Updated: 25/July/2020

Chapter 73

The Power of Pencils

Raven was awoken by the light streaming in between the curtains to her left. She groaned, rolled over and pulled the covers over her head. She didn't want to get up now. She'd been so exhausted from the walk back last night, so much so that when she found that the pub was shut, meaning the way to her room was barred she was almost tempted to blast the door down to get to her bed. But she hadn't. She wasn't in her own bed.

At this realisation Raven's eyes snapped open and took in the blue covers she was under.

Where was she? Not the TARDIS, there were no windows in her room on the TARDIS, just a bunch of stone roundels. It was not the pub, for the simple fact her bed in the pub had a window on the right, not the left. The place did have a distinctive smell of pencil shavings.

She relaxed as memories flooded back to her. Russel had taken her back to his house, invited her in and offered her to sleep in his bed. A thought made Raven instantly spread out to take up the whole bed, and was relieved to find she was alone under the covers.

Her head poked out from the covers. The room was dark blue mostly, and very small. There was barely enough room for a single bed, a bookcase, a desk with many pencils on. A bulky looking computer. A waste basket with many screwed up pieces of paper, drawings by the look of them. From what Raven could see they all looked amazingly good, so why were they ditched?

So this was Russel's room… It was 'Russel's room'… his personal space... Raven's cheeks flushed red.

I've gotta get out of here. She felt so embarrassed. Why, though, she couldn't tell. Some part deep within her mind just didn't like it. Like she was scared of being teased about it or something.

Raven swung her legs down and stopped short of leaping out of the bed when she saw Russel on the floor. He'd set up a camping air bed and was sleeping on that, without a cover, just a single pillow, but he was sound asleep.

She didn't know why, but something about that image of him curled up like that made her calm down. She sat back down on the bed and just stared at the slumbering boy.

He'd been so nice to her when he had no call to. So why was she being so jumpy?
Because you're waiting for the knife. Said a voice in her head.

A knife, yes. Nobody was ever nice unless they wanted something in return. But so far…

She didn't know how long she creeply looked at the boy, as if scientifically examining a curious creature. Boy's were a mystery to her. In fact, being a normal girl was a mystery to her. Raven only knew how to be herself. Raven ground her teeth. She liked him, really liked him; but paradoxically she didn't want to. Some part of her felt a boyfrie… a… a boyfriend would inconvenience her. Plus, you'd have to constantly give him your attention. Feed him, probably clean up after him. It was just a waste of time.

You're looking at him like he's a pet. Said a part of her mind. Okay, that was true. She'd read about relationships and she was determined to never have one. They just sounded so stressful, and the men were always lazy, arrogant or unhelpful.

Those are just books, and books are designed to entertain. She reminded herself. Books are fiction.

Fiction is based in reality.

But not all.

Why was she even arguing this point in her mind? She'd decided. She didn't want a relationship with anyone.

To take her mind off of Russel, Raven looked at the bookcase and examined what books Russel had. A few on drawing technique, a few on the Titanic, 'the God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins' Raven had read that one. There was also nineteen eighty four, and animal farm. But there were other books that Raven didn't quite understand, like 'The art of facial expressions', 'how to win friends and influence people', 'Dr. Marcus' book on social interaction.' Then there was, 'Practices to meditation and inner peace.'

So Russel had a rather large selection of books. On the desk there was a book with a book mark in it titled, 'The Reason I Jump, by Naoki Higashida' There was a book under that titled 'Uniquely Human, by Dr, Barry Prizant.' Which Russel had nearly finished.

Raven reached out to take the books for a closer look when Russel suddenly moved, he shifted his position and wrapped his arms around himself. It wasn't cold in the room, but it wasn't warm either.

Raven looked at him, then at the bed. The cover was still warm.

Gently, Raven took the covers and carefully draped them over Russel as he slept. Then she backed away. She saw her hoodie on the chair and she took it, slid it on and once she'd carefully closed the door from the other side she zipped her hoodie up.

The stairs didn't creak as she slowly made her way down them. Her boots were near a shoe wrack. They were too big to fit on the wreck so they were next to it. She took them and tried the door. But the handle didn't turn all the way. It was locked, and there was no key in the door. Desperately Raven tried to turn the knob harder, much good it'd do. She felt like she was intruding and she just wanted to get out of here and go back to a familiar place where she knew she'd be safe.

"Good morning, dearie." Raven spun to face a short woman, about her own size, with a kindly face, rosy cheeks and long, dark hair. This must be Russel's mother. She was carrying a tea towel in her hand. She kind of looked a little how Raven expected Mrs. Weasley from the Harry Potter books would look like.

"Uhhh…. Hi." Raven said sheepishly, waving.

"You must be Russel's friend. Raven was it?"
"Umm… yes."

"That's a lovely name." Russel's mother said. "I don't suppose Russel has mentioned me has he. Oh, sometimes I feel like he's ashamed of me." The woman said in humour, "My name is Ruth, Ruth Hopkins. Would you care for a cup of tea, love?"

Love? Must be an English-ism.

"Umm… sure." Raven answered without thinking.

"Oh don't be frightened, don't be frightened." The woman said reassuringly and lead Raven through the living room. With Raven's experience onboard the TARDIS she expected this woman to turn out to be some kind of zombie, reptile monster from Mars, or have this lovely shag carpet to open up and swallow Raven whole, or some weirdness like that. But no, everything seemed ordinary, and it was that ordinary atmosphere which kept Raven on edge.

In the living room was another boy. Older, bigger, stockier, and with muscles. This must be Russel's older brother. Raven looked at the bigger boy then looked at Ruth, and Raven wondered how such a small woman birthed such a monster.

"Oh hey, is this Russel's bird then?"

Bird? Something in the way the older boy said that made Raven feel insulted, like she was being thought less of. She wasn't Russel's anything.

"Thomas, behave yourself." Ruth said, swiping him across the head with the rolled up tea towel.

Raven kept a close eye on this Thomas character, she gave him a disgusted look as he spread himself out on the chair to take up more space and was looking at her in a way which set Raven's mind on edge.

In the kitchen there was an older man, Russel's father presumably. He held a pipe between his lips, though he didn't have it lit, it was just bobbing up and down as he read that mornings newspaper. He removed the pipe when he saw Raven.

"Ah, this must be Raven." His face lit up in a friendly way, but not enough to set Raven's alarms off. It was more an old, English gentile way of being welcoming. "Russel has told us a lot about you."

"Has he?" Raven sat at the table. Before she knew it she had a cup of tea placed in front of her. Then the mother sat down and the father sat up.

"Would you like any breakfast making?" The father asked.

"Umm…. Sure." Options were given to her, she really didn't want to make a fuss but the father seemed only too happy to make her a full English breakfast.

The breakfast they gave her had quite a portion on it, but it was so delicious. Better than the food from the TARDIS food machines, and far superior to any of the slop of Azarath. As she quietly ate the cooked tomatoes and sausages the mother and father talked, argued and bickered a little. It was none-hostile and seemed to be more like a social dance than an argument. Like the two just knew each other so well that they irritated each other, but still loved each other. Raven did not think that was possible.

Once she finished her breakfast Ruth scooped up the plates and cups and took them to the sink to wash.

"No, no, Ruth. I'll wash." The older man said.

"You never wash them right." Ruth said back. "I found dried spinach on the plate this morning."

"Didn't you do the washing up last night?"

"We should not discuss this in polite company." Ruth said. Raven decided to abandon this place before she got roped into the argument with Ruth expecting Raven to take her side.

Raven retreated to the living room and sat down trying to come up with a plan of action for today to further her own investigations. She barely got a thought out when she was interrupted by another irritation.

"So, you're Russel's friend are you?" Thomas said, his smile instantly put Raven on edge.

"Friend, yes." Raven said calmly. Probably the wrong thing to say, because the expression on Thomas' face creeped Raven out. She said nothing however, not wanting to be rude. Which was strange of her.

"I can bench press ninety kilograms." He'd suddenly said. Ravens' eyes twisted to look at him, it was a cold look.

"Good for you." She said frostily.

"I know. It took a lot of effort to make guns like these." He said, showing off his muscles. Raven rolled her eyes. She got up and decided to leave. "Where are you going?"

Some instinct told her that no matter how many doors she slammed in Thomas' face, he wouldn't get the message. So she entered the hall and closed the door. She put her boots on and laced them up before trying the door again. She'd hoped for too much as the door refused to open.

"Have you tried turning the knob the other way?" called Russel as he came down the stairs behind her, his hair a shaggy mess.

"I just want to go back to my own place. I… don't want to bother people." She turned and looked away from him and at the light coming through the glass in the door.

"You're not bothering anyone. Please, ignore my brother, he suffers from this condition called 'all muscle, no brain'." Raven didn't smile, but she did appreciate the joke. Russel walked past her, inserted a key in the door and opened it up wide so Raven could see the street beyond. She felt the breeze from the sunny day outside. But Raven hesitated, why, she couldn't say.

"Didn't you want to go home?" Russel asked.

"Yes, but…" she didn't know herself.

"You're worse than a cat, you are." Russel laughed.

"You, you know my big secret." Raven said, okay, not her biggest secret, but one of them. "I could cast a spell on anybody in this town. I could hurt people."

"You're hardly going to admit that to me if you were." Russel pointed out with humour, but Raven looked up at him. He cocked his head to one side and his eyes looked like they were scanning her face. Did she have something on her mouth? A zit or something? She wiped at her mouth in case there was some food still there. His eyebrows raised as if he understood something. "I don't think you're dangerous. I look into those eyes of yours and I don't see a soul who wants to hurt people." He looked deep into her eyes with understanding. Something Raven did not think possible. She was suddenly reminded how pretty his own brown, puppy dog eyes were. "I see someone who's seen stuff, someone who knows people aren't bad, just ignorant. Someone who now just wants to be left alone because people have deeply hurt her, just for being different."

"You can tell all that from my eyes?" Raven asked. Russel nodded. She felt her face begin to relax from its suspicious scowl.

Raven did something she normally wouldn't do, but at this moment she it just felt so nice to have those words come out of someone else's mouth, someone her own age, someone she liked. She reached out and wrapped her arms around Russel's neck. He clearly wasn't expecting it and he felt like he didn't know what to do in this situation. He raised his hands, but hesitated before wrapping them around her back. When they closed over her she just felt so nice and secure.

Instead of just running off Raven felt content to stay with this little family group for a little longer. There was no harm in it, so long as she stayed away from Thomas. Sitting around the dining table Raven had been silent as the mother and father duo fussed a little over their youngest son and the girl he'd brought home.

"Oh, my dear girl, you're as skinny as a rake. You'll need to get some of my famous Yorkshire Puddings down you." Ruth had said.

"Leave her alone, Ruth." The Father had said, whom Raven found out was called Alistair. Raven felt grateful for Alistair for the intervention. Raven couldn't stand being mothered. It reminded her too much of…

It just reminded her of things…

After a fresh cup of tea and an interrogation by the parent, asking where she came from, her family and what she did. Along with Thomas asking if she had a boyfriend, which brought nasty looks his way from the parents and from Russel who stared daggers at him. But Thomas coolly just walked out as if he'd said nothing wrong with his chest flung so far out you'd have thought his nipples were each attached to charging elephants.

Raven didn't mind being asked about boyfriends. It was more that Thomas had been the one to ask it. If that guy came within touching distance of her, then she swore she was going to bring her foot into sharp contact with something. Something lower, and 'danglier'. Oh yeah, she didn't need her powers to take him down.

After more questions Raven was thankful to be rescued as Russel brought her outside to the houses back garden away from it all.

"Sorry," Russel said, "My parents are a little over friendly."

Raven shrugged, "I've seen worse parents."

"What are your parents like?" Russel had asked. That was a sore point with Raven and one she didn't want to answer right now, not straight anyway. She decided to leave out the part about her adopted father being an alien travelling in Space and Time, it might be too much. She settled with saying, "My parents, are kind of a touchy subject."

"Fair enough," Russel said, there was a pause in the conversation. "So, what do we do now?"

"Do we do now?" Raven asked, her mind went to something else when he'd said it.

"About the creature."

"Oh…" Raven felt disappointed. She remained silent as she thought. "Honestly," she turned to look at him with expressionless eyes. "I don't know what to do."

"You have your…" Russel motioned with his hands, "Powers, right? Can't you fight him?"

Raven was dreading having to explain this to him, because she felt he just wouldn't understand.

"My powers…" Raven started, "They come from an evil source."

"What do you mean?" She knew he wouldn't understand.

"My powers. I can't control them all the time." Raven looked away and down. "I… I nearly killed someone. I was so angry. So very, very angry. I… I channelled all my power through my rage. I… I became a monster. I killed," okay technically she didn't, all she killed were fictions, but she came close to taking a real life, "I killed people and I enjoyed it. I just wanted revenge for everything they did to me."

"But you regret it now, right?" Russel asked, coming closer to her.

"It's not a matter of regret. It's that the moment I let my emotions drive my powers, it's like the emotion gets revved up to the max, making more power escape." Raven tried to explain. "Some emotions, dark emotion let me focus my power, like anger. Other emotions just cause power to be released, anxiety, fear." Her eyes looked to the side of her face where Russel was, "Desire."

Russel froze, Raven groaned a little at how she'd just said 'desire' to him. But she also felt a little angry that Russel didn't seem to be taking the bait. Not that she wanted him to, of course, obviously.

"I don't think you're evil." Russel said, "I don't think your powers are evil either." He added. Oh yeah, what would he know about them? "I think your powers are just an extension of you. You can use them to build and be constructive, but you can also use them to be destructive."

"No shit." Raven bit a little.

Russel sighed a little, then he perked up as he had an idea. "I'll tell you what your powers are. Your powers are like an un-homed craft. They're like a sharp pencil. With that pencil you could write a story, draw a lovely picture. But you could also use it to write awful things to people, draw horrible things, produce propaganda, deceive, or even use the sharp end of it to hurt people. Sometimes you find you can't do something, and so you stab the paper in frustration, ruining the paper and blunting the pencil." He sounded like he'd done this a number of times over.

Raven held up her hands and a sphere of dark power appeared within them. "A pencil." She mused, and the dark sphere morphed into a small, slim, black pencil. It levitated from her hands and began to write in mid-air, a trail of darkness was left, it spelt out her name, 'Raven' then came a plus sign. Raven waved it away, causing the darkness to dissipate after it had finished the R and U of the next name.

Raven looked down at her hands, then remembered the scraps of paper in the waste bin in Russel's room. None of the papers had been stabbed, but he had screwed them up and tossed them in the bin. So even an artist of his calibre was still not perfect by his own standards.

Raven turned and looked Russel dead in the eye as she felt power start to flow through her again. Maybe she could learn to control and harness her powers better.

Raven's eyes were a glowing white as she looked into Russel's brown ones. No one had ever convinced her that her powers were a gift before, not even the Doctor.

"Thank you." Raven's voice cracked.

"Don't mention it." Russel said. Before Russel could say anymore Raven had her arms around him again.

"Thank you." She said into his ear.

She felt his arms around her again. They still felt nice.

Should I kiss him?

God no! So Raven didn't.

I'm not a kisser. She decided.

It was later in the day now. Raven had racked her brains trying to figure out what to do about this creature in the forest, and still she had no idea where the Doctor was, nor what he was up to. Whatever it was he didn't want Raven to be a part of it. Which she still kind of felt annoyed at. She didn't like it when secrets were kept from her, which was ironic, since she was full of secrets of her own.

Russel had tried to be helpful. Suggesting Raven ring the Doctor's mobile phone. Which would've been a good idea, except for two major flaws. Raven didn't have a mobile phone, and second, the Doctor didn't have one either, or at least as far as she knew. Who knew what the Doctor kept in those pockets of his.

"Don't worry, neither have I?" Russel commented when Raven told him she didn't own a mobile. "Who needs them, right?"

"Right…" Raven said, still lost in her own thoughts.

Later that day they'd returned to her lodgings in the pub and looked through the Doctor's case of gadgets. Raven delighted in showing Russel that iron thingy, and he watched it clean her clothes in seconds, Russel didn't need to use it as he'd already showered and changed clothes at his home.

The devices they pulled from the case didn't look that useful. Raven was sure one of them was a TV remote, but there was nothing useful, not even a Sonic Screwdriver.

"Is this Doctor guy some kind of inventor?" Russel asked. Raven considered telling him the truth, but thought better of it. He was already coming to terms with psychic powers being real, aliens and time travel might be a bit much for him right now.

"Kind of," Raven muttered.

There was a sharp knock on the door, and Russel jumped out of his skin when a voice bellowed. "Miss, your room hire has expired!" It was the pub landlord, "I'm afraid you'll have to pay extra to stay longer."

Oh great, now what was Raven supposed to do? She didn't have any money to pay for extra nights.

Russel motioned for her to stall the landlord, "Just a second." She called as Russel fished in his pockets and produced his wallet, in a whisper he told her. "How much was it per night?"

Raven thought back, "About twenty pounds."

"twenty pounds?!" Russel hissed silently, "Highway robbery. Here!" And he shoved two ten pound notes into her hands.

"Where did you get this from?" Raven questioned.

"I sell portraits, are you going to pay the man or not?" Russel whispered.

"Why are you whispering?"

"The Landlord doesn't like me, and he won't want to know I'm here." Russel said. Come to think of it, when they'd come in he seemed to carefully watch the bar as the Landlord pulled a pint.

"Okay, hide in the cupboard, just in case." Raven said, opening a cupboard and pushing Russel into it. With her companion sufficiently hidden she went up to the door and opened it a crack so she could peer around the door frame. "Here!" She said, pushing the notes into the Landlords hands."

"What are you doing in there?" the Landlord asked, suspicion in his mind.

"Nothing." Raven answered flatly.

"Nothing?" The Landlord asked.

That's when Raven heard Russel whisper to her from the cupboard. "Tell him it's private-girl-stuff."

"It's private-girl-stuff." Raven said without thinking, only now did she realise what it probably meant.

"Oh, excuse me." The Landlord said, looking a little sheepish. "I beg your pardon, miss." He was backing away, almost embarrassed, and he went back down the stairs.

Raven sighed with relief and shut the door."Is it safe?" Russel asked, "Can I come out now?" A very slight, mischievous smile played across her face.

"I think I prefer you to stay there." Raven smirked at the cupboard. "Much tidier."

"Very funny." Russel said and he began pushing the door open. But Raven pushed it shut again.

"I didn't say you could come out." Raven said, her frown straightening. "Not scared of the dark are you?"

"Raven, come on, it's dusty in here." Russel pushed harder and Raven gave up, allowing Russel to climb out and dust himself down.

"So now what do we do?" Russel asked and was surprised to find twenty pounds being shoved into his hands. "Hey, where did you get this from?"

"The Landlord." Raven shrugged.

"How did you…?" But Raven raised her right hand as shimmering, dark energy radiated from it. "Okay, okay, I get it." Russel then held out his hand again with the two tens, clearly trying to give them back to her.

"No thanks," Raven said, gently taking his hand and making his fingers fold back over the notes.

"You need it more than I do." Russel insisted.

"Buy me coffee tomorrow." Raven said looking directly into his eyes, she felt her face kind of 'relax-upwards,' if that made sense.

To Be Continued...