Chapter Ten

The Doctor was confused. One minute he was in his bed asleep and now he was sitting in the backseat of a Honda Civic. He looked out the window to his right and noticed the car was parked beside a white two story house with a concrete porch that had been painted sky blue. The Doctor tried to open the door beside him and found it was locked. He tried the door on his left side, then leaned up and tried both doors in front of him. All of them were locked.

Frustrated, he sat back and tried to think of a way to get Rose's attention. He suddenly jerked his body around and yelled in the hope his physical body would do the same thing. He froze when two people, a man and a woman, stepped and gave him an odd look. The Doctor smiled and waved at them before the couple hurried on their way. The Doctor blew a frustrated puff of air out of his mouth while he tried to think of a way to wake up.

His head jerked back to the right when the front door of the house opened and he saw a man and teenage girl coming down the porch steps. At first, they looked familiar and then he realized who they were. It was Janette's husband and daughter. His hearts raced when he suddenly realized what might be happening.

"No, no, no, not her, please not her," he said to himself.

Janette's husband and daughter unlocked the car doors and got inside. The Doctor tried to escape the moment the doors were opened but found he was pinned to the seat by an unknown force. The husband got in the passenger side in front of him and the daughter got in the back seat to his left. Both were oblivious to the Doctor's presence, even though he was screaming at them at the top of his lungs. Then his blood ran cold when Janette suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the driver's seat. She looked around, confused, and then noticed the Doctor.

"Where am I?" she said.

Suddenly the engine roared to life without anyone turning a key. Janette turned her body back around to look at it and to the Doctor's horror, her seatbelt slid down over her chest and hips and locked before pulling itself tight. The Doctor looked at the husband and daughter but they were sitting quietly, seemingly oblivious to what was going on. The car moved out into the road under its own power and drove itself while both the Doctor and Janette tried to get free.

Then Janette screamed when the husband turned to look at the Doctor and transformed into Freddy.

"Evenin' all, nice night for a ride," he drawled.

"No! Freddy, please, I'll do anything, just let Janette go!" the Doctor said desperately.

"Did you really think putting her in your TARDIS would stop me?" Freddy sneered as the car sped up. "Tsk, tsk, foolish, naïve Doctor."

The Doctor tried to lunge at him but the lap belts suddenly locked around his hips and tightened while two arms resembling Freddy's came out of the seat on either side and pinned him to it.

"Freddy, I swear, if you harm Janette," he said with wild eyes.

Freddy chuckled at that and swiveled back around. He tipped his hat to Janette who was staring at him in fear.

"Howdy, I'm Freddy. I noticed from reading the Doctor's mind that you only recently began believin' in me. Well, here I am, in the flesh!"

"ROSE! WAKE ME UP!" the Doctor screamed at the car ceiling.

Freddy laughed at that and turned to look at him.

"Rose is asleep," he said as the Doctor stared at him in wide-eyed fear. "I held off visiting you for a long time until she finally dozed off. Took her awhile too, she really did try to stay awake but now she's in here with us and once I get through with Janette, she's next."

"I'm warning you, Freddy. If you hurt Janette or Rose…"

Both he and Janette let out a yell when the car swerved and barely missed hitting a garbage truck.

"I'm sorry, my bad, I never was a very good driver," Freddy said.

They screamed when the car bounced up onto the sidewalk. Freddy's eyes widened and he put his ungloved hand to his lips when they hit a poodle and heard it yelp in pain before it went flying over the car.

"Oh my, I seemed to have hit Fluffy. That's why I had to take my driver's test twice before I passed," he said.

The Doctor glanced over and noticed that the daughter had disappeared from the backseat, leaving just the three of them. The car went back on the road and the Doctor grunted when the back end went off the curb. He struggled to get free but the arms and lap belt held him securely as Freddy laughed and taunted him.

"This is only the beginning, Doctor. I'm through with the little cat and mouse games. Tonight, you'll be mine or Rose dies!" he said.

Freddy looked at Janette.

"Unfortunately, you're gonna die no matter what the Doctor does. Sucks to be you, I guess."

"No! Freddy! I'll do what you want, just let her go!" the Doctor screamed at him.

By now, the car was out of town and speeding through the night down a narrow road. Freddy laughed as the car kept swerving into the path of oncoming traffic before jerking back into the proper lane just before impact. The Doctor struggled with all of his might as he watched Janette screaming and crying and pleading for mercy.

Then the Doctor's blood turned to ice when the car went off the road and started heading through a field straight for a large tree. He shook his head in disbelief when he saw a large limb was headed straight for Janette's head as she screamed herself hoarse and tried to burst out of the seatbelt to safety.

"DOCTOR!" Janette screamed.

"JANETTE!" the Doctor screamed as the car made a beeline towards the limb.

The Doctor braced himself and noticed Freddy disappear moments before impact. The Doctor closed his eyes to shield them from the shattering glass and gritted his teeth as he heard Janette let out one long scream. Then he grunted when the car slammed into the tree and the sound of crunching metal and shattering glass echoed in his ears. Janette's scream was abruptly cut off and a second later, there was only the sound of tinkling glass. The Doctor forced himself to look and his hearts broke when he saw the limb had gone straight through Janette's head and she was now laying motionless, blood dripping from the hole in her head as her unseeing eyes started at the shattered remains of the windshield.

"Janette," the Doctor whispered. "I'm so sorry. I swear I'll stop Freddy and avenge your death and the deaths of all the other innocent people he's killed."

Then suddenly, he gasped as something jerked him awake. He bolted up in bed and jerked his head around. His hearts stopped when he saw Rose was slumped in her chair with her head on her chest. He swung his legs around and grabbed her arms.

"Rose," he said, shaking her roughly. "Rose, wake up! Wake up! Come on!"

His hearts were in his throat when he noticed Rose wasn't responding and seemed to be in a coma.

"No! You won't get her too," he said through clenched teeth.

He quickly put on his trainers, hopped up and gathered Rose into his arms. He raced down the stairs and out the door, not bothering to shut it behind him. He ran down the street, keeping an eye on Rose who was still catatonic. His legs pumped and his feet thudded against the pavement as he hurried towards his TARDIS as fast as he could go. He knew what was waiting for him inside. He also knew Rose wouldn't be protected inside his ship but he had to see Janette and confirm for himself that she truly was dead. It took fifteen minutes of running until he reached the TARDIS. He sat Rose down long enough to find his key and unlock the door and then he picked her up again and ran inside. As he ran towards Janette's room, he ordered the TARDIS to close the door and lock it, knowing that if he pulled Freddy out, he could trap him inside the ship. He ran back to the bedrooms and finally stopped at Janette's room. His hearts sank as he stumbled inside with Rose. Janette was lying on the bed, a huge gaping hole in her head from where the limb had gone through and a pool of blood was under her head and dripping down onto the floor beside her. The Doctor felt bile rise to his throat and forced himself to turn away and take Rose into her room. Once he was inside her room, he pulled back her duvet and made her comfortable. He tried one more time to shake her awake but she was still unresponsive. Cursing Freddy, he vowed to kill him as he ran his hand down her right cheek. Then he hesitated a moment and leaned over, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead the way she had done in his dream.

"I will save you, Rose," he said softly as he stroked her cheek. "Don't worry; I'm coming to get you, even if it means I lose another life in order to save you."

He gazed at her a moment more before he lay down on the floor beside her, stretched out his body and closed his eyes. He took deep, steady breaths and in under ten minutes the Doctor was asleep and dreaming again.