She was following footprints, raggedy old doll held tightly underneath her right arm, forefinger of her left hand curled overtop her lip and teeth, head falling to the side as she dropped a foot into each step. Thin beams of light shined off the glitter embedded into the purple of her shoes and for a moment she became distracted by those bright gleams. Smiling down as they sparkled with each step and then she saw the grey bottom of a statue and raised her head, jumping backwards from it with a terrified gasp.
Her father had told her about the deadliest creatures in the universe. Creatures she should immediately hide from because, she understood, they scared him. And very little, Ella knew, scared her father. Over a thousand years old and has travelled the universe over and over again, he'd seen horrible things and he'd made sure to warn her and her mother against the worst.
"I know you," Ella said calmly, taking a tiny step back to look up immediately into the back of the stone statue in front of her, its hands raised to cover its face. "You're a Weeping Angel."
"If you ever come across a Weeping Angel, Ella, you make sure you look it in the eye – they can't get you if you're looking," he'd told her firmly.
"But what if I get scared; you know I close my eyes real tight when I'm scared," Ella had reminded, because she held her breath and closed her eyes knowing her mum or dad would pick her up and take her away from the danger – the way they always did.
"I know, sweetheart, but this is important," he'd lamented with a sad frown and a caress of her round face, thumb stroking her cheek in that way that always made her feel safe and loved.
"Doctor, don't scare her at bedtime," her mother had warned from the doorway, arms crossed at her chest as she smiled in on them.
And her father's frown deepened with some thought Ella couldn't understand as he looked from the woman back to her and nodded, repeating, "Just remember – no matter how scared you are – you don't blink. You scream. As loud and as long as you can, you scream for us."
"Ok, daddy," she'd responded, eyes closing as the man bent to kiss her forehead.
But now she simply stared, mouth hanging slightly agape, doll wedged tightly between her arm and her body and she could feel her pulse quickening. Surely her parents were nearby, she thought; surely they had figured out she'd wandered off, curiously following something strange…
Waving a hand, she asked, "Are you a Weeping Angel?" Ella looked it over and when her eyes drifted back up, she gasped.
Its face had turned.
Mostly still hidden in the cupped hands held up in front of it, Ella could now see one blank eye staring down at her curiously and she took a step away, feeling the sudden dryness in her eyes as her heart hammered in her chest. "You are a Weeping Angel," she stated in a whisper, then barked, "My father is the Doctor!"
The words echoed slightly in the garden and somewhere nearby she heard a bird take flight. On any other day – in any other place – she might have turned to see what it was, but today she remained locked on the statue in front of her. A statue that remained solid, and she bent slowly to absently search the ground for something hard, picking up a rock and chucking it at the Weeping Angel. It smacked against the stone body and fell to the ground and Ella frowned down at it before lifting her head and releasing a small shout.
Its body was now facing her, arms outstretched.
And smiling.
"Mummy!" She shouted.
She stepped backwards again, carefully, keeping her eyes trained on the statue and feeling as though she might cry, but she was terrified to blink because she could remember asking a mum in a park in Jersey, as she waited for her own mum to buy her a slice of pizza off a street vendor, promising not to move, why she watched the statues.
"Because sometimes – not often, but sometimes – they move," the woman with the wildly bright ginger hair and the Scottish accent told her, a smile and a lifting of her brow ready for Ella when she looked up at her.
"But how could a statue move?" Ella had asked the woman as she cradled a small boy to her chest. "My dad told me about moving statues once," she allowed, "But he never told me how they moved."
And the woman shrugged and replied, "Quantum locked," before looking out at the statue again, "Never quite understood what that meant, but it's a sort of defense mechanism."
"What's a defense mechanism?" Ella questioned.
"Well," the woman began, but a man interrupted, a man who offered the woman a drink and a smile before he tilted his head towards Ella and whispered, "It's what you do to keep yourself safe. Suppose she's telling you about the Weeping Angels." Ella nodded and then man knelt, gesturing back with his head, "So long as one of us is looking, it won't move because it's turned to stone. It's defending itself against attack 'cause how do you attack stone?"
"You can't," Ella told him with a shake of her head.
The man pointed, "Exactly," then he glanced around, "Aren't you missing someone, a mum or a dad or something. Amy, have you seen her mum or dad?"
The woman nodded and told him quietly, "At the pizza stand. Sort of did the mutual 'choosin' to trust you' head nod sort of mummy agreement I'd watch her for a minute while she got some food." Then she bent forward to whisper something in the man's ear. Something Ella couldn't hear, but she watched the man look her over curiously before he cleared his throat.
"You said your dad told you about the Weeping Angels?" Ella nodded, "Then I bet he warned you not to blink," he laughed as she giggled, "Why not practice, 'til your mum gets back," he pointed, "We'll stare, for as long as we can at that statue – which is not, by the way, a Weeping Angel. Amy's just tryin' to scare you because she's like that sometimes," he yelped when she kicked his backside, "Let's watch the statue and see who blinks first."
"No cheating," Ella asserted on a nod.
"No cheating," the man repeated.
She wished that man were there now, ready with his goofy smile and his kind eyes. Eyes that managed to cry before they blinked, after she'd giggled that she'd given up. Just as her mother had arrived with a quiet, "Let's go find your father. See if he's found the friends he's looking for," and Ella had waved at the couple now tending to their baby and giving her the oddest grins as she walked beside her mum.
Now her eyes burned in a way she hadn't allowed that day. In a way that brought tears to their rims and she lifted her doll slightly, holding it face down against her chest to try to ignore the surges of cold she was feeling. Ella's eyes trembled and then they closed tightly, sending droplets over her warm cheeks and when she opened her eyes, she screamed because its face had changed. It now held a scream of its own, frozen in silence, and the fingers that once lay calmly at its sides were raised above its head as claws.
"DADDY!"
She turned her doll to hold it tightly, taking another step back and feeling the solid tree behind her as she shouted out, thinking maybe she'd hit another Angel, but she could feel the bark rubbing through her dress as she screamed for her parents. Ella didn't blink, she trembled entirely and between her cries for her parents, her mouth shook wetly. And then the terror became too much and she lifted her doll to cover her face as she fell to the ground against the tree, knees coming up swiftly into her chest.
For a moment there was complete silence apart from her sobs, a silence that made her wonder if it had gotten her. Could death be so painless, she considered, but then she heard the quick shuffle of feet and her father called out quickly, "Don't take your eyes off it, Clara!"
"Doctor, is she there, please tell me she's there," her mother cried, voice wavering with tears.
The footsteps grew closer, but she was too scared to look; too scared to see the monster in front of her, and she heard her father whisper, "The doll."
"Doctor is she ok? Please, please tell me she's ok."
"Clara, she's here, she's ok," he turned to say, bending closer and whispering, "Ella, you're alright. Look at me, Ella."
Shaking her head, she reached up and the Doctor lifted her into his arms, plucking the doll away a stabbing its chest through with a broken branch before Ella felt herself running. She sobbed openly now, into the shoulder of a man whose breaths she could hear just behind her. She heard the familiar humming of the Tardis and the clanks of two sets of feet rushing over metal and then she felt her mother's hands rounding her sides and she turned towards her, legs and arms wrapping around her desperately as they moved into the vortex.
"The doll was looking," her father said quietly, "The doll," he uttered and Ella could hear the terror in his voice knowing if she hadn't turned it around, if she hadn't faced those fake eyes upon the statue, it would have taken her.
"Ella," her mother whispered, kissing her cheek three times before saying, "Ella, please look at me."
"I tried not to blink," Ella cried.
Her mother laughed, "I know, sweetheart, but I need you to look at me."
"I'm too scared."
She brushed a hand over her hair and kissed her forehead, whispering, "It's alright, my stars, it's alright." Ella could feel her breathing normalizing as her mother rocked her along the console, every so often dropping a kiss to her face and assuring her she was safe. She could hear the Sonic's buzz near her ear and her father sighed before her mother began moving again.
Ella knew the path to her bedroom, but she gripped her mother tightly, "No, don't leave me in my room alone," she moaned.
Laughing lightly, her mother turned just before the room and Ella felt them drop onto her parents bed and a moment later she heard another creak and then they were dropping back. She could tell she was lying between them and she could feel two sets of lips at either side of her head as two set of hands landed atop her – her mother's at her cheek, her father's at her shoulder. She laid quietly for a moment before blinking up at her mother, watching the smile that warmed the woman's face, and then she turned to see the worry in her father's eyes.
"That was a Weeping Angel, wasn't it, daddy," she whispered.
He kissed her forehead and laughed through tears, "Yeah, Ella, it was."
"It almost got me, didn't it," she breathed.
He reached for her, tugging her into his arms. For a moment she wasn't sure why he was holding her as hard as he was – he'd never done so before. But then she felt his hearts. Her father's hearts were pounding harder than she'd ever felt them and she knew he'd been afraid. More afraid than he'd ever been and she gripped to him tightly as he whispered, "Yeah, it almost did."
