A/N: Disclaimer: I think the idea of me owning it is scary enough.
Isn't it weird how Doctor Who doesn't really do Hallowe'en? Granted, airs wrong time of the year, but come on :D
This is a super-long bumper jumbo extended oneshot. Enjoy your Hallowe'en night!
'Hello, Jackie.'
Those were the two words the Doctor had meant to say when Jackie had opened the flat door to him, but they died a painful death halfway up his throat when he met with the sight of her standing in the doorway, dressed in a sexually-provocative devil outfit complete with devil horns and a red leather tail. He ended up emitting a tiny, pathetic squeak, his eyebrows twisting and knotting together into the expression of a man who had no idea how to even begin to comprehend what he was seeing.
'Oh, you!' Jackie realised, looking a little disappointed. 'I thought you were Sharon.'
'... Who?'
'Never mind,' she dismissed, looking over his shoulder. 'Where's Rose?'
The Doctor desperately wanted to take his eyes off of her, but they were utterly transfixed, as though watching a car crash in slow-motion. 'Coming,' he managed to get out, just as the woman herself appeared right next to him, frowning at her mother.
'Mum, what the hell are you wearin'?' Rose asked.
Jackie sighed, hands on her red leather-clad hips. 'Doesn't muggins 'ere know what day he's brought you back?' she asked, nodding to the Doctor.
'Late October ...' the Doctor said, before the penny dropped. 'Oh. Hallowe'en.'
'Come on, get in, it's bloody freezin'. And you'd better get cossies if you're comin'. And I don't want no alien invasion stuff either!' Jackie said, disappearing into her room.
'Cossies?' the Doctor echoed questioningly at Rose as she closed the door behind them.
'Costumes,' Rose reiterated, grinning.
'For what?'
'Hallowe'en party,' Rose said. 'The Powell Estate has one every year. Everyone goes.'
'... Really?'
'Really!' Rose said, giggling at his expression.
'Oh,' he muttered, frowning.
'Is that weird?'
'I don't know. I don't land on a lot of Hallowe'ens.'
'What're you on about? Your life is one long Hallowe'en,' Rose pointed out. 'Right, let's get you a costume and we'll go to the party properly dressed up. What d'you wanna be? Werewolf, zombie, vampire, what?'
He raised an eyebrow. 'Are you kidding?'
'C'mon. We can't back out now.'
'I'll be in the Tardis,' he said, gesturing and making for the door. Rose quickly grabbed his arm.
'Oh, please,' she begged, trying to be quiet. 'If not, it'll just be me and Mum, and she'll pass out so quick you won't have had time to blink. Then we can go. Promise, yeah?'
There was a pause. She batted her eyelashes. He sighed.
'Fine,' he said.
She grinned. 'Right, now, werewolf, zombie, vampire, ghost, mummy, clown, wizard or demon?'
'You won't find anythin' at the shops, sweetheart,' Jackie said as she walked back in. 'It's five o'clock.'
'Oh no,' the Doctor said quickly, trying to look disappointed. 'Can't go. Shame.'
'Lemme look in my wardrobe,' Rose said, and disappeared into her room as Jackie left to the kitchen.
The Doctor sighed, leaning against the wall and desperately trying to think of a way he could get out of this. Absolutely nothing came to mind, short of faking a hearts attack. Although right now, that did seem like a fairly valid option.
The doorbell suddenly rang.
After a couple of seconds, it was clear neither Rose nor Jackie were going to bother answering it. The Doctor sighed again and pulled open the door, revealing a little blonde girl standing there in a witch's costume, holding a basket and a broomstick.
'Trick or treat!' the little girl said.
The Doctor looked at her. 'That's an amazing witch's costume,' he enthused, dropping to her height.
'Thank you,' the girl responded politely, holding up her basket in indication. 'Trick or treat!' she tried again.
'Oh,' the Doctor realised, frowning. He turned back to shout inside the flat to Jackie. 'Jackie, d'you have any, um, treats?'
'Nah!' Jackie called back. 'Goin' out, aren't we? I never get 'em!'
The Doctor turned back to the girl, smiling apologetically. 'Sorry,' he said. 'No treats here.'
'But I want a treat,' the little girl insisted.
'Tell you what,' the Doctor said, reaching into his pockets and scrambling around for a moment before pulling out a handful of objects. An elastic band, a plastic bag, a pen, a ball of string, his yo-yo and a small paper bag full of jelly babies. 'Have one of these. Pick one, go on.'
The girl pointed to the paper bag. The Doctor was about to hand it over, when he seriously wondered just how long they'd been in his pocket. He checked them. He couldn't see anything wrong, but better safe than sorry.
'Ah, well, no,' the Doctor said, and stuffed them back into his pocket. 'They might be a bit out of date …' … By about 450 years, the Doctor mentally added. He tried to force the yo-yo on her instead. 'Look, these are great. Better than computer games any day. Good old yo-yo. Have it, it's yours!'
The little girl's eyes were welling up. 'I don't want a stupid yo-yo.'
'But they're great!' the Doctor insisted, giving a quick demo. 'How fun is that? Look …' He quickly did a few tricks. 'See, look. Around the World. Sleeper. Walk the Dog. Time Warp,' he named as he demonstrated each one.
The little girl giggled.
'Oh, so you like it now,' the Doctor said, winding up the yo-yo and handing it to her. 'There you go.'
'Thank you,' the little girl said.
'You're very welcome. What's your name?'
'Evara,' the little girl replied.
'Evara? That's a lovely name,' he commented. 'Have fun, Evara.'
She left, and he closed the door just before Rose emerged, shrugging a little.
'Can't find anythin',' she said as Jackie came back out.
'Not even a cape? What about that stuff Mickey wore?' Jackie asked.
'Nah, we had to give that back to the shop, it was a rental,' Rose replied.
'Oh no,' the Doctor interjected insincerely.
Rose ignored him. 'It's okay, the Doctor's got a massive wardrobe full of stuff. Haven't ya?'
The Doctor quickly realised he wasn't going to escape this particular domestic. '... Yes,' he muttered reluctantly.
'He's got a wardrobe?' Jackie echoed, confused.
'Yeah, it's huge. It'll have some stuff in it, right Doctor?'
'... Yes.'
'C'mon.'
'You've got tonnes of stuff!' Rose realised as she inevitably found the "costume" section of the TARDIS wardrobe. There were capes, ripped dresses, animal outfits and all-manner of weird things that stretched for at least a couple of floors. She immediately began to root through. After a while she realised the Doctor was just standing there, so she turned to him, annoyed.
'C'mon, you're involved, now,' she pointed out. 'Gotta do it.'
He sighed. She was probably right. He joined her, searching through the racks for something he might want to wear.
After ten minutes of searching, Rose suddenly called him from across the room. He went over to find her staring at the Lord President of Gallifrey's outfit – an extravagant long red robe with gold trim, body armour with the seal of Rassilon and the standard massive gold collar with skullcap.
'Whoa, that looks great, what is that?' she asked.
'Um, the outfit of the Lord President of Gallifrey,' the Doctor replied.
'You've so gotta wear that,' Rose said.
'It's not exactly Hallowe'en-y is it?' he pointed out.
'Oh. Um, you can say you're a wizard. Or like a warlock or somethin', actually.'
'A warlock?'
'Yeah,' Rose replied. 'It looks kind warlock-y.'
'Does it?' he asked, bewildered.
'Yeah,' she insisted. 'A sunburst warlock.'
'A sunburst warlock?' he repeated, laughing.
'Yeah. Just don't wear that weird collar thing. Or the hat. Too much like a peacock.'
'And that would make me a sunburst warlock peacock.'
Rose laughed. 'Yeah. And that's just stupid.'
'All right,' he conceded, taking the outfit. 'Sunburst warlock it is. Have you got yours?'
She nodded.
An hour later, they returned to the flat in full costume. Rose was a very good ghost, wearing a ripped-up white wedding dress that looked old and dusty. She'd paled up her face and messed up her hair. She'd also done some quite realistic make-up of a slit throat. Meanwhile, the Doctor had just put on the Lord President's outfit. It was slightly jarring to his upbringing to reduce the Lord President's regalia to a fancy dress costume, but it wasn't like there were any gallifreyans around to be offended.
'Rose, sweetheart, you look amazin'!' Jackie enthused as Rose showed her outfit off.
'Not bad, huh?' Rose said, grinning before Jackie looked at the Doctor.
'What are you s'posed to be?' she asked.
'That's the outfit of the Lord President of Gallifrey,' Rose told her.
'Of what?' Jackie asked.
'His home planet,' Rose clarified. 'The Lord President.' She looked at the Doctor. 'Is that more like a monarch or the Prime Minister?'
'Somewhere in the middle,' the Doctor replied. 'I don't know, I didn't pay much attention. I didn't stay long enough in the job.'
Rose's eyes widened. 'You were what?'
'That's so cheap!' Jackie suddenly said, interrupting.
'What?' the Doctor asked.
'You're goin' as yourself!'
'Well, sort of,' the Doctor conceded.
'Doesn't look like an alien, though,' Jackie pointed out. 'Are you gonna say you're a … um … wizard?'
'Warlock,' Rose amended.
'A sunburst warlock,' the Doctor added.
'You what?' Jackie asked.
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look, smirking.
They arrived at the party together at the community centre bang on 8pm, where the Full Moon was already lighting up the sky, though obscured by cloud.
'Appropriate,' Rose noted, nudging the Doctor and pointing up at the Moon. Outside the community centre were some teenage boys all dressed as werewolves, pretending to howl at the moon together and laughing about it. Above the door hung the banner, THE MONSTER'S BALL, and inside was a hive of activity with multi-coloured lights and a strong bassline pumping out.
As they entered the Doctor took in the bizarre human scene. All around him were so many costumes, a group of children dressed up as various animals; a few drunk women who were all vampires; the DJ was the Bogeyman; a few comic characters; Ghostbusters; and a group of middle-aged women were all dressed as devils.
'Jackie!' the devils cried in a unified high-pitched shriek, tottering towards him, Rose and Jackie in their heels.
'Rose, darlin'!' one of the devils said to the young woman. 'I ain't seen you for ages!'
Rose smiled. 'Been travellin',' she answered, looking at the Doctor. Unfortunately the group of women all took that as a cue to lavish attention onto him.
'Aww, I love your outfit!' a second devil said.
'What are you?' a third devil asked. 'Some kinda wizard?'
'Warlock,' the Doctor replied, glancing at Rose, hoping he was conveying a you've-put-all-the-attention-on-me-so-you'd-better-sort-this-out look.
'What's your name, love?' a fourth devil asked.
'What's your number!?' the second devil asked, laughing.
'Hey, I saw 'im first!' the first devil insisted.
The Doctor was now being metaphorically dragged kicking-and-screaming way out of his comfort zone. He could see Rose giggling at his expense in his peripheral vision. 'Um, actually I'm not ...'
'Aww no, don't say you're gay!' the fourth devil complained.
'I didn't …' he struggled to find any words to say, feeling slightly like he was drowning.
'Anyway, ain't it blonds that turn ya on?' the second devil asked the first devil. 'He ain't blonde!'
'We'll dye it!' the first devil said, laughing.
'Oh my god, that's look amazin'!' the third devil enthused.
The Doctor truly had no idea what to say.
'He's mine,' Rose finally interrupted with a grin, taking his arm. 'So no cougarin', all right?'
'Aww, no, what about Mickey?' the first devil asked.
'You get through 'em, don't ya, love?' the fourth devil joked.
'Is he good?' the third devil wanted to know.
'How big is he!?' the second devil asked, giggling insanely.
'He's got big feet!' the fourth devil pointed out. 'Y'know what that means!'
'Oi, let's get a drink and dance!' Jackie interrupted. The Doctor never thought he'd feel so relieved to hear Jackie's voice as she cut through the devils and headed towards the drinks table, which had a metric ton of lager bottles and a bowl of punch labelled "magic potion". The devils followed, but not before they'd all blown him a kiss.
Rose let go of his arm. 'Um, sorry,' she said, laughing again.
'Can we go home, now?' the Doctor asked seriously.
'Don't worry, they'll get too drunk to remember ya,' Rose told him. 'I'm hungry. Let's see what they've got at the buffet.'
'Must we?' the Doctor moaned, but she was already heading off. He caught her up at the buffet table, where of course, the food was entirely hallowe'en-themed. There was a myriad of strange but really rather ingenious human creations – skull-shaped biscuits, snot-coloured jelly with lychee eyeballs, Frankenstein's monster cupcakes, chocolate spiders, and rice on apples to make it look like maggots were just a few of the snacks available. Despite not really wanting to be in this situation at all, the Doctor always had time to admire the creativity of the human race. He picked up a Frankenstein's monster cupcake. It stared right back at him, with ball bearings representing the bolts in his neck. Genius.
As Rose dived into the buffet, the Doctor stepped back and munched on his cupcake, waiting for her.
'Dragged here too, huh?' a voice said, and the Doctor looked up to see a clown by the mummy sausages, looking quite jaded. 'I only came cos of the wife,' he said, pointing at one of the devils.
The Doctor decided not to tell him that his wife had just openly flirted with him. 'Yeah, something like that,' he agreed.
'Bloody women, eh?' the clown joked, but the Doctor had stopped paying attention to him. In the corner behind the clown was the little girl who'd trick or treated earlier, still in her witch's outfit, stood alone playing with his yo-yo. She looked a bit upset.
'Excuse me,' the Doctor said to the clown, and moved to the girl. 'Hello, Evara, wasn't it?'
She nodded.
'Why aren't you playing with the other children?' he asked.
Her eyes welled up. 'They don't like me,' she sobbed.
'I'm sure that's not true,' the Doctor said, trying to comfort her.
'They all p-pretend like … like I d-don't exist,' she explained, crying. 'They won't l-let me play with 'em. They all dr-dressed like animals and … and they d-didn't tell me s-so now I'm a stupid witch and, and they're all animals.'
'Hey, I think your witch outfit is pretty good,' the Doctor told her. 'Much better than their animals. I mean, look at that one,' – he pointed at a half-baked attempt to dress up as a tiger; a boy with a terrible home-made face mask – '... rubbish.'
The girl giggled.
The Doctor looked up, and realised he was about lose Rose as she was wandering away from the buffet. 'So go over there and act like you own the place, that's how I do it,' the Doctor told her. 'You'd be surprised how fast everyone listens to you.'
'Okay!' the little girl said, and ran off to the crowd of children.
Mission accomplished, the Doctor finished his cupcake and eventually found Rose. She was sat in a chair munching her way through a paper plate full of food.
'Not eatin'? This stuff's good,' Rose said.
He smiled gently. 'Nah,' he said. 'Can we go yet?'
'We've only just got here,' Rose pointed out.
'Really? Feels like forever,' the Doctor mused, staring at her plate. 'What point are we waiting for?'
'When mum's too drunk to notice we're draggin' her home,' Rose replied. 'Come on, loosen up a bit. Have a dance and stuff. You've done parties - didn't you have one in France with Madame de Pompadour? Call it exploration of a new and fascinatin' culture.'
The Doctor smiled at that. 'Well, when you put it like that ... You know what? I think I will get some food.'
Rose grinned. 'That's it, be brave!' she mocked as he returned to the buffet table.
Four hours later, and they still hadn't left, but the Doctor was far too busy to notice. After everyone had become a little bit tipsy and joined the dance floor, had been quite hard not to get caught up in the party spirit.
As the clock neared midnight, the Doctor found himself now entirely au fait with the dance routines of the Macarena and the Cha-Cha Slide, and had on several occasions began a conga line, which had rapidly become a game of Snake as they ended up crashing into the tail on several occasions.
Rose suddenly appeared and pulled him aside. He hasn't seen her since "Oops Upside Your Head".
'Hey!' he said happily.
She beamed. 'How's the new culture discovery comin'?'
'Peachy, thank you!' the Doctor called over the music. 'We should do this more often!'
Rose giggled. 'D'you wanna go or stay a bit longer?'
'Let's go at midnight! I reckon I can get another conga line within ten minutes!'
'Okay!'
'Where's your mum?'
'No idea! Oh, they're runnin' out of those mozzarella eyeballs you like!'
'Okay!' He let her take his hand and pull him back to the buffet table through a cluster of vampires, where someone was hovering near the eyeball bowl. The person turned as they approached, to reveal a full alien outfit with the green mask and long purple robe.
'Oh, hello again, Rose!' a woman's voice said from behind the mask.
'Oh, Doctor, this is Carol, she's new to the estate,' Rose told him, clearly urging him to play along as a resident. 'Carol, this is the Doctor.'
The Doctor politely shook hands with the alien. 'Nice to meet you,' he said.
'Nice to meet you!' Carol replied, smiling. 'I do love your outfit! What a great warlock!'
The Doctor grinned. 'Thanks,' he said.
'How long have you been on the estate?' she asked.
'I've been here all my life,' Rose said. 'And the Doctor moved in …' she trailed off, at a loss for what to say.
'About a year ago,' the Doctor completed, smiling.
'Oh, how are you liking it?'
'Oh, great,' the Doctor said. 'Well, great as estates go. Pretty nice.'
'You don't think there's a social problem?'
'A what?'
'Well, the drugs, the anti-social behaviour …?'
She'd lost him. He looked at Rose for help.
'Well, every council estate's got its problems, yeah?' Rose said.
'I suppose,' Carol replied. 'We must have dinner sometime. Where are you? I'm in number forty-five.'
'We're in forty-eight,' Rose replied.
'Oh, not so far away!' Carol said. 'If you see me around the estate just … oh, silly me, you have no idea what I look like, do you?'
She pulled off her mask, looked at the Doctor, and froze.
'Y-you're …' she stammered, horrified and wide-eyed. Then she turned, and ran.
'No, I'm not … Carol!' the Doctor called after her, but she was already gone. He looked at Rose. 'Find her.'
'What is it?'
'She's wearing a shimmer.'
'A what?'
'Alien in disguise,' he clarified. He and Rose immediately pursued her before they were stopped by Jackie. She was very drunk.
'Sweetheart, you havin' a good time?' she asked her daughter drunkenly, holding onto the Doctor for support.
'Yeah, fine … Mum, have you seen an alien run past here?'
Jackie looked at the Doctor. 'What kinda alien?'
'A green one,' he told her.
'Carol?'
'Yeah.'
'Why'd you want Carol?'
'She's an alien, Mum,' Rose said quickly.
Jackie snorted with laughter, struggling to form words. 'Well duh, that's 'er outfit!'
'No, I mean she's an actual alien in disguise.'
'You're sayin' there's an alien dressed as an alien? Stupidest disguise I ever 'eard.'
'Have you seen her or not?' Rose persisted.
'That way,' Jackie replied, vaguely pointing off to her right. The Doctor immediately dashed off, Rose in pursuit. They split up and scoured the whole dancefloor.
After a few minutes, the Doctor returned to the buffet table, at a loss.
'This one's a request!' the DJ announced on the microphone, clearly having some trouble managing to do his job with his elaborate Bogeyman outfit, but eventually he managed to get the track playing. 'It's midnight!'
The entire drunk crowd cheered, their plastic cups filled with the punch in the air.
'The freaks are out, right around the stroke of midnight,' the music system sang. 'It's a Full Moon now; we're gettin' ready for a big fright …'
'I can't find her,' Rose said, coming back to the Doctor. 'You think she's dodgy?'
'The creeps are crawlin', the Bogeyman's ballin', following the sounds of the werewolf's callin' …'
'Not dodgy, but now she's sensed me, she's going to think her disguise has failed and she's exposed. I need to tell her it's okay.'
'Bring your own blood, cos we'll be gettin' torn up tonight …'
'But what's she doin' here?' Rose asked.
'The Monster's Ball is the place to be, clackin' bones with the RIPs …'
'Don't know,' the Doctor confessed. 'We need to find her and see what she's doing.'
'Yeah, we …' she suddenly trailed off, her eyes drifting.
'There'll be dancin', groovin', howlin' at the moon, this beat will rattle your bones …'
The Doctor looked at her. 'Rose?'
'There'll be rollin', rockin', get up out your coffin,' the sound system continued. 'Ain't nobody goin' home.'
'Sorry?' Rose said, snapping to attention.
'You okay?'
'DJ Bogeyman spins a spooky jam, then we lose our heads …'
'Fine,' she said, and stopped paying attention to him again as she looked over to the sound desk.
'No one parties like the livin' dead!'
'Rose,' he prompted.
'Yeah,' she muttered absently, still staring at the sound desk.
'La la la la la la la la la, skeletons rattlin', mummys unravelin', la la la la la la la la la, zombies shufflin', vampires glamourin' …'
He urgently waved a hand in front of her face, but she was almost completely zoned out. He looked around instinctively, and abruptly realised that almost the entirety of the hall had stop dancing and drinking, and were staring at the sound desk as the music continued, but he was barely listening to that.
'The crypt is hot, selector's causin' a commotion …'
Some form of hypnosis? Why wasn't it affecting him? He took Rose's shoulders and shook her. She seemed totally unaffected by his touch.
'Don't ask what ... they're puttin' in the magic potion ... the Monster's Ball is the place to be, clackin' bones with the RIPs …'
'Rose,' he tried again, putting his fingers to her temple. But before he could access her brain, Rose and the rest of the attendees suddenly moved. He backed off, worried, before he realised ...
They were dancing.
'There'll be dancin', groovin', howlin' at the moon! This beat will rattle your bones!'
'Rose!' the Doctor demanded, trying to pull her back.
'There'll be rollin', rockin', get up out your coffin, ain't nobody goin' home!'
Everyone continued to dance silently to the song in some form of group hypnosis. But why wasn't he affected? Did it only target humans?
'DJ Bogeyman spins a spooky jam, then we lose our heads … No one parties like the living dead! La la la la la la la la la …'
Was it the song? The Doctor ran to the sound desk, slipping past the hypnotised Bogeyman DJ. He tried to stop the music, but the electronics of the desk didn't seem to be working at all. He pulled out his sonic and ran it over the desk, to no avail.
'La la la la la la la la la!' the sound system emitted as he dived for the wires. He grabbed one to pull it out to stop the sound. There was a huge flash of light, the entire room shook wildly, then, silence.
The Doctor looked up over the sound desk to the people on the dancefloor. They'd stopped dancing, but by his well-trained Doctor's instinct, he knew something was very, very wrong.
'Doctor …' a voice rattled behind him, threatening and ominous. He turned slowly, and met with the DJ.
The DJ raised his hand to the Doctor. But it wasn't a human hand. The hand was grey, with long, spindly fingers, and bones protruding out of the skin. The DJ's extensive Bogeyman costume was suddenly a whole lot more genuine. The Doctor couldn't even see the join of the mask on his face.
'Um, hello,' the Doctor said, bewildered.
'Didn't your mummy tell you not to stay up past midnight?' the DJ said, his head slowly twisting as he spoke. His tongue was jet black.
It was no longer the DJ, the Doctor realised. It was the Bogeyman.
'Won't happen again!' the Doctor chimed, and darted out from behind the desk, nearly running into one of the teens dressed as a werewolf. Though, as he stumbled to avoid the teenager, he realised that as with the DJ, he was no longer human. He was an actual werewolf – his fur now part of him, his teeth lengthened and sharp, his nose pointed out into a snout. The group of women dressed as vampires were now vampires, with sharp, blood-covered fangs and deathly pale skin. The husband by the buffet dressed as a clown was now a clown, staring at the the Doctor with soulless eyes. The children dressed as various animals had now become the animals – lions, tigers and bears …
'Oh my,' the Doctor muttered, as with a sinking feeling, he realised that every human in the room had become their costumes.
One of the werewolf teenagers snarled, and pounced.
He ducked and dived, his giant Lord President boots squeaking loudly on the polished wooden floor as he very nearly fell over. He started to run towards the exit, searching desperately for Rose, but he'd lost her. He quickly realised as he ran that Rose had probably become her costume too, which was a ghost ...
He rounded a corner into the cloakroom, where Jackie's cohort of devils were lingering. Their horns had sharpened and their eyes had turned black, with their tails now part of them, with the ends on fire. Jackie wasn't among them, and the Doctor couldn't quite work out whether he was worried about that. On the one hand, he had to check that she was safe, but on the other … Jackie in devil form?
'Oh, it'ssss the Doctor …' one of them hissed.
'Wanna do ssssssomething bad?' another one hissed, her forked tongue spilling out from between her lips like a serpent.
'Yeah, um, no,' the Doctor said, and barged through them into a waiting area. He had to get out of the building and assess the situation, but as he turned to the entrance he met an undead Raggedy Ann, gazing at him sadly.
'I've got a pain in my sawdust, that's what's the matter with me,' the undead Raggedy Ann breathed in a high-pitched, quivering voice, holding up her own intestinal tract, her hands smeared in blood. 'Something is wrong with my little insides … I'm just as sick as can be.'
The Doctor sincerely hoped the intestinal tract was make-up. He turned and tried another way out, rounding the corner into another corridor that led outside, but he stopped dead at the sight of two young girls in matching blue dresses standing by the end door, holding hands.
'Hello, Doctor,' they said together in strange, ethereal voices. 'Come and play with us. Forever, and ever, and ever.'
'Yeah, not right now!' the Doctor cried, and turned the other way to see if there any other way of getting out. The door he'd come through with filling up with horror characters, led by the undead Raggedy Ann. To his right it seemed clear. He began to run, at least until he heard a strange squeaking sound coming at him from the other end. He slowed, cautious, as towards him came a tricycle, an oversized white-faced puppet with red swirls on his cheeks pedalling towards him, slowly and calmly.
The puppet stopped a metre away. It turned its head, and looked straight at him.
'Do you want to play a game?' the puppet grated.
He had to get out of here.
The route he'd come up was now dominated, so he took his chances and immediately darted forward, dearly wishing he had his converse on as he ran past the puppet. But the puppet grabbed his leg and he immediately went hurtling to the ground with a yelp. No sooner had he scrambled to his feet, before he realised that in front of him was now one of the female vampires, her eyes as black as night ...
He barely had time to take a step before she spread her cape and dived onto the Time Lord, her fangs plunging straight into his neck.
The Doctor yelped in alarm, trying desperately to throw her off of him, but with some kind of superhuman strength the vampire pushed him against the wall, absolutely cemented to his neck. He was utterly helpless to her as she began to draw his blood, horrible slurping sounds ensuing as she roughly feasted on him …
Suddenly she stopped and pulled back, looking absolutely disgusted.
'Alien!' she rasped, spitting out his blood before backing away, twisting in a whirl and transforming into a bat and flying off.
The Doctor clasped the side of his neck, panting. She had gone for the jugular, but his neck was structured differently to a human so she'd just missed his major artery, but he was still bleeding.
'Where'd she go?' a woman asked. He looked up, and saw Buffy the Vampire Slayer standing in the corridor, holding a stake and hammer.
'Don't know,' he gasped. Buffy promptly ran off to find the vampire. The Doctor instinctively began to run again as the undead Raggedy Ann and her motley crew closed in, still holding his neck as his brain flooded with a million thoughts. He realised, with a shudder, that the transformed humans were attacking each other. He had no idea whether it would be permanent damage to the original humans, but he had to assume so. He had to find the source of this and put a stop to it as fast as he possibly could.
And what about Rose? If Rose was a ghost, nothing could harm her, right?
He couldn't get out of the building anymore, but he still needed a safe spot to try and figure out what was going on. He finally found a staff only office and sonicked open the lock, diving inside and locking it behind him, making the howls and cries of the transformed humans muted by the wood.
It was dark, besides the Moon casting an illuminating beam through the window, but he wasn't going to draw attention to himself by putting on the light. He went straight for a nearby First Aid box, and attempted to stop the bleeding on his neck. The quicker he was repaired, the quicker he could stop this.
He had to ascertain the facts. Everything had been perfectly fine until midnight, when he'd met an alien wearing a shimmer, who had realised what he was, panicked, and ran off. Then the music had started, a "request", which had appeared to hypnotise absolutely everyone but him. The humans had then transformed them into their costumes, except for him.
As he kept pressure on his neck, he thought about that. He'd come as a Time Lord – specifically, the Lord President. He'd briefly been the Lord President. Therefore, he'd come as himself. If he had transformed like the humans, then he had only transformed into himself, which was probably why he still had his head. He most likely hadn't been hypnotised because his brain waves were on a different level to humans. So therefore, the humans had been specifically targeted, or due to his advanced alien genetic makeup it just wasn't affecting him.
But what was doing it? Was it the alien, Carol? He wasn't sure about that. She was a zerogan, and they weren't known for their capabilities of mass hypnosis and forced transformation. They were a peaceful race, far more renowned for their skill in cooking falafel and knitting bobble hats.
He needed to find Carol, he realised. If it was her instigating it, he could stop it that way. If it wasn't her, then there was a chance that she hadn't been affected either. That would confirm a theory, as well as making her safe as she was probably in severe danger.
Once he'd patched himself up, he drew out the sonic again and quickly scanned the area for any alien readings, but due to the amount of anomalous lifeforms registering at the moment, he had a lot of trouble picking her out. Finally he got a specific zerogan reading on the floor above. She was moving quickly. Running for her life?
He moved to the door, took a deep breath, pushed the handle, and began to run. Seconds later, out stepped Darth Vader right in front of him and the Doctor skidded to a halt. Darth Vader wasted no time in raising a single hand, straight at him …
The Doctor turned, trying desperately to get out of the way, but half a second later something smacked into his back, feeling nothing short of being hit by a bullet train. The Force, he dully realised as he went spiralling up in the air, inadvertently doing a front flip and eventually slamming into the far wall with such an impact that he left a Doctor-shaped dent before he slid to the floor head first, and promptly passed out.
The Doctor snapped awake, feeling as though he'd been force-fed through every machine on a building site. He groaned, opening his eyes to find himself in a room unknown to him, hanging upside down with his hands chained together, his Time Lord robes in a puddle on the floor below his head. But that wasn't the thing he was concentrating on. Because right in front of him, he could see a half-transparent Rose, shrouded in a strange, ethereal, ghostly light, hovering. Her skin was whiter than snow, her hair blowing in some wind he couldn't feel. The cut across her neck she'd done in make-up was horribly real, and somewhat disturbing. She looked terrifying.
He tried to speak, but he was gagged, only really able to get out a strangled yelp.
She didn't say a word, just hovering over him. He wasn't sure if it was his mind playing tricks, but he swore he could see the blood dripping from the wound in her neck.
For a moment they just stared at each other. Then, she faded away.
Trying not to worry about her, he finally paid attention to where he'd ended up. He was chained, and hanging upside-down in the middle of a pentagram surrounded by what appeared to be a group of exceptionally evil druids, chanting in sync ...
'Alla Xul! Uggae! Elu! Eli Baltuti Ima''Idu Mituti! Alla Xul! Uggae! Usella Mituti Ikkalu Baltuti!'
The Doctor's sumerian was somewhat rusty, but it was enough.
Evil God! God of Death! Raise Up! Dead Will Be More Numerous Than The Living! Evil God! God of Death! Raise Up The Dead Here Consuming The Living!
The Doctor, not for the first time in his life, found himself seriously considering his life choices. How exactly had his day gone from eating two servings of a delicious Full English Breakfast at the world famous Breakfast Club with Rose, to him being sacrificed to summon a God of Death?
He struggled, trying to get his gag off. After thirty seconds of squirming with chanting in his ears, he managed to dislodge it slightly.
'Hey!' he cried to the evil druids. 'I'm beginning to get really annoyed!'
The evil druids ignored him, continuing their chant. 'Alla Xul! Uggae! Elu!'
The Doctor only had one plan. 'Didilio! Jupou! Sima-hour'suskraho! Wilorumo! Priacha bula ei'kloo!' he yelled.
The evil druids stopped. 'A counter-chant!' one cried, alarmed.
'Jupou! Jupou! Jupou!' he screamed with full voice box potential, just before door exploded inwards and in came Batman and Bane in an intense fist fight.
It was enough of a distraction. The Doctor, with more pains than he cared to count, struggled ferociously in his bonds until finally his feet were freed and he dropped to the floor head first. His brain throbbing, he rolled out of the pentagram into the dark borders beyond, but someone met him in the shadows. He looked up. It was Evara; the little girl dressed as a witch.
'Run!' he yelled at the girl, but she didn't. The druids – recovered from their shock and avoiding Batman and Bane rolling around on the floor – had started closing in to reclaim their sacrifice. Evara held onto him and yelled Old English, 'bedyrne ús! Astýre ús þanonweard!'
Conceal us! Guide us away from here!
The Doctor suddenly felt something akin to being teleported. He snapped his eyes closed, and when he opened them he found himself in a completely different room. She'd actually transported them using a spell.
She held out her hand over him again. 'Min strengest miht hate þe tospringan!'
Make my fierce power strong to open you!
The chains fell away.
He blinked, startled as he attempted to sit up, but stopped with the pain in his back. 'Evara?' he asked, confused. 'How did you … oh, you're a witch. Spells,' he realised.
'What's happening?' she asked, scared.
'I have absolutely no idea,' he confessed, struggling to get up, but the pain in his back designated he'd done something quite, quite bad and he cried out, freezing into position for fear of moving it and hurting himself even more.
'Stay still,' the little girl said, and hovered her hands over him again. 'Ic þe þurhhæle þin licsare,' she said. I heal you thoroughly from your mortal wound, he translated in his head. Something like stars briefly exploded in front of his eyes, before his pain dulled away to nothing.
He frowned, sitting up and testing his back, then checking his neck. It was all healed. 'Real magic,' he realised, but he couldn't quite believe it. 'This is real magic.'
'Huh?' the little girl said.
'Magic doesn't exist, but this is actual magic. Whatever's happened here is an astonishing force, that can create new lifeforms and actually make magic real. I've never, ever seen anything so powerful. But why haven't you lost your mind like everyone else?'
He pulled out his sonic and ran it over her. She looked little a bit nervous at that. Right now she was registering as an anomalous lifeform, but the basic components of a human were all there.
'It's not your age, else the other kids would be the same too,' he reasoned out loud, putting his sonic away. 'And it's not because you're a witch, because there other witches too. So why?'
'What's happening?' she suddenly asked, sounding scared.
The Doctor stopped thinking of a million mad reasons, and pulled her into a hug. 'Stick with me,' he said. 'I'm going to put a stop to this. Nothing is going to hurt you. You hear me?'
The little girl nodded.
'Right, we need to get to Carol,' he said, fishing out his sonic again. 'She might be able to explain what's going on. Don't suppose you can do your teleporting thing again? That worked a treat, last time.'
Evara shook her head. 'Too weak.'
'Used up for now? Okay …'
He scanned for Carol for the second time. She was on the same floor as them, still moving fast.
'Allons-y,' he said, pocketing the sonic and taking Evara's hand, leading her out of the door.
They were in some sort of communal library – not too large, but with a fair few stacked shelves. They were in the children's section, full of large, thick picture books with cartoon animals staring at them from all angles
It was quiet. Too quiet.
Cautiously, the Doctor led Evara by the hand through the section; avoiding colourful beanbags and tables full of scattered children's pictures of pumpkins, ghosts and vampires. Somewhere a clock was ticking, loud and reverberating. Constantly checking the area, the Doctor had never been more alert. So much so, that when his keen Time Lord hearing picked up the slight rustle of paper, he stopped dead with his leg in mid-air, tightening his grip on Evara's hand.
Nothing happened.
He peeked around the corner. There was a window slightly ajar, and a newspaper on a desk below it. As he watched, the newspaper rustled again. Just the wind. He was getting jumpy.
Gesturing for Evara to stay put, he moved forward to close the window. It was distracting him too much.
Suddenly a clawed, furry hand burst through the gap in the window, scrabbling around. He inadvertently yelped and quickly pulled the window closed, for a brief second trapping the horrible hairy fingers inside before they whipped away and he sealed it.
A werewolf? Something else? He quickly checked his hands to see if he'd been scratched, but he was fine. He wasn't quite sure how it would work, but he didn't particularly want to find out what might happen to him if he was scratched by a werewolf.
'Doctor?' Evara whispered.
He turned to her, offering a reassuring smile as he retook her hand. 'Nothing to worry about. Come on.'
He began to walk again towards the door. Suddenly from the shadow of one of the shelves Raggedy Ann's face loomed out, blood pouring from around her mouth. The Doctor nearly cried out in shock, but managed to retain his bravado as he held firmly onto Evara's hand, trying desperately not to let the girl witness the terrifying sight. 'Give it up, Raggedy Ann!' he demanded.
Raggedy Ann looked so sad as she walked towards them, forcing them to back into another set of shelves. 'I was just so hungry, but he wasn't dead, as I cut out his heart and ate as he bled.'
The Doctor checked for any escape route, but she was backing them into a dead end … 'Listen to me, I'm appealing to the human side of you, whatever's left in there …'
Raggedy Ann didn't hesitate, drawing out a bloody knife from beneath her petticoat as she continued her advance, speaking in that innocent, child's voice those horrific words … 'The liver was bitter; my poor little tongue. It will be better when I try a lung.'
They were nearly at the end of the aisle. The Doctor put his weight against one of the shelves, trying to push it over, but it was nailed to the floor. He reached for his sonic, but abruptly realised that he wasn't going to have any time to do anything as Raggedy Ann's speed increased. Instead, he began to hurl out the books to create a big enough space for Evara to get through. He al-but pushed the girl to safety, before turning back to Raggedy Ann, only to find a knife inches from his stomach.
'Why do you run, oh, Medicine Man? Don't you have some meat for hungry Raggedy Ann?'
'Listen to me!' the Doctor said, pleading. 'You don't have to do this, you're under some sort of hypnotic metamorphosis …'
She pulled back her arm, ready to cut his insides out. There was nowhere left to run …
Suddenly something launched out of the shadows and directly onto Raggedy Ann. She screamed as a fresh foundation of blood sprayed out of her and narrowly avoided coating the Doctor. He rapidly decided that he could do nothing for her, and without even a look at the creature he scrambled up the shelves and over to the top, looking down into the next aisle where Evara was waiting anxiously.
'Run!' he hissed at the little girl, who turned tail and ran. He jumped down behind her, the sound of a body being torn apart ringing his ears as he bolted for the door after Evara.
They emerged out into a corridor, which had a few corpses scattered around. The Doctor told Evara to close her eyes, though she'd probably already seen more than enough.
He checked Carol's location again. The sonic picked her up from the floor above - or rather, the roof.
He led Evara through the scattered limbs, feeling sick. These people had been humans at one point. And now they were dead. If he takes down the origin of this and reversed the process, would they stay dead?
Jackie was probably with her cohort of devils, and therefore part of a group and safe. But Rose was on her own. Albeit, she was a ghost, so that meant nothing could hurt her, right?
He suddenly felt a bit sick as he recalled seeing the group of Ghostbusters earlier that evening.
He quickened his pace.
The Doctor and Evara reached the roof. They deftly avoided some animal children and the Doctor buzzed open the access door, slamming it shut behind him as he and Evara emerged onto the rooftop.
There was Carol, looking petrified. 'Stay away from me!' Carol demanded.
'No, I'm not here to hurt you,' the Doctor said quickly.
'I know what you are, Time Lord!' she yelled. 'You murderer!'
'I'm not …'
'You and your horrible Time War!' she shouted. 'You killed so many of my people!'
'I had nothing to do with the purge on Zero,' he said calmly. 'That was a completely different squadron. They had absolutely no orders to do that. I was on the other side of the universe.'
'But …'
'I'm not interested in history,' he said swiftly. 'I'm interested in now. Because right here, right now, one of the most powerful forces I've ever seen has somehow almost completely taken over the human race. I don't know why, how, or what, but what I do know is that we are all in danger, my friends are in danger, and my only concern is trying to keep as many people as I can alive, including you. But I can't help you if you don't let me.'
Carol looked nervous. 'Okay, I'm sorry.'
'Do you have any idea what's going on here?' the Doctor asked.
'No …'
'Because if you do, now is the time to tell me.'
'I haven't done anything!'
'People are dying, and I don't know if that's permanent. I don't mind, I honestly don't mind if this is some prank that's gone wrong or some accident you created, I just want it stopped. Now.'
'I don't know, I haven't done anything, I promise!' Carol yelped.
'Sure?'
'Yes!'
'Okay,' the Doctor breathed. 'I was hoping you wouldn't say that.'
'Why?' she asked, bewildered.
'Because I now officially have utterly no idea what's going on or how I'm supposed to stop it,' the Doctor admitted.
In the deathly knell of silence that followed, there came the sound of a particularly shrill scream and a woman pleading for her life. The Doctor ran to the edge of the roof looking, out. He realised, as the screams and shouts and pleas kept coming, that it wasn't just the Powell Estate Hallowe'en party goers that had changed. It was the whole of south London. Something had happened to the whole populace of south London.
He pulled out his sonic and quickly adjusted the FM. He hushed his companions and listened as they caught a newsflash on Radio One.
'Radio One! Newsflash. It is being reported that dressed up Hallowe'en party go-ers across Britain, from London to Glasgow to Derry to Cardiff, changed into their costumes at midnight …' the man said, his voice shaking slightly. 'All those unaffected are being told by the officials to go into your homes and seal the doors …'
No, not south London. The whole of Britain.
He adjusted the frequency again, picking up an international station.
'Ils sont des zombies!' a French woman screamed.
No, not Britain. The whole of Europe.
He adjusted again.
'Fique calmo!'
Again.
'Hiçbir yer güvenli!'
Again.
'What the goddamn hell is going on!?'
'Egli è cambiato!'
'Kare wa watashi o bitto!'
'Hjálp!'
No, the Doctor finally realised. Not south London. Not Britain. Not Europe. The whole world.
He wasn't accustomed to feeling helpless, but right now, his favourite species was in severe danger and he had absolutely no idea how to save them. And that terrified him.
'Okay, let's just stop and think for a minute here,' the Doctor said, hands in the air. 'Every person in a costume has become their costume, apart from us three. Why not us three?'
'We're not human,' Carol said.
'Evara is,' the Doctor pointed out. 'So it's not species. You and me, Carol, we essentially came dressed as ourselves, maybe that's why we didn't change. But that still doesn't explain Evara. She has witch powers, but she's kept her head. There's something I'm missing ... Something really obvious.'
He thought a little more.
'The song started it, like a group hypnosis,' he reasoned out loud. 'The song … no, wait, hold on! No … Yes!'
'What is it?' Carol asked anxiously.
He began to turn in a circle, his hands running through his hair. 'I thought it was the song, but it wasn't because how could everyone play that song at the same time to affect everyone in the world? It's not the song, it was never the song. There's only one thing that's a universal given, and that's time. The humans changed at midnight GMT.' He stopped spinning, thought about that a bit more. 'I need to find my Tardis.'
'Your what?' Carol asked.
'My time ship, I can analyse what's happening …'
'Where is it?'
He pointed down from the roof into the Powell Estate to his usual parking spot, where the TARDIS was sitting, waiting patiently for his return.
'But we can't go back through the building …' Carol said, her voice trembling.
'Evara, any chance you can teleport us?'
'Nuh-uh,' Evara replied.
'Then it's just me,' the Doctor said. 'You two stay up here. As soon as I go, jam the door so nothing can get through. Stay still and quiet and don't draw any attention to yourselves. Got it?'
'But …' Evara began.
'No buts, stay safe,' the Doctor told them. 'I can't do anything productive if I'm worrying about you two. You'll be fine, so long as you keep that door barred. I'll be back before you know it.'
'Okay,' Carol said.
'Right, ready?' he asked, moving to the door. He took a deep breath, gripped the handle, sonicked the lock, opened the door, slammed it behind him, re-sonicked, dodged the animal children, and ran.
Again, the Doctor found himself doing a Hallowe'en slalom as he weaved his way through the community centre's corridors full of all manner of manifestations people thought appropriate to wear to a Hallowe'en party, including Bill Gates, a giant pizza slice and a small T-Rex. On the second floor he found a small mountain of vampires who had been utterly ripped apart. By the struggles of some of the ones still alive, he knew that the werewolf, or werewolves, plural, had to have only just come through here.
He couldn't do anything for the ones still alive. For one thing, vampire physiology was beyond his intellectual limits, and the quicker he got to the TARDIS, the quicker he could save the rest of humanity. So he picked his way through the dead and dying undead and reached the stairwell to the ground floor, just in time to witness a tornado of swirling blackness through the window, with someone in the centre who – if the Doctor was not mistaken – was probably the God of Death the evil druids had been trying to summon earlier, which meant they'd probably found an alternative sacrifice. Probably Batman or Bane.
There was a deep, resounding maniacal laughter, not unlike the beast on Krop Tor as the tornado dissipated and the freshest method of massacre began.
He sped up, skipping down the steps and emerging onto the ground floor, where he encountered three Oompa Loompa in mid-song.
'What do you get when the Earth is a mess? Lacking basic cognitive process. People screaming, and blood on the floor. Innards ruining the good ... de … cor. I don't like the look of it. Oompa, loompa, doompety doo …' they sang as he skipped past and got into reception, where another dinosaur was busy chasing Wonder Woman. On the sight of him, the dinosaur stopped chasing Wonder Woman and pounced for him instead, sharp, huge claws slashing at him and ripping the right sleeve of his outfit. He winced, both for the new pain in his arm and the destruction of the priceless piece of Time Lord history, and ducked again as Wonder Woman returned to attack the dinosaur. He finally got out of the doors, over some more bodies and straight across to his Tardis; scrambling inside his pocket for the key. In the quickest unlocking in history he opened it, dived in, and slammed the door behind him.
He wasted no time, running to the console and jabbing at the buttons for a scan. As the TARDIS processed it, the Doctor switched to an outside view and saw the God of Death, taller than the London Eye crashing his way through the city, his very shadow, cast from the Full Moon, killing all who stood in it.
The TARDIS finished her scan, and the Doctor frantically read the results. No, this wasn't possible …
He flicked back to an outside view and realised that winged devils were now ascending to the rooftop where he'd left Carol and Evara. He quickly programmed for the rooftop to save them, but the TARDIS' churn abruptly stopped. The lights began to flicker with the TARDIS badly groaning. He realised, as the TARDIS managed to give him a crackled view of the outside, that the God of Death was now casting his shadow over the TARDIS, and was sucking the life out of her.
Carol screamed as winged devils descended on them, their claws out and their sharp teeth bared. Evara quickly stepped in front of Carol, throwing up her hands to cast a shield.
'Scildan!' she cried, and immediately a strong shield burst into life, covering her and Carol. The nearest winged devil bounced off harmlessly, followed by two more. One attempted to burn them alive with fire from its mouth, and the shield stayed in place. But Evara was wavering, her powers dwindling. She began to cry out with the effort as Carol clung onto the little girl.
'I can't …' the girl gasped.
The Doctor knew he had to wait until the God of Death's shadow had passed before he could get to Carol and Evara, and all he could do was stand there in the faux-strobe lighting, waiting and hoping that nothing would enter whilst the TARDIS' defences were down and she was busy protecting him. He dared to check his arm – the redness of his own blood was mizing quite nicely with the red of the robe. He put a hand on it as he glanced over at the door, and as the TARDIS lights flickered, he realised with a small jolt of panic that Rose was standing there in her bloody wedding dress, gazing at him with soulless, dead eyes.
After he'd managed to recover from the initial shock, the Doctor dared to step forward to her.
'Rose, you're seeking me out,' he realised as the lights continued to flicker. 'You've been looking for me. That means there's something left of you inside there. If you can hear me, please say something.'
She didn't speak, just gliding slowly towards him, her eyes filled up with unfallen tears.
'Whatever's taken hold of you, you're stronger than it,' the Doctor persisted. 'You can fight it. Just let me know you're still in there somewhere, please?'
'Help …' she gasped in a strange, ethereal voice.
The Doctor's eyes widened. 'Rose? Was that you?'
'End my suffering …'
The Doctor paused, and his shoulders fell, disappointed. 'That's not you.'
'Stop the pain …'
'I'm trying,' he muttered.
'Join me!' she suddenly shrieked, and dived towards him. He didn't have anytime to get out of the way as she passed straight through him, causing him to gasp wildly as a rush of emotion and weirdness shivered its way through him from head to toe. He didn't feel Rose's presence in there at all. He whirled around, but she was gone.
The TARDIS lights finally came back on, and he dived to program to get to Carol and Evara. The TARDIS, with a little effort, churned. Eventually the terrified, cowering figures of Carol and Evara pulsed into existence inside the time capsule, with a rapidly shrinking semi-transparent magic shield encasing them both. Carol looked at her new surroundings, alarmed, until she saw the Doctor, who was rushing over even before the TARDIS had fully landed.
The shield disappeared, and Evara collapsed.
'Evara!' the Doctor cried, reaching the little girl. 'She gave it her all,' he realised, checking her life signs. 'She's okay, just drained.'
'What ... What is this place?' Carol asked, stunned.
'Tardis,' the Doctor replied. 'You must have heard of them.'
'Oh, yes,' Carol mused.
'And right now, things don't look good.'
'Why?'
'The Tardis is insisting that nothing's wrong. Time's running smoothly. Nothing's strange; nothing's odd.'
'But …'
'I know, I know,' the Doctor murmured, running a hand through his hair, forgetting it was now stained with his blood as he smeared his forehead. He tapped at the console controls again, bringing up the BBC News, with the newsreader George Alagiah remaining highly professional.
'... Again … it is understood that a giant devil-like creature is now walking through London, killing all in its path. Officials have told all those unaffected to stay indoors and seal themselves inside. The time is fifty minutes past midnight, the headlines tonight; it has been reported across the world that Hallowe'en party goers are changing into their costumes and attacking others in a seemingly mindless state. Reports of deaths in their thousands are flooding in. The emergency services have told everyone to stay safe, and to only dial 999 if there is a life in absolute danger. Prince Harry is among those affected …'
The Doctor stabbed the off button. Not having a clue what was going on was seriously beginning to irritate him.
'Midnight, everyone changed,' he said out loud. 'Some sort of seriously powerful technological thing which is so advanced that not even the TARDIS can detect it? Seems unlikely. But that only means it's an natural event, but how exactly is this natural? What naturally happened at midnight that could possibly cause this?'
He looked at Carol, and then as the little girl who was sitting up.
'Evara, okay?' he asked.
The little girl nodded. 'What's happening?' she asked.
'Working on it,' the Doctor told her. 'Sit down, you used a lot of power.'
'Thank you,' Carol told Evara.
'S'ok,' the little girl said calmly, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
'So, anyone? What actually happened at midnight?'
'It went bright and the room shook,' Carol said.
'Light.' The Doctor turned over in his head. 'But the only source of natural light is … Oh!'
'What?' Evara asked.
'My head is so stupid!' the Doctor yelled, wide-eyed. 'Rose saw it straight away! The Moon!'
'What?' Carol asked this time, looking at each other.
'Something happened to the Moon at midnight, I dunno, the sun caught it at just the right angle, some small meteoroid hit it; whatever happened, the Moon suddenly got brighter and slightly changed its orbit, causing a little earthquake and a huge flash of light. And then that ...changed everyone into their costumes? Nah, that's daft. But it's something to do with the Moon.'
'So?'
'So … ugh,' the Doctor groaned loudly. 'Whatever's happened should stop when the Moon goes, but that might not be for hours yet. Okay, we're going to the Moon!'
He began to program, before catching Carol and Evara's looks. 'Sorry, yes. Everyone okay with that?'
He got two very apprehensive nods back.
'Okay. Fly me to the Moon!' he declared. He pulled the handbrake, and the TARDIS began to churn. Seconds later they landed with a bone-crunching jolt on the Moon's surface, and the Doctor initiated a scan. The results processed, and again he was left feeling quite bewildered.
'Nothing's wrong. Nothing. Same place, same everything. I don't understand ...' the Doctor moaned, banging his head on his palm. 'This doesn't make sense!'
'But that's not …' Carol began, but he ignored her. He was getting very, very desperate.
He piloted straight back to the Powell Estate, dodging his impromptu passengers as he ran out of the door. Chaos was still reigning.
There was a sudden scream from behind him. It was Carol, with a Mummy lumbering after her, his ancient bandages flapping in the breeze.
'Carol!' the Doctor cried, but she was already gone.
Evara ran to him, hugging his leg for protection. 'Doctor,' she sobbed, terrified.
'It's okay, everything's going to be okay …' he told the girl. 'I promise.'
'I don't wanna die,' she cried. 'Please don't let me die.'
'I won't, you're going to be fine …'
He trailed off as he looked back up and realised Rose's ghost was back, hovering just a little way in front of him.
'Rose!' he cried. 'Talk to me! Help me out, here!'
She just gazed at him sadly.
'Give me something!' he begged. 'There's got to be something of you left in there! Give me some hope!'
She opened her mouth, trying to say something. He waited patiently, willing her to succeed and communicate, when suddenly there was an almighty blast of red light, consuming Rose. She screamed, and abruptly exploded into green ectoplasm, coating the concrete and the Ghostbuster who had shot her.
For a moment, the Doctor just stared in utter disbelief at the pile of green goo on the ground as the Ghostbusters cheered and high-fived each other.
'You killed her!' he screamed. 'You killed Rose!'
'Er, she was a ghost,' one of the Ghostbusters pointed out, but the Doctor wasn't listening. He was spiralling down, back into the depths of his emotions to the place he'd sworn to never go back to. Anger filled every pore of his skin, burning hot as he stared at the pile of ectoplasm that had been her.
He immediately strode towards the Ghostbusters, following his impulse. He didn't even know what he was going to do to them when he got there, but he wanted them to suffer.
His Rose. His beautiful, clever, amazing Rose …
They were going to pay.
Not that he was listening, but over the total absence of cars driving, Big Ben chimed to mark 1am. But then, there was another chime. Then another. And another. This wasn't right …
The Doctor stopped, alarmed as the light of the moon suddenly increased a hundred-fold, and the ground shook beneath their feet.
Dong! Big Ben chimed.
A huge, inexplicable wind picked up, blowing him back into the TARDIS doors with Evara screaming and clutching onto him.
Dong!
The Doctor found himself suddenly falling through nothing as he felt the spin of the Earth suddenly stop, and turn on itself to revolve the other way.
Dong!
They were going backwards in time, he realised as the world changed around him. The Ghostbusters coming back, the killing shot withdrawn back into the gun, Rose reappearing, then disappearing.
Dong!
Werewolves running back, the God of Death reappearing, striding backwards into the tornado that created him. Bodies coming back to life, vampires jumping up, the dinosaur and Wonder Woman running backwards across the Powell Estate.
Dong!
The creatures running back into the community centre and more bodies coming back to life. People screaming backwards as the speed picked up.
Dong!
Cars beginning to resume their driving. More creatures going backwards into the community centre.
Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
Another huge flash and a shake, and the Doctor was left hanging onto the TARDIS' exterior and Evara as the world stilled. The Doctor checked his footing, and then his time sense.
'It's midnight again,' he realised, standing up. He could hear the sound of the song that had started it playing, and the cries of happy, drunk crowds. Holding Evara's hand he ran into the community centre, where everyone was back to their normal selves, laughing and dancing in the disco lights. The teenagers were back to normal, the clown, Wonder Woman and Buffy were chatting, and the evil druids were drunkenly doing the robot dance in sync.
'Rose!' he cried, before he spotted the ripped, bloody wedding dress and blonde hair across the room. He darted to her.
'Where'd you go? You were right next to me and then you vanished!' Rose told him. 'Did you find Carol? Wait, you're covered in blood!'
He quickly hugged her, testing her solidity.
'What?' she asked.
The Doctor ignored her, watching over her shoulder as undead Raggedy Ann fell over into a potted plant, and had to be helped up by one of the vampires he'd last seen ripped apart on the first floor. He then drew back and quickly scanned Rose with his sonic. Completely human, and completely alive. He then ran his finger across the cut on her throat. Make up.
He hugged her again, utterly relieved. 'You're alive,' he breathed. 'You're alive.'
'What? When was I dead?'
He ignored her, pulling back. 'Where's Carol?'
'I dunno, that was the whole point, wasn't it? Doctor, please, you're bein' all weird and you've got blood on you!'
The Doctor ignored her again, scanning the room. He spotted Carol hiding behind the speakers. Before she noticed him, he ran to her and took her arm.
'Carol!' he shouted over the blasting music.
'Get away from me!'
The Doctor frowned. 'What? You've reversed too?'
'I know what you are, Time Lord!' she yelled, ignoring him. 'You murderer!'
She ran off into the crowds. There was little point in pursuing her.
'Doctor, what the hell?' Rose asked, taking his arm. 'You've cut it!'
'She doesn't remember it, none of it ... '
'Remember what!?'
The Doctor looked back at Evara, who was smiling from ear to ear. 'You remember, right?'
She nodded.
'It definitely happened, then. It happened …'
'What happened?' Rose persisted, getting annoyed.
He suddenly felt a tug on his robe. Her looked down at Evara, who was smiling.
'Thank you for not getting scared of me,' she said.
The Doctor frowned. 'Why would I be scared of you?'
She ignored that. 'Thank you for showing me love. I can go now. I'm happy.'
'Go? Go where?'
She just smiled. 'Gewyrcan lif,' she whispered, holding out her hand. Immediately a beautiful butterfly formed on the end of her finger, staying still for a moment before it fluttered away.
The Doctor's eyes shot open. 'You can't … it's ended, the power's ended, you shouldn't be able to –'
'Thank you,' the little girl said. Someone walked between them, and by the time they were gone, Evara had disappeared.
'Evara?' he tried, calling into the crowd, but she was gone.
Twenty minutes later they were back in the flat, having located Jackie fast asleep in a pile of coats and used teamwork to get her back to the flat to lie on her bed. They had the TV on, currently showing some horror B movie as the Doctor pressed a towel to his bloody arm.
'You don't remember any of it,' the Doctor mused at Rose's blank expression after he'd explained what had gone on.
'Um, this is kinda steep, even for you,' Rose told him seriously. 'Evil druids sacrificin' you to summon the God of Death and Darth Vader blastin' you into a wall, just before an undead Raggedy Ann tried to eat your insides, and I got killed by the Ghostbusters? You sure you didn't just go on some kinda weird acid trip from too many of those mozzarella eyeballs at the buffet table?'
'It happened. I know it happened because of this,' he said, nodding to his arm. 'I just can't figure out why or how, and who that girl was.'
'Just a local kid,' Rose reasoned.
'She had her power after it had ended. Didn't you see her?'
Rose shook her head. 'All I know is you were talking to someone across the room or somethin', I didn't see her.'
The Doctor looked at her. 'But she was right in front of me.'
Rose shrugged. 'Didn't see her. There was no one there.'
'That little girl who came trick or treating earlier night, she …'
'Who?'
'Didn't you hear the doorbell?'
'When?' Rose asked.
'When you went looking in your wardrobe for costumes,' the Doctor told her, looking at her blank expression. 'Come on. The doorbell went. I answered it.'
Rose frowned. 'I don't remember anyone at the door.'
'But she was there at the party, Rose …' He was almost pleading with her. 'C'mon. She was telling me the other kids wouldn't play with her and they were pretending she didn't exist, then I was talking to her and she disappeared …'
'Maybe she was a ghost,' Rose joked. 'Okay, say I believe you, how did any of that happen? Why did time reverse and why don't I remember it?'
'Um, still working that one out,' the Doctor confessed.
'You don't know?' Rose wondered.
'No. Something to do with the Moon,' he said, shrugging slightly.
'Yeah, a Full Moon on Hallowe'en can't be that common,' she joked. 'Causes all kinds of weird things, I'll bet.'
'It's just a lunar phase coinciding with a cross-quarter day,' the Doctor said disparagingly. 'That can't cause an entire species to transform. That's ridiculous.'
'Probably not,' Rose agreed. 'But go on, how often is it a Full Moon on Hallowe'en?'
'About every 20 years,' he said.
'Pretty rare, then?'
'Yes.'
She grinned and shrugged.
'It's not the Full Moon,' the Doctor said. 'That's saying that every time there's a Full Moon on Hallowe'en that happens, and no one remembers it.'
'Maybe they don't,' Rose replied mysteriously, waving her fingers.
The Doctor looked at her. 'Come on.'
Rose shrugged, still grinning. 'Rationalise it with science, then.'
'I … can't,' the Doctor admitted, and looked at her seriously. 'Stop grinning.'
She didn't, getting up. 'I'm gonna check on Mum then go to bed. You gonna stay here or are you goin' to the Tardis?'
'Tardis,' he replied, gesturing to himself. 'Need to clean up.'
'Okay, I'll see ya in the morning.'
'Night.'
Rose left to her mum's bedroom. The Doctor briefly looked at the B-movie on the television for a moment, where a village were busy burning an innocent woman accused of being witch. He got rid of the bloody towel, checking his arm. He hadn't realised just how deep it was until he'd got to the flat. He got up and stepped out of the front door to the balcony. The Full Moon was still brightly lighting up the sky, with the remnants of the attendees the Monster's Ball lingering in the street below.
He headed back down to the TARDIS with the intention of getting out of his heavy, cumbersome outfit and washing the blood out. He fished out his key and giving one last look at the Full Moon.
He realised that maybe there were some things in this universe that he would never reduce to science.
He stepped inside the TARDIS.
As the door of the TARDIS closed, Evara appeared in the witch's costume she had been condemned to die in. For the first time in 450 years, she finally felt loved and accepted.
She looked directly at the blue box, raising her hand. The witch's cloak slipped off of her arm slightly, where the horrible, deep burns from her execution were thick and ugly.
'Beorgan hine, ēcost,' she whispered; her final spell. The TARDIS briefly glowed. She smiled, took out the yo-yo the Doctor had given her, and began to play as she faded away.
The End
Translation
Didilio! Jupou! Sima-hour'suskraho! Wilorumo! Priacha bula ei'kloo! - Milkshake! Banana! Half past nine! Grandma! Welcome to my house!
Jupou! Jupou! Jupou! - Banana! Banana! Banana!
Beorgan hine, ēcost - Protect him, always
Song used is 'Like the Living Dead' by Ms. Triniti.