Chapter Four:
It was evening when Alex, Alexys, and the Doctor rolled into town in a classic blue Eldorado the color of the Tardis. The three inched their way across the boundary of Riverdale into the new town that would be their home for the next few days. Alex and Alexys looked out of the back window to read the welcome sign that was lined in Christmas lights.
"Let…
Greendale
…cast a spell on you!"
The two looked to each other with a knowing glance that made the Doctor both on edge and annoyed. In that half whine, half demand that only the Tenth Doctor could do he snapped at them in the backseat, "Enough of that! I know you two are the 'all powerful watchers—"
"Great and mysterious watchers," Alexys corrected.
"—but I'll have none of that from you."
There was silence as the vehicle inched forward into the town. Alexys looked to Alex and mouthed the words, "You feel that?"
"I would advise you to speak up, Alexys. If you are to be part of the reconnaissance then you must share your observations," the Doctor scolded.
"Sorry, right," she looked to Alex who urged her to continue, "Do you feel that?"
"Feel wha—?"
The silence of the car engine dying answered his question.
"We'll go on foot," he chippered up. "What day is it?"
"December 10th," Alex replied as they all got out of the car.
The Doctor pointed to Alex, "Happy Hannukkah!"
"Thank you!" Alex beamed.
"Alright, well, we'll just do a bit looking around," he motioned with his finger in a circular motion, his tongue poking out against his cheek as he bit it lightly before tasting the air, "Bit of boiled cabbage. What was I saying? Right. Look around, return to Rose and Clara in the Tardis for a cuppa tea and then be on ou—look at this?."
The Doctor stooped down to pick up something off the ground. He looked to Alex and Alexys with curiosity and from the glint of a near street lamp they could see it looked to be something close to a gold pocket watch about the size of his palm. They huddled in close as he opened it to reveal a small dial surrounded by thousands and thousands of tiny tick marks which made it seem more like a kitchen timer without any numbers. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the gold watch.
"There's another one!" Alex exclaimed, walking over to find another by some bushes.
"Oh and here!" Alexys replied further into the middle of the street.
"It looks like they are everywhere," Alex mumbled motioning further down the road behind Alexys to the ground sporadically littered with them.
"Oh…this can't be good."
Alex and Alexys looked to the Doctor as he inspected the findings of the device with his signature "can't be good" expression.
"You two watchers," he was suddenly very serious as he used the term, "You saw the end of the Time War. You saw the return of the Daleks, you saw me meet Rose Tyler, you saw Aliens in London, you saw Bad Wolf and a thousand other things more. Now…did you two ever see anything like this?"
Together they shook their head, "No."
He shook his head in return.
"Is it like a vortex manipulator?" Alex questioned after some time, "I can't imagine it'd be good to have all these around. If a town got their hold on something like this and all began using it without knowing what they were doing…it could be the reason there's all the Time Fissures?"
The Doctor looked to Alex with intensity before looking back to the watch in dismissal, "Wrong, welllll you're on the right track. This is not a vortex manipulator but something far more complex. This here is Time Lord Technology or an attempt at it multiplied over and over again. You were right about one thing…A whole town getting their hands on this could be the cause for the Time Fissures and possibly the cracks."
"Well, it has to be an accident!" Alexys looked to the watch in her hand then back to the Doctor.
"No, no," he looked up to the sky as if surveying the night for answers he could not find with him, "This was very much done on purpose. The question is: why?"
"Maybe it was done for you," Alex thought long and hard about all he had seen, "Maybe it was just a tool to get your attention."
"My atten…" the Doctor's eyes grew to the shape of grapefruits as he glared behind them. The two moved to look but he grasped their shoulders, "Look at me. Just look at me. This is wrong…this is very, very wrong. Just keep looking at me. Just don't sto—"
"Doctor."
The next events came in a series of jumps and skips to Alex and Alexys as if a scratched DVD were being forced to play. Screaming, so much screaming, running, so much running. The Tardis. Sparks flying. Holding onto the center console while the Doctor pressed buttons and pulled levers. "I need to know!" Staring up at the circles and whirls of Time Lord technology. Emergency lights. Blasts shooting. More running. No escaping. "I am so sorry, Rose Tyler." Shots being fired. "I am so sorry, Clara Oswald."
Music.
Gentle tunes of a record from times of old, drifting along wings of a butterfly.
"All night, I only dream of you. All day, the same thing happens too."
A hallway, a long hallway with crimson walls and black accents and old antique furniture and a single window all the way at the end.
"I can't explain just where the answer lies. Oh, it must have been your haunting, magic eyes."
Dull colors, only deep in their darkness, with lights that casted a thick deep yellowy glow. There was something unfamiliar and yet something so familiar all at once. Where? And most importantly…when?
Alex and Alexys took in a deep breath, for the first time realizing their existence. They turned toward each other then jumped in surprise. Alex wore a long silk robe of black and crimson stripes with a shirt and comfortable trousers all of the same crimson. His hair was coiffed backward in a fantastic manner while his glasses were newer and incredibly chic. Alexys wore her hair slicked back with a headband and crimson sweater with a high-waisted black skirt and black stockings. They pointed at one another then themselves.
"This looks…"
"…very familiar."
They turned to a mirror then whisper-shouted in unison, "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina!"
"That means you're Ambrose!"
"And you're Sabrina!"
The two let out an excited whisper screech before separating in a hurry to where their respective rooms would be.
Alex ran up the steps to the attic room that had been iconic for Ambrose and when entered he bit back a gasp at the beauty of it. Books upon stacks of books lined the surfaces covering topics from Occult Law to Ancient Civilizations and What They Were Really Like. LGBT literature sat at the forefront of stacks and beneath them were beautiful handcrafted wooden furniture that seemed beyond this world.
"You said you were getting water?"
With nothing but a blanket to cover him, the sweet-eyed Luke sat on the bed with a smile just for Alex. He looked down at his empty hands then the empty space next to the man that appeared far more attractive in real life than anything he had seen on a TV screen. The eyes, the lips, the raised brow beckoning him to make a move—all of it took Alex's breath away.
"Well?"
"I-I forgot," Alex stammered.
Luke rubbed his jaw as he looked Alex up and down, "Well, I know a different way to quench my thirst."
On the floor below Alexys stepped into her room and with outstretched arms twirled until she stopped in front of a mirror. She still looked the same and Alex still looked the same yet there was a notable difference despite the wardrobe. Their demeanor, their essence, their visibility changed into something entirely different.
"Spellman?"
She jumped and spun around to see Nick Scratch laying a top the bed far more delectable than she could have imagined, "Uh…Nick?"
He sat up slightly with that dark eyed stare as he smirked, "Well, are you going to join me?"
Two Hours Later…
Breathless and exhausted, Alex and Alexys met each other in the hallway once again. It was clear they were not wearing the same clothes they had on earlier and it was clear they had been intimate with another person. They pointed at each other with the excited question they answered at the same time.
"Luke!"
"Nick!"
"Did you know?" he asked, meaning did she know Nick would be waiting for her.
"No! Did you know?" she asked, meaning did he know Luke would be waiting for him.
"No! But what is going on? What are we doing here?"
"Well, I did find this hanging around my neck in the middle of…interrogating Nicholas Scratch," Alexys coughed as she pulled from around her neck a long chain that held a silver pocket watch at the end of it.
Alex pulled a similar one from around his neck, "I have the same one."
"I also found this in my pocket when things were…" Alexys trailed off as she pulled out a second one.
"I also found another one," Alex pulled out the fourth.
"Okay…okay…do you remember what happened?"
"The last thing I remember is the Doctor saying something about this not being good and to not look away from him."
"That's the last thing I remember too," Alexys put both the watches back out of sight as Alex did.
"I remember bits and pieces of the Tardis and trying to leave but that's it…" Alex was visibly worried.
"And something about Clara and Rose, right?" Alexys wasn't sure if she was making things up or pulling at loose threads of memory.
"He said he was sorry? I don't…wait. These look familiar," Alex pulled the one from his pocket out to show the circular markings that meant it was Gallifreyan language, "Remember when the Doctor became John Smith?"
"You think we used the Chameleon Arch?"
"Maybe…that would explain how we're planted here and it's totally normal. I mean…do you have memories beyond the show?" Alex questioned.
Alexys put her hand to her head with a squint, "Yeah…I think so. It's like what I've seen from the show but in first person perspective with way more details. And I have a cell phone! With text messages and phone numbers! There's someone here named Archie. Oh and I remember…using the bathroom? That's definitely not on the show."
Alex stifled a laugh, "Yeah…me too. But I don't remember magic. Well…not like the show. I have strange memories of stories of Sabrina's dad and weird aunts and uncles that lived here before us. It's like it's the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina but maybe alien stuff instead of magic?"
"What if we're trapped in a dream by the Bhad Bhabie?"
"What?" Alex shook his head in confusion.
"You know…" Alexys motioned around them, "What if this is a monster dream from Bhad Bhabie?"
"The 'Catch me outside' girl?" Alex narrowed his eyes in absolute confusion.
"Nooooo, the nightmare-demon-thing that Sabrina released!"
"Ohhh, Batibat!" Alex exclaimed ignoring Alexys' whisper of it being the same thing, "That would mean that there is magic in this world but there is absolutely no recollection of Chilling Adventures type magic. Maybe some Wiccan stuff but we're absolutely mortal."
"And more than that," Alexys sighed, "We're college students. Community college students."
"Right…right," Alex racked his brain for more details, "I'm going for Social Work!"
"And I'm going for English," Alexys looked at the pocket watch in Alex's hand, "Do you think these are ours and Rose and Clara's?"
"Perhaps. But it still doesn't explain how we're able to remember. The Doctor definitely did not remember anything about himself and we remember ourselves and our new selves," Alex sighed.
"Well…he did kind of remember but he thought it was all dreams," Alexys offered, "This could be a similar thing. Maybe we have an easier time breaking through the perception filter and biodata module."
"Okay, you have to tell me how you memorized all this random Doctor Who stuff," Alex looked at her expectantly.
"I don't know…sometimes I get bored or remember details about the show and think I discover plot holes but then I realize no…nothing," Alexys knocked on the invisible screen separating them from the reader, "Air tight."
"Well, fine. But what do we do? What day is it?"
Alexys pulled out her cell phone, "It's November Thirtieth."
"And it was December Tenth when we landed in Greendale the first time," Alex mused, "Do you think we still have those little watches we found with the Doctor?"
"We should look through our stuff but we shouldn't let Nick or Luke know what's going on. We have to keep this between us," Alexys knew she didn't have to say it but she said it anyway.
Alex was silent, staring at Alexys in deep thought for the moment.
"What is it?"
"Well…memory loss? Time confusion? Cracks? Do you think this could be…the S—" a smile played on his lips as he drawled out the "s" sound.
Before he could finish the word that terrified her she interrupted with a nod, "Sontarans? Yeah, totally. This all screams the work of Sontarans."
Alex chuckled, "No, that's not what I was going to say."
"Well, this was a great powwow but I'm on water duty," Alexys turned abruptly.
Alex laughed, "As am I. So about the S—"
"Sontarans? Well, you know what they say? Speak of the devil and he doth appear," she beamed, "So we never got to discuss the details but…we both had sex with the Doctor."
"Oh right! What was Nine like?"
Alexys smirked and playfully jabbed her elbow against his side, "Well, they don't call him nine for nothing. KnowwhatImean? KnowwhatImean?"
Alex laughed, "Well, do you know why they call Eleven, Eleven?"
"Because he's compensating," Alexys answered in all seriousness as she continued her way to the kitchen.
"What…What? No!" Alex shouted as he ran after her.
The two playfully sniped at each other about their respective Doctors as they entered the kitchen only to find a candlelit dinner being cleaned up by Zelda. She jumped at the sight of them, "Oh, Alexys, Alexander. I thought you both would be in bed by now."
Zelda looked exactly how they recalled. Elegant in heels, a tight black dress, perfectly styled hair, red lipstick, and the cigarette holder ring with a cigarette on the end. Alex was the first to recover, "Right, Auntie. We're just getting some water."
The door to the bathroom opened as Zelda shrugged, "Well, I'd like to introduce you to my…special friend. John?"
Emerging from the bathroom, wiping off excess moisture from his hands was a tall lanky man with wild hair, "Pleasure to meet you both. Your Aunt Zelda has told me so much about you."
The man extended his hand but Alex and Alexys held their breath for fear of passing out completely. They weren't just looking at Zelda's date for the evening. They were looking at the Twelfth Doctor.
"Alexys, Alexander," Zelda looked to them with disapproval.
Alexys recovered and fit her hand into the man's massive one, "The pleasure is all mine, Doctor."
"Oh, it's professor," he smiled warmly as he pulled back, "Professor John Smith."
"Right," Alex shook his hand next in sequence, "Well, we're just off to get some water we'll be out of your way in just a moment."
"No need. We're going to be seeing a lot more of each other in the next few days. Tonight we're celebrating my acceptance as a teacher at the college in town," John Smith smiled with jovial tones.
"We can't wait!" Alex and Alexys spoke in unison before rushing to grab their glasses of water then rushing back up the stairs.
"He doesn't remember us," Alexys quickly spat out.
"He's going to be in the college," Alex shuddered with displeasure.
"All of our ideas are out the window. If he's here as John Smith that means one of these pocket watches belongs to him," Alexys frowned deeply.
"Yeah…and who do the others belong to?" Alex asked.
She sighed, "I guess we're just going to have to find out."
