Authors notes: For those listening with the Fanfiction net apps story reader there are words that are supposed to be read in a spooky voice. But I get the feeling the story reader will just butcher them. So keep an eye out for it.

Chapter 24

Raven's Toy.

Raven hovered over the ground, and through walls in pursuit of that boy. What the heck was he? A Vampire? He didn't look like one. A ghost? The Doctor had said there was no such thing as ghosts, "not literally at least" he'd said. Was it some kind of science stuff? Raven was aware most matter was empty space and you can pass through it if you could overcome the repulsion force between atoms. In the same way she destabilised the molecular structure of atoms so she could pass through walls like she is now.

Raven was aware she was also passing through peoples homes. Though with her cloak of perception on they couldn't really notice her, but would suspect something was there. Some part of her briefly wondered if she was inspiring some other Ghost Story by doing this.

She had to get her broach back. It was part of her cloak and was one of the few things gifted to her by Azar and her mother. She could always get another TARDIS key, that broach was irreplaceable to her.

It's just an object. Don't get emotionally attached to it. She gritted her teeth. SHUT-UP!

The boy ran, rather than hovered over a bridge to the other side of the village, the same side the abbey was on, Raven soaring after him like a bullet.

Quickly she teleported herself and she appeared directly in front of the boy. He came right at her and... passed straight through her. Raven felt cold as it happened and sick to her stomach. James also giggled at her as he ran down a narrow, cobble street towards the sea front cliffs.

Changing tactics Raven tried to focus on the broach and pull it from his grasp. They emerged into a dark back alley and the boy halted as Raven pulled on the broach. James pulled on it as hard as he could but the black energy that surrounded it meant Raven had it, and she wasn't about to let it go.

The chain suddenly snapped and broke apart and the broach sailed back into her out stretched hand and it clamped down on it. James fell to the floor the remains of the chain in his hand and Raven gave him a nasty look as she tucked her broach down the front of her corset. Her eyes glowed white and she positioned her slender arms in the correct positions and prepared to speak an incantation, but not before saying. "You might be dead. But I still know how to deal with bothersome spirits like you!"

She might not be able to restrain this creature, but she could still cast it into another dimension, and she knew precisely which dimension to send this boy to.

"I'm sorry, it was only a jest!" She guessed 'jest' meant joke.

"Do I look like I'm laughing?" she asked as she advanced on him, black energy began to radiate from her.

"I just wanted to play!" James pleaded.

"Then you'll find plenty of playmates where I'm about to send you. Azarath, Metrion, Zinth...HEY!"

Something grabbed her by her arms and forced them behind her back. Quickly she tried to produce an energy barrier to blast this person off her. But her expanding barrier just past straight over it. Great, another one.

"You'll have to excuse, James." Said a female voice. "He has a rather irritating sense of humour."

A girl appeared through a nearby wall. A girl maybe a year or two older than her, at least she looked it. With long, wavy blond hair, pale skin, she was slim and she wore a long white dress that expressed her curvy body.

"Barry, release her." The woman said and whoever had hold of her let her go. The person who held her moved aside. He was quite a muscly looking man, his rough skin and stubby fingers as well as his rain coat and hat marked him out as a fisherman. Like James both the woman and this fishermen felt dead.

The woman approached, and Raven examined her. For some annoying reason her mind began comparing herself to her.

She's got a pretty face, pretty blue eyes, she's taller than me, with prettier hair than me, and she moves like a ballerina, unlike me. Said the voice in her head.

Stop it, I don't care about my appearance compared to others, my own appearance doesn't matter! But her mind just yammered on regardless, only this time it had something else to say.

At least my boobs are bigger than hers.

I said stop... wait, are they?! No, stop it! That's superficial and pointless. She told herself, but subconsciously she quickly glanced down at her own chest before looking back up again at the girl.

Yeah, mine are definitely bigger.

I said stop it! She cried, bringing the discussion to a halt.

"Hello, I am Marya" the woman said, "You've met James and Barry already." Standing side by side James and Barry looked like they could be a comedy double act.

"It's not been a pleasure." Raven said shooting James a dirty look, and he just gave her a cheeky smile. She now stood firm in front of this new dead girl. "What are you?"

"Children of the Night." Marya said mysteriously. She almost had the look of a porcelain doll, creepy in other words. "And your name? Child of demons."

Raven's frown sank even further and her brow furrowed. "I am Raven." She tried to sound as powerful and intimidating as possible, but the girl moved around her, looking her up and down as if deciding what exactly she was.

"Pretty little thing." Marya said, "so full of pride, yet so delicate and emotional." Raven remained silent and just examined the girl as she examined her, her own cold eyes never leaving her.

"What are Children of the Night?" Raven asked, determined to get the conversation onto anyone but herself.

"Lost souls, like you." Marya said.

"I'm not lost." Raven said back.

"Really? The child displaced in time?" Raven was staring at her now. "Running away from your troubles because you dare not face them."

"You know nothing." Raven said.

"You have power. Such power, you are proud of it, yet you're afraid to use it." Marya said, "Why have the power if you don't use it?"

"Go away!" Raven said sharply.

"Why so defensive?" Marya asked.

"I'm leaving." Raven said and turned to go. But as she turned around Marya was suddenly there, in front of her when she turned.

"But we want to invite you." Marya said. "We have such fun in the night." She was staring directly into Ravens eyes, challenging her. Raven refused to break contact, it was like a competition of dominance and she wasn't going to back down. "You want to have fun too. Don't you, Rae-Rae?"

"Rae-Rae?" How did she know that name...?

"You want to have fun, right?" Raven found it difficult to break away from Marya's eye contact. Her mind felt like it was fogging. Yes, yes, she wanted to have fun, wanted to have so much fun... Stop it! Snap out of it! It wasn't a show of dominance, its a trap! Her mind screamed at her. But it was too late. You've done it again, you've walked into it! You idiot! Walked into what? Raven didn't understand that.

"Does your Time Lord friend like to play?" Marya asked.

"He loves to play..." Raven said dreamily not questioning how Marya knows about Time Lords.

"Good. Lets go play with him." Marya said in that oddly ethereal voice. "He is but a mortal, and mortals are 'our' toys, and we love to play with our toys." Ravens eyes began to glow white again, her head gently cocked to one side and her face curled up into a slight smile. She looked utterly content. Her cloak suddenly materialised around her shoulders with her hood up casting her eyes in the cowls shadow.

"Who is the Doctor?" Marya asked Raven, and she said in a hushed, almost musical voice.

"The Doctor?" Raven asked, and she smiled wider. "He is 'my' toy; and I want to play with him."

"Good."

Raven didn't know what was happening. It was as if her mind had gone numb, as if parts of her had been regressed, others reprogrammed. It was like she was a child all over again, only she was seeing things from a new perspective, a more selfish one. She was knowing peace like she had never felt it before, and she smiled joyfully at the thought of messing with people with her new friends. She was a fellow Child of the Night, and she loved it. She wanted these mortals to amuse her, it's what they were for.

She watched as James went into a pub, and totally unseen began activating the bar taps to the confusion of the bartender. Each time he went to shut one off, another sprang open, and once he closed that one, two would spring open. Once they were shut, three would spring open at very long distances along the counter. It was fun to watch as the bartender rushed around confused.

Barry the heavy set man had taken control of a fish someone was about to fillet and made it talk. He used his fingers to flap its lips, but to anyone watching the lips were moving on their own, and he made the fish say to the woman about to fillet it. "Oi, put that knife away, you could hurt someone." and she had screamed and ran out of the kitchen in tears.

Raven didn't laugh, but the smile on her face became broader. She was amused.

Marya did something just as amusing. She'd attracted a drunken man down a back alley with sweet promises, and when he was out of sight he'd screamed. Suddenly the scream stopped.

It was fun to 'play' with mortals, Raven decided, they were so fickle, fragile and powerless to stop them.

Raven really wanted her own 'toy' now, so she focused her efforts and cast her mind back across the river and into the guesthouse.

In her minds eye she saw the Doctor still sitting with Stoker with a pot of tea. The mood felt slightly sombre.

"I have trouble looking after my own children, never mind someone elses'." Stoker said. "Who's relation is she to yours? Sister or Brother?"

"Lets say, half sister." The Doctor said. "You'd be surprised how many people I've had to look after in my life. Usually I'd thought of them all as nothing more than just my best friends, never anything else, even if they wanted to be. But recently I seem to be taking on people for whom I represent some kind of father figure. There is extra responsibility in that, and I don't know I'm capable of anymore. It's been... a long time since I was a father, or a grandfather."

"Sometimes children have to find their own way." Stoker said, "Let them make some mistakes and then let them learn from them. You can't control every aspect of their lives, nor can you program them to be exactly like you. Less so if it's someone elses' child."

The Doctor laughed but it was a sombre kind of laugh. "Funny, 'control' was one reason why I ran away."

"Ran away?" Stoker questioned before he looked up directly into Raven's point of view of the vision, and Stoker stood and retreated in surprise. "Good God, what is that?!"

The Doctor spun around and looked up. Raven had projected a ghostly image of herself in the ceiling. It still had the creepy smile and those whited out, glowing eyes of hers.

"Raven? Raven what happened?" The Doctor asked.

Raven's projection held out a slender hand and motioning with her finger she suggested he follow her. "Come to me, Time Lord." and the image phased out of the window and into the street.

The Doctor was out the front door in a flash, Stoker not far behind him.

"What is that apparition?" Stoker asked.

"I'm hoping it's Raven just trying to annoy me again." The Doctor shouted at her. "Or worst case, she's in danger."

"But how is she doing it?" Stoker asked chasing the Doctor down the street as he followed the spectre.

"Ethereal sciences." The Doctor called back.

"Doooooooooctoooorrrrrr..." Raven called to him in a musical, low and ghostly voice. "Dooooooooctoooorrrrr..."

Raven's image motioned for him to follow her into the dark back alleys where the image vanished. The Doctor and Stoker looked around as Raven began chanting into the darkness. "Doooooctoooorrrrrrr... Doooooctooooorrrrrr... Dooooctooooorrrr... Whoooooooooooo"

"Raven, where are you? Are you alright? Answer me!" the Doctor looked around. He tried sending a message to her telepathically, but she ignored it.

Using her powers she dislodged a stone from the roof of a building Stoker stood under and pushed it off. If Stoker died then that would really mess up the Web of Time. But the Doctor had noticed it, and pushed Stoker aside before it impacted his head.

"Okay, who's doing this?" the Doctor called, "this isn't Raven. She might be immature and childish, but she's not so heartless to kill someone in cold blood."

To show how wrong he was she took him by the throat and lifted him up off the floor. He had a respiratory bypass system so he'll easily survive this.

"Good grief, man." Stoker said, grabbing the Doctors trouser leg and he tried to pull him down. Then Raven let the Doctors neck go and the two men fell in a heap on the floor.

Raven giggled like a child watching her dolls fall down.

"Doooocctoooooorrrr..." she called again, relishing how creepy she could be. Her image materialised again and beckoned them to follow her. This time across the streets, out towards the bridge that goes over the river. Then the spectre vanished. She had no need of it now and Raven herself appeared on the other side of the bridge with her new friends. Raven hovered in the air, her feet dangling.

The Doctor and Stoker came up towards one end of the bridge and stood facing the four people.

"Raven. What are you playing at?" He looked at the other three. "What have you done to her?"

"We're having fun." Marya said, "Come join us."

"I'd rather stay right here, if it's all the same to you." The Doctor said.

"Good grief." Stoker said, "What are those things?"

"Would you believe Vampires?" the Doctor asked, "Otherwise I don't know."

Raven smiled, held up her hand and her finger beckoned the Doctor to come forwards.

"Come to me, Doctor." Raven said, her voice still musical, ghostly and creepy. "Come to me, my toy. I want to play."

"I don't think you need play-time. I think you need a time out, young lady." The Doctor said and added flippantly. "Plus, as a toy I'm well past my guarantee, I'm more of an antique, and you don't play with antiques."

Raven held up her hands, her fingers clawed and she cast a spell at the Doctor. "I want my toy!"

The Doctors body suddenly went rigid, and for the first time the Doctor looked like he felt fear.

"Whats happened to you, Doctor?" Stoker asked looking rather shaken himself by all this.

"Best guess, Raven's been hypnotised by one of those pale creatures over there and they're using her to do their bidding." The Doctor struggled to break free of Ravens powers. But it was like a mouse trying to escape from a tightly clenched fist.

Now waving her hands as if directing a puppet she forced the Doctor to clumsily take a step forwards, then another.

"They want me to cross the river. I wonder why?" The Doctor asked as he took another clumsy step.

"Come here!" Raven insisted, "I want my toy. I 'need' my toy!" There was an edge of desperation in her voice, as if she was a child demanding to have something.

"Raven, snap out of it!" The Doctor called out to her.

Marya took a step forward into Ravens' view and looked like she was staring hungrily at the Doctor. Only now did Raven notice that Marya actually had sharp fangs instead of ordinary incisors.

"Finally, Doctor." Marya said, "At long last, my revenge against you and your kind is at hand!"

The Doctor looked like he went pale as he looked at her. "Oh no... remember I joked about them being Vampires?" He said to Stoker, "I was wrong to joke. The other two aren't Vampires, not fully." He nodded towards Marya. "But she certainly is!"

Raven forced the Doctor to take another clumsy step forwards towards herself, and closer to Marya's waiting fangs. Raven was oblivious to the danger the Doctor was in, all she could think of was...

"Come to me, my toy. I want my toy. I 'need' my toy!"

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: Oh come on, you didn't think I wasn't going to have a Vampire involved at some point did you? :P

I wanted to make Raven really creepy for this, so I've kind of turned her into a poltergeist kind of creature while she's under Marya's spell. Unlike Raven's more destructive and violent tendencies, here so she's more like a destructive, immoral child who just wants to be amused, and sees every mortal around her as just her play things there to amuse her.

I was unsure if I wanted to leave in the part where Raven compared herself to Marya, but reading it back I just think the exchange between Raven and her mind is too humours to really leave out.

I might go back and edit the previous chapter slightly, to include something that's going to be part of the resolution of this mini-story. Nothing major, just something that produces a little bit of foreshadowing. ;)

I have been made aware of a Doctor Who audio where the 4th Doctor claims he helped Bram Stoker writer Dracula himself. But he also claimed to have helped Shakespeare write Halmet, a fact later proven wrong when the 10th Doctor met him and realised he wasn't as he'd imagined. So I think the 4th Doctor is telling fibs again. :P

How is the Doctor going to get out of this?

Stay Tuned... ;)