Chapter 9
Into the Dark
Michael sat in the parking lot of the town's singular hotel.
His legs hurt.
His back hurt.
His neck hurt.
He was cold.
He was scared.
Michael moved slightly, hoping the different position would help relieve the pain from the side of the car digging into his shoulder blade.
The movement just caused the large, jagged piece of gravel under his left knee to dig into his skin even deeper. He didn't dare lift his legs to grab it, in case the resulting movement scrapped the gravel around.
They might be here.
But the stone was in the process of singlehandedly cutting through all parts of his knee. A very slow and painful process, Michael found.
Just as he made up his mind to risk it, Michael heard movement behind him.
Lowering himself slowly, so his stomach was resting flat against the gravel, Michael looked across the parking lot through the space between the underside of the car and the parking lot's surface.
Two pairs of shoes came into view from the direction of the trees that bordered the car park- one pair well kept, fancy dress shoes, but a type that seemed good for running. The other pair was boots, light gold, well worn, almost hidden by a long, dark blue cloak which obscured the rest of the owner.
Michael remembered that cloak.
The investigators.
The two pairs of shoes approached, the crackle of gravel giving Michael enough cover to slide, as carefully as possible, underneath the car he was hiding next to.
"-right, see you," It was the foreign man Michael had helped earlier, the one in the suit. It was the owner of the fancy shoes.
"They coming?" It was an American accent, the owner of the coat and the boots.
"Yeah, they'll be there in twenty minutes," The foreigner said, before pausing, the shoes turning around to face Michael's car, "Hold on."
Michael froze, holding his breath. They couldn't have seen him? Could they?
"Forgot something in the rooms," The man said, "Owen asked me to grab something out of his secondary kit."
"Did you tell them?" The American asked as the boots followed the shoes.
"What?"
"About what we found."
"Oh," There was a pause, "No. If this thing's psychic, couldn't it easily overhear a phone call. I'll call them in fifteen minutes, when they're out of range."
"Good thinking." Was the last thing Michael was able to hear from the American as the men made their way across the parking lot to the hotel.
Michael frowned. He had last seen the two men follow Mr. Smith(better known as the Doctor) away from the parking lot. Now they had returned, so where was the Doctor?
After a few minutes of waiting, Michael was about to give up as he came to the conclusion- lying on your stomach on cold gravel isn't the best way to spend an afternoon.
There were more footsteps.
Michael held his breath as they approached, stopping just feet to his left.
"Michael Coles."
Michael started as the young face of an ancient man came into view as said man knelt down to look beneath the car that was Michael's hiding place. He scrambled out from underneath the car, slamming into the van it was parked next as he stood, and stared at the man standing on the other side of the car, whose shadow he had just vacated.
"You know, I would be annoyed that you've been following me," The man said, "But I was about to go looking for you, so it saves me the trouble."
"What?" Michael choked, his mouth had gone dry. Now that he knew…
"Look, Michael, we both know you've been lying," The Doctor said.
"About what?" Michael asked.
"About a lot of things," The alien said.
"I'm not the only one," Michael stated, too scared to think straight.
The Doctor stared at him, the surprise evident in his expression as he stayed silent.
"What do you mean?" He asked quietly.
"We both know," Michael repeated the man's words, before adding, "Doctor."
The Doctor blinked, "Ah. Well. I shouldn't be surprised, now should I?"
Michael kept eye contact, more scared than he had ever been in his life. He'd heard stories about the man standing in front of him- you would, when your mom was a famous archaeologist. Although, it was hard to tell the exaggerated stories from the truth… He was trying so hard to stop shaking, he didn't notice the Time Lord cross his arms and relax slightly.
"You know something, don't you," The Doctor said, "You know about the visions, don't you. You know who's been killing these people."
"I-" Michael stopped. He was both surprised and terrified. He knew about the Doctor. The man would know. He had seen the drawings. But then, that wasn't what the man had said.
The Doctor frowned at Michael, standing frozen in place at the accusation.
"You seem a bit cold, how long have you been out here? An hour?" He asked Michael, startling the boy in the sudden change in his demeanor, before continuing "Well then, how about a cup of tea?"
The Doctor walked up to the woman behind the counter.
"Hello," He said with a smile, "Would it be possible for me to borrow your phone for a moment?"
"Yeah, sure," The friendly girl said, "Here," She pulled out her phone, at his surprise she added, "Our landline's been having trouble, so you can borrow my cell."
"Right. Thanks," He said before dialing Rory's number quickly.
Hello? The nurse;s voice came floating through the speaker.
"Rory!" The Doctor said happily, "You're okay!"
Yes, I am. Is there any reason I wouldn't be?
"No. No!" The Doctor said quickly, "Look, is Amy with you?"
What? Has something happened to her? Look. If you got her hurt-
"Rory. Nothing's happened," He cut Rory off shortly, "I just need to know. I need the both of you to meet me at the town's singular coffee shop in less than half an hour."
Right. I'll call her.
Rory hung up.
The Doctor handed the server's mobile back to her with another thank you, this time accompanied with an order of a small cup of tea for himself and a hot chocolate for Michael.
As the beverages were handed to him, he realized one flaw in his little plan, "Oh, I just realized. I don't have any-"
"You can pay us back," The girl said, "You're the new guy at the school right? Yeah, we get teachers in here all the time, forgetting to bring money. I'll just write it down as an IOU."
"Right, thank you, sorry," He said, taking the drinks over to the booth Michael had picked out. The boy had relaxed slightly after he realized the Doctor wasn't going to do anything to him.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking their respective drinks.
"So." The Doctor broke the silence, deciding to approach this from a different direction than earlier "Michael. Care to explain why you were drawing Caereisthian flowers, native only to the seventh moon of Meril?"
Michael frowned, "I like the way they look."
"It was more of a question of how you were drawing them," The Time Lord said.
"With some pencils and paper," The boy said. While it seemed to be a sarcastic comment, The Doctor could tell it was more of an excuse than a retort.
"More the knowledge portion, not the equipment," The Doctor said stubbornly.
Michael looked down at his mug, "I'm not from here."
Frowning, the Time Lord said, "I guessed as much. So. Michael. Where exactly are you from?"
There was a pause, but as Michael seemed just about to speak, the door to the shop swung open.
"Hello?" Gwen asked the darkness tentatively, brushing her hands lightly along the floor and the wall behind her to try and get her bearings. She tried not to think about how she had come to be here in the first place- it would just make getting out of here that much harder. But still, the look on Rhys' face…And the way he had told her he didn't care… He did…didn't he?
Gwen shook her head with a frown.
"Hey," Came the dull, slightly hoarse response from across the room, causing Gwen to flinch slightly in surprise. It was a young boy's voice,, with the quality of being in the midst of puberty- not too deep, but deeper than a child's.
"Are you alright?" Gwen asked, her police background taking charge with her Torchwood-born mistrust of the unknown pushed to the back. A hurt minor was the first priority.
"I'm okay… just…scared," The boy admitted. There was the rough sound of cloth and shoes being rubbed against rough wood.
"It's going to be okay," Gwen lied, both to herself and to the boy, "I'm Gwen, by the way, I'm with Torchwood, the team that's here to help out."
"You can't help," The boy sad in a dead voice, "There's no way to stop it."
"There is, there always is," Gwen said, "And my friends will figure it out. Now," She stood unsteadily, using the invisible wall behind her for support, "We're still in the building, but this must be in an unused room. But it's a house… there's got to be a light somewhere," She said, waving her other hand along the wall, "Aha! A door," She said more triumphantly than she felt. There was no door knob.
She moved slowly to the left, feeling out the shape of the door, hoping to find some sort of light-switch. Just as she was about to give up and move on, the sound of fabric rubbing against wood came to her ears. She paused as she listened to the uneven steps and the common pauses as the boy made his way over to her.
"The light's on the left side," He said, "All the rooms're like that."
Gwen ran her hand on the left-hand side of the door, soon finding the switch.
Nothing.
"Right, maybe the bulb's out," She said.
"Or maybe there's no power," The boy said dejectedly and Gwen heard fabric against wood once more followed by a dull thump as the boy slid to the ground, giving up from his moment of hope, "Guess we're stuck in the dark now."
"Well, it's not too bad," Gwen said, "Just no light. So, what's your name?"
"Michael," The boy said.
"Well then Michael," Gwen said, pausing for a moment before deciding on the best way to distract the boy, "Where're you from?"
"Florida," Michael said, "No one else here is…"
"I know how that feels," Gwen said, "Have any siblings?"
"No… don't have any parents neither," Michael said.
"I'm sorry," Gwen said sincerely, surprised at the venom in the boy's voice as he spoke.
"Don't be, my dad was the worst, and my mom couldn't take care of herself, let alone a kid," He said, "I lived with her sister my whole life, until she died so I was sent to a foster home. They didn't have time to take care of me, so they sent me here."
"I'm sorry," Gwen said.
"Doubt it," Michael said harshly, Gwen could hear the frown behind the words.
"No really… I a-"
"Don't want to hear it, okay?" Michael scooted away from her, "Can we just die in peace please?"
"We aren't going to die," Gwen said forcefully as Michael snorted.
"We're in a pitch-black room, no one knows we're here, I've been here two hours already, no chance we're gonna leave," Michael said.
Gwen sat slowly and quietly next to the boy, thinking of what to do next.
Martha paused in the doorway before walking up to the empty counter, it seemed the person who was supposed to be manning the shop was taking a quick break. It seemed they were very trustful in a town as small as Marksborough.
She had to make sure the person 'Mr. Smith' was with wouldn't get hurt when they came in to arrest/capture him.
Glancing over at the table she saw the man- mid-twenties with a strange choice of clothing- sitting with a boy- small, pale, with green eyes and light brown hair. The boy wasn't looking at the man, he seemed to be uncomfortable with the situation.
"Hello?" Tosh said, startling both Martha and Owen. Glancing over her shoulder, Martha saw Tosh on her mobile, "Oh, okay. Well, we're already here… Yes, she's here…Oh, right, I'll tell her… Oh, and Ianto- okay, we'll check… can you two just meet us here?... Okay, goodbye Ianto."
She put the mobile in her purse and quietly spoke to Martha, while the UNIT doctor kept an eye on their target over the computer technician's shoulder, "That was Ianto. He and Jack found something, they want to meet us here, so they'll be coming in a few minutes."
"What did they find?" Martha asked.
"I'm not sure," Tosh said, "Ianto said he didn't want to say, in case someone's listening in. But then he told me, since we were in the coffee shop, and not at the school- his words, I don't know," Tosh said to Owen's look of confusion, "That we need to find one of the students- a Michael Cole. Says he might have something to do with this."
"Right, well," Martha stepped forward, "We need to get this over with," She walked purposefully over to the booth that contained the alien threat and the young boy. "Mr. Smith?"
The man looked up, then grinned, "Martha!"
"Look, Mr. Smith, you'll have to come with us," Martha said, ignoring the fact the man knew her name- he might have heard it somewhere, or even picked it up telepathically.
"May I ask why?" He said with a frown at the use of the name 'Smith'.
"We need you to come with us," Owen said, "But first, get out of the booth and away from the kid."
"Why?" The boy asked.
"Oh, now I understand, you think…" Mr. Smith said with a sigh, before looking up at the worried thirteen year old, "Don't worry Michael, it'll all be fine."
"Michael?" Tosh said, "Michael Coles?"
The boy nodded in surprise.
"Look, Mr. Smith," Owen said, interrupting, "Get up, hands raised, and step away from the booth," he said firmly, his hand resting on his gun threateningly.
"Alright, alright," 'Smith' stood.
"What're you gonna do with him?" The boy asked.
"Hey!" A girl walked out from behind the counter, the door labeled 'Employees Only' still swinging slightly from when she had walked through seconds earlier, "What are you guys doing?"
"We're arresting one of your customers," Owen said bluntly, before looking over at 'Smith', " For the murder of Alexander Corinder, and Malcolm Merits."
"What?" The girl stared, "You can't do that. You're-"
"We're police," Martha said calmly, not looking away from 'Mr. Smith'.
"No you're not," The girl said, "I know all the police-"
"Special division," Martha said, "From New York. Now, is there a back entrance to this place, this man's very dangerous, two people have already died. We don't want to take him out the front."
"Um, sure," The girl said seriously, stunned, a murderer was in their coffee shop!
"Right, come on," Owen said.
"Wait, you think I've been doing all this?" 'Mr. Smith' stared at Martha, it seemed Owen's earlier statement had just registered.
"Yes," She replied bluntly, frowning at the fact he had budged.
"But… I haven't hurt anyone… here," 'Mr. Smith' frowned, "Look, Martha, just wait for Ianto and Jack, they'll tell you I didn't do this."
"And why would that be?" Martha asked, "For all we know you could've done some psychic trick to them, make them believe you had nothing to do with this."
"I haven't!" 'Mr. Smith' said frantically, something more than fear of being captured in his eyes. More like...sadness. "Look, trust me, I'm-"
"He's the alien," Tosh said, holding up her scanner. Then she gasped, "Martha. Take a look at this."
Martha glared at 'Smith', "In a moment Tosh, we need to get 'Smith' here somewhere where less people are."
"No, but Martha, it's-"
"Martha!"
Martha jumped slightly, glancing over her shoulder quickly, before remembering what they were doing and looking back at the murderer. "Jack, about time."
"Seems like you've met 'Mr. Smith' then," Jack smiled, ignoring Martha's confused look.
"In a way," 'Smith' said.
"So, Ianto says you've found the alien," Jack said, ignoring their prisoner, hopeful "Who is it?"
"It's him," Martha pointed at 'Smith' "Mr. Smith, the history teacher." Martha shot a confused look at ianto as Jack's face fell. Ianto just frowned.
"Martha. It isn't him," Jack said, worriedly.
"It is," Martha said, about to continue and explain herself when Jack continued.
"No, Martha. Mr. Smith. He's the Doctor."
Gwen held her head in her hands, swaying slightly as she thought over the possibilities.
It's cool, but not air-conditioning cold, so no vents.
One door- locked from the outside(just assumed as there was no handle or lock, or to mention any sort of seam).
No electricity.
One light switch.
Nothing on the walls.
The middle of the room?
Gwen stood. Might as well try.
Hesitantly, the Welshwoman walked away from the comforting support of the wooden panels that made up the walls and shuffled her way into the middle of the room, arms flailing about, in search of anything to come into contact with.
A few steps in, her hand connecting with something.
Something small.
Dark.
Cold.
Metallic.
There was a dull thud.
"What was that!" Michael shouted, apparently not having heard Gwen stand up.
"Just me, darling," Gwen said, "I knocked something over. I can't find it."
"It's by my foot," The boy whispered, terrified.
"Hey, don't worry," Gwen tried to calm him, following his voice, "It's probably nothing."
"Or it could be the thing that's got us stuck in here in the first place," Michael whimpered.
"Hey, Michael," Gwen said, kneeling as she came close to the boy, "Don't worry, nothing's going to hurt-"
Michael screamed.
Gwen shrieked.
A fist connected with her eye, sending her flying into a wall. She tried to move away, but her arms and legs seemed to have ceased working.
"Michael!" Gwen shouted. The screams continued.
Then there was silence.
"Michael?" Gwen asked, her voice cutting through the silence, "Michael?" It came out more frantic this time.
She crawled forward, afraid of what she might find.
Nothing.
Well.
Nothing but a smooth, cold, metallic object resting innocently in the corner.
But no Michael.
"No," Martha frowned, "Look this things does stuff with your head. It isn't-"
"It is," Jack said, "Look, the TARDIS is here, it's him, he-"
"Prove it," Martha looked over at 'Smith', suspicious.
"Okay…" He frowned, then began, "You've got two siblings, Tish and Leo. Tish is older, Leo's younger. You're parent's are divorced, but they have come back together, sometimes happens after a traumatic experience spent together. You are engaged to Thomas Milligan- pediatrics-"
"Yeah, sounds like you've read my file," Martha said with a glare.
"I'm not finished," 'Smith said, "Sonnet 18- William Shakespeare- it was written about you. There's no sequel to Love's Labor's Lost, because it contains the pattern of words necessary for the Carrionites to become unlocked from their prison. You've travelled the world all on your own. You were training to be a doctor when the hospital you were in was sent to the moon and we were chased by rhinoceros' in space suits, and you refused to call me 'Doctor' because I never earned the title," he paused, just as the door swung open, "Is that enough?"
Martha smiled slightly, about to answer when someone behind her spoke.
"Excuse me," Alice Trails walked between Ianto and Jack so she could move over to the Doctor, "I need to speak to Mr. Smith. It's very important. School business." Martha frowned. The headmistress was visibly shaking.
"Um," Jack moved to speak when, suddenly, there was a tremendous crashing sound as the room went completely black.
Well then, I hope you enjoyed that chapter- I have a good idea of what the next one will contain, so I'll start working on that tomorrow, if I have time... *sigh* driver's permit time... yay... not... Ah well. I'll try to have the next chapter up before February, 'cause when that month comes it'll be one thing after another and all of a sudden it's June. So basically February's the month I lose what little of a life I have(which is kinda funny as my birthday's then... haha, get it, my life started then and I... no... okay... why I'm not a comedian right there). So I hope this lived up to your expectations of their meeting(even though it's not fully over yet... oh the suspense!). With that, I hope you leave a REVIEW(I may be able to spare some of the freshly baked brownies I made yesterday, although they will be slightly flavorless without a vivid imagination), and thanks for reading!