Authors note: Please let me know what you think of this chapter- I apologize for not having updated sooner (Things have been quite busy for me). Remember: The more reviews , the sooner I update.
CHAPTER FOUR:
Clara stood in the middle of the corridor examining her situation carefully; glancing between the four doors as if hoping one would miraculously show a giant banner with the words "CHOOSE ME" written on it.
She heard something rolling on the floor before she felt it come into contact with the side of her left shoe, reaching down the picked up what a appeared to be watch, within the dim light she could see a date and time.
The exact date and time that the Doctor disappeared.
Looking up she began to realize the importance of this choice; whichever one she chose would decide her fate.
"The words. Don't-Look-Away" The Doctor's voice resonated in her mind.
Apparently it was not only her fate that was at stake here.
She glanced once at the door that she saw herself holding a gun to the Doctors temple, a sickness settled in her stomach at the very thought of herself- even if it had only been a vision- killing the Doctor. Obviously that was an easy choice; there was absolutely no way in hell that she was about to shoot the Doctor.
Her gaze turned to the first door she had peered into, the one with herself and the Doctor entangled in each other's arms; she found the idea of their kissing rather appealing and for some strange reason it seemed oddly familiar- as if she had kissed the Doctor before, but no, she couldn't have-She would have definitely remembered something like that.
Letting out a sigh she turned towards the one in which she had seen the Doctor swallow the vile of purple fluid, nauseatingly, she could see a small amount of white foam from underneath the door, that must have been where the Doctor had fallen and began foaming at the mouth. As much as she did wish she could save the Doctor from such a horrible death something told her the situation did not fit with the day that the Doctor had left, but what if that had been what the Doctor had gone to do? Did the Doctor truly want to die? No. That was not the Doctor she knew, the Doctor she knew wanted adventure, and what assurance of adventure is one supposed to feel when considering the prospect of death? That is, if there is any actual possibility of adventure, which Clara truthfully could not say that she agreed with- besides, she already had one Doctor that she needed to save.
Reluctantly she turned towards the door with the flickering light illuminating from beneath it; the light from the flames she had seen herself running through (or chasing, then again being chased seemed much more plausible)…She was not sure how it fit but something told her that it had to; after all, what else could possibly be the right answer?
Taking a deep breath she walked forward and pressed her hand against the metal of the doorknob, only to quickly recoil at the degree of heat that it projected. Looking down at her palm she saw that it was a bright shade of red.
Deciding that is was probably the safer idea; she lowered her sleeve she quickly used it at a barrier between her hand and the knob as she turned it and kicked the door open the rest of the way.
She closed her eyes and walked forward, fully expecting the excruciating sensation of her flesh being burned off but was surprised by a feeling of cool feathers brushing against her skin. Upon opening her eyes she saw that the "cool feathers" were actually the flickering flames.
Turning her attention back to her surroundings she saw that the door had disappeared which meant that there was no way out.
Lovely. She thought
She found herself yet again in another corridor, though she was relieved to find that it was one of the TARDIS's corridors; but now she had to face the next obstacle: finding the TARDIS control room.
She felt a shiver run through her partly though anticipation and partly from the increasing coldness that she was beginning to feel from the flames (which in its self was quite the unnerving sensation). She ran her hands up and down her arms as she tried to warm herself; her hand stopped at her wrist where she found the watch from earlier was wrapped around (she was unsure how it had managed to come to be in that particular position though….). In the light from the fire she saw that the hands were moving, which was a good sign (as the hands had been unmoving previously), but she did not have much time left.
Dropping her arms down to her sides she looked around, above one of the door frame heading in front of her she saw a blinking red light.
"Red usually means that it is dangerous…" A smile appeared on her face as the words came out of her mouth.
With her chin up she began running, running as fast as she could. Thankfully it was only after three wrong turns (and one collapsing ceiling…After all, the light had to have meant something…) that she found herself in the Control room.
The TARDIS abruptly jerked, sending Clara flying into the metal railing; she was momentarily confused when she remembered, this was the shock she had felt when the TARDIS took off, ejecting itself into space, and from what she had learned from the blessed "How to fly a TARDIS for dummies" she knew that it took exactly twenty seconds for the TARDIS mainframe to delete coordinates. And apparently now she was inside the past timeframe.
She hurled herself at the console, and crawled beneath it hoping not to be seen by her other self, but the earlier Clara was still standing by the door, hanging onto the handles for dear life as the TARDIS shook violently, swinging her lithe form in all directions.
She finally reached the typewriter keyboard of the computer, from her calculations she had exactly eight seconds left.
7
She entered the password (SonicCustard)
6
She was in the control center
5
Surpassing firewalls
4
Inside the deletion center
3
Searching for the coordinate
2
Coordinate found. Now at the deletion progress center
1
Coordinate deletion canceled.
0
Coordinates saved to mainframe.
Clara let a deep sigh of relief, blowing her fringe upward revealing her sweaty forehead., she leaned back against the console for a few more seconds before a thought occurred to her: what was she supposed to do now?
She knew that she had to hide, she could not let her other self see her, and she knew that by now as the TARDIS began to stabilize she would have been trying to use what little knowledge of the TARDIS she had then to find the coordinates.
She crawled beneath a nearby fallen heap of railing just before her old self approached the console, glancing behind her she was relieved to see the a the door she had entered through. Still crawling on the floor, she dragged herself inside, the door slamming it behind her.
She rolled over onto her back for a moment, allowing her breathing and heart rate to return to normal. She stood up then and had been about to make her way in the direction of the control room when something brushed past her, she glanced to her right but saw nothing. She took another step and this time felt a wind that blew her hair into her face come from her left, she glanced to that side; once again, nothing.
It was when she glanced in front of her that she saw the source of her unease: before her stood herself, throwing herself against the doorway that shown the Doctor poisoning herself.
No. Clara thought. This cannot be happening again.
By now the other Clara was staring into the flames, she walked closer but was abruptly thrown backwards when the door slammed shut.
She saw herself stand up and look around, then go and try to open a completely separate door.
What? No, this isn't what happened.
She scene abruptly changed once more, but it was not different, it was starting from the beginning, when the first door opened, it was as if someone had rewound the events.
It took Clara a moment to catch on. It was her. She was the one who wrote on the wall, she was the source of the blood, it was all her!
She looked around; she had to find something sharp, looking ahead she knew where she could find it: the control room; there had to be something there; after all, the TARDIS had just collided into itself.
She ran down the corridor as fast as she could, finally, out of breath she found herself by the control room, looking around frantically she found a shard of wayward metal form some unknown source that seemed would do the job, turning, she ran back down the corridor.
Good. She thought with a sick humor as she felt her breathing become labored. The faster the heart-rate the more blood.
Once she reached midway down the corridor she stopped took a deep breath; closing her eyes she directed the piece of metal about her left wrist and dug it deep into her skin, she held back a scream as she dragged it back and forth, digging deeper and deeper into her own flesh.
At her feet she saw a puddle of blood form, she was careful to make sure it was in the exact spot she had fallen down upon earlier
She heard another door close and took it as her queue to start writing on the wall, dipping her finger into her wrist trying desperately to pretend that she had merely spilled red paint, she bit back another scream and began painting the letters on the wall, using her nails to create the same scratching sound that had originally gotten her attention.
By the time she had gotten the letter "S" she was feeling light headed but needed more blood, taking the piece of metal she dragged it deeper into her skin, this time she could not help but let out a whimper.
She must have hit the radial or ulnar artery because her wrist began bleeding much faster the blood turning to a much brighter shade of red, the last thing she could remember before she collapsed was carving the letter "E" into the wall and the watch rolling onto the floor as her legs gave way and her hand slid down the wall leaving a bloody handprint in its wake.