AN: This chapter might be earning the T rating for violence.
Chapter 8
Werewolf
"Actually living history is weird." I tell the Doctor. "I mean, New New Earth was one thing, you don't really know what to expect in the future, but here, I'm living a textbook."
The Doctor and I are hanging out in a suite to 'get ready for supper' or something while Rose is off looking for something more suitable to wear.
"Brilliant isn't it. This is why I travel, to see all of it first hand!" he replies, walking around the room picking up and inspecting various nick-nacks.
"Queen Victoria doesn't die here, and I don't remember there being an assassination attempt involving Sir Robert. So what's going on? And how exactly is this 'no danger, just fun'?"
"Wellll… shouldn't be much danger really; there's no historical record of an assassination attempt in this time." He says sounding confident. But then he's got to mess it all up, "But, history isn't set in stone. It's in flux and if Queen Victoria does die here, all of human history could change. So maybe just a little danger. Won't be a problem though, save the Queen and the British Empire, and back in the Tardis in time for banana pancakes."
"Did the Tardis bring us here on purpose?" I ask, sitting down on the bed and bouncing a little.
"Nah. She can't do that. Probably just a small slip in the helmic orientators."
"Well, seeing Queen Victoria is pretty amazing, but what if-"
"Stay close to me, do as I say, and trust me to take care of everything. I will keep you safe, just don't try to do anything crazy, okay?" he says, kneeling down in front of me and putting his hands on my shoulders. "I'm a nine hundred year old Time Lord, I can handle a little assassination attempt without the help of a squishy little infant. Got it." he finishes, poking me in the stomach repeatedly.
"Got it! Just knock it off!" I say trying to bat his hand away.
—
"Your companion begs an apology, Doctor. Her clothing has somewhat delayed her." the head servant says to the Doctor as we are seated at the supper table.
"Oh, that's all right. Save her a wee bit of ham." the Doctor replies.
"The feral child could probably eat it raw." Queen Victory says.
"Very wise, Ma'am. Very witty." the Captain, who is apparently called Reynolds, says, laughing just a little too hard.
"Slightly witty, perhaps. I know you rarely get the chance to dine with me, Captain, but don't get too excited. I shall contain my wit in case I do you further injury." the Queen says. Harsh. I like her.
"Yes, Ma'am. Sorry, Ma'am."
"Besides, we're all waiting on Sir Robert. Come, sir. You promised us a tale of nightmares." the Doctor says, leaning in towards Sir Robert.
"Indeed. Since my husband's death, I find myself with more of a taste for supernatural fiction." the Queen agrees.
"You must miss him." the Doctor quietly says.
The Queen looks sad as she answers, "Very much. Oh, completely. And that's the charm of a ghost story, isn't it? Not the scares and chills, that's just for children, but the hope of some contact with the great beyond. We all want some message from that place. It's the Creator's greatest mystery that we're allowed no such consolation. The dead stay silent, and we must wait. Come. Begin your tale, Sir Robert. There's a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters."
"The story goes back three hundred years. Every full moon, the howling rings through the valley. The next morning, livestock is found ripped apart and devoured." Sir Robert begins.
"Tales like this just disguise the work of thieves. Steal a sheep and blame a wolf, simple as that." Captain Renolds interrupts.
"But sometimes a child goes missing. Once in a generation, a boy will vanish from his homestead." Sir Robert continues. Wolves, missing children, I don't like where this is going.
"Are there descriptions of the creature?" the Doctor asks.
"Oh, yes, Doctor, drawings and woodcarvings. And it's not merely a wolf. It's more than that. This is a man who becomes an animal."
"A werewolf?" I practically squeak.
"It's nothing more than a story child." the Queen says, smiling at me kindly.
Right… with the Doctor involved it's not going to turn out to be a story.
"My father didn't treat it as a story. He said it as fact. He even claimed to have communed with the beast, to have learned its purpose. I should have listened. His work was hindered. He made enemies. There's a monastery in the Glen of Saint Catherine. The Brethren opposed my father's investigations." Sir Robert continues.
NO! I inhale sharply and shake my head to dispel the series of images of boys screaming as they are exposed to moonlight. Boy after boy, absolute terror at the sight of the moon followed by screaming. At first they only writhed around in pain, but then their bodies would start bending and snapping and tearing as they grew... so many…
I cover my ears with my hands, like that will somehow help. The Doctor reaches an arm around my shoulder, stopping me from continuing to rock, and touches his head to mine. Ash. Steady. I'm not going to let anything happen to you.
What?! He was talking to me telepathically. Has he always been able to do this? Huh, it worked as a nice distraction, cleared my head of… not going to think about it again. Concentrate on… the Tardis. The rotor, up and down, and up and down. Soothing…
"Perhaps they thought his work ungodly." Queen Victoria says turning away from me and addressing Sir Robert.
"That's what I thought. But now I wonder. What if they had a different reason for wanting the story kept quiet? What if they turned from God and worshiped the wolf?" He replies.
What is that noise? Chanting? No no no no no creepy head servant is chanting "lupus deus est" over and over. Wolf is God?
The Doctor grabs my hand, stands and says to Sir Robert, "And what if they were with us right now?"
"What is the meaning of this?" the Queen demands, standing.
Captain Reynolds turns to Sir Robert and says, "Explain yourself, Sir Robert!"
"What's happening?" the Queen asks. I guess she hasn't caught on to the plot yet.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, they've got my wife." Sir Robert says.
"Rose! Where's Rose? Where is she? Sir Robert, come on!" the Doctor yells.
"The cellar!" Sir Robert replies, leading us out of the room.
"Stay with me Ash!" the Doctor yells. We're basically running as fast as we can towards the danger. Or at least towards the prisoners, which is probably the same thing. Prisoners have guards and I think the guard is a werewolf.
When we reach the cellar door, the Doctor uses the sonic to open it then just stands there in awe. "Oh, that is beautiful," he says.
Beautiful, right. There's a werewolf, trying to escape from a not strong enough looking cage. He's insane.
I gag. It smells horrible. The wolf it… I…
"Where the hell have you been?" Rose asks, untangling herself from the rest of the chained up household staff as the Doctor sonics the manacles.
"Come on, go. Get out!" Sir Robert encourages everyone out of the cellar. But it's not until the wolf has nearly broken out that the Doctor responds.
"Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" the Doctor yells, waving those still left through the door.
"Come on." Rose says to the Doctor as she leaves the room. He still won't leave though. Stuck staring at the thing until it's actually free and throws a piece of the cage at us.
The Doctor sonics the door and we run through a line of armed men. "It could be any form of light modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths. Did it say what it wanted?" He asks, looking at Rose.
"The Queen, the Crown, the throne - you name it." she says.
I hear the werewolf crash through the cellar door and somebody yells, "Fire! Fire!" and the room explodes with noise. I've got my hands over my ears and I'm trying to burrow my head into the Doctor's chest and it's still deafening.
"All right, you men. We should retreat upstairs. Come with me." The Doctor says once the shooting has stopped. I risk taking a look down the hall, and see that the werewolf is gone.
"I'll not retreat. The battle's done. There's no creature on God's Earth that could survive such an assault." One of the men says.
"I'm telling you, come upstairs!" the Doctor says.
"And I'm telling you, sir, I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall." the stupid man says as he walks down the hall. "It must have crawled away to die." he continues as he nears a corner, but a second later I can hear his body being torn apart, ripping, and snapping bones, and things splattering and the smell… I think I'm going to throw up.
And now we're running from the danger. Finally. We soon reach a staircase at the end of the hall. "Wait here." the Doctor says as he runs to check the front doors.
Rose elbows me and says, "Werewolf! Can you believe it!" She's flushed from running and seems to be enjoying herself.
"He died. That man, he was…" I can't finish the sentence because I'm throwing up what supper I managed to eat.
"Right. Not really cut out for adventuring are you?" Rose says, stepping back and she's right. This isn't okay. It's a tragedy.
"Your Majesty? Your Majesty!" Sir Roberts calls out to the Queen who is coming down the stairs.
"Sir Robert? What's happening? I heard such terrible noises." she says.
"Don't remind me." I mutter.
"Your Majesty, we've got to get out. But what of Father Angelo? Is he still here?" he answers.
"Captain Reynolds disposed of him." she explains as the Doctor returns.
"The front door's no good, it's been boarded shut." he says. So we run up a flight of stairs into a drawing room where the Doctor continues, "Pardon me Your Majesty. You'll have to leg it out of a window."
Sir Robert opens the window and I hear bullets hitting the ceiling. I drop down and … I'm somewhere else. Missiles flying from airships flying flags of blood moons against a purple background. Paris on fire. Go away! Think of the Tardis. A new British Empire covering the globe. Stop it! Tardis. Up and Down. Breathe with the rotor.
"Ash, snap out of it." Rose says, shaking my shoulder. "It was just a couple of bullets."
"Rose, that's enough." the Doctor says, helping me up. "Don't let go of my hand Ash. Stay with me."
The Queen looks shocked and asks, "Do they know who I am?"
"Yeah, that's why they want you. The wolf's lined you up for a, a biting." Rose answers.
"Stop this talk. There can't be an actual wolf." the Queen argues just before the werewolf howls. Irony.
"What do we do?" Rose asks.
"We run." the Doctor answers.
"Is that it?"
"You got any silver bullets?"
"Not on me, no."
"Me either." I say, butting into the conversation.
"There we are then, we run. Your Majesty, as a Doctor, I recommend a vigorous jog. Good for the health. Come on!" the Doctor says before grabbing both of our hands and running towards a staircase.
There's got to be someplace safe to catch our breath and figure out what to do. Got to be…
"Come on! Come on!" I hear the Doctor yelling, but he sounds far away and everything's a little fuzzy. I trip on something and I'm suddenly in a room that looks like a library. "Doctor?"
"Ash, Ash! Focus on my voice. What do you see?"
"Umm, a library."
"Are you sure?"
"It's a room with a lot of books and a big skylight. But it keep swaying. Is it a boat? I'm gonna be sick…" I say, then I'm back on a staircase, being carried by the Doctor. Ah. Not a boat, I was being carried.
Sit Robert looks at me, "Yes. That is the library. How…"
"Let's go!" The Doctor says, waving Sir Robert ahead to lead the way.
I hear a gunshot as we turn a corner. Captain Reynolds is back! The Doctor puts me back on my feet as Captain Reynolds says, "I'll take this position and hold it. You keep moving, for God's sake! Your Majesty, I went to look for the property and it was taken. The chest was empty."
"I have it. It's safe." the Queen answers.
"Then remove yourself, Ma'am. Doctor, you stand as Her Majesty's Protector. And you, Sir Robert, you're a traitor to the crown."
"Bullets can't stop it!" The Doctor yells.
"Then I'll buy you time. Now run!"
The Doctor grabs my hand and drags me down the hall as Captain Reynolds fires. I stop and step back toward the Captain as he screams but the Doctor wraps an arm around my waist and half carries me into the library.
I'm standing in the middle of the room, trying to make sense of what's happening. In the background I hear Sir Robert yell, "Barricade the door!" and then furniture being moved. How did I see the library? How did the Doctor know to ask? I hear the wolf's claws clacking against the floor until he is right at the door. He sniffs a few times then walks away.
The Doctor cocks his head, listening, "Wait a minute. Shush, shush, wait a minute... It's gone."
More clacking on the floor, moving away from the door. Low growls are making my skin crawl. "There's another door." I yell, remembering the vision.
The Doctor and Sir Robert rush over and barricade the second door.
"Shush." Rose says. The noises are fading. "I don't understand. What's stopping it?"
"Something inside this room. What is it? Why can't it get in?" the Doctor says, looking around the room.
"I'll tell you what, though." Rose says, grinning at the Doctor and grabbing his hand.
"What?"
"Werewolf!"
"I know. You all right?"
"I'm okay, yeah."
How can they be enjoying themselves? I've managed to move to the back of the room, and am hiding behind a sofa.
Sir Robert steps up to the Queen and says, "I'm sorry, Ma'am. It's all my fault. I should have sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong. I thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?"
Ancient stone monastery. Monks with mistletoe. A boy screams. A wolf bays. Repeated over and over. Monastery, monks, mistletoe, screams, wolf, monastery, monks… Focus on the conversation Ash. Focus.
"Well, they were bald, athletic. Your wife's away, I just thought you were happy." the Doctor answers.
"I'll tell you what though, Ma'am, I bet you're not amused now." Rose says, even now trying to get the Queen to say it.
"Do you think this is funny?" the Queen asks, clearly angry.
"No, Ma'am. I'm sorry."
"What, exactly, I pray tell me, someone, please. What exactly is that creature?"
"You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's more of a lupine wavelength haemovariform." the Doctor answers.
Screaming. They all scream. Everytime. No. BReathe. Tardis, up and down…
"And should I trust you, sir? You who change your voice so easily? What happened to your accent?"
"Oh right, sorry, that's-"
"I'll not have it. No, sir. Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world."
"Ash?" the Doctor calls, looking for me.
"She's hiding behind that couch." Rose says.
"Ash, talk to me. What's going on?" the Doctor asks. He has knelt next to me and is holding my head in his hands.
"They won't stop screaming." I whisper.
"I know. I know. But hiding isn't going to help. Come on." he says, helping me up. "Just keep breathing, slow and steady, and try to think of something else."
"Tardis."
"The Tardis is too far away. I'll keep you safe, Ash. I promise." he says. He doesn't understand.
"Why has it not attacked?" Sir Robert asks before I can try to explain to the Doctor that I'm picturing the Tardis console as my way of thinking of something else.
"Something inside this room. What is it? Why can't it get in?" The Doctor replies.
"Mistletoe." I tell them before sitting down on the floor next to the Doctor.
"What?" the Doctor asks.
"The werewolves don't like mistletoe." I try to clarify.
"Oh. That's clever! This carving on the door, it's mistletoe. Sir Robert, did your father put that there?"
"I don't know. I suppose."
"On the other door, too." He says, looking over, "No, a carving wouldn't be enough. I wonder…" He pauses to lick the wood. Gross. "Viscum album, the oil of the mistletoe. It's been worked into the wood like a varnish. How clever was your dad? I love him. Powerful stuff, mistletoe. Bursting with lectins and viscotoxins."
"And the wolf's allergic to it?" Rose asks.
"Well, it thinks it is. The monkey monk monks need a way of controlling the wolf, maybe they trained it to react against certain things." the Doctor explains.
Stop. Stop. Stop. Not thinking about how they did that. Not. Tardis. Rotor…
"I'm sorry, Ma'am. It's all my fault. I should have sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong. I thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?" Sir Robert says.
"Well, they were bald, athletic. Your wife's away, I just thought you were happy." The Doctor says.
"Do you think this is funny?" The Queen asks. "What, exactly, pray tell me, someone, please, what exactly is that creature?"
"You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's more of a lupine wavelength haemovariform." The Doctor answers. "Boys have been going missing once a generation. The haemovariform must move from one host to the next through blood."
"And should I trust you, sir? You who change your voice so easily? What happened to your accent?" The Queen demands. She really doesn't look very comfortable with any of this.
"Oh right, sorry, that's…" The Doctor tries.
"I'll not have it. No, sir. Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world!" Says the Queen as she separates herself from us to go sit on a settee.
"That creature, whatever it is, won't give up, Doctor, and we still don't possess an actual weapon." Sir Robert says.
"Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?" The Doctor replies. He then bends down and makes me stand back up again. "Come on Ash, this is the best part. We've got a mystery to solve!" he says, putting an arm around my shoulder and walking me over to a bookcase.
He then turns to Sir Robert, "You want weapons? We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have." The Doctor finishes and starts handing out books to Sir Robert and Rose. "Arm yourselves."
The Doctor starts flipping through books, somehow managing to do so with one arm still wrapped around my shoulders.
"Biology, zoology. There might be something on wolves in here."
"Hold on, what about this? A book on mistletoe."
"A book on magic."
"Some form of explosive."
"Wolf's bane."
One book is standing out to me and I point it out to the Doctor.
"Ha! Look what your old dad found. Something fell to Earth."
"A spaceship?" Rose asks.
Sir Robert takes the book and reads, "In the year of our Lord 1540, under the reign of King James the Fifth, an almighty fire did burn in the pit. That's the Glen of Saint Catherine just by the Monastery. But it's been over three hundred years. Why are they attacking now?"
"But that's over three hundred years ago. What's it been waiting for?" Rose asks.
The Doctor takes the book back and flips through it while explaining, "Maybe just a single cell survived. Adapting slowly down the generations, it survived through the humans, host after host after host."
I stumble into the Doctor as I try to not get lost again in the visions of screaming boys and monks and baying wolves.
"But why does it want the throne?" Sir Robert asks.
"That's what it wants. It said so. The, the Empire of the Wolf." Rose says.
"Imagine it. The Victorian Age accelerated. Starships and missiles fueled by coal and driven by steam, leaving history devastated in its wake." the Doctor explains.
Blood moon flags and airships and the world falling under the power of the wolf. No. Focus.
The Queen joins us by the bookshelf, "Sir Robert. If I am to die here..."
"Don't say that, Your Majesty."
"I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me. But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself."
"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables." the Doctor quips.
"Thank you for your opinion, but there is nothing more valuable than this." the Queen replies holding out a huge diamond.
"The Koh-I-Noor?" I whisper. Now that's something I can focus on.
"Oh, yes. The greatest diamond in the world." the Doctor says, suddenly very interested.
"Given to me as the spoils of war. Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die."
"Well, that's true of anything if you own it long enough. Can I?" The Doctor asks. The Queen hands the diamond to the Doctor.
"It's so beautiful." I can't believe what I'm seeing is real. It's incredible.
"How much is that worth?" Rose asks.
"They say the wages of the entire planet for a whole week." the Doctor replies.
"Good job my mum's not here. She'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands for that thing."
"And she'd win."
Riiight.
"Where is the wolf? I don't trust this silence." Sir Robert asks.
The Doctor ignores him. Of course he does; it's more fun to run than plan ahead. I start looking around. Focus. Don't listen to the screaming.
"Why do you travel with it?" the Doctor asks the Queen.
"My annual pilgrimage. I'm taking it to Helier and Carew, the Royal Jewellers at Hazelhead. The stone needs recutting."
"Oh, but it's perfect." says Sir Robert.
"My late husband never thought so."
The Doctor starts turning the diamond back and forth, letting the light hit the facets, "Now, there's a fact. Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-I-Noor cut down. It used to be forty percent bigger than this. But he was never happy; kept on cutting and cutting."
"He always said the shine was not quite right. But he died with it still unfinished." Queen Victoria explains..
"Unfinished. Oh, yes." the Doctor says, and tosses the diamond back to the Queen. She doesn't look very pleased about that. Probably doesn't get things thrown at her very often.
The Doctor steps away from me and starts pacing "There's a lot of unfinished business in this house. His father's research, and your husband, Ma'am, he came here and he sought the perfect diamond. Hold on, hold on."
It's coming. It's coming. It's found us. It's coming. I tug on the Doctor's arm but he ignores me.
"All these separate things, they're not separate at all, they're connected. Oh, my head, my head. What if this house, it's a trap for you. Is that right, Ma'am?"
"Obviously."
"At least, that's what the wolf intended. But, what if there's a trap inside the trap?"
"Explain yourself, Doctor."
"What if his father and your husband weren't just telling each other stories. They dared to imagine all this was true, and they planned against it, laying the real trap not for you but for the wolf."
"Doctor!" I yell as stuff starts falling from the ceiling because the wolf has found the skylight, the skylight that doesn't have any mistletoe.
"That wolf there." He finishes, grabbing my hand as the glass begins to crack. I somehow manage not to growl at him in frustration, probably because I'm too terrified.
"Out! Out! Out!" And we're running down another hall, towards the observatory. I hear the wolf shoulder through the door. I guess he's pissed enough now to ignore the mistletoe.
I'm trying really hard to focus on keeping up with the Doctor, but I can hear the wolf breathing, and smell blood and damp fur. We're not fast enough. Rose is behind us. Can I slow it down?
I can speed up my hands. Similar right? Just slow things down behind us. Time stretching-
STOP!
"No mistletoe in these doors because your father wanted the wolf to get inside. I just need time. Is there any way of barricading this?" the Doctor says. How did I get here?
"What's happening?" I ask.
"Stay there and don't do anything!" the Doctor roars at me.
"Just do your work and I'll defend it." Sir Robert replies, holding the door open.
"If we could bind them shut with rope or something."
"I said I'd find you time, Sir. Now get inside."
"Good man."
"What! No!" I yell. The Doctor bends down and touches my head.
I'm stuck. Paralyzed. The Doctor and Rose are trying to align the telescope. Sir Robert screams. The wolf breaks through the door and tears into the Doctor then Rose. The Queen pulls a pistol from her bag but she's too slow. I can't move. I can't breathe.
I'm on the ground. Ugh. I violently throw up then look up and see I'm still in the observatory. Sir Robert is alive and talking to the wolf. "I committed treason for you, but now my wife will remember me with honour!"
But, we already lost. They're dead. They're not dead. I'm not paralyzed. I can do something this time! What? What, what to do. Sir Robert needs to be faster. I reach out, speeding up. He's an extension of me. We are fast.
Now control the wolf. Don't be a sledgehammer. Slow, I've bought myself time. Just a squishy little octopus with lots and lots of arms. Infiltrate. Its mind is like sewage. Vile and dark and… euphoric?
Sir Robert is dead. No! Too soon.
Its mind is so revolting and slimy, I can barely hang on. I'm an octopus. Eight arms. Wrap it up. Hold on. Squeeze and control.
We scream. Primal. Together. Hatred. We're vicious.
Light! It hurts! Hide.
—
A soft voice. Hide. Can't find me.
Presence nearby. Calm. Safe. Wrong. I don't belong. Hide.
So tired. Sink deeper and rest.
The voice is back. Go away. Feels safe. Nothing is safe. I'm not safe. Scary things are outside.
I'm the scary thing outside.
Stay away!
Go back!
LEAVE! I scream so loud I feel the world shake.
It retreats, hurt.
I'm sorry. I didn't…
Something's missing.
I'll always come back. I won't leave you.
I just want to rest.
Rest. When you're ready, I'll be here.