A/N: So this is a shorter chapter than normal, but it's okay! It was planned. This is the setting up to the next two big chapters were all the fun stuff goes down. Sorry it took so long, I have six (!) essays due this month and it's killing me slowly. Hope you enjoy, this was very fun to write and I have plenty of sketches if anyone is /really/ interested. As always, read, enjoy and review :) Also the next chapter is already written because I am amazing. It will be up in a few days after some serious editing.

Chapter 9

Rose hesitantly followed the light, making sure to stay what she deemed to be a safe distance away from it. She really had no other option, it was either that or remain lost in the woods. The doradalos floated lazily along, pausing and bobbing when Rose stumbled or fell.

Through the dark forest it led her, throwing light across the ground and trees, casting dark shadows and making the forest stand out in sharp relief. Far off, a wolf howled. Rose edged closer to the light, the cool blue tone was even more comforting than the unknown dark.

It led her on and on, over small streams and through tiny meadows. Once it led her over a sheer rock cliff that she had to scramble up with her hands and feet, searching for holds in the flat stone. Just when she thought she couldn't go any further, the atmosphere changed. The cool, fresh air of the spring night disappeared, replaced with a still, stagnant air that hung heavy with dampness. A heavy smell lingered, clogging Rose's nose with a strong and familiar scent. Decay. Sweat. Lust. She blushed just smelling it. It smelled like her bedroom after her first time with Jimmy Stone. Sex hung heavily in the air, mixed with shame and disgust. It felt...unclean.

As suddenly as it came, the light disappeared and Rose was left standing alone in the dark with nothing but a dull green light blinked which from ahead. Rose decided to approach cautiously, wondering if the Doctor was ahead of her. She was careful to avoid the twigs and bushes on the ground, as she slunk around trees, approaching the clearing ahead. The smell grew stronger.

Rose carefully looked around the closest tree to the clearing where the green light was flashing. She had to put a hand over her mouth to stop any sound, but especially the scream which formed in her throat, from escaping.

The first thing her eyes landed on was a spaceship. It looked crude, rudimentary. Nothing as elegant as some she had seen, this one looked very much like a flying junkyard. The wings were bent at odd angles and there was scrap metal laying around, including a few very important looking contraptions. The lights were throwing off the eerie greenish glow, making the entire clearing look like a scene straight out of a seventies horror film. The spaceship was all but buried into the ground of the clearing, with several downed trees in its wake. Rose assumed that it had crashed, judging by the surroundings.

However, if the spaceship gave Rose a creeping feeling, then the rest of the scene was horrifying.

There were three large creatures in the centre of the clearing, all preying over one very incapacitated Doctor.

They were huge humanoid aliens, all identical to the other. All three had elongated bodies, feet, arms, legs and hands. They walked hunched over, on their toes so their legs were permanently bent into a crouching position. Their long hands had equally long skinny fingers with black claws situated at the end. They were astonishingly skinny. Their bones were protruding out of their feet and hands, their ribs stuck out grotesquely and each vertebrae of their hunched over spine was clearly visible. The skin was sickly grey, stretched taught over the bones, making their bodies seem fragile. A long neck, as long as Rose's arm, connected their monstrous bodies to their heads.

But their faces. It was their faces that made Rose want to simultaneously scream and be sick at the same time. Their dead eyes were set in deep, black sunken pits on their face, which was also longer than it should have been. Their mouth seemed to be perpetually open, a black hole in their face, a dark tongue and rotten teeth peeked out. Cheeks as equally sunk as the eyes followed the bone structure of their faces, making them look like little more than skulls with human features. Topping it all off was long dark hair which fell into their faces, obscuring some of the more horrific parts.

Rose ducked behind the tree, taking a deep breath to compose herself before checking on the state of the Doctor. If she screamed, she would give everything away.

She peered back out, desperately searching for the man in the pinstripe suit. She found him sitting on the ground, with the three...women for lack of a better word...circling around him. They seemed to be confused, trying to puzzle out a mystery of some sort. Rose strained to here the conversation.

"...not human?"

"No, can't you smell it?"

"Two hearts, sister. More blood pumping through these veins."

"He is resistant to our powers too."

Rose almost covered her ears at the sound of their voices. It was high but grating, like their sharp claws were running down a chalk board. A high keening alerted Rose that one of them was laughing.

"Maybe he will be stronger than the others," the creature gestured to a pile that Rose had not noticed before. It was the decomposing remains of the people, men, who had gone missing. Some were in further states of decay, one on top looked like he had died only recently. There was strong evidence that they had been thrown unceremoniously into the pile when the aliens were through with them. Rose felt bile rise in her throat and she prevented herself from retching into a bush for the umpteenth time.

Rose silently prayed that the Doctor could talk his way out of the situation, like he always did. She wondered why he was sitting there, not doing anything. He was just pleasantly looking at the three creatures, almost humoring them. But that wasn't quite right. He was looking at them adoringly almost. It looked familiar.

"How best to go about this?"

"Do you think his physiology is the same as the humans?"

"He could have completely different senses," they analyzed.

Mickey, Rose realized. He was giving the things the same expression Mickey used to give her. Like a love with a hint of obsession and a bit pathetic Like he'd do whatever she told him, like he'd do anything to please her.

"He is cute, sister. Maybe we can keep him longer?"

"He is food. Nothing more."

They must have brainwashed him somehow. Mesmerized him.

"We shall eat soon then, as soon as we figure out what he is."

"We could figure it out simply"

"Yes, just take off the garments..."

Rose felt sick again. They were going to eat him. Attack him. Turn him into the slab of meat that was all that was left of Treasa when she was found. But she slowly looked over at the pile of bodies not too far away from her. They didn't look eaten. They were in pristine condition, besides the decay and, well, death. What did these things eat, she wondered to herself, if not the bodies. And why was Treasa's heart taken.

"Why don't we ask the alien itself?"

"Yes sister, look into his eyes and ask him."

One of the things crouched lower and gazed directly into the Doctor's face. "What are you," it hissed contemptibly.

The Doctor stared back mildly, "Anything you want me to be baby."

Rose almost groaned. He would pick a time like this to use his twisted sense of humor.

"What species do you come from?" It hissed again, more angrily

"Well technically I am the only one left, killed the rest of them I did. I can tell you how I did it, if it would impress you." The Doctor made a weird twitching movement, and Rose realized he was trying to show off his bicep, but was prevented by the some invisible force. Apparently being under control of these creatures made him become a first-class git. He was clearly possessed.

"We just need to know what you are," the thing was almost hysterical with anger.

At least the Doctor wasn't making it easy for them. Rose let out an accidental snort. She covered her mouth quickly, hoping they didn't hear.

Unfortunately for her, they did.

One of the creatures whipped its head around, pivoting it's neck and leaving the rest of its body unnervingly still. It drew in a deep breath into its flattened nose, before narrowing its dead eyes.

"Sister, something is out there."

Another one sniffed the air.

"It smells like a woman. Young."

Rose gasped and held her breath, trying to sink lower into the forest floor, wishing she could disappear completely.

"Maybe she will be beautiful," one of them laughed, a high keening escaping its mouth.

The closest one stalked towards the tree behind which Rose was hiding, its head bobbing two and fro on its long neck. Rose could hear the footsteps fall heavily as it approached. She was panicking. There was no one there to help her. No one to fix the problem .The Doctor was enamoured and couldn't help. There was no TARDIS, no sonic screwdriver, nothing to save her.

She heard its claws scrape the tree trunk and the alien grasped the wood, ready to look and see where Rose huddled, terrified, behind it.

Dun. Dun. DUNNNNNNNNN. So that was fun. Yes the Doctor is ridiculous but don't lie and say you can't see David Tennent saying those things. Because I totally can. Any ideas on what's going to happen next? Any theories? Any comments? Want to tell me you hate me and everything I've ever written and I deserve a life without a computer? Tell me in a REVIEW! Chocolates for every comment :) ~ Hayley