Forever Constant
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or Doctor Who
Chapter 28: TYTNW (day 7)
Silence. Only a week after the start of the terror, and already there was nothing but silence. There was nothing to make noise, after all. No cars, no people. The survivors of the massacre were locked in their homes, awaiting information about life under Saxon's – the Master's – new regime. The spheres floated dangerously up and down the silent streets of London, searching for anyone who might be left.
She, curled up as she was on the steps of an abandoned bookstore, was hardly hiding. And yet she watched, almost bored, as the spheres bobbed right in front of her, evidently oblivious to her presence. Sighing, she hugged her knees to her chest and rested her head against them. She'd felt alone before, but it had been nothing like this.
To distract herself from the growing sense of loneliness, she tried to focus on the anomaly of being invisible to the spheres. Was it because of her condition? Perhaps they could only see someone with body heat? Or a pulse? The Captain would know. He knew things like that, or else could figure them out.
She cast her thoughts upward, almost hoping to contact him. Their connection had never worked long distance before, but she still tried. What she found instead was another mind entirely.
"Who are you?"
With a startled gasp, she leapt to her feet, scrambling backward until she hit the entrance to the bookstore. After a few seconds of scrabbling with the knob, she opened the door and nearly fell in almost before she consciously knew what she was doing. Once inside, she realized the action was silly – the voice had been in her head and entering a building wouldn't change that.
Sure enough, the voice returned a few seconds later. "Don't be scared. It's all right." He said. The tone was calm, and a bit curious. Something about it also seemed slightly familiar...
"All right?" she replied, a little anger slipping through. "A tenth of the population of Earth was killed last week, aliens are roaming the streets – in what way is anything all right?"
There were no words for a few seconds, but she could feel that the unknown mind was thinking. "Who are you?" he repeated. When she didn't answer, he went on. "Human, yes? Yes, I can tell now, definitely human...although..." The voice trailed off and she wondered whether he could tell she wasn't quite a normal human. "Human with natural psychic ability. And you must live in Cardiff."
"How do you know that?" she questioned, surprised at such an accurate assessment.
"Well, all the best psychics live in Cardiff," was the casual response. "Certain properties of that city help to sharpen psychic control. And you seem to have quite a bit of control. Do you work as a medium?"
"I read tarot cards," she answered absently. Certain properties...the Captain had said that living on a Rift in space and time might have increased her psychic ability. Was that what 'certain properties' meant? "You're not human," she added, partly just to prove that he wasn't the only one who could tell such things just through psychic connection. She'd been able to tell that much from the beginning of the conversation – he felt more alien than the spheres did. Yet there was still that sense of familiarity that she couldn't quite place.
"You don't seem surprised."
"I'm not," she said simply. It reminded her of a snippet of conversation she'd once had with the Captain, so long ago, when he hadn't been surprised that she wasn't aging. And that was when it hit her, why this mind seemed so familiar. She had sensed him before, just never directly. "You're the Doctor! You are, aren't you?" She accidentally spoke the words out loud – nearly shouted, in fact – and broke the mental connection.
Disappointed, she leaned against the nearest wall and reached out, trying to find him again, but there was nothing.
Please review!
