It happened in seconds after the world around him frozen in place.
A tall slender man appeared in front of William during the deafening silence among the frozen people, his illuminating eyes, just like his contact and Liliana told him, his pale face full of fine lines, faint black veins in his hands, and his suit pristine among the crowd's strange and unusual clothing choices.
If not for the key aspects, the strange man would've looked like a normal middle-aged businessman.
Hearing his name, William mustered, "How do you know me?"
When the man spoke, William sees why Liliana's sure the man wasn't human, only looking human, and trying to sound human. His voice unusual, his odd enunciations, everything, that even William couldn't sure what the strange man is or isn't.
It was like the Devil dressed as a man.
"I intervened… many years ago… because… I knew… you were… something… special… shall… we… say?" William heard the strange man tell him that he stopped an event years before William was born, to ensure his birth, because the strange man "knew" William was special, enough that he had to intervene right then and there.
Make no mistake, if William didn't show any use to him, he would've left him to his fate, but the strange man didn't get this far for recklessly deciding fates like that, he meticulously poked through William's future before concluding that he would be useful to him, alive.
Tilting his head as he processed the strange man's comments, William questioned the strange man's motives and the strange man instinctively pointed out that William talked to Liliana, still bitter about the events that happened long ago.
How he knew this, William didn't know, he couldn't have been in the Rouge and Liliana's bitterness wouldn't allow her to let his presence go unnoticed.
A light scoff coming from the strange man, he responds to the inner thoughts in William's head with, "She… would've… killed me… but… I… think she knew better. Wouldn't you say?"
With his only chance, William broached a question, "What are you?"
He heard back, "I'm… an… tsk… unusual… quality…"
William tried getting a name, but the strange man wouldn't give it to him, saying that it isn't wise, and that he knows that William wants something from him. He knew it before William even had the thought cross his mind.
"I believe… you… wanted… to know… the truth, do… you not… Mister… Hartnell?" William heard the strange man asking him and he hesitated, remembering Liliana's warning, about the price he'll pay for this help.
The strange man wasn't shocked, bothered, he stood quietly among the silence, staring at William with those illuminating eyes of his, before William finally asks, "What do you want from me?"
He sees nothing in those illuminating eyes, too bright for him to stare for too long, but he heard the strange man reply, "I believe… you… and… I… have… something… in common… Mister… Hartnell…"
Shifting in his spot, William raised his fine brow as the strange man informed him the reason he waited for this day's because he and William have something in common and that is why he sought him out in the first place.
Calculating when exactly William would seek him out, down to the letter, as it were.
"Do you know who killed my mother?" William broached the topic and he sees the strange man briefly turn his head away from him before turning back and replying to a question that William hadn't asked yet, "I… cannot… change… her fate… as… you know… it was… inevitable… as was… your father's…"
Baffled, William hounded him for answers on the question he asked, but the strange man opted to abruptly grab his hand, and he felt himself moving between worlds over, time, everything, and when his mind caught up to him, he realized where the strange man took him.
Outside his and Tom's childhood home, at this time he was staying over with a friend for a fortnight and Tom was doing whatever the hell he did at that time, much to their parents' dismay.
The strange man brought him to the window looking into his parents' room on the first floor, seemingly bending reality that when they walked, they immediately stepped onto the roofing with the large window in front of them, inside the window William sees the king-sized bed with blue sheets, pictures on the wall, just like how he remembered, and he heard the strange man beside him warn him, "You… cannot… interact… merely.. only… observe…"
Staring into the window, William sees the events of that night unfold, as his father said, they came home from an adventure.
The door opened with his father joyfully stepping inside, pulling on his long coat, his round glasses shimmering in the lamp light near the door, as he turned it on.
"Another day, another adventure, ey, Ellie?" William heard his father say as his mother stepped into the room, exhausted, throwing off her jacket, taking off her shoes right there.
She exasperated as she plopped herself on the edge of their bed, "Another sore morning!"
Patting her on the shoulder as he sat beside her, undoing the laces of his shoes, she heard her husband say, "Doncha worry, Ellie, I got the cure for that!"
Shoving the worn shoes under the bed, putting his glasses into their case, taking off his suspenders, moving closer to the top of their bed, while his wife behind him readied for bed, exhausted from the adventure they had hours earlier.
She's pulled into an embrace by her husband on the bed, as he held an impish look on his face, and William looked away in embarrassment while the strange man looked on, his dull face hardly animating.
It's interrupted when they started hearing an unusual noise coming from the other room, where William's father kept the TARDIS, and it's loud enough to warrant his attention, forcing him from the bed.
He leaves his beloved on the bed as she's relaxing, William sees her eyes growing heavy, and he sees something he hadn't noticed before.
There's… a grandfather's clock… it's incredibly old and looked nothing like a grandfather clock that William ever saw, before.
More.
His parents never had a grandfather's clock in their bedroom, they didn't even own one at all!
It's faintly ticking and his mother hardly noticed it, due to her exhaustion, she didn't even register it in the room with her.
The ticking gotten noticeably louder, enough that it roused his mother, then as it suddenly started ringing out, the lamp went out, plunging the bedroom in darkness, and William sees someone standing beside his mother that he didn't notice before, either.
"Ellie…" William heard a man's voice hiss, the tone of voice dripped with hatred.
His mother couldn't move, she sees the shape beside her, and she heard the voice say to her, "I told you… I never forget a face. Time's… up."
Long arms reached out, hands wrapped around Ellie's neck, and the shape strangled every life out of her, while William fought against the strange man's warnings, pounding on the window, begging for his mother to fight, damning the shape.
As the strange man said, nothing William did caused a reaction in his mother, she didn't hear him, didn't notice him, it was like watching a movie, one he couldn't stop.
Her exhaustion and age, proved difficult for his mother to fight, forcing William to watch as the shape successfully strangling his mother in front of him, helpless to stop them, and when he saw the life in his mother's dark eyes disappear, he sees the shape take form, a man with a meticulously cut black beard, his blackened hair combed and prim, and the hate in those lavender eyes.
There's satisfaction in those lavender eyes and the man grinned, tucking the body into bed, closing his mother's eyes, a tap on her nose with his long finger, before he moved towards the grandfather clock, opening its door, stepping inside it, and both him and the grandfather clock disappeared without a trace.
Dropping to the ground, feeling the roofing underneath him, helpless, William's eyes welled with tears as he hyperventilated, panicked, emotions trying to rush through the small doorway.
He's forced to look on, like he's in a Charles Dickens's novel, unable to do anything but watch, as he sees his father cheerfully step through the doorway once more. He's about to say something, but he notices his love sleeping and rather wake her, he silently moved around the bed, going to his side of their bed, throwing his legs up as he crawled under the sheets.
"Nighty night, Ellie!" he whispers, giving her a kiss on the side of her forehead, but instantly, he's alerted to something wrong, as he retracted abruptly, confusion in his dark green eyes.
"Ellie?" he calls out to her, but she didn't stir, when he lightly shakes her, his mind went into a panic, as he frantically searched for a pulse, before William saw the chaos ensure as his father jumped from the bed, grabbing the phone on the nightstand.
Tears dripping from his face, William's lips quivered as his reddened face pressed against the cold glass, as he sees his father breaking down in front of him, the realization that his love died while he was in the other room, but he'd never know the truth.
"Wh… who killed her?" William shouted as he forced himself to turn away from the scene, towards the quiet man, his illuminating eyes seemingly floating in the darkness of the night.
That man, William didn't recognize him, and his mother, she didn't recognize him, either, it's almost random, until the strange man explained what'd transpired.
"In… another… life… they… knew each other… quite well… enemies… as they were… when… your mother… changed the course… of history… she did not… realize… that by doing so, it would… cause… well… unforeseen… consequences," the strange man explains to William, that in another life before this, his mother changed events that resulted in her losing memory of her enemy, but as he continued, the strange man made it apparent that while she lost her memory of her enemy, her enemy didn't. "It was… his doing… tricked her… used her… to come… back… to further… his plans. A means to an end. If… she knew… I'd wager… she wouldn't have… done… what she did, but… things happen… for a reason."
Wiping away his tears, William demanded to know what the strange man wanted from him, in exchange for this, and he said to him, "I… believe… we can… come to an… agreement… Mister… Hartnell… we… both… want the same… thing… believe it… or not… I will… let you… know… when it is… time… it is… imperative… you… do not… fail… in the meantime."
The strange man tells William that when the time comes, he will come for him, again, and that they both have something in common, something to do with the man that killed his mother, that the strange man wouldn't tell him about, but assured him that they both wanted the same thing.
"Why should I trust you?" William asked him as the strange man whisked them away from the house, returning them to the silent crowd.
Leaning forward, the strange man tells him, "I… believe… Mister… Hartnell… you… already… do…I… will see… you… in time…"
Like that, he's gone, and the crowd seemingly started moving again, no time passed, unaware what happened, and William's left in the middle as he processed what happened.
"Willy!" William heard his brother call out to him and when Tom reached him, he sees his brother's face, reddened, tears running down his face.
William coughs as he tells his brother, "I… I know who killed our mother."
The End