The Doctor

by Jennifer Bull

  Suddenly there were lights shining in the distance. I felt myself tense and push closer to the gap, trying to see more. The lights got closer and closer, and I could hear a noise getting louder. Then it stopped and the lights went out. Through the rain I could just make out two figures moving around. They seemed to be moving towards the house. As they got closer I could tell that the first one was male, older than me, but much younger than my father. The second was still too far away to see properly.

  Quickly, I moved away from the door and the images faded. I tried to hold on to them, but the more I tried, the more they disappeared. The cell came back into focus and I sat quite still for a while, trying to see anything else. But no more images came. I flicked some of the stones by my leg in frustration and went to gaze out of the window. I’m not sure what I was looking for; it’s not like the two newcomers were going to magically appear in my cell and rescue me. Even if they tried, one thing I knew for certain was that my father wouldn’t allow that.

  Maybe this was why he’d been pre-occupied recently. But who were they? No one had ever found this place before, and I don’t think anyone ever will. He couldn’t be worried about that, so something else must be bothering him. And that intrigued me.

  Only a few minutes went by as I gazed out of the cell, and then I heard a thundering sound coming down the corridor. A whisper flew through my head.

  Move the girl.

  Oh great, I guess that would be me. The lock clicked and my cell door swung open, crashing back against the wall. He stood in the doorway, filling it with his broad frame and glared at me. A brown paper package was propped under his arm.

  ‘Follow me,’ he said.

  As much as I wanted to disobey, to try to run away, I knew now was not a time to argue with him. The look on his face was flustered, and I’d never seen him like that before. It made him seem even crazier than usual, and that was pretty hard.

  As it turned out I didn’t have a choice anyway. He moved away from the door and started to walk back down the corridor. Without even moving my feet, I began slide along the floor, as if a force was pushing me from behind. Okay, okay. I walked quickly to catch up with him as he moved into another corridor. Looking around carefully as I went, I tried to fit all the pieces of this place into my virtual map. I had a good idea now of the layout, but there were still only a couple of exits I had seen. I needed to find more.

  He walked me down a number of corridors until we reached his study. I glanced around nervously, worried he was going to bring my mother’s fake ghost out again. Thankfully he didn’t, but he kept walking past the study and towards the dead end I had seen at the bottom of the corridor. Why were we going this way?

  We reached the end wall and he pushed gently near the top. The wall swung open! It looked like a room lay behind it. A very dark room.

  ‘Get in, and stay quiet. You know the consequences if you disobey me,’ he said, facing me. I was all too aware of the consequences.

  I walked past him and into the darkness. There were no windows in here, no nothing as far as I could tell. He placed the package down on the floor and shut the wall behind him. There was a loud click as it snapped into place. I could just see a sliver of light shining through the crack at the bottom of the wall.

  His footsteps grew fainter as he walked away from my new cell. I was more curious than ever now, what was he up to? He’d never moved me to a different place before, why would he need me out of my cell? I was actually a little homesick. I missed my barred window, where I could feel the breeze on my face and look out onto the misty rocks. I even missed my scratched walls, recording the days I’d been locked up there. This place was so dark I couldn’t even see my hands in front of my face.

  Slowly I walked around the edges of the room, trailing my hands over the walls. Definitely just a cell, I couldn’t feel anything other than wall. It wasn’t that big, possibly even smaller than my old cell. I stumbled over the package he had left on the floor. After I’d unwrapped it and felt the contents, I realised he’d actually left me some food. Judging by the sloshing sound when I shook one of the containers, there was water too.

  I turned my attention to the wall I had entered through. I knew it opened from the outside, the question was could it be opened from the inside? I doubted it, he wouldn’t be so stupid as to put me in a room I could get out of. Unless this was another of his games, in which case it should be fairly easy to escape. I ran my hands over it, but no matter how high or low, how hard or soft I prodded the wall, it just wouldn’t open.

  Slumping down on the floor, I sighed in frustration. My thoughts returned to the memories I had seen earlier. I knew what he planned to do; he wanted the boy and his friend here, on the island. New toys to play with and torment. I wished there was some way I could warn them. Tell them to run as far away as they could and never look back. It’s what I’d do if I had the chance. If I could learn to control these images, this connection to my father, maybe I would gain some control. It might just be my one ticket off this island.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Jack

  ‘Tez’s Rule #8 - Always listen to your partner… particularly when that partner is a smart, very handsome fellow…’

  My hand was resting against the broken wooden doorframe of the old house, and I hesitated. It had been so long. I could hear Daniel right behind me, shuffling his feet on the ground. The wolf was still fighting to be free, eating away at my energy while I tried to keep it under control. I’d need to persuade Daniel to work a little harder at removing the furry part of his mind once and for all. Taking a deep breath I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

  I stopped and frowned. I was not expecting to see that; the whole place was filled with a thick mist. This was weird.

  ‘What on earth…?’ Daniel said looking around, entering the room and standing next to me. I just shrugged in disbelief, open-mouthed. I couldn’t actually see anything, the mist was so thick.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ Daniel said, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ He was looking around anxiously.

  ‘We can’t, we need to find the Doctor. He has to be stopped,’ I said, not particularly keen on staying in the house myself. It certainly wasn’t how I remembered it. At the mention of the Doctor I felt a rush of anger. I wasn’t sure if it came from me or if I was feeling it from Daniel.

  Suddenly Daniel grabbed hold of my arm. I jumped so much I almost hit the ceiling. Okay, maybe not quite that high. I couldn’t actually see a ceiling anymore anyway.

  ‘What?’ I hissed at him, a little annoyed that I had been frightened by a simple touch to the arm.

  ‘Turn around,’ Dan said. He was staring off into the distance. I turned around. There was no door, no walls, no car on the drive. There was no drive for that matter. I had to remind myself to breathe. Why did Tez always have to be right? I spun round in a full circle, taking in the surroundings. Judging by the cold breeze, not to mention the lack of walls, we were outside… somewhere.

  The mist was starting to clear now and it was obvious that we weren’t anywhere near the old house anymore. I’m not sure where we were. The gentle lapping of water from behind suggested somewhere by the coast. The desolate surroundings told me no one lived here. Or at least very few people. Maybe only one in particular. I breathed out the air I hadn’t realised I’d been holding in. This was not what I had expected.

  ‘Where are we?’ Daniel asked. I felt a bit guilty at having brought him with me now. This wasn’t his fight, it was mine. I felt the wolf tussle a little harder against me, and the resolve on Daniel’s face was clear. I guess the Doctor had made it his fight too when he created the werewolf inside him.

  ‘I really don’t know,’ I said honestly. I turned in a circle again, as if hoping we would suddenly be back in the old house. We were standing on rocky ground, not far from the water’s edge that was still hidden by the mist. The only light was from the moon shining down on us. I’m pretty sure it had been daytime a few minutes ago. A rainy,
dark daytime, but daytime none the less. Really that should be the least of my worries, the sudden appearance of moonlight was nothing when you considered we had somehow been transported to another place entirely. Ahead of us lay a forest with a thick cloud hanging over the top of the trees.

  ‘I think we might be on an island,’ I said at last. There was no sign of civilisation anywhere, no noises around, not even a faint light on the horizon of far away cities. Not that we could see much horizon, but an island seemed the most logical suggestion for where we stood now.

  ‘And how did we get here Mr Detective?’ Daniel asked, ‘Last thing I remember is getting out of the car outside a creepy dilapidated old house and walking in the front door of said house. I also seem to recall saying it was a bad idea.’ I did not miss the severe coating of sarcasm on his voice.

  Taking a deep breath of the cold, damp air, I turned to him, ‘No idea, but we’re here now, let’s see what’s around. I have a feeling we might find our Doctor here somewhere.’

  I heard Dan mutter under his breath, ‘You think?’

  ‘Come on Mr Sarcastic, you’re beginning to sound a lot like Tez,’ I said, taking hold of his arm and dragging him towards the forest. I didn’t think it was a very good idea to stand still for too long here. It surprised me that nothing had happened to us yet. I wasn’t about to start getting complacent.

  ‘Alright, alright, you win. Let’s go searching for the crazy doctor who likes turning people into monsters. It’s not like we can turn back now anyway,’ he gestured behind us, ‘we seem to be missing the door.’

  I laughed in spite of myself. Sarcasm did suit Daniel rather well. I’d have to keep him and Tez away from each other when we got out of here. If we got out of here. A wave of cold brushed over me as I wondered if I’d taken on more than I could handle, without a partner to back me up. Yes, Daniel was here, but how much use could a serva with an uncontrollable werewolf inside them be?

  We headed into the forest, keeping close together, my meagre torchlight leading the way. Now was not the time to be separated; I did not want to be chasing down a werewolf in the middle of this dark, misty forest.

  Remembering I had some chocolate bars hidden in my vest pocket—you never know when you might need food out in the field—I pulled one out and shared it with Daniel. He accepted gratefully. I noticed for the first time that he was beginning to lose some of the werewolf features; the fur was still very present, but his face looked like it was beginning to return to human form. This was excellent news. If he could manage to control the wolf it would make everything much easier.

  As I put the empty wrapper back in my pocket, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. At first I thought I’d imagined it. Surely it had to be my mind playing tricks on me.

  Obviously it was because when I looked closer it had gone. She had gone. This day was bringing back memories that had been quite happily buried away. I tried to turn my attention to Daniel who was clearly attempting to take control of the wolf once again. The scrunched nose and screwed up eyebrows would have been comical at any other time.

  Then I noticed it again, a flash of movement off to my right. I stopped, catching Daniel’s arm, stopping him too. I wanted to listen; if someone else was here we’d be able to hear them moving. Were they following us?

  Daniel was about to question why we’d stopped when I mouthed to him to be quiet. His brows crunched together and he narrowed his eyes in confusion. Listening carefully I tried not to make any movements. There was no sound at all, no birds, no animals moving along the forest floor, not even any rustling leaves. I shone my torch around in a slow circle. It lit up the floor, which was littered with leaves, twigs and long grass poking up here and there. It shone against the rough bark on the trees and the darkness in between, leading only to more trees further on.

  I froze. I really hoped I hadn’t seen what I thought I’d seen. I glanced at Daniel who was looking remarkably calm. Excruciatingly slowly I moved my torchlight back to the right, just to the side of a particularly thick tree branch. There was an eye staring back at me.

  It blinked.

  ‘Can you see that?’ my voice was barely even audible as I spoke to Daniel.

  ‘See what?’ he replied, nonchalantly. Clearly he couldn’t. I shushed him and turned towards the eye. If the person the eye belonged to was going to attack us, they surely would have done so by now. I got the impression they had been following us for quite a while. So much for my abilities stopping people from sneaking up behind me.

  I searched hard, trying to find a connection to the hidden person, whilst still keeping the wolf contained. There was nothing to be found. The wolf must be taking more energy than I’d realised; I’d never failed to reach someone who was standing so close.

  Sounding braver than I felt I spoke aloud, ‘Come out from behind the tree. Who are you?’

  Slowly the eye moved. Long, blonde curly hair came into view, falling carefully around the very pale face staring at me through the gap in the trees. The young woman was wearing a green dress that was torn and dirty. I took a step back uncertainly, practically stepping on Daniel who was close behind me.

  ‘Jack,’ the woman whispered, her arm outstretched towards me.

  I shook my head. This was not happening. ‘No, you are just in my head. Go away. You don’t exist.’ I backed up even further but Daniel’s arms gripped my shoulders and stopped me.

  ‘Jack,’ he said, the concern clear in his voice, ‘What’s happening? There’s nothing there. It’s just us.’

  The solid sound of his voice shook me to my senses and the woman faded away in front of my eyes. My mother. Looking exactly like she had when she’d disappeared. This had been a very bad idea.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Daniel asked quietly.

  ‘Y—Yes,’ I replied shakily, trying to pull myself together. ‘Could you not see her?’

  ‘Who?’ he asked looking around the area. Looking back at me he raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  ‘The woman I saw in the trees,’ I sighed, pointing in the direction she had stood moments before. ‘It was my mother.’

  Dan didn’t say anything this time, but his eyebrows just raised even higher.

  ‘She disappeared when I was a child and I haven’t seen her since. The police, both ours and yours, were unable to find any trace of her and I ended up being shipped off to live with my aunt,’ I told him, ‘The woman I just saw… she didn’t look a day older than when she disappeared.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Daniel said quietly. He paused for a moment, then continued, ‘Are you sure you didn’t just see the shadows, it’s dark in here, it could just be your mind playing tricks on you.’

  I shrugged my shoulders. I preferred his assessment of the situation to the ones that were currently running through my head. My imagination, that’s all it had been.

  ‘What happened to your father?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘He left,’ I replied shortly, ‘or rather I left. I never saw him again after I went to my aunt’s house.’ Daniel seemed to take the hint and stopped asking questions. My father was not a subject I liked to discuss. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here. We mustn’t stand around for too long. Though I suspect the Doctor already knows we’re here.’ I said the last bit quietly so Daniel wouldn’t hear.

  We walked in silence for a while. I kept a wary eye out for any more ghostly visions, it had creeped me out more than I wanted Daniel to know. To be honest, the whole island made me nervous. How had we even got here? I had my suspicions but they were just that, suspicions. However, if I was right and my suspicions were true, then things weren’t looking good for us. I decided not to mention that.

  The trees began to thin out as we walked and I dared myself to hope that we would soon be making it out of this forest.

  ‘Take it slowly,’ I warned Daniel as we neared the edge of the forest. I could see something through the thinning trees. He slowed down his pace and tried to tread as quietly as I was doing. He hadn’t quite got
the hang of it and was making much more noise than I would have liked. I flinched at every twig breaking and every crunch of dry leaves under his feet.

  Keeping hidden behind a nearby tree and glancing out of the forest, I looked around carefully. There was a large old stone building not far away. It looked as if it had been made to blend in with the surrounding rock, but the moonlight fell on the barred windows, betraying it.

  Daniel came up beside me and peered through the gap in the direction I was looking. ‘That’s where we go,’ I said.

  ‘Oh great, another creepy old house,’ he replied, a fake look of joy on his face.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ I said grimacing, ‘I don’t think we’ll find an island inside this one.’

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Daniel

  ‘Note to self: Next time Jack tells you to get in the car with him. Don’t.’

  Moving quietly across the field, we kept our bodies low to the ground to avoid detection. Try and keep the element of surprise if we can, Jack had said. The ‘if we can’ had not sounded very convincing.

  The muscles in my legs were burning with the effort of trying to crouch down, whilst walking as fast as I could across the grass. The area between the forest and the building was too open should someone be watching for us, so we tried to stay close to anything that might give us some shelter from prying eyes.

  Clumps of rocks were lying here and there providing a good place to hide behind and rest, and sections of the grass were so high we could almost move without being seen. Clearly we didn’t think about the swaying grass, and we might as well have had a big sign pointing at us saying ‘we’re down here’, but we were having an ‘if we can’t see you, then you can’t see us’ moment, and being out of sight made us feel better. Luckily no one seemed to be watching us, as we managed to make it to the edge of the building without any attacks, and we were both still in one piece.