I never wanted it to end this way. I was happy, just him and me. We were two peas in a pod, like my friends always used to say. His weirdness was compatible with my weirdness and that gave me all the more reason to follow his footsteps in every way possible. My name is Ashlee Parson, and this is the story of how I died.
It wasn't a gloomy day. The sun was out. The flowers were in mid-bloom. It was the springtime season. But I had other plans. We had just arrived in Oklahoma City, The Doctor and I. We weren't but an hour away from where my parents and little sister lived, and they were actually in the city shopping, or at least that's what my mother had texted me.
They didn't like the idea of me spending so much time, travelling with this strange "Doctor", but I loved him and the travelling. The last I saw of them was about 3 months ago, according to the current date. It was snowing when I finished packing my things and gave my hugs and goodbyes to them, telling them that I was travelling with my friend. John, I had called him, John Smith. And they believed me. They believed the lie that I was so proud of making just to travel the world. But it wasn't just that. We travelled through the stars and through the time. We saw the future, and the past and it was the most magnificent thing I had ever experienced.
We landed back in the city next to a movie theatre in the downtown area and were surrounded by familiar sights and sounds of the modern day. It had been a while since I had last seen it. I couldn't really measure time in the Tardis, but I knew it had been a while. The Doctor followed behind me and locked the phone booth, before slipping his hand into my own.
He looked down at me and smiled, asking me where I wanted to go first.
"No alien hunting?" I skeptically replied. Aliens always seemed to follow us, no matter the time, the place, or planet. He shook his head with a small grin.
It was a nice day. It didn't seem like there would be any alien invasions, and maybe I was just being over cautious, but looking back at it, if only I had thought about it more thoroughly. If I had mentioned it again to him, he would have been forced to rethink his decision to be a little less carefree just this once. I would have been able to call the Tardis my home for just that much longer.
Instead, I went along with him, letting my guard down for the day. We actually enjoyed each other's company for a good minute. The first thing we did was go to an ice cream shoppe. I told my parents, who hadn't seen me in a good while, we were there.
I ordered a small scoop of ice cream in a bowl, and The Doctor ordered a milkshake. He had some idea of a ritual that he wanted to perform. I wasn't quite sure what that meant, until his milkshake was delivered to our table. He said he had seen it on a television while passing by. He handed me a straw and plucked his own into the tall glass. I followed, like he nodded off for me to do, and took a small sip, while he did the same. We looked into each other's eyes, his hiding behind a pair of rectangle-framed glasses. I stared into his eyes for only a moment longer, until I heard someone enter the building. It was my family. "Oh, here we go." I muttered to the Doctor after sitting up in my chair.
"Remember, you're John Smith." I whispered while he grabbed my hand across the table, ensuring me that everything was going to be okay.
The first time I saw the Doctor was the first day of high school. Class let out, and he was just leaning against his police box, or so I thought it was just a police box. Nobody paid him much mind, in fact, I'm not sure if anyone could actually see him, but he was real to me, and he seemed to watch me get onto my bus. He had this look of confusion on his face, like it was impossible that I could see him. But he was next to a police box. It was impossible to miss him.
The next time I saw him was at my junior prom. Very overrated, and much too expensive. I went with a used dress that didn't cost me an arm and a leg. I arrived just as the main dancing was taking place. But after becoming overwhelmed by exhaustion, I stepped outside for some fresh air. I saw the man again. He sat at the bottom row of steps leading up into the building that held the dance. I crept down slowly, my heels clicking with each step I took, until I made it to the bottom step. I sat next to him and looked into his tear-stained face. "What's wrong?" I asked, looking into his doe-eyes. He wasn't crying anymore, but his eyes still held a few tears, and he face was flustered. He never answered me. I just sat there with him for a while, catching my breath, gazing at the stars that littered the sky, and keeping the sacred silence that the thudding of the bass from inside interrupted every beat.
After more than 10 minutes passed us, the thumping of the bass stopped, and long and slow notes leaked out from the building. A slow song had started. He hadn't said one word yet, but when the slow song started he stood up and offered a hand to me. He helped me up off the step of the stairs and looked down at me. He was very lanky, and for the first time, I noticed he was wearing the same thing he wore so long ago when I first saw him.
"Ashlee Parson, would you have this dance with me?" He finally spoke, and I had no response. My first thought, ironically, was that he wasn't from around here. His accent hailed from Great Britain it seemed. Any other person would have run away and called the cops on this man, but there was something about him, something that nearly drew me to him, besides his accent. How did he know my name? I was curious and I looked back up at him. He grinned slightly as I gave in and wrapped my arms around his neck. In response, he put his hands on my waist and continued to look at me. We swayed back and forth to the rhythm of the music on the sidewalk.
"Who... who are you?" I asked in a whisper. He looked befuddled, but eventually his odd look he gave faltered as he continued to just look at me.
"I'm The Doctor."
"Doctor who?" My eyebrow arched and I stared again into his eyes.
"One day Ashlee. You'll know, one day." He uttered before letting me go.
The moonlight was brightly shining and the twinkling stars glistened in our wake. And once the Doctor let go, everything seemed to grow dim. I gasped while gaining my posture by taking a step back. He too took a step back, back into the shadows. "One day." He repeated himself. "But not today." I kept my eyes on him, but he disappeared like his expression of confusion. The last thing I remembered was a loud screeching noise that took a hold of the night. Its slight whistle made everyone stop what they were doing inside, even the music turned off. I saw the flashing light from a dark corner when I heard the hundreds of prom-goers rush outside to see what the noise was. Then the light vanished away, along with noise.
I never told anyone of this. It wasn't that I felt threatened by him, nor in danger, and I didn't want to be put into a psych ward. I was smarter than that, so I kept the whole thing to myself. The more time that passed, the more I thought it was a dream. And the more dreamlike it became the further the memory got away from me. A whole year had passed, and there was not another sign of this strange man who called himself the Doctor. I was becoming less and less sane, driving myself crazy over this man. I started asking myself questions, pondering if anything was real anymore, all because this man danced with me. Of course, I loved that moment. It was as if that point in time, everything was perfect. The world slowed down just for him and me. But time finally caught up to me.
It was at my high school graduation a year after junior prom once he showed up again. Senior year dragged on, and I waited and waited at my senior prom, taking a glance outside every few minutes just to see if he would show up like he did. But, he never came, and I left more disappointed than ever. The few weeks of school I had left were numbing, and The Doctor slowly faded, until he became nothing to me; just a man with a box who showed up at his leisure. He was someone who did that for fun, rip emotions apart. And I had finally driven myself crazy enough to believe that he was nothing short than imaginary. But that faithful day he showed up at the back of the gym where graduation was held, all those strange thoughts fluttered back.
He stood there like nothing had ever happened. Like he meant nothing. Like that dance meant nothing. Like I was nothing, when he clearly knew me. I tried not to pay any attention to him besides the short glances I took. He seemed to be watching me. I took no care though. He was just in the crowd at graduation. Nothing more than a hallucination my mind made up.
But after I crossed the stage with my diploma, and everyone was dismissed as the class of 2012, I looked for him. I had to. I had so many questions, and the only way to get them answered was to find him and ask him myself. There was a large crowd trying to leave the building, and I went against them to get to him. His hair was recognizable from a distance away and once I spotted him, I ran, pushing my way through everyone. A force drew me to him and I had to get to him as quickly as possible, like my life depended on it.
I was still in my draping graduation robes, rounding through the many graduates trying to get to their parents when I broke through the last of the crowd. His eyes narrowed onto mine as I approached him.
"Hello!" He said in a chipper mood, like he had never met me before.
"Doctor…" I started, which immediately gained his attention.
He interrupted me before I got another chance to say anything. "I'm sorry, do I… know you?" The thin man looked at me, cocking an eyebrow above his rectangle framed glasses. I stared bluntly at him with my dark brown eyes.
"Ha ha. Very funny. Joke's over, whoever you are. I demand an explanation right now!" I said forcefully.
The Doctor scrunched his brows together this time. "Sorry?" He replied with his dazzling English accent.
"You knew who I was before. It was last year. At my Junior prom? You… knew me. You said I'd know you one day. And then before that…I saw you… it was the first day of classes here. I was boarding my bus… Don't you remember?" I asked, more confused than before. Maybe I would get more questions than answers.
"Oh yes! I was…'round here… what… about 4 years ago. I've been tracking this… well…" He made a rather large dip of his head at this point, before bringing it back up. "thing." He left it at that.
"What kind of thing?" He had gotten me much too curious for my liking. Whoever this man was, I needed to set things straight.
"Oh… just a…thing." He shrugged, pulling out some sort of device from the inside of his jacket, the same one he was wearing years ago, and prom night.
"Wait! You're wearing the same thing you were last year and my freshman year!" I looked him up and down suspiciously, taking a step away from him. "Who are you?"