A/N: Hope I didn't go too far last chapter, I love horror but I don't want to terrify anyone too much as I'd love for you all to keep reading. Just to warn you I do continue with the horror in this but there is no more Ouiji. Please keep reviewing as it makes my day. I was speaking to my mentor the other day about my work on here and the reviews I get and he said the one reason anybody writes is not for the story but for the people who read it. I think he's right.
9. Grace's Story
The Doctor leaned up against the counter in the TARDIS kitchen, staring at the glass upturned on the table in front of him. He knew his people could be telekinetic, his grand daughter had proved her own abilities many times in his company but he'd never managed it himself. He concentrated on the glass, willing it to move. In the cold, clinical light of the kitchen he couldn't bring himself to believe the events that had happened only an hour before. It was the darkness, his own imagination that brought on the events but even in his rational mind he was beginning to doubt he had any control over anything anymore. He'd felt the emotions, Grace's sadness, Clarence's anger. He had seen the glass move of its own accord, seen it spell out the name he hadn't revealed for so many years.
He crouched down by the table, fixing his gaze beneath the glass, tried to imagine it lifting but he just felt his eyesight blurring without his glasses and slumped his head into his arms.
"Still trying to explain it?" came a voice from the door. Rose leant on the frame, her arms folded across her chest as she watched him.
He looked up and managed a weak smile, pushing up to his feet, "How are they?"
"Mickey is in the lounge room with every light on and the television set to the loudest comedy channel he can find and Mum's in bed with a brandy," said Rose, "They'll be alright though. I think Mum will probably slap you when she's a little less dazed though."
"Perhaps I deserve it," said the Doctor, "I put you all at risk back there. If you hadn't have moved to sit by your mum that glass would have hit you when it flew off the table."
Rose crossed the room and lay a hand his arm, "I know but it didn't so stop worrying," she said, her fingers tightening slightly to emphasis her words, "I'm fine, no one got seriously hurt."
"My hand's sore," said the Doctor, doing a remarkable impression of a lost puppy, "Its going to take a few days to heal."
Rose raised his hand to her lips and kissed the back of it, mindful of his damaged palm, "Yeah but it's a fighting hand, it'll get through it. Doctor?"
"Hmmm?"
"Its ten to midnight you know, all the phenomena we've seen before tonight happened after midnight," said Rose, "We should go back in and sit in that bedroom we stayed in last night. I have a feeling about that light you saw, I think it was trying to show you something, not hurt you."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, looking suitably impressed by the woman before him, "Are you offering to go with me?"
Rose shrugged, "I want to know. Poor Grace, she seemed so kind and everything felt safe when she was in the room with us but that other spirit, Doctor do you think its possible that he hurts her even now? She disappeared so quickly and then he came, perhaps she ran away."
The Doctor pulled her into a warm hug, stroking her hair with his good hand, "It'll be dangerous, I don't know what could happen in there. We could just go, return to London and forget this place ever existed."
"But you don't do that do you? The same way we couldn't leave Satellite Five and go to Marbella in 1986, if we had you…" Rose let out a shuddery breath and clung a little tighter to him, "If we had you wouldn't have regenerated but all those people, the whole universe would have suffered. I know you still don't believe fully in ghosts but I think those people in there were real people once and some need our help and others need to be stopped. We have to go back."
The Doctor pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "I hurt you so much that day didn't I?" he said sadly, "And yet here you are, proving to me why I came back for you all that time ago? We'll grab some torches, spare batteries, everything we'll need because you're right it's what we do."
"Doctor? I do love you, you know that don't you?"
She felt the soft vibrations of a contented hum settle through her hair, "And I have no idea what I did to deserve it. I love you too," he muttered before taking her hand and smiling down at her, "Run!"
Giggling Rose let him pull her from the kitchen.
XXXX
The house was deathly silent as the Doctor pushed open the front door, cautiously taking two steps inside, the torch beam sweeping as much of the room in front of him as possible. He turned back and beckoned behind him. Rose tiptoed over the doorstep, her small form practically welding itself to the back of his coat as she clung to the fold at his waist. She pushed the door closed behind her, flinching as it slipped out of her grip and slammed. They both tensed to run but when no sound came they slowly relaxed.
"I'm getting to old for this," muttered the Doctor, heading towards the stairs. Even under the lightest of pressures the ancient wood of the stairs creaked unforgivingly with each step and they made very slow progress. The Doctor paused at the top, swinging the torch side to side, paying special attention to the door to the blood stained room. When nothing became apparent he pushed his back against the wall and brought Rose up beside him. He walked her forward towards the room they had slept in, his body between her and the threat from the nursery and bedroom behind.
Every movement of shadow as they passed by made Rose jump as she shuffled forward, her eyes trying to focus everywhere at once and leaving her dizzy. They reached the closed door of the bedroom but she couldn't bring herself to push down the handle. The Doctor's hand reaching out beside her made her jump and she heard his half hearted laugh in her ear.
"You're alright darling," he said, his hand closing on the handle and pressing down, "I've got you."
The door opened slowly and the beams of light from their torches swept the room before they stepped inside. Rose went to close the door behind them but the Doctor stilled her hand, leaving it ajar. He pulled a box of matches from his pocket and lit the candle still standing on the dresser. The warm, red flame flared up, chasing back the shadows in the room, leaving only the corners dark and menacing. He clicked off his torch and Rose did the same but her finger stayed close to the button.
"What do we do now?" she asked, biting her lip as she heard the tremble in her voice.
"Get on the bed," said the Doctor, "I want to try and recreate the other night, now I know what to expect maybe I can get a few more answers."
Rose sat on the bed but not before stooping to check beneath it, causing the Doctor to laugh before throwing his hand over his mouth as she shot him a scowl.
"Well you never know," muttered Rose as she leant back on the pillows, "Come and sit down, you're making me more nervous than I am already."
The Doctor sat down amongst the heavy satin pillows and trained his eyes on the corner he had last seen the light. Rose scooted across the distance between them, grabbing his arm and pulling it around her shoulders. The trembling had stopped but the Doctor could still feel the tension in her.
"When this is over," he whispered, "I'm taking you to the sunniest, happiest most relaxing planet I can find."
"Is the Doctor actually offering to go on holiday?" said Rose incredulously, "Next thing you'll be telling me you'll do the washing up for once."
"I don't think that much has changed."
"Oh I don't know, you've started believing ghost stories."
The Doctor only smiled in the dim light and cuddled her all the tighter.
XXXX
He hadn't meant to fall asleep. Rose had dozed off in his arms half an hour after their arrival and her deep even breathing had been almost hypnotic. He wasn't sure what had woken him, just the same prickly feeling on the back of his neck as he had had before. His arm was taking a little longer to wake up where Rose had been laying back on it. He tried to gently shake it awake but the movement stirred Rose and two sleepy brown orbs blinked up at him.
"Doctor?" she said confused but then her memory came to her and she sat up straight, "What happened?"
"Nothing yet," he said, "But I think something's about to."
As if on cue the temperature in the room gradually began to drop and Rose pulled her jumper tighter around her. The Doctor's eagle eyes spotted it first, a tiny red, intermittent glow in the corner. This time he scanned the area around the dot and when his eyes reached the ceiling her saw the small corner support bean between the two main beam, easy enough to tie a rope to.
"I think that's where she hung herself," he said, knowing Rose wouldn't hear him as her eyes remained trained on the massing red dot.
A puff of wind circled them before snuffing out the candle, rendering them once more in the dark as no moonlight shone through the window from the cloud shrouded night. Rose's reached for her torch but the Doctor stilled her hand, entwining their fingers tightly to convince her she was safe. As before the red light soon dissipated into a black silhouette on against the shadow, places fading to grey to reveal hands. Rose felt the urge to run once more but she resisted, watching instead as the apparition before them became much more defined. The face was the last to appear and both the Doctor and Rose recoiled in horror as it did. Thin and haggard, nothing like the picture they had seen, her hair hung in limp black mats either side of her death pale face, her lips tinged with blue but it was her neck, exposed at the top of her Victorian dress, that held the true horror. Her throat was marred with a thick red rope burn, the tendons in her neck in places completely revealed where the skin was warn away.
Rose's hand came up to her own throat but she was unable to tear her eyes away from the girl in front of her. The Doctor, with a bravery he didn't even know he had, pushed up from the bed and took a few tentative steps towards the figure. She too stepped forward, almost as frightened of him as he was of her. The Doctor began to circle her slowly, regarding her still with a scientist's eyes. As he came to face her again he held his hand up to her, palm facing upwards. Rose thought she saw the beginnings of a sad smile on the girl's features before she raised her hand as if to lay it in the Doctor's. Her fingers lowered to his but passed straight through, dispersing to mist before reforming beneath his hand.
The Doctor shuddered as both a cold and a sadness ran through his veins. He struggled to find a voice and the one he did came out high and strained.
"Grace?"
The girl's lips remained in a hard, thin line but she nodded very slowly. The Doctor looked like he wanted to cry, from the sadness she had passed to him, from the fact that this was happening. Rose cautiously came to his side and Grace's hollow eyes turned on her, as grey as the shadows that made up her form. She held a finger to her lips before turning towards the door, beckoning Rose and the Doctor to follow her. The Doctor took Rose's hand, looking down at her with concerned but bright eyes before stepping forward. Grace led them from the room and into the dark corridor, her own footsteps audible on the floorboards. She paused at the stairs and looked back at them, her eyes displaying a terror before she seemed to edge closer to the wall, away from the door to the blood stained room. As she reached the nursery door she stopped and turned back to them. The soft muffled crying echoed from the room again but as the Doctor reached out a hand to the door handle, Grace held her arm up to stop him. She shook her head, tears visible in her eyes, so much so that Rose wanted to reach a hand up and wipe them away.
"The children?" said the Doctor softly.
Grace nodded.
"Clarence did something to the children?"
Grace nodded again, slowly and deliberately as if trying to convey the message through her eyes. She offered him the chance to open the door but when he tried the handle it wouldn't budge. He gave her a puzzled look but she gave no further movement. Rose could almost hear his brain working over the silent girl before them, the girl no older than Rose but looking aged beyond her years. The Doctor lay his palms flat on the door, closing his eyes, seemingly tracing unseen patterns on the wood work.
"He locked them inside," he said, his voice making him sound closer to Grace's kind than anything living, "He locked the children inside the nursery and…no!"
He snatched his hand away from the door, his eyes snapping open. He turned towards Rose, almost searching her face for some sort of comfort but finding none before he turned back to Grace. The young girl looked up at him, a single tear escaping her eye and coursing down her cheek.
"He starved them to death," said the Doctor, "He…"
Both Rose and the Doctor jumped as they heard a key turn in the lock of the door opposite. The Doctor patted his pocket, feeling the key he'd removed still resting beside his hip. They both shuddered as the figure of Grace passed through them at a run, making her way back to the sanctuary of the bedroom they had first been in.
"Grace wait!" cried the Doctor before he and Rose swiftly followed her retreating form. They heard a door slam behind them, heavy boots on the landing. Neither even thought of the stairs as they passed them, following Grace and seeing her duck into the room. A desperate female scream rang out around them and Rose threw her hands over her ears but pulled them back to grab onto the Doctor's coat once more.
They rounded the corner but the scene that greeted them was beyond the macabre. Grace hung from a rope from the corner beam, her grey eyes wide and staring but her face lifeless. The Doctor quickly pulled Rose to his chest, concealing her eyes from the sight before closing his own. He heard the rumble of laughter in his ear and forced his eyes open. Clarence's face flashed before his eyes for a second and then disappeared. The house fell deathly silent save for their own ragged breathing as they stood clinging to each other for dear life. Rose's breath soon became shuddering sobs as she grabbed handfuls of his jacket, pressing her face as close into his shirt as she could.
The Doctor risked a look towards the corner and there was nothing there but shadow and moonlight, the clouds outside slowly parting to reveal the silvery night.
"Rose?" he said, his voice choked but not quivering as he had feared, "Rose its over, its over. Come on, let's get out of here." Flicking on his torch he led them back into the corridor, having to guide his companion as her face remained buried in his shoulder. They made slow progress down the dark stairs but this time to door opened easily and they stepped into the open air. Only then did Rose raise her head, looking up at the stars.
"That poor girl," said Rose, "Doctor she looked…she…those children…"
"Sshh, its alright," said the Doctor, tightening his arms around her, "We're going to help them."
"How?" sniffed Rose, believing for the first time ever that saving them would be beyond even the Doctor.
"I'm going to find their bodies," he said softly, "I think we'll find that none of Clarence Proctor's family were laid to rest properly when they died. No one knew what happened and it needs to be known."
"I didn't think you'd believe that," said Rose as they began the walk back to the TARDIS, "A proper burial and all that, you're not Christian…Human even."
"But they were and what they believe should have been done and what wasn't done is what keeps them here," said the Doctor, "I never thought I'd believe it, never though it possible but whether we call them ghosts or not, those souls need our help."
The TARDIS key scratched in the door. The Doctor pushed it open, stepping back to let Rose inside first. His attention turned to a familiar star and he ran a hand over his eyes.
"I wonder if…"
"What?" said Rose.
"Nothing," said the Doctor, "Come on, you need some sleep."
XXXX
The Doctor nursed his cheek with his hand, grumbling as he stomped down the road towards the village. His mood wasn't improved by the summer monsoon that seemed to have Cumbria in its grip. When he'd gone to the kitchen that morning the first thing to greet him was not a cup of coffee, or a gentle smile from Rose but a smack round the face from Jackie Tyler and a lecture that he was sure stretch on for at least half an hour. Rose had finally rescued him, answering her mother's protests that they had to go into town to do some more research on the house. It hadn't helped that when they stepped outside expecting the warm, sunny whether they'd had since they arrived, they were soon drench by the rain pelting down onto them.
Rose scurried along beside the Doctor, trying her best to keep him dry with the umbrella she had managed to find in the TARDIS wardrobe, a big, black golf affair that made her wonder if the Doctor had ever played. She'd seen the cricket bat propped up in the corner with a sandy coloured jacket beside it but she'd never seen him use it. She could hear him muttering about mothers and domestics and how no one appreciated all the effort he was putting into chasing spooks around a dodgy old house for a week. She felt a smile tug her lips as he pressed on in his mutterings, this regeneration was becoming famous for his rambling grumbles.
The village came into sight but the Doctor veered off the normal road and up a small dirt track that led to the small, stone church. The grave yard surrounding it was unkempt and overgrown but that didn't deter him from pushing open the gate and wandering inside.
"What are we doing here?" said Rose, holding the umbrella over him again but it proving not much use as he was already soaked.
"Checking for gravestones," said the Doctor, "If we can't find any for the family then we'll know the bodies have been put somewhere else. Look around for any bearing the name of Proctor or Howes."
"Can't we wait until the rain dies down a bit? You're utterly soaked and you'll catch cold if you stay out much longer."
The Doctor smiled at Rose's concern, "I'm much tougher than you humans you know, a little rain isn't going to hurt. Now come on, have a look around and when we don't find anything, which I'm sure we won't, we're going to the library."
"Library?"
"Its time Mary Jones told me what really happened to her."
XXXX
The graveyard hunt had proved as fruitless as the Doctor predicted and they soon found themselves climbing the steps to the little library in the village. Rose left the dripping brolly in the lobby before collaring the Doctor and wrestling his soaked trench coat off his back, hanging it over the side of a leaflet display. She saw the lady behind the desk working away frantically, glancing up now and then to shoot them a desperate glance, clearly the Doctor had left her more than a little shaken during his last visit.
As they pushed through the glass interior doors she jumped to her feet, gathering up several books and busying herself with filling the shelves. The Doctor stuffed his hands in his pockets and scuffed his shoes against the white marble floor. He was whistling a tune Rose didn't recognise but she could already see a hundred questions forming on his lips. He meandered over to the book shelf that Mary was currently standing at and leaned against it.
"What happened that night at the house Mary?" he said.
The woman glared up at him in alarm before moving over to another shelf, pulling the books out onto the floor before putting them back in exactly the same order.
"You're not a member," she muttered, "You or your friend so please leave."
"You said last time that I could come in to do some research," said the Doctor not leaving his leaning post, "I'm back to do that research."
"I meant you could use the books, not me," said Mary, her fingers seeking the gold chain around her neck and fiddling with it.
"Why are you so afraid to tell me what happened?" said the Doctor, "What did you see in that house Mary? What happened to those two Johnson boys?"
Mary paled dramatically, her hands stilling on the books. She closed her eyes, taking deep shuddering breaths as if reliving an experience she had long since forgotten, "I told you to leave that place but you didn't listen," she said, tears squeezing out from the corners of her eyes, "I told them to, I told them that night that it wasn't safe but they went in and Patrick made me follow them. We…we…"
The Doctor was by her side in an instant, a warm hand light on her shoulder, "What happened?" he said more gently than before, "I'll believe you Mary, whatever you tell me, I've seen things too, things in the dark that shouldn't be there."
Mary swallowed heavily before looking at him through her tears, "We went to the house because all the villagers said the woman who lived there was a witch. There were seven of us, Patrick and me, Ted and Perry Johnson, Eliza, Martin and Christopher. We were only kids, I was on seven. When we realised that the old woman wasn't home Pat and Chris decided to break in. I told them not to, it wasn't right. It was really creepy inside, like someone was always watching you."
"Yeah, we got that feeling too," said Rose coming to the side of the bookcase.
"We started hearing these noises upstairs, crying, doors slamming. I thought one of the boys from school had come in earlier and was trying to wind us up. Martin said we should draw straws, see who should go up there and see what was happening and to see if the old woman did keep monsters up there. Perry Johnson drew the short straw," said Mary fiddling with her necklace once again, "Ted wouldn't let Perry go on his own so they went up the stairs together, I remember them laughing, thinking it was such a great game but I knew something dreadful would happen. We heard a door slam and we heard them scream and…"
Mary's entire body shook with sobs. Rose pushed the Doctor aside to wrap her arms around the quivering woman.
"Its ok," she said softly, "Take your time."
"We went up the stairs, all of us," said Mary, clutching Rose's hand until her knuckles went white, "It was so quiet, not a sound. We turned at the top, expecting to see them there, laughing at us but it wasn't them we saw. Oh it was awful, I've never seen such a sight in my life, those eyes, those hands. The boys were nowhere in sight but there was a man, his eyes were like black fire and his hands…his hands were stained with blood. I saw him with my waking eyes I swear. He had this shocking white hair and was so deathly pale."
"Clarence," said the Doctor, "We've seen him too but not like that."
"We thought he was a robber, or a murderer hiding in the house but then he just walked through us," said Mary, shuddering at the memory. Rose did also as she remembered the apparition of Grace passing them the night before, "This terrible woman's scream rang out and it was like the house itself came alive. The doors all opened and slammed on their own, the curtains moved, it went to cold. We ran, we ran so fast until we were so far away."
"What happened to the boys Mary?" said the Doctor.
"I don't know, we never saw them. They just disappeared."
A/N: Right, that's your lot until Monday as I'm visiting my Mum this weekend and will have no access to the internet but I will try to update Monday.
