I haven't written a Doctor Who fanfic in quite a while, though I am still in the middle of writing one currently (however, it's coauthored, and I have been unable to get into contact with my coauthor for quite some time...so it's on hold until I can get some sort of news). I promised one of my besties that I would write her a DW fic one day, and so I am writing this for her for Christmas this year. :) She and I have written a DW fic together in the past ("The Doctor Creates a Yearbook") when we were still juniors in high school, and had a blast. So if you see the name Lacey in this story, that's homage to her! :)
I hope you all enjoy!
OH! And pretend "Doomsday" and "Journey's End" never happened, because REALLY, they just mucked more things up than they fixed!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. However, Alexandra Corrico happens to be a real person - I go to school with her - and she graciously allowed me to borrow her name. :)
Mirror Project
A "Doctor Who" fanfiction
By doodlegirll
For Lacey – Merry Christmas!
…oOo…
Prologue
-March 14th, 1910-
Fifteen year old Alexandra Corrico had never liked thunderstorms. When she was a little girl, she used to run and hide in her father's study, underneath his desk. She had always felt safe there, where it smelled strongly of him – the tobacco from his pipe, the sandalwood soap he used, and, of course, books.
But her father wasn't here. He was still back in London, with her mother and little sister, Elizabeth. She was here all alone, and she had nowhere to run.
Thunder reverberated through her small room, lighting bouncing off the windowpane like a ball, casting its terribly bright spell. Alexandra shuddered, and shuffled the duvet of the bed up over her head. She closed her eyes tightly, and covered her ears with the palms of her hands, willing the storm to pass by quickly so that she could get the rest she needed for her trip the following morning to Cardiff, where she and her brother, Cato, were meeting her aunt to stay for a few weeks in preparation for the upcoming birth of their new cousin.
Another rumble of thunder shook the frame of her bed, and Alexandra curled herself into a tighter ball.
Oh what she would give to be back in her own bed at home in London! The inn where she and Cato had stopped for the night in the vast English countryside was small, and quant and she had found it easy to feel comfortable there, until this storm had begun to brew, blasting itself against the glass of her window relentlessly.
Alexandra bolted upright at the sound of a loud banging against her door. She stared, her eyes wide, at it, and yet another loud thump against the wood clashed with the flash of lightning outside.
"Hello?" She called, her voice shaking slightly. "Is anyone there?"
Thump!
"Is anyone there?" She called again.
"Alright, this isn't funny! Stop it!"
Thump thump thump!
"Cato, is that you? Go back to bed, you big bully!"
Thump!
Alexandra threw back the covers and grabbed her shawl from the desk chair. She hurried towards the door as the thumping continued, undid the lock, and furiously yanked the door inwards.
"Cato, you stop that right now!"
But there was no one at the door.
Confused, Alexandra stepped out into the hallway.
"Hello?" She called quietly. "Who's there?"
Thump!
The sound came from further down the hallway this time, and Alexandra jumped as another lightning struck somewhere close by outside. Tugging her shawl tightly around her shoulders, she took a few cautious steps towards the source of the sound.
"Cato, I'm serious! Stop it!"
Her only reply was yet another thump.
Alexandra growled, beginning to feel the effects of very little sleep, and stomped her way down the hall.
The thumping continued, moving down the corridors of the quiet inn. She followed them, intent on catching her annoying brother in the act so that she could go to sleep. He was eighteen, for goodness sakes! Much too old to be playing childish jokes on his sister in the middle of the night.
She entered the small pantry towards the middle of the inn, and paused to listen for the thumping above the thunder and rain pounding against the windowpanes. She heard it again, this time more faintly, coming from the adjacent hall to her left, opposite the one she had just come from. She turned towards it and tiptoed after it.
"Cato, you stop this right now! You're going to wake the innkeeper!" She hissed in the dark.
Thump!
It was louder this time, and coming from inside one of the rooms to her right. Alexandra wondered for a moment if she had been mistaken, and it was perhaps a cat or large rodent that had somehow made its way behind the walls and was simply searching for a way out. She carefully set her hand on the doorknob, and turned, fully expecting to confront her brother hiding within, and scold the grin she knew he would have plastered from ear to ear off of his face.
When she opened the door, however, she was surprised to find not the tall figure of her brother, but the shorter figure of a woman.
The room was completely unfurnished, the walls bare of any decorations. The wallpaper had begun to peel at the corners, and there was a large crack in the ceiling.
In front of the silhouette of the woman stood the room's only other standing structure: a full length mirror.
The woman didn't seem to notice as Alexandra stepped into the room, the floorboards creaking beneath her weight. It was incredibly obvious that while the rest of the inn was well-kept and clean, this room had not seen a much needed renovation in many, many years.
"Hello?" Alexandra called softly to the woman. "Are you alright?"
Lightning flashed yet again, but the woman did not turn around.
"Excuse me," Alexandra tried again. "Are you the one banging on my door?"
The woman did not move. She seemed absolutely fixated on the mirror before her.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" Alexandra stepped closer to the woman. "Have you been the one rapping my door?"
As she neared the woman, she reached out a hand and placed it carefully on her shoulder. The woman did not seem to notice Alexandra's gentle touch, so Alexandra moved ever closer, and turned the woman away from the mirror so she could see her properly.
It was then she noticed that this was not a woman at all.
A grotesque, twisted expression adorned the figure's face, and her eyes were dark pits with tiny pinpoints of red as pupils. It had rows of sharp, pointed fangs instead of teeth, and it let out an inhuman growl as it took notice of Alexandra.
Alexandra reeled back, screaming as she did so. She stumbled as she backed away from the figure, who had set its beady red eyes upon her, and it stalked after her with an otherworldly gait.
"Stay back!" Alexandra yelled. "Help! Someone help me!"
She turned to run out the door, but it slammed shut just as she reached it, and she grabbed the knob, jiggling it furiously.
"No! No no no!" She said as she desperately began to bang on the door. "Help! Someone, please, help me! Help me!"
The creature behind her let out another growl as it neared her, and Alexandra pressed herself as close to the door as she could as yet another bolt of lightning illuminated the night sky.
The creature was upon her now, and it reached out with a boney hand and grabbed her, the flesh hot and putrid against her skin, like an boiled frog. Alexandra shrieked again and clawed at the hand that held tightly to her wrist as it turned back to face the mirror, dragging her towards it.
"Let me go!" She screamed. "Someone please help!"
But no one could hear her above the clamor of the thunderstorm outside. The innkeepers and Cato were still fast asleep in their beds, and they would wake up tomorrow to find her gone, and never know what happened to her here, with this…beast.
Her heart hammered in her chest as the creature waved a hand in front of the mirror, and the reflective surface shimmered and rippled for a moment, as though a stone had been tossed into a still pond. Alexandra continued to try to wrench her way out of the creature's grasp, but it held tightly onto her, refusing to allow her to leave.
"What are you doing?!" Alexandra gasped as she noticed the mirror had stopped swirling, and the creature took a step forward. "Let me go!"
But the creature didn't let her go. Instead, it took another step forward, casting a look over its shoulder at her, its red eyes suddenly very, very large.
And then, it lurched forward, plunging them both into the liquidized surface of the mirror, just as Alexandra opened her mouth to scream one last time.
The thunderstorm suddenly stopped.
-cue theme music!-
~Robin