A/N: One chapter left, which I'm off to write now and will probably be posted in about an hoooour or less. Then that's this one finished lol! I'm assuming everyone has seen 'Fathers Day' from series 1 and knows what the Reaper is... but if not... WATCH IT!!

Chapter Twelve

Fear the Reaper

The red haired woman was yelling for her to run, but she didn't seem to take into consideration the fact that Ashley was only ten, and had much shorter legs. Also, the ground was fairly muddy and she was barefooted. She tried to insist that she couldn't keep up, but the inhuman shrieks and screams from the creature chasing them prevented her from voicing that insistence. Ashley could hear the woomph woomph of the creatures' huge wings as it pursued them, and her childish curiosity forced her to risk a glance over her shoulder.

The Doctor wasn't far behind, running full pelt with his head lowered. The creature was almost right above him, its mouth open and forever belting out shrieks of anger. Its eyes glowed bright red, and they were fixed solely on the Doctor. It began to swoop down to him.

'Doctor!' Ashley shrieked, seeing the inevitable.

The red haired woman also looked back, eyes wide and expression horrified. 'No!' she screamed, stopping.

'Keep running!' he yelled, waving his arms. 'You have to get her away!' He dropped down onto his knees, covering his head with his arms, and the winged creature descended on him, wrapping its thick, veined wings around him like a grotesque blanket.

'Doctor!' the red haired woman screamed. She started towards him, and then stopped. She looked down at Ashley, seemed to make an instantaneous decision despite her clear distress, and began running again. 'Whatever you do,' she panted. 'Just keep running, okay? This is all about you. If it gets you, this is all for nothing. Whatever happens, just keep running!'

Ashley didn't need to be told twice. She gritted her teeth and pushed herself harder than she had even done before. The red haired woman's words kept echoing around her head. This was about her? Why? Why was she so special? She was just a stupid kid with a psycho mum who had the tendency to bite other kids and do crap on her maths homework! Since when did all that make her eligible for being on spaceships and chased by giant bats?

Being lost in her thoughts actually helped her pull away from the woman running with her. She cast a glance back to her and saw that she was struggling to keep up, and now the creature's eyes were fixed on her. Ashley could see the chain of events quite clearly. It would swoop down on the woman, devour her, and then move on to Ashley. She was fighting a losing battle. It was going to get her one way or another. Where was she supposed to go? Just run?

The Doctor had told her to run, so she would. Whatever was happening here was bigger than just her – even a child could see that – so she would do as she was told. She would run.

She didn't look back as she heard that awful woomph sound again, followed by the woman's screams. It took a moment for her brain to decipher them, but she realised the woman was screaming for her to keep running. She looked ahead. She could see the town looming. Running at this speed she would reach it in about twenty seconds, but she wasn't sure if that was enough.

This was all down to her now. A terrified, ten year old girl.

Ashley battled up the muddy slope that lead onto the path. Behind her, the creature shrieked out and its wings began pounding again, but she persisted. She felt the air around her moving as it got closer and she was suddenly convinced that it had got her… But then she slipped. She landed face down in the mud. She felt the air whip around her as the creature swooped over her and missed entirely, taking off high into the air to perform another swooping dive. Ashley scrambled through the mud and began to run again.

It was harder to run on the pavement. Every time her bare feet hit the concrete a jolt ran up her legs, tiring her just a little. Her chest felt like it was going to explode and her vision was starting to blur. She was going to faint, she could feel it. Probably more out of pure fear than exhaustion. She hopped off the curb onto the road, and scraped her foot on the rough tarmac. She winced, stumbled, and came to a stop. The creature shrieked from somewhere above and she searched for it, waiting for it to come down and eat her. This was it. She couldn't run anymore. It just…

A horn blared suddenly and lights engulfed her. Ashley whirled around, covered in mud from head to toe, and saw the early morning milk float tearing towards her, with Mr Lucas the milkman behind the wheel. Mr Lucas had always been criticized for driving the milk float too fast, but because he was such a nice man no one really argued with him for too long. He always left an extra bottle of orange juice for Ashley on the doorstep. He was going far too fast to stop.

Above, the creature wailed.

The horn on the milk float blared again.

And Ashley clenched her eyes shut.