Rushing through the maze, the blackness ahead, the women chased after the woman in the yellow dress, that kept out of their reach, despite their efforts.
Somehow, she's able to stay ahead of them, briskly walking, yet out of reach, and wouldn't stop, even though the three women shouted for her to stop, to understand what's going on.
Turning the corner, the women continued chasing after their quarry.
"She… she… has… to… stop… sometime!" Lila struggled to speak as it hurt to breath, her lungs choking from the strain.
Flew backwards a good feet when an abrupt wall knocked senses into her.
On the ground, dazed, blood oozing from her nose, Lila would've heard tweety birds had it been one of those days, instead her mind spun around as it imagined the tweety birds flying around its head.
Groaning, Lila struggled on the ground, blood dripped onto the blackened ground, her chestnut eyes dazed as she pushed herself up from the ground, cupping her hand over her nose as blood dribbled.
Her hand glossy red, as blood oozed through the closed fingertips, Lila turned her whole body, trying to turn the corner, her hand outstretched, to find there's another wall in front of her.
Turning back around, her hand still outstretched, Lila felt another.
Her back faced to the wall she ran into, two walls on the side of her, Lila's forced to walk back through the same part of the maze she just came from.
It didn't make sense!
Lila distinctly saw the three woman ahead of her go this way, they didn't run in any other direction!
Her palm coated in her blood, her bottom face bare reminisce of Bill Paxton's character from 'Near Dark' Lila struggles as she tried cleaning herself, having to use part of her jersey to wipe away the caked blood.
Blood running down her throat, the taste of iron in her mouth, the disgusting feeling of the blood coating the back of her throat, Lila gagged as she tasted the blood that carried as she breathed as she moved her mouth.
Her jersey soaked with sweat and blood, the golden yellow portion of the jersey turned vivid red in parts while the rest dried and darkened, it looked like she went through a horror movie.
Oh wait.
"This means war!" Lila quoted an old favorite, Daffy Duck, lisp, and all, as it's going to be an awkward conversation getting her jersey cleaned without having to explain to Ms. Hudson why her jersey's soaked in her own blood.
Sure, she'll gladly tell her landlord that it's not her blood, to save face and not risk getting Theodore into trouble by mistake, and after that, she'll have an interesting conversation with the cops bringing her in for questioning.
Pulling a gloppy bit of blood hanging out of her nostril, Lila tossed it on the ground in a squishy thud, humility out the window.
At least Ellie and Matilda will know she came through here, just follow the bloody gelatinous mess she periodically yanked from one of her nostrils as the blood started subsiding, leaving the remnants in her nose, blood drying on her face, before the sweat rehydrates it.
"Spaceman, I really hope you're working your magic," Lila choked from the irony taste in her mouth, hard not to break down right then and there, nothing but hopelessness, pain, hunger, a thirst that's being exacerbated by her sweating and the blood drying in her throat.
What sort of Dante's Inferno is this?
What the hell did she do to warrant such a response?
Sure, Lila wasn't an angel with the frilly toga, white wings, and a golden halo, but there's no reason for this!
At least Dante had Virgil.
What did she have?
Two other women in the same predicament who don't even know why they're here, either, and no one guiding them.
Once more, they only have one clear thread shared, they're all in a relationship with a Doctor.
Someone clearly had it out for the Doctor, don't know which one, probably the whole lot, but someone cast a wide net, and Lila wants to know the scope of this plot.
Doesn't make any sense capturing them all without some way for the Doctor to intervene.
Whoever it was, they have some serious issues.
Serious.
Issues.
Not the first time they've dealt with someone with a few screws lose, but the more Lila's thinking about this, this was different, and she didn't know why.
It's methodical, cold, unbridled anger, contempt, name it, whoever rolled out of bed with revenge on the membrane, they planned everything out to the finest detail, kidnapping a woman going into the nursery to check her daughter, a woman who'd just gone to bed, and Lila getting lost.
They were all in different universes, different times, different places, but someone managed to capture them all.
And then there's the woman in yellow.
Someone's in serious need of therapy and antipsychotics!
Not the work of the Daleks or the Cybermen, the usual suspects who had it out for the Doctor, Lila didn't know anyone capable of this setup, and she's read the book with Theodore while in bed multiple times!
No one stood out in her mind.
"Hello?" Lila stopped when she heard another woman's voice, sounded off, foreign, and she called out, before hearing the woman, again.
Calling out in the darkness, Lila followed the woman's voice as she called back, and it led Lila through the darkness, up until she saw a silhouette of a woman ahead.
Rushing up to her, looking like an extra off a Sam Raimi set, Lila stopped short of a scared woman, hard to tell what age due to everything going on, with long flowing blond hair, her quizzical eyes crossing Lila's chestnut eyes.
Raising her hands, one still bloody in spots, Lila showed the woman she's friendly, and that's her blood, not someone else's.
It took a moment, but Lila's mind reacted to the sight of the woman.
She looked familiar.
The fitted silver dress with soft gold lines that flowed around the chest, waist, and thighs, too.
"What happened to you?" Lila heard the woman ask her as she stepped forward, staring at Lila's bloodied state closely.
Lowering her hands, Lila summed, "What hasn't?"
She watches as the woman reached into her elegant dress, pulling out a soft folded silk cloth, handing it to her, Lila thanking her profusely, before apologizing for the blood.
As she gingerly wiped her nose, around her mouth, Lila asked for the woman's name.
She abruptly stopped the moment the woman said, "Romanadvoratrelundar."
She noticed the paleness in Lila's face as she lowered the cloth from her face, her chestnut eyes wide, asking what was wrong.
Gulping, the irony taste evermore present, Lila exhaled, "I know you!"
Recoiling, Rommy raised her fine brow quizzically as she pointed at Lila, responding with, "I don't recall ever meeting you."
Shaking her head, Lila tells her, "We… we never met. But. You. You were dead by the time… gorram!"
That's two for one!
Two dead women!
One Lila isn't sure about, but Rommy and Matilda, she knew for a fact, they're dead.
"Dead?" Rommy found it difficult for her to believe that she's dead, bringing up that if she's dead, she couldn't have given Lila something to wipe down her face.
Guess that's a way of saying it.
Holding the cloth in her trembling hands, Lila insisted that Rommy's dead, that she died in an explosion.
"That's impossible!" Rommy refused to believe Lila, even though she went into detail how she and Theodore heard about her tragic death.
Apparently, Lila's mistaken, Rommy hadn't gone into… into whatever form of science she just said, Lila isn't in the mood to spell out everything for an imaginary audience.
Point is, Rommy didn't believe a word she said, she didn't even believe she was married.
"You... You at least know Medikus, doncha?" Lila broached the knowledge that Rommy was schoolmates with him, how they were in an arranged marriage, at least something that would jog this madwoman's memory!
Her eyes widening, Rommy was quick to tell Lila, that of course she'd know Medikus!
Jumping for joy that she's getting somewhere in this hellhole, Lila then stated, "Good! Well, I happen to know him—his son, actually!"
Telling the woman that she knew Medikus's son, Lila sees confusion on her face, as she couldn't believe Medikus had a son, he was young, she recalled.
God…
"For the love of… help a lady out, please, what do you remember?" Lila clasped her hands together, trying not to lose her temper on Rommy, her only other chance getting out of this, and Rommy informed her that she recalled her father telling her that the arranged marriage with Medikus failed.
He'd made a fool of himself in her father's eye and he forbid the marriage, despite the old royal blood Medikus had.
She couldn't bear to tell her father the truth, that her and Medikus decided it wasn't meant to be, their arranged marriage.
They were close friends, sure, but they were never more than that, Medikus knew how her father was, and so decided to spare her reputation, he sacrificed the meager reputation he had causing a disruption, thus Rommy's father called off the arranged marriage.
"And uh, didn't your father arrange you to marry someone else?" Lila questioned Rommy, causing something to stir inside the confused Time Lady, before fear crossed her face, becoming belligerent.
Heaving, Rommy shouted, "No! Stay back! Get away!"
Panicking, Rommy fought against an imaginary foe, Lila retreating to a safe distance as she helplessly watched Rommy scream as tears ran down her face.
Her hands swatting in the air, Rommy screamed, before Lila forcibly wrapped her arms around the belligerent Time Lady, trying to calm her down.
"Calm down! I'm the only one panicking in this hellhole!" Lila shouts her down, struggling to keep her grip on the Time Lady.
As they struggled, Lila listens to Rommy panicking before there's a lull, Rommy's voice dropped to a whisper, and she uttered, "No… no… it's… happening… again!"
Immediately after, Rommy broke free from Lila's grip, fleeing through the darkened maze, leaving Lila unable to process what's going on, anymore.
Either she died and this was purgatory.
Or.
She died and this was hell without the fire.
Hard to figure out which, at this point.
With Rommy gone and nothing learnt from this, the frustrated Lila threw up her hands in a defeated fashion shouting hoarsely, "Would someone, please, give me, a GODDAMN explanation as to what the HELL is going on, already?!"
No more Miss Nice Girl!
Lowering her hands, Lila heard movement, when she turned her head, she sees Ellie, stepping forward through the darkness, a confused look on her face.
"Ellie, for the love of that is holy, WHAT IS GOING ON, HERE?" Lila gave up remaining calm, no matter what she did, nothing worked, her patience spread thin like butter, her efforts in vain, no longer does she give a rat's ass what anyone or anything says about her crude speeches.
What's the point when there's no answer to what's going on?
Her temper rose a few degrees when Ellie's baffled that Lila knew her name.
Has Lila accidentally taken crazy pills instead of her allergy medicine?
Or.
Did her allergy medicine make her crazy?
"Who are you?" Ellie's mystified at Lila's appearance, driving the bedeviled woman to wildly shake her hands as she empathized that they met before!
Exhaling sharply as she feels her veins starting to pop, Lila caught something amiss with Ellie, the blank stare, the confusion, until it hit her.
"You… you don't remember me?" Lila briefly calmed down as she stared at Ellie.
Shaking her head, Ellie asserted that she never met Lila in her life and as Lila tried understanding, difficult she knows, what's going on, she noticed that there's something off about Ellie's appearance.
Her skin's paler than before, her lips are a different color, when she moved her neck to stare at Lila closely, she sees that there's heavy bruising… around… her neck…
"Ellie… what… happened… to you?" Lila felt a brush of cold air take away the hotheadedness as she stared at Ellie, stiffly moving.
Tilting her head, Ellie opened her mouth to speak, instead, Lila heard…
… her death rattles.
Struggling to breathe, Ellie clawed at her own neck as she felt an unseen presence strangle the life out of her, when she fell backwards, Lila didn't hear her hit the ground, or find her body.
In shock, Lila checked around for Ellie, but the woman's gone.
Taking deep breathes, Lila tried to find a spread of stability in her mind, but that's long since divorced her at this point, so in her haste, she picked the direction she can run in, and did that.
Didn't look behind her, didn't want to, she kept running, mindful of the sudden turns, when she finally stopped, Lila's met with another face she recognized.
Matilda.
"Ma… Mrs. Pratchett!" Lila looked at the woman, wandering the darkness, when their eyes crossed, it was then, Lila screamed at the sight.
Blood gushed from the woman's eyes, nose, and ears, a confused look fixated on her face, she didn't even acknowledge Lila's presence.
Pete said she'd died by an aneurysm.
Seeing her mindlessly walk around, Lila felt that awful pit in her stomach cement itself, as she fled from the sight, trying to find someway out of here, and fast!
Don't know how, don't really care at this point, Lila's getting out of here, pleasantries be damn!
Picking a direction and running, Lila tried, but failed.
Only when she finally stopped, she saw a silhouette of the woman in the yellow dress that she'd been chasing after, seemingly waiting for her.
Her sore feet slapping against the ground, Lila rushed to reach the woman, when she did, her heart dropped, and her mouth gap.
It's…
It's…
…
Bill!
"Bah—Bill?!" Lila's eyes widened as she sees her old friend, standing there, waiting for her, a vacant look in her brown eyes.
When Lila studied her closely, she sees that Bill's carefully tended skin became bloated, her yellow dress soaked in water, blood oozing from the hole in her chest, when Bill opened her mouth, water came out of it.
"Ruh-ruh…" Bill struggles to speak, as water poured out of her mouth as Lila's horrified at the sight of her friend.
As water poured out of her mouth, Bill tried speaking, when she finally managed to get a word out, it's enough to clue Lila in what's going on.
"RUN!" Bill shouted, her voice crackling.
Forced to abandon her, Lila ran past her, tears running down her face, mixing with the blood residue still on her face.