Chapter 3

"Why do I have to be the dumb baby sitter?" Jacob muttered as he pushed the child in the swing. "On Saturday of all days. I could be out with my friends, I could be at home playing games, but, no! I've got to babysit a stupid toddler."

The "stupid toddler" gave a giggle as the swing rose higher and higher off the ground. Jacob, who was caught up in the fantasies of what he could be doing on this afternoon, gave the swing another hard push, and fell flat on his face. The swing was empty! He stood up, brushing off dirt and looking around, his eyes wide.

"Andrew! Andrew! Where'd you go?"

He turned around, then fell on his backside. Right in front of his face, a small ball of light bounced and flipped. Jacob stared. He stood up, slowly, never taking his eyes off the ball. His hand seemed to reach out on its own, and it touched the light. Jacob screamed, and then the park was empty.

The swing still creaked as it swung, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…

Everything seemed to switch to slow motion. John watched as the beams began to stretch from the guns. Almost at the same time, John's vision seemed to blur. He heard a whoosh, and he felt the wind picked up. Then the beams struck. John felt...nothing. The beams exploded inches in front of him, but he felt no heat or pain. Everything around him seemed to go hazy and, for a moment, he saw two pictures. The first was the room they had just left, the creatures still firing laser beams from their guns. The second was a door, with a window at just above eye level. This picture quickly became the more obvious one, and soon swallowed the other. John felt a thud underneath his feet and the picture solidified. He turned around. What he saw stunned him. They were in a room. But that was an understatement. The room was massive. Right in the center, there was a huge circular console on a raised pedestal. The rest of the room was empty, except right under the console, which was full of dangling wires. Immediately, John felt a sense of familiarity. But this kindled no pictures in his memory. He had obviously never been here before. He walked up the stairs toward the console, Sarah following him with a mesmerized look.

When he reached it, two things happened. The first was that the entire room began to tilt. John and Sarah were thrown against the railing. The second was that a blue hologram of a tall skinny man appeared on the console, and began to speak. "John, if you are watching this, then you are in danger and the TARDIS is transporting you to safety. I will explain everything as soon as you have safely landed."

The whole time the hologram was playing, the room was rocking violently back and forth. As the hologram ended, the rocking stopped. But now the room was shaking and jolting. Finally, with a massive, final jolt, the shaking stopped.

"What happened?" Asked Sarah

"I don't know." John replied.

Sarah took a deep breath. "John, the man on the hologram was the man from my dream. The one that was chained up."

"Strange. This...room...must be his." John said. He walked down the stairs and opened the door. "Sarah, we're in London! I recognize it from our vacation last year."

"How in the world did we get to London?!" Sarah asked, coming down to see for herself.

"I don't know. It's weird, but at least we're out of our apartment."

"Well, come on. What are we waiting for?" Sarah began to push out the door.

"Wait, Sarah. Didn't the hologram say everything would be explained when we landed?"

"John, I don't want to stay here a minute longer than I have to. This place gives me the creeps. Please, let's go?"

John sighed. "Ok. Let's go."

As they shut the door behind them, the hologram flickered to life on the console.

"John, I am so, so sorry. But it's time for me to tell you who you are...