Author's Note: This is a short story one shot essentially for those that enjoy a Halloween story featuring the Doctor. Co-written by Emptyvoices and Azaadin. One more chapter will follow this one to complete the story. This story does not involve a self insert or feature Sara and Shae. Still some of the darker Doctor themes.
For Ann Howard, this was never how she imagined spending the upcoming week that preceded Bonfire Night. Indeed, she looked forward to travelling to London with such pleasure, taking a vacation from her tedious position in public relations to make this ten hour flight from Portland, meeting her friend Chloe at Heathrow Airport. The designated point where their reunion should take place. After all, coming from two distinct sides of the world occasionally had its drawbacks. For Ann, it meant she could only see her friend sparingly. This trip had been long in the making as neither had been to London before, looking upon the voyage with a fair bit of excitement.
Ann was somewhat impulsive, given to a whimsical nature. It didn't mean she was naïve. Just the opposite. She was actually overly cautious and if her instincts told her something was wrong or someone couldn't be trusted, she heeded those internal feelings without question regardless of attempting to assert logic. Her father often told her, that listening to her gut instincts was sound. It was better to act in swift caution first and then consider the situation rather than end up in a predicament that could have been avoided.
For that very reason, Ann couldn't fathom with all the safeguards Chloe and herself had taken, how they ended up here. Waking up on a leather couch in the midst of a costume party that appeared to reflect something out of a horror movie. The room looked ancient, darkened with the throbbing tone of music that pulsed all around them. The windows blackened, covered with cobwebs. People moved stood in near proximity, speaking loudly while Ann felt her throat close in panic as she pushed her sweaty, dark hair away from her face to shake her friend awake you was also laying beside her, oblivious to this new terrifying environment. She was still wearing the t-shirt and yoga pants, Ann had recalled changing into at the hotel room from her often standard dark slacks and blouse she was accustomed for day wear. They had been deciding what to do for dinner when they found themselves interrupted mid-sentence with an unwanted visitor.
Opened the door for room service. Ann berated herself. They hadn't ordered room service but merely thought the person had knocked on the wrong door. She gritted her teeth. What was I thinking? She gave her friend's arm a gentle shake. "Chloe." She tried to speak softly so as not to startle. "Chloe!" Her chest was already constricting, thinking of the possibilities. Was this really a party or had they been dragged here for something even more nefarious? She heard of human traffickers and how it could be a custom to pick from the various tourists that were visiting from other countries. If that was the case, the two of them needed to find a way out right now.
Chloe groaned as she slowly blinked awake, frowning as she did so.
"Ann?" she asked in confusion, holding her head. She didn't have a headache, but she felt dizzy and very off. Then again, she rarely woke up well.
"Oh, thank goodness," the brunette sighed, quickly pulling her friend into a sitting position. "Do you remember what happened?"
Chloe quickly glanced around, trying to use her surroundings to prompt her memory. "No?" she said nervously. She only remembered being in their hotel room. They were going to watch a movie. She didn't recognise the title Ann had suggested, but she was just happy to laze around for the evening. She didn't remember how they had arrived in this creepy and dingy room, but she didn't know why she would have come to a Halloween party, as the outfits and decorations suggested. Halloween was not a holiday she celebrated, especially in Sydney.
"Where are we?" she asked, a hint of panic underlying her voice.
"I don't know." Ann said. She frantically felt around for her purse, letting out a breath that her possessions were still on her person. Pulling out her cellphone, she attempted to call the emergency number, assuming she was still in England. 999. She stared at her iPhone. It wasn't connecting and then she realized, there were no bars or signal on the device.
"Damn it." She swore, glancing at Chloe. "I changed the SIM card when I got here. I don't understand…." But then, if they were kidnapped by sex traffickers, why would they leave their phones in their possession? Strange numbers started to appear on the very screen of her device. A rapid pattern. Zeros and ones. She shook her phone briefly. It was glitching.
"Chloe, is your phone working?" She asked quickly. The other girl immediately checked her pockets, pulling out her device. A few minutes later upon fiddling with the screen, she shook her head.
"No….nothing." Chloe's voice was dispirited. She was looking around the house, which appeared to be in such an avid state of disrepair. "It's…" She looked down at the device in shock, dropping it on the couch. It was giving the same glitchy response Ann's phone had so recently done. A seemingly random series of numbers, filling the screen. Only to stop, once she dropped the phone.
"What is going on?" Ann demanded, turning to a party-goer, clearly dressed as a mummy. She had to take a chance. "Hey, do you have any idea where we are?"
The man only seemed to stumble, his unfocused gaze meeting hers. "'S obvious, isn't it? This is a party. Seems like you two need a drink."
"No," Ann was shaking her head. "That's the last thing…." The man had already drifted away and she clenched her teeth. "Forget this. Let's get out of here." She grabbed hold of Chloe's hand as the two made their way to the door just as it opened. The brunette let out a gasp seeing who it was, taking one step back.
"It's you." She breathed deeply, glancing at Chloe who stared at the newcomer. "It's…." Ann shook her head. "Why are we here?" She demanded. "What do you want from us?" Her heart was beating rapidly but she decided to choose a course of anger as opposed to fear. The best defense was a good offense and surely, she recognized the man who had pretended to be room service just to compel his way into their hotel room.
"Want from you?" The man said blankly. "Nothing at the moment. Weeell, nothing so far. Just was travelling a bit. Here and there. Saw this as we flew by."
"Drove by." The red haired woman immediately decided to correct him.
He continued to speak in rapid succession. "You see, neither of us have really done Halloween but given the time distortions, thought it might be fun for us to pop in."
He's mad. Ann thought. Not only was he speaking nonsense but he was outright pretending that he didn't realize who they were. Her heart was beating rapidly inside her chest to think that she and her friend had been left prey to the whims of someone this mentally disturbed.
"Fine." She swallowed. "Alright. You pop in. We are both popping out." This place was rank and she didn't want them to be trapped here when this person decided to realize who precisely they were.
They tried to navigate around him, not even hearing the faint buzzing sound that was distinctly emitted before he took hold of their arms.
"You're both out of time." He pronounced.
"Excuse me?" Chloe asked.
"Oh, sorry." His voice didn't sound particularly apologetic. "I'm the Doctor by the way and this is Donna. Now, what are your names?"
Ann looked at him warily before glancing at the woman he introduced as Donna. She seemed relatively normal, all things being equal. Perhaps she was a family member of his, designated to watch him for any episodic behavior. Taking a deep breath, she leaned towards the woman and whispered in her ear. "I think you're friend is mad. Having a mental breakdown."
"I happen to be quite sane. It's you lot that should be worried."
Both girls froze. How was that possible? Hearing Ann's whisper to Donna? Ann felt her stomach churning.
"Have excellent hearing. Didn't mean to eavesdrop. I know; it's a bit like cheating." The Doctor explained. "But still, I have to know. Your names." His tone became more clipped and the girls looked at each other.
There has to be a back door. Ann decided as she exchanged a glance with Chloe. In that moment, they both decided to run. One exit was blocked. They had to find another.
"Wasn't that the guy from the hotel?" Chloe yelled over the beating music as they ran deeper into the room. They were heading towards the back wall, but Chloe spotted a door on the side of the room instead. She grabbed her friend's hand and pulled her in the right direction, as the party-goers around them broke into a chorus of 'Scooby-Dooby-Doo,' with a remix of the old song.
One of the guests, dressed as Dracula, opened the door they were fleeing towards, but, as soon as he did, a giant monster bat lunged through the door, swooping on the unsuspecting man. His bloodcurdling scream tore through the room. Ann and Chloe froze in their tracks and other guests nearby began to run and scream, while those further away from the commotion cheered, hearing the cries but not seeing the carnage, thinking it was all part of the fun. They soon learned the truth however, as the monstrous creature tore into the room, claiming another victim.
The two girls were jostled by the terrified mob as everyone tried to flee in every direction all at once. Hands grabbed them, pulling them along, and it took Chloe a moment to recognise the man whom had kidnapped them in the first place.
"Quick! Out the front door!" he yelled. But when he reached it, he saw even more creatures swooping on the escaping partygoers. "Or not." He quickly scanned the room. "This way!" He pulled the two curious girls with him, hoping Donna was close behind, and he led them into an adjoining room, a dank kitchen. He hustled as many people through the door as he could before slamming it in the path of the black creatures that followed after them.
The room was a cacophony of noise as everyone spoke over each other, all demanding answers from the other equally oblivious guests. The Doctor yelled a number of times, but couldn't be heard over the din. Finally, his sharp whistle brought everyone's attention to him.
"Thank you," he said, frustration evident in his voice. "Now can all of you sit quiet for one moment so I can hear!" He glared around the room and was rewarded with a fearful silence, apart from the muffled music coming in through the door. He turned, pulling a stethoscope from his pocket and listening at the door. After a moment he lowered it, his features grim. "It's quiet. There's no one left," he murmured to Donna.
She covered her mouth with her hands, recognising what he was saying, while another voice spoke up disparagingly. "That's because they all escaped."
Immediately the room broke out in a tumultuous roar of noise that the Doctor had to fight to be heard over again.
"Listen to me. Listen to me!" He glared around the room once more. "Those creatures are called reapers. There is a wound in time somewhere here, and they will destroy everything that has been infected by it. Now if you all want to live, you need to listen to me and do exactly what I tell you."
He paused, letting his ringing words settle on the crowd.
"Now, first, tell me. The disruptions in this house are bad enough that even you humans, with your incredibly limited temporal perception, can sense it. That unease, that feeling that you want to be anywhere else. So what are you all doing here?"
"It's a Halloween party," someone chirped up from the safety of the crowd.
"Best place for Halloween is a haunted house," another voice added from the other side of the kitchen.
The Doctor shook his head, marvelling once more at human stupidity. "Humans," he scoffed. "It's like you go looking for trouble. There's a dangerous house that ever instinct says we should stay away from. What should we do? I know, let's throw a party there!"
"Doctor!" Donna snapped. "Insult us later. What do we do?"
"You know," he continued, seeming to ignore the question. "You know what's most curious about this? It's not the house that feels wrong. It's not the people that walked like lambs to a slaughter. It's not even the monsters out there eating people." He pointed across the room, directly at Ann and Chloe who were hiding towards the back of the crowd, both fearful of the monsters and of the man whom had seemingly brought them to the monsters house and then forgotten about them. "It's you two, who recognised me when I've never met you and who are from about fifty odd years in the past, based on your clothes and technology. So, tell me, who are you two?"
"As if you don't already know!" Ann exclaimed in disgust. "You brought us here!"
"I see." He said, pivoting in place, heading towards them. "I brought you here. Must have been for a reason." Removing a metal device, he started to scan them. "Highly charged static particles where the frequency is out of phase." The Doctor glanced back at Donna. "They're broadcasting a signal. I just need to figure out why." He made one step closer as Ann, not trusting the silvery object that emitted the disturbing sound, slapped it out of his hand. Falling on the floor, Chloe heard him curse in a language she didn't understand. She picked up the instrument, breathing hard, looking between the door where the monstrous sounds were being emitted and the Doctor himself. The person who brought them to this distorted environment.
"What were you doing?" Chloe demanded. "What was this for?" She rose up the device in her hand.
"A diagnostic tool." The Doctor attempted to remain calm, holding out his hand. "If you want to survive, I need it back."
"Need it back." Ann simply stared at him. "All of this is happening because of you. Those things outside. You brought them here. Somehow you…" She looked at him in terror. It all seemed to line up. His arrival at the front door of their hotel room under false pretenses. Their sudden loss of consciousness and waking up only to the chaos that followed.
"No, I just got here, remember?" He paused. "But you two, you're out of place, aren't you? Now that's intriguing. Why you both are here and…" He moved so fast that Ann could barely perceive his movements. One moment he was standing in place and the next, the instrument was torn out of her hand.
They stared at him in shock. No one could possibly move that quickly, bringing to light one steady conclusion. "You're not human." Chloe managed, feeling sweat trickle down the back of her neck. Indeed, he had the appearance of a man but she started to wonder, his malicious intent as yet to be unveiled since he was the one that brought them here, did he have more in common with the monsters outside the door?
"Nope." He said, popping the 'p'. "Not a human. Time Lord. Now that we got that out of the way-"
"You're insane." Ann muttered, backing towards the door. She had difficulty even thinking straight and this person was a predator. Her instincts were clear. He was exceedingly dangerous. Suddenly, she knew her chances were better with the supposed monsters in the living room than the one who was trying to keep them caged in here.
"Spaceman, you have to-" Donna started but Ann already ran outside the door, hearing him shout behind her. Out the kitchen, into the living room only to see them. The creatures flying right above her. Like giant misshapen bats with vicious teeth and claws. Their eyes suddenly fixed on her as they swooped as a ferocious, mythological harpy would, single minded on its prey. She screamed as arms wrapped around her waist, attempting to pull her away. She was tumbling backward. It was her kidnapper but he was too late. Much too late. Its claws were already tearing into her skin, sinking into flesh and then….
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
Ann and Chloe were suddenly sitting on the couch, watching the same party-goers dancing in the middle of the decrepit living room. The man in the mummy costume was talking to them. Ann looked at him in disbelief as he drunkenly swayed in place. The monsters were gone. Chloe was looking around as she scrambled to standing position.
"Seems like you two need a drink." The mummy said and Ann stared at Chloe, licking her lips.
"What's going on?" Chloe whispered, massaging her temples. The dizziness they both felt was now so palpable and Ann just shook her head.
Madness. Ann thought. They were back where they started. Had they both truly lost their mind? Insanity. She thought of the expression Albert Einstein used. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. She shivered, hearing a familiar voice emanate from the front door.
"Well, hello there."
They both turned to see the man who identified himself as the Doctor. He looked at them, his expression a mixture of fascination and bewilderment. "Don't I know you?"
xxxxxxxxxxxx
"Ann! You're okay!" Chloe said in utter relief, pulling the other woman into a quick hug. She was feeling so confused. One moment she was mourning the death of her friend while trying to stay alive herself, and the next she was sitting beside her as if nothing had happened. "What's going on? Are we still here? How can we still be here?"
"I don't know. I thought..." Ann shook her head, the memory or the creature clawing at her as she tried to run. She looked around the room, appearing exactly as it had done when they woke up the last time.
"This is why I don't do Halloween," Chloe murmured. "Bad dreams. I thought-" She bit her lip. "I thought a monster got you. You and this guy that had kidnapped us." She looked around the room, trying to hold back tears. "But it was here, this room. Am I still dreaming?"
"Only if we both are," Ann stated. "Come on, let's get out of here before it happens again."
She jumped to her feet, holding her friend's hand and pulling her along, determined that they both escape and stick together. She managed to get them both to the front door, but when she yanked it open, their kidnapper stood before them, just as he had the last time.
He looked at them, his expression a mixture of fascination and bewilderment. "Don't I know you?"
"No!" Chloe stuttered as she backed away. "He died. He's dead. He can't be here."
His sharp eyes turned to her, studying her with a penetrating intensity, but his gaze was brought back to the other retreating woman as she spoke again.
"Why did you bring us here? What do you want with us?" she yelled.
"So, we've met then." He nodded briefly. He could feel the time distortions echoing around the place. The wound that was festering, which drew him here. He had to close it but he felt the distant pulse of a headache just by being near them. Not just a wound. A paradox. He could sense it. But how did it involve these two seemingly normal human girls that were fifty years out of time, given the state of their attire? Unless they're costumes? But he was inclined to rule this out as an option given their reactions to his presence.
"You don't remember coming to our hotel room and kidnapping us?" Ann was furious. She was pondering whether he had given them drugs to cause their senses to be altered. She thought she was dying before when that creature grabbed hold of her and then….she took a deep breath. "We're not doing this again." In that decision, they threw both their weights in pushing past him, choosing to exit near where his red headed accomplice, Donna was standing, her seemingly less formidable than their assailant.
Donna was winded, tripping over the threshold, nearly falling to the ground herself only for the Doctor to grab her arm, keeping her upright, near the railing, before turning, moving rapidly so he blocked the girls descent from the porch to the path below that led to the street.
"I need you to stay here until I figure this out." It was clear the girls had more information. Information he somehow wasn't privy to despite his time sensitive nature. They certainly knew him and a quick scan showed they were out of phase. Slightly. "Out of phase. Accelerated static particles. Where did you come into contact with that? And why are you out of phase?" He was muttering aloud the questions that he was asking himself.
Chloe was shaking her head at this man's bizarre behavior. "I don't know what you're talking about. We just want to leave." All the events seemed to shuffle through her mind. "If you let us go, we both promise we won't tell anyone what you did. There's no harm right?" She grimaced slightly. There had been harm. She had seen or thought she saw people die. Thought she saw Ann die. "We don't know you and no one will believe us anyway considering those flying monsters…."
"Flying monsters." The Doctor repeated staring at them.
"Right." Ann said, taking her cue from Chloe. "Crazy isn't it. And you being an alien lord of something, who is going to believe that? So we are not going to bother with it and just be on our way…." She tried to walk past him only for him to take her arm, grimacing, but refusing their request for departure.
"I'm sorry." He said. "But I need you two to stay here with me, just for now." He paused, glancing at Donna who was examining him in a manner that he attributed to doubt. Inhaling through his nose. "You both have information that I need and there's one way I know how to get it." He frowned, the urgency of the time distortions in the area were pressing. He swallowed, shaking his head in some regret. "I really wish I had more time but I don't."
Ann suddenly let out a cry as his fingers flew to her temples, feeling an invasive presence just inside her mind. It felt like….she tried to struggle. Tried to move. She was absolutely frozen. "Don't fight this." The Doctor advised. "It shouldn't hurt if you don't resist."
Chloe watched in horror. Was he really an alien? And then she knew, whatever he was doing to Ann, she was surely next.
Her expression turned into a snarl. "No! Let her go!" She couldn't hit him properly with how he was restraining her friend, but she pounded him with her fists, hitting him as though she was wielding a hammer, but he didn't even seem to notice her.
"It's a time loop," he declared suddenly, letting the girl go but still blocking her from leaving. "The same events happening over and over, on a cycle. But for some reason, you both remember it." He turned to face Chloe. "You lived longer on the last loop. I need you to show me what happened after she died."
"No! What are you talking about?" she demanded, pulling her friend closer and away from the crazy Doctor whatzit.
"He... He was in my head," Ann murmured, her voice as faint as the colour on her face. This couldn't be real. This couldn't be happening, there weren't monster bats that killed you and brought you back to life to kill you again. There weren't men who could shove their thoughts into other people's minds.
"Doctor..." Donna called from just behind him.
"I promise I'll be gentle, but I need to know everything I can to-"
"Doctor!" Donna yelled again, thumping him on the shoulder, violently drawing his attention.
"What? What is it?" he demanded harsh, frustrated by the interruption when he was very busy. He followed the line of her finger. "Ahh..." he said, in anticlimactic surprise, watching the reaper flying above them. "Inside! Inside!" he yelled as it began swooping towards them, grabbing Donna and shoving the three women through the door before him.
He glanced about the room, recognising the scene from Ann's memories.
"Scooby-doo..." Chloe whispered, and he looked towards the door that a vampire was approaching.
"No, don't open that-" his voice boomed, but it was too late, and the man was devoured a second time. "The kitchen! Everyone in the kitchen!" the Time Lord commanded, ensuring both of the unique and unwilling party guests, and also his companion, were part of the throng that escaped to safety.
"This isn't right. We've done this already," Chloe whispered in trepidation to her friend as they hid at the back of the room.
The Doctor stood over the sink as he brought the room to order, glad for the high ceilings in the olden style house.
"Now listen," He started. "Listen to me. Those creatures outside are called-"
"Reapers." Chloe muttered quietly. She remembered what the crazy Doctor had said before the events started to repeat themselves. Why was he saying it all over again? She clutched tightly to Ann, knowing she spoke only a whisper but suddenly his voice cut off as he stared at her. There is no way…
He raised his eyebrows. "You know what they are, then? Good." He took a step towards them. "This must seem a bit like repetition but you see, I can't remember the time loops, yet you can."
"He must be on something." One of the party-goers muttered. "Best haunted house yet and we're missing all the fun."
The Doctor could only turn on the drunken and disorderly crowd. "Alright. Just to make this clear, those are reapers. Real monsters that will eat you all alive." He inhaled sharply. "If I don't fix this, they will consume everyone in this house. Still consider that fun?"
A violent banging started on the wall with the sound of claws against wood. The door was shaking and the Doctor raced forward wielding his screwdriver, welding the metal shut.
"Doctor…" Donna started.
"One moment, Donna." He pressed his hands against the wood, listening to the creatures. How many were there? How severe was this wound in time and how much time did he have to fix this? He paused. Time. The two girls who were here and able to remember each time loop. He extended his senses, closing his eyes. That was it. Each time bubble was constricting by a few micro-spans a piece. The time loops weren't perfect, which meant eventually if he didn't find the cause, the tear in reality would become a gaping hole large enough to engulf the planet. And more…..
"Oi! Spaceman! Listen to me!" Donna's voice was so persistent that it broke off his concentration as he turned.
"What is it? I have to localise…" He suddenly paused, assessing the crowd before looking at his companion. "Where did the girls go?" His face suddenly became rigid.
"That's what I've been tellin' you." Donna said. "Think they ran into the basement." She was shaking her head. "You coming off the way you do, what did you expect?" She had heard what the girls said and knew what it felt like to have the Doctor inside her mind when she visited the Ood. But she had consented and been prepared. She knew that some people weren't ready for this life, which she had chosen but those girls suddenly being thrust into a situation completely outside their depths….she grimaced remembering her reaction all too clearly being terrified, in her wedding dress and suddenly in the TARDIS. She had refused to be his companion when he first asked her. She simply wasn't ready and she knew it. It took time and consideration to come to the decision that she would accept the offer of being his passenger should he offer it again. Those poor things. She thought of the girls. She didn't even know their names and they didn't appear to be in the disposition to volunteer that information.
She watched the Doctor start to jog in that direction and immediately put a hand on his arm. "Be gentle." She told him with a tone of fierceness.
"I was." He insisted. "As much as I can. I don't have a choice. I need to find out what's in the other girl's mind and…"
"Then try talking to them first." She told him. "Patiently. Think. They said they think you kidnapped them. What does that tell you?"
"They're human and just a bit melodramatic." When Donna socked him on the arm, he raised his eyebrows. "Alright, I'll do the best I can." He cleared his throat. "But keep everyone else here while I see about them." He exhaled slowly and continued his progress as Donna tried to keep a semblance of order to the drunken crowd. It was going to be a very long night notwithstanding the time loops.
At least I made sure to lock the door. He thought to himself in a morbid fashion. Buys me a few minutes this time around.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
"Please, someone, you have to help us." Ann was starting to record a live feed using Ustream in tandem with uploading short videos to her YouTube account. For some reason, invariably odd to them, they were able to access the network to use the Internet but they couldn't dial out to any phone numbers. So, this is was her second best option and she didn't know what kind of response she would get. "We can't call the police but we are in this house in South Devon, England. Out in the moors near the town, brought here by this man who kidnapped us out of our hotel room." She swallowed. "He's locked all the doors and…" Her breathing was shallow. "I think it drugs or something that he's given us. Made it feel like he was inside my head. We managed to hide in the basement…" There was a loud clatter and the sound of footsteps.
"Ann, he's coming." Chloe warned her. "We have to hide."
"Please…." Ann struggled. "Please someone call the police. Send this footage before-" She was interrupted as Chloe pulled her away towards the back but in their haste, the phone fell from her sweaty palm while still recording. There was no time to retrieve it as both girls hid in the darkness behind a massive amounts of shelving that seemed to be used to store various canned items. The smell of rotten fruit was evident to their nostrils. That singular musty scent that made it wretched to even breathe. They could only stare through the cracks in the shelves as the man bent down to pick up the phone, examining it with some interest before looking around the basement.
"I just want to talk." He started, his voice echoing through the room. He was greeted with nothing but silence. They weren't going to make this easy. "Alright, listen. I know you're scared but you're both here for a reason. You're remembering the time loops for a reason. I can help make them stop but in order to do that, I need you to help me."
Ann glanced at Chloe and shook her head. He was crazy, likely only buying time until the police would arrive. No, she had to remain silent until they were safe to-
She suddenly gasped in surprise when she heard a tone from Chloe's cell phone being issued. How did that….Ann looked at the man who was holding that metal device directly over her phone. My contact list with Chloe's phone number. He used it somehow…. He was looking in their direction immediately as soon as the tone sounded before heading towards the shelves. Ann was overcome by panic. Their hiding place had now been exposed.
"It's okay. It's okay," he assured them, holding up his hands as he moved around in front of them, acting non threatening, but quickly cutting off their only retreat hoping they wouldn't see the intention in his movements. "I just need to talk to you." He didn't move any closer, and they, likewise, didn't move from their spot. "I know you're both afraid, that you don't know what's going on. I don't know either, but I intend to find out and stop it." He slowly lowered his hands and crouched down to their level. "Now, remember, it's not just you two. There is a whole room full of people upstairs whose lives are in danger. I can save them, but I need your help."
The two girls nervously exchanged a glance, but still didn't come out to him.
"I'm the Doctor," he told them. "You already seem to know this. Can you tell me your names?" He already knew their names. He'd heard them in Ann's mind, but he was trying to get them to open up to him as gently as possible.
"Chloe," the blonde answered, her voice soft and shaking slightly.
"Ann," the other girl followed.
"Nice to meet you, Chloe and Ann. Now, Chloe," he began, narrowing in on her. "You said I died. Can you tell me what happened?"
Chloe glanced nervously at her friend again. "The monster got you," she said after a pause. "Ann ran away and you followed her. A monster..." her voice shook as she broke off. "It was just a dream. It didn't happen."
"It's okay, but I need you to tell me the dream," he pressed, knowing it was anything but. "Tell me how I died."
"The monster got Ann," she said, her voice stuttering slightly. "You tried to pull her away, but she..." She gulped convulsively. "Then you tried to run away, and it got you. And then it got into the kitchen, and everyone was screaming and-" she broke off again, shivering at the memory of being enveloped by the darkness of the creatures wings, how it clawed at her body, tearing her apart. She thought she was dying. She thought it was killing her. "But then I woke up. It wasn't real."
He looked at them both with sympathy. They both died and could remember dying. There were few who could claim that. He could, but again, that was very different. "I'm sorry," he told them gently. "I'm so sorry. We're stuck in a time loop. The same events repeating over and over. The reapers are trying to close the wound, but if we can't find what's causing it, it will only make the tear worse."
Chloe clenched her hands together, feeling her heart flutter inside her chest. "So, it wasn't a dream. It was real." She glanced at Ann. "We died for real." Horror bloomed inside her mind. "We'll continue to die for real." Did this Doctor really bring them here to trap them in a living continual nightmare?
"Not if I can stop it but that's where I need your assistance." He glanced down at the phone he was holding. Now that was interesting. The distortions of the time loop should have prevented any mobile phone from receiving a signal even with his modifications but upon closer examination the girls were able to access the Internet network in their own time frame. How did they…? He raised his eyebrows. The phones were slightly out of phase while at the same time, transmitting a discreet set of coded radio waves on a frequency being conducted through a localized rift. The same set of binary numbers were being inundated on the screen in a repeating loop. "A loop." He muttered. "You're the transmitters. Your phones are broadcasting the location of the source of the wound." He was talking excitedly. "It's the base station projecting an alternating out of phase signal, which you're both conducting in sequence with your phones so I should be able to find the origin point…." He started to trail as he concentrated on their phones with apparent intrigue. How to use this…
Ann glanced at Chloe. She didn't really follow half of what he was talking about but managed to garner the point where their phones were somehow able to giving him the location he needed to fix the problem he said they were trapped in.
"So," She shivered, a sensation of dizziness overcame her but she tried to regain her voice. She had never been so scared in all her life and she had a few near misses. Everyone feared the prospect of death considering it was such unknown territory but now she was faced with something she had considered utterly impossible. Dying repeatedly without any recourse of how to bring it to an end. The person responsible for their position stood directly in front of them. "So…." She wrapped her arms around herself. "You just need our phones, right? You can find it and fix it with our phones?"
The Doctor looked at her, his expression filled with regret. They were scared. Of course they were scared and they were human. A human wasn't used to dying multiple times. These were extraordinary circumstances. He sighed. "I can't just use your phones. I'm so sorry but I need you two. There is a special static energy field encompassing you both and the phones are simply reproducing the residual temporal signature each of you are giving off so…" He noticed their confusion. "Do either of you know much about computer hardware? How they work?"
"Sort of." Ann admitted. "I installed some storage drives to my PC for some advertising projects but what does that have to do with…?"
"More than you think. Okay." He started over. "Your body produces natural static right?"
"Yeah." Ann pressed her lips together. "I have to wear this static guard so I don't short anything out."
"It grounds your body from producing a static current at the opposing magnetic frequency." He explained.
"But what does that have to do with anything?" Chloe was bewildered and utterly frustrated.
"Magnets. One has a positive charge and one has a negative charge." He said simply.
"So the time wound is a magnet and we have the wrong charge?" Ann struggled to clarify.
"On the contrary." The Doctor said. "You both have the right charge. That's what your phones are telling me." He paused. "The rest of us don't." He looked at them intensely. "That's why you can remember the time loops and that's why I need you to help me fix it."
Suddenly, there was screaming that was taking place just above them. Horrible sounds. People obviously dying in agony. "Oh God, help us." Ann muttered as the Doctor raced forward, shutting the door to the basement and fixing the lock into place. Chloe looked around in desperation for another exit but all the windows to this semi basement had been boarded.
"Listen to me." He said urgently, grabbing Ann's wrist, pressing the phone back into her palm. "Record everything you can. This has still been broadcasting and the next time, I won't remember. I need all the information. Every loop, there's entropy. It will shorten."
"We're going to die?" Chloe started, feeling her horror and desperation build inside her. "Again?"
"I'm sorry. I only bought us a little time but remember what I said when you-"
The basement door broke open. Reapers flooded into the room like a gigantic swarm. Massive, hovering bats with blood already dripping from their claws. Both girls started to scream before running into the deepest corner they could find.
The sounds they made her unearthly as Ann clutched the phone tightly, her thoughts racing frantically. It was still streaming live. "Oh God, this is it! We're going to die! We're going to-"
The phone flew out of her hands as the reapers found their prey once again. Their cries and the tearing of flesh was still being recorded as the number of views started to increase, ticking steadily upwards while both girls appeared to die in front of the viewer's eyes, streaming the content, several watching the videos in avid, morbid fascination.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Don't I know you?" The Doctor asked, raising his eyebrows.
The girls could only look at him horrified. At one moment, they were dying and the next they were standing in front of the door, seeing the Doctor and Donna, again. Everything was happening again.
Ann felt bile in her throat and immediately she fell to her knees starting to vomit, heaving uncontrollably. Chloe overwhelmed by a sensation of vertigo, gripped the door to keep from falling, trying to blink away the dark spots that occluded her vision. I can't pass out. She told herself. I can't…
"Oh, it's still early and you're both done over already." One of the party-goers mocked. "Come on now! It's Halloween!"
"We can't die again." Chloe could only speak faintly. "Please, already happened twice. Not again. Just not…."
"Again?" Donna asked the Doctor. "What are they talkin' about?" A look of fear crossed the companion's face as a sudden serious expression stole over the Doctor's. He was immediately stepping over the threshold, quick to examine these peculiar girls, his sonic already in his hand.
"Doctor?" The red head followed, insisting on an explanation as he started to crouch down in front of the two.
"Can you stop it this time?" Chloe begged. "Please tell me you can stop it this time."
"Stop what? What's happening?" he demanded seriously. More and more he felt like time was fragmenting around them. A change would come, as if in jumps, first as they were coming up the garden path, then again closer to the house, and now standing before these two women. It felt to him like at random intervals, reality was being put under exponentially more strain, and he feared what would happen if the increases continued with him unable to stop it.
"No," Chloe realised. "He's forgotten again."
Her very words felt ominous to him, and he knew he needed to find out what was going on, but as he decided they had knowledge he needed, the other woman held her phone out to him.
"I don't know if it works, but you told us to keep recording."
He took the phone, quickly buzzing it with his silver instrument. Images rapidly flickered over the screen. A high pitch noise emitted from the device, higher than chipmunk voices and speaking far more rapidly. The video cut off suddenly, and the Doctor handed her phone back. "Keep recording," he instructed before holding out his hand towards the blonde. "Phone, I need your phone," he said, stress evident in his voice.
"Doctor, what is it?" Donna asked again, worried to see him so serious so suddenly.
"It's a loop. A time loop. It's getting shorter each time," he explained rapidly, taking the second phone. "You two have somehow been made immune to some of its effects. Not all of them, but some of them. You both remember each loop, when even I don't."
"But, what was it about the phones? You said you could use them," Ann said.
"Last loop, I embedded a program to determine the source of the tear using the signal and electrical discharge your bodies are giving off. You're broadcasting the general location. I'm helping to narrow it down. Now let's see..."
He was interrupted by Donna's cry behind him - "Doctor!" - and he turned to see a reaper swooping at them from the sky.
"In! In! Get in!" he hurried them through the door, slamming it quickly just before the creature reached them.
"Scooby-Doo," Chloe whispered, recognising the song, and she fearfully glanced back at the Vampire who was about to open a door that would let the monsters in.
The Doctor, though, held up his screwdriver, pointing it at the door and fusing the mechanism. "We've got seconds," he warned his companions. He glanced at his sonic before nodding in confirmation. "Upstairs."
"But-" Ann started. What about everyone else? Where would they hide when-
"Now!" He exclaimed, pushing them forward to the rickety staircase just as two reapers broke through the door and attacked the people in the living room. There was screaming and….Chloe felt her own stomach start to churn. Those sickening wet sounds of flesh being torn asunder. People were being eaten alive again as the Doctor, Ann, Chloe and Donna were only just on the steps.
"What about them?" Ann managed. "Leaving them to just get eaten…"
"If we don't close this wound, it won't matter what the reapers do here." The Doctor said. "There is a crack. A gaping hole in time. The reapers come in to sterilize that damage except if the wound doesn't close, more reapers will get in. They'll go on to sterilize the entire planet and when they're done with Earth, move on to sterilize the next world."
They were being hustled along across the wooden planks of the second floor. The Doctor was scanning one room, then another. Suddenly, one of the wooden beams that made up the floor started to give. Chunks of rotten wood fell apart as Chloe lost her footing with a scream. Immediately as Chloe started to fall, Ann lurched forward, seizing her friend's arm as Chloe screamed in panic. The number of reapers were increasing beneath her swinging legs. Two were clawing at her feet dangling below.
"Just hold on!" Ann begged. "Please, just…." But her palm was sweaty. "Doctor!"
The Doctor turned but he was too late. Ann couldn't maintain her hold as Chloe's fingers slid out of her hand. "Ann. I can't…"
And just as the Doctor was reaching for Chloe did the girl fall into the vortex of darkness and monsters that waited below. Ann couldn't hear the thud her friend was sure to make. Would the creatures get to her first? Did the fall kill her? "Chloe!" She couldn't think straight. She bolted for the stairs to get to her fallen friend. What if this loop was the last one? She would be leaving Chloe to her death. She couldn't-
The Doctor moved so quickly, he was a blur. He wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her back while she struggled against him.
"What are you doing?" She shouted at him. "We have to help her!"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. We can't. Not there's no time. The reapers will have gotten to her first. There's still more I need to find out. I have to have you with me for that, Ann" His tone was firm. They were the only ones with full memory of the loops and one was gone. Gone this time. But he still required information. If he was going to mend the tear in reality, he needed to locate the source. But Ann was starting to break down and the Doctor felt his hearts go out to her hearing her relentless weeping. The human mind wasn't meant for this much stress. His hold on her relaxed, becoming supportive as she cried.
"I couldn't hold her." Ann said. "I tried..I tried so hard."
"I know you did." He said, keeping his voice soothing. "It was an accident. Nothing you could of done."
"How many times are we going to die?" Ann nearly wanted to give up. It was a torture she never imagined experiencing. Dying repeatedly. Watching her friend die in front of her. Would she ever see her family again? She thought she believed in a higher power once but…this wasn't the way death was supposed to work. There was no heaven. No paradise. One maddening loop after another. It was chaos. What had she done to deserve this as her penance? What had Chloe done?
"Listen to me." His voice was sympathetic yet commanding at the same time. "I mean, really listen. I'm going to do everything I can to make it stop. But to do that, I need your help, alright? We're running out of time and if the erosion continues, it won't stop at this house. It will spread like an infectious disease to the rest of the planet. Do you understand? Know who else is at risk?"
"Everyone else." Ann finally said. "My family." She cringed at the thought of what they could suffer at the hands or 'claws' of these reapers. "The world."
The Doctor let out a breath. It was some headway. "Exactly." He paused as he glanced down at the girl's phone. "Okay, I think the time distortions are coming from the end of the room."
Barely able to get inside, they all examined the room with a frown. For the source of the time distortions, it looked ordinary and abandoned, much like the rest of the house. The Doctor was avidly scanning and muttering under his breath while Ann surveyed her environment. What if they never survived this? Maybe this was how she would die. There were so many things she wanted to say to her family but she couldn't reach them. Not like this. With phone service down and only the Internet to communicate…..the internet. She paused at the idea.
I should send a message to Caitlin. Ann thought. As it stood, she was the only one that might believe some of the craziness that was going on. If she could send messages to family, it was likely Caitlin, being the conspiracy theorist she was, was still on her computer. She was quickly typing a message to Caitlin's Twitter account, managing to link the Ustream feed.
She only managed a brief few words before the doors started to burst in. "Caitlin, you're the only one who would believe us but…." She paused. "Chloe and I, we got trapped in a house filled with monsters. We've been dying each time only to wake up and start the whole thing over again. Please, tell my parents that-"
The reapers had barged in just as the Doctor was examining the fireplace. "I found it. Well, an entrance. It's a secret passage. These old homes with all their nooks and-"
"Doctor!" Donna barely gave a shout of warning before the reapers pounced on her to consume her.
He shoved Ann behind him. "Keep recording. Remember, secret passage at the fireplace. Next time you see me, don't hesitate." He exhaled through his nose. "We need every minute we can get."
The Doctor had no time to access the secret passage before the reaper swooped on him finding him the most appetizing meal in the room, being the oldest of everyone there. Then they all turned their sights to Ann.
"God help me." Ann muttered, closing her eyes, falling to her knees as the reapers circled around her before they decided to tear into next victim.
xxxxxxxxxx
The Doctor was just pressing the button on his sonic to lock the door across the room, when he felt reality lurch around him once more. "Did we just loop?" he asked the two girls, who looked decidedly queasy, despite being certain of the answer already.
Chloe was running her hands over her body as if making sure she was okay or searching for invisible insects that were creeping over her, while Ann doubled over clutching her abdomen, looking like she was about to enter a full panic attack.
"Upstairs?" he asked, his voice sounding like a demand. Each loop was getting shorter. He might have remembered more at the beginning than he apparently did on the other loops, but that simply meant he had less time to work with, that they were that much closer to dying. If he made the wrong choice at this juncture, they might never loop back far enough to be able to fix it in time.
Ann nodded. "There was a fireplace. A secret passage."
"Show me," he demanded again, hustling the women and his companion towards the stairs.
This time, three reapers broke into the room as they fled, falling upon the defenceless crowd. "There's more of them," Chloe cried. I thought the loops were the same. How can there be more of them?"
The Doctor didn't answer until they'd successfully fled from the room of screams. "Time is decaying. Think of a bathtub full of water. You pull the plug out and the water spins round and round, repeating itself as it drains away. Each repeat is less. There are differences each time. The water level changes, as does the sound of the water draining away changes, becoming worse. The reapers aren't part of normal time. They can hear the bath draining. The lower the water gets, the more that show up to try to plug the wound." He glanced around the rundown hallway as he reined his explanation in. He didn't have time. "Where is it?" he asked the to loopers.
"This way," Ann said, taking the lead. "Avoid that one," she added, pointing at the wooden support that had failed Chloe on the last loop. She swallowed. She could still hear her friends dying scream ringing in her ears even though she was only a few steps behind her.
They quickly reached the fireplace, which the Doctor began to inspect.
There were still no reapers in sight, so Donna stepped up to Chloe, who was shivering almost uncontrollably. "How are you doing, Sweetheart," she asked kindly, already knowing the answer was 'Not good', but wanting to help. She couldn't remember the loops. She could only remember walking up to the house, the Doctor getting more and more antsy, meeting the girls and running for her life. She felt like she was missing half a conversation when they spoke with the Doctor. And these two, they remembered dying. How many times had they died now? How many times had she, yet she couldn't remember?
Chloe just shook her head. "I just want to go home," she practically whimpered.
Ann reached over, pulling her friend into a hug, and they both clung to each other for support.
"Over here, all of you!" the Doctor called impatiently. He wasn't trying to be cruel, but he needed to stay ahead of the loops and the reapers.
"What I don't get, is why the house is so run down," Donna commented as she grabbed the mantle to hold herself next to him.
"There tear has been here for a while. Years, decades maybe. The structure has been decayed by far more time than the house has stood. It was some critical incident that finally tipped it in to final atrophy, these loops. It could have simply been the culmination of time and decay, but I'm not so sure," he explained, studying the two women out of the corner of his eye. It seemed utterly beyond coincidence that two women from out of their own time should arrive at the same moment the loops began. More likely, it was their arrival that triggered the final collapse of reality. However, the addition of two time travellers into the fray shouldn't have had that sort of stress effect of the tear, otherwise it would be he and Donna who were paramount in resolving the disturbance rather than Ann and Chloe. He wished he had more time to understand who they were and why, of all people, his future self chose them. Was it simply to resolve the paradox? He didn't think so, but he didn't have the time to work it out.
The fireplace spun clunkily, before chugging to a stop just passed half way. The three women stepped off into the room while he momentarily fought with the mechanism, trying to force it to close. He couldn't. If the reapers got through the wooden door on the other side of the room, they could come straight through the open gap the fireplace left. He couldn't even seal it back the other way.
"Doctor," Donna called back over her shoulder, her eyes fixed on the room.
The difference between it and the rest of the house was remarkable. A perfectly new and freshly varnished wooden table sat against one wall, a comfortable looking chair before it, looking for all intents and purposes like a work desk. There was electronic equipment strewn upon the desk and throughout the room. The floor was carpeted and there were bookshelves lining the walls. But there was a clear line of decay. The carpet was pristine, white and perfect, with the wooden table at its epicentre, but outside a circle of perfection, where the books were fresh and the wood sound, the carpet had rotted to nothing. Books had turned to dust, and the sofa against the opposite wall have collapsed in on itself, holes riddling the fabric.
"The eye of the storm," the Doctor commented, carefully approaching, but not crossing the line of decay. He walked around the circle, pointing at the floor. "See these concentric circles? The loops are closing. There's not long left." He walked around the desk, still keeping his distance as he searched for the object in the perfect centre of the anomaly.
"Vortex manipulator," he spat. People with no understanding messing with time. "Looks like an early model. Prototype, perhaps."
"What is?" Donna asked, not knowing what he was looking at.
"The large leather watch," he indicated. "I need to get a closer look at it, but I have a very bad feeling about crossing this line. Touch the wrong thing, and it could trigger a cascade failure. No more loops. No more anything else."
"So, what do we do?" Donna asked again. She could hear the screech of the reapers behind them. Hear them banging against the door. See the rattling of the wood and the dust falling. "Doctor?" she urged.
"All of you, whatever happens, do not cross this line!" he ordered, pointing at them, as the outer door gave another banging groan as the creatures sought entrance. He took a breath and stepped closer to the desk.
"Doctor!" his companion screamed as he shimmered out of existence as he crossed the line, the very image of him wobbling and fading like a mirage. There was nothing left.
It was at that moment that the wood splintered behind them, and the reapers flooded in, crawling through the gap and around the walls in the room before them, quickly approaching the open fire place.
"Get behind me!" Donna shouted, holding her arms out wide and pushing the terrified girls deeper into the room. "Now, listen," she said to the first creature that prowled into the room. "We're trying to help. We're trying to stop the-"
Her voice cut off with a scream at the monster bat launched itself at her, she pushed back, retreating as fast as she could, until she too disappeared in a shimmer just as the Doctor had done. Ann and Chloe screamed, huddling into tiny balls on the floor, waiting for the tear of claws that they had felt too many times before.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
They were already on the stairs heading up to the second floor as reality reset around them. Ann and Chloe grabbed hold of the bannister as Donna looked at them concerned. "Doctor." She started. "Did it happen again? The loop you were talking about?" Donna looked around. "Doctor?" She didn't see him. Where had he gone?
Ann and Chloe glanced at each other. "Last time…" Chloe managed. "He went past the line. Said there was this vortex or…time device, a watch. But he just disappeared. Like he was never there."
"Never there?" Donna asked. No, that couldn't be right. She grabbed their hands, dragging them up the stairs the rest of the way. "What do you mean?"
"There was this line in the floor. He told us not to cross it but he did and then he was just gone." Ann managed. Now she was more terrified if that was possible. What if their soul hope for getting them out of this predicament had vanished for good? The rest of them would just be stuck until they ran out of loops and then….she swallowed, remembering what the Doctor had said before. "The room. We have to go to the back room." She knew what was causing the problem was still beyond that secret passage and in that very circle the Doctor pointed out. But if we get there, how are we going to fix it without him?
Chloe once again navigated around the rotten piece of flooring that gave way only for Ann to cry out as the railing she held onto, started to collapse to the side in a pile of desiccated wood. Chloe barely managed to seize her friend's arm to steady her before she fell over the side, remembering he own fatal plunge and she shuddered. Were they really trapped here? Did the Doctor disappear to abandon them to the monsters? She didn't know how much more of this she could really take. How many more times she could die before simply cracking and going insane.
"You two, we need to go." Donna commanded. Reapers were already heading up the stairs. They had already consumed everyone in the party. The three of them were next and Donna taking the initiative pushed them ahead of her as they ran down the corridor. Only seconds later did the red head stumble, letting out a shout. Ann and Chloe turned to glance behind them, watching in horror. It wasn't just a matter of a few rotten pieces of floor paneling. The entire staircase and part of the landing was collapsing. Splintering away. Chloe took a step in Donna's direction only to see the woman, dangling over the edge before she got torn in two, becoming a bloody carcas by a reaper only several feet away.
"Oh, God." The blond said as Ann stared in momentary shock at the horrible scene. The reapers now had their sights on them. Their death now seemed to stand only moments away….
Hands fell on their wrist yanking them back into the room before the door was slammed shut behind them. The Doctor was there. He was busily sonicking the door as the girls looked at him in shock as to his sudden appearance. But why wasn't he downstairs?
"We thought you were…" Ann didn't know how to finish the sentence. Dead? Eradicated? What was the right term to use?
"I know, I know. A time skip. I was already here and then the three of you weren't. The distortions are happening faster. Small time window sent me here while you three went back downstairs. If I can get to the source-" He started.
"You said it was a time watch or something." Chloe interrupted him. She was relieved he was still here but she still trapped in a house filled with those monsters. Creatures that were eating everything in sight. Whatever caused him to disappear at the start; she didn't want to have that same mistake occur again. "A vortex watch or-"
"Vortex manipulator." The Doctor finished, accessing the passage. "Muon energy. Highly unstable. Causes devastating results if depolarized towards time and space. Once I find it, I should be able to deactivate it."
"But you did." Ann tried. They were already heading down the secret passage to the room that held the device. "The line. You said not to cross the line on the floor and then you did. You just…." She was looking at the co-centric circles on the ground. There was barely any space left and she gazed at the Doctor who was studying it seriously. "You disappeared."
The Time Lord himself only nodded briefly before glancing at his sonic. The two human girls gave him a confirmation of what he just started to suspect. The vicinity around the device was only attune to them. Their signal and the one the vortex manipulator were broadcasting, both so slightly out of sync with normal time but now the only ones who could get close to the vortex manipulator. It was a decision he didn't like making but one he had to make nonetheless.
"I'm sorry." He said finally, turning to them. "I'm very, very sorry. I'm afraid it's up to you now."
"Wait, what does that mean?" Chloe demanded as she watched the Doctor work to start the fireplace pivot, sealing them in the hidden room they had located. He was buying as much time as he possibly could.
"You two are the only ones in temporal sync with the vortex manipulator. It needs to be shut down. I need you to take this." He pressed the sonic into Ann's hand as she shook her head.
"But, we can't!" She cried out. "We don't know how." The device he was forcing her to take looked utterly alien to her. There wasn't even a screen. How did she know how to use it? "We'll-"
"The sonic will adjust to the same feedback you're both radiating. It has a psychic and temporal sensor interface." He took a deep breath. The fate of the universe and he was leaving it to rest on two humans he only barely met. Still, in his time, he had to work with far worse. Far worse than two frightened girls. "I just need you both, once you enter the perimeter to think about deactivating the device. The settings will adjust. Press this button." It was the best he could do for now. There were over 2,500 settings on his sonic. Having them use the psychic function was the simplest and for humans especially in a critically stressful period, it was best to keep things uncomplicated.
Chloe stared at the sonic before glancing at the line of decay on the floor. She was shivering violently. "If….if this is the last loop, will Donna…the other party members…..?" She swallowed. Would this death be their real one?
The Doctor blinked. He was tempted to lie. To tell them it would be alright. If the loops had no decay, no entropy, time would likely reset but given what he saw and what he felt with his time senses, he couldn't be sure. He couldn't get access to the device to be absolutely definitive. He was sending the girls into unknown territory but this is what he had to do. He was a Time Lord and that was the burden that came with protecting the universe. The potential sacrifices he had to make. "I don't know." He said finally. "I'm not sure they'll come back. I hope so. I really do but given the amount of damage already. The entropic cascade failure." He shook his head. "If we got here sooner…"
A sickening thud sounded against the fireplace. Pieces of plaster started to fall. Ann finally turned away, holding onto the sonic as she grabbed hold of Chloe's hand. "There's no choice." She muttered. They never had one from the beginning when this whole vicious cycle of loops started. They couldn't turn back and there was no where left to run. They were backed into a corner. No other remedy in sight.
They stepped together up to the line, where they hesitated, dozens of possibilities running through their minds. What if the Doctor was wrong? What if they disappeared just like he did? What if they couldn't stop it or made it worse? What if...
"You have to hurry," he insisted, his words punctuated by another heavy crash against the wall, dust raining down on them from the force of the impact.
The girls gulped, tightening their grip on each other's hands. Ann was the first to step over the line, and Chloe quickly followed. They paused for a moment, waiting to see if they would disappear or not.
"Good, good," the Doctor encouraged. "Now the sonic."
The two girls stepped up to the desk, looking down on the device that the man outside the circle had been so concerned with. It didn't look like anything spectacular. In fact, it looked like an oversized leather watch with a digital display and far more numbers flashing across the face than any watch could possibly require.
"What is it?" Chloe asked, reaching out for it.
"Don't touch it," the Doctor quickly instructed. "It's unstable. Any disturbance could potentially trigger catastrophic failure."
"A what?" Ann asked.
"It'll blow up, destroying time and reality in its wake. Everything will be gone. The whole planet. The whole solar system. More."
Chloe shakily put her hand behind her back, afraid to even breathe near it, while Ann looked down at the metal wand in her hand. "And this will definitely fix it?"
"No, not definitely, but it's the only option we've got."
One side of the wall above the fireplace splintered, and the Doctor stood between the hole and the girls as reapers started pouring in, his arms spread wide. "Point and think! Turn it off!" he yelled back over his shoulder, before two of the monsters dove at him off the walls.
The girls huddled fearfully against the desk as they heard his screams and the cracking of bones, knowing they were next, but the silence after the Doctor death dragged out, barring the odd screech of the monsters crowding around them. Chloe opened her eyes to see a reaper throwing itself at her. She screamed and flinched away again, but the beast never reached her. She looked up again in time to see another bat try to attack them, disappearing in the same shimmer of light as the Doctor had done on the last loop.
"They can't get in," Ann said, realising at the same moment as her friend.
"The floor!" Chloe croaked out looking down around them. With every reaper that disappeared around them, the line of decay was slowly creeping closer to them. Soon, the reapers would be able to reach them again.
They quickly but nervously stood up, going against every instinct to turn away from the monsters and back to the ordinary looking desk. Ann fumbled with the device the Doctor had given her, when Chloe grabbed her arm. "But, if that thing's stopping them, if we turn it off, will they get us? If there's no more loop...?"
Ann's blood ran cold. If there were no more loops and the reapers got them, they wouldn't come back. She spoke, her voice shaking. "He said if we touch it, the whole world will die. If we don't stop it and those things get to it..." She cut off, unable to finish. She looked over at her friend, and was sure that the devastation on Chloe's face was mirrored on her own.
Chloe nodded. She had never, in her wildest dreams, considered that she would be in a position like this, where they had to save the world, but Ann was right. There was no choice. They couldn't not do everything possible, even if it meant the monsters would get them once more.
The reapers shrieked around them, the decay slowly creeping closer. "Together?" Ann asked, pointing the metal wand at the leather watch. Chloe lay her hand on top of Ann's, and they pressed down the large button.
Turn off. Turn off.
The sonic vibrated softly in their hands. In front of their eyes, they watched a dial spin on its own as the end started to radiate a vibrant shade of blue. In front of them the watch luminesced with colors glowing a harsh shade of red. Ann swallowed. That didn't look right. At least, not to her. Red usually meant danger. It meant to stop. Why was it glowing red? Was it now a ticking time bomb? Had they just doomed the earth through their horrid incompetence brought on by their terror?
Then, she realized. There was a pattern. The color that was blinking at her. The space between the blinks became faster. It reminded her of her camera when it was low on battery. The alert light would flash a similar red tone too. She pressed her tongue against her teeth, looking at the device in apprehension, glancing at Chloe who was staring intently at it in concentration.
"It's draining the battery. Sucking it dry." Ann managed as Chloe looked at her before seeing the line of mildew on the floor. It was only two feet away. Reapers were swarming the area and Chloe knew. What they were doing was accelerating the decay. The glow on the device was becoming fainter.
The blue light of the sonic turned off, its task seemingly complete. The energy was practically siphoned. It was only a matter of moments before the reapers would be able to swarm to the area where they were standing. Chloe grabbed Ann's hand, dragging her to the corner furthest from the reapers as they collapsed, pressing themselves against the wall.
Ann held out her phone with shaky fingers. Sweaty palms. Her heart was racing. It's unfair. She thought. There was so much I wanted to do…and now…. Her phone was still streaming the feed and she was terrified. Alone. Half a world away from her family and this would be where she would die. Where both Chloe and herself had come to die. She couldn't pretend bravery or false courage. She wasn't one to joke or laugh in the face of her own demise. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to live. But that option was long since gone.
"I'm sorry." She told Chloe as well as the viewers who could be watching the video. "Sorry I opened the door at our hotel. Sorry that we're here. If…." Too many if's. Too many things she might have chosen. Hindsight was twenty/twenty.
"I would have opened it too." Chloe tried to reassure her but her voice quavered as she focused on the phone. Her final words. Would she have a gravestone? A final epitaph? No, that wasn't important. The words she left behind would be. A form of consolation to offer everyone that would be devastated at home. She wept as she spoke. "Mum, Dad, everyone, I love you." If this was her last message, if she would be remembered, at least she wanted her parents to know how she felt. Tears were in her eyes. "I love you both so much…" How could she do this? She didn't want to die. Not again. Not forever. But she knew. No one wanted to die. The struggle to survive each time. To endure. They died hoping the next time would be their chance to end this. To get away and back home. But there was no home and no where to go. The reapers. She thought. Like the grim reaper. They had cheated death and now he was coming to collect.
Ann's throat closed in terror and in grief. She nearly felt like a passenger on a plane that was plummeting to the earth. Her cousin. She had to tell her cousin. Something. Anything. "Caitlin, tell my family I loved them. Each and everyone, just in case…." Her words seemed to fade away. In case we don't come back. In case I never get another chance. "I hope…." What did she hope? Maybe there was one thing worse than death at this point. One thing she realized when the Doctor and the reapers disappeared from sight as if they had never been behind the line of decay. Being eradicated from existence without anyone to remember that they lived. No one to mourn them. No mark that they did anything of worth even to those that she loved. Yes, that would be horribly worse. "I hope you won't forget…" Her voice cracked with a sob. "Please don't forget-"
A surge suddenly resonated through the area and the girls glanced up, seeing that the blinking lights on the watch they struggled to turn off was entirely gone. It was now a dead piece of machinery, sitting motionless on the table and in that moment the line of decay reached them. The reapers no longer disappeared as they surged in their direction. Both girls hunkered down as Ann's device fell from her grasp catching a full view of the reapers swarming just above.
In that last dismal second, they clung onto each other, while the monsters barreled down at the last two pieces of prey that had long been denied them in the house.
Instinctively, they both closed their eyes. Words of a childhood prayer came to Chloe's mind.
Now I lay me down to sleep…I pray the Lord my soul-
It was her last thought as claws bore into them both, sundering and tearing flesh. Their screams echoed throughout the entire house as all the predators pounced upon them at the same time. No mercy. Only agony as they torn piece by piece, consumed by the monsters, enjoying their final meal.
Their shrieks of pain continued until even those cries fell silent. The reapers started to disappear one by one into a brilliant surge of light. The wound closing. The entire house then becoming still. A crumbling wasteland to the horrific violence that happened in its wake.
Only Ann's phone remained behind, recording those last few seconds before it quite suddenly, switched off, a surge of static ran through the mobile. It was powerless. Lifeless. Just like everyone else who had found themselves drawn to that manor, which appeared to now become everyone's tomb. The very gravestone that marked the last of Ann and Chloe's existence before all the bodies shimmered away into nothingness.
Author's Note: Let us know what you think. We hope you enjoyed reading this little experiment. Thanks for AmberLovelyLight for her inspiration as always.
Emptyvoices & Azaadin