The Crimson Horror- Part 1

The Doctor, Clara and I stepped out into a cobbled alleyway, "Doctor, I don't think this is London." I said, looking around me at the darkened alleyway. Clara was wearing a victorian London style dress, which reminded me of Victorian Clara. I was wearing a tight black victorian dress that bunched up at my waist and flowed straight down to my ankles, not poofing out around them. My hair was braided in a single braid that was wrapped around the back of my head to form a braided bun.

The Doctor sniffed the air and glanced at me, "Correct, Lia. It's Yorkshire 1893 not London 1893." The Doctor shrugged, "Near enough."

"You're making a habit of this, getting us lost." Clara put in as we walked forward.

"Sorry. It's much better than it used to be. Ooo, I once spent a hell of a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow Airport."

"What for?" I asked.

The Doctor shrugged, "Search me. Anyway-" The Doctor is cut off as a woman screamed.

"Brave heart, Clara, Lia."

The Doctor was looking at a body of a woman while Clara and I watched from a good ways back. We were standing next to the canal.

"It's another one. Don't you see? Another victim. Why won't anyone of you listen?" Edmund asked, frustrated.

The Doctor looked at Edmund from his crouched position by the body, "We'll listen."

We followed Edmund to get our first look at Sweetville, though we were only allowed to look through the main gaits, which were closed. "Mrs Winifred Gillyflower. An astonishing woman. Prize winning chemist and mechanical engineer. So why-"

The Doctor cut Edmund off, "Why has she decided to open up a match factory in her old home town?"

"And no one who ever goes to live there ever seems to come out." Edmund said.

We were now at the morgue. Three mettle autopsy tables were currently holding bodies with white sheets draped across them, except for the body we were looking at.

"Same as the rest. All dead from causes unknown and their flesh glowing." Edmund said.

"Like something manky in a coal cellar." Amos said. "They keep turning up in t'canal. The Crimson Horror."

"Ooo, good name. Hey, that's good, isn't it? The Crimson Horror. I wonder what it is. Do you know the old Romany superstition, Amelia, Clara? That the eye of a dead person retains an image of the last thing it sees. Nonsense, of course, unless the chemical composition of the body has been massively corrupted."

Clara uses the Doctor's magnifying glass to look at the face of Mrs Gillyflower in the dead woman's eye. The Doctor touches her skin and the red comes off onto his white glove. He uses someone's chemistry lab. "Wow, this is nasty. An organic poison. A sort of venom. And you think it's connected to Sweetville?"

Edmund drew himself up to his full hight, "I do."

The Doctor looks at Clara and I then back at Edmund, "Well then, we need a plan."

We visited Mrs Gillyflower at home, "Doctor, Mrs Smith and Ms. Harkness. Oh yes, you'll do very nicely."

The Doctor tried his best at a Yorkshireman accent which I could barely contain my laughter at. "Oh, grand. Smashing. Eh, the missis and I couldn't be more chuffed, could we, love?" The Doctor said and Clara nodded.

I bobbed my head, "Thank you ma'am for allowing us to join your village." I said in fake politeness.

Mrs Gillyflower lead us down the row of terraced homes. "Sweetville will provide you with everything you need. You won't have to worry about a thing ever again."

"The name, Sweetville." Clara started.

Mrs. Gillyflower looked at her, "Yes?"

"Why not name it after yourself. After all, it's your creation."

"Gillyflowertown. Gillyflowerland. You could have roller coasters." The Doctor said.

Mrs. Gillyflower straightened, "It is named in tribute to my partner."

"Your late partner?"

She shook her head, "No, my silent partner. Mister Sweet likes to keep himself to himself. Shall we move on?"

"Who lives here?" I asked, noticed that it was curiously silent.

"Oh, names don't matter here. All you need to know is we only recruit the brightest and the best." Mrs. Gillyflower opened a front door to reveal a single living room. The man and woman are seated at a tea table, under a giant bell jar. A pump is providing air into in.

An army of men and women come for us. I started to fight them, but I adventually got overwhelmed and suddenly everything was dark.

I woke up suddenly to being dunked in a strange red liquid. I screamed as I panicked and passed out as I went under.

I woke up not being able to move. If I tried, pain shot through me. The only thing I could do was listen. My hearts almost stopped as I heard Mrs. Gillyflower talking, "Like pretty maids all in a row. The process improves with every attempt. Mister Sweet is such a clever old thing. Oh, into the canal with the rejects, Ada."

"Yes." Ada replied.

I tried my hardest and let out a small painful moan as I moved my hand to take Ada's, trying to tell her not to take me.

"Ma." Ada says. No one answers.

I was taken, painfully, to a room and shackled to chains. 'Dammit' I thought. 'This wasn't what I wanted her to do.' I slowly opened my eyes during this process.

"Sometimes the preservation process goes wrong." Ada was saying, "Only Mister Sweet knows why, and only Mama is allowed to talk to Mister Sweet. But if you're very good, you can stay here. You'll be my secret. My special monster." I moaned, trying to ask her where The Doctor was, "Shush."

My cloths that I was wearing was left beside me.

After a few days of not doing anything besides sitting and wishing I had food, Edmund suddenly burst into the room.

After Ada had removed Edmund from the room, I suspected that he was going to get the same process as I had then dumped in the river if he didn't survive. I let out a tiny moan. I wished The Doctor would come, but it had been three weeks. No sign of him or Clara. That was what had me worried.

Now I tended to bang on the floor with my chains to annoy anyone who came by. It was really the only thing I could do, chained up.

I heard footsteps come up the steps to the room I was in. It was weird. Those didn't sound like Ada's footsteps. Curiously, I painfully walked forward and waited at the door. Someone raised the hatch and I took my chance and reached out to grab their hand. The hand struggled free of my grip and the hatch slid shut.

"All right, mate. You just stay calm now." My eyes widened, that sounded like Jenny. I moved back from the door, so that I didn't startle her, dragging my chains along with me. "I could open this door. Would you like that?" Jenny asked. I painfully picked up my chains and dropped them on the floor to make a thud sound. "Thought you might. But you and me has got to come to an arrangement. Savvy?" I dropped the chains again to make another thud. "Now, you stand well back, do you hear me? I don't mean no harm to you, but you try anything funny and I'll leave you here to rot. Is that understood?" I dropped the chains twice. "Right."

The door opened to reveal Jenny, "Amelia!" Jenny gasped. I let out a tiny moan. Jenny came closer and touched my skin and pulled back sharply, "Right. Right, we're getting out of here. Where's The Doctor?"

I let out a moan.

"You don't know?" Jenny guessed.

I moaned again.

"Okay." Jenny said and knelt down to pick the locks on my chains. They fell off and Jenny grabbed my clothes while guiding me to the door and helped me down the stairs. After a few minutes of walking we were walking through a factory corridor. "Come on." Jenny muttered, watching the lift slowly move up. "Come on!" The lift opens and Ada walks out.

Jenny guides me a different way into a very familiar room. Through a window, Jenny and I watched people on a frame being manoeuvred over a large vat of bubbling red liquid, then lowered in, "Oh my gawd." Jenny breathed. I struggled, ignoring the pain, to point at a door behind us.

"What is it? You want to go in there?" Jenny asked. I moaned while Jenny opened the door. I pressed a couple buttons on the outside of the small space before going into it. Jenny gives me my clothes and shut the door and hides as two men walk past the entrance.

A green glow lights up the room and I sighed as the pink-red skin was removed. "Huh. I didn't think that would work." I said to myself while getting dressed. I then fixed my hair. I opened the door to see Jenny staring at me as I came out, "Oh, that was uncomfortable." I said, rubbing my back. "And it hurt."

"Amelia!" Jenny exclaimed, coming forward and hugging me. "Are you alright?"

I smiled and hugged back, "Thank you so much, Jenny."

We let go of each other and Jenny asked, "Where's The Doctor."

My face fell, "I don't know. We have to find Clara as well."

"Clara?" Jenny said, puzzled.

I sighed. "Yes, Clara. It's hard to explain. But I'll say it's timey-wimey."

"What happened to you? How long have you been like that?"

"Days, weeks, don't know. Long story. I'll keep it short. We've got to keep moving. I doubt it will take long for Ada to realize I'm missing." I said, taking Jenny's hand and pulling her down the corridor, telling her how I came to be in that room.

"Edmund must have come looking for us and then fallen into a vat of the pure venom. Or was pushed. Didn't stand a chance." I said, finishing my tale.

"What is that stuff, though?"

"The Doctor figured it to be deadly poison. And Mrs Gillyflower's been dipping her pilgrims in a dilute form to protect them. Preserve them. Process didn't work on me. Maybe because I'm not fully human. I ended up on the reject pile."

"Preserve them against what?" Jenny asked.

I sighed, "Well, according to her, the coming apocalypse." I made the 'cu-koo' gesture by the side of my head.

"When the End of Days is come and judgement rains down upon us all." Jenny muttered.

I glanced sharply at her, "What?"

Jenny shook her head, "Nothing."

I stopped walking, "No, no, no. What?"

Jenny stopped as well, "Something Mrs Gillyflower said. One of her sermons. Madame will come looking for me. We'd best get on."

"Yes, The Doctor and Clara."

"But, Doctor." Jenny stuttered. "Clara's dead. Isn't she?"

I sighed, "It's complicated. Its best if you just see."

"Are we talking about the same person? About that Clara? Amelia!" Jenny whispered yelled at me as I ran over to a house and looked inside. No Doctor or Clara.

"I couldn't see much from where I was, but I think The Doctor and Clara survived the process. They must be here somewhere."

"But Clara died. The Ice Lady? Amelia." Jenny said, following me.

"Well, it's er, it's really complicated." I said.

I ran into another house to see Clara sitting in a chair, frozen, with The Doctor standing next to her. I grabbed a chair and threw it at the glass, breaking it.

"Come on." I said to a stunned Jenny who was staring at Clara. "Help me carry them."

We put The Doctor into the same small cubicle I was in then Clara into the other one. "Can they be revived, like you were?" Jenny asked.

"I hope so."

Pilgrims enter. "Lia." Jenny called in a warning tone. I looked around to see a group of people coming from the end of the hallway toward us.

"Oh, great. Great. Time for a plan."

"Nah, Amelia. This one's on me." Jenny removed her bonnet and dress to reveal a tight all leather outfit. She deals with the three male pilgrims in three moves.

"That is a plan." I said, watching Jenny fight.

More pilgrims advance, with rounders bats. "Okay, time for a new plan. Run!"

"Sontar ha!" Came Strax's voice and he enters, dressed in his Sontaran armour, firing his honking big gun. The pilgrims flee. Vastra is close behind with a sword. "Let's go."

"No, ma'am. We're not escaping. We've got to help Amelia with The Doctor and Clara."

"Long story." I said. "Very long story."

"What now, madam? We could lay mimetic cluster mines." Strax said.

"Strax." Vastra scolded.

"Or dig trenches and fill them with acid."

"Strax! You're overexcited. Have you been eating Miss Jenny's sherbet fancies again?"

"No."

Vastra sighed, "Go outside and wait for me until I call for you."

"But madam, I-"

"Go!"

"I'm going to go play with my grenades." Strax muttered as he left.