Chapter 4: The Witch
Before the Doctor had left the Bearer had given him the coordinates that had come up on the Captain's DNA scanner 500 years previously, and so the Doctor was on his way to find that area. He was following his own natural instinct for knowing where he was coordinate wise. He steered the Gaprelia as though he was an expert with the creatures. He reached what he thought was the right spot after 27 hours without pause. The cave stood wide open in front of him, he could just imagine it sprouting teeth and swallowing him whole. The snow crunched beneath his feet as he approached it slowly, very slowly. As he drew closer to the entrance he thought he saw something lying on the ground inside, he moved in closer, there was something there. He ran into it and found a young girl, probably about 14 or 15, lying there with her eyes closed. The Doctor checked her for signs of life, pulse yes, heartbeat yes, breathing yes. She was alive, Melanie was still alive.
Rose couldn't take being in the village much longer, with all the people talking about whether the Doctor would succeed or not. She was now in the TARDIS, leaning against the railings which surrounded the console area. Laria had insisted on coming in with her though Rose had said that she'd have been fine on her own. She'd been telling Laria about the adventures she'd been having with the Doctor, all those strange creatures they'd met, Nestens, Gelth, Slitheen and all those aliens aboard Platform One. Laria had listened to Rose with great interest, she'd heard stories like these before but they'd usually been made up by the people in her village as a way of entertainment. Any others had come from the humans of Earth. Rose thought to herself about all the places where they hadn't been yet, maybe Rome or the Moon Landings, or could they even as the Doctor said arrive in a TV show, Rose chuckled slightly at the idea of meeting the Simpsons.
The Doctor pulled the bottle of wake up juice out of his pocket and poured it carefully into Melanie's mouth. He waited for a reaction and got one. Melanie coughed and then opened her eyes. She then sprang onto her feet staring at the Doctor with a look of fear in her eyes.
"W-Who are you?" she asked, stuttering slightly.
"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor replied smiling, "I'm a friend, I've come to help you."
Melanie looked at her surroundings, she recognised the cave, the only difference was the lack of wicked men and the ugly creature. She could just remember the last words the creature had said to her, but had she heard them? Were they just a dream?
"How long have I been here?" Melanie asked.
"About 500 years," the Doctor replied.
"What?" Melanie said in astonishment, she didn't want to believe it.
"Yeah I know, you've been in here sleeping for 500 years," the Doctor said, "Still your lucky I've had to experience much longer time than that awake."
Melanie let this new thought linger in her mind and what it meant, her family, her friends, they'd all be dead know and she'd be alone in a village of strangers.
"Come on, we need to go," the Doctor said taking Melanie's hand.
They both headed towards the cave mouth, but then it closed, changing completely.
"Not so fast Doctor," a voice said behind them.
The Doctor turned round to see the creature that had been responsible for Melanie's sleeping imprisonment. The Witch of the Cave.
"So you're not going to let us leave," the Doctor said, "Why?"
The Witch remained silent Melanie looked away from it, she hated that creature and what it was, whatever it was. She tightened her hold on the Doctor's hand to let him know how she felt, the Doctor understood.
"You have discovered my existence, you have seen me," the Witch replied.
"And what's wrong with that?" the Doctor asked.
"I have great power, I do not want other's to discover it and use it for their own means," the Witch replied, "If they find the cave or if they about to I send them away and make them forget. If they find me I kill them."
"But most of them probably found you because you revealed yourself to them," the Doctor said, "And many came here looking for Melanie."
"And they still came, I dealt with them," the Witch replied.
"They came looking for someone they wanted to help," the Doctor said, "You resigned her to a fate far worse then death."
"And why should that concern me Doctor?" the Witch asked.
"Why couldn't you have killed her then if you could have, or just sent her away with no memory like everyone else, why make a exception with her?" the Doctor asked.
"She came here unwillingly," the Witch replied, "If you had wished to come I would have killed her."
"More to the point why did you have to kill anybody? Why couldn't they have forgotten you and this cave?"
The witch remained silent, glaring towards the Doctor; Melanie chanced a look at it then saw that it was no even worse than it when she first saw it. 500 years had made this creature decay into even worse appearance, one of its eyes was now burnt and dented, the skin on its jaw dangled with the bone and its right arm was now nothing but black bone. The Doctor stared at it, mentally challenging it realise its mistakes. Then the Witch was gone. The Doctor stood in front of the TARDIS, he rolled through the memories of this encounter and realised that some were missing, the cave, what the witch looked like and more importantly what had happened to Melanie. The Doctor sighed as he realised that the witch would not let Melanie go.
Melanie stood there staring at where the Doctor had once been, then she looked at the witch, what was left of it.
"You're not going to release me are you," she said to the Witch, she realised that if she was going to be stuck in this cave for the rest of her life then she should except it.
"I will not let you go, but I will not keep you her either," the Witch said.
Melanie stared at it, wondering what it meant. Then she understood. The witch let out a blast of lighting at her which hit Melanie in the chest, then she was thrown against the wall, her screams of pain echoing throughout the cave. Then she was gone, vaporised. Melanie was dead.