The Doctor

by Jennifer Bull

  That was the day I decided I wanted to be a detective. I wanted to do a better job than the detectives had done looking for my mother. Maybe, someday, I would even be able to find out what had happened to her. As for my father, I never saw nor heard from him again.

  I took the whiskey out of the cupboard, grabbed a large glass and filled it up. I didn’t feel like going home that night, if I did there would just be serva kids knocking on my door wanting sweets, dressed in silly costumes pretending to be werewolves and dragons. I’d even had one come by dressed as a pumpkin before. I couldn’t deal with that. At least here in my office I would get some peace and quiet. Tez had gone home a few hours earlier and we’d been the only ones in the office that day. A lot of paranormals liked Halloween, a chance to go outside and not hide who they were. It was a busy night for the Paranormal Agency’s Police Service though, there were always some people who took things just a little too far.

  Sitting down, I leant back in my leather chair and put my feet on the desk, ignoring the case files I was brushing aside. My eyes glazed over as I looked at the only framed picture on my desk. My mother was wearing her favourite green dress, her blonde hair curling over her shoulders, and my father had his arm draped around her looking proud, and a little tipsy. It had been taken on his birthday, only weeks before she went missing.

  Taking a large gulp of whiskey, I picked up the TV remote and flicked it on. Nothing but Halloween movies. I settled on the News Channel, hoping it might distract me from anything and everything Halloween. All that happened was the monotony of the reader’s voice made me yawn.

  The sound of screaming woke me up with a start. It took a few seconds before I realised I was still in my chair, in my office, and the TV was on. The clock in the bottom right of the screen told me it was way too early. I was about to flick off the News Channel and find something less noisy this time in the morning, when the reader’s voice caught my attention.

  ‘…the Haunted Towers Adventure Park this morning. Officers arrived to find a scene of devastation across the park. Three adults, one was a staff member at the park, were badly injured during the altercation and they are now being treated in hospital. The owner’s son and a female visitor to the park are still missing. Officers are searching through the debris. Video surveillance from the park caught some of the action…’

  The video surveillance was playing now on the screen. It was dark and fuzzy, but there was no mistaking it, that was a werewolf. Shit. Why on earth hadn’t we been notified? Jumping up out of my seat, I picked up my phone from the desk; it was off. Tez must have tried to call already.

  I grabbed my vest and raced out the door. If Tez was already there then that surveillance tape would never have been found. Training 101, remove any recorded evidence of the event. I tried calling him from the car, but it just went to voicemail. Putting my foot down, I hoped there were no police around. I had to get there before anyone found the werewolf. This was already messy enough without that happening.

  One thing was clear though… the Doctor was back.

  Part Two

  CHAPTER TEN

  Jack

  ‘Tez’s Rule #2 - Never take on anything you can’t handle. At least not without backup.’

  I put my foot down a little harder on the pedal, glancing nervously in the rear-view mirror. It was still early so the roads were clear, but I couldn’t afford to be stopped now. I checked the car’s clock; 07:00. The clock was an hour out after daylight savings time had finished earlier that week. I really should get around to changing it… but then again, I could just leave it a few months and it would correct itself. I grinned despite myself. That was just what Tez did every year.

  I’d tried calling him again, but it just went to voicemail each time. I had to hope he was on his way already, as this was going to take some serious clearing up. There was nothing we could do now about the video surveillance, too many people had seen it. It would go into the extra-terrestrial archive at some serva organisation, no doubt. We just had to keep them away from the actual werewolf. If they found the creature first… well, it didn’t bear thinking about. There’d been breaches like this before, but never in recorded history had a serva actually captured a paranormal. We’d avoided it at all costs, and I wasn’t going to let that change today on my watch.

  I passed a road sign, ‘Haunted Towers Adventure Park’ pointing right. I followed the instructions, which was unusual for me, and before long I pulled into the parking lot. Turning off the engine, I sat back in my seat and shook my head in despair. The place was packed. You could not fit another news van or reporter in here. I’d had to park at the back as it had been the only place left with enough room.

  My eyes scanned around, searching for Tez’s car. Clearly I wasn’t going to see anything from inside my car. I checked my phone and there was hardly any signal. With any luck, that would be the reason Tez’s phone was going to voicemail. I needed him to be here, there was no way I could do this on my own.

  I got out the car, locked up and started to wade through the crowds. A number of serva police stood, arms folded across their chests, at the entrance to the park, keeping everyone at bay. The first one put his hand up to stop me from coming through and I reached down for my badge. Shit. My hands felt through all my pockets; it wasn’t there. I must have left the damn thing on my desk at work. No amount of explaining would persuade the police to let me through, although I gave it a good try. I had no choice but to go back to the car and try to call for backup. This was not a good day.

  ‘Jack!’

  I jumped and spun back around.

  ‘Let him through boys,’ Tez called to the police, ‘He’s with me.

  ‘Where on earth have you been?’ Tez asked when I’d made my way through the entrance. I had been relieved by the sound of Tez’s voice initially, until I saw the look on his face. This was definitely a bad day. We retreated far enough away so our conversation remained only between us. The place looked eerie, like a deserted, run-down theme park, with all the rides turned off, no visitors and no noise other than the shouts from the reporters all jostling to get the story first.

  ‘Woke up to the news on TV and saw the wolf footage. Damn phone had switched itself off,’ I told him.

  ‘Funny old thing, eh. Not possible that you maybe turned it off last night?’ Tez raised his eyebrow at me.

  ‘Okay, there’s a small possibility of that. Now what’s going on here?’

  Tez frowned and sighed heavily. ‘Place is swarming with servas. Backup are on their way and I’ve scoured half the grounds. No sign of the furry one.’

  ‘Where was the last victim found?’ I asked, trying to piece together what had happened. We moved a little further away as a group of police came within earshot.

  ‘They found a security guard in the cemetery of one of the rides; Haunted Tower something or other. Sounds like he was the last one to be hurt. Police have checked the ride out but didn’t find anything,’ Tez said.

  ‘I say we check it out again. They could easily have missed something,’ I said, hoping I was right. We had to find the wolf before backup arrived. The ribbing we would receive about this whole day was going to be bad enough without backup having to find the damn werewolf for us too.

  ‘Agreed.’

  We made our way across the park, trying to attract as little attention as possible. Luckily the police were talking to the reporters outside the entrance and seemed to be generally ignoring us as much as they could. I hoped they weren’t saying too much. Tez had picked up one of the park maps and was attempting to direct us.

  ‘They didn’t want to let me in,’ Tez said quietly, ‘But I brought my other badge. They couldn’t say no to that. Told them I was in charge, and I should be informed of any developments immediately.’

  I laughed. Tez had swiped the ‘other’ badge a while back. A couple of serva high-ups had tried to override his authority at a crime scene. That was the last they saw of their badges, and I was forced into updati
ng their memories to keep Tez out of trouble. It was not something I was happy about and Tez knew it, but I think that just made it more amusing for him.

  Tez was frowning at the park map now, turning it around in his hands. I sighed and swiped it off him. Navigation was not his strong point. I’d learnt that the hard way. Turning back on ourselves, we took the next left and followed the path towards the Haunted Towers ride. Glancing nervously around, I realised we had a disadvantage. The werewolf could be anywhere, hiding amongst the many buildings, rides, stalls, and decorations that were scattered across the park. He may already be watching us. Telling myself sternly that the wolf would not be silly enough to stand around waiting to be caught, I concentrated on moving as quickly as possible to our destination.

  Thankfully, when we reached the ride it looked empty, no servas in sight. Maybe our luck was changing. We walked through the cemetery quickly; I never had liked cemeteries, not even fake ones. My eyes swept from side to side, making sure there was no one hiding behind any of the tombstones waiting to pounce. Tez looked equally uncomfortable. He hadn’t said anything but I was certain he was still shaken from the last werewolf incident. I knew I was.

  We made it safely across the cemetery and through the doors into the Haunted Towers ride. This was going to be rather difficult.

  ‘It’s dark in here, can’t we get some lights on?’ I asked, squinting.

  ‘Something’s up with the wiring apparently. Here, have a torch,’ Tez said, handing me a tiny one from his pocket. I flashed my new torch around the room, crossing over with Tez’s much larger light beam.

  The look of disapproval on my face didn’t go unnoticed, and the grin on his face was unmistakable, even in the small amount of light I now had. Frowning, I looked around as best I could. It seemed just like a normal empty ride, no damage was visible to suggest a werewolf had been through, and I couldn’t hear any bangs or crashes overhead of a wolf trying to escape. I did hope this wasn’t another werewolf that knew how to hide. My mind searched carefully around; I could sense something, but it seemed distant and I couldn’t get a lock on it.

  ‘He’s here somewhere,’ I muttered to Tez, ‘not in this room, but definitely somewhere in the building.’

  Tez nodded and we started to circle the room looking for any clues to his whereabouts. My hands traced the walls as we moved, feeling for any exits off the room. The serva police had already searched all the rides, so I doubted he was hiding in plain sight. They weren’t the brightest servas I’d seen, but it’s pretty hard to miss a great big werewolf. I figured there had to be something hidden, something they’d missed.

  ‘Hey Jack,’ Tez said in a loud whisper from the other side of the room, ‘there’s something here.’

  I hastened over to where he stood, and ran my hands over the tall, wooden slats that made up the wall. The gap between two of the slats was deeper than the rest.

  ‘You’re right,’ I said quietly. My fingers traced the indent in the wall, lit by Tez’s torch. ‘That’s a door. I take it the servas didn’t search through here?’

  ‘No, I was in here when they looked over the place. They barely spent any time in this room. I’d have seen it if they’d had the damn lights on, but in the dark it just looked like part of the wall.’ He sounded frustrated.

  ‘Better that there are two of us here anyway. We need to see what we’re dealing with,’ I told him.

  I ran my light over the wall looking for a handle. There wasn’t one, but what I did find was an indent about half way down. I hooked my fingers through it and pulled gently. The door made a loud creak as it opened towards us, and I peered through the gap, shining the light with my free hand.

  ‘There’s a passageway back here,’ I whispered to Tez, ‘Can’t see much though. Looks like there might be a door at the end.’

  ‘Can you sense him?’ Tez asked, tapping his torch absent-mindedly.

  I felt around, reaching for his thoughts. ‘Possibly,’ I said, ‘It’s hard to tell but I think… wait, yes, I think I can sense him a little better now. Come on.’

  Carefully stepping through the doorway, we walked softly down the passageway making as little noise as possible and headed towards the door at the end. As we got closer, we heard rustling sounds coming from behind the door. I motioned Tez to stop, and silently asked him to hold the people inside back. My ability was much stronger face to face, but as long as Tez knew where to aim, he could restrain most suspects instantly.

  Tez concentrated for a moment, the rustling stopped and I heard the lock click as he manipulated it. He nodded to me indicating it was safe, and I pulled the door open.

  The scene in front of me would have been comical if we had been looking in from the outside. The werewolf was stood up on his hind legs, stretching up to the ceiling. He looked like he was in the process of falling over backwards. Tez had a good hold on him so he couldn’t move, but the look in his eyes was quite clear. We wouldn’t be standing here right now if he had his way.

  A whimper in the corner brought my attention to the girl. Her eyes were red and puffy and her long brown hair lay tangled around her face, her clothes were crumpled and even torn in places, but otherwise she looked unharmed. That was very strange. I’d never seen a werewolf lock themselves in a room with a victim before, and that victim make it out alive, let alone with no major injuries.

  The girl seemed to falter for a moment, then she got up and ran over, throwing her arms around my waist and crying onto my shoulder. I gingerly patted her back, quite unsure what to do. Werewolves I could handle. Women, not so much.

  ‘What am I, chopped liver?’ A disgruntled Tez was mumbling to himself. I gently manoeuvred the girl to him, and turned back to the werewolf.

  The werewolf clearly was not a paranormal before being turned. I found the boy inside too quickly for him to have been. I tried hard to bring the boy back to the surface and push the wolf away, but something wasn’t right, I couldn’t force the wolf back in. That was not a good sign. Luckily my telepathy allowed me to talk to the boy even if he was still trapped inside.

  ‘What’s your name?’ I asked the boy, still trying to fight against the wolf. I’d always managed it before. The wolf must have overpowered the boy inside so much that he had no fight left in him. It was strong, that was for sure.

  There was a moment’s pause before I got a response. ‘Daniel,’ he replied, ‘I can’t get rid of him; I tried so hard. He’s taken over before, but he always goes away in the end. Not this time. I couldn’t stop him. He… he killed Rex.’

  I could feel the despair coming from him, the sensation was so strong that it was making me feel ill. I steadied myself, leaning against the wall.

  ‘Daniel, I need you to calm down. I’m Jack, and I have control of the wolf. He can’t harm anyone whilst I’m here, but I can’t seem to push him back. You said he killed Rex, was he your friend?’

  ‘Y—Yes.’ His voice was trembling.

  ‘I need you to focus on that. Focus on what you don’t want to become. I can control the wolf, but only you will be able to remove him. I’m going to ask my colleague to let you go now. You’ll be able to move but please stay calm. Don’t run.’ I said the last two words very carefully. Tez wouldn’t hesitate to attack him if he tried to run.

  I motioned to Tez to let Daniel go. He hesitated, but let go slowly. The girl moved closer to the door, hiding behind Tez, and not quite letting go of his arm. Daniel sank to the floor and sat up once he was free of Tez’s hold.

  Behind me, I could hear Tez asking the girl if she was alright. Beth, her name was. Her voice was shaking but Tez seemed to be having a calming effect on her.

  I had the wolf subdued, but I knew he would come back within seconds if I left the vicinity. The wolf imprint had taken over Daniel’s mind much further than I had seen before. It gave me some hope; maybe there was a chance he knew more about the Doctor than the others had.

  ‘Daniel, can you think back to when you first knew you had the wolf inside. Th
ink carefully of any moments that are missing from your memories around that time.’

  I could tell he was trying hard. Flashes of images appeared in front of me, and I grabbed hold of them, trying to ease further into his mind. Some of the images were slipping away before I could even get a chance to look, but others were stronger. I needed to see more.

  It took a while, but eventually I found something. A memory hidden deep within his mind, one I was sure he didn’t even know was there.

  It was dark and the rain was coming down hard, bouncing off the tarmac. I was standing at the edge of a garden, looking out on to the street. It looked familiar somehow. There were no houses in front of me, just empty fields, lots of them. I squinted though the rain and tried to see more. There were a couple of street lamps down the street, but not close enough to give me much light. I turned around. My heart practically stopped as I looked up at the house towering in front of me. The windows were boarded up, tiles were falling off the roof, even one of the walls looked a little lop-sided. Why were we here?

  When the memory faded I was sitting on the floor, sweating and clenching my fists. Tez was kneeling next to me holding onto my vest. I must have collapsed. Promising Tez I was okay, I got back to my feet and looked at the werewolf in front of me. The image of his memory came back to me.

  I knew that place, that house. I knew where to go.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Daniel

  ‘When you get a second chance, grab it with both hands and don’t let go.’

  Bewildered wasn’t even what I was feeling right now. The wolf had taken over, been on a rampage, killed one of my… And now I was sat here in a hidden room having taken Beth captive, with two people who had somehow come out of nowhere and stopped the wolf from being in complete control. Maybe it was just a dream. Nightmare actually.