"I'll always remember, when I was the Doctor, and the Doctor was me."
— John Smith
It's a cold breezy day in London, more rain tonight, and more in the forecast, with a small chance for sun sometime after before more rain returned, yet again.
People wearing their rain slicks going about their days as they tried staying warm amid the cold breeze wafting through the London area.
Her hands in her black jacket, a woman walks down the sidewalk, heading to her job at the downtown library.
A cold breeze shot pass her, sending her dark hair in a flutter as she pushed ahead on the path to the library.
Her boss, Hammond, wanted them early to prepare an area for the arrival of new books releasing soon.
Mostly for young adults, but the books needed their place on the shelves, and that's the job of Lila Watson and her department, in general.
She would've worked in the other departments, but that'd mean she'd have to help college students finding books for their tests, and that's not exactly something she wants to deal with in the morning. Besides that, her department has it easier, since they deal with young adult books primary.
There's still the occasional kids coming in asking for specific books to check out for their book reports and Lila's happy to help them, but nothing as hectic as swarms of college students invading the library with their laptops, cords, and so on, stacking books to the nines, and making a mess of things at the end of it.
Lila doesn't envy the poor people of those departments, trying to do their jobs while avoiding running over cables, and bumping into someone.
On her commute, Lila met up with a colleague of hers in the department, Bill Potters, and she joined Lila's side with her eccentric yellow dress, patterned with different science instruments, flowing in the breeze.
"More books today," Bill noted Hammond's gotten more books in from publishers for their department.
Nothing unusual, Hammond's always done it before.
Lila nods as she walked with her colleague and said, "I always wonder about that man, surely he'd be better in the other departments than young adults."
It baffled Lila that their boss' working in young adults, the way the man's mind works, it's a miracle he doesn't work in a museum, and it's something of a curiosity as to why a man with so much knowledge reduces himself to working with this month's flavour.
Teen drama and werewolves.
"Well, do you want to have swarms of college students surrounding you every midterm like seagulls starving?" Bill pointed at Lila as her black frizzy hair with a pink bang bobbed.
It'd make sense in the way Bill put it, even Lila couldn't imagine the thought of Hammond doing work while helping every desperate college student coming to him for answers on their thesis and other.
As cool as ice cream, Hammond may be, Lila didn't want to see him melt and boil.
"Yeah, that's true. Maybe a museum, don't know why he's beating around with us, smart as he is," Lila shrugged her jacketed stout shoulders as she walked with Bill.
Bill pointed out that Hammond wouldn't want to deal with tourists and classes every day.
"Ain't it our job, kinda?" Lila brought up the fact they're working in a library with a deep history, still has original architecture, and caters to everyone, and routinely gets visitors in the thousands on a slow day.
Bill nodded as she agreed that Lila's not wrong, but also that Hammond probably thinks the library's an easier job than a museum.
"Wouldn't you want to coast a job if you can just use a fraction of your brain power?" Bill raised a finger at Lila.
Thinking, Lila agreed, if she was as smart as Hammond, she wouldn't want to have to tap into that knowledge every single day of the working week. Librarians aren't lemony as the curators, but at least they don't have to jumble art piece history with dinosaur bones.
"Okay, you have me there," Lila nodded, rescinding her previous statement.
The women conversed as they walked to work, passing people as they're coming and going, and turning around the corner, they stopped as they see something in the middle of the sidewalk.
Initially, they didn't think of anything, but their curiosity drew when they came up to the object on the ground, and Lila picked it up.
"Is that a pen?" Bill raised her black brow at the sight as Lila studied it.
It's got heft, silver, with an odd piece at the tip. It looked like a tool more than a pen, but Lila couldn't determine it from the first sight of the object in her hand. It's slightly rounded at the bottom, with some indication that it can open from the bottom, giving credence that it's an unique pen.
Holding it, Lila shrugged as she said, "Well, it's certainly something and I guess if no one claims it, I guess there's no harm taking it with me. At least until someone comes by for it."
She opted to take it for herself and give it back if someone asks for it, which Lila doubt because of how utterly bizarre this object looked, and she couldn't possibly find any reason to believe someone lost it.
For starters, she's well-aware Halloween's not exactly a thing here, a shame really, and not only that, nothing came to mind that suggested this' came from someone's convention costume, either.
There's no belief it's some modern art, Lila didn't know of any piece that had this, and she seen some ugly ones just from glimpsing at the art books they get in for the young adult section once awhile.
"You sure you wanna take that?" Bill asked if Lila's sure she wants to take the now-dubbed pen with them.
Shrugging, Lila replied, "Well, we're only a block from the library, and after work, I'll look into the web and see if someone has a missing poster for it. If I don't and nobody speaks up after a full week, I guess I can see what the hell this thing is, and hey, maybe it's one of those multipurpose pens."
She'll give it a full week before claiming the pen as her own, just for the curiosity sake, and if there's nothing of note or value, well, it wasn't like she paid anything for the pen, whatever it is, and if someone speaks up by then, they'll get it back pristine.
Win-win.
No harm, no foul.
Nodding, Bill watched as Lila shoved the pen in her jacket before the women headed onward to the library. Entering the warmth of the lobby, they headed straight to the lift, where they headed up to the third floor, and began their work day.
Plenty of books for all ages, the most popular ones having extra copies, and they're sorted by the codes on their spines as Lila worked with her colleagues putting them on the shelves.
From one end of the aisle to the next, they filled the shelves with the new entries, and when they finished, the time struck eight precisely, the hour of the library's opening.
Everything put up and accounted for, the librarians prepared as a stream of people came through those glass doors, going through different departments of the library.
Some went to the computers, some went for the books, and everyone worked to keep the process seamless, and Lila checked out at least a hundred books in the last thirty minutes.
Charged fees for late books, made sure payments made for lost books, it's a miracle she still has feeling in her arms from all the typing and scanning without taking a quick break.
This continued well into the afternoon, when the stream of people slowly dwindled and eventually, like a tap, sputtered, it gave Lila enough time to fiddle with the pen she and Bill found while walking to the library.
She kept it at her desk, just to be sure it's there, as she has the only key to it, and it couldn't hurt to make sure it wasn't broken. Be a shame if it belonged to someone that Lila had to inform them that it broke, worse them implicating her as the cause for it, and surprisingly, it's still pristine.
For a pen, she didn't know what brand it was, didn't have a distinct marking on it, didn't look like anything she's aware of it.
Fiddling as she did, Lila found there's a hidden button on the side of the pen, and when she pushed on it, she felt the pen slightly rattle in her hand, and briefly, there's barely light coming from the hole in the tool on top of the pen.
"Huh, what a weird pen," Lila remarked as she held the pen.
It'd seem that the light's not as strong as it should be and well, Lila didn't see any harm replacing the battery in it, after all, it'd be a terrible thing to give back something if the battery's no good.
Call it a curse, Lila wasn't the type to leave things alone when her curiosity's stirred, maybe gotten her into trouble more than once, but she tries to control it.
It's not exactly everyday she encounters such an odd pen, one where she can't find a way to change out the battery. The top didn't screw off, like one expected to have a battery compartment there, so Lila went to the bottom where she gave it a gentle twist.
It slightly gave and she opened it up and a strange crystal slowly poked out from underneath.
It's clear, translucent, and didn't look fake.
Wincing, Lila remarked, "Me and my penchant for poking my nose where it didn't belong!"
She gently pushed the crystal back inside the pen, enough that it clicked back into place, and screwed the bottom back on, before putting it back into her desk.
If anyone starts asking questions about some sort of crystal, she knows nothing, and won't say anything, because the more she thinks about it, it didn't look like any crystal that she seen before, and this comes from someone who reads through gemology books when helping kids with their homework!
"Great, I'm going to be in an action movie at this rate," Lila winced as she sat at her desk, her hands together as she tried to come up with stories in case anyone asks her questions.
She has a witness with her when they found the pen, they didn't know what it was, and Lila meant well when she checked for a flat battery. She didn't see what's possibly a smuggled crystal from some part of India that might've carried a dark curse that now imprinted itself on her due to her touching the damn thing...
Oh, that's just a thought that she needs!
Okay, maybe Lila won't wait a week for someone to poke their heads up. She'll go home, search the internet for any missing crystals stolen from a sacred temple, and probably the nearest church she can hide in when the curse hits her like a truck on black ice.
"Remain calm, curses aren't real, even if there's those weird curses you read for the kids," Lila tried to calm herself.
Maybe she's overthinking it, but it's weird there's a distinctly cut crystal, transparent, maybe in the topaz family, possibly quartz, it's hard to say, but the fact it's in... well... she can't call it a pen anymore, there's no inkwell, and the crystal's certainly not some strange bulb that makes the invisible messages kids used to write in the library books.
Lila didn't know what the hell it is and she doesn't want to know. She seen enough movies to know better than to ask questions. She's gonna do what she does best and keep her head down and work until she sees cars following her.
Really need to stop watching movies before bed, especially the variety that're based on true stories, on the account they're never accurate, as much as they try to say otherwise.
Adding to list, documentaries about reportedly cursed objects, of the gem variety.
Sitting at her desk, Lila tended stragglers coming up to her and when she finished, she noticed the time. Lunch time. The best time.
Locking her desk, logging out, Lila clocked out of the library for lunch, and went with Bill to a café close by the library to grab something to eat.
"Completely wiped!" Bill's walnut eyes shimmered as she recounted the sight of the bookshelves that she and the colleagues filled with books earlier, now emptied.
Lila remarked, "Well, as long as we're influencing tomorrow's creative bunches, I guess."
It's expected that a downtown library gets more visitors and they're popular with other libraries since they have better variety due to their size, and most of the time, Lila and the others' worked to send books out to the other libraries in the area as requested.
Consuming their desired lunch, Bill with her Caesar salad with pine nuts and Lila enjoyed a sandwich with some coffee, the women discussed other topics, and as they did, Lila saw movement in the corner of her eye.
There's three people walking down the sidewalk across from where she and Bill sat at the table outside the café, and Lila would've ignored them not for the fact they're wearing large black motorcycle helmets and black outfits to go along with it.
Normally, she wouldn't pay any attention, but they're moving in a fashion that's resembling to what Lila learnt growing up from her military career driven father.
They're in a position where they're searching and Lila's not the type to draw conclusions hastily, she's watching these three wandering around, slowly looking, turning their large helmets.
It's bizarre and Bill tapped her foot against Lila's, getting her attention.
"Um, you there?" Bill pointed at the side of her head.
Lila blinked her chestnut eyes before looking over to Bill who looked at her confusingly.
"Ah, nothing, just caught up in something," Lila shrugged as she grabbed a sip of her coffee.
When she covertly looked, the three people disappeared, and she tried to spy them elsewhere, but they never showed up.
Lunch concluded and the women returned to the library where they continued the work day until the end, when the library officially closed at 9PM on the dot.
Going through the paperwork, Lila filed them in accordance, book orders, lost books, fees, and she's done for the day.
She bid Bill and the others farewell as she clocked out.
Lila shoved her hands in her pocket as she gone out of the library and took her usual route home.
The forecast wasn't wrong, the rain started up again, and Lila rushed through the rain as it fell throughout the area.
Her boots pattering against the puddles of poling rain water, Lila hurried towards her flat, nothing special, just something she managed to obtain through getting in good graces with the landlady. Wasn't easy and Lila watched herself around her, but it's worth not paying out the nose for a decent flat close to her job.
Going up the steps, Lila wiped her heels against the Matt (a reference to an old boyfriend that deserved every tongue lashing imaginable) before entering the flat and going up the stairs.
Her landlady's usually greeting her at this hour, but Lila guessed she's out at the pub with her friends, sometimes she does that.
Yawning, Lila headed up the stairs after getting her mail, went up to her flat, and entered.
She threw off her jacket, took off her boots and socks, and proceeded to reach around her back when she heard a noise in the kitchen.
Lila lowered her arms as she looked towards the darkened kitchen.
Maybe it's just her mind playing tricks on her and it's just the refrigerator making a noise, again.
Waiting, Lila stayed near the front door and she didn't hear any noise from her kitchen.
Sighing, Lila reached behind her back and jumped when she heard the chair in her kitchen make an audible noise.
She didn't own any pets, Ms. Hudson doesn't allow them, and she doesn't have a roommate, husband, boyfriend, anyone living with her, either.
Lila lowered her arms and calculated her chances.
Leave the flat and never turned back, barefoot and all, out into the rain, and then some.
Confront the noise and either have a heart attack or feel foolish for the rest of the night.
As Lila determined her actions, she swore hearing…
Hearing…
Someone opening her refrigerator door and going through it.
Oh, that's just uncalled for!
Steal her things and all that, par course.
Have the nerve to steal food from her, that's low, even for a burglar!
"Okay, I'm only twenty-eight, I've made many mistakes in my life, and I'll probably never marry, at this rate. Well, what's wrong with few more mistakes?" Lila calculated her actions.
Well, she led a decent, uneventful life, dealing with failed relationships that ended because of her family's military background, worked as a librarian, and probably going to be a spinster for the remainder of life, what's the worst that can happen?
Lila slowly reached into the umbrella holder and grabbed an oldie but a goodie, her father's baseball bat he had since high school, old, oak, weighed, and hit a lot of home runs in its day.
With it in her hands, Lila embarked on a journey to the source of the sound.
She slowly kept to the wall near the kitchen, as it's the blind spot that nobody can easily see her coming, and she slowly moved towards the kitchen as she heard clattering coming from her cabinets.
Great, a burglar with an appetite.
Keeping her heartbeat controlled, Lila went over what her father taught her, as she neared the edge of the doorway into the kitchen.
In her head, Lila pictured the elegy when she's violently murdered by a sociopath who gotten hungry.
Here Lies Lila Ann Watson — AGED 28 — Felled to a bizarre burglary gone awry — Ketchup packets exploded — Next Week — Bingo.
Prepared for the fight of her life, Lila took a deep breath, said her prayers, and raised her baseball bat above her head as she entered her kitchen with ire in her life.
"Hands where I can see you and don't do anything funny with my salami!" Lila shouts.
Sitting in her table, there's a man, early thirties by her guess, who… for the lack of better word… looked like a hobo.
Big coat that looked old and stitched multiple times. A multicolored scarf going down his tall body, and his hair, it's a mess!
Oh wonderful, what's worse?
Lila hurts a homeless man eating a sandwich or killed by him?
He's just as surprised as she is as he sat there looking at her with his icy blue eyes.
"Would you fancy a pastrami?" the man lifted his half-eaten pastrami sandwich up, as he does, he flashed Lila his pearly whites.