"Instrumental Glory"
12. Off With the Innocents
Mesiary, in the year 2015
He must have looked strange to anyone who saw him make a run for the blue box. He was doing his best to be inconspicuous, but his heart and mind were both going a mile a minute, and he needed to get to the Doctor and tell him what he'd seen, because he had seen it, and for that he couldn't ignore it. He wouldn't have believed it otherwise, just as no regular authority figure would believe it. But the Doctor… he'd know the truth.
His feet stalled when he reached the blue doors, thinking at the last second that they might be locked, which would make for a spectacular crash if he didn't slow down. But he got hold of the handle and pushed and the door swung open, allowing him to scramble inside and shut it; his hand made for the lock on reflex. Now all was silent around him, save for the sound of his breathing, and he was so trapped within his own thoughts that he could have believed he was alone. When he heard the first voice, it startled him.
"Blaine? What happened? What's wrong?" Donna asked. He looked up, and there they both were, the redhead and the Doctor, staring back at him.
He tried to say something, but his mind boggled. He'd never seen anyone die before, not like this. The poor woman had been as innocent and defenseless as they got. She'd stood there, unaware that the sweet looking child standing before her was about to end her life. And Brin... Sweet Brin... How could she do such a thing? It didn't make sense, none of it made sense, which meant something else must have been going on, like the Doctor believed.
"It's alright," the Doctor said as he and Donna approached him. "Tell us what you saw," he nodded reassuringly, and Blaine did feel its effect.
"Brin... One of the girls, the elites... They called her in, just like we saw, when that woman came for Trilby. She came and took her in, and I don't know why but I followed her. When she came back out I tried to go and talk to her, and..." He shook his head, trying to erase the look on Brin's face from his memory. "She looked different."
"Different how?" the Doctor asked.
"Like..." Blaine tried to think of a right word. "Hypnotized, except not really... She remembered who I was, and she told me to leave her alone... Oh, and before that, before the headmistress came for her," he suddenly recalled, "I tried to take the instrument they had, to show how I could sort of play it, too, and she became strange, telling me not to touch it, and even she didn't know why. And before that, they were all talking, but they stopped when I joined..."
"What happened when you followed Brin?" the Doctor brought him back on track, and for a few seconds Blaine didn't know if he could go on, so he jumped right to the important part, deciding he could fill in the blanks once that was out in the open.
"She killed someone." The words were like a swift wind come to knock them down, and they stared at him in silence for a moment.
"She what?" Donna was the first to speak again.
"I hung back and followed her without her knowing. It's like once she didn't see me anymore she didn't think that I might still be there. She walked off and I trailed her, until she made it to this place, this shop... There was no one there except for this one woman, and then Brin took out the instrument from her bag, except... I swear, that wasn't it. It looked like it, had the same shape, but... I can't explain it, I just know that wasn't the same, even though she held it like it was. And then... And then it shot, at the woman, and she fell... She was dead, I saw her," he wished he could rid himself of that image, too.
"But she's just a child," Donna shook her head, unable to accept it.
"And doesn't that make her the most unlikely suspect," the Doctor spoke flatly. Blaine could see a sort of rage bubbling underneath the Time Lord's face; someone was using the children, he knew that now... He wouldn't stand for it.
"Do you think it's only her, or... All of them?" he asked.
"Let's find out," the Doctor nudged him away from the doorway so they could step out.
They returned to the Isher Academy, but for how easy it had been before to spot one or the other, they couldn't see any of the twenty elite pupils. They might have used their cover story to inquire deeper, but now with the discovery Blaine had made, it had been decided it might not be the best thing for them to draw too much attention to themselves and to the curiosity they had with regards to the elite pupils and their whereabouts. Eventually, they came across the guard at the vault, and they asked where they might find the group. The man, who was still hunched over his thin book had been just about to dismiss them for bothering him when he finally looked up and realized it was the trio from the previous day. He only just managed not to drop his book for the second time, only standing from his stool.
"Well you'll have just missed them, won't you," he nodded firmly.
"Missed them?" the Doctor asked.
"It's the concert, the one they've been rehearsing for," he pointed behind the three and they turned to see a poster on the wall, inviting everyone to purchase entry to the Isher Elite's Induction Recital. "They just packed them off, all twenty of them on a bus. Won't start for a few hours, you can still make it. Imagine they'll have a balcony reserved for board members such as yourselves." The Doctor guided Donna and Blaine away, and once out of sight, he snatched the next poster he saw off the wall before they could exit the academy.
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)
