Rose looked nervously up into the celling, noticing that black mass slowly filling up the place by the second. Her heart started thudding, and she felt a cold rush running through her body. Oh, John Smith, please help us, she thought desperately. Sarah Jane, Christine, Harry, Nina, Allison, Susan, Laura, Ace, anybody. I don't want to have to do this alone.
Oh, you poor girl. Keep begging all you want, but I don't think any of your friends will be of much help right now, the force said in a voice as dark as the ceiling was. If you continue upsetting me as much as you currently are, I could go so far as to temporarily block your mind from communicating with anyone besides myself. Your Time Lord friend could make as much convincing speeches as he wants, but at this point, I'm becoming almost as powerful as he is, so his attempts at helping you will prove to be useless.
"I think you're forgetting that Rose isn't alone," Therese said, frowning stubbornly. "Louise and I still got very strong minds, despite your own past efforts to try blocking them, so even if she can't keep in touch with the Doctor or any of her other psychic friends, our powers alone would be enough to protect her.
"She's right. Neither of us is willing to go anywhere so long as you stick around. And if you so much as try sending us off back to the twenties, you know it's impossible to turn off any mental ties ghosts have with psychic humans, so we could continue communicating with her along the way," Louise said.
Victoria did her best not to say anything, knowing that at this point, further interference would mean nothing but further trouble for Rose and the twins, so she remained standing between Therese and Louise, guarding them in case the entity made any attempt to attack them. No matter how useless she may seem compared to the others, she'd promised herself that she wouldn't hide out in fear anymore if one of her friends' lives were in danger, and she intended to stick to her word for as long as possible.
Somehow, the entity read into this, because it let out a dark, uproarious laugh and said, So far, it looks like you won't be able to protect those girls for long, Ms. Waterfield. I already pulled off some tricks with Mrs. Tyler, making her believe she had a friend by her side at the party when it's probably the last person she'd want to have helping her.
And for a few seconds, the dark clouds disappeared from the ceiling, and Charles Pond was standing before them, giving them all a nasty smirk.
"So, you've been keeping track of Jackie all this time?" Victoria demanded, not being able to resist the urge to speak any longer. "You do know she's now put her full trust in you, right? Does it not shame you in the slightest just how much you're taking advantage of her especially given the state of mind she's been in lately?"
"It's all part of the job for me, Victoria," the entity said, now speaking in Charles' Scotch accent. "The more trust I manage to get from people, the greater my power over them becomes, making my chances of winning this battle much stronger. And what better way to do this than by disguising myself as someone as dashing as this young man was?"
"What have you done with the actual Charles Pond?" Rose demanded.
"No need to worry too much about him, child. Charles Pond is resting in peace somewhere in this hotel, not facing as heavy a torment as some of our other guests. He only passed away two years ago, having left behind three children and two granddaughters who were all just as feisty as he was. From what I heard, one of these granddaughters had a daughter of her own at the time Charles passed away. Perhaps if you're lucky, you might meet her someday."
"I doubt he's telling the truth, Rose," Therese said. "Even if the ghosts aren't in agony when the entity takes over their darker sides, they might be getting pleasure over things which are actually hurting them, like your mom did when she started drinking and flirting around with Mr. Pond at the party."
Rose nodded nervously, wondering how many other spirits he'd managed to gain control over. It certainly looked like Peggy had been under his influence, and maybe even a few others she'd noticed at the party. If the situation was anything like that her mother's, she knew these spirits were probably in major trouble.
"It looks like you're giving a little too much away to Rose, Therese," Charles said. "And you know perfectly well how I feel about that."
"I do, indeed," Therese said with a smile. "And here's something else we know you feel strongly about as well." And turning to Louise, she gave her a wink and a nod.
Louise then held up the ham radio, which started playing "I Don't Like Mondays" once again.
Charles glared at them the moment he heard the music. "For God's sake, turn that racket off!" he yelled. "I can never understand why anyone with any taste enjoys that new wave rubbish, or any modern pop, for that matter."
"What's that? You want the music a little louder? Okay, here you go!" Louise said, turning up the volume at the highest level the radio could get.
Charles screamed, kneeling over the floor and covering his ears. "Turn it down! Turn it down now!" he yelled, as Rose and the twins burst into fits of giggles. Seconds later, they heard a loud whooshing sound go off, after which Charles let out one last piercing scream before all trace of him was gone.
Assuming this was a victory, Rose chuckled and cheered. "We did it!" she said, pumping her fist in the air. "We finally beat him!"
"Well done, girls!" Victoria said, nearly reaching out to stroke Therese's hair before noticing how her hand went right through it, after which she slowly backed off. "Sorry. I didn't mean to…"
"That's okay, Victoria. It can be easy to forget sometimes," Therese said. "However, we can't be sure of when our struggle with this entity is over. The spirits it has been taking possession of are still trapped somewhere, and even if we manage to scare the entity off for a while, they could still be under a great deal of torment."
"She's right," Louise said. "Peggy could still be having one of her fits of rage, and despite not being a spirit, your mom might still be feeling confused about who she is or where she's from."
Therese started glancing towards different parts of the room, looking as if she was trying to look for something.
"Is something wrong, Therese?" Rose asked.
"Not really, Rose. I'm just trying to be sure of where we are. Our current setting could have changed after what we've done."
Rose nodded, remembering how fast their current setting had changed from the twenties to the seventies. It looked like you could never be certain when you were trapped inside Northern Horizons. When she looked around for herself, she noticed the same newspaper with John Smith and Sarah Jane on the cover remaining on the table, despite not being able to see the one featuring the Olympics nor the photos of John Lennon and Ronald Regan. That in itself was a little odd, yet most of the furniture, gadgets, and toys were still where they'd been before.
"Something isn't quite right, don't you think?" Louise asked.
"Yes. Some of the articles are missing, as is our journal," Therese said.
"Your journal?" Rose asked. She'd failed to take notice of this.
"We'd placed it beside all the newspapers, but it's no longer there," Therese explained.
"Could it be that the entity took it away from you?" Victoria asked.
"But I never saw Charles Pond touch it. Unless he did it through some sort of supernatural means, I'm not sure how he was behind this," Therese said.
The door suddenly started knocking. "Victoria? Rose? Could you two in here?" someone asked.
Rose listened closely. "I think that's Susan. Should I let her in, Victoria?"
"Go ahead, but do be careful. We can't be sure if the entity managed to manipulate her in some way, as powerful as she may be."
Rose nodded, keeping this in mind as she slowly opened the door. And to her surprise, it wasn't just Susan who stood beside her, but also Peggy and her mother.
"Mummy?" she asked. "Mummy, is everything all right now? Can you remember me again?"
Her mother looked at her with a distressed expression. "It's all very confusing for me. Charles disappeared before my eyes, and Susan has been doing her best to explain things to both me and Peggy. I'm still not sure if all this can be true or not, but I'm willing to stand by you and figure it out for myself."
"So, are you trying to say that you're still not sure if I'm your daughter?"
"I honestly don't know. Like I've been trying to say, nothing that's been going on is making much sense to me. But given how sincere Susan sounds and how urgent you are about me wanting to remember things, I will follow along with all of you and see what happens."
"And I've agreed to all this as well. I'm probably even more confused than Jackie is, but I promise to not go around scaring you or your friends anymore," Peggy said, looking a lot less menacing than she'd been before.
Susan nodded in approval at the two women. "Well done, ladies. Hopefully, you two will come to a clearer understanding of this situation in no time."
"But before we go on, please explain one more thing to me. Did all of you experience the same thing as I did with this monster in the hotel?" Peggy asked.
"Jackie, Victoria, Rose, and I have all been haunted by it, but we're all still alive in the real world," Susan explained. "The twins, however, were murdered in here back in 1980. But because of their psychic powers, they're more in touch with the reality behind what happened in the hotel than some of the other hotel's victims are."
"I see. So basically, I've been blind to some horrific reality for over sixty- seven years. Back when I was alive, several people liked telling me that I was foolish, and it turns out I am much worse than that. Oh, maybe if I hadn't been so attracted to the booze and parties, I wouldn't have gotten myself into such an awful disaster," Peggy said, burying her head in her hands in shame.
"Now, don't be too upset, Peggy. We all do some rather silly things when we're young. My Grandfather could entertain you with tales of his own crazy youth for hours, and I have my fair share of regrets as well. But no one should have to experience what you did as punishment. I wouldn't wish such a fate even on my worst enemies back in Gallifrey," Susan said.
Seeing how different both her mother and Peggy were acting was quite reassuring to Rose, but there was still a lot which she had questions about. "Do any of you know if the current time period has changed at all, or where the entity could have gone?" she asked.
"We have no idea, Rose," Susan said. "The hotel seems to be all over the place, with the ballroom stuck in one time and the girl's room stuck in another."
"And that's the way it's always been," Therese jumped in. "There are some places here where we don't even know what time it's currently in because it's impossible to get inside. I know because Louise and I have tried entering certain rooms before without any success."
"Yeah," Louise said. "It's as if there's something there which we're not meant to see."
This last statement got Rose thinking. Could it be possible that within one of these rooms, you could find whatever it was that was keeping the curse Northern Horizons was under in place? Was the entity deliberately making it impossible for them to try getting inside. And what if, because of her supposed Bad Wolf powers, she was the one with the ability to open them up?
"Therese, Louise, do you think I should try going inside one of these rooms?" she asked the twins.
"Rose, you have to remain careful. I think at this point, you'll be a lot safer if you stay with one of us. The entity could be hidden anywhere, and be willing to follow in on his threats to you. And we can't risk having you get hurt in any way," Therese said.
But Louise didn't seem as worried as her sister was. "Therese, if she could handle that strong vision she had of us, then perhaps she can do this too. We are talking about the Bad Wolf here, in case you've forgotten."
"But even the Bad Wolf has to stick to certain limits, and perhaps this is one of them," Therese said.
Listening in on this, Susan said, "Actually, I believe there's a way Rose could do this without being hurt."
"And what is that?" Therese asked.
"She would have to reach out to the other psychics she knows. This would allow her to be more likely to block her mind off from any threat this force could put in place."
"So, I have to send in another call for help?" Rose asked.
"Yes," Susan said. "It's the only sure way you could stay safe if you must face the entity again. Grandfather would be more likely to make it through as well, which makes it even better."
Rose now stood straighter, taking a good look across the lobby while making herself increase her concentration. She understood how much this had to work. There was no telling what could happen if she failed. But with the many friends she had by her side, who was to say there was no chance of success?
"Is the girl all right?" Peggy asked, noticing how still Rose was becoming.
"Yes. She's just trying to get her powers to work," Susan explained.
"I think I've been underestimating how brave she can be," Jackie said.
Victoria smiled. "Once things become clearer to you, you'll realize just how much she has been all along."
The twins remained silent for a while. They could already sense how Rose was trying to reach out to her friends, and they didn't want to make any unnecessary interruptions. And although they each had their doubts, their intuition seemed to tell them that the Bad Wolf was only getting stronger, with not even the powers of the entity being capable of slowing her down anytime soon.
