The next time I saw the leather-jacket guy, things got even weirder.

That was three days after the first time, and I'd just finished my shift. And this is what happened...

23rd November 2020

My mood couldn't be more different compared to the first time I'd met him - then, I'd been only part way through a long, tedious shift. Not like today. I'd finished. And not only that; tomorrow was a day off!

I was clutching a bag of Minstrels, my night-off treats. I'd eat the entire bag in front of some trashy late night television (sharing with my flatmate Steph, if I was in a good mood), and then I'd wake up when I chose, not when my alarm clock dictated that I woke. Could therefore be any time between nine and midday. I strolled down the cold-meat aisle, on my way to the staff-area, where I'd change out of my hideous uniform (I won't tell you the colour, lest you guess where I work, and get me sacked for slander), so let's settle on "ugly." Ugly colour. That was my uniform. I walked quickly, a spring in my step which was absent on any other day.

"'Scuse me," an elderly lady said suddenly, stepping out in front of me.

Just stuff off! I thought, as I painted on a smile. "How may I help?"

"Hummus?"

She wanted to know where Hummus was, huh? Well... basically, not a clue. I only work here! I don't know the bloody layout, it's a big store! I was about to send the old woman off in any random direction, before scarpering, as I'd done many times in my long, vapid career at the store. But then another thought came to me. My grin widened. I'd always wanted to do this;

"So we sell several types of hummus," I informed her sincerely, "ranging from our own brand, to the slightly more expensive big-name brands. Our range varies from chickpeas to other types of beans, some flavoured with lemon and garlic, while others are more plain. And um...they come in a variety of sizes too. For instance, we sell small pots for one family meal, whereas other sizes are better suited for when your catering to a large group of people. Oh for sure, we've got a good selection of hummus."

The old lady, who'd been patiently listening to me rant, nodded. "Which would be where?"

I blinked. "Sorry?"

"Where is it?"

"Oh, I've got no idea I'm afraid."

The old lady scoffed and trundled off. I stuffed my fist into my mouth and walked quickly away. Finally, I burst through the double-doors into the staff area (cold, grey floors, dusty walls, packed with pallets of stock) and burst into laughter. I'd seen it on some YouTube video once. How to be the ultimate time-waster.

Okay, it's not very funny. It's stupid. But when you work in a job as soul-suffocating as mine, you have to amuse yourself somehow...

I slammed my card against the "clocking" system and bounded upstairs to the staff room. It was quite empty; it was five-thirty. Only I finished at five-thirty, and nobody else started until nine in the evening. Those people were, of course, the zombie night-staff, a strange group of pale, lifeless people who seldom spoke and who only came out when the sun went down. I strolled across the empty room (a wide open space with sofas, a pool table, and a (closed) canteen, with a couple of vending machines against the wall to my left. On the other side were the changing rooms. I kicked the door to the ladies' open. It was a small, poky room with a bench in the centre, and about forty large, blue-doored lockers. They were about five feet in height and a foot or two across. They were that large on account of the fact that some people (not me) required steel-toecap boots and safety equipment for work, if they were in the warehouse or part of the store's maintenance team. In those cases, they needed a lot of room to store all their gear. Me, I only had a silly three piece uniform (jacket, blouse and trousers), and so I didn't need a locker of even half that size. Nevertheless, I had one.

I know what your thinking now; why's she droning on about the size of her locker?

Perhaps this will explain why;

I jammed the key into the hole and twisted it left, like I always do. The door opened outwards with a creak, like it always does. I was just about to bend down to pick up my stuff, like I always do. Except...

"Hey, Lynshey." Came a squeaky voice from inside the locker.

"Woah!" I screamed, leaping about a foot in the air and drawing back from the locker. I allowed the door to swing the whole way open, and watched as it revealed what was inside. I stared. I blinked several times, and rubbed my eyes. If I was high as a kite and drunk, like the old days, I wouldn't give much thought to what I was seeing now. I'd pass if off as a hallucination or a mirage, a drug-induced vision, the side-effect of a night's hard partying. But those days were over, and I was not as high as a kite. I was stone cold sober. Which is why I couldn't make any sense of what I was seeing now.

There was a child in my locker. A small boy, who I guessed to be aged eight or thereabouts. He was standing in big locker, on my jacket and handbag. He had a pale face and two sparkling blue eyes. His hair was a light-brown, and he was grinning at me, showing off two large buck-teeth. He was wearing a weird, old fashioned outfit. Had to be. His coat was dirty and brown, and he wore one of those weird flat-cap hats a lot of kids used to wear back in the Victorian times. But be also wore a pair of grey shorts which stopped at his knees, something which surely wouldn't have been allowed in the Victorian times. They were instead fresh out of the 1940's. He had long, grey socks and smart black shoes, shoes which were standing on my things!

"Who are you?" I demanded. "What you doing in my locker, kid? What's going on?"

The boy giggled. "Hide and sheek!" He told me. Only now did I register the pronounced lisp in his shrill voice.

"Right," I said slowly, "but your standing on my things."

"Shorry," the kid giggled, his crooked smile widening.

"Good lad," I said softly, "but who are you? Why are you up here? This is the staff area, kid. If your playing hide and seek, your way out of bounds here. You should've hidden in the fruit-and-veg aisle."

The boy made a face. "I don't like fruit and vegetables."

"No, neither do I," I admitted, "look, come on - get out. Your on my stuff."

The boy's giggled again. It was a harsh, rattling sound. He stretched out with his right hand. "I can't...pull me out."

"You what? Course you can get out."

"I'm jammed," he insisted, "shtuck! Help me out!"

I could see he wasn't - he fitted in perfectly...too perfectly, almost. I looked him in the eye. His eyes really were extraordinarily bright, like two little glowing torches.

He wiggled the fingers on his outstretched hand. "Pull me!" He insisted.

I looked at him uncertainly and slowly moved towards him, stretching out my left hand towards him. Then I let it drop.

"Where's your parents?" I demanded. "They shopping downstairs, maybe? Shopping?"

The boy sighed impatiently and wiggled his fingers. "Here! Help me out!"

Again, I slowly lifted my hand. I was suddenly aware that my heart was beating too fast, that the hairs on the back of my neck were up on edge. But why? It was just a kid!

That kid was smiling even wider, rows and rows of white teeth flashing at me. "Help me, Lynshey!" He insisted, beaming.

I reached out for him...

Then the door burst open behind me.

I wheeled around, again dropping my hand. It was the leather-jacket man! The Doctor!

"You!" I gasped. "You can't be in here! It's the ladies!"

The Doctor ignored me. "Get away from it." He said to me urgently. "Just step away from it now."

Another person came through the door. A young woman with blonde hair. She was very pretty. But like the Doctor, she too looked terrified.

"Listen," she said, reaching out for my hand (why was everyone wanting to hold my hand tonight!), "get away from it. It's not a kid. Come on."

Nervously, I glanced back round at the locker. As I did, two things happened. One, I caught another glimpse of the boy's face, and two, the lights went out. The combination of those began to fill me such terror as I'd never experienced in my life, fear stronger and more hideous that I thought it was possible for anyone to endure, fear of such incomprehensible heights that I felt sure I'd drop dead of a heart attack, that I'd collapse to the floor, dead before I hit the ground...

That boy's face was gone; a ghastly monster had replaced it. Red eyes, rows of razor sharp teeth, a long hooked nose and two huge ears. It was growling at me like some sort of wild animal. Then the lights went out.

I threw myself away from the locker just in time - just as I leapt back, crashing over the bench in the middle of the changing room, I heard a woosh and a clatter of metal as the thing that looked like a boy threw itself clear of my locker. I heard the patter of tiny feet, dozens of them, scuttling along the floor like some monstrous insect. I felt something not human move past me. The Doctor cried out in pain as something slammed into him, and burst through the door into the staff room. The lights were off in there as well; probably in the entire store. If it was a power cut, that would wreak havoc on the tills.

But then I heard a familiar buzzing sound, and saw a blue light close by. All at once, the lights burst back into action. The locker room came back into focus. The Doctor was lying against the wall panting. Rose was already pulling him upright. My locker's door had been ripped clean off.

I got to my feet shakily. "Okay," I gasped, "questions..."

The Doctor shook his head, "Nah. See ya. C'mon Rose."

And to my dismay, he was gone. Rose shot me an apologetic look and hurried along after him, back out into the staff room.

"Oi!" I protested, hurrying along after them. I burst into the staff room and ran around past Rose, blocking their path. "Who was that? What's going on here?"

"Yer fine," the Doctor snapped, "focus on that. That thing would have ripped you apart if we hadn't turned up."

"But...it was just a kid!" I said weakly.

The Doctor scoffed. "It was nesting," he told me solemnly, "like bees or wasps who build a nest in some enclosed space. Same wi' that thing. It's a monster. Bye now."

"Oh come on!" The girl protested. "Don't give her the silent treatment! She'll be in shock."

"I bloody won't!" I snapped, ignoring the fact that my legs were shaking. "You tell me right now. Right now!"

I sat down on one of the sofa's, and folded my arms, looking up at the Doctor and his friend expectantly. "Let me go through a couple of things," I said, "one, this is the staff room. Two, you ain't staff. Three, I guess your after that kid thing. Four, unless you tell me everything, I'll have security take ya both out. No entry, no catching the monster. How's that?"

The Doctor made a funny face. "Impressive."

"Or," I said, tapping the sofa next to me, "you can explain what this nonsense is about."

The Doctor and his friend looked at each other. "Fair play," the Doctor said finally, "if ya're sure you wanna know, I can 'elp ya there. But I'll tell ya something now; once you've 'eard this, there's no going back. It'll change your life forever. Your prepared for that, are ya?"

I took a moment to consider that. Suddenly, my life flashed before my eyes. Tedious job, grubby little flat, criminal record, useless parents who I never saw...

"Yeah." I replied, meaning it. "I'm prepared for that. Who are you? Doctor Who?"

The Doctor's Diary, Entry 1971

Well...saved another life today. That girl nearly got killed. It was the same girl, believe it or not! Lynsey Perron. The same one I met on the checkouts the other day. The Whispering nearly had her! If we hadn't turned up when we did...if we'd been even a second later...

As far as catching the thing goes, we ain't any closer. It's fast, it's powerful and it knows how to defend itself. It can rip people in half, it can suck vast quantities of power from the area, it can manipulate people into doing it's bidding. But it's most astute ability is it's self-defence. It doesn't hold it's own in a fight, it makes it so it's more or less impossible for anyone to fight it. It's a monster from another dimension, but who among us heroes would ever hurt a little child? Even when we know what it truly is...

All this, I told Lynsey Perron. I told her what it was (as best as I myself understand what it is), and I told her we were trying to catch it. It's completely lethal. It doesn't belong in this universe, let alone in a supermarket on Earth.

Me and Rose have been chasing it for days now, all through time and space (that part, I didn't tell Lynsey). Even when it's cornered, like it was today, it just blacks out the lights and scarpers.

So what now? Well, Lynsey went home, frightened out of her wits and traumatized. I doubt I'll ever see her again. Tomorrow, me and Rose are gonna finish this once and for all. Either we'll catch it, and we'll leave 2020 for good...or we'll both be horribly killed. One of those two.

Wish us luck. Tommorrow it's on.