Creatures of the abstract, that's what they were. That's what the Doctor told me. They killed you nicely, those lonely assasins. You see that's what they did to us. We hadn't expected, but then again... you wouldn't, would you? It had been just a normal day for us. You know the usual thing, fighting the ataacking aliens, saving the world, drinking tea. We were in London, we had planned to go and see my mum. Decided to to stop for a cup of tea first, you know what it's like when you really fancy a cup from the cafe, rather than a home brew. That's what we were doing, drinking tea in a cafe, when it happened.
I glanced out of the window, watching the rain streaming down. There was a bank opposite, I watched as a young woman dashed up the stone stairs; her bag firmly clutched to her chest. I wondered what her story was... just won the lottery? Declared bankrupt? Or maybe going for an interview. I blinked and she was gone. I mean it, she was completely gone. Disappeared, vanished... no longer visible.
"Doctor?"
"Rose?"
"Look over there... do you see anything strange?"
The Doctor turned to stare out of the steamy windows, after a brief moment he turned back to me.
"Nope, anything special that I should be looking for?"
I shivered a little, it was probably me. I did that, saw things that weren't there. We left the cafe, intending to head towards Mum's when it happened. I really felt like we were being watched. That happened sometimes, we knew that people followed the Doctor on the internet... sometimes my picture appeared on it too. We used to get Mickey to sort it out for us. get rid of any evidence that we existed. But sometimes they found us. But this felt different. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end. The Doctor seemed to be completely oblivious, clutching my hand and rambling on about radio waves and chickens. He stopped then, rather suddenly and turned to me.
"Rose!"
"What? What is it?"
"Whatver you do, don't blink."
"What? What do you mean?"
"Rose, I mean it. If you blink, if you close your eyes... even for a second, we're lost. Gone... forever."
I couldn't help it, you know what it's like when someone tell you that you can't do something... warns you, even. But you can't help it, can you? Well, I couldn't. The urge was just too strong. I blinked.
When I opened my eyes, everything had changed. Everything was different. The Doctor was still holding my hand. We were still in a city. Apart from that everything was different. Everything had changed... and it was all my fault.