It was dark down there. Very dark. And the walls were...juicy. Organic. As I looked around me, trying hard not to retch again, I saw solid, gooey filth attached to the walls, dripping from the ceiling...it was an orange-brown colour in the torchlight. On closer inspection (as close as my stomach could tolerate) I saw that it was made from old wood, paper and garbage moulded together with the digestive juices of the horror that existed down here, that lived in here. The stench was beyond anything I could imagine, and seemed to get worse the further down that staircase we went. But still, we continued on downwards.

Into the layer of the Whispering...

The First Adventure Part 4

"I can't breathe..." I gasped, my hand clamped firmly over my nose. Even drawing breath from my mouth seemed to let a small amount of the smell in. It wasn't, I realized, just a smell - it was a taste! In the air hung a hideous, sour tang, a taste that fitted the smell quite perfectly.

The Doctor had noticed it too. "It's this," he said, slapping the sickening substance on the wall. It squelched under his hand. "Particles o' this stuff, breaking off. We're inhaling it."

"Is it poison?" I demanded nervously, trying not to breathe.

"Who knows?" He replied candidly.

There was no helping it at this point. I was about to make my apologies and go, head back up the staircase back into the tunnel, and move as far away from the little door and the smell as I could. But as I turned, we heard something. I froze. We all did, Rose behind me on the stairs and the Doctor ahead. It was a blood-curdling noise, and one I'd heard before.

It was scuttling. The sound of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pointy insects' feet moving across the floor. It was coming from below us, at the bottom of the stairs. It was as if some giant was tapping his fingernails against a wooden table, all at different times. The Doctor's headlamp illuminated what lay below the staircase. Up ahead was a shape. An incomprehensible, shapeless shifting mass in the darkness. I squinted, trying to see through the gloom, to get a good look at the Whispering in it's natural form. But as soon as my eyes nearly adjusted to the dark, and allowed me to nearly see the creature below, I was hit by a thundering, crushing headache. I squealed in agony and clutched my head tight, screwing my eyes shut.

"No!" The Doctor said. "Don't look at it! It'll burn out ya mind. Yer brain can't understand it!"

"Kill it!" I screamed at him. "Throw the Dimension Trap!"

He was about to. But then the lights came on.

"Shut yer eyes!" The Doctor screamed, and me and Rose tightly clamped out eyes shut. Before I did, however, I got a proper glimpse of my surroundings for the first time. We were very near the bottom of the staircase, nearer than I'd thought we were. We were in some sort of underground storage room. Or rather, that's what it had been. The lights revealed shelves, pipes and concrete, all the stuff you'd expect to find in a underground storeroom (presumably it was once, I reasoned, a secret location for valuable Government documents and items). Only now, half the walls were smothered in vomit-and-wood paste, while the floor of the room was a wet soggy river of nest. I again nearly saw the Whispering; the architect of this horror, the creature which darn near killed me a long time ago, the monster which ripped people to shreds. And again, as I nearly saw it, my head exploded in pain.

"Stay 'ere," the Doctor told me and Rose sternly, and I guessed that he, unlike us, had a brain powerful enough to tolerate the image of something so utterly alien, so utterly unknown, so utterly different from anything and everything in our dimension. I heard his footsteps descend the final few steps, followed by a squelch as his feet hit the floor of the sodden chamber. He was standing in the creatures vomit.

"'Allo." The Doctor said solemnly. "Am I addressing the Whisperin'? I think I am."

"Time Lord," came a familiar, harsh voice. "It has been too long...I always wondered when you'd find me again. I thought you would."

"Do me a favour," the Doctor replied, "me mates can't look at you, and you know it. Put your face on."

There was a cracking, splintering noise, and the Doctor tapped me lightly on the shoulder. "Open yer eyes, and come down."

I did both. I winced as I stepped down into the chamber, my own feet now squelching in the damp filth of the Whispering's nest. The chamber was small. The size, I think, of a medium sized bedroom. It's size, in my opinion, gave away just how important a location it was. There was very little room for storage, and thus I guessed that highly valuable things were stored here at one point. No more. Now it was home to a monster.

A monster which looked like a little boy. The boy was grinning at me. As I saw the brown coat and the flatcap again, I remembered all over again the way security Paul and my poor friend Steph were murdered - Paul slammed into a solid wall and shattered, Steph disintegrated into dust, and then me stabbed, my back broken, my insides ruptured and ruined...how close I came to death as a result of this... this thing, which lived down here in a pool of it's own bodily fluids.

"Lynshey!" It lisped, it's little face a picture of glee. "Long time no shee! Wot wot?" The boy giggled and performed a perfectly executed cartwheel. I noticed that none of the vomit was on the boy. His clothes and skin were utterly clean, despite the fact he was standing in it, had just rolled around in it.

"Leave her alone." Rose told it firmly. Evidently she'd seen the look on my face, seen how pale I'd gone. The smell, I noticed, was more tolerable now. No - simply we'd gotten used to it. As that thought popped into my head, I again felt ill.

The Whispering noticed. "Let me help." It said, grinning maliciously. It lifted an arm, and for one heart-stopping moment, I was sure that it was going to disintegrate me like it had disintegrated Steph. But it didn't. Instead, my left arm, quite independent of me, lifted. I watched in horror as my hand unfurled and shot to my face. My finger and thumb pinched my nose tight shut. Though I could still breathe from my mouth, I began to panic. What if it made me cover that too?

"I said leave her!" Rose screamed, splashing in between me and the creature.

"No." It said simply, shaking it's head so vigorously that it's eyes rolled in it's sockets. In different directions, as though it was some old dolly. In a way it was; it was a puppet, a loose fitting costume. The movements were clumsy, and the way it stood (stiff, stooped and awkwardly) showed how the creature beneath simply wasn't used to the shape of a person.

"No," it repeated, turning to the Doctor, "I'll take her! I'll take her for my own! My ally, my shervant, my protector. What shay you, Time Lord?"

"Don't you dare," the Doctor hissed, reaching to his pocket. "I mean it! You harm her in any way, I'll put you back in here, where you belong. And this time I'll finish ya off. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. An' I got enough shame in me to last a lifetime. I ain't gonna let something like you add to it. You understand me?"

The Whispering threw back it's head and squealed with laughter. "Or jusht leave. Leave now, with your friend shafe. Which will it be?"

The Doctor removed his hand from the pocket. "Okay," he lied, showing the Whispering his empty hands, "release her nose, and we'll talk." I knew him well enough to know he was pretending to co-operate - he had a plan. I was sure of it...

I felt my hand fly from my nose. I took a deep breath in relief - and proceeded straight away to have another fit of dry heaving, as I sucked in a huge lungful of the disgusting air.

But we'd been tricked.

At once, the lights went out again with a pop. Me, the Doctor and Rose cried out in alarm as the light diminished, only the narrow cones of our headlamps remaining.

The Whispering spoke again, but not in the lisping child's voice - in a harsh, cold growl. "Farewell...scum."

It meant to kill us, of course. I heard the cracking, splintering noise again, followed by the pitter-patter of multiple feet scuttling around. But suddenly there was a hiss and an otherworldly scream. I smelled smoke - acrid, vomit-filled smoke. I realized with a cry of triumph that the Doctor had waited until this very moment and thrown something at the nest - some sort of chemical which was stripping it down, reacting with it and melting it. I felt the goo beneath my feet soften to total liquid. Unfortunately, that which was stuck to the ceiling also came down, splattering us all with liquid nest.

I then heard a scuffle. I looked around, and in my torchlight I could see the Doctor, Dimension Trap in hand, wrestling with...something, trying to hurl the little metal ball at it, to finish this second encounter and hopefully this time rid the universe of this murderous entity forever...

Except now a hand (no, a pincer) shot out from the darkness, knocking me to the floor and scrabbling to pick me up. I screamed so loud that my eardrums ached in protest - it was like a giant crabs pincer, the size of a Labrador, trying to seize me. But then Rose helped me away from it. I pulled away gratefully, my heart racing, my stomach churning with the combined terror and vileness of the place.

And then it got Rose.

She screamed as the claw turned it's attention from me and grabbed her around the mid-section. I cried out in horror as it pulled her backwards, towards the creature itself. I grappled for her hand, momentarily grabbing her before she was pulled away. But the Whispering was by far too strong.

"Doctor!" I cried, "It's got her! It's got Rose!"

"Doctor!" Rose screamed, sobbing in pain as the claw dug into her flesh. The Doctor, quick as lightning, withdrew the sonic spear from his pocket (Tardis pocket) and turned the lights back on. The organic parts of the room, the walls of the nest, were melting away quickly, destroyed by whatever substance the Doctor had used on them (which I saw now to be a simply insecticide). In the middle of the room was an electric blue portal, through which the claw extended. The rest of the Whispering had gone through already. Rose was still held firmly by it, but she wasn't screaming any more. Nor did she look scared.

I glanced at the Doctor who had gone pale. He was shaking with rage. "You let her go," he said desparatley, pointing the sonic spear uselessly at it, "let her go, an' I'll never follow ya. You let her be! You hear me?"

But Rose replied in a voice that wasn't her own. "I am the ally. I am the servant. I am the protector." She smiled a ghastly smile, her eyes glossy and far away.

"No!" Me and the Doctor yelled - too late - Rose was pulled through, and the portal closed with an electrical fizzing...

They were gone.

Back in the Mayor's office the next day, the Doctor and Clifford were shouting at one another.

The journey back from the underground chamber passed in a daze of panic, anger and shock at just having lost Rose in such a sudden and indeed avoidable manner. The Doctor spoke not at all, and drove the train back at a frightening speed.

"I need men," the Doctor bellowed, towering over the Mayor, "I've saved ya bloody cess-pit town, you can darn well 'elp me out!"

"I think not," Clifford retorted, his own voice not a bit as intimidating, "I saved you once, you saved me once. I owe you nothing, though I'm forever grateful! We're even, man! I'm not risking any of my people on this!"

The Doctor was so angry that he was hyperventilating. For my own part, I was completely shocked. I'd never seen him like this, and I'd never seen him request anybody's help. Certainly not that of the armed forces, which he was doing now; trying to persuade the Mayor to spare him a group of elite soldiers, to chase down the monster and locate Rose.

But Mayor Clifford wouldn't have it. "I'm sorry," he said, quieter now, "I am, Doctor. I'm sorry. But too many of people have died because of this creature. Don't you understand that? I'm not having it anymore. Not one more death, not one more citizen. Not for this monster."

I gently took the Doctor's arm. "C'mon, Doctor," I said gently, "come on. He ain't a bad man and you know it. He's looking out for his people."

"At the cost of her life," the Doctor snapped, shaking me off and walking swiftly from the room, not a word of goodbye to Nervous Cliff. I glanced at the Mayor once more, and half-smiled. "Sorry."

The Mayor shrugged. "You understand, don't you?"

"And so does he. Deep down. Once he's calmed down, he'll see it from your point of view."

"I hope so," Clifford nodded. He frowned. "What are you gonna do? You two?"

"Well," I said slowly, "I'm guessing he's gone back t' the Tardis. And then I guess we...well, we..."

I lapsed into silence. "Your going after it, aren't you?" The Mayor said.

I nodded. "We have to. We have to save Rose. Whatever it takes."

And, shaking his hand, I took my leave also. To my surprise, the Doctor had waited for me outside in the garden. He was standing by one of the exotic plants.

"You ready for this?" He barked as I approached.

I nodded. "Always. Let's do it."

The Doctor nodded grimly. "Let's go. We'll be able to track where it went in the Tardis. We find it. We get her back."

I nodded again. In other words...the chase was on.

The Doctor's Diary, Entry 1963 Part 4

That'll stay with me for a long time, what we found down there. Disgusting. Hideous. Out of this world.

But essentially, it's some form of insect-like thing with shape-shifting abilities. I think. I could look at it without my brain imploding, but I still couldn't really make out what it was meant to be. Not until it disguised itself as a little boy.

But would bug spray work on it? I thought it was worth a try, and it worked wonders on the nest, if not the creature itself. With it distracted by the destruction of it's nest, I tried to use the Dimension Trap. But it didn't work that way, of course. When does it? With it's nest wrecked, it quite simply teleported away. That's the kind of creature it is. It had no personal vendetta against Ravrock, no personal reason at all to stay there and kill it's citizens...it's only interest is food, and the "sport" of hunting. But it doesn't care who it kills or where it kills. Just wherever there's meat. Any meat, anywhere.

But we've gotta finish what we started. It doesn't belong in this universe, and it could do untold damage if I just let it go. I can't do that. So we're going after it. I don't know where that will take us. In times gone by, removing inter-dimensional predators would have been the job of the Time Lords. Only they're all but dead, and I'm the last Time Lord. So it's my job.

Wish us luck.