Allison Willington always seemed to sense when something was wrong. Unlike Rose Tyler or Christine Green, she hadn't been able to read minds or have vivid visions of someone's past or future as a young girl. However, there had been moments when she would start getting inexplicably faint or feel her heart racing just when she was in the middle of running an errand for her mother or playing a game, which was then followed by some unexpected incident, usually a bad one, occurring minutes afterwards. Once, she'd had this feeling as she was walking to the bakery to buy some bread at the age of ten. Upon arriving, there had been a police car around because the bakery ended up experiencing a robbery, with the thief throwing a stone through the window and nearly injuring one of the baker's assistants.
At age twelve, after feeling as if she were going to pass out during an exercise routine in physical education, one of her classmates, Katy Owens, had an asthma attack and was taken to hospital. Five years later, this same girl ended up having a nervous breakdown after discovering she was pregnant, and was found hanging from her closet by her parents, who knew nothing about her pregnancy until the autopsy was done.
Seven years after Katy's death, there had been that bad feeling about Jean Blanche, the caretaker of Northern Horizons who arrived from Montreal just as the seventies were coming to an end along with his twin daughters. Despite his obvious questionable behavior from the start, she decided to ignore this, dismissing him as just another crazy foreigner.
Well, she had been extremely wrong about him, just as she'd been wrong in trying to believe that Harry Sullivan was just another doctor.
One of the few reasonable changes that occurred on account of the Blanche incident was the addition of peepholes to the doors, and when she'd seen Jackie Tyler and Sullivan's two young patients stepping away, Allison just had to see what was going on with him and Rose. After a whole month of trying to guess what he'd been doing with those seemingly healthy girls, she just couldn't help but to lean on the door and look through.
And it was unbelievable. One moment, Sullivan was just asking her questions about her health and feelings, and then, they were talking about an alien, with Rose often responding to his questions before he finished asking them. The old fool seemed to have forgotten his original intention of examining her and just went on with his questions about the alien, looking as excited as a young boy who thought he spotted a UFO through his window. It was so pathetic to Allison that she almost wanted to yell at him in the same manner as when Truman got carried away with his far-fetched stories during the hotel's many 'exhibitions'. Here was a girl who could read minds, and he wanted to go on asking her about time machines and how many people traveled with some alien he kept calling "The Doctor"?
Suddenly, just as he started to realize the girl's situation was probably more serious than he'd originally thought it was, was when there seemed to be an earthquake in the room. Everything had started falling and breaking, with Sullivan ending up injured and unconscious, and Rose just sitting there, completely immobile.
And then there was the crayon going through the walls, writing "DAB FLOW" in large letters. The whole time it happened, it seemed as if Rose was starring directly into the wall, unintentionally causing it all to occur.
It had been this that finally got Allison running downstairs. Something very unusual was going on, and she had a feeling that Rose Tyler was unknowingly behind all of it. And if this was anything like it had been in the past, she knew she had to take action now.
"Have you ever been to Australia, Mrs. Tyler?" Clara asked as Jackie and Christine were trying to focus on a Mario Brothers game in the rec room. Some loudspeakers were playing old rock music, with none other than "Hotel California" filling the room with a tranquil, yet somewhat errie, beat.
"No, unfortunately. As a matter of fact, the only place I've traveled outside of England is the Scottish countryside, and that was back when I was ten," Jackie responded, looking away as Christine was trying to aim the little fat plumber towards a mushroom which was in the middle of a bridge.
"How come you don't do much travelling? I know that's what I'm going to do as soon as I'm old enough," Clara said, expecting Jackie to respond with regret, the way her own parents did when they explained that there just wasn't enough money.
"There are some people that are just more comfortable with staying close to home," Jackie responded neutrally, expressing neither regret nor indifference. "As that old song playing right now says, sometimes you find yourself in what seems like a lovely place, but then you find out that you can never leave it."
"Does that mean you never want to go the United States either, even if you were to someday win a free trip to Florida or California?" Christine asked curiously, forgetting about the game for a while.
"I'll have to think about that, but I have no strong hopes. Whatever comes around, I could probably take it all at this point in my life."
It was then that they saw Allison Willington running in, looking so panicked that the three of them immediately turned their attention towards her.
"What's the matter?" Jackie asked.
Breathing heavily, Allison shouted out, "You need to go back to the hotel room right now! Everything in there is falling apart, and I think that somehow, your daughter is causing it."
Jackie did not hesitate. "I'm going in," she declared, and Christine and Clara followed along before either of the two women could stop them.
It was all worse than either of the three of them could have predicted.
The room which had been tidy and spotless only a couple of minutes ago was now in complete disarray. Not only were there clothes, blankets, books, and paper scattered all over the floor, but a lot of the furniture had been broken, being either torn to pieces or with at least one part missing. The table where they'd had breakfast was now just a wooden board on the ground, with its legs and chairs being spread out in different parts of the room, the drawers had fallen apart, resulting in clothes in every corner, and all that remained of the beds were the mattresses.
But even more noticeable than the mess was the state in which Rose and Harry had been left. Rose was seated with her legs folded around a pillow, with her eyes open yet fully motionless, as if they had frozen from the shock of whatever caused the mess in the room. Harry was on the ground, fully unconscious and with the bar from one of the chairs still beside his head, where they could see a dark mark around his forehead from where it had hit him.
Upon seeing this, Clara screamed and started crying, and Christine just stared at the two in shock. What could have happened? Was it possible that Rose had caused Harry to become paralyzed, the way she'd done with Jason Anderson after she found herself reading his mind in the playground? Or did Allison Willington have a point when she'd been rambling about how strange things were always happening in the hotel? If so, could it be possible that the hotel itself was what caused people to act so strange, as they'd seen with Clara's episodes, the over-the top- attitude of Mr. Truman on their first day, or Ms. Willington's own odd behavior?
But Jackie could not hide her own shock for even a minute. As soon as she saw how her daughter, she got down around a pile of dirty clothes and yelled, "Rose! What happened to her? Allison, did you see what went on here?" And she tried to put her arm around her daughter's face, when Christine yelled, "Don't touch her, Mrs. Tyler! You might hurt her even more if you do that!"
"How is that possible? If someone's unconscious, you have to touch them to get them moving again."
"The kid's right, Jackie," Allison finally spoke up. "From what I saw happening, trying to touch her might cause her to get worse." She remembered how a stranger who had placed a hand on her shoulder while she had that feeling of panic on her way to the bakery all those years ago caused her to start shaking violently and fall to the sidewalk.
"But what should we do?"
"I think I know," Christine said. Without moving from where she was, she started reaching out to Rose telepathically: Rose, if you can hear me, answer back. We're all worried about you, and we want to know what happened in here?
From her own experience with what Harry explained to her as a mental shutdown of sorts, she knew that when a psychic person was in the state Rose was in, they were often still aware of the external environment. However, they remained frozen because the part of the brain which caused movement became overwhelmed from all the internal psychic energy going on inside the brain, causing the person to remain still in order to calm the body down.
She didn't have to wait long for Rose's response. Within a few seconds, she heard her small, frightened voice:
Christine! I'm sorry about what I did! I'm sorry that I ruined your hotel room and ended up hurting Dr. Sullivan, but it all just happened for some reason. I…
Don't be upset, Rose. I know you didn't mean to do it, and you don't have to explain it all now. What I want to do right now is help you.
But aren't you scared of what I might do to you?
She was, but she didn't think this mattered at the moment.
It doesn't matter how I feel about it. I know how I can help you, and I want to do it now before it's too late.
Then please do it.
Okay. First, just relax. Try not thinking too much about how scared you are. Think about how you feel when you're about to fall asleep, or when you're playing your favorite game. Or try to imagine being in the most beautiful place you can think of, like a garden or a waterfall.
At that moment, Christine could actually feel it as Rose was letting go of her stress. The tension which kept running through her body was slowing down, and she could picture Rose imagining herself in a large field full of sunflowers and dandelions. The more she relaxed, the brighter the sun seemed to be shining.
And now, take three deep breathes through your nose while closing your eyes. Try doing it slowly, because if you're breathing too quickly, you'll start feeling strange and scared again.
Rose did as she said, keeping her eyes closed and her legs crossed, reminding Christine of some of the yoga classes she saw going on in the community center back at home. At first, she sounded as if she was trying too hard, but for the last two times, she remained steady and calm, and the breathing came about more naturally.
How are you feeling now, Rose?
A little better.
Good. Now slowly open your eyes, and you'll see that you'll be able to start moving again.
And as she started doing so, Rose started noticing that she could move her fingers around once again. The more her field started fading away, the more mobile she was becoming. Within seconds, she found herself slowly standing up, and Jackie, Allison, and Clara became aware that she was conscious once again.
"Rose! Are you okay, love?" Jackie asked desperately, rushing up to her in relief.
"I think so," Rose said, but she could feel pain slowly swelling up in her head.
Christine noticed this and said, "Try being careful with her, Mrs. Tyler. If you make her get too uncomfortable, she could start getting a terrible headache…"
Then, when Rose had started blinking due to the pain, the light, which had been off the entire time, suddenly came on again. But when she opened her eyes, it went off once again. It happened two more times (moving at the same time as her eyes did) before the light bulb from the lamp suddenly cracked, sounding more like a window which had been hit with a stone than a small round object that had been broken.
Upon seeing this, Jackie realized for the first time what was really going on with her daughter. Yes, there had been something strange going on in her mind all along. How she was so good at guessing things like who was calling, how she was feeling, and how she'd ended up in a car accident finally made sense. But at the same time, this was also the cause of her blackouts, which seemed to occur at any moment without warning. It also caused her to nearly destroy the hotel room just with that terrifying look in her eyes.
It seemed like a curse had been set upon her daughter.
Clara looked away with a frightened expression on her face, and clung to Allison despite her usual disgust towards. As she did, Allison once again felt her heart racing. Somehow, she felt that she had to the girl out of there as soon as possible, because this was not the first time she'd been around certain unusual conditions.
"Let's go, sweetheart," she said calmly, leading her towards the door. "You're not safe in here."
"No!" Clara cried. "I want to know what's happening to Rose!"
"We'll talk about that later, Clara. Right now, we need to get you out of her," and she opened the door.
Clara tried to release herself from Allison's strong grip, but she refused to let her go. Pretty soon, they were gone, leaving Jackie alone with the others.
It was after this happened that Harry started gaining consciousness once again. However, for a brief moment, as he struggled to see clearly, he forgot where he was. He was seeing himself as he'd been twelve years before, being once again buried in sand in the planet telepathos, which was inhabited by aliens known as the telephibians. They had between eight and thirty eyes, but no hands or feet. All movement was done through their eyes, and as a result, they were capable of doing anything from picking up a small rock to causing dangerous sandstorms which sometimes went on for years in certain parts of the planet. If you provoked them in any way, their manner of attack was to stare straight into your eyes, blink once, and you would be pushed down with the strongest force imaginable.
But upon gaining more awareness of his surroundings, he remembered that this time, it wasn't the work of a dangerous alien. It had been a young girl, someone whom you wouldn't suspect would possess such strong and terrifying powers. And when his vision had recovered enough, he didn't see the grim, neutral expression the telephibians had as they struck whatever object or creature they perceived to be a threat on Rose's face. Instead, there was this look of panic and fear in her eyes, which looked as if they were struggling to hold back tears. Her lips were trembling, and her pretty blonde hair was covering much of her face, almost as if she were purposely trying to hide how afraid she really was.
"Doc!" Christine said, being the first one to notice that he'd recovered. She ran up to him and, forgetting some of his past precautions against doing so, she flung her arms around him. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"
"I think I'm okay, Christine," he managed to say in a slightly quivering voice, giving her a small hug. "Just have to adjust a little after that blow in the head, but I've been in worse incidents before. If I could handle them then, I can do it again now."
"I did that technique you taught me for getting someone out of a mental shutdown, and it worked. Rose is okay once again, but her mom seems very worried."
"Well done, girl," Harry said with a small smile, patting Christine's back with affection. "Looks like you've been listening to me more often than I realized. Go on with that and maybe you could be a doctor yourself someday."
"No way, Doc," Christine scoffed. "I still can't memorize the names of all those bones from the chart you gave me, and I'm not even close to getting a hundred percent on my other science and math work. What makes you think I could learn all that later on?"
"You never know, Chris. You're improving more with everything we do, so don't be surprised if you discover you're good at something you never suspected you'd do well in."
That was when he noticed Jackie. She'd been watching over Rose most of the time, but when she turned to look at him, she glared at him with a look of complete mistrust, showing no trace of the friendliness from before.
And it was this which made him get up and try to resume his duties from before. He felt that he'd been the one who provoked her to have that breakdown, and as difficult as it would, he wanted to do the best he could to make things right again.
When Rose saw him approaching, she lowered her head with a look of shame. She was fully aware of what she had done at this point, and unlike her mother, whom she could hear internally cursing Dr. Sullivan through every word of concern she gave her, she knew that it was pointless to blame other people for what had happened. He'd been trying to help her, yet this had done nothing to prevent her most dangerous powers from being unleashed.
"Rose," Harry said gently as he tried to sit down beside her. "I'm so sorry about what I did. I didn't realize that you…"
But before he could go on, he felt Jackie's palm strike him through the cheek. "You sick bastard!" she screamed. "I trusted you to look over my daughter, and instead you made her go crazy enough to nearly destroy this place!"
"Mrs. Tyler, I'm sorry," Harry tried to explain. "I really did try to help her. I knew from the start at least part of what her condition was, and I had planned how I was going to examine her. But then something unexpected happened, and I did something which might have triggered her to go into the state she was in. I had no idea something like this would happen."
"And how do you expect that to be of any reassurance to me? For all I know, you could have seen my daughter as the perfect subject for that research you're supposed to be working on and were willing to manipulate her with some kind of mind-controlling experiment. And even if it was all an accident, you still put her life in danger. Give me a good reason why I shouldn't call the police right now."
"First of all, I have very strong connections with people who know what kind of work I do and would not permit me to be prosecuted. Also, do you think they would believe a single thing you told them about what Rose has done? They could declare either of the two of you as insane, and believe me when I say that the last place you would want your daughter to end up in is in a mental ward."
Although he'd meant to sound more cautionary than threatening, the latter was what Jackie seemed to be suspecting. "You really are up to no good, are you?"
"At this point, I don't care what you think of me. I've been working with people like your daughter for twelve years, Mrs. Tyler, and because of what I've done, many doctors and academics know more about Extra Sensory Perception than ever before. Right now, all I want you to do is listen to what I have to tell you about what I know about this. Even if you question my intentions, understand that what I know could help your daughter have a better life, just as I have done with Christine and am trying to do for Clara. So even if it's just for her sake, just listen."
After this, he looked at Rose and said, "How are you feeling right now, Rose?"
"I think I'm okay. Christine was able to help me out when I became still, so I feel a little better than I usually do."
"That's good. But if you start feeling sick, I have a medicine in here that could help you get better. I'm going to speak alone with your mum now, and you're going to go along with Christine to join Ms. Willington and Clara. Christine will have the medicine along with her, so if you get a little sick later, just let her know and she'll give it to you. Is that okay?"
"Yes," Rose answered.
Christine had already gotten the bottle of green liquid out of the pile of debris on the floor (although as Jackie had been confronting Harry, all of the furniture had automatically repaired itself, just as what had occurred during Rose's first breakdown at Sarah Jane's house). Seeing all the tension going on between Harry and Rose's mother, however, she decided that it was better if they just saw it for themselves, and to go on with what she knew Harry wanted her to do.
"You ready, Christine?" she heard him ask her, trying to sound as enthusiastic as he usually did when getting her to perform some important task during their lessons, but with his voice still coming out as nervous.
"All set, Doc," she responded, walking up to them with the bottle in her hand. Jackie once again looked around with concern, partially because she'd noticed that the furniture was fixed and back where it had been before, and also because she remembered where she had seen this bottle before.
"Hold on. Is that the medicine which you put in my bag when I first met the both of you?" she asked.
"It is," Christine responded. "It's supposed to help psychic people get better from pain or breakdowns resulting from their powers."
"And why couldn't you just include a note on that when you gave it to me in the manner in which you did?" Jackie didn't sound as angry as she had before, but the frustration in her tone refused to go away.
"Look, Mrs. Tyler. Just let Rose go along with Christine right now. I'll explain about it as soon as we're alone."
Jackie sighed. "Go along with her, Rose. I'll see you again soon." She was still upset with Harry, but she had no hard feelings towards Christine at all. She really seemed to care about how well Rose was, and if she had the same strong powers as Rose did, perhaps she could become a good friend to her, even if she lived in Florida.
Christine followed Rose along as they walked out together. And before they were gone, Rose noticed once the red stains which were on the wall.
The haunting words from before were now gone, but the dry, almost sickening color left behind still made her shiver from fear. Although she had no idea what those large words she'd seen when she'd been in that frozen state had meant, just looking at the gory red color which surrounded it was enough to make her realize that it meant something important.
Important and scary.
Part 2 of this (I didn't want to make this chapter as long as the last one) will be coming out as soon as possible, after which we'll get into the dark adventures of Jackie and Rose as they take up residence in the hotel.
And be sure to watch for more signs of "DAB FLOW". They may be gone for a while, but those mysterious words will make an appearance again pretty soon.
As for the mention of the telephibians, do not try looking them up in any Doctor Who episode, book, audio, or website. They are part of a non-canon adventure I've thought up in which the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry meet some telekinetic aliens, who may or may not have some connection with psychic humans. See later chapters, including the next one, for more information on them.
Once again, thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, following, or favoring. Your support is strongly appreciated.
