This chapters a little longer than usual, but I really hope you like it! Clara's in fatal danger . . .
"Poppadoms or naan?" Clara Oswald asked.
"Can't we have both?" Artie wondered.
"You could, or you could have these lovely green beans!" Clara cheered dramatically, waving a bowl of green beans under Artie's nose. "All these vitamins and minerals. Low in calories and full of vegilicious flavours!"
"Mmm . . . I think I'll have naan bread," Artie muttered, pushing the beans away from his face.
"Fine," Clara groaned, throwing the beans into the fridge. "I don't know why I try with you two. Angie! Dinner, Angie!"
"What?" Angie called, invisible from the top of the stairs.
"It's dinner, Angie! It's curry – on the table. We're waiting for you."
"I'm not eating!"
"What do you mean you're not eating?"
"Urgh!" Angie groaned, followed by a stomping down the stairs. "Did you cook?" she asked, falling into a seat by her brother.
"Yeah. My Mum's chicken curry," Clara smiled, carefully placing a large steaming pot in the middle of the table with a pair of large, fluffy gloves on her hands. "Enjoy."
"Jesus!" Angie groaned. "Not another home recipe."
"What's wrong with my cooking?" Clara protested, shocked.
"I'm counting thirty four," Artie recalled.
"What? Thirty four what, sorry?" Clara asked, a little confused as she served herself some rice and curry.
"Thirty four collapsed soufflés," Artie replied.
"Failed is the word you're looking for," Angie corrected him, laughing.
"Hey!" Clara gasped. "I thought we were a team, Artie."
"I have to side with my sister sometimes or she'll make my life hell on Facebook," Artie explained.
"Oh," Clara gasped, turning to Angie, "so you're that sort of sister, hey? You, Angie Maitland, are a cunning women," she joked.
"Yeah, alright, just curry me," Angie grinned, holding out her plate.
At that moment, the doorbell rung, making Clara jump. "Urm, I'll get that. Give me a minute. Help yourselves," Clara said, rushing to the door. "Just a minute!" she called, running back as she remembered to get the front door key. As quick as she could, she opened the lock and floor open, and a giant smile tore across her face. "Doctor!" she grinned.
The Doctor stood at the door. He wore his tweed suit, and her smiled back to his companion, a little unconvincing though. "Clara! It's nice to see you again."
"Come in. Stay for tea!" she insisted, ushering the Doctor into the Maitland house. "Look who's here, guys!" Clara called, dragging the Doctor into the kitchen.
"Doctor!" Artie smiled, jumping out of his seat to shake the Doctor's hand.
"Hey, Doctor," Angie waved from her seat.
"So, what's up with the tweed?" Clara asked.
The Doctor looked confused. "How do you mean?"
"Well, usually you have that purple coat. You gone a bit . . . Old school English teacher," Clara explained.
"I guess I needed something new," the Doctor muttered.
"Oh, ok," Clara smiled. She jumped as the timer beeped on the oven. "That'll be the naan bread," she said. As she went to get the naan bread from the oven, a blonde hair woman suddenly appeared in front of her, sitting on top of the kitchen counter. She pressed her fingers to her lips, gesturing for Clara to be quite. "Who . . .?"
"Shush!" the woman insisted. "Your name is Clara Oswald. You have to be quiet."
"How do you know my name?" Clara asked.
"What was that?" the Doctor asked Clara, a little confused.
Clara opened her mouth to speak, but noticed the same blonde haired woman standing by the Doctor with a finger on her lips. "Nothing. Just talking to myself," Clara replied. She turned back to the kitchen counter, where the woman had reappeared.
"You can't say anything," the woman insisted, "especially not to him. My name is Bad Wolf. Don't ask me anything or that creature will hear, and you're in enough danger as it is."
Clara was about to ask why, but Bad Wolf insisted that she remained silent.
"That man in at that table isn't the Doctor. He's a Zygon. You met them once before. Only you can hear me saying this, so don't say anything. At some point soon, he'll try to kill you. So follow my instructions to the letter," Bad Wolf instructed. Clara nodded. "Ok. Take the naan bread and sit at the table. Act normally."
The four of them sat around the table, digging in to the curry. Bad Wolf appeared opposite Clara, sitting next to Artie. Clara couldn't help but act a little uncomfortably around the Doctor. "Look at his hands. Subtle," Bad Wolf commanded.
Clara looked at the Doctor's hands. They were a little red.
"Do something to his hands, accidentally – watch them closely to see if a sucker emerges for a split second."
"Can I have some chutney?" Clara asked Angie. As Angie passed the jar to Clara, she let it slip from her fingers and land on the Doctor's hand. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" she apologised, pulling the jar off him, catching a glimpse of a pink sucker on the Doctor's skin. Immediately, she pulled her eyes from it to not cause suspicion.
"It's ok," the Doctor insisted.
"You see," Bad Wolf grinned. "Now that I've convinced you, I need you to get the kids out as soon as you can. Save them. You'll have moments."
Clara thought – What do I say? "Angie, Artie, can you go to the garden? Your dad's been growing coriander and I think it'll go well with this dish."
"Why now?" the Doctor asked, turning to her. "We're part way through a meal."
"And the coriander will make it a lot nicer," Clara insisted, panicking a little. "Go on."
Angie laughed a little. "It doesn't matter."
"Angie, please!" Clara snapped. The Doctor glared at her. Even Bad Wolf was starting to look worried.
"They don't have to go," the Doctor said.
"Yes they do," Clara insisted. "Please, just go," she pleaded to Artie, giving both of the Maitlands worried looks.
"Is something worrying you?" the Doctor asked.
"No!" Bad Wolf snapped.
"Shut up!" Clara snapped at Bad Wolf. "I can barely hear myself think with you telling me he's a Zygon every other second!" As soon as she realised what she had said, her heart raced. She was doomed.
"Run!" Bad Wolf cried.
"A Zygon?" the Doctor laughed.
"Yes. I know what you are," Clara stuttered, moving away from him. "Angie, Artie, I need you to go. Now! You can't trust him!"
The Doctor smiled . . . Suddenly, he jumped onto the table, snarling at Angie and Artie as they clung to each other in the corner of the room, backing away from him.
"RUN!" Clara screamed.
Angie and Artie tried to get out of the room, but they were trapped in the corner of the room by the Doctor. Venom leaked from his tongue, spilling out over the floor as he snarled and bared his teeth at them. "We can't move!" Angie cried, pulling her brother behind her.
"The rice bowl!" Bad Wolf cried.
Reacting quickly, Clara picked up the bowl of rice and smashed it over the Doctor's head. He recoiled in pain as he dropped to his knees. "Come on!" Clara cried, reaching her hand out to Angie.
Angie scrambled over the Doctor, clutching Clara's hand for support. Artie followed, stumbling away from the Doctor. "Take these," Clara instructed, thrusting a set of keys into Angie's hands. "Just take them and go."
"Argh!" the Doctor cried, stretching his spine as he started the move back into his feet.
"He's coming for us!" Artie gasped.
"Go!" Clara screamed, ushering Angie and Artie into the corridor. "Just go!"
Angie obeyed, pulling Artie with her down the corridor, where she unlocked the door and ran out onto the street with her brother. Clara followed, running for freedom, but the Doctor blocked her way. He grabbed her by the waist as she ran, and threw her to the floor.
"CLARA!" Angie screamed.
"JUST GO!" Clara insisted, scrambling on the floor away from the Doctor as he persuaded her.
"Oh, you pathetic little girl," the Doctor sneered, standing over her. "Of all the humans to pick, why you? River gave much more of her fight; she clawed until the very moment we took her. But you – you just scramble on the floor and look after the kids. You should've stayed on home."
"Pathetic?" Clara said, the kicked the Doctor in the shins with her heeled shoes. "You've got the wrong girl." She scurried under the kitchen table, avoiding the Doctor's hands as he snatched at her. She emerged at the other side of the table, facing into the Doctor's demonic eyes.
"How long will you last?" he thought, pressing his hands against the table. "A couple of seconds? A minute? Two at the most. I'm coming to get you, Clara!"
"Never!" she cried, throwing a knife at the Doctor's head. As he ducked, it span into the distance and buried itself into the wall. The knife may have missed, but it gave her enough time to escape into the back garden, locking the door behind her. She panicked – she was surrounded by fences as she realised that the key she would need to escape the garden was now in Angie's possession.
Clara had little time to fuss over that matter though; the Doctor, in rage, had leapt through the glass doors, falling into the garden surrounded by glass. She ran round the side of the house, where she was trapped by a tall fence, blocked her from the street. Deciding that it was her only option, she placed her hands over the top and climbed. She was nearly over, but the Doctor grabbed her ankle, and she tripped over onto the over side.
She landed on her stomach on the driveway, her hands scraped with gravel and her legs aching. Behind her, the Doctor scrambled over the fence – finding it easier as he was taller. Desperately, Clara staggered onto her feet and limped as fast as her could away from the Doctor. As the Zygon behind her dropped down onto the driveway, she broke into a run. Across the street, Angie and Artie were screaming at her, urging her to run because the Doctor could nearly reach her.
She stepped out into the road. The Doctor followed her. There was a screeching of tires as they skidded across the road. Suddenly, the Doctor was hit. He spiralled through the air, over the bonnet of a black van as it slammed its brakes down. Clara narrowly escaped death, barely seconds from also colliding with the vehicle. There was a thud as the Doctor's body landed in the road. Angie screamed.
"Oh my God!" a Welsh woman cried, jumping out of the black van. She ran to the Doctor's body and pressed her head over his chest. "Jack, he's dead!"
"Jeez!" an American in a blue coat gasped, running out beside the body. He turned to Clara, "Do you know this man?"
Clara was speechless. "Y-yes. Sorry, did you say he was dead?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry," Jack apologised.
"Don't be. He was going to kill us, I think," Clara stuttered, regaining her breath. "Thank you . . ."
"Jack Harkness," the man interrupted. "That's Gwen."
"There's a vortex manipulator on his wrist, just like yours," Gwen informed Jack.
"What?" Jack gasped in confusion. He turned to Clara, "He was going to kill you?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Clara heaved.
"You wanna bet? I've got a vortex manipulator; that means I can travel through time. Seen that before, little lady?"
"All the time, and don't little lady me! He isn't a man; he's an alien. That is the body of a Zygon impersonating my best friend who's another alien that travels through time and space in a bow tie!" Clara cried.
"He's dead . . ." Artie stuttered.
"No, Artie. That alien is dead. The Doctor's fine," Clara insisted, holding Artie's hand.
"The Doctor?" Jack asked. "Is that man the Doctor?"
"No. That man is a Zygon," Clara corrected.
"Are you the Doctor's companion?" Jack asked.
"Yeah," Clara replied.
"Jesus," Jack gasped. "So, he regenerated. Not too bad, I suppose. Anyway, I need you to come with me, and your kids too. You can trust me; I'm a friend of the Doctor."
Clara looked at Angie and Artie, then too jack, unsure of whether or not to trust him. "Ok."
"Oh my God!" a woman cried. She had ginger hair, and stumbled out of the van, as if she'd just woken up. "Did we run that man over?"
"Donna, stay calm!" Gwen insisted.
"But you just killed someone!" Donna screamed, her knees trembling. "Who the hell are you? All of you? Stay away from me!" Donna pushed past Gwen and ran down the street. "Murderers!"
"Stay with her!" Jack instructed.
"Sure!" Gwen agreed, chasing after Donna into the distance.
"Who was that?" Clara asked.
"One of the Doctor's companions," Jack informed her.
"How many does he have?" Clara gasped.
Jack pulled a worried expression, "It's probably best not to ask. Anyway, get in," he said, opening the van door. He loaded the Zygon's body into the back of the van, and once everyone was in, he drove off.
Thank you so much for reading! Please review or I'll be sad :(