The time has come once again

To run across the big green valley

Where all of time and space is stretched out

And with _ years of running

You and the universe are getting closer than ever

The Time Lord's birthday song

30th of October 1992

On account of a night of agony, Jackie Tyler almost forgot that it was Rose's birthday.

Throughout the night, she'd heard the wind howling extremely loudly, with a strong resemblance to what you'd hear from a dog or a wolf. There had been no rain or other severe weather, but that horrible noise had lasted for almost three hours without a single break. Even after putting on earplugs and spending some time in the living room just lying around the couch with the telly on, she was still able to hear it all perfectly. And to make matters even more stranger, Rose had been sleeping perfectly well the entire time. Since Rose was almost always aware of unusual noises, and would remain restless if she heard something like that during the night, this scared Jackie. And when it all came to an end, the door to Jackie's room had slammed shut three times in a row. There had been no open window or any object nearby which could have triggered it, and once again, this noise did not wake Rose up. It seemed as if all these noises of horror were specifically targeting Jackie only.

So that morning, when Rose started eagerly hugging her and saying, "Come on, mummy! Aren't you going to say anything?" all Jackie did at first was gently back away from her daughter and say, "Calm down, Rose. I had a bad night."

Rose now looked at her with that anxious expression that indicated she understood that something was going wrong. "Was it really that bad?"

"Did you hear anything unusual during the night?"

"No, mummy; I slept very well. Are you saying that something bad went on as I was sleeping?"

And then, Jackie took a glance at the calendar which hung on the refrigerator. For the month of October, there was a photo of a large tree with leaves which were fully orange, a large wheel hanging in one of the branches, and an oversized pumpkin on the ground. Jackie always circled important dates with a black marker, no matter how obvious they were (a habit she'd acquired at a young age), and right on the 30th, a sloppy fat circle surrounded the square from which the date could be found. Seeing this made her feel deeply embarrassed. Here she was, only twenty-three years old and already forgetting her own daughter's birthday! Something really was wrong with her.

"Forget about that for now, sweetheart. Happy birthday!" she said with an awkward chuckle, and she put Rose in her arms and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Rose smiled in spite of how strange she thought her mother's behavior was. "Are you sure you're all right, mummy? You almost act as if you forgot my birthday."

"Why would I do that, Rosie? Mummies never forget birthdays. I'm just acting strange because I'm tired," she managed to reply.

In twenty minutes, the blueberry pancakes were ready, and the two ate breakfast as if nothing strange had been said at all. Jackie reminded Rose of Ella's plans to prepare tea and the cake for the afternoon and promised to have her present ready as soon as she got home, and Rose let her know once again that she was having her playmate, Mickey Smith, come over.

When she took Rose to school, she said, "Have a good day, sweetheart."

"I hope so," she responded in a small voice as she started getting ready to leave the car. "And I hope you have a good day as well, mummy." She said this with such concern and caution that Jackie knew she hadn't stopped worrying about the way she'd been acting this morning.

Before Jackie started driving, she looked up into the cloudy horizon and prayed that nothing terrible would happen on this day. After all she and Rose had been through, and all the efforts she was making to quit drinking (she'd now gone a whole month without taking a single sip of alcohol), she thought they at least deserved to be able to celebrate Rose's birthday in peace.

...

Upon her arrival at Rolling Meadows, Hannah was sitting in a bench that was a significant distance away from the building. As soon as she saw Jackie driving by, she started slowly waving her arm around, indicating that she had to see her immediately. With one eye on the building (at this time, nearly everyone was inside preparing for the morning class), and the other on her desperate friend, Jackie already knew where she would head towards.

Hannah had lost about ten pounds in the last month, and since she'd been slender before, the weight loss made her appear weak to the point of sickness. Her face remained as white as a sheet all the time, and the heavy eyelids never went away, as the insomnia was now a nightly occurrence. Even though it was only fifty degrees outside, she wore a white overcoat and a long, red woolen scarf that covered her whole neck. Yet, despite all her distress, she managed to give Jackie that sunny smile which she'd always had. "Good morning, Jackie. How has Rose's birthday been so far?"

"Well, I can tell you that Rose has been doing better now. She hasn't had one of strange incidents in months, and she's inviting a friend from school over for tea and cake. We'll probably be having fish and chips again, but at least it's something, you know?"

The forced cheerful tone was doing very little to hide how she was really feeling, and she could already see Hannah's smile slowly fading away. Hiding things from her was now impossible, and Jackie found herself giving off the whole truth. "I almost forgot all about it, Hannah. Last night, I don't think I slept at all. I kept hearing the wind howling like some kind of animal for hours…"

"So you heard it too?"

Words couldn't express how Jackie felt at the moment. "Are you saying that..."

"I keep having these strange sensations at night. Five nights ago, I could feel someone gripping my shoulders every couple of seconds. At one point, I was almost pushed off the bed, and I felt as if I was being strangled. But right when I was going to start screaming, it was all over, as if it was all in my imagination or some awful dream."

"And you're sure it wasn't just that?"

" I'm certain. How else could you explain how we both heard the same thing last night? But I didn't just hear it howl, Jackie. Around midnight, I actually heard it scream like some person who was in a deep fright. It probably only lasted for about five seconds, but I still can't get that awful noise out of my head. I don't know what's wrong with me, but if you're going through all of this too, then I'm almost convinced there's something out there haunting us, something that just won't leave us be."

And just then, there was the mysterious woman again, standing right in front of them.

She was now wearing a white jumpsuit that looked like something you would wear in space, matching boots, and dark sunglasses. As soon as she set eyes on the two women, she removed the sunglasses and simply stared at them for about a minute. While the last time they'd seen her, she seemed really dark and threatening, she now had this sorrowful look in her eyes, almost as if she now felt sympathy for them. Also, she looked a lot more youthful, as if she was a teenager or her early twenties.

"What are you doing here?" Jackie finally asked.

"I'm here as a warning," the woman responded.

"Of what?" Hannah asked nervously.

"Hard times will be coming for both of you," she answered in a soft voice. "I have no idea what will happen, but from what you've both claimed to experience, I can already tell that it's anything but good."

"And you're not even going to try to help us?" Jackie asked angrily. "In case you didn't know, today is my daughter's sixth birthday, and all I want is to have at least one day where we can just relax. If you have to go on with your secret identity and your prophecies of doom, why not actually do something to try to stop this? If you could save us once, why not do it again?"

The woman shook her head sadly. "Just because I mentioned hard times doesn't mean you're about to face death again. People are often forced to live in hardship their whole lives, often to the point where they may want to give it all up. As for birthdays, people are born every day, just as life goes on for everyone else. Just because it's someone's date of birth doesn't mean all will go in their favor on that day."

In her writing, Jackie kept reimaginng this woman. In one short story from two weeks ago, she'd written of a woman who had lost everything in a future war, including her memories. All she could remember was that urgency to rescue someone, so she spend her days intervening in all those tragic incidents that go on every day, saving women who were being beaten by husbands or boyfriends, buying snacks for children who had been left abandoned in alleys, or chasing thieves that had robbed struggling shoppkeepers of all that remained of their money. Jackie kept thinking that this woman was some kind of survivor, someone who'd put everything at risk for someone a long time ago and could now only be at peace by being the heroine in dangerous situations.

"As a child, all I ever got for my birthday were songs," the woman continued. "And it was always the same one every year. It wasn't so much a part of a celebration as it was a reminder that we're always getting older, and that time is always racing ahead of us. It may seem a bit harsh to those who are used to happy parties and getting showered with gifts, but in your own words, Jacqueline, at least it's something, you know?"

Yes; this woman had certainly gone through something...

All of sudden, an alarm went off, and one by one, all of the teachers at Rolling Meadows came running out. Many of them had at least one child beside them, either holding their hand, trying to get them into lines or groups, or even carrying them. A lot of the kids were crying and clinging to the teachers in fear.

"What happened?" Hannah asked in panic.

Lisa Holmes glared at them and said, "Why don't you go see for yourself? You might risk your lives, but at least you'll see what you were missing as you just lingered around as if you were on holiday."

Jackie and Hannah looked behind them, and immediately saw the Rolling Meadows Nursey School being consumed in flames.