Hello there chapter 2! Thank you to Littlebirdd, Mistykit, UndeadOctopus, and equineprobie for your follows! Inresponse to your review UdeadOctopus, I'm so glad you love it and here's more! It might be a bit before I post up another chapter, this coming week is super busy but I hope you all enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, the Characters or plot, those belong to BBC but I do own my OC's and story ideas
Chapter 2: Tick Tock Goes the Clock
Harri's feet pounded against the pavement as she raced down the back alleys of London, her tie flapping from the fast speed she was doing. Running. That was something she was always good at.
She was scrawny, as thin as a toothpick her Grandmum complained, but it made her fast. And fast is what she needed right now. Harri took a sharp left turn and bolted down a tiny, almost crack in the wall like path that she easily squeezed down with practiced ease.
Harri exited into the old train yard and all the tension seemed to leave her body as she stepped onto the familiar grounds. "I can't believe I just did that!" She yelled at herself, knowing no one was around to overhear her. "What was I thinking? Oh right, thinking a mile an hour on the Doctor and how useless the morning grammar lessons are. Blimey Harri gotta get your brain under control so the rest of you doesn't just follow it all the time!"
She smacked her forehead and collapsed against the side of an old railcar, trying to let her mind cool down...which had never worked before but she might as well try again. "Alright let's get this straight. I've been having wonky dreams since I was what, four-no three. Yes three years old I believe if not earlier but my mind won't let me access it that far back." Or not.
"Now these dreams have spanned one persons life, a man calling himself the Doctor. Just the Doctor, no last name. Then last night in the dream I was on a planet that was fighting for its life, a life that the Doctor was...at least I think he was going to destroy. And he talked to me. He's never talked to me before but he's seen me in his dreams too. A dream connection? But how..."
Absentmindedly she fingered the necklace she'd pulled out from under her shirt. It was an old, regular looking key that could open anything since she had no idea what it went to. Her Mum had given it to her when she was younger, saying it was her Dad's. Harri looked down at the key and sighed. "What am I suppose to do?" She whispered, getting up again to restart her pacing.
As if sensing her mood, the sky gave another ominous rumble that had her shivering slightly at the coldness of the air.
"Come on give me a sign, tell me what I'm suppose to do!" Harri brushed back a loose piece of her hair. Suddenly an odd whooshing noise came from above and she looked up, just in time to see a spaceship come through what looked like a suddenly appearing crack in the dark sky. It was smoking and making booming noises as it flew over her and crashed somewhere down the railroad tracks.
She glared up at the sky above. "You just love messin' with me don't you?" Then Harri took off running towards the wreckage of what looked like an alien ship. Leaping across the railroad tracks, she trotted over to the huge crater that the crash had made. Looking down she stared at the smoking ship that was about the side of a large car.
A slight movement in the corner of the wreckage made her head cock and Harri slowly made her way towards it. "'Ello? I'm Harri from uh here, London. I mean Earth. Well London, England, the United Kingdom, Earth blimey that's confusing." A moan came from the wreckage as she approached the side where she saw movement. "Uh, you alright? That was some crash ya know. Do ya need a Doctor or-"
"D-doc-tor..." Whimpered something from inside. Harri pulled a piece of the twisted metal of the ship that was blocking where the voice was coming from. Pulling it back she gasped in shock at the sight.
A man, or she presumed it was one, tumbled out of what looked like a pilot seat to collapse at her feet. She wasn't sure if he was a man because he was green and covered in spikes. "H-hey you're bleedin', like a lot Mister!" Harri knelt down beside him, gently rolling him over so she could see his face.
"The Doctor must-must know...oh," the man groaned in pain, "They've killed me...s-sending me...here..." Her eyes widened at the mention of the Doctor's name.
"Y-you know the Doctor?!" Blood bubbled out of his mouth and he coughed to the side, making the horrible substance spatter in the rubble. "Hey hold on I'm going to get help! Just-just stay awake okay!" The man-creature-alien was bleeding profusely and somehow medical knowledge filtered in her mind. She yanked off her school jacket and pushed against his wound, trying to slow down the blood flow.
Instead he clasped her arm and looked her dead in the eyes. Her deep brown meeting his odd icy green. "Y-you have his...eyes. Oh those eyes..."
"W-whose eyes? Please just-" His grip grew stronger and he pulled Harri down towards him a bit.
"I am already...gone...child...but let me die...knowing it will get...to…him."
"What will?" Harri began to shake, out of fear, shock or what she didn't know. Every switch was flipped on in her body, it seemed a limitless knowledge of things was suddenly pouring through her mind. This man was of the Vinvocci race, related to the Zocci, and were normally neutral and uninvolved in wars.
She shook her head, stopping herself from trying to figure out where this newfound knowledge was coming from and instead concentrating on the Vinvocci who was desperately trying to speak to her.
"Tell-tell the Doctor...tell him, it is coming." A shock of fear entered Harri's already adrenaline filled body.
"What's coming?"
"The darkness." He gasped out.
"D-darkness?" The Vinvocci man smiled softly, reaching up with his other hand to gently touch the side of Harri's face.
"Those eyes...filled with so...much...sadness." Then the man's hand and grip loosened and both dropped limp beside him while his eyes stayed wide open.
"Mister?! H-hey Mister wake up!" Harri took one hand off from the pressuring the wound with her jacket and touched his neck, desperately searching for a pulse.
There was none.
It was then the sky opened up and rain began to pour down, following the silent tears starting to roll down Harri's face.
"This...this is all too much…" she whispered, brushing the tears from her cheek but like the rain they just kept falling down.
It could have been five seconds, five minutes, five hours or even five days but Harri couldn't tell. She felt numb, unable to even move her hand from the position on the Vinvocci man's neck. It was as if she didn't move her hand, then she didn't have to admit he was dead but the unseeing, slowly glassing over eyes were an obvious sign as they bore deeply into her own living ones. She felt stuck in time, yet knew that time was consistently flowing on all around her. Even if she didn't want it too.
Then the numb silence was broken by the shocked shout of one of four people she desperately didn't want to see right now.
"What the 'ell?! Harri?!"
She sniffled and blinked, slowly turning to see her Uncle Mickey standing at the top of the crater with several other members of Torchwood who were all staring at her wide eyed. They all were carrying an assortment of equipment that looked like a mix of deadly futuristic weaponry and a mad scientists carry-on kit.
"Harriet Sarah-Jane Tyler why-how-aren't you suppose to be in school?!" Shouted Uncle Mickey, his face contorting into numerous expressions of fear, shock and anger all at once. If she hadn't been clutching her bloodstained jacket and watched an alien she'd just met die, Harri would probably be laughing and calling him 'Uncle Idiot'.
Instead she choked back a sob and collapsed fully to her knees by the unknown alien. "I am sorry...I am so, so sorry." She whispered, reaching over and gently closing his eyes so he looked like he was sleeping.
Everything was in a slow motion blur after that. Uncle Mickey had gently pulled her away from the deceased Vinvocci but her gaze never left the alien until she was so far away she couldn't even see the crater. Harri remembered being placed in a car, Uncle Mickey buckling her up because she seemed so out of focus and leaving to take her back to Torchwood after giving orders to the remaining agents. Then they had arrived and she'd silently walked with him up to his cluttered office, ignoring peoples greetings and questions.
It was when she finally sat down in the office swivel chair that everything seemed to snap back into focus at the same time Uncle Mickey began winding down from the rant he'd been having nonstop the entire time.
"You sit right there and don't even think of moving a single centimeter. I'm gonna go call your Mum!" She fidgeted in her seat, shooting him as cute a pout as she could muster in her state. Apparently it wasn't enough this time as Uncle Mickey wouldn't meet her eyes and said, "Not one centimeter Harriet!" Harri flinched at the use of her full name and sighed as the door to the office slammed shut. She shifted slightly in her seat, pulling her knees up under her chin.
Harri wiped away a silent tear that rolled down her face. She hiccuped, brushing a soaking piece of her hair behind her ear. Her once semi-decent braid was falling apart and she'd bet ten quid that her eyes were red.
For once in her life she listened to her Uncle Mickey and just sat there, shivering slightly from the air conditioning and being soaked. She heard the footsteps racing toward her less than a second before the office door was yanked open and her Mum burst in. "Harriet Sarah-Jane Tyler what were you thinkin'?" she shouted as Uncle Mickey appeared around the corner, breathing fast thanks to chasing after her Mum.
"Hey...Mum…" she whispered, clearing her throat from the raspy sound it had taken on.
"Don't 'hey Mum' me young lady! What were you doing outside of school?! And all the way out by the old railway of all places?!"
"I…"
"I was confused because I had a freaky dream that was different from my usual ones about the Doctor that I've been having since I was little and then overheard you and Grandmum talking about a man called the Doctor and things started makin' freaky sense in my head only missing a few little pieces that I'd have to ask you to get the answer to so does that explain it all?!" Of course she could never say that out loud, her Mum would think she was nutters. Or more so than usual.
"Why won't you tell me what's going on?! Somethin's been bothering you for so long, why won't you tell me what's wrong?! Why do you shut me out Harri then expect me to tell you everything?!" Harri looked down at the floor, her hands tightening into fists in her lap as her Mum crouched down in front of her. "Please Harri, what's wrong?"
A splitting pain in her head had Harri wanting to clutch it in pain right before a red curtain of fury washed over her. "What's wrong? What's wrong?!" The question to ask is what's right! Nothin's right at all! What haven't you told us, how much have you lied to Jaime and me!" She suddenly shouted, shooting to her feet and knocking her Mum back. "You never tell us anything? How do we even know you're our Mum?! "
Her Mum stared at her in shock, mouth open as she tried to form a sentence. "I...Harri I..."
"No you listen! Why won't you tell us who our Dad really is? Some bastard that dumped you on your own when he found out you were pregnant?! Probably didn't care at all!"
"Harriet that is enough!" Said Uncle Mickey, grabbing her upper arm and pulling her away from her Mum. "What's gotten into you?!"
"I hate you! All of you stupid humans!" Harri screamed, retching herself away from Uncle Mickey and racing out of the room. Her Mum looked so broken on the floor, silent tears rolling down her face.
"Wait Harri! Stop!" Shouted Uncle Mickey starting after her but looking torn between which of the two to help.
More than just running, running away. Harri was discovering it was something she was very good at.
She tore down the hallways, ignoring everyone and everything around her as tears flowed down her face just like her Mum's. The only thing she could feel was the floor beneath her feet as she ran. Slowly, the red faded from her vision and mind, Harri coming to a stop in an empty hallway. "What-what did I do that for?" She whispered, leaning against the wall for support since her legs felt like pudding.
"That...that didn't feel like me." Harri whispered, gently touching her head that was still pounding from the sudden pain of earlier. "No...that wasn't me but what was..." Harri sniffled, rubbing her arms in an attempt to warm up as she looked around her. "Ohhhh dear. Where am I?"
A subtle whispered song coming from down the hall, distracting Harri from her predicament of being lost. "Tick tock, goes the clock..." Started a mesh of voice, sounding like little children singing. "And what now shall we play?"
"Hello?" She asked, slowly walking down the hall towards the voices.
"Tick tock, goes the clock..." She turned down a dimmer side hall where there was a set of stairs heading down. "Now summer's gone away?"
"I've never been here before..." Warning bells went off in her mind but her curiosity was peaked and she held onto the rail of the staircase as she slowly made her ways down. "Tick tock, goes the clock..." Harri began seeing her breath come out in little white puffs as the temperature dipped rapidly as she went down the stairs. "And what then shall we see?"
Rubbing her arms she stepped down on the white tiled floor of the part of the bottom level she'd never been to. "Tick tock, until the day," An ominous feeling spread over Harri and the painful pounding seemed to intensify in the back of her head, as if someone was trying to drive a hammer through her head. "That thou shalt marry me."
Slowly she made her way down towards what looked like a plain wall on the other side of the room yet the pull she felt towards it was not natural. "Tick tock goes the clock..." Harri bit her bottom lip nervously, pausing in her walk to really take a look around her. "And all the years they fly."
"Somethin'...so bad...happened here." She whispered, wanting nothing more than to bolt back upstairs and apologies to her Mum for what she said and to hide from this room. Instead she continued forward towards the wall as the whispered song grew even louder, like a sirens song drawing her in. "Tick tock, and all too soon," Harri stretched out her hand and slowly, almost terrifyingly reached to touch the wall that was calling out to her.
"You and I must die."
Elsewhere...
The TARDIS rocked and the Doctor and Donna grasped onto the console with startled yelps. "There it goes again!" complained Donna as the ship made several high pitched beeping noises.
"What's wrong old girl?" asked the Doctor, eyebrows furrowed as he gently touched the central column of the console. The ship seemed to wheeze and shudder, making his frown deepen. "Somethings happening...somewhere, and the TARDIS is sensing it."
"What could be happenin' that would make the TARDIS freak like this?" The Doctor stared at the glowing blue beams of the time rotor.
"It's big. Either something amazingly good...or really, really bad." Donna frowned as the ship finally calmed down, returning to its normal calm state.
"Why do I get the feeling it's the latter? It always is with you." The Doctor shrugged.
"Could be both for all I know." He pulled down the lever and spun a silver spinny thing. The TARDIS made its proper wheezing noise and the Doctor smirked as they came to a stop somewhere. "So, let's see where we are this time eh?" The Doctor started towards the door, winking at Donna.
"Oh no, me first this time." Said Donna, shoving past him and to the door. She yanked the blue doors open, gasping at the sight in front of her. "It looks like Earth!...only more pink. A lot more pink. Is this ground safe to step on?"
"'Course it is! Just don't step on the white part!" Donna stepped out cautiously, watching where she put her feet. She raised an eyebrow back at the Doctor curiously.
"Why?"
"It's acidic, it'll burn right through your shoes!"
"What?!" The Doctor chuckled about to head out with her when the TARDIS made an odd whistling noise, almost forlornly that made him turn back and look at her.
"What are you warning us about old girl?" he whispered, a serious expression on his face until he turned around and headed after Donna, a grin on his face and beginning to ramble. "Brilliant stuff it is, can burn through anything! Well, almost anything!"
And that wraps up this chapter! Please review, fav, follow etc, etc. :) À plus tard!