor her.
"How so ma'am?"
She just said the two words I should have ignored "Follow me."
But, being the idiot that I was, I followed. As I followed the strange woman, I started to feel more and more anxious.
"How much further?" I asked.
"Almost there" she said.
I should have turned around and left her. I should have ran. But I didn't all because of my curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat. I learned what that meant after the events that followed.
As she had said that though, a small shack appeared that said 'Artistic Illustrations'.
"Illustrations?"
"Tattoos" replied she.
When I entered the tiny shack I was amazed. It was bigger on the inside. I looked at it from the outside and then the inside. I did that for about three or four more times when suddenly something really hard hit me in the back of head
I woke up what must have been hours later feeling very groggy. But also very strange, it felt like something was moving on me. I looked down and what I saw made me scream. I was covered in these horrible images that told the terrible tales. One was of two children locking up their parents in a room where their dark imaginations come to life. Another where it never stopped raining until you enter a special place or go mad.
"What have you done to me?" I cried,
"I told you before, I gave you a job."
I looked around for the witch when I found her by the window outside. I stormed out to confront her.
"What job?" I asked furiously.
'To tell the tales that are yet to pass," the witch replied.
"And what the hell is that suppose to mean?"
She just said, "I'm sorry that the job fell to you but it had to happen. I'm only going to say this once so listen, you cannot get those off no matter what you try. They'll be there forever so don't bother.
I remained silent. I just wanted nothing more than to be normal again. She went to leave but turned back.
"One more thing, you have to let people see them. Otherwise, they get worse," she said.
She turned to leave again and entered a blue box that I hadn't noticed before. It vanished with a haunting wheezing sound.
