Fear Her, Part Three
"Doctor!" Clara screamed, even though she heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. The Doctor ran in, flew past her, and slammed the doors shut as the picture yelled in a loud, booming voice, "I'm coming to hurt you!"
"Look at it," Clara said, pointing at the now closed closet doors. The Doctor shook his head.
"Not a good idea." He made his way to the wall, looking at all of Chloe's other pictures.
"What the hell was that?" Trish demanded breathlessly. Clara bit her lip, heart pounding.
"A drawing," she told the three of them. "The face of a man."
"What face?" Trish reached for the closet door, but Clara grabbed her arm, holding tight.
"Best not." She said seriously. Trish ripped her arm from Clara's grasp. She turned to look at her daughter.
"What've you been drawing?" Chloe, not expression on her face, looked up at her mother.
"I'm drew him yesterday." Trish raised her eyebrows.
"Who?"
"Dad." Trish's face paled.
"Your dad? But he's long gone. Chloe, with all the lovely things in the world, why him?" Trish bent down to Chloe's level. Chloe shrugged.
"I dream about him, staring at me." Trish put her hand on Chloe's cheek lovingly, but hesitated while doing so. Clara could clearly see how scared Trish was of her child.
"I thought we were putting him behind us." She paused before adding gently, "What's the matter with you?"
"We need to stay together." Trish nodded, smiling.
"Yes, we do." She made to hug Chloe, but Chloe stepped back, shaking her head.
"No. Not you, us. We need to stay together, and then it'll be all right."
"Trish, the drawings." Clara said suddenly, half pointing to Chloe's wall of drawings. "Have you seen what Chloe's drawings can do?" Trish whipped around, glaring at Clara.
"Who gave you permission to come into her room?" She demanded. "Get out of my house." Clara took an involuntary step back, a little frightened at the ferocity in Trish's voice.
"Tell us about the drawings, Chloe." The Doctor said, holding Clara's hand. Chloe didn't say anything.
"I don't want to hear any more of this." Trish said, waving her hands dismissively. Clara shook her head.
"But that drawing of her dad. I heard a voice. He spoke." Clara insisted. Trish was clearly getting angry.
"He's dead. And these, they're kid's pictures." She pointed to the door. "Now get out!"
"Chloe has a power. And I don't know how, but she used it to take Danny Edwards, Dale Hicks. She's using it to snatch the kids." Clara said, desperate for not only Trish to understand, but the Doctor as well. Trish kept pointing to the door.
"Get out!" She repeated. Clara placed her hands on her waist.
"Have you seen those drawings move?" She asked. Trish looked uncomfortable and nervous when she asked.
"I haven't seen anything." She answered quickly. The Doctor slipped his free hand into his pocket, leaning his head back. His face was completely serious.
"Yes, you have, out of the corner of your eye." Trish shook her head furiously, denying it. "And you dismissed it, because what choice do you have when you see something you can't possibly explain? You dismiss it, right? And if anyone mentions it, you get angry, so it's never spoken of, ever again." Trish looked defeated, desperate.
"She's a child." She said weakly.
"You're terrified of her. But there's nowhere to turn to, because who's going to believe the things you see out of the corner of your eye? No one. Except me." Tears sprung into Trish's eyes.
"Who are you?"
"We're help." Clara answered firmly.
Lalala
In the kitchen, Clara sat at the table while the Doctor milled around. Both were wrapped up in their own thoughts. Something was eating at Clara. She cleared her throat to get the Doctor's attention.
"Those pictures," she began when she knew he was listening to her. "They're alive. She's drawing people and they end up in her pictures." Wordlessly, she asked for an explanation.
"Ionic energy. Chloe's harnessing it to steal those kids and place them in some kind of holding pen made up of ionic power." He replied. Clara was quiet, processing everything he said.
"And what about the dad from hell in her wardrobe?" She asked. Trish, entering the kitchen, made an exasperated sound.
"How many times do I have to tell you, he's dead." She insisted. Clara raised her eyebrows, sitting back in the chair.
"Well, he's got a very loud voice for a dead bloke." She muttered, picking at her fingernails.
"If living things can become drawings, then maybe drawings can become living things." The Doctor suggested. "Chloe's real dad is dead, but not the one who visits her in her nightmares. That dad seems very real. That's the dad she's drawn and he's a heartbeat away from crashing into this world."
Trish bit her lip, looking very troubled.
"She always got the worst of it when he was alive," she admitted, voice breaking as she spoke. Clara stood, placing a comforting hand on Trish's shoulder.
"Doctor, how can a twelve year old girl be doing any of this?" Clara asked, rubbing Trish's back. The Doctor placed the jar had had been toying with down on the counter.
"Let's find out." The Doctor suggested. He lead the way as they walked back up to Chloe's bedrooom. Trish walked ahead of them, knocking softly on the door before opening it for them to enter. Chloe did the Vulcan salute when she saw the Doctor. He smiled.
"Nice one." He walked over to her and placed three fingers on her temple. Chloe's eyes rolled into the back of her head. Gently, the Doctor laid her back. "There we go."
"I can't let him do this," Trish protested, obviously distressed. Clara put her hand on Trish's arm, comforting while also holding her in place.
"Sh, it's okay." She said softly. "Trust him."
"Now we can talk." The Doctor announced.
"I want Chloe," Chloe, still knocked out, moaned. "Wake her up. I want Chloe."
"Who are you?" The Doctor asked,
"I want Chloe Webber." Chloe repeated. Trish stepped forward, towing Clara with her.
"What've you done to my little girl?" She demanded. Clara looked from Chloe to the Doctor.
"Doctor, what is it?" She asked. The Doctor ignored her.
"I'm speaking to you, the entity that is using this human child. I request parley in compliance with the Shadow Proclamation." He said. Chloe- or rather, the thing using Chloe's body- shook her head.
"I don't care about shadows or parleys." She replied defiantly.
"So what do you care about?" The Doctor asked. The thing inside Chloe whimpered.
"I want my friends."
"You're lonely, I know." The Doctor told her kindly. "Identify yourself." The thing inside Chloe paused a moment before speaking.
"I am one of many. I travel with my brothers and sisters. We take an endless journey. A thousand of your lifetimes. But now I am alone. I hate it. It's not fair, and I hate it." The Doctor was getting impatient.
"Name yourself!" He repeated fiercely.
"Isolus." The Doctor's eyes widened.
"You're Isolus." He stated. "Of course."
"Our journey began in the Deep Realms when we were a family." The Isolus told them, drawing rapidly as she spoke.
"What's that?" Trish asked.
"The Isolus Mother, drifting in deep space. See, she jettisons millions of fledgling spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotions, but when they're cast off from their mother, their empathic link, their need for each other, is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone." The Doctor explained.
"Our journey is long," the Isolus agreed.
"The Isolus children travel, each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up."
"Thousands of years just floating through space," Clara said sadly. "Poor things. Don't they go mad with boredom?" The Isolus smiled with Chloe's face.
"We play." She told Clara.
"You play?" Clara repeated. The Isolus smiled.
"While they travel, they play games. They use their ionic power to literally create make believe worlds in which to play."
"In flight entertainment." Clara murmured.
"Helps keep them happy. While they're happy, they can feed off each others love. Without it, they're lost." He had been speaking to Trish and Clara. Now, he turned back to Chloe's body. "Why did you come to Earth?" The Isolus scrunched up Chloe's face, looking pained.
"We were too close." She muttered. The Doctor looked down at the picture the Isolus was drawing, and understood.
"That's a solar flare from your sun." He said, pointing to the picture. "Would have made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods."
"Only I fell to Earth. My brothers and sisters are left up there, and I cannot reach them." The Isolus muttered. "So alone."
"Your pod crashed," the Doctor stated. "Where is it?"
"My pod was drawn to heat, and I was drawn to Chloe Webber." The Isolus explained. "She was like me, alone. She needed me, and I her." The Doctor's face softened.
"You empathized with her." He said. "You wanted to be with her because she was alone like you." The Isolus whimpered.
"I want my family. It's not fair." The Doctor sat at the edge of Chloe's bed, petting her head affectionately.
"I understand," he murmured. "You want to make a family. But you can't stay in this child. It's wrong. You can't steal any more friends for yourself."
"I am alone." The Isolus repeated. There was a crash from the closet, and everyone's head snapped to look at it. The closet glowed red and the door shook wildly. Clara looked down at Chloe and saw that she was shaking as well.
"I'm coming to hurt you.," Chloe's dad's voice shook the whole house. "I'm coming."
"Trish, how do you calm her?" The Doctor asked quickly.
"What?" Trish asked, confused.
"When she has nightmares, what do you do?" The Doctor prompted.
"I sing to her." Trish answered, looking back at the closet. Chloe's dad kept repeating, "I'm coming." Fear painted Trish's face.
"Then start singing." The Doctor commanded. Clara didn't think Trish was going to be able to do it.
"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree." Clara started singing, sitting on the bed as well. She pet Chloe's hair the same way she used to pet Angie's hair when she had nightmares. The same way Clara's mum used to pet her hair when she had nightmares. "Merry, merry king of the bush is he."
"Chloe. Chloe. Chloe. Chloe." Chloe's dad was trying to drown out Clara's sining, so she sang louder. Trish weakly joined in.
"Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be." After a minute or so, Chloe stopped shaking and the closet fell silent. Trish, teary eyed, kissed her daughter on the forehead.
"It came to her because she was lonely." Her voice made it evident that she was about to cry. "Chloe, I'm sorry."
After a moment, they began collecting all of Chloe's colored pencils. It was the only way they could keep her from drawing.
"Chloe usually got the brunt of his temper when he'd had a drink." Trish told them as they worked. "The day he crashed the car, I thought we were free. I thought it was over."
"Did you talk to her about it?" Clara asked kindly. Trish shook her head.
"I didn't want to."
"But maybe that's why Chloe feels so alone. Because she has all these terrible dreams about her dad, but she can't talk to you about them." Clara said. The Doctor nodded.
"Her and the Isolus. Two lonely kids who need each other." Clara bit her lip, eyebrows furrowed.
"And it won't stop, will it, Doctor? It'll just keep pulling kids in."
"It's desperate to be loved. It's used to a pretty big family." The Doctor said. Clara hesitated to ask, but felt that she needed to know.
"How big?" The Doctor looked grim.
"Say around four billion?"
Lalala
"We need that pod." The Doctor stated as he and Clara went outside onto the road. Clara shook her head, looking up at him.
"It crashed. Won't it be destroyed?"
"Well, it's been sucking in all the heat it can. Hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch. It must be close. It should have a weak energy signature that the TARDIS can trace. Once we find it, then we can stop the Isolus." He walked off, searching for the pod. Clara looked up and saw Chloe watching them from her window.
They were in the TARDIS after a minute and the Doctor hurried to use it to find the pod. It wasn't long before something appeared on the screen.
"It's in the street!" The Doctor exclaimed. He grabbed Clara's hand and dragged her outside. They were running down the street, looking for the pod.
"It's about two inches across. Dull grey, like a gull's egg. Very light." The Doctor described as they looked. Clara nodded, squinting as she looked.
"These pods need heat, though, to travel." She said. "It's not about the Isolus's loneliness, or love, or anything." She was going somewhere with that, but was cut off when she heard something fall to the ground. She turned and saw that the gizmo the Doctor had been using to look for the pod on the cement. The Doctor was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the TARDIS.
"Doctor!" Clara cried. She knew, deep down, where he was.
Chloe had taken him.
A/N: This one's a long one! Both the chapter and the episode. One more chapter and the episode'll be done. I hope you like it and I hope you review and let me know what you think!
Until next time!