Chapter Seven

Confiding

There's no such thing as ghosts.

There's no such thing as ghosts.

But the little girl…

There's no such thing as ghosts.

Ashley paced her mirrored cell and chewed on her thumb anxiously. She could hear the Doctor scraping around in his own little room on the other side of the mirror doing only god knows what. The last thing he had said was to ask her if she believed in ghosts.

'Of course not!' she had cried, shaken by the suggestion. 'Don't be so stupid. Stop trying to scare me.'

And he hadn't said anything else, just thumped around. She could hear his screwdriver whirring away but apparently nothing was coming of it. They were trapped. Probably forever. After the predicaments they had been in – the creatures they had ran from – they were going to end up starving to death while watching themselves wither away and occasionally get freaked out by the little ghost girl with her cryptic mutterings.

Ashley could think of a million and one better ways to go.

'Can't you move the walls back or something?' she called through the wall. 'Point your screwdriver diddly at it and move it back.'

'Don't you think I tried that?' the Doctor called back. 'And anyway, I'm busy.'

'Busy? What could you be doing that's more important than getting us out of here!'

'You're very shrill, did I ever tell you that? I don't think I've come across anyone quite as shrill as you. And when you panic you get this mad look in your eyes. Bit unsettling to be honest.'

Ashley frowned. 'What?'

'Look in the mirror if you think I'm wrong. Your left eye twitches.'

She felt annoyance rising up in her and she looked at her reflection. She scowled. Her eye wasn't twitching at all! What was he on about? She just looked annoyed, which was understandable taking the way he was going on. He didn't seem to care that they were about to die-

'Oh my god!' she wailed, mortified. 'I twitch!'

'Told you.'

Ashley rubbed her eye after it twitched for the second time. 'Why did no one tell me I had a psycho twitch?'

'Probably because they thought you were a psycho.' The Doctor replied. 'Right, I think I know what's going on. Two of my walls have just moved so I'm guessing they're on a timer. In about… well… my guess is in about ten minutes the corridor will open up again. Hopefully the wall between us will move so we don't get split up even more. So I hope you're pleased to know that we probably won't starve to death in here after all.'

Ashley grimaced at her reflection. 'That's why Manny calls me Twitchy when he's angry with me, isn't it?'

'Oh quit your moaning. I wish I hadn't told you now.'

She sat down with her back to the mirror and sighed heavily. 'Sorry. Bet you're sick of me pissing and moaning every five minutes.'

'Well…' The Doctor paused.

'You're supposed to say of course not.'

'Oh right. Of course not!'

Ashley rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smile. 'I'd love to know how you do it.'

'How I do what?'

'I don't know how the whole time thing works in the Tardis, but I think it was about the equivalent of what, four days ago? You were trapped in that VR game. Well, we both were… And now you would think it had never happened. You've gone completely back to normal. I'd love to know how you can move on so quickly.'

There was silence from the other side. Ashley bit her lip and glanced down. She wanted him to talk about it, to open up. Of course he hadn't gone back to normal, but she thought if she said that she would get a reaction and seeing as they were practically forced together like this, he had no choice but to answer her questions. About a minute had passed and he still hadn't answered.

'Doctor?' she pushed, turning her head to the mirror.

'It's a long story.' He said flatly. He knew what she was trying to do.

'Well you're not planning on going anywhere, are you?'

'Ashley, I-'

'Look, I understand that it's a sore subject and all that. I get it, I do. But at the end of the day I'm travelling with you. We're travelling through time and space together, just the two of us, so you obviously have some trust in me. I trust you with my life, Doctor, and I would tell you anything. You want to trade stories? I've got some embarrassing ones I could trade. When I was five I was at my aunties wedding and I stripped down to my knickers and ran through down the alter after her shouting I needed a pee. I've got more if that's not good enough.'

'That's enough of those, thank you.' He sounded a little amused.

'It's just… I want you to tell me. I know you're already keeping things from me. But surely that shows how much I trust you. You know something important about me, about the things I can do, but you know it's for the best if I don't know. I understand that. I may not completely agree with it, but I understand. I'd just like you to be able to show that you trust me too.'

She waited for him to respond, but he had fallen silent. After about thirty seconds, she sighed and slumped against the wall. Great. Not only were they trapped, she had made the situation awkward. Well done, Ashley.

'There was a war.' The Doctor said suddenly, taking her by surprise.

'What?' Ashley asked, shuffling around to face the mirror and being greeted by her own face.

'A war. The Last Great Time War. Destroyed my whole planet, among many others.' He paused. 'I was the only one left. The rest are gone. Dead. And them,' he spat the word viciously. 'They keep coming back. Keep coming back to rub my nose in it. I lose everything, everyone, and they just keep coming back. Over and over again.'

'Who are they?' Ashley asked quietly.

'Daleks.'

She had never heard of them, but by the hatred in the Doctor's voice she knew better than to ask about them. That could wait for another time, she thought. 'What about that girl? The blonde girl. She didn't look like she belonged there. Everyone else were wearing robes and stuff.'

'That was Rose Tyler.'

Ashley paused. 'Is she dead?'

'Oh no. No she's very much alive. She's just not here anymore.'

'Who was she to you?'

'She used to travel with me.'

There was more to it than that, she could tell by his tone, but she had pried more information out of him than she was entitled to. Whatever Rose had been to him was his business, not hers. The fact he had wanted to stay in the VR game made sense now. If that had happened to her, she wouldn't want to leave either.

'Um… why can't you go back in time? Back to before the war and prevent it or something. Isn't that what people use time machines for? Change the past?'

'The whole war is Time Locked.' The Doctor explained with a sad sigh. 'Although I've tried. Can't get through.'

'You're the last of your kind then?' Ashley sighed. 'That's pretty crap.'

The Doctor laughed. 'That's one way of putting it, yeah.'

Ashley nodded, unsure of what she was going to say now. This topic obviously wasn't going to go anywhere good. She didn't want to make him cry or anything, even though she doubted that he would. But still, she didn't want to depress the hell out of him. She had already managed to depress herself. A change of subject was in order.

'I've been practising!' she announced.

'Eh?' The Doctor asked in bemusement.

'My powers. I've been practising. When you weren't there of course. I didn't think you would approve of me settling little fires here there and everywhere.'

'As long as you weren't doing it in the Tardis.'

Ashley winced. 'Well…'

'What?!'

'It was only a little one. You didn't even notice and I was right behind you!' She carried on before he had a chance to interrupt her. 'Anyway, I can control it really well now. It's not just a case of whomph and everything burns. I think I can do other things too. I keep on getting weird feelings in my head. I can't explain it… but I know I can do other things.' She paused thoughtfully. 'Do you know what I can do?'

'No.' he replied. 'Just what I've seen.'

'But you know what I am.'

Pause. 'Yes.'

'Tell me.'

He was silent for a moment. Ashley listened anxiously. Eventually, he sighed.

'You're not going to like it.' He told her. 'But I suppose I'll have to tell you.'

Ashley shuffled onto her knees, staring at the mirror in front of her even though she was looking at herself and not the Doctor. 'Tell me.'

'It's… it's complicated. I think you'll be surprised to learn that we do actually have something in common…'

Ashley blinked as her reflection changed suddenly, and drastically. All of a sudden she wasn't looking at herself, she was looking at a woman with black hair and wide blue eyes. She was sitting in the exact same position as she was. For a moment, Ashley thought it was she who had changed.

'Uh… Doctor?' she mumbled.

'You asked me to tell you and I'm telling. The least you can do is not interrupt, it's hard enough for me as it is.'

Ashley swallowed. 'Um… I'm looking at the mirror, right?'

'What's the matter, you noticed another twitch?'

'Not exactly.' Ashley winced.

The woman in the mirror moved forward quickly, slamming her hands on the mirror. Ashley fell backwards with a startled cry and looked at the woman in horror. She was mouthing something frantically, possibly even screaming, but Ashley heard no words from her mouth.

'There's someone in the mirror!' Ashley cried in panic. 'Doctor there's someone in the mirror!'

She blinked and the woman had vanished. She only saw her own frightened face looking back. A moment later and the wall behind her was moving. She scrambled away from it, watching with wide eyes.

'You stay where you are, Ashley,' the Doctor ordered. 'I'm going to find a way around to you, okay?'

'You'll get lost!' she wailed, shaken by the apparition she had seen. 'Doctor! Don't go!'

But she could hear his footsteps heading away. She looked through the newly opened corridor and swallowed hard.