I am about to board my flight back home to the states sadly. I'm expecting reviews to await me when I land in the cold to cheer me up. I mean I hope for some. Please? It's really cold in Chicago and quite pleasant in London.
Chapter 8: Synchronization
The Doctor looked surprised. "When did she? No, she hasn't." As the Doctor spoke, Sky continued to speak in sync with him. "She's still doing it." Merlin cocked his head to the side in confusion.
"She looks the same to me," Val said. Just Val. Sky remained silent. "No, she's stopped. Look, I'm talking, and she's not."
"What about me, is she?" Biff tested next. "Look. Look at that. She's not doing me. She's let me go."
"Mrs Silvestry? Nor me. Nothing." Same with the hostess.
"Sky, what are you doing?" the Doctor and Sky asked as he crept closer.
"Doctor, it's you," the Professor observed. "She's only copying you."
"Why me? Why are you doing this?"
"She won't leave him alone." Dee Dee edged backwards. Merlin had to admit he was mystified. It was oddly more worrying now that the creature seemed to have chosen a victim. But Merlin couldn't understand why the Doctor was chosen. Not that the Doctor understood it either. He would have expected that it would have chosen him since it was his magic that gave it strength. But maybe not. Sky had looked at his funny when he tried to communicate telepathically. Maybe she was afraid of him. Maybe that was too much to hope for.
"Mrs Silvestry, I'm trying to understand." The Doctor was now crouched on the floor in front of Sky again. "You've captured my speech. What for? What do you need? You need my voice in particular. The cleverest voice in the room. Why? Because I'm the only one who can help? Oh, I'd love that to be true, but your eyes, they're saying something else. Listen to me. Whatever you want, if it's life, or form, or consciousness, or voice, you don't have to steal it. You can find it without hurting anyone. And I'll help you. That's a promise. So, what do you think?"
"Do we have a deal?" There was a repeat again, only, no. But yes.
"Hold on, did she?" Dee Dee whispered.
Merlin nodded in shock. "She spoke first."
"She can't have," Val denied.
"She did," Hobbes affirmed.
"She spoke first." Merlin couldn't help but repeat himself. This was new. And he wasn't sure what it meant. He was forced to cross out more than half of his theorems now.
"Oh, look at that. I'm ahead of you," Sky said.
"Oh, look at that. I'm ahead of you." The Doctor seemed frozen on the ground. Unable to move, just like Sky had been initially.
"He's copying her," Merlin said out loud. Was this the beginning of a new cycle.
"Doctor, what's happening?" Hobbes asked.
"I think it's moved," Sky answered with the Doctor repeated in a daze. "I think it's letting me go." Merlin had thought the next stage would have been the creature predicting what the Doctor might say and then just speaking first, but this sounded like the creature had complete control over the Doctor now.
Dee Dee looked as confused as he was. "What do you mean? Letting you go from what?"
"They're separating," Merlin said. Only as he said it, he realized it wasn't quite right.
"Mrs Silvestry, is that you?" The hostess stepped forward and asked.
"Yes. Yes, it's me." Sky slowly stood up but the Doctor remained on the floor and helplessly repeated "Yes. Yes, it's me."
"I'm coming back. Listen," she continued. "It's me."
"It's like it's passed into the Doctor," Merlin guessed again. "It's transferred. Whatever it is, it's gone inside him."
"No, that's not what happened." Merlin looked over at Dee Dee. She seemed very confident. He waited for her to continue but she did not. Sky continued to stretch her muscles as she spoke and Merlin was forced to return his attention to the show going on up front.
"Look at me, I can move. I can feel again. I'm coming back to life. And look at him. He can't move. Help me. Professor? Get me away from him. Please." Professor Hobbes walked over and helped steady her as she stepped over the broken seats and left the Doctor behind. Merlin couldn't deny what his eyes saw. The Doctor was no longer the Doctor. He wasn't sure Sky was completely the same, but the creature seemed to have moved on to possessing the Doctor. The pattern would reverse now. He would be repeating only Sky for a while and then move back to repeating all of them as he grew stronger.
"She's free," Val exclaimed. "She's been saved." She gave Sky a hug like she was a long lost friend.
"Oh, it was so cold," Sky was saying.
"Oh, it was so cold."
"I couldn't breathe." She had a far off look like she was remembering the horror of being taken over.
"I couldn't breathe."
"I'm sorry. I must have scared you so much." She glanced around at the adults in the cabin.
"I'm sorry. I must have scared you so much."
Val was quick to reassure her. "No, no, it's all right. I've got you. Ooo, there you are, my love. It's gone. Everything's all right now."
Dee Dee spoke up hesitantly. "I wouldn't touch her."
"But it's gone," Biff told her. "She's clean. It passed into him."
"That's not what happened," she replied.
"Thank you for your opinion, Dee," Professor Hobbes snapped. "But clearly Mrs Silvestry has been released."
"No."
Just leave her alone. She's safe, isn't she?" Val turned to Merlin. "Jethro, it's let her go, hasn't it?" Of all the times for her to suddenly want his opinion, she had to pick something that was confusing him and bringing up unpleasant memories of the fomorroh. He decided to play it safe and hope he could figure out what he actually thought later.
"I think so, yeah. Looks like it. Professor?"
"I'd say, from observation, the Doctor can't move. And when she was possessed, she couldn't move, so," he trailed off and Merlin nodded. That was his train of thought as well.
"Well, there we are then." Biff clapped his hands together with a resounding crack. "Now the only problem we've got is this Doctor."
"It's inside his head," Sky confided in them.
"It's inside his head."
"It killed the driver." Sky must remember something from when the creature was inside her.
"It killed the driver."
"And the mechanic."
"And the mechanic."
"And now it wants us."
"And now it wants us." That was new. But did she mean all of them? Why had it let Sky go then? Maybe she wasn't strong enough. The Doctor had said he was the cleverest and there was something different about him.
"I said so," Val declared in case anyone couldn't remember that she didn't say so.
"He's waited so long," Sky began with the Doctor repeating everything moments behind. "In the dark. And the cold. And the diamonds. Until you came." Merlin felt the hair on the back of his neck begin to raise. "Bodies so hot. With blood. And pain."
"Stop!" Val screeched. "Oh, my God, make him stop. Someone make him stop."
Dee Dee shook her head. "But she's saying it."
"And you can shut up." Val did not appreciate being told she was wrong in a moment of panic.
"But it's not him," she explained. "It's her. He's just repeating."
"But that's what the thing does, it repeats," Biff argued.
The hostess held up a hand to stop him though. "Just let her talk."
Unfortunately that didn't work. "What do you know? Fat lot of good you've been."
"Just let her explain." They all turned to Dee Dee. Merlin was especially wondering if her theories would help fill in the missing pieces in his own.
"I think." She paused and drew herself up like she was giving a report. "I mean, from what I've seen, it repeats, then it synchronises, then it goes on to the next stage and that's exactly what the Doctor said would happen." Merlin nodded slowly.
"What, and you're on his side?" Merlin was amazed Dee Dee managed not to roll her eyes as she replied.
"No."
Merlin cut in before an argument flared up. "The voice is the thing." Dee Dee smiled at him.
"And she's the voice. She stole it. Look at her. It's not possessing him, it's draining him."
"She's got his voice." The hostess seemed to understand what she was saying.
"But that's not true, because it can't." And there was the crux of all Val's arguments, Merlin thought. I lack the imagination to believe in the unusual means it doesn't exist. "Because I saw it pass into him. I saw it with my own eyes."
"So did I."
"You didn't," Dee Dee argued.
"It went from her, to him." Val turned to him. "You saw it, didn't you?"
"I don't know," he responded. Something latched onto the Doctor. That didn't mean it released Sky though. Both of them seemed to be controlled by an outside source but maybe Sky was controlling the Doctor.
"Oh, don't be stupid, Jethro. Of course you did."
"I suppose he was right next to her," he mumbled mostly to shut her up.
"Everyone saw it. Everyone."
"You didn't. You're just making it up. I know what I saw, and I saw her stealing his voice." Dee Dee was getting frustrated now.
"She's as bad as him. Someone shut her up," Val sniped.
"I think you should be quiet, Dee," Professor Hobbes agreed.
"Well, I'm only saying"
"And that's an order!" Hobbes snapped. "You're making a fool of yourself, pretending you're an expert in mechanics and hydraulics, when I can tell you, you are nothing more than average at best. Now shut up."
"That's how he does it," Sky whispered into the tense silence. The Doctor echoed as no one else spoke. "He makes you fight. Creeps into your head." Sky crept closer. Looking each of them in the eye. "And whispers." Merlin shivered as they made eye contact. Her eyes were too empty. "Listen." She held up a finger. "Just listen. That's him. Inside."
"Throw him out," Biff growled.
"Get him out of my head," Val agreed.
"Yeah, we should throw him out."
"Don't just talk about it, just. You're useless. Do something."
"I will. You watch me. I'm going to throw him out." Biff started forward and Merlin started to panic.
"Yes," Sky agreed. There wasn't enough time left for Merlin to figure out what was really going on. "Throw him out." He ran his fingers through his hair and kneaded the back of his neck as he tried to figure this out. "Get rid of him." The Doctor clearly couldn't move and had no control over his own actions. "Now." Sky appeared to be very much in control and was agreeing with everyone else that the Doctor needed to go. She knew what the monster had been thinking but maybe that was only residual knowledge from being possessed.
"Don't!" Dee Dee yelled as Biff grabbed a hold of the Doctor's ankles and began to pull.
"It'll be you next," Val growled from the side.
"Don't think we should do this," the hostess said hesitantly.
"It was your idea. Professor, help me."
"I can't. I'm not." He backed away.
"What sort of a man are you? Come on." Biff, Val, and Sky kept encouraging the others to help as Biff grabbed the Doctor and tried to pull him towards the door. Everyone was yelling and there was so much noise so Merlin couldn't concentrate. Crumpling under the pressure, he rigidly moved forward to take a hold of one of the Doctor's ankles. He still didn't know if it was the right choice but something needed to be done. The Doctor certainly wasn't acting like himself and Merlin didn't know if he could fix him so maybe it was better this way. Together they tugged the lanky man towards the door. His foot got caught on a seat but Hobbes wrenched it free. Suddenly a bright light flooded the cabin and Merlin involuntarily yelped and dropped the Doctor to cover his eyes against the harsh light. Blinking furiously, he sees the hostess standing at the doorway, holding Sky, framed against the harsh exterior light of Midnight.
"Four, five, six." The pressure wall collapses and the two women are sucked out into the brightness and the doors slid closed behind them.
The other men have released their hold on the Doctor and he quickly rolls onto his back, breathing frantically.
"It's gone. It's gone. It's gone," he mutters to himself in relief, unable to stop. "It's gone, it's gone, it's gone. It's gone. It's gone. It's gone, it's gone, it's gone. It's gone, it's gone, it's gone." Merlin collapses back into the nearest seat. It could've gone so wrong. He made the wrong call. He had condemned an innocent.
"I said it was her," Val spoke into the silence. The glare the Doctor shot her as he sat up was like a cold steel dagger to the heart. She didn't speak again.