The TARDIS creaked, the central column winding and oscillating as Diane tried to find her feet. The TARDIS was rocking and swaying as it materialized itself. The Doctor ran around the control panel as if chasing some invisible force that he needed to contain.
"Almost there!" the Doctor yelled as he hammered at the console. Diane stood by the seating and grasped it tight, her stomach fluttered with anticipation. Where was he taking her? Some planet on the opposite side of the universe? The far future where humans have evolved? The possibilities were endless. She bit her lip, impatient as she listened to the TARDIS screech to a halt, the central column froze. The Doctor released his grip from the lever on the right hand side of the console and stood up.
"We're here" he smiled in triumph to himself.
"Where… where are we?" Diane's hands were to her face, as if afraid to look.
"Come on, lets find out" the Doctor grinned as he held out his hand, his coat already draped over him as he stood near the door.
Diane threw on her new military style jacket and followed him, her hand in his.
"Oh that is nice!" the Doctor stated as they stepped out.
"Yeah a bit cold though" Diane shivered. The Doctor stood, hands in his pockets, staring at the hustle and bustle of the citizens going about their business. It was dusk and the sun set was giving the sky one last warm blast of golden orange before retreating for the night. Diane gazed around at the costumes of the people. There were men in period costume, it looked about 19th century at a guess. Some men wore very clean and well tailored suits with matching waistcoats and top hats. Some men even bore canes with their attire. Some women wore the most wonderful and colourful corsets Diane had ever seen. The Doctor smiled to himself as he saw her face light up, he made a mental note to buy her one when they found a good tailor later on. She deserved it after all, for putting up with all his rubbish after only meeting him. She was a hero in his eyes after saving the world and surviving it well. There were some less wealthy people walking by, the streets didn't smell too good, a mixture of rubbish and waste with the smell of freshly baked goods mingled in the air. It wasn't too appealing, but all the same it was a smell that let you know you were alive! As some of the poorer, lower class walked by, a few women in drab, dirty white and tweed brown dresses and dirty white bonnets scowled at Diane.
"Harlot" one woman whispered.
"Ok, so I'm dressed a little less appropriate get over it… At least I don't wash myself in sewage ridden water and get married at the age of sixteen"
The Doctor steered Diane away from an inevitable squabble.
"I forgot that in history women were more than well preserved" Diane growled. The Doctor kept his hands on her shoulders steering her further down the road. The cobbles were icy and wet, the buildings were grand and of stone and some houses even had great roaring fires lit from what she could see inside their windows. Diane was wishing she was now inside with them.
"You alright?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah, it's just my first time being in the past you know….. It's a bit… freaky"
"But wonderful right?" the Doctor winked.
"Definitely! I mean, I'm in the past… I'm in a year where my great grandparents weren't even born!" she laughed in disbelief, "I'm in….. Hold on a second where the hell are we?" she trailed off. The sun was setting at a fast pace and now darkness was nearly upon them, they watched as the last young lighter climbed down from his last street lamp of the night.
"London won't be getting electricity 'til next year" the Doctor mumbled in disappointment.
Diane stared at the Doctor awaiting an answer, he shook his head,
"Right sorry" he glanced around him and then grabbed a paper from the ground. He flung it over a stall and carried on walking with his hands behind his back,
"It's London 1881! Flogging in the British Army was finally abolished this year, and the National History Museum opened up in South Kensington! Lovely year! Oh…. And there are rather strange storms on the Thames too…."
Diane gazed around her, she was in 1881! She was living 128 years in the past, all thanks to the Doctor. She wanted to jump up and hug him for bringing her to such an impossible place. She was one of the few to ever experience this and it was… it was breathtaking. Feeling mischievous she put out her arm to link with his,
"Shall we go see what the strange and wonderful storms on the Thames are like? Go investigate perhaps?"
The Doctor's smile grew and linked arms with her, "Why not, seen as we're already here and all that".
Suddenly there was a scream of a terrified woman a few streets away. The Doctor and Diane looked at each other, mouths agape for a moment before they smiled,
"That's our cue then" she yelled.
"Allons y!" the Doctor yelled as sprinted ahead. Diane's bones were quivering with excitement. Now this is what life was for, adventure!
"This way!" the Doctor yelled as he raced through an arch way and down a side street. Diane skidded along the icy ground as she turned, the Doctor was a good few paces ahead and her throat was scorched from the cold. She wished she had put a scarf around her before leaving the TARDIS, or at least worn pants for this kind of situation. There was a sound of boxes and crates being shifted violently as they neared the commotion. There was a shuffle and a man yelling, the woman screamed again and then there was a thud. The Doctor slid along his feet as he came to an abrupt halt, Diane soon stopped directly behind him, shoving him forward a little, panting.
"My sister, she's dead!" the young girl cried.
The Doctor knelt down and checked for a pulse. He gazed into the woman's eyes pitiful, "I'm so sorry" he breathed.
"What happened here?" Diane asked, trying to get involved.
"My sister, she, she suffers from terrible brain fevers, psychosis Doctor Hyde did say. She escaped earlier today and we found her. She was crazed, her eyes were like that of an animals, foam at her mouth" the girl wept. Diane put her arms around the woman. "What's you name?" Diane asked.
"Adeline" the girl sobbed.
"And your sister's name?"
"Meredith" Adeline sighed as she stared at her sister's lifeless body on the cold damp, gritty ground.
"Adeline was your sister Meredith attacked?" the Doctor asked as he noticed injection marks on her neck and arms.
"No, she just…. Her eyes just went an odd colour and rolled back into her head and she dropped to the floor. She was about to…. About to… attack me and my husband!" Adeline started to sob again, this time more heavily as Diane held her.
"This is ridiculous, the girl was rabid, she was locked up for a reason and this is it!" a man with rather large mutton chops sniped.
"This was not a natural psychosis… and you are?" the doctor snapped as he stood up.
"Mr. Lucius Rutherford, Adeline's husband" the man didn't offer his hand, which in those days was common courtesy, this was an obvious unwelcome for Diane and the Doctor.
"Diane could you take a look at this please" the doctor quietly asked as he stared daggers at Lucius.
Lucius snorted, "What use would a woman be in such a situation, especially that of such attire. What is she, your wench, tarlet?"
"Oi! Hold your tongue" the Doctor snapped, only a centimeter away from Lucius's face. Diane gazed up in anger and disbelief at the man, she wanted to smack him one and would have done rightly so if the Doctor wasn't standing in between them.
"For your information she's a great doctor, I should know, she trained under me" he smiled smugly. Lucius grunted something inaudible as he held his grieving wife up by her arm. Diane resumed checking out the corpse.
She lifted up the dead woman's head, checking for any trauma's then checked the pupils, or lack there of. She was shocked to find that the woman's eyes had turned to a grey-brown, no pupils or iris. Then she noticed the woman's mouth. She pulled down the corpse's bottom lip and took note of abnormally pointed teeth, they were naturally stained yellow and black as toothpaste was, if invented by now, still a luxury for only the richest of the rich and this poor lost soul looked as if she was locked up for life and that was that. The 19th century didn't take too kindly to any disease or disfigurement during their time and any loved one who was unfortunate enough to have a birth defect were locked into an asylum for the rest of their lives to be forgotten about. But now Adeline, despite what her chauvinist husband would say was mourning the loss of her much loved sister, possibly her only family she had left. It was clear Adeline had a good heart and why she was married to such a brute was beyond Diane.
"Doctor, look" Diane pointed to the woman's skin, for someone who had only just died their skin was decayed enough looking to mistake them for being dead a few days.
"It wouldn't be some sort of parasite eating her flesh would it?"
"It's possible" the Doctor took his black framed glasses from his jacket pocket and slid them on.
"But then look at her teeth… Now I know dentists didn't really exist around now but come on…. They're pointed, and her eyes and look…." Then they noticed her fingers and fingernails. The woman's hands were covered in hair, the nails were cracked a broken but sharp and blackish yellow, and underneath those nails were bits of skin and blood. Presumably from a victim.
"Ok now I know there weren't many de-fuzzing equipment around this time either but werewolf hands?..." Diane stared at the Doctor who was thinking deeply, his eyes fixated on the horror lying beneath them. Adeline's sobs were still continuing and Diane stood up.
"Could you tell us…? Where or who is the doctor who looked after your sister?" Diane cautiously asked. The whole time Lucius turned his nose up at Diane.
"Oh, he works in the London mental asylum two streets away.
He's the renowned Doctor Emerson Hyde. He's an extremely great man, why he's the one who approached us. He said he could give Meredith back her sanity, he promised" Adeline wept.
"Something fishy is going on here" Diane murmured to the Doctor and he nodded. He took off his glasses and a grin spread across his face, "So, which way to see ol' Doctor Hyde then?"