Hello you beauties!
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY for all my American readers! I hope you'll enjoy your day!
So here comes Chapter 14, I do hope you enjoy the story so far. Reviews and views stats are getting low, is it because you don't like it or is there another reason? Feel free to tell me! :)
Also if you like the story and have some whovian friends, feel free to share it!
Enjoy!
Melody - x.
Chapter 14
Back to reception, Rory, Amy, Melody and Gibbis were sitting while the Doctor was letting out all his anger. Melody was understanding him. He failed saving people just as she had. When she heard him throw a glass she got up and walked to him. He was standing there, panting, another glass held tight in a hand, ready to break. Without a word she wrapped her arms around his chest and buried her face in the crook of his neck. He sighed, dropping the glass before holding her tight against him. She was good at calming him down. After the usual psychic demand for breaking the hug, they walked back to the others, Melody sitting at the counter.
"Ok… It preys on people's fear and possesses them. But Rita wasn't afraid, she was brave and calm. Maybe it's something to do with the people, some connection between the four of you that'll tell me how to fight it."
"Yes you keep saying that but you never do." Gibbis said, annoyed. "And while we wait, people keep dying. And we'll be next!"
"Shut up!" Melody cut him. "If you did as you were told Howie would still be alive, so shut up!"
"He'll work it out, he always does." Amy said. "Just let him riffs and moves anything expensive out of his way."
"You have no right to blame him Gibbis, he doesn't owe you anything." Melody said.
"Oh no…"
"Doctor what's wrong?" asked Amy.
"It's not fear. It's faith. Not just religious faith, faith in something. Howard believed in conspiracies, external forces controlling the world. Joe had dice cuff-links and a horseshoe. He was a gambler. Gamblers believe in luck, an intangible force that helps them win or lose. Gibbis rejected personal autonomy and is waiting for the next batch of invaders to tell him what to do." the Doctor deducted. "They all believe there's something guiding them, about to save them. That's what it replaces. Every time someone was confronted with their most primal fear, they fell back on their most fundamental faith. And all this time I've been telling you to dig deep. Find the thing that keeps you brave. I made you expose your faith. Show them what they needed."
"But why us? Why are we here?" Rory asked.
"It doesn't want you." he answered. "That's why it kept showing you a way out. You're not religious or superstitious, so there's no faith for you to fall back on." he explained. The Doctor paused, resting against the counter next to Melody. He looked at her. "It wants her…"
"Me?" Melody said, uneasy. She knew what he was meaning. He leaned closer.
"You've found your room, haven't you? When you disappeared. Then you were there, behind me when I found my own room."
"It was me or Amy. I couldn't let it take Amy's faith in you away."
"So you're going to let it take it away from you instead… To save her." the Doctor said. "But I won't let you die. Your faith in me, yours and Amy's, that's what brought us here."
"But why do they lose their faith before they die?" asked Rory. "And start worshipping...'it'?"
"It needs to convert the faith into a form 'it' can consume. Faith is an energy, the specific emotional energy the creature needs to live. Which is why at the end of her note, Lucy said…"
"Praise him." Melody completed.
"Exactly." the man in a bow tie approved. Then he exchanged a look with Amy and Rory and understood. "No… Please no."
The footsteps of the Minotaur started to echo over their heads, making the ceiling tremble.
They all started to run, the creature on their heels. Melody stopped and turned around to see it. She entered in a sort of a trance and muttered.
"Oh he's beautiful!"
"Melody! No! Come here!" shouted the Doctor, coming to get her with the help of Rory. They almost carried her when they rushed into a room to hide. They all stood there, stunned by what they were seeing. It was the Doctor's body, dead, with bloody scratches all over his skin and bruises, as if he fought with something.
Melody let out a sob and fell on the ground near the corpse while Rory was holding the door, helped by Amy, the Minotaur giving thuds on the other side.
"It's happening, it's changing me. It's changing my thoughts" Melody said. The Doctor knelt next to her. He wanted to give her a hug, wiping away her fears, but that's what it wanted: make her have even more faith in him. He tried to hold her gaze and said:
"I can't save you, there's nothing I can do to stop this."
"It won't work Doctor, I know you're saying this to save me." she cut him, trembling.
"No, but listen. I really can't save you, there's absolutely nothing I can do. You're on your own. I should have left you in your life. Maybe nothing would have happened, maybe you would have had a normal life. I let my curiosity take over and I was selfish to take you with me. I led you by the hand to your death. This is what always happens." he said. That wasn't working. He tried something else. "You knew it would happen. You have foreknowledge, why didn't you just asked to go back? Why did you come if it wasn't to save innocent people? You walked to your death, and you knew what it would make me feel. You knew that would break me into pieces. I trusted you, with my life. And this is what I get for giving you everything: broken hearts and your dead body in my arms!" he exclaimed, pain and anger in his eyes.
The Minotaur entered the room.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she realised what she did. He could have save Amy, it would have been easy compared to her. He trusted her and she failed. What a deception she had been. She felt like she had betrayed him and now she knew that everything between them was broken. She lost her chance to travel with him. She wanted to protect him but she only caused him more grief.
"Forget me. I should never have come back for you." he finished, getting up and turning away from her.
The creature walked back into the corridor. The Doctor followed him, leaving Melody crying in the room. It fell to the ground, obviously dying as the girl was loosing her faith. Sparks flashed from the lamps and the lights faded out as he knelt next to the Minotaur. The hotel decor faded out.
"I severed the food supply." the Doctor said. "Sacrificing their faith in me. I gave you the space to die."
Soon they were all in a dark place, no hotel to see. It seemed like a spaceship.
"What is it? A Minotaur?" asked Amy. "Or an alien? Or an alien Minotaur? That's not a question I thought I'd be asking this morning."
"It's both actually." the Doctor answered. "Yeah, here we go." He walked over a console. "Distant cousin of the Nimon. They descend on planets and set themselves up as Gods to be worshipped. Which is fine, until the inhabitants get all secular and advanced enough to build bonkers prisons."
"Correction." Rory spoke up. "Prisons in space."
"Where are the guards?" Amy said.
"No need for any, it's automated." the Time Lord answered. "It drifts through space, snatching people with belief systems and converts their faith into food for the creature."
"It didn't just want me or Melody, you must believe in something or someone too, or they wouldn't have shown you your door too." said Amy while Rory and Gibbis were speaking. "So, what do Time Lords pray to?"
"According to the in-flight recorder, the program developed glitches. It got stuck on the same setting, the fears from the people before us weren't tidied away." he only answered.
He looked behind his shoulder: Melody was still on the floor, not moving. She was alive, that was sure, but broken. The Doctor fought himself to not get back to her since the creature wasn't dead yet.
It growled.
"What's it saying?" asked Amy.
"An ancient creature." he started to translate. "drenched in the blood… of the innocent, drifting in space through an endless, shifting maze. For such a creature, death would be a gift." He knelt next to the Minotaur. "Then accept it. And sleep well." He got up before translating again. "I wasn't talking about myself."
The beast let out a last sigh before closing its eyes. It was dead.
Confused, the Doctor finally got back to Melody and carried her into the TARDIS.
The TARDIS appeared between a park and a row of houses. A red car was parked. The Ponds and the Doctor stepped out. He was offering them the house and the car, offering them a real life. He was leaving them. Not for long, Melody knew that, though she said goodbye to them because she will probably won't see them again.
When he stepped back into the TARDIS she was there, as pale as snow. She looked tired, broken. The Doctor looked down at his feet, his jaw clenching. He must still be angry. He walked passed her and pulled some lever. The TARDIS took off.
He finally looked at her.
"I… I can't take it. I can't stand it." he said. He walked to her and pulled her into a tight, warm and bone cracking hug. "Forgive me." Melody's eyes widened. He was asking her to forgive him? She thought she was the one that had to be forgiven. "It was a lie, all was a lie. When I saw that blaming myself wouldn't work on you I blamed you, saying awful things so you'd stopped having faith in me. I wanted to take you home too so you'd be safe, but I can't. I didn't think a word, not one of them."
"So...you're not angry? You're not rejecting me?" she asked, trembling.
He looked into her eyes.
"I am never ever rejecting you again. I promise." he said. A tear rolled down her cheek and he wiped it away, giving her a soft smile. "Never again. My Mystery Girl."
He kissed her forehead and pulled her back into the hug.
"Never again."
Let me know what do you think about it and see you next chapter! :)