Author's Note: Here's chapter 3! It's a bit shorter than my previous chapters, but I hope you enjoy it, nonetheless. Reviews would be lovely!
The man with the raggedy brown hair and his curly haired counterpart cautiously ebbed toward the menacing stone statues.
Sensing his wife's tension, the Doctor fastened her hand securely in his.
Though the threatening monsters remained unmoving, the man in the bow tie could not seem to escape the intensity of several cold stares originating from somewhere nearby.
At this point, the Last of the Time Lords realized that his rigid body was only within a few meters of the horrid creatures.
Oh well, here goes nothing. The Doctor mused to himself, before finally making a very important decision.
"River, get back, now!" He rasped in a stern voice, his hearts secretly severed by the flicker of pain flashing in her beautiful blue eyes.
It's for her own good, I can't risk anything, given her recent… condition… Cringing slightly, the man in the bow tie recalled the unusual readings that had registered on his sonic screwdriver, before his thoughts were steered away from that matter.
"No, Doctor. I can't leave you…I won't leave you…so don't even think about asking again," the curly haired woman spoke firmly, her fierce loyalty causing the Doctor's cheeks to fill with heat.
Based on past experience, the raggedy man decided that any attempt to dissuade her would be utterly futile.
Carefully inching forward, the trembling man in the bow tie snapped his eyes shut, in fear of what trouble his actions could potentially ensue.
While his left hand remained wedged inside his wife's, his right hand reached out towards the great unknown.
In one mere moment, the Doctor's frostbitten fingers brushed against the cold, bumpy stone, causing his body to jerk back suddenly, and his shimmering blue eyes to pop right open.
His eyes scanning the faces of one of the most deadly races in the entire universe, the raggedy man finally sighed in relief.
The ferment of his previous emotions had instilled a blazing terror in his faithful wife, but now, as the Doctor's breathing steadied, River's quickened pulse began to settle.
"River, I think we're going to be just fine. The Angels still haven't moved, even though I just gave them the perfect opportunity to dispose of us, just now. It seems that if they had been capable of harming us they would have done it already, so the greatest question of the hour is, 'why?' Why haven't the creatures with possibly one of the poignant survival instincts of any species acted upon it? What's holding them back?"
The raggedy man vocalized his inquiries amid a sea of gut wrenching silence.
As the Doctor rummaged through the pockets of his black trousers, he eventually relinquished his beloved sonic.
"Aha!" the bumbling man exclaimed rather loudly, a ridiculous smile crinkling across his face.
Meanwhile, as the Doctor busied himself with a relatively unproductive feat, River Song inconspicuously crept over towards another area where the stone statues were situated, in an attempt to ascertain the true nature of the situation.
Though she was beginning to feel slightly nauseous, she tried her best to continue focusing on what was currently much higher on the priority list.
Besides, if she began to exhibit signs of illness, the Doctor would likely begin to ask questions, and it would be better if he was not burdened by something that was likely not of any real importance.
Narrowing her eyes, as if to focus, the curly haired woman slowly cascaded her fingers down the rigid stone structure. However, she found it extremely difficult to concentrate, given the fact that the boisterous voice of her husband continued to puncture her ears.
"What are you, then? Holograms? No, you're stone, of course you couldn't be holograms…perhaps there's some sort of perception filter that I seemed to have missed…or maybe River and I were just hallucinating and you were never even here in the first place…no, no…that theory's complete rubbish. What is it then? What am I missing?"
The perplexed man was raking his fingers through his coarse mop of dark hair, as tiny lines of irritation folded across his pale forehead.
"Doctor, I think you might want to see this…" River muttered, her blue eyes growing wide.
"Hold up, River, I'm sort of busy, here…" the man in the bow tie barely even glanced in her direction, for his daft fingers twisted around the contour of his sonic repeatedly; he was completely absorbed in his own world.
After managing with great difficulty to refrain from giving him a harsh slap across the face, the woman with the curly hair instead devised another method of gaining his attention.
"Doctor…its…its…got me…the Angel…help!" The archaeologist utilized her talents to create her best impression of cry of distress, and her attempt was obviously successful, because the Doctor instantly jerked out of his imaginary state, rushing frantically over to her.
"River…River…are you okay? But how could they have…oh, it doesn't matter…I'm so sorry, I'm really truly very sorr—"
The rambling man suddenly halted mid-sentence, as he became aware of a dreadfully evil smirk that had molded across her face.
"Gotcha!" his enigmatic wife cooed, her long eyelashes flitting seductively.
Immediately, the Doctor's cheeks swelled with color, as a droplet of sweat trickled down his rigid forehead.
"B-But...you can't do that! River, I mean it! That was not funny…not one bit. Here, I thought for a second you were in serious danger…I mean, what gives you the right to…"
The man's futile lecture ceased, when a pair of luscious lips frolicked atop his, in a single flirtatious gesture.
Winking childishly, River spoke in a tone of mockery.
"Rule one, remember? I learned it from an old friend…"
Ugh… I should really try to keep my bloody mouth shut one of these days…
Despite his own frustration and burning desire to maintain a convincing scowl, the Doctor found it difficult to refute the intense variety of flaming emotions that were stirring from within his hearts.
"Sweetie, are you ready to listen to what I have to say?" The curly haired woman raised her eyebrows in question.
So that's what this is all about.
The man's hearts were pounding rapidly in his ears, and they compelled him to speak spontaneously.
"Yes! I mean…no…oh, okay, River, you win," the stubborn Doctor finally submitted to defeat.
River's smooth fingers carefully grasped his hand, and positioned them directly on the surface of the grey stone.
Her expression had suddenly transmuted into that of seriousness and uncertainty, as she shakily tapped the Doctor's fingertip against the rough ridges of the statue.
This simple action caused a haunting echo to permeate the air, a sound that theoretically would have been proclaimed impossible.
At this, the man furrowed his brow, secretly attempting to conceal the shock and alarm that were threatening to devour his body.
"It's…" The Doctor struggled to pronounce the next word.
"…hollow…" River Song completed his broken sentence, her neck stiffening.
Small crevices folded upon the Doctor's forehead, as his deep blue eyes grew very wide.
He began meticulously pacing back and forth, his fingers circling his face—a motion that only occurred when he was attempting to decipher the logistics of a situation.
"No, no, NO! But they can't be hollow…because that can only mean…they …never…existed…they're just echoes of what never was. But how could they possibly have gotten here? What could have caused such an impossible event to occur?"
Though the Doctor's wife was situated directly beside him, it appeared that he was speaking more so to himself than to anyone else.
"Doctor, what do you mean? I don't understand. How can something supposedly cease to exist and then remain standing right before your eyes?"
As River's chocked voice resounded through the gloomy air, a graveyard of shattered memories resurrected in the Doctor's mind.
The depressing image of a sweet little girl with carrot colored locks taunted him. Her glimmering hazel eyes possessed a childlike innocence, which caused the intensity of her fear to become increasingly apparent. But, the true problem lay in what was the source of her terror-stricken state.
The answer, the Doctor knew, lay in one devious force of pure evil—a mysterious crack nestling in the wall of one little girl's bedroom—a crooked crevice that had sought to devour entire populations, and had nearly destroyed the entire universe.
Just the thought of that eerie, intoxicating glow sent the Doctor's hearts thumping madly.
An army of stone angels had once been devoured by that scathing light, and purged from existence—at least, the Doctor had always assumed this had been the case. But, now, he was beginning to question his previous deductions.
Whether or not these were the same group of Angels that had wreaked havoc on the Byzantium was not currently the biggest issue, rather, what really terrified the raggedy man was the fact that their very existence was undoubtedly linked to a far greater threat, though the Doctor seemed unable to pinpoint precisely what it was.
Come on…think! Whatever could have caused those creatures to come here must have been big…scary big…
" River, we've really got to get out of here…I have the strangest feeling that this is all a trap…a dreadfully clever trap…But I can't seem to…"
The raggedy man halted his speech, his mind momentarily drawing a blank.
As he began to regain his focus, he became aware of the fact that his poor wife was shaking violently.
Her smooth fingers were shakily clasping a familiar silver pistol, which seemed to have been recently fired, and her left hand was resting upon her mid-section.
River's face was seriously constricted, and the tiny drops of liquid that presently cascaded down her pale cheeks only served to cause the Doctor's limbs to stiffen.
As his hearts writhed in agony, the empathetic man soon took notice of the tiny black marks that had suddenly appeared on his own skin.
In that terrible moment, the only words that seemed to reverberate through the Doctor's mind were those that he had once heard in an Italian city, years before.
"There were cracks. Through some we saw Silence and the end of all things…"
Note: In case you didn't catch that, the final line is from "Vampires in Venice." I hope you liked it. I will update likely in a few weeks because I've been really busy lately. Remember that reviews are greatly appreciated, and that if you enjoyed this story, you can check out my others(which are posted on my profile).
Have an amazingly brilliant day!