"What's going on?" Mickey groaned, opening his eyes. If he could keep the man's attention away from Rose long enough…
"Nothing." Tobias snapped, striding over to where Mickey was pretending to be tied up. Thankfully, he hadn't noticed Rose. Mickey saw her get to her feet and begin to creep up behind the man, holding the hefty umbrella in both hands. Tobias frowned suspiciously and Mickey quickly flicked his gaze away from Rose and back to him.
"What are you – " His silver eyes widened. At the last second, Tobias started to turn – and the already swinging umbrella, instead of hitting the side of his head, smashed into his nose. The man was knocked off balance and fell sideways heavily. He was scrambling up an instant later, his hand clamping on Rose's throat like a vice as she ran to Mickey. Rose found herself pinned against the wall; Tobias's hand was squeezing the air out of her throat, holding her off the floor with more than human strength.
Well, I was right. She thought irrationally as dots started dancing in front of her eyes. He can't be human. Mickey was struggling to get out of the chair once more. He tripped over the ropes scattered on the floor, stumbled and managed to end up behind Tobias. He grabbed at the man's free arm, but a flick of the wrist sent him skidding across the floor. Rose saw Mickey's head slam into the opposite wall, and his body went limp.
"No!" She gurgled, trying weakly to push Tobias away…
"Toby?" Sarah Jane's voice floated from the top of the stairs. Rose, unable to move her head, swivelled her eyes in the direction of the voice.
"Help…" She gasped, but Sarah seemed too shocked to move. Rose tried to suck in air, but Tobias's hand was cutting off her airways. Faintly, Rose heard Sarah say something sharply, but the words floated away before penetrating her brain. She let herself go limp in Toby's grasp – and found herself crumpling to the floor. Toby's hand was suddenly gone from her neck and Rose gratefully gulped lungfulls of air.
"Toby, what is going on?" Said Sarah Jane's voice, much nearer this time. Rose forced her eyes open and saw a blurry shape. As it came into focus, Sarah became visible, crouched beside the fallen girl.
"Are you all right?" She asked gently, and then rounded on Tobias. "What were you thinking? She's just a girl!"
"She broke into our house, and you're taking her side? She's probably here to steal –"
"Oh be quiet. You know she's not an average burglar, you know exactly who she is. Can you stand?"
It took Rose a second to realise the last part was aimed at her.
"I think so." With the older woman's help, Rose was able to drag herself up. Her head was clearing, and everything came into sharp focus. Including Mickey's crumpled frame. "Mickey!"
She pushed herself towards him, using Sarah Jane as a support. Falling to her knees beside her friend, Rose quickly felt his neck and slumped in relief. "He's alive." But when she took her hand away, there was blood on her fingers, seeping from a gash on his head where he had struck the wall. The girl jumped to her feet, swaying.
"Oh my God. Toby, call an ambulance!" Sarah Jane was backing away from Mickey, a hand over her mouth.
"I don't think so." Tobias's tone was ice cold, and both women turned to him in shock and anger.
"You could've killed him!" Rose exploded at him, taking a shaky step in his direction. Toby held up a hand, his eyes flaring silver. Rose was caught mid-step, unable to move. The man's eyes glowed, boring into her head. A faint whine was coming from somewhere, the sound intensifying until she could hear nothing else. Tobias let go of however he was controlling her, but she couldn't walk if she wanted to. The whining filled her head, seeming to shake the room around her; she fell to her knees, clutching her head. Sarah Jane fell forwards beside her. Rose stared at her body in horror, before the pain in her head became too much and she joined her friends in unconsciousness.
Rose woke up suddenly, jerking forwards. The ropes fastening her arms to those of the chair pulled taut, cutting into her wrists, but she was too busy looking around to notice. Tobias was nowhere to be seen, but Sarah was slumped sideways on her left, tied to another chair, her red-brown hair covering her face. Rose turned to her right, where Mickey was still sitting unconscious. His dark skin had paled, and he was leaning forwards heavily, so she could get a good look at the cut on the back of his head. It wasn't too deep – just a split in the skin from the force with which he'd hit the wall – but it looked painful all the same. The bleeding had stopped, and dried blood matted in Mickey's short black hair. But his chest rose and fell; he was still breathing. Rose heaved a sigh of relief.
Tobias had been hunched under the sheet, concealed from Rose as he tinkered with his mysterious machine. At the noise, he straightened and came into view. His sudden appearance surprised Rose into silence, which didn't last long.
"What the hell are you playing at? Let us go right now, or – "
"Or what?" Tobias asked in his soft, oily voice, and Rose, for once, was lost for words. She realised that there was no Doctor to come to her rescue, that her only hope sat beside her, unconscious; it wasn't like she could count on her pregnant mother or her father with, frankly, more luck than brains, to come rushing in to save the day. She was alone. But she had to say something.
"Or…or I'll scream." She finished lamely.
Tobias smirked, placed his hands on the arms of her chair and leaned forward until his alien eyes filled her vision. "Scream all you want," he murmured, "No one can hear you."
Rose didn't flinch as his sour breath tickled her face. Fear twisted her stomach and clawed at her throat, but she didn't flinch. She glared at Tobias, who smiled pleasantly and took something from the inside pocket of his coat – squinting, Rose saw that it was a sleek metal case, just slightly bigger than a pencil tin. Tobias opened it, and produced a slim syringe. Rose, who hated needles, instantly went faint.
Instead of her, however, Mickey was the alien's target. He left Rose, crouched down beside the unconscious boy and laid the silver case on the floor by his knee. Then he dabbed one of his dark-skinned arms with a swab of cotton, and carefully slid the needle into the skin near the joint of Mickey's elbow. Rose swallowed hard and refused to look away, terrified that her friend was going to be injected with some alien chemical. She needn't have worried – all Tobias did was take a sample of his blood, then delicately pick up a thin glass vial from the metal case to transfer the blood into. He replaced both implements into the case, and snapped it shut. Rose swallowed a sigh of relief, hoping that was it, and feeling slightly guilty that he had chosen Mickey and not her.
"You've got what you wanted. Now let us go." Said Rose, meeting her enemy's stare levelly, and thought something in her tone or expression must have startled him – scared him – into stepping backwards quickly, colliding with his machine. Rose couldn't know that, for a moment, her eyes flashed with an eerie glow to rival Tobias's – but instead of silver, her eyes held a gold light. And in them was something like the gaze of a wolf.