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The Crimson Horror – Part Two
They all reconvened in Edmund's kitchen; Madam Vastra thanked him for his hospitality, and the nervous man assured her it was no trouble, glancing nervously at Strax, who kept glaring at him to 'intimidate the human weakling' for fun. "So; Jenny, Strax and I came up from London to investigate rumours of this 'Crimson Horror', and we certainly were not expecting to find you here as well Emily" the Silurian commented, removing her veil once Edmund had left the room. Jenny – the other Jenny – looked mildly surprised, but not at all put off by her appearance. In some ways that was refreshing.
"You can help us save my family as well – we can use all the help we can get" Emily insisted, fidgeting anxiously beside the door. "Of course we'll help you" her aunt Jenny promised, and then her sister Jenny interjected, "But we need a plan first, remember?"
"I don't care about a stupid plan!" Emily snapped crossly, stamping her foot. The adults stared at the normally sweet and cheerful little girl in surprise – and then Strax, of all people, spoke up and agreed with her. "The little boy is right – this is a time for action! I suggest a full frontal assault on the premises involving the use of scissor grenades, limbo vapour and triple blast brain splitters" he announced firmly.
It would be unbecoming of me to 'face-palm' as they say in the twenty first century Vastra had to remind herself, before calmly telling Strax, "That won't be necessary" . Or at least she was going to tell him that, but she was interrupted by Emily giggling. "I think they mean we need to be sneaky, Strax" she told him, before turning back to the more sane adults with a contrite expression. "I'm sorry I shouted. I'm just really, really, really worried about them. I can't hear them at all" she explained with a worried frown.
"What do you mean?" asked Jenny in confusion. "In my head; I've been practicing telepathy really hard, see, and I can feel where they are…sort of…but I can't hear anything when I try to communicate with them. It's like there's this spiky metal door in the way, and I think that means they're hurt" Emily explained, sounding distressed at the very thought. Her sister came to give her a comforting hug, as Vastra said decisively, "Then we must learn all we can of this 'Sweetville', and formulate a sensible plan of action" she added with a pointed look at Strax.
Jenny cleared her throat and said, "Begging your pardon, ma'am, but there is one thing we need to work out first".
"And that would be?"
"Me and her" Jenny replied, gesturing between herself and Emily's sister, "how're you gonna tell us apart? Not everyone is gonna be calling me 'Aunt Jenny' after all" she pointed out. Strax said bluntly, "The way to tell you apart is obvious, boy. Her hair is an ugly shade of yellow, whilst yours is an even uglier shade of brown".
"What would you know about hair? You don't even have any!"
Before Strax could retaliate, Vastra cleared her throat and glared warningly at them both. "Never mind; I'm willing to be called Jennifer, if it helps anything" Jenny offered. The other Jenny put Emily back down and insisted, "No, you don't have to do that. I don't mind being called Jen; my boss calls me that sometimes".
"That's fine by me" Jenny shrugged, and Jen smiled. "Well, now that this has been rectified, would you please ask our host to come and explain all he knows of Sweetville, dear?" Vastra requested of Jenny, who nodded and left the kitchen with a "Right away, ma'am". Edmund returned with her, and he looked taken aback by Vastra, but he didn't shout or faint, which was something.
The plan they formulated in the end was that Jenny and Jen would join the ranks of the 'brightest and the best' people that Mrs Gillyflower recruited, search out one or more of the Time Lords and Clara, all whilst Vastra and Strax would search for the secret of the factory and try to apprehend Gillyflower if possible. Then Emily announced, "Don't forget I'm coming to", and the planning was brought to an abrupt halt.
"Emily…this is dangerous. It isn't really the place for a little girl" Jenny tried to tell her, but Emily folded her arms and looked as stubborn as she possibly could. "I know I look like I'm just eight, but I'm really fifty. We age differently, remember? Besides, you'll need me to help you find my parents. I can let my telepathic links to them lead me right to them, like…like a metal detector! Well, it's not really like that, but if it helps…" she trailed off.
Jenny and Jen looked at each other doubtfully. "Please, let me come! I don't want to just sit here waiting, thinking you might get caught too and not come back. It was bad enough the first two times" Emily begged them. Jen sighed and said, "I think we can keep her safe, between the two of us". Jenny nodded in agreement, and then warned Emily "But you have to do what we say, understand?"
She nodded emphatically. First, Jen dressed in clothes more fitting for the time period, using the TARDIS wardrobe. "It's a shame none of us know how to fly the TARDIS" she commented; it would have made things easier, or so she thought, but then Emily pointed out "If that nasty Mrs Gillyflower got hold of it we'd be in huge trouble!"
Jenny, Jen and Emily went to a sermon by Mrs Gillyflower on 'The Present Moral Decay and the Coming Apocalypse'. There were a lot of people present, listening attentively as the old woman spoke of a scare story about 'immoral wastrels' this and 'God-fearing' that. "Bradford, that Babylon of the moderns with its crystal light and its glitter, all aswarm with the wretched ruins of humanity. Men and women crushed by the devil's juggernaut" Gillyflower said passionately, and the crowd murmured in agreement.
"And moral turpitude can destroy the most delicate of lives. Believe me, I know. I know" Gillyflower continued, drawing back a curtain to reveal a young woman sitting on a stool, her eyes blind with scarring around them. "Me own daughter, blinded in a drunken rage by my late husband. Her once beautiful eyes, pale and white as mistletoe berries" Gillyflower lamented. Her daughter walked over, with the aid of a stick, to a covered board.
Gillyflower continued with her sermon. "And what, my friends, is your story? Will you be found wanting when the End of Days is come, when judgement rains down upon us all? Or will you be preserved against the coming apocalypse? Do not despair. I offer a way out. There is a different path. Sweetville!" she announced grandly, as her daughter pulled away the cloth on the board to reveal an image of the 'perfect community', two rows of neat terraced houses with the factory in the background.
"Join us. Join us in this shining city on the hill" Gillyflower implored them all, and then she began to sing a hymn. "Bring me my bow of burning gold. Bring me my arrows of desire…" Jen looked down at Emily, who was very bored; she looked up at her big sister and pulled a face. Jen nearly laughed aloud and had to cover it up as a coughing fit. She thought she saw Gillyflower glaring at her for interrupting the song out of the corner of her eye. Serves you right for kidnapping my dad, you old bat.
They lined up with the others to sign up for Sweetville. "You wish to join us, my dear?" Gillyflower asked Jenny, who replied as neutrally as she could, "If it's all the same with you, ma'am".
"Oh yes dear, you'll do very nicely" Gillyflower smiled. Emily looked around, and realised there were very few children present. She grew worried…what if they thought she was too young to join? What if she had to stay behind again? After Jen had signed the book, she explained, "Can my little sister come with me? She'll be no bother". Gillyflower peered at the young Time Lady, who hid slightly behind Jen, and smiled rather sinisterly, or so Emily thought. "Oh, I'm sure we can find a place for her" she said amiably.
They then had to queue up once more, in two separate lines; one for men and one for women. Jen kept a tight hold of Emily's hand. In front of her, Jenny got talking to a redheaded young woman. "'m dead nervous, aren't you? They have to be sure, you see. Only the best for Sweetville. I hope me teeth don't let me down. I'm Abigail" she introduced herself. Jenny smiled and shook her hand, saying "Pleased to meet you".
"You're not local, are you?"
"Nah, up from London"
"Different here, I bet"
"Yeah, like a bleeding horse market. Do you know anyone who's come to live here? In Sweetville, I mean" Jenny asked Abigail, who explained, "I had a pal who come here three month back. She wrote to tell me how perfect it all were. Funny, though. I've not heard a peep from her since" she added, frowning thoughtfully. "Next please!" someone at the front of the queue called. "Hang on, we're moving" said Abigail, as they all shuffled forward a space.
Jenny found herself beside a locked, very tempting door. She looked back at Jen, who glanced at the door and nodded, moving to the side a bit to block Jenny from the view of people behind them. Jenny threw her a grateful look and took out her lock-picking kit. "What're you doing?" hissed Abigail. Jenny turned to her and said, "Do me a favour. Cause a distraction".
"What?"
"Swoon. Have a funny turn. Fit of the vapours"
"Are you crackers?"
"Go on, there's a Guinea in it for you" said Jenny, handing her a shiny coin. "Done" Abigail smirked, before heaving a great sigh and 'fainting', much to the consternation of everyone around her. Whilst they fussed over Abigail, Jenny quickly unlocked the door; she, Jen and Emily slipped through it. Behind the door, they found themselves in the 'factory', although the noises of machinery at work were being played through three enormous gramophone horns. They hid behind a bunch of crates as two men carried a large glass flask of red liquid across the room and into a lift.
/
Back at the morgue, Vastra wanted to see the Doctor's experiments with the substance found on the victims of the 'Crimson Horror'. "Them new manufacturers can do horrible things to a person" Amos told Edmund, who had come along with her (Strax stood guard outside) "Horrible. I've pickled things in here that'd fair turn your hair snowy as top of Buckden Pike".
Edmund looked slightly disturbed. "Yes, well, we're here about the red coating" he said awkwardly. "Oh, aye. All them bits found in t'canal. The Crimson Horror" Amos said creepily, handing over a large bottle half full of red liquid. Vastra examined it, and threw back her veil with her back to him. "It hardly seems possible" she breathed, much to Edmunds confusion. "What does?"
"I think, I think I've seen these symptoms before"
"You have?"
"A long time ago"
"Oh? How long, exactly?"
Vastra turned to him and Amos. "About sixty five million years" she announced. Both men looked stunned, but for quite different reasons. "Good God" Amos muttered, looking at Vastra in shock. She rolled her eyes. "I don't understand" Edmund admitted, "surely you weren't…" he trailed off when Vastra gave him a pointed look. "It's usually considered rather bad form to make aspersions about a lady's age, Mr Thursday" she said coolly.
"Uh, yes, quite – but still, you can't mean that this 'crimson horror' is from…from prehistoric times, surely?"
"I'm afraid I mean exactly that. Strax and I will make haste to the factory and investigate this…will you join us?" Vastra asked Edmund. He considered it, and finally decided "I think I'd better not. Someone will need to inform the authorities if anything goes wrong…assuming I can convince them to listen to me for once" he muttered under his breath.
/
Once the men had gone into the lift, Jen turned to Emily and whispered, "Okay sis, can you tell where everybody is?" Emily closed her eyes, face screwed up in concentration. Finding her parents and godparents was like…like reaching out in pitch blackness for a string, that was tangled up with three other strings, and following the string all the way to whoever she wanted to find. Well, it wasn't really like that…but the imaginary strings were also colour coded. The ones to her mummy and daddy were brighter and a pretty yellow and blue colour.
She came out of her brief trance and whispered to Jenny and Jen, "Daddy is…upstairs. In the lift, right at the top", she pointed at the lift, which was coming down, if the blinking lights were any indication. They all ducked down again, and watched warily as the two workers from before emerged and left with the empty flask. "Come on, let's get in there before they come back" Jenny urged the other two. They hurried across the room and into the lift, pressing the button for the top floor.
The corridor they found themselves in had a door at one end, with a red glow emanating from the window. "Is he in there, Emily?" asked Jenny, and the young Time Lady hesitated. "…Maybe. It's like, the string goes further on but it's not glowing anymore, so I can't tell where it leads" she said thoughtfully. All she knew for certain was that her father was somewhere up here. "I'm going to go check it out" Jen decided, hurrying down the corridor and peering in through the porthole.
It didn't look like anyone was inside. "Jen!" hissed Jenny, beckoning her back down the corridor, "there's another staircase back here. I'll go up and see what's going on, you stay here and look after Emily". She climbed up the staircase, and began to hear a thumping, rattling noise, so perhaps they were on the right track at last. She came to a metal door with a hatch cut out in the bottom. She slid the hatch open and a scarlet hand shot out, grabbing her wrist.
She gasped in shock, and pulled herself free. "Doctor, is that you?" she asked cautiously; in reply there was a thump and a rattle. "We're here to rescue you. Are you hurt?" she asked. Another thump – she assumed they meant 'yes'. "Alright, then stand well back, alright? I'll open the door". One more thump, and the hand disappeared back through the hatch. Jenny stood up and took out her lock-picks; she made short work of unlocking the door, before bracing herself and opening it.
"Doctor!" she exclaimed in shock, seeing him covered in the waxy red substance like the corpses, but still very much alive and in obvious pain. He was stiff, his mouth was gaping, and he was in chains. "Oh my God…wait here, I'll be right back" Jenny promised him, leaving the room and hurrying back down the stairs. She found Jen and Emily waiting for her; thankfully they had not been discovered. "Here, listen. I don't think Emily needs to see this, it'll just upset her" she told Jen under her breath.
"Gotcha…Emily, you and I ought to scope out that room back there, in case we need to hide in it" Jen said to her little sister. "Um, okay, but what about daddy? Isn't he up there?" Emily asked in concern. Jenny wasn't sure what to say, but luckily Jen came to her rescue. "If he is, he'll need somewhere to hide and come up with a plan" she reasoned. Emily thought about it for a moment, and then said, "I guess so. What do we have to do?"
Jen led her to the red glow room, borrowing Jenny's lock-pick set to open the door. Motioning for Emily to be very quiet, she peered around the door and then stepped further into the room. As far as she could tell, there was no-one inside, so she beckoned Emily in. The two of them looked out through a window at two large vats of the red poison. "Daddy's hurt, isn't he?" Emily asked out of the blue.
"What makes you think he's hurt?"
"I'm not blind, sis. Or stupid…Jenny had that look that all grown-ups get, when they think I'm 'too young' to see something. I'm not a baby"
"Well…they're just trying to protect you"
"I know, but if I don't see scary stuff, it'll never stop being scary, will it? It's the same with upsetting stuff. That's why I didn't mind seeing the dead people in the morgue. I mean, it's really sad that they died, but they're not being hurt anymore and they weren't gonna hurt me…unless they turned into zombies or something" Emily giggled, and Jen couldn't help but laugh as well. "I have one very wise little sister, don't I?" she smiled. Emily nodded, and then the door opened.
Straightaway she looked past Jen to where Jenny was helping her dad into the room. "Daddy!" she exclaimed – but quietly – "ouch. Don't worry, we'll get that stuff off…somehow" she assured him. She really wanted to hug him, but she got the feeling that might make it feel worse. "Look at this" Jen called from the window. They watched as unconscious people dangling from racks were lowered into the poison. "Yuck – worst bath ever" Emily announced, scrunching her nose up.
With difficulty, the Doctor pointed towards a row of metal cabinets. "What is it? You want to go in there?" asked Jenny, and Emily nodded for him. "He must do, why else would he point at it?" she reasoned. So they helped the Doctor over to the cabinets, and he stepped inside one. Jenny handed him his clothes, Jen gave him his sonic, which he managed to power up. They shut the door and then heard footsteps, so they quickly hid behind another vat of poison.
The light on the top of the cabinet turned from red to green, and then the Doctor emerged, fully dressed and poison free. "Emily!" he cried, scooping the little girl into his arms and hugging her tightly. "Oh, I missed you so much. And Jenny!" he added, giving his older daughter a one armed hug, "and…Jenny?" he finished, looking between his daughter and the Victorian maid, who nodded at the other Jenny and explained, "We're calling her 'Jen'".
"Right, okay. Come on sweetheart, we need to find your mum" the Doctor said to Emily, setting her down. Emily beamed. Soon they'd all be rescued, and they'd stop Mrs Gillyflower, and everything would be okay again…she couldn't wait!