Hi everyone Hope you all had a good xmas and new year! Apologies again for the slow updates (uni exams are evil!) I have a few days off after tomorrow before term starts again so I'm gonna try and get a few updates in before then. I have an idea where this story is headed, but sometimes the phrasing of the events is really hard to get straight in my mind, which is why it often takes so long for the next part! Keep up with the bugging me and I'll update as often as I can.

Also if anyone has any interesting ideas they think might happen, feel free to leave a comment with them. You never know, I might use them in the fic! Really good side stories/character developments I'm more likely to put in and it would be fun to have some outside input

Hope to hear from you all soon! Enjoy this next part!

- Lerya -

Chapter 14

A shudder ran up Jacks spine as the eerie voice whispered in his ear. Some part of him recognised it, but he had no idea how or where from. He looked around at the others, and from the expressions on their faces they had understood nothing in the whispering that has surrounded them. He looked away quickly as Gwen caught his eye. Turning back to the door, he reached for the door handle once more.

Without a sound, the handle smoothly turned and without looking back Jack pushed it open, one hand going to his side where his pistol sat holstered. A blast of sudden icy air hit the small group, snatching their breath away for a moment. Inside the kitchen was dark, but even so they could still see that every surface and every object was covered in ice. Jack stepped forwards, pulling his gun free and looking around carefully. His free hand slid across the wall, hunting for the light switch. He clicked it a few times, but the room stayed in darkness.

"Ianto?" Jack called into the black, his eyes straining for any sign of movement. No sound returned. It was as if the darkness itself was swallowing the sound. "Ianto can you hear me? Where are you?" Jack called again, taking a further step into the room. It was as if the whole room had turned into one big freezer. The floor was even slightly slippery, but mercifully free from ice.

"Jack" Owen called from just inside the doorway. He turned to see him holding out a torch, a second one already lit in his other hand. Jack nodded his thanks, clicked it on, and turned back. The beam of light penetrated the darkness, dimly reflecting off of the far wall, which glistened slightly from the cold. He quickly swept the torch around the room, checking each of the corners carefully, as well as the counter tops, beneath the table and the entire width of the floor. It was fairly clear that Ianto was no longer in there.

"Ianto!" Jack shouted his name one last time, frustrated, but most of all scared for Ianto. He had no idea where he had been taken, nor what was being done to him. And they still had no idea what was doing this, or why. His slammed his weapon down on the nearest table top to try and vent some of his anger and clear his head so he could think straight. His hand felt something on the corner, something that wasn't ice. With a horrible feeling welling up inside his stomach, he raised his hand to the torch light to be able to see. He felt sick as he saw the red liquid on his fingertips. Quickly he swept the torch over the countertop, but only the corner had the tell tale dark stain covering it. Clearly Ian...someone had fallen here and most likely hit their head on the corner. So where were they now?

Toshiko didn't need to be able to see Jack's fingers to know what he had found. She put her hand to her mouth to stop herself gasping aloud. Stepping back from the group, she moved back into the centre of the hub unnoticed. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heartbeat and her shaking hands. This was going too far now. She could deal with the scaring and the weirdness; that happened pretty much on a daily basis at Torchwood. But stealing one of their team members from right in front of them? And them still with no idea who or what they were dealing with.

'Poor little Toshiko Sato'

Tosh felt her limbs turn to ice as that voice reached her. Somehow it seemed to just arrive in her head without going through her ears.

'Are you afraid little Toshiko Sato? Afraid of what happened to your friend? Afraid it's going to happen to you too?'

She turned slowly, her hands clenched tightly to try and control the shaking. Panic was rising in her throat, and the moment seemed to last for hours as she finally laid eyes on the figure standing behind her. It was the small boy from before, still in the same dark jeans and red hoody. Only this time his hair, which before had been a sandy brown colour and neatly brushed, was now streaked with black and completely messed up. His eyes were now fully jet black and there was a cold, calculating smile that somehow seemed out of place on a child so young, and yet made the whole thing a lot more terrifying.

"Wh...what do you want from me?" She tried hard to keep the waver of fear from her voice. For some reason she couldn't take her eyes off the child in front of her. She wanted to look to the others, try and call out for help but the child kept her frozen in place.

The horrible cold laugh came again, shattering any last lucid thoughts in her mind.

'You were fun to play with last time. Your dreams are so sweet, so innocent. So easy to play with. Just like your friend'

Toshiko forced herself not to look into the boy's eyes, forcing herself instead to look at his hair, his clothes, anywhere else.

"Toshiko?" Owens voice suddenly snapped her out of the trance like state the boy had held her captive in. She took in a deep shuddering breath as she finally managed to turn away and look at the rest of the torchwood team, and to Owen who was making his way towards her. "Tosh, you ok? You look kinda shaky."

"But..." She looked back to where the child had been standing only a moment before, to see nothing but empty space. Owen frowned.

"What is it? What did you see?"

"I...its nothing, really." Tosh found herself replying, suddenly unable to meet his eye and wanting desperately to change the subject and to forget about the eerie meeting that had just taken place.

"Don't give me that, you saw something. Was it that boy again? The one you saw back at your flat?"

She could only not, biting her lip to stop the tears welling up behind her eyes from spilling over. Owen then did something completely out of character for him. He reached out and pulled Toshiko into a hug, holding her gently as if she was made of glass. Still too shocked from seeing the strange child to find this awkward or strange, Tosh leaned into him as the tears finally came.

"What does it want from us? Why is it doing it to us alone? We haven't even seen it before"

"I know I know." Owen pulled away and looked directly into her eyes. "Whatever happens, we're going to find this thing, or these things, whatever they are, and we're going to stop them like we always do. Then we're going to make them put things right, with Rhys, with Ianto, with everyone. We've been through worse than this before Tosh. We can make it through this as well."

Tosh nodded, not trusting herself to speak. The last words of the child were still echoing around her head, and she didn't dare give them another voice. Then it would seem too real. Then it would really be happening.

'I like your dreams...I think I'm going to take you away next..."