Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and put this story on their alerts!
Please enjoy the next few chapters – I'll aim to get one up every day or every other day =)
~ Dragon
-x-
Chapter 2 – Insomnia
"Toshiko, can you get the CCTV up of the Plass of the moments before Elisa Morgan's death?" Jack called out as the team burst back into the Hub. Tosh nodded and began clicking away on her keyboard. "Owen, let's get started on that autopsy. The sooner we know how she died, the sooner we can sort this out."
"I'd love to," Owen said sarcastically, sweat beading on his forehead. The woman was a lot heavier than she looked; Owen and Ianto had used the lift to bring her back into the Hub to prevent staring, and even that short distance proved to be an effort for the two men. They stepped off the lift and carried the woman's body down into the autopsy bay, Owen muttering darkly about rain and murders as they went.
"Gwen," Jack continued, depositing his coat onto Ianto as the Welshman climbed back out of the autopsy bay, "the girl had a mobile phone on her – see if you can who the last person she called was. I want to question anyone who might know what happened."
"Righto," Gwen replied, taking the phone which Ianto had already sealed into a plastic bag stamped with the Torchwood logo.
"It's weird," Ianto remarked, standing at Tosh's computer and frowning at the CCTV footage Tosh brought up, "the storm vanished right after she died. Almost like something came out of the storm to kill her. Or it needed the storm to kill her."
"Or it was using it as a distraction…like camouflage?" Gwen suggested as she scrolled through the mobile phone. "Aha! Jack, the last person she rang was a girl called Jess Roth…last night in fact…want me to track her down?"
Jack nodded. "Yes. Go now – we need to know why Elisa Morgan was there." Gwen was out of the Hub door before the CCTV footage had even begun.
On Tosh's PC screen, Ianto, Jack and Tosh watched Elisa Morgan appear on the camera, looking over her shoulder, the rain not quite able to mask the terror etched onto her face. She shouted something; shortly afterwards, she seemed to go into some sort of trance. Moments later, the claw marks began to appear, followed by the gaping hole in her head and the bite marks on her neck.
The three people shared an uneasy glance – there was nothing attacking her. One moment she was unhurt – she could even have been asleep – and the next her unconscious form was thrashing around. As the wounds appeared, she grew still.
"Rewind that," Jack said, leaning in closer. They watched the footage again, frame-by-frame. Again, it seemed as if Elisa Morgan's injuries came out of nowhere.
"Did she faint?" Tosh asked, rewinding the footage again, trying to hide the unease she felt.
"But she was standing up," Ianto said, "why didn't she fall?"
"Because." Owen's voice carried out of the autopsy room. They all immediately ran to him; he watched them assemble on the stairs, his face grim.
"What is it, Owen?"
"She didn't faint," Owen said simply, "she fell asleep."
-x-
Gwen was just pulling up outside Jess Roth's house when her earpiece began to crackle with the sound of Ianto's voice.
"Gwen. Owen's just finished the autopsy. Turns out Elisa Morgan was asleep when she died, standing up. Medical records don't say she was narcoleptic, but you never know…NHS and their red tape…"
"Right. Thanks, Ianto. I'll ask." Gwen yawned widely as she parked her car. It was weird – the past few nights, she didn't seem to be able to sleep. She'd just lie there, tossing and turning, sometimes dozing but always jerking back to life before she could fall into a deep sleep. She rubbed her eyes, shaking her head as if to try and wake herself up.
Gwen rang the doorbell, and shortly afterwards a young woman with puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks opened the door. Gwen smiled sympathetically at her. "Hi. Jess Roth?" The woman nodded. "I'm Gwen Cooper. I think we need to have a talk about Elisa."
Seated in Jess' living room with a cup of strong coffee, Gwen could see the aftermath of the girls' previous night's catch-up; there were two empty bottles of wine and two glasses still stood on the coffee table. The girl sat on the sofa opposite Gwen, hiccupping as she tried to stop crying.
"She came round cause of Eric, see," Jess said, twiddling her thumbs.
"Who's Eric?"
"Her boyfriend. He just upped and left last week, without saying a thing. He was nasty, always picking on her." Jess scowled into her mug. "She came round all hysterical. Crying and saying she thought she was losing it." A tear ran down the girl's cheek.
"Why would she say that?" Gwen probed gently, not wanting to set the girl off crying again. The girl sniffed before continuing.
"Kept saying she was hearing voices, see…a man's voice. Said she thought she saw her dad the other day, too." Jess stared at a stain on her carpet. "He's dead. Elisa…she was deathly scared of her dad. I reckon…I reckon it was because she was tired. Said she hadn't slept for days…had this weird headache that wouldn't go away, and she just couldn't get to sleep."
Gwen felt unease creep upon her; hadn't most of the Torchwood team said they hadn't slept well for a few days either? She shook this thought off as coincidence. "She, er…she wasn't narcoleptic, was she?"
Jess stared at her. "No…why? Did she faint? Is that why she died?"
Gwen shook her head, standing up. "No, no…no reason. I'd best be off. Thank you, Jess…and I'm sorry for your loss."
-x-
When Gwen returned to the Hub, she gathered everyone in the Boardroom.
"So we have a girl, not narcoleptic, who falls asleep whilst walking home." She gestured to a photograph of Elisa Morgan's body which she'd pulled up on the screen.
"Sounds like a Saturday night in Cardiff if you ask me," Ianto said.
"She did have alcohol in her system," Owen added, "but not enough for her to pass out. No, the state of her body, her muscles…she was definitely asleep."
"And then she's hacked to bits by an invisible hit man," Jack said thoughtfully.
"She'd been seeing and hearing things, apparently. She'd seen visions of her dad…apparently she was deathly afraid of him," Gwen continued.
"Anyone got any suggestions?" Jack asked, an eyebrow raised.
"MDMA?" Ianto said; Jack tutted at him fondly before continuing.
"Right. I suggest we all go home, put your heads down, and we'll get going again first thing tomorrow." Jack dismissed them, standing up.
"There's…there's one more thing," Gwen said, swallowing. Four pairs of eyes were trained on her. She looked at the floor and then at each of them in turn. "Elisa's friend…she said Elisa hadn't slept for days. It's just…I know we're all the same. We haven't slept either."
They all looked to Jack. He pursed his lips, thinking hard. "Coincidence. Go home, and try and catch up on sleep. We're sorting this out first thing tomorrow."
It didn't go unnoticed that Jack didn't make eye contact with any of them, nor could he quite hide the waver of worry in his voice that gave away the fact he knew exactly what they were dealing with.
-x-
The figure stroked the piece of metal he'd pulled from Elisa Morgan's skull as if it was a treasured artefact, though it knew it was as worthless as an old newspaper. It'd had to do it…it was so very hungry, and the girl…she had such fear. Such great fear for it to feed off.
The metal…the metal stopped her sleep. It knew it did not need to put it there to cause the insomnia, it was more powerful than that, but it made it so much more difficult for that Torchwood team…a red herring.
The creature smiled at its own cleverness. Soon, it thought, soon it would feed from Torchwood…and it would be free to roam this world forever.
The creature squeezed the metal in its clawed hand; the metal grew hot, and turned an eerie shade of red. It watched the Torchwood team begin to make their separate ways home.
They would not sleep…they would not sleep and soon, the figure thought, soon it would come for them.
Its callous laugh was lost to the skies as a storm began to brew once more over Cardiff Bay.
To be continued soon! Please review if you can =)
Lots and lots of Janto coming soon!