Chapter 8:
Into Her Mind
The Doctor laughed at their escape then realised about Heather and turned around to find her rubbing her sore back by the railing. He hurried over to her, "Okay, I know I got a lot of explaining to do, but firstly, you are in the Tardis, my spaceship-time-machine...machine."
"Ow, what?" Heather groaned.
"My Tardis is bigger on the inside, as you can see for yourself." The Doctor grinned.
"This," Heather started, "this is all impossible. How can all this be real?"
"Well it must be real," the Doctor said, disappointed, "I did slap you before, so this must be real."
Heather frowned and felt her cheek and then punched his arm.
"That hurt!" Heather exclaimed loudly.
The Doctor rubbed his arm, "I know it did. And I said sorry. But, on to important things, like what happened in the kindergarten."
Heather realised, "The children..."
"They weren't real Heather –"
"What do you mean 'they weren't real'?" Heather attacked him. "How can you say that like it's nothing."
"Because they weren't children. They were an alien race called the Marcine. And they were protecting you from another alien entity that they called the Black Beast. They died protecting you"
"Protecting me?" Heather mumbled, "why would they be protecting me?"
"Because I told them to." The Doctor said quietly.
There was a short pause as Heather took this in, then she broke it, "what?"
The Doctor holds her head softly and rested his forehead on hers. He sighed, "it seems that you were travelling with me before I met you...again."
Heather pulled away from him, "I still don't understand."
The Doctor stood and paced around the console before deciding to lean on a clear segment of the console. "Do you remember what I told you about my memories?"
"You said that they were confusing you." Heather said, nodding.
"It seems that there is something wrong with them. There is a whopping big part missing. The part where we have been travelling together, where something must have happened that lead to us losing our memories." The Doctor explained.
"Wait, 'losing our memories'?" Heather asked loudly.
"Yes, 'losing our memories'. You were unconscious when I came to the Marcines. I managed to get the Marcine help try and recover your memories and went off somewhere else, I can't remember."
The Doctor shook his head and closed his eyes. Heather breathed in deeply and looked down at her hands.
"What do we do now?" Heather finally said.
"I – I don't know." The Doctor sighed. "I don't know, I don't know, I don't –"
Realising his silence, Heather looked up and saw a spark in his eyes, "What? What happened?"
"Your memories aren't gone! They're just repressed. That's why I got the Marcine to help! I believe I can try and find who is behind all this mess with memories."
"Wait, what are you going to do?"
"Do you trust me?" The Doctor said as he moved closer to Heather.
"No." Heather cautiously said.
"Trust me just for a little bit." The Doctor knelt in front of her and raised his hands, "now, what I'm about to do next, is only effective if you co-operate with me. I will be accessing your memories. But I will only be able to access the memories if you allow me to."
"How are you going to do that?" Heather asked.
"I have certain psychic powers." The Doctor answered.
Heather snorted, "psychic powers?"
"Yeah, one of the perks for being an alien." The Doctor started, "now, what I want you to do is to go through your memories and all your memories that you do not want me to see, just picture a locked door and I won't try to open it. Okay?"
Still unsure, "okay..."
The Doctor held Heather's face in his hands gently before closing his eyes. Heather followed his lead and closed hers.
Heather gasped, "this is weird."
Heather's mind
Her surroundings was a dark-lit, empty corridor with multiple doors on either side of it. Many of the doors are locked with padlocks and she followed the Doctor as he walked down it, looking at the doors as he passed them.
"Is this what my mind is like?" Heather asked.
"No, I just set it up like this so it's easier to go through your memories." The Doctor answered.
He noticed a door that was not locked and opened it. Through the door, was the lounge room of a medium-sized family house. A small brunette girl sat on a piano stool by the piano that was at a corner of the room. She was crying as she watched her mother running afterher father out the door, begging for him to stay.
Suddenly, Heather grabbed the door and shut it. A lock appeared.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor mumbled, "I didn't mean to pry."
"No, it's fine, I should have locked it earlier." Heather said, looking down, "let's just find out the repressed memories."
"Right," the Doctor said, he looked down the corridor and noticed something. He hurried to it and Heather followed closely behind him. He stopped running and studied a door that was barricaded with barbed wire and multiple deadlocks, "look-ie here."
"Is this it?" Heather asked.
"It's got to be, no other door is this protected, unless you've done this..."
"No."
The Doctor approaches the door and reached through the barbed wire to a lock then suddenly everything disappeared.
The Doctor and Heather was left in the darkness when a voice boomed out from nowhere, yet everywhere. As if it was from inside their heads.
"Well, hello there Doctor. How nice to see you again." The voice boomed.
"Again?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh yes, that's right, you've lost all your memories. That is a shame."
"What do you know about my memories?" the Doctor yelled angrily.
"All in good time, my good Doctor, all in good time." The voice laughed.
"Then tell me, what have you done to Heather?" the Doctor yelled again.
"Nothing, nothing at all." The voice said with an innocent tone, "well, maybe I locked up some of her memories, but it was all harmless fun."
"What? 'Harmless fun'?" the Doctor asked, angrier.
"What does he mean Doctor?" Heather asked, moving closer to the Doctor.
"Hush now Heather, let the smart people talk about serious stuff."
Annoyed, Heather yelled, "hey!"
The Doctor snapped at Heather, "shut up Heather!" Then to the voice, "Why have you sealed up her memories?"
"I didn't seal much, just her adventures with you and things that she shouldn't have seen." The voice said softly.
"Why!" the Doctor exclaimed more than asked.
"Because then she would have told you about it and it would have been cheating." The voice answered.
The Doctor was taken aback, "what?"
"Don't worry Doctor, now that you're back in her life, her recovery will be quicker. I can't keep he memories sealed forever. Sooner or later, there will be a trigger for a memory to resurface. I can't stop memories from resurfacing. I'll have to re-seal them again after her memories are back."
"Why have you done this? What do you want with us?" the Doctor asked loudly.
"Secondly, I want to play a game with you. And firstly, as I said, all will be revealed in good time."
The Doctor snapped, "I swear, I will hunt you down –"
"Threats won't work on me Doctor." The voice interrupted, "now, let's play a game. The rules: stay away from the Darkness and try to find me. Sounds easy, right?"
"You mean the Black Beast?" the Doctor asked.
"I mean the Darkness! I invented it!" the voice yelled.
The Doctor and Heather covered their ears.
The voice calmed down, "The Black Beast is what the pathetic Marcine called it. Its real name is the Darkness and it will be the greatest destroyer of worlds. Now, back to the rules, stay away from it. You don't know what it's capable of. Well not now. But soon you'll know."
"What –"
"Someone will die very soon, Doctor. Will you be able to stop that from happening when that person dies?" the voice suddenly said before Heather disappeared before the Doctor's eyes.
Second last chapter is now finally done. I can't believe it. Finally, the re-write of what used to be called The Clock Underneath Your Table is over. Look forward to the next one.
Kid.
