A/N: This one is a little bit of an experiment for me. Annie is an original character meant to fill a (sort of) sidekick (or maybe "companion" would be more appropriate?) role in a series of original novels I'm working on. But, she decided that she wanted to have a little run with the Doctor first, and since that gives me the perfect opportunity to practice writing from her perspective and work out her history and back story, I decided to let her.
Because I'm sure some people got worried at the mere mention of an OC: There will be absolutely NO ROMANCE between the Doctor and Annie, and may God strike me down now if she turns into a Mary Sue.
This is mostly going to be a series of short ficlets (though the first one turned out much longer than expected). I'm open to ideas, and more than welcome requests.
This was originally going to be a Ninth Doctor fic, but Ten decided to jump in instead (and you are welcome to ignore any Ten-isms and imagine the Doctor of your choice, I won't be offended). I'm not really going to explicitly tie this in to any particular time in the series, so spoilers are unlikely, but I'll include spoiler warnings if they are needed.
Annie fought back tears as she ran, the gut-wrenching cries slowly dying behind her.
Now is not the time, she told herself, pushing down the emotion in favour of fear and adrenaline.
Running from that... thing... had gotten her completely lost and turned around. The stench of it was still in her nose, the sound in her ears. Legs burning, she slowed down. She found an alley and ducked into it, leaning against the rough brick and wheezing as she tried to catch her breath. She heard the sniffing and snarling, the lumbering shuffling footsteps, and took off, tripping over cracks and garbage. She didn't dare give herself away by calling for help, and could only hope that by some stroke of luck, there would be someone around, despite the late hour.
She was hit by something and knocked to the ground. She reached out tentatively. No, not hit by something, ran into something, a wall. She brushed her fingers along the surface, wondering what it could be.
Wood? She stood up, following the wall to a corner.
A wooden box? She followed the wall around another corner. There was a panel that opened, and she found an old telephone inside.
Oh, thank the lord. Work, please work, she frantically dialled for help, praying that the old phone was still connected.
"Please, please!"
But there was no dial tone, not even static. Frantically, she tried to find a door. Something finally gave way, and she ran inside, slamming it behind her. She waited a moment, catching her breath. Tears threatened to start falling again, but she wiped them away.
"Not now, not now," she hissed to herself. She opened the door a crack, and could immediately smell the rotten stink of the creature. She slammed it shut once again, praying that it would hold as the thing tried to claw its way inside.
The scratching finally stopped, and Annie waited for the creature's steps to fade away, leaning heavily against the door.
"No, you will not cry," she once again cajoled herself. She had to calm down, figure out where she was, and how to get home.
But something was wrong. The air didn't feel right for something as small as a phone box. And the smell, it wasn't of old wood, but something... something she couldn't quite place. Metal and electricity, but... alive, organic. She took a few careful steps forward, and stretched out her hands, quickly pulling them back when they met nothing but air on either side.
"Oh that's... that's not right. That can't be right," she shook her head.
Annie could feel a faint vibration, accompanied by heat, radiating from under the floor. The farther from the door she moved, the stronger it became. She tripped on a raised platform, hissing as scraped knees met metal grating.
"What is this?" she straightened herself up painfully, climbing onto the platform – wondering if it would be better to go back – and found what she could only guess was some kind of instrument panel.
A key scraped in a lock, and Annie jumped and spun around. Footsteps entered, then paused.
"What?" the door slowly creaked shut. "Who... wha... how did you get in here?"
"The door was open," she almost squeaked the words, feeling trapped against the panel behind her.
"Huh," the door rattled as the man checked it, muttering to himself. "Must not have closed it all the way."
Annie felt behind her, hoping there might be something, anything, to defend herself with, just in case.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the man shouted, pounding across the floor. "Don't touch that!" he pulled her away, and was silent for a moment, then took hold of her shoulders.
"Did you touch anything?"
His intensity scared her, and all she could manage was a shake of her head.
"Good," his grip loosened. "Now, what are you doing in here?"
She lowered her head, absentmindedly pulling a lock of hair over her face, "It's... I just... there was a... I got lost, I was just looking for a phone, or somebody who could get me a cab..."
"There was a..." he paused, seeming to be waiting for her to finish the sentence. "A what? What made you come in here? Why are you so scared?"
"Oh, it was nothing," she shook her head, shrugging away from his grip. "Just a dog or something."
"Hmmm," he sounded doubtful. "Alright. What's your name?"
"Annie. My name's Annie."
"Hello there Annie. I'm the Doctor. Now, what happened to you out there?"
"Nothing," she shook her head, quickly wiping at her eyes. "I told you, it was just a dog, chasing me."
"You don't sound very sure."
She turned her head away, curling a lock of hair through her fingers.
"What else could it have been?"
"You'd be surprised."
Something in his voice struck her. It belonged to a young man, but it sounded old, tired. The voice of someone who had seen far more than he wanted to.
"I don't know what it was. It came after me and... and... Charlie, he..." she gulped back a painful lump, taking a shuddering breath to keep herself composed. She would not cry in front of a complete stranger, absolutely not.
"What did it look like? Can you tell me that?"
She hesitated.
"No," she said, running the lock of hair frantically through her fingers.
"You didn't even catch a glimpse?"
She made a non-committal noise, still tugging at the lock of hair, anxiety twisting her insides into knots. Fingers lifted her chin, and she felt heat pass in front of her eyes.
"You're blind."
She could feel the pity, and pushed his hands away, taking a step back. He caught her wrist.
"Come over here and sit down."
Annie hesitated before reluctantly allowing herself to be led to a well-worn old chair.
"Now, can you tell me what happened? Anything you can remember, no matter how insane it might sound."
Annie tried to think of what to say, almost immediately returning to twiddling the lock of hair around her fingers.
"Charlie noticed it first. A long time before I did, actually, must've been three or four blocks.."
"Sorry," the Doctor interrupted. "Who's Charlie?"
Annie took a deep breath, afraid that her composure wouldn't last through this. "My dog. He's... he was my guide dog."
The hair pulling intensified, and the man took hold of her wrist again.
"You're going to pull all your hair out if you keep doing that," he let go. "Just tell me what you can about the creature, don't think about anything else."
Annie nodded, wiping away tears that threatened to fall, and returning her hands to a twisted knot in her lap, taking a few deep breaths.
"The smell, it was... I don't know, like something rotten, and... burning. The footsteps were heavy. Two legs and it kind of shuffled..." she stopped for a moment, and shook her head. "I don't know, oh this is ridiculous," she blinked back tears, twisting and re-twisting her hands, muttering to herself, "it was just a big dog, there aren't any monsters."
The man waited for a moment.
"I know it might be hard, but do you think you could retrace the route you took to get here?"
"I don't know, maybe."
"Good, come with me then," he grabbed her hand, pulling her from the chair and out the door.
The air outside was still damp and cool. She ran a finger over the face of her watch. It was only just after midnight, though it had felt like hours since she encountered the creature. A pit formed in her stomach. What if it was still around, just waiting for her to come out?
"It's still night," she tried to keep her voice from trembling. "Are you going to be able to see what you're looking for? Maybe we should wait."
"Ah, it's all part of the fun," he replied, far too happy for her liking.
"Yeah, sure, fun."
A hand landed on her shoulder again, squeezing gently, "Everything will be fine, trust me."
She shrugged away again.
Famous last words...
Annie reached out to find the door she had just come through.
"Is this attached to a building or something?" she found the corner, and continued down the next wall.
"Nope," the man replied. He didn't follow her.
After turning the second corner, where she assumed she must be out of his sight, she paused. She had no idea who this man was, what he really wanted from her, what he might do to a little blind girl alone in a back alley... she wanted to trust him, but every instinct she possessed told her to run.
And then what? Try to stumble her way back home from god only knew where, with no guide dog, no cane, and hope that the monster didn't return for her? The man hadn't tried to hurt her yet, though he'd had plenty of opportunity.
She was surprised to come to the third corner, and another perfectly perpendicular wall. She shook her head. The size of the building she had just come out of, it was impossible. She walked quickly to the fourth corner, and back to the door.
Fear welled up again as she pushed open the door and stepped inside, just to be sure. "It can't be, no, it's not right."
She stepped back out of the box, tripping over the lip in her haste, and was just barely caught before hitting the ground.
"Careful," the man hoisted her back up.
"It's bigger on the inside," she reached out again to touch the door. "That's... it's bigger on the inside. That's impossible."
"Not impossible," she could hear glee in his voice. "Just not very likely."
A/N: Critique welcome! Requests for future adventures also welcome! I have the entire first story written, and will post a new chapter every few days.