Here we get into the thick of the story. Any ideas yet? Also I moved the rating up from a K+ to a T because of some violence in this chapter. There is also an adorable little part put in there for the Rose/Doctor shippers (which let's be honest, I totally am to and if I wasn't writing canon there would be a lot more fun...). Also ignore mistakes (or review and tell me to fix them). I still have no beta, mostly because I have no idea how to get one. I hope years of university have taught me to proof read well enough and if not...well then it was a waste of time. Whoops.
And as always, please review, I've put a lot of work into this and everyone likes to be appreciated every once and a while :)
Chapter Six:
Sean ó Ceallacháin was in a panicked state, Rose observed, as he paced to and fro across Aodhán's son's small house. He was wringing his hands together nervously, tears still staining his handsome face. If Rose thought he looked scruffy before, right now he looked broken and downright dishevelled. His clothes were dirty and out of place, Rose suspected that there were traces of blood on his dark pants, though it could have also been mud. His hair was a mess from running and his eyes were bloodshot.
"I don' understand," he was muttering to himself, his eyes wide and unblinking. He still paced.
Aodhán and his son and daughter-in-law were sitting at a simple oaken table. They had ushered Sean into the house quickly sending Aodhán's granddaughter to the church to pray. Aodhán pressed him to explain what he saw, but Sean's mind seemed to have snapped. He kept repeating the same words over and over again. The Doctor was leaning against the fireplace, following Sean with his eyes as he walked along the length of the house and back.
"Tell me what 'appened, lad," Aodhán asked, his voice more stern than Rose had heard it. Sean stopped and turned to look at him with large, red eyes. Tears welled up again.
"So much blood," he whispered so quietly that Rose strained to hear him. "She was lyin' there, her eyes starin' a' the sky an' her body all cut up." His voice wavered and he gulped. "I was goin' to meet her. Tell her I loved her. Ask her to marry me." The tears spilled, falling across his red cheeks and into his stubble. He seemed to be at a loss for words.
"Take me to her," the Doctor said. Sean turned towards him and Aodhán's eyes jumped to the Doctor.
"Aye, I think tha' may be best. Get the Doctor here to examine her," Aodhán announced, getting up slowly from the table. His hard eyes turned to Sean. "Yer goin' to be leadin' the way. Show us where yer found her."
"I...I can' do it. I can' see her again...like that," the young man collapsed into the nearest chair, and let his sadness overtake him. Sobs wracked his body as he mumbled incoherently about his long lost love. Rose caught a few words about swimming in the river, catching fish and kissing her under the stars, but most of the story was lost in his cries.
Aodhán's expression softened and he placed a hand onto Sean's back, soothing him with his touch. "We can' just leave her body out to be mutilated by wolves. Have to bury her decent, give her a good funeral. Ye know that. Are ye' kids safe?"
Sean nodded to both questions, his resolve hardening. "I took the wee babes o're to the widow's home to take care of 'em while I was off to see Treasa." He clenched his fists, trying to hold back his sorrow while her name left his lips like a prayer.
"Well than ye can take us to the woods."
Sean looked at the old priest fearfully.
"We hav' to get her father first," Aodhán said gently. He'll need to know what's happenin',"
Sean's eyes again gave away his terror. Rose couldn't blame him for not wanting to confront the giant blacksmith. She could remember that just that morning she overheard him telling another man about Treasa's various proposals and prospects. She didn't envy who ever the man would take his sorrow out on.
"Miss Tyler and I will go ahead, try and examine her before her father sees her," the Doctor announced, pushing himself away from the fireplace. He seemingly made up his mind about something.
"No father would want to see his daughter in such a state," Rose agreed with the Doctor. She gently took Sean by the arm. "You'll have to come show us were she is." She lowered her tone so as not to spook the poor man.
"She's o're in the forest, behind the river. I'll take ye there," he whispered so quietly that even Rose had to lean in to catch what he was saying.
"Aye, and I will go find Cian ó Dubhuir an' his wife and tell them the news." The old man sighed familiarly. From his tone Rose gathered that it wasn't the first time that he had the misfortune to tell family members of the death of loved ones. He walked out the door, nodding stiffly to his son and daughter in law.
Rose, Sean and the Doctor exited the house and set off in the opposite direction that they had gone the night before, away from the pasture and towards the river with the forest looming on the other side. Sean was hunched over, but he held back his tears, seemingly determined to bring Treasa to rest. Rose kept her arm nestled in the crook of his elbow, grounding him to the situation while simultaneously comforting the young man. The Doctor's expression remained neutral, but Rose could see the cogs turning in his head as he searched for a connection between the murder and the disappearances.
At the river, they hopped over a makeshift stone bridge, obviously made by the children of the village to play and walked over to the edge of the forest. At the tree line, Rose could feel Sean's hesitation to enter.
"It's okay," she reassured. "You can do this."
"It's just...this is where we used to meet. Whenever our parents were out in the field or talkin' after church, we'd run here an' talk for as long as we could. We kissed sometimes. She was just so beautiful, an' I couldn't help it. It was our secret place, just the two of us," he trailed off.
Rose gently patted his arm and pulled him, ever so slightly, one step at a time into the woods. Once both feet were past the trees, he seemed to have an easier time leading them to the body. Just a few feet past the entrance, there was a small clearing in the trees. In the centre of the dirt patch laid the body of Treasa ó Dubhuir. Sean yanked loose of Rose's hand and doubled over, retching behind a bush at the sight. Out of guilt or out of disgust, Rose wasn't quite sure.
Looking at the body made Rose's stomach flip and heart clench as well, but she managed to hold herself together as her and the Doctor approached. She had seen her fair share of gruesome images, travelling with the Doctor, but this was high on the list of the worst. Sean stayed, wisely, at the edge of the clearing, fearfully clutching a tree for support.
There was no doubt it was Treasa, her green eyes and white-blonde hair that had come loose from her head covering surrendered the identity. Rose supposed it was lucky that whatever had attacked her left that much, at least. The rest of her body had not been so lucky. Her mouth was torn open, the once pink lips pulled back, revealing a grotesque smile that exposed too many teeth. Over her entire body were deep scratch marks, made by claws, that had torn into her flesh leaving ragged pieces of skin hanging loosely. Her breast had been entirely ripped open, and Rose could see into the chest cavity where the heart was mysteriously missing. Her stomach was similarly opened, though seemingly for the only purpose of spilling the organs out of her body. Blood soaked the dirt around her body, staining the ground deep brown; the remains of her white dress would have been mistaken for red. The girl's eyes were wide open, the expression of terror etched into them and on the remains of her face. Rose wanted to look away but she sheer violence that had taken place captivated her attention, holding her gaze. She held the bile back in her throat.
"Whatever did this was not human," the Doctor said slowly. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began scanning the body, concentrating on her midsection, where the brunt of the attack had been focused. The sonic beeped and the Doctor checked the results. "Same traces as that footstep we found," he muttered to Rose. She wondered what could possibly create so much violence and horror.
She was about to respond to the Doctor when the sound of heavy footsteps erupted from behind them. Cian ó Dubhuir crashed into the clearing, his giant frame was quivering with anger. Rose took a step away from him at the sight of his face. His brow was set in a scowl over his murderous eyes, his mouth clenched in a grimace. There were veins popping out of his neck and his hands were clenched in fists that were almost as large as Rose's head.
"Where is she?" His voice was low and dangerous. Rose felt a chill run down her spine. The effect was scarier than if he had been shouting at the top of his lungs.
"You don't want to see her," the Doctor said quietly, shielding the body. "Not like this."
Rose could see the anger building on his face as it darkened. "Move," he said in the same voice as before.
"No," the Doctor said standing his ground.
"I said, MOVE," Cian roared. He charged the Doctor knocking him aside and stopped dead in his tracks as he took in what laid before his eyes.
Rose thought that he might have turned on the Doctor, or her. His face was set in stone as he looked over his dead daughter's body. He rounded on Sean who had been staying back by the trees, avoiding Cian's gaze, which had resumed the lethal glare. The blacksmith stalked towards the young man in a few footsteps and grabbed him by the shoulders, lifting his feet off the ground.
"What did ye do to her!" He demanded, his face inches away from Sean's. "Did ye kill her? Did she reject yer proposal. Don' think I didn't know what ye were up to. I seen the way ye looked at her," He growled. "I've seen it for twelve years, e're since she was old enough to run off to catch the first boy who picked her flowers." Cian spat the word boy.
Aodhán walked quietly out of the bush, holding a white sheet. He walked past the two in confrontation and placed the sheet over the daughter's body, saying the last rites and making the sign of the cross before turning back to Cian and Sean. He put a hand on the blacksmith's shoulder and forced him to look into his eyes.
"No human could'a done that an' ye know it," he said simply. "Now leave the poor man be. Ye should be grievin' together, not pointin' fingers."
Just as quickly as the rage had come, it subsided into sorrow, Cian's expression turned to hopelessness. His eyes welled up and he led out a great wail. He fell to his knees, sobbing at the sky, questioning God and begging for her life. Rose reached out to him, much like she had with the younger man who had been inconsolable just minutes before. He was almost her height on his knees and so she put a hand on his shoulder and began murmuring comforting words.
"At least she isn't sufferin' anymore," she said simply to Cian who nodded blankly.
Aodhán moved over to the Doctor. "That isn't no wolf attack. I've seen a fair share o' those on the sheep and a few 'orses. I don' know what could have caused that."
"I don't either," the Doctor said.
Rose was impressed with Cian ó Dubhuir's strength. He pulled himself together quickly and managed to stand far sooner than any father who had lost a child needed to. With tears still caught in his black beard, he reached down and gingerly picked up his daughter's body. The thick wool sheet was beginning to soak through with the pooled blood that hadn't made it to the ground. He pulled the limp corpse to his chest and began to walk out of the forest, with Sean and Aodhán following closely.
Rose and the Doctor were left alone with the bloodstained forest floor as the only evidence of the grisly murder that had taken place. They looked at each other. The Doctor's eyes were tight. He walked over to Rose, closing the gap between them with a few long strides and gathered her into his arms, hugging tightly and burying his face in the comforting gap between her shoulder and neck. She wrapped his arms around his back, pulling him closer and resting her cheek against his hair.
"It's not your fault, yeah?" She told him. He released her from his grasp and took a step away, examining her from arms length. Slowly he reached a hand to her face and brushed away a tear that she hadn't noticed escape from her eyes. "I know it's not fair. It's never fair. She was young and beautiful and in love, and whatever took that away from her was cruel and unfeeling. But maybe it'll help us solve it. Maybe something will give a clue," Rose teared up again, thinking of how scared and alone Treasa must have felt. The pain must have been unbearable. Rose closed her eyes, letting a few more tears escape.
"We will figure this out," the Doctor said firmly.
"We always do," she sighed. "Sometimes I just wish everything could go easily. Like that time during the Blitz. Everybody lived, just that once, everybody lived," she said echoing the Doctor's happiest words wishing they could be said. He quirked the side of his mouth up sadly. "At least we know it wasn't Aodhán yeah? We were with him after church, haven't left his side. And I don't think that it was Sean, his grief was too...real."
"Yes," the Doctor agreed.
"See, we're narrowing it down."
He gave a small smile before hunkering down to work. He brought his scanner out from his jacket pocket where he had deftly stored it when Cian came barging in. Waving it over the bloodstain, he reached his other hand into his pocket and pulled out his thick-rimmed glasses.
"Maybe there are traces of the blood of the thing that killed her," he muttered to himself, searching for even a speck of alien blood for the screwdriver to trace.
Rose stood over him, agreeing with his ideas and disagreeing where it suited. She tried to stay away from the place where the body had laid. There were small chunks of flesh and bone that, if she got close enough to identify what they were, Rose was sure she would retch. The Doctor continued to rattle off ideas and theories and Rose's eyes began to wander to the trees.
"Has to have some pretty big claws," he said, "that should narrow it down. And it has to have a reason to take the heart."
"Doctor..." Rose began, spotting something in the woods.
"But why haven't we found any other bodies," he wondered aloud, his eyes focused on the ground.
"Doctor." Rose said again, her voice an octave higher and more urgent.
"Maybe it doesn't like girls, that's why it's only taken men and killed Treasa. But that would mean it needs men for something that it doesn't need women," he rambled.
"DOCTOR," Rose's voice rang out in the forest, penetrating the Doctor's investigative trance.
He looked up and then slowly rose from his squatted position.
"Rose," he said quietly. "Step back." He threw a protective arm out in front of her, ushering her to get behind his body.
She did as she was told, tip-toeing behind the Doctor, wary not to make a sound, keeping her eyes fixed in front of her. Her heart stopped before fluttering at a fast pace. Because in front of her was a blue ball of light, looping and weaving lazily in midair, floating just feet away from where Treasa had been killed and where Rose and the Doctor were standing.
It moved towards them.
Dun Dun Dun...
So that was one of the goriest things I have ever written and I'm not sure if I enjoyed it. Oh well, it's going to get a lot worse from here on out. Fabulous. The beasties will be coming out of the woodwork soon, so stay tuned and follow if your interested.
OH and also...REVIEW. Like a lot. Like one for every chapter! If you do, then chocolate for everyone ~ Hayley