By the time they'd made it to Northern Horizons, Tom and Violet still didn't fully understand who Captain Jack Harkness and Lyssa of Titus were supposed to be, but they knew they'd run into a scape or two across time and space, which was explanation enough for them. Their adventures had ranged from witnessing royal ceremonies that lasted nearly a lifetime on Mars to fighting off a power-hungry giant in a world where hundreds of fictional characters came to life, getting special permission to take on this task from none other than Alice Lowell of Alice in Wonderland, who'd become the temporary ruler of the Land of Fiction after she and a band of quirky characters brought down the reign of the tyrannical Queen of Hearts.
"You make our friend Sarah Jane's adventures seem like a business trip to Glasgow in comparison to your own," Violet had said once she'd heard all the time travelers 'stories.
"The last thing I'd call an investigation of dinosaurs on modern day Earth, seeing frozen humans becoming giant bugs, or meeting a duplicate of Frankenstein's monster would be boring," Jack Harkness said with a grin.
"I don't know, Jack. I still think our sole Dalek adventure was a walk in the park compared to capturing the giant behind the beanstalk fable. I managed to blast those pepper pot-shaped beasts through their eye sockets in a second, while that old giant threw me out of his castle in the sky," Lyssa said.
"Now how did you survive a fall like that?" Tom asked.
"For that, I'd have to thank my Victorian sestra, and how she managed to…"
"All right, Lyssa. Remember what I told you about giving too much information away to strangers?" Jack warned.
"How can I ever forget your lectures on paradoxes, Jack? You made yourself look like some of Titus' chief scientists whenever that subject was brought up," Lyssa said.
"Chief scientists? I thought your planet was supposed to be primitive," Violet said.
"In comparison to other future planets, we are, but we're still more advanced than the late twentieth century Earth. We may dress and live like indigenous people, but our technology would amaze many scientists living in the present day, since we've invented machines that have the power to control the weather, and fires which are capable of letting us see what goes on in rival planets," Lyssa explained.
"So, you make up for your lack of modern clothing through technology capable of controlling the elements? Doesn't sound too bad to me," Tom said.
Jack looked closely towards the area he was driving around. "Looks like we're here at last," he said. "Now as much as I'd like to, neither Lyssa nor I can escort you two into Northern Horizons. As the rules of time travel specify, there are certain occasions where we can only be onlookers, without intervening on what's happening in front of us."
"But from what Sarah Jane has told me, Jackie Tyler seems to be in major trouble. Are you really sure there's nothing you can do to help her?" Tom asked.
"I'm afraid not. That's where you two will have to jump in on your own, unless you manage to get a little unexpected help from some friends," Jack said.
"If only that were the case," Violet said with a sigh.
"One can only hope for the best," Lyssa said. "I wish you two good luck in helping your friend."
"Thanks, Lyssa. We wish good luck to you and Jack as well," Tom said.
"Bye, Lyssa and Jack," Violet said as she and Tom stepped out of the taxi.
"Bye. Hope this isn't the last time we run into each other!" Jack called out, giving them a friendly wave.
In their rush to get inside Northern Horizons, neither of them noticed that the taxi cab didn't move an inch away from the driveway, with both Jack and Lyssa keeping a sharp eye on them.
"Do you think they can handle this on their own, Jack?" Lyssa asked.
"I have no idea, Lyssa. As far as I can tell, the more people that come around to help Jackie Tyler, the better it will be for all of them," Jack admitted.
…
To Tom and Violet's relief, Jackie wasn't alone in the hotel. A woman with sloppy brown hair and a pink uniform greeted them as soon as they approached the entrance, shaking their hands and saying, "I can't tell you how happy I am that you two dropped in right now. Jackie hasn't been at all at ease since Rose left, and she needs all the help she can get. My name is Allison, and it's a pleasure to meet you two today."
"Excuse me, but how did you know we weren't just hotel guests?" Violet asked.
"I've been working here for over fifteen years, so I just know certain things more than others," the woman answered. "Also, from the number of people I've been tracking down, we've only had about fifteen guests in the past month, and many of them left within a day of their arrival. And since Jackie's had a fair number of visitors in the time she's been here, I could simply assume that there's half a chance that anyone that comes here would want to see her."
"You sound like a very observant woman," Tom said.
"Many have said the same before," Allison said with a smile. "And would you two mind telling me who you are? For some reason, you seem quite familiar to me."
"We're Violet and Tom Marsh. We were in a band called the Vagabonds and Ultraviolet back in the seventies, and we got very close to topping the charts on several occasions," Violet explained.
"Oh! That's how I recognized you! My brother was a big fan of glam rock back in the day, and if he wasn't singing along to Suzi Quatro or David Bowie, then he was humming the tune of "Running Up the Meadow Again". He said it was one of those songs that sounds so simple and fun yet has some deeper meaning behind it, and although I'm not one who cares much for popular music groups, I've always been curious as to how they can do something like that," Allison said.
Tom laughed. "Well, it's never easy to do. You must get your inspiration somewhere, and then come up with a way to put your idea into words without being too complex, but also allowing the listener to catch the deeper meaning behind what you're trying to say. I learned a lot about this back then by looking into Bob Dylan and Lou Reed's songs and then modeling my own work based on what they would do…"
"Tom, please don't turn this into a lecture," Violet said, starting to feel irritated for some strange reason. Turning to Allison, she smiled and said, "When it comes to songwriting, he could ramble on for days. He gets so philosophical that you lose track of what he means rather quickly."
"That's no problem for me, my dear. People always complain about how I ramble on about nothing important all the time. And besides, given Jackie's current state, I could use some explanation about meaningful writing."
"What's actually going on with her? We already know about how she's somewhat of a writer. Is it starting to become an obsession for her?" Tom asked.
"Greater than an obsession. According to Rose, there's almost nothing anyone can do to get Jackie to leave her typewriter when she goes through one of her episodes. As for the time I've been here with her, she's been endlessly going through several books, repeating certain passages out loud and asking me if I can get some deeper meaning behind it."
"Do you know what books she's looking through?" Violet asked.
"One's a book on research that's been done on ESP. Jackie let me borrow it several weeks ago, so I have a good idea of what's in it…"
"Are you saying you know Rose's situation?" Tom said.
"Yes. I've known since the day the writer of the ESP book stayed in the hotel and witnessed one of Rose's telepathic incidents, and given my own minor talents, I've been helping both her and Jackie whenever I can."
Violet suddenly stepped away from the others, starting to feel her pulse increasing and a wave of fatigue spreading through her body, a sensation she didn't believe was caused simply from receiving startling news.
"Violet? Are you feeling okay?" Tom asked, immediately aware that something was wrong.
"It's not much, Tom. I'm just getting a little weary. Perhaps taking a seat will be enough to make me feel better," Violet said, coming off as she was annoyed by his concern.
"Are you sure? We don't want to have another difficult case to handle, after all," Tom said. He was no stranger to incidents like this, remembering all too well the time when Violet was being haunted by the Trickster and she'd failingly attempted to make herself seem okay to both him and Sarah Jane.
"I'll be fine, Tom! Just let me take this break," Violet insisted, and then walked over to find a place to sit.
"Violet, you better be careful about those chairs. We've had a couple incidents where guests have tried sitting in them and…" Allison started.
"Oh, shut up!" Violet yelled, feeling her head starting to throb with pain. "How can such a simple task be putting me at risk? Perhaps it's crazy people like yourself that are driving Jackie bonkers!"
"Calm down, honey," Tom said, but Violet ended up slapping him in the arm. "Leave me alone!" she snapped, leaving her husband turning to Allison with a frightened look on his face.
"What's happening to her?" he asked.
"There's just something about this place that causes people to start thinking irrationally over manners as small as taking a seat or someone unexpectedly disturbing an employee. They'll snap at you for it, or if they get really carried away, they could start behaving violently," Allison explained, doing her best to remain composed.
At this point, Violet found a large chair with a dark red pillow at the seat, and she prepared to finally sit down. But just as she had her bottom on the chair, she heard the loud snap of wood, and before long, she was violently thrusted onto the linoleum floor, getting cut in the knee and bending her ankle painfully. She tried calling out for help, but instead let out a chilling, inhuman scream, which frightened her more than the fall did. What's going in with me? She wondered in fear. It's as if something evil's gaining control of my mind, like when Andrea Yates got into my head with the help of the trickster.
It had been enough to scare Tom much more than before, running over to her and saying, "Violet! What did you do? It looks like that fall caused a little too much damage."
But rather than accepting Tom's help, Violet got the sensation that she was being approached by a predator who may have looked nonthreatening, but who would attack her the moment it got close enough. And so, she picked up the closest piece of wood and sprang it towards him, yelling, "You can't hurt me even you try, old beast!"
Tom yelled, but Allison managed to catch the piece before it could hit him. "That's enough, Violet," she said steadily. "No one's trying to hurt here. It's just me and your husband Tom who are by your side."
And just as she said this was when Jackie Tyler showed up, with her hair unruly, her eyes surrounding by dark circles, and wearing an oversized sports shirt along with grey cotton trousers. In her arms was a small black book which she wouldn't stop flipping through, refusing to look up even to watch where she was going through.
"Jackie?" Tom asked in surprise.
Allison shook her head upon seeing her there, thinking that she already had enough to handle with. "Jackie, get out of here right now. Some friends came over to help you, and one of them is now behaving hysterically. It's just as dangerous as you were trying to warn me, so step away while you can."
Hearing Violet's hysterical cries, Jackie was suddenly struck with terror. "What is it, Allison? Is it Rose? Has something happened to her?"
"It's not Rose, it's your friend Violet Marsh. She came here with her husband to help you out, but it looks like she's now under the influence of whatever it is that's haunting Northern Horizons," Allison explained.
Jackie glared at her. "Allison, either get rid of her or keep her locked up in a room. If Rose shows up here, I don't want Violet being anywhere near her if she remains in this state. You may have not been around when it happened to me, but I became dangerous and started threatening Truman and Susan Foreman right when Rose was present. I don't want to force her to go through that same experience again."
Allison was speechless for a moment. On the one hand, she was relieved that Jackie was taking notice of what went on around her and was aware of the dangers present. On the other hand, she was acting way too harshly towards her friend, almost as if she didn't care about Violet's suffering so long as she was out of Rose's way. In fact, she wondered if the entity was at work with Jackie as well.
But for all her menacing emotion, Jackie didn't appear to be capable of violence. Instead, she kept starring at Violet, who was kneeling on the floor and still crying out, and Tom, who stood next to the check in center with his hands buried on his face, while glaring.
She finally spoke up, saying, "This is almost exactly like on of Purdue's diary entries."
"Which one?" Allison asked.
"It was written in December of 1979, two days shy of the new year. Purdue was doing his nightly inspection of the hotel…"
"I remember that day all too well," Allison interrupted. "I had stayed in late to check on the girls and was about to head for a brief holiday with my brother in Nottingham. One moment, Purdue was his usual self, grumbling about my unnecessary presence while walking around the lobby. The next, he became very still, looking white as a ghost and with a look of shock on his face. I came over to him to see what was wrong, and just when I got next to him, he struck me in the face, calling me the spawn of Satan and demanding me to leave or else he would kill me. The poor girls were in tears, and there wasn't another employee in sight, but I had this awful feeling that if I stayed to help them out then I would wind up dead, and so I ran out of there as quick as I could. All the while, Purdue kept hurtling insults at me, yelling as loudly as he could until I was out of sight."
"It doesn't sound that different from what happened to me," Jackie said. Then, with a dark look on her face, she said, "And that's why we should deal with Violet sooner rather than later."
"Jackie, please think about what you're doing," Tom begged.
But Jackie ignored him as she started marching over to Violet, and upon getting by her side, she demanded, "Violet, I'm going to have to place you in the closest room right now. I can't afford to have you going around trying to hurt Tom or Allison or possibly even Rose, so think of it as for the good of…"
"Stay away from me!" Violet yelled. "It's you and everyone else that's putting this place in danger, not me!"
"You can either follow me or you'll have to leave. Do you understand?"
"No! Go away!" Jackie heard a menacing voice calling out which clearly wasn't Violet's. And when she turned face her, she faced the greatest terror of all, for instead of seeing Violet's face, she saw that of Peggy from the New Year's Eve party, with her dark hair looking as neat as it did then, and her dress as unblemished as if it had been bought yesterday. But her face displayed nothing but evil as she glared at Jackie and said, "It's not over yet, Jackie, and perhaps it will never be."
Jackie then fell to the floor in a faint just she sensed Peggy leaping up towards her.
