Chapter Two – Bedtime Stories
The Doctor and Rose walked around outside for a few hours holding hands, and looking at the different street signs. The area they were in didn't look very welcoming. After the few hours had past a small man had ran outside and called them inside his butchers shop, quickly.
Neither of them knew what to expect. Why had he asked them in so quickly? Was there a curfew of some sort? "Take a seat," the man said as he turned on the small fire opposite. They sat on two small seats situated far from the fire. He had led them upstairs, into what appeared to be his home.
"Thank you for letting us in here," Rose said, smiling shyly. "It's freezing out there!" she added.
"Yes, no problem. I just couldn't face seeing anymore people going. What were you doing out there this time of the night?" he said. His voice was very low pitched. The strange man was quite small, yet reasonably large in the width department.
"What do you mean you couldn't face seeing anymore people going?" asked the Doctor, leaning forward in his chair, and clasping his hands.
"Surely you know? In the streets. Late at night, if anyone is out there, they're not gonna see the next day."
"But what's caused all this?" the Doctor asked.
"Where've you been these past months?" the man asked.
"Months?" the Doctor asked. There were many questions being thrown between the two of them, Rose just sat back and looked around.
"Yeah, people have been disappearing for months. We don't know who did it, and why. All we hear is this screaming from the people being taken away, and that's it."
"No sign of where they disappeared? Any evidence as to say who did it? No funny signs or smells coming from the area they went from?" the Doctor asked.
"Nothing. Although, I suppose, as you're asking, people around the village have reported seeing ghosts of the people who've gone missing. Cobblers if you ask me, I don't believe in ghosts. They just want to see the people back. Anyway, they keep saying they appear in their dreams calling for help, and in loads of corners they turn, they see the body standing there, staring at them and not blinking. Then they shout help, scream and disappear." The man finished with a large draw of breath and then leaned back in his chair.
"I'm the Doctor by the way" the Doctor held out a big hand for the man to shake, which was clasped and shook. "And this is my good friend Rose." He said, and the man took her hand and kissed the tip of her knuckles.
"I'm Trevor, the local butcher." They both smiled and shook hands again. "You two can stay here for the night. There's a spare bed in the other room for you two to share, Dr and Mrs…?" he stopped, looking at them.
"Oh, no, we're not married." The Doctor said. "Just the Doctor and Rose will do fine thanks." The Doctor got up, "I best not keep you up, come on Rose. Thank you Trevor." Rose followed him to the spare bedroom, and they closed the door behind themselves.
"I wonder what's happening here," Rose asked the Doctor ten minutes later. They'd just been sitting around, looking through the window.
"I don't know, but I don't think we can go back to… Perkland, I think it is, until we sort out this problem. Tomorrow morning, after we've spoken to Trevor we'll take a boat to Perkland, and get the TARDIS. We'll bring her back here, and sort out these disappearances."
"I don't like the sound of these ghosts," Rose said, biting her lip.
"Maybe they are just figures of imagination. Maybe they are actually appearing… or maybe someone is controlling the people's minds to think they're appearing?"
"It's not going to be anything to do with our little ghoul friends is it?" she asked.
"No, they went back through the rift in the 18 hundreds. We shouldn't be hearing from them for a while. Anyway, bedtime Rose. Early morning tomorrow, and we're gonna need all the energy we can get."