Disclaimer: As per previous chapters.


Bristol. She travels through different universes, learning about each and every one of them, having adventures and trying to understand. And she winds up in Bristol. And not even a planet called Bristol. A city called Bristol. It's not even an alien city.

Totterdown, Bristol, England. Earth.

It's so utterly depressing, that she ends up buying a pack of chocolate smothered with caramel, and sitting on the brick wall leading into a suburban area.

Winsor Terrance seems like a normal place, filled with cars parked awkwardly on the side on the road, children running and chasing after each other and lined with block coloured houses.

It seems so depressing, with the grey sky and ugly houses, and the litter covered streets, and the fact that no matter how many times she tries to tap her ruby slippers together she doesn't go home.

The house on the corner, which she is directly facing, is pink. Some people may have called it orange, but in the end, it is pink. The window stills need a new coat of paint, and the house is far too boxy and flat to be considered pretty. It resembles a shop, more than a home, but she knows there are people inside. The curtains in the window give that away.

She travels to exotic and fun places and she ends up in Bristol?

She suspects her mother would be laughing her head off right now.

The chocolates are almost gone, when she notices them: two men, one reminds her of the science geeks that hung around the computer labs at lunch time, with their short hair and geeky glasses; the other is taller, thinner, the stereotypical tall, dark and handsome jock.

A woman flits behind them, with light brown skin and curly brown hair, dressed in what she suspects is the type of thing you wear in the morning after waking.

They walk right in front of her, discussing something loudly, involving forests and full moons. They're so deeply concentrated on the conversation; they seem to not notice her at first.

She frowns at them. Their scents are off. She's picked up, after a lot of travelling, the subtitle differences of human odours. Humans smell of dirt, mint, anti-septic, and different chemicals, as well as the arrange of perfumes and body sprays that they douse themselves in. One of these men smells like darkness, death and of the musty smell of ancient books, as well as a strong hint of blood- which isn't normal even if he worked in a hospital. The other has a wet dog smell going on, which she's smelt before, but still makes her scrunch her nose up as it assaults her senses.

The woman, on the other hand, is different.

At first, there is no smell, none at all. She can smell the street, but there's like a vacuum around her, where nothing seems to exist. Neither smell nor sound.

The woman seems to have made a joke, because tall, dark and handsome smiles and gives a small snort that she has to strain to hear. If she can hear the woman speak, how is it that the other sounds are missing?

No footsteps, no rustling of fabric, no sounds as air rushes into and out of her lungs, no sounds of living.

It's downright creepy.

Tall, dark and handsome looks over his shoulder, just before he enters the pink-not-orange house, and stares at her. He whispers something to the woman, in a low voice that she instinctively knows is about her. The geeky-wet dog smelling one, looks panicked for a moment, and begins to whine loudly about serial killers and 'leaving the neighbours alone.'

The woman looks up, and waves.

She waves back.

The woman smiles the brightest smile she's ever seen, joy radiates from her eyes, and she seems overjoyed. The woman seems torn for a moment, before the two men usher her into the house.

Five minutes later, the woman's face is clearly visible in the window, followed by 'T, D and H' and the geek one- who seems rather grumpy.

She wonders if he was forced, against his will to watch her too. Or if he's just weak against Peer Pressure.

They are an interesting bunch. Normally, she would never have pegged them as friends; all are just too different to have had any good contact with another, but here they are, living together in a house.

Curious.

She watches them, rock, paper, scissors each other. She can't quite see their gestures, but she supposes that geek-boy lost, because his face turned exceedingly glum, and frightened.

Was she really that scary?

They play again, 'best out of three.' She supposes, and sighs at their frenzied action, as they play again, and again.

She thinks that perhaps she should go up and introduce herself- because they aren't human, and the woman is just so crazily absent from anything. How can she be nullifying the sound?

It would be a very cool, party trick if she ever learnt how, even if it would creep her out.

Oh, they were fighting. She eyed the window with a marked interest. They fought like siblings, or long time friends, amusing (and confusing) to anyone watching from outside.

Judging from their mouth movements, and drawing from her pitifully small amount of lip reading, they're either saying 'go out and smell for yourself' or discussing what to have for dinner. While eyeing her.

It suddenly strikes her that they're loudly arguing over who's going to talk to her. Their lips become easier to read after time.

Does she really smell that strange?

At least he hadn't said she smelt bad.

Sighing loudly, she walked with a spring in her steps towards the front door. The people disappeared from the window, probably to open it for her.

'Or to call the cops.' A voice in her head taunts. Scowling she realized that standing and watching someone's house is really not the best way to make friends.

How had the Doctor managed it?

She knocks on the door loudly, then waits. A hushed, whispering argument starts up on the otherside. One is calling the other a coward, and the other is whining. A woman's voice interrupts their argument, and mentions something about how she can't open the door. Suddenly the soundless wonder can be heard? She frowns as she realizes the implications of being heard when you felt like it.

Eventually the geeky one opens the door, looking at her strangely.

"Hello. Why were you spying on us?"

"George!" The woman elbows him with a strange look. Strangely, the man-George shivers rather than winces- and indigently squealed, "Annie!"

"Do you want me to come back later, or something?" She queries, only half-sarcastic. The look that the two people send her seem to say 'not-a-chance-in-hell.', and the other man looked amused.

"Who are you, then?"

"I'm Rose Tyler." She announced, holding out her hand politely, "I feel drawn to this place. I figure there's something I have to do here, then I'll be off."

"You just expect us to invite you in so you can do some 'voodoo' or something?" George's voice rose, until it was almost a squeak. How anyone could get their voice that high was hard to believe.

"Sorry. I forgot my crystal ball." She sniffed, then scrunched up her nose in distaste, "So, Annie why don't you have a scent?"

"What?" The three chorused, before looking at each other nervously.

"You have no scent. None at all. It's like you don't exist" She observed, "And it's horrible, you're like a huge gaping hole in my senses. I can see you. I can hear you. But I can't smell you. You're an impossible thing Annie."

"Look, if you've come here just to terrorize my roommate and friend, then I think you better leave, eh?" Tall, dark and handsome interrupted.

"I apologize. She's practically grating against my sense- I'm wondering about the lot of you, actually. You for instance, smell of death, decay and blood. I reckon you're a vampire. But you smell different from any vampire I've ever met. So what is it? Do you drink Soda every Monday or do you use fabric softener, coz you're different."

"Okay. I'm going to call the cops because it's obvious you're drugged, drunk or insane!" George garbled, in his 'squeaky' voice.

"George, Honestly. I'm not going to hurt you," She rolled her eyes in exasperation; "I just want to have a little talk about vampires."

"Keep it down! Do you want the entire street to hear?" The man's voice went higher and higher, whining and shrieking at the same time.

"George calm down."

"No Mitchell! I will not calm down!" George was hysterical, "Not when she's about to ruin our lives!"

"Oh for god's sake," She muttered, pushing past them into the house, ignoring the yelp and exclamations that followed. Shrugging she flopped down onto the couch in the living room and smiled at them pleasantly.

"Now, Can I do what I need to do, or are you gonna call the cops?" She flippantly asked, "Because as soon as they get here, I'll play the inconsolable girlfriend, who just got broken up with. Or I'll convince them that you're the ones who broke inside. I'm a poor and defenceless girl after all."

"She's good." Mitchell acknowledged, "So what do you want?"

"Tea, two sugars."

Annie swept into the kitchen, as George spluttered, smiling in amusement at the man, she crossed her legs and inspected the room with interest.

"Why are you here!"

"Oh," She smiled cheekily at George, "I felt something here, a calling, and something needs to be done here. Because I was trying to get to Universe 76a (small 4) J86 ( small 9) 42(capital 3), and something pulled me off balance."

"Something needs to be done? Well you can redecorate if you feel like it." George piped up, strangely calm.

She stared at him and snorted loudly, "You think I'm insane, you're three fries short of a happy meal yourself, buddy."

"You do not come into someone's house and insult them- I'm calling the police!"

"George. Do you honestly think they could throw her out?"

"I don't know! But I'll give it my best shot!" George turned, then stopped as he noticed the tightly smiling woman holding the phone, George stopped, as if he realized she wasn't going to give it up.

"Annie! Do you not understand the seriousness of this? She could be a serial killer waiting to kill us! And we've let her inside! They're going to find our bodies skinned and nailed to the ceiling!"

"Oh, that'd be fine, you could join me." Annie offered, with a smile.

"Annie!"

"You sound like a pre-pubescent teenager." She sighed, "Could you stop shrieking? I keep thinking it's the fire alarm."

"No! You shut up! No! Get out of my apartment!"

Sighing she looked back over at Mitchell with a savage grin, "You know I actually think he thinks I'm going to kill him."

She rolled her eyes and smirked, "Honestly, if he believes that a small little blonde girl can murder, skin and nail a vampire and a werewolf to the ceiling, then there's really not that much hope for him."

Silence filled the room; George was openly gaping, while Mitchell stared at her curiously. Suddenly Annie started laughing, choking out a garbled 'sorry' after a few seconds.

"Werewolves? Vampires...They're all Mythical...don't exist. I think you've been reading a few too many Harry Potter books."

"Look," she interrupted, sitting up straighter, "Just tell me why I'm getting a massive bloody headache, and I'll be off. Annie."

The woman fidgeted, "I'm a ghost."

She blinked, "Not the Cyberman kind, I hope."

"What-"

"Nothing. So you're a ghost?" She asked curiously, "As in Casper the friendly?"

"Yeah."

"You died." It wasn't a question.

"What did you see?"

"I can't tell you." Annie replied, "It's only something the dead should see, if I told you- You'd have nightmares. You'd never turn off the light again."

"I know." She looked up the woman, "A friend of mine- he can never die. Never. He'll stay immortal forever. An Immortal Human, imagine that."

"That's impossible!"

"No," She shook her head, "It's my fault- but don't delude yourselves. I said he was immortal, not that he was to stay youthful. He ages, but he can never die. And he's died so many times, but he comes back."

"How?" Mitchell spoke, in a voice with a hollow undertone.

"Because the Bad Wolf demands it. And I know what he's seen. The silence. The emptiness. The darkness. And there's something stirring. Something moving in the darkness, and its coming. But you cannot hide."

"What are you?" Mitchell spoke again, his dark eyes narrowing on her dangerously, "You're not a ghost. Not a werewolf. Or a vampire."

"Can you see anything?" She continued, "Or has the darkness completely covered you, because maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't be afraid of the dark, because, just maybe the darkness conceals the good. Maybe, just maybe, the thing stirring out there is someone just like you."

Annie looked thoughtful, before she nodded, and stepped backwards.

"You're her. The Bad Wolf, she usually comes in the forms of doors." Annie observed.

"The Thing about doors is that they can be locked." She smiled, "And then they can be passed, until you get to another, and then that can be passed as well."

"Doors?" Annie asked in confusion, "You mean like a hallway?"

"Or like a hallway, leading to a cellar, or to the stairs. Maybe you'll choose to climb those stairs when you come to it. But which way will you go? Up the hallway to the stairs? Or down, to the cellar?"

"This is sounding like an episode of Ghost Whisperer."

"Then I must be going." She rose stiffly, and nodded at them with a smile. Seconds later she was out the door, George and Mitchell on her trail.

"She won't be there."

"How do you know that?" They stared out into the empty street, void of any life.

"Because she left a key behind."

Dangling from Annie's palm was antique silver key, inscribed with two words.

Bad Wolf.


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