For a moment there was stillness. The electricity stopped pulsating through the walls and the vortex hung like an open mouth, gaping, slack jawed, at the world. In the chair before the void Suffolk's body was stiff, rigid. His face, ashen by nature, was now ghost like, a complexion that in its transparency allowed those before him to watch the blackened blood course through his veins, his bloodied eyes transformed into saucers of tar that leached tears across his cheeks. White hands clutched at the arms of the chair, finger nails embedding themselves in the wood.
The Doctor, the three remaining Torchwood scientists and Margaret looked on in horror , watching as Suffolk's body rose from the chair breaking through the restraints as though there were as thin as a newly sewn cobweb. With the video camera still rolling one of the men edged his way around to get a better shot of Suffolk's face. Suffolk's hand swept skyward a blast of energy tossing the camera and it's operator into the vortex, his screams lost before they began. The other men retreated step by step towards the door, but they were not fast enough. Extending both hands towards them Suffolk lifted the men clear of the floor and sent them crashing through the wooden door, their heads splitting on impact. Whatever feeling they had did not last long as the electricity began to pulsate again electrocuting their dying bodies as they hit the floor.
"That's ENOUGH!"
Margaret stared at the Doctor as he marched across the room face creased in a furious frown, fists clenched tightly at his side. She pressed herself into the corner of the room, too afraid to make a sound.
Suffolk was laughing, his hand stretched out towards the approaching Timelord, "I have seen your blood, Doctor, and now I will taste it."
Feeling himself lifted into the air the Doctor stretched out his own hand and caught Suffolk by the ear, wrenching it hard enough to cause the man to curse in pain and release his hold for a moment. It was enough time to grab his sonic screwdriver but not enough to get the distance he needed. Airborne again, this time at speed, the Doctor hit the wall by the vortex his skull rattling against the brick. Suffolk knelt before him, a hand wrapped tightly around the neck of the Doctor's shirt and tie, twisting the material enough to choke. Wheezing for breath the Doctor struck out but his fist failed to connect with anything solid, and he found himself being pushed up the wall until he was suspended a foot from the floor, Suffolk's fingers digging into his oesophagus. A warm damp sensation trickled down the back of his neck.
Holding the Doctor in position Suffolk leant forward sniffing the air. Licking his lips he breathed into the Doctor's ear as his black tongue caressed the wall slowly, running along the plaster wiping the Doctor's blood across his face. Feeling his vocal chords collapsing under the pressure of Suffolk's grasp the Doctor barked out words into Suffolk's face.
"What are you?"
Suffolk's face creased into a smile of superiority, "I am human."
Eyes beginning to bulge in their sockets the Doctor gasped for enough oxygen to speak, "And the thing inside you?"
"Merely a creature of power. A conduit," Suffolk face was darkening, his pale skin coloured by the blackness in his blood, "It is barely sentient. It found its way to this world through a channel in space and gorged itself on the broken souls and the electricity in this room. Then they found me. They set me before the hole in space and we fuelled each other. New humanity filled with the power of extraterrestrial sub-life. We combine. We feel. We can touch the stars and drag them to Earth, travel a thousand miles in one step, glide across galaxies..."
The Doctor's hand tightened on his screwdriver, thumb and forefinger twisting the controls with well practised accuracy, "That's what I was afraid of."
The world was starting to vanish in tears and shadows. Blood drummed in his ears, his double pulse slowing, struggling, fighting for air and finding none.
And then before him Suffolk stumbled, his head smashing forwards hitting the Doctor heavily in the chest, but with no power. The hand on his throat slipped away and as he dragged his hand across his eyes he saw two knitting needles and the ragged end of a dish cloth protruding from Suffolk's throat.