Scarlett was starting to cry now, and The Doctor rubbed her arm up and down sympathetically, scooting slightly closer to her.
"So what happened next?" he asked, softly. But Scarlett just shook her head, "Oh I was such an idiot back then, how could I have trusted Melanie." And then she looked back at The Doctor, "I don't think I'm ready for the rest yet. How about another one of your stories?"
"Okay," he said "Have I ever told you about my Daughter Jenny?"
"I thought you said all of your family died in the time war?" Scarlett asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Oh this was afterwards, I was travelling with two friends of mine Martha, and Donna and we crash landed on this planet called Messaline, where they were at war with this species called The Hath, these big fishy things and they were all running about through these underground tunnels, believing the city above them was inhabitable. And they had this, machine, which took a DNA sample from a single male or female organism and split it, into a biological child. It was how they were breeding soldiers, all giving DNA, and creating ready grown soldiers full of soldiery knowledge. So when the TARDIS pulled us there, they forced me to put my hand in it, and I didn't know what it was doing but suddenly there she was. My daughter. It was weird." He said
"What did she look like?"
"Blonde, average height, slim, cheeky, big blue eyes. And she was very passionate. But still when she blew up the tunnel leaving my friend Martha on the other side, and branding her collateral damage I was angry. I thought she was nothing more than a stupid bloody solider, and I didn't really accept her. And then we met the general who told us about the war, it had been going on for generations apparently and when I tried to stop it they said we were pacifists and chucked us all in jail. Donna gave Jenny her name, after I called her a 'generated anomaly' and it sort of stuck. I still refused her s my child, until Donna got out my stethoscope and we listened and she had two hearts, like me. Time Lord."
"So what happened next?"
"Well we escaped, and ran around trying to stop the war, and Jenny was becoming less and less like a soldier. I told her about the time war, and she showed me a trick or two, jumping through lasers and whatnot, and then we found it. The source, what the two sides had been fighting over. They didn't even know what it was, thought it was a weapon but it was actually a terraforming device, to make whole planets habitable, and it had turned the area where it stood like a garden, it was beautiful. And you see we got Martha back, she was with The Hath and Donna had worked out this number, code system that was printed on the areas. It was a date, and we worked out the war had only been going on for seven days, but with the amount of casualties and new generations, they just mythologised their whole history."
"Wow, I guess that shows you the power of word to mouth, hey doctor." Scarlett said
"Oh yeah, it was like Chinese whispers. And I explained that to them, as they met in the room, prepared to shoot each others brains out. But I spoke to them, and told them the truth and I ended the war, and it was so magnificent. But then the general, he wouldn't believe our ideas. His life's work, everything he had devoted himself to believe him had become lies and he couldn't accept that. He pulled his gun out, and tried to shoot me, but Jenny got in the way. And she got shot in the chest. And I held her, as she died on the floor of the gardens. We had so much to see me and Jenny, so many stolen moments. My daughter… my fantastic little girl…" The Doctor said, trailing off, wiping a stray tear from his eye.
"And she didn't regenerate then?" he shook his head "She wasn't enough like me," he said looking down.
"Nah," Scarlett said "She was too much like you."
oOo
Sophie sat on her bed and read the note for the fifteenth time.
Soph, I'm so sorry. I can't live with her anymore, I just can't do it. She won't let me be myself so I've gone to find him. To find dad. But don't tell her, please. I don't want her to come looking for me.
Just look after yourself Soph yeah? Because I worry about you a lot with the drink and that. Please don't do anything you'll regret. I love you.
Scarlett xxx
Sophie crumpled, leaning against the door so her mother wouldn't be able to come in, and let herself cry, for the first time in a while, taking another swig of the emergency bottle of vodka she kept under her bed for when she felt especially emotional which recently happened to be a lot. Her sister had been missing for two days, and she was getting worried. Why wouldn't she at least call? Just to let her know she was okay. Her mother was in pieces, thinking it was all her fault, and she was acting odd.
Sophie just wanted everything to go back to normal.
oOo
Scarlett was quite at home in Melanie's sisters flat, and there were quite a few other girls who lived there too, but she was the youngest. Melanie roomed with a girl named Francesca, who was sixteen and liked to listen to rock bands and inject heroin. And Scarlett didn't mind, because she didn't bother her, and she was nice enough, even with her drug habit. But there was one slight problem, she only spoke Spanish. So Scarlett had to pick it up quite quickly, and could already say certain things like 'Pass the crisps' and 'where's the TV remote' which were quite handy.
The other girls living there were Ulrika, an eighteen year old girl who had left her abusive father in Russia and met Melanie in the public college. She didn't speak much English, but Scarlett understood that that's when Melanie met Brad, her boyfriend. He was a bit shifty, but didn't say much to her and the other girls worked for him, to help manage the rent. Scarlett knew that she would have to get some kind of work soon, as she couldn't just scrounge off them forever, because she would feel guilty.
Down the hall was Amira, a seventeen year old Arabic girl and Sue-Lin a Japanese girl, who also spoke little English. But everyone in the flat apart from Melanie did the multi lingual thing pretty well, so Scarlett just hoped that she would pick it up quickly. She was never very good at French in school, but she would at least give this a try. Just short, simple phrases would have to do.
So she flopped down on her bed, and switched the telly to some makeover show, as Francesca wasn't paying much attention anyway and settled down to a quiet night, when suddenly Melanie came into the door. "Scarlett darling, I've got the best news ever!" she said, with a smile.
"Oh really, what?"
"Well I know a mate, who's a dentist who said he can totally get those disgusting metal things off your face, he's dead legit, honest."
"Really? Wow. My mum said I had to keep them on for another year."
"Nah there's no point in that, we've got to get you pretty if brad's gonna let you stay here"
"Why do I have to be pretty?" Scarlett asked, confused
"You'll see. Come on" Melanie said.
oOo
Scarlett licked her teeth, and they felt normal. She didn't remember much from the dentist, because Melanie gave her a pin to calm her down, which knocked her out. Her glasses were gone too, and Melanie had gotten her some contact lenses.
It was funny; she thought as she looked in the mirror, she had never felt so beautiful.
"¿qué te parece?" she asked Francesca, who was looking at her through her dark sunglasses, with an almost sad look on her face.
"Oh que van a tener un día de campo con usted, niña estúpida Inglés." Francesca said, before looking back down to her magazine
"Thanks" Scarlett said with a smile, hoping that what Francesca has said was a compliment.
She didn't know what the other girls did for brad, to pay the rent, but she knew that they were all somewhat afraid of him, and that worried her. She knew that he would probably want her to do the same thing, and she almost didn't want to know what it was.
oOo
It had been a few months, and Scarlett was relatively happy at Melanie's sisters flat, but she worriedly anticipated the day that brad would ask her to work. The other girls were taken out two or three times a week, and they didn't seem very emotionally stable. They all seemed to have drug and alcohol problems, and Scarlett was starting to smoke cigarettes quite often, but that was as far as she would go.
The only other girl that didn't do drugs was Melanie, who would give her cigarettes and show her tricks like blowing smoke rings, or pushing it out of her nose which she enjoyed, and Scarlett started to bond with her. She was almost like a big sister.
Scarlett trusted her.
That was until the day brad came, and asked Scarlett to work for him. Brad was about six foot tall, with dark brown hair and extremely pale skin, and there was something about him that Scarlett that didn't trust, that sent chills down her spine. He approached her as she sat on the sofa, munching on a cheese sandwich, and came and sat next to her.
"So scar, you've been living here for a while now, for free…"
"Oh yeah I know, and it's dead nice here, and I should really pull my way and I will. I'll look for a job but it's quite hard considering I'm only thirteen."
"Well you see, I can give you work, and you've only got to earn £100 quid a week, to cover the bills. And then any extra, is yours."
"What kind of work is it?"
"You'll see, it's nothing bad. I'll pick you up tomorrow at 9am with Amira to keep you company on the job." Then he noted Scarlett's slightly worried expression, "Honestly Scarlett don't worry, it's nothing bad. Trust me." He said, before getting up, and heading off to Melanie's room.
Scarlett was still sceptical, but tried to calm herself down. She was probably jumping to conclusions anyway. She hadn't developed enough language skills to ask the girls about work, but she knew a lot more than she had a few weeks ago, which was progress. Which was good. So Scarlett sat back, and switched on the TV, and found the news.
And then she gasped. It was full of pictures of her, terrible school photos and cringy family photos. And then there was a video, of her mum and her sister.
"Please, I just want my daughter back, so if anybody, anywhere knows anything, please phone in. it's so hard you don't understand, I just want her back."
And then the newsreader gave out a number to call for any information, and Scarlett turned the TV off. She was not going back there. Never.
oOo
"It's time, sweetheart. Time to go to work." Brad said, as he opened up Scarlett's door. She was dressed in the outfit that Francesca had picked for her of a denim skirt, and a halter neck vest top, with a leather jacket and ankle boots. And some dark sunglasses. From what Scarlett could translate, she said that 'they wouldn't think twice' about it.
But still Scarlett was worried, so she grabbed the leftover over £400 that she had from when she had left and stuffed it in her sock, and put her necklace on. Just in case she had to make a quick getaway.
Brad took her and Amira, who was dressed in some denim shorts and a crop top, with flip flops showing off her slim feet, and equally dark sunglasses, in his Mercedes, which was probably the nicest car that Scarlett had ever been in, and drove them for a long time. They were in the car for at least two hours, and Scarlett didn't know where they could be going.
Until they stopped, and pulled up by a roadside, where a lot of other girls were standing around, chain smoking and getting in and out of cars. Brad let Amira and Scarlett out and said to Amira what Scarlett understood as 'look after her' in Arabic, before driving away at top speed. Scarlett couldn't help but notice that he didn't have a licence plate.
"So what happens around here then?" Scarlett asked Amira, trying to stay positive, but Amira just looked at her, kind of sadly, and then walked away, before five minuets later, being picked up in an old jag but a guy in his late thirties. "Ah Amira, my special favourite" he said, before speeding off.
Scarlett was starting to feel seriously unnerved. She could feel eyes watching her, and she was seriously considering running. She didn't know what was happening but she knew that she didn't like it. Not one bit.
And then a man who must have been about twenty three, pulled up on a Harley Davidson motorbike, and stopped in front of her.
"Hmm first timer, £200?" he said, eyeing her quickly up and down.
"I'm sorry what? What's actually going on here?" she asked
"Are you one of Brads?" he asked. Scarlett nodded.
"I thought so. Now get on the fucking bike or you'll have me and him to worry about, love."
So Scarlett gulped, and jumped onto the back of the motorbike. Hoping that he wouldn't notice her crying.
oOo
SIX MONTHS LATER
Running, she was running.
She was right. She was so stupid.
It was a prostitution ring. A big prostitution ring, called the Red Orchid. And it had taken her so long to get out. She had been passed around by filthy men, and she had no say in it. Brad had threatened her, saying if she went to the police, he'd kill her and her family. She wished that she had never run away. And that's she had never trusted Melanie.
She had progressed far in her languages, not that she spoke to the other girls much as she hated them, all of them. For not helping her. For not warning her.
She hated herself.
She had seen the pleas on the news by her family, looking for her and nearly burst into tears when she saw her dad on there as well, pleading her return. But she couldn't get out. When she wasn't locked inside the flat she was being dropped off on the walk-by, the other girls nicknamed it, having to make money.
She didn't like to talk about it.
She had stared to smoke a lot more, and did a little bit of cocaine, but not as much as Amir and Sue-Lin, who seemed to do it at least five times a week. She did it once a week, if that. Cigarettes were more her thing. Especially since her fourteenth birthday, she was starting to feel a lot more grown up, and the smoking helped her cope.
The only update she got from her family, where the ones she saw on the news. She knew her mother was pregnant, because she had been showing in the latest help video. She didn't really know how to react to that. She couldn't phone, because brad had taken her mobile, because she was in too deep now. But then she saw the one newscast that changed everything.
"Sophie Cooper, sister of missing person Scarlett Cooper has been pronounced dead after being found unconscious in her bedroom, thanks to liver failure, due to an alcohol overdose."
And that was enough for Scarlett. Her body was wracked with tears and she couldn't stop. For days she sat in her room and she cried hysterically. She wouldn't work. Brad slapped her round a bit but she didn't respond. She just kept on crying and screaming until she couldn't make any more noise.
And then one day, brad had enough. He grabbed her and bundled her downstairs, kicking and screaming and threw her into the back of his car.
"Oh you won't work now huh scar? Darling? Fine. See what happens to little girls who don't do what they're told."
Wow super long I know! So the next chapter will be The Doctor talking about Rose, and then the final instalment of Scarlett's story reviews please! oh and i fixed chapter four (i acidentally repeated chapter three oops lol) but its fixed now, and the chapter 'She Would' is up
