It's Just a Scratch
by
xXx MissHaun†ed-MoonLigh† xXx
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Thanksies to Cute Gallifreyan, AvitarGirl, Laby Anne Boleyn, Shrink To Be, Freakk66, Tai Greywing, AscendingWithTyler, Syreene, Emela, forestwife, Tenth-Doctor-Fan and The Noble Platypus!
Sorry for the three hour delay. We had guests, this evening. Which meant alcohol. Which means … the room's been spinning for the best part of six hours. (Giggles)
AnyWho, here is an almost comprehendible chapter. Enjoy!
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10.
A low but painfully loud bleep slowly emanated from the TARDIS' walls, growing in pitch and growing in urgency as the seconds ticked by.
Thoughts fuzzy and distorted, the floor swaying like the deck of a ship, Martha groaned softly and slowly blinked her eyes open, raising a weak hand to her head
Taking a few seconds to snap herself back together, she was a little slow on the uptake, and it was only when the lights began to flash erratically that she finally twigged onto what was going on.
'Martha …'
Scrambling to her feet, forcing away the nausea, pain and tiredness, she leant hard against the wall and frowned, breaths coming harsh and unevenly.
The voice was back.
But it didn't sound as … sinister as it had before.
Something was wrong.
'Martha … please …!'
Stunned, she hurried to the table again, fingers gripping unbearably hard to the edge as she stared at the screen in confusion.
But her puzzlement quickly turned to horror as the blazing light sent her stumbling backwards, hands raised to shield her eyes from the glare.
"Oh no," she whispered hoarsely, abandoning her tasks, abandoning her fears, and instead inexplicably drawing up the strength to bolt from the room. "Sunlight!"
The lab lights flickered in warning, vainly attempting to call her back, but she was long gone, sprinting off through the corridors towards the Console Room.
And the antidote simply stood, silent and inconspicuous atop the neatly polished work surface, glinting innocently up at nothing in particular.
Abandoned.
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There! There it was!
Movement!
The Vampire!
Giddy with delight, a low, resonating growl escaping her lips, Millie leant back on her haunches, paws clawing at the soft earth beneath her as she all but flattened herself against the floor, flame-engulfed orbs fixed on the rose bush not a leap away from her.
Arching her back, whiskers quivering in anticipation, Millie growled. And pounced.
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In a flash, the Doctor was gone, soaring skywards, wings beating furiously against the blowing winds.
Fluttering down anxiously into what he hoped was a particularly dense patch of branches, he strained his eyes against the glare from below and flinched away from the creature's sunlit orbs as they tilted upwards towards him.
The beams of light were scorching, and he could feel it eating into the skin at his arms. Rubbing them unconsciously, he retreated a little further up into the treetop he'd taken refuge within and watched, faintly despaired, as the creature secured its sharpened claws to the tree's dark trunk and began to pad slowly up through the lower branches, fox-like face smiling in delight for the hunt.
Hissing, equal measures of hunger, hatred, annoyance and fear bubbling just beneath the surface, he blinked his scarlet eyes away and stared at the blue box instead, hoping its occupant would resurface some time soon.
Because if she didn't, he'd be in big trouble.
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Skidding to a halt beside the console, Martha dragged the scanner around to eye level and felt a shiver attack her spine as she spotted the creature clinging quite easily to a tree a few paces from the TARDIS.
It didn't take a genius to work out who was being hunted.
The problem was … she didn't know what to do, now. She had absolutely no idea what the thing was, nor how to kill it. Not that she'd have been able to justify killing it in the first place. Slamming her fist against a panel, she groaned in frustration.
"Now what?!" she yelled, head thrown back in despair.
She hadn't expected anybody to answer her, so when the strange, vampiric voice fluttered into her head, she jumped.
'Just open the door.'
Martha's eyebrows raised sceptically, and she frowned.
"Why?"
The voice sounded quite frantic, and Martha had to physically work to prevent a smirk from sliding onto her exhausted features.
'Let us in, and it can't follow! I'd have thought that would be obvious!'
"Oh," Martha murmured, blushing slightly. She was faintly surprised that the vampire hadn't actually forced her into doing what it wished submissively. She certainly preferred having free will, but the fact that it had apparently forgotten its persuasive skills was rather worrying. Apparently, fear overtook rationality, just as it tended to do with humans.
Perhaps they weren't so different, after all.
Deciding not to comment, she hesitated for a second or too, eyes riveted to the prowling, foxish creature, then hurried for the door and flicked the catch sending the bolt sliding upwards with a resounding click! Leaning heavily against it, she braced herself, then pushed, sliding the door outwards and wincing as the heat from outside coated her frozen limbs.
One hand protecting her eyes again while the other gripped the doorframe for support, she stepped out on shaky legs, heart racing and awareness suddenly flaring that she'd successfully diverted the creature's attention.
For it was watching her, now.
And the heat emanating from it was unbelievable! Even with the wind slapping hard at her face, she couldn't shake away the burning warmth.
"Hello," she whispered softly, squeezing her eyes as closely shut as possible whilst still being able to catch the tiniest of glimpses of what was going on. Raising her head, she scanned the tree that the creature was slowly dismounting itself from, eyes fixed on the topmost branches.
"Doctor?!" she yelled quickly, not liking the smirk spreading across her pursuer's one bit.
It was sliding towards her in silence, one clawed paw in front of the other.
If it hadn't been on the verge of burning her to cinders on the spot, Martha might even have considered calling it beautiful. But as it was, she saw nothing of its prettiness over the two flaming orbs and the gnashing teeth that were padding ever closer to her. "Doctor!" she yelled again, a little more desperation laced into her cry behind its initial and underlying tone of fear.
'What are you waiting for? Get inside, already!'
Shocked, Martha turned her head slightly to see the Doctor standing beside the console inside the TARDIS, red eyes gleaming maliciously but stance vaguely disinterested as he considered her hungrily.
Mouth dropping open in surprise, she turned back to see the strange creature prowling ever closer, barely an arm's length away from her. Yelping rather ungraciously, she jumped backwards over the threshold at the same time as it pounced.
Weight against the door again, she tugged it after her and jammed her eyes shut, losing her balance and waiting for the creature to scorch her to a crisp. She hit the ground painfully hard but resolutely refused to look up, fearing the end was mere seconds away from torching her flesh from bone.
But when the heat vanished from her face, and a soft thud echoed around the room as the door slid shut again, her eyes finally flew open in surprise and she almost laughed out in relief as they met with cobalt wood, rather than yellow rays of deadly sunlight.
Head falling back in relief, Martha let her eyes slide shut and allowed a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding in to slowly escape her parched lips. Running a trembling hand through her hair, she became acutely aware of the eyes that were burning into her very soul from somewhere not too far away.
Blinking her own slowly open, not entirely sure she even wanted to look, Martha's heart stopped and she jolted upright, already backing up against the doorframe as that piercing, lust-filled, scarlet stare pierced her soul.
The old saying, 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' fluttered absently into her head at that moment. And as she met the Doctor's starved gaze face on, she knew without a doubt that this wasn't who she'd hoped it would be.
This wasn't the Doctor.
Not anymore.
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Snarling in despair, Millie clawed desperately at the sealed doors, howling in rage at being so close to and yet so far from her prey.
Eyes wide and blazing, she fell back, biting back angry tears as she slowly prowled around the box three times before padding back to the front doors and sinking back on her haunches.
Hopefully, they'd come back out soon.
Millie didn't want to think of what would happen to her if they didn't. It'd been so long since she'd had company … and if she'd just let two possible feasts slide straight through her grasp … well, she didn't want to think about how long the wait would be if they left straight away.
Months.
Years.
Decades.
Millennia.
Howling in frustrated despair, she glared wilfully at the doors and quelled the rising hunger.
She had to stay positive.
They'd come back out soon, she was sure of it.
Well … she was hopeful, at any rate.
She could wait.
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It was happening again.
Just as she'd dreamt it.
She could hear the TARDIS' steady, humming beats, but they weren't soothing as they had been minutes before.
Quite on the contrary; they were menacing.
Like they had been what felt like a lifetime ago, when she'd heard their pitch change mere moments before her life had ended.
Fear freezing her heart, Martha jumped to her feet as though scolded and pressed herself firmly against the doors, turning on the spot and fighting between her fear of the Doctor and her fear of the creature outside.
But as she tugged fruitlessly at the handle and willed the doors to open, as she begged them to let her out, she soon realised that they weren't going to budge an inch. The TARDIS was obviously reluctant to let her leave.
Whether that was out of obedience for the Doctor or fear for her welfare with regards to what the creature outside would do to her if she ran into it, Martha couldn't be sure.
Throwing her entire weight against the doors in desperation, trying to overcome the ship's sudden desire for captivity, she let out a hysterical cry and turned on the spot, pressing herself into the very fabric of the beating wood in the hopes she could fall straight through it, instead.
Closing her eyes fearfully, she heard a low hiss from beside the console and she couldn't restrain a small moan of fear. She blinked them open, but she could bite back the sting of tears.
And as her leaking eyes caught sight of the ship's owner, she couldn't restrain the shiver of dread that flew straight up her spine.
Vampire.
One hundred per cent vampire, one hundred per cent hungry. And one hundred per cent out for her blood.
With a strangled scream, she bolted, weaving her way around the console and sprinting for the internal doors.
But fast though her small frame may have been, she'd completely forgotten about the wings that could suddenly sprout from his back as he transformed, swooping after her with unimaginable speed.
One blink later, and he was standing right in front of her, tan trench coat suddenly seeming black as the blackest night as it fluttered about his shoulders, rustling ever so slightly as though caught on a makeshift wind.
And he was standing motionless between her and the door.
Between her and her last chance of escape.
He was staring out at her through her Doctor's handsome face. But the eyes … the eyes weren't his. The eyes could never be his.
The darkness … the scarlet orbs she'd expected, the blood red eyes, she could have dealt with, having stared into them for the best part of four hours. But the emptiness … the complete and utter darkness that had absorbed what had been a love-filled, compassionate gaze …
No. The eyes could never be his.
The fangs were protruding from the corners of his once smooth, flawless mouth, and his lips twitched into a starved half-smile as he raised a long, boy finger towards her, clinging onto a stray lock of hair that had fluttered into her face. His smile widening, red eyes glistening maliciously, he reached forwards and gently tucked it behind her ear.
But he didn't release it.
She could feel his smooth, nimble fingers curling it around and unravelling it, just as they had the first time. And his lust-filled stare was as sickening as it had been then, too. As her fearful brown eyes met his ravenous scarlet ones, Martha suddenly realised she couldn't move a muscle.
She simply stood there, hypnotised by his dancing, flame-engulfed orbs. He took a teasingly slow step closer and rested a clawed hand on her arm, wandering calmly around her, gently turning her on the spot and hissing delightedly in her ear.
There was a soft beep from the TARIS console, an anxious, concerned bleep that sounded unnatural amidst the threatening hum of her engines.
Martha barely noticed it.
With a tentative movement so reminiscent of the Doctor that her breath caught in her throat, he retracted his finger, letting the curl of auburn hair drift lazily back over her face. Dropping his hand slightly, his smile widened, the Doctor's usually jovial features seeming completely out of place, all of a sudden. So similar to the familiar smile she'd thought she'd known so well … and yet so impossibly different at the same …
Hang on …
The bleeping ...
The TARDIS was bleeping at them …
Willing her eyes to shift momentarily from his, she shivered as she felt his fingers skirting across her cheek and instead struggled to stare carefully at the console, silently praying for her heart to slow down its frantic beating.
Staring anxiously at the scanner that had silently flared into life, she half-smiled as a hazy shot of the lab-room slid across the screen.
She'd forgotten.
The antidote…
It was ready …
All she had to do was get to it …
"Doctor," she murmured hoarsely, blinking her gaze back to his and biting back a scream as their eyes locked. She shook her head once, gaze dejected. "Doctor, please!"
She let her eyes flicker shut as his frozen breath blew gently against the exposed skin of her neck.
Externally, she had to admit she was playing the roll remarkably well, and ignoring her fears as the icy-cold blasts at her neck grew ever closer, she racked her brains for an escape route.
In the dream she'd had, the door had been locked …
Opening her eyes again, she bit back a cry as she felt his fingers shifting her hair over her shoulder almost lovingly. His eyes twinkling malevolently, he motioned her closer with a pallid finger.
"Come," he murmured, using the Doctor's warm, calming voice for his own purpose as it interlinked with the vampiric undertones.
Martha obeyed.
One foot shuffling forwards after the other, she was soon standing so close to him that their noses were millimetres apart.
And that was when she saw it.
Glinting invitingly as the eerie light of the console fell across it, Martha bit down on her lip to quench the smile that was blossoming as she spotted her way out.
The Sonic Screwdriver.
Her gaze sliding up to meet his, eyes misted as she tried to ignore the blood-lust that was slowly enrapturing her, she raised a hand, testing to see if she had free movement or not.
She did. But seeing it as a threat, the Doctor hissed darkly and encircled one of his own hands around her wrist, dragging her closer. With a gasp, she struggled to keep her face impassive as she found her other hand resting against his chest. Gazes fixed, she curled her fingers into his jacket and inched it carefully upwards towards the lip. Towards the azure tip of the Sonic that was poking out from an internal pocket …
His fangs were inches from her neck.
Her fingers were inches from the Sonic.
Eyes closing in concentration, expression blank but mind racing, she braced herself for the sharp sting that was probably seconds away from piercing her skin …
Quick as a flash she pushed her hands flat against his chest and sent him sprawling backwards in shock. With a strangled cry, she turned on the spot and whipped the Sonic out towards the door handle, depressing the button and sending a resounding buzz to echo irritatingly around the room.
Seconds later, and the door clicked open. Tugging on the handle with abject desperation, she pulled it wide as the Doctor growled in frustration and scrambled closer, fangs bared and red eyes narrowed in hunger.
With a shout, she pulled it closed behind her, not doubting that the Doctor would get through but hoping that it would, at the very least, give her enough time to get to the medical suite in one piece.
Legging it through the corridors, abandoning pretences and the need for hushed silence, Martha felt rather than heard the screech of annoyance from somewhere behind her and knew she had seconds at most.
Ignoring the erratic beating of her heart and the stitch that was piercing her side, she pressed on, vanishing into the endless maze of corridors, ears pricked for any sign that the Doctor had caught up.
But she needn't have bothered.
For the clawed hand suddenly securing itself around her wrist told her all she needed to know.
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Nearly done, now. Thanks to all you wonderful readers and reviewers! The next instalment will be up real soon!
Blessed Be!
Hugs,
xXx MissHaun†ed-MoonLigh† xXx