by John Peel
In his usual direct fashion, the Doctor had marched to the large doors, and then thrown them open. Inside the room was a jumble of very odd equipment. In the centre of the stone floor was a table on some kind of support that could be raised and lowered. Chains from the table led to a capstan in one wall. The Doctor’s eye followed the path the table would take, seeing a huge skylight in the roof. Lightning traced a crooked path across the small patch of black sky.
About the walls were huge coils, switches the size of a man, and what appeared to be large vacuum tubes. One wall held a bank of panels, clearly marked in English indicating voltage, amperage and wattage. These measured thousands of each unit, which struck the Doctor as being more than a trifle unrealistic.
Ignoring this for a moment, the Doctor moved forward to examine the table. It was covered with a grey sheet that had probably once been white. Wiring ran from the equipment across the floor and disappeared under the sheeting. It seemed connected to what looked uncomfortably like a large, thick-set body. It all rang a familiar chime in the back of the Doctor’s mind, but he couldn’t quite place it.
A tap on his shoulder made him start, but it was merely Ian. ‘Kindly don’t startle me when I’m concentrating,’ the Doctor snapped.
Grinning in disbelief, Ian answered: ‘Concentrating? Right. So, what have you found now?’
‘Well, it’s obviously some kind of laboratory, Chesterton, the Doctor retorted, annoyed at having appeared frightened. ‘Look at this equipment.’
‘Yes,’ Ian agreed, looking around. There was something awfully familiar about this place, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. ‘Well, I think we’ve discovered one thing—this is no place to meet the Daleks. Let’s find Barbara and Vicki and get out of here.’
‘Not until I’ve seen what’s on that table,’ the Doctor answered, firmly.
Eyeing the shrouded shape, Ian put a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder. ‘I’d be happier not knowing, Doctor.’
Surprised, the Doctor looked up at him. ‘You can’t mean that, my boy,’ he remarked. ‘Where’s your sense of adventure, your scientific spirit?’
‘It died a slow and painful death when we were buzzed by those bats.’
Snorting, the Doctor broke Ian’s grip. ‘Well, stay here then while I look.’ He set off towards the table. As he passed the first of the huge tubes, they sprang into sudden life. With a hum, rings of incandescent light began to pulse upwards through the glass.
Retreating to rejoin Ian, the Doctor stared raptly at the phenomenon. The rings of light rose in stately motion to the tops of the tubes, where they vanished. The panels of instruments began registering as fresh bands of light began their journey up the tubes. These rings were moving faster, and the hum from the machinery became louder. The crash of the thunder overhead was almost drowned out.
Suddenly, two large globes on armatures swung from the panels, until they were over the shrouded table. As the light display intensified to nearly painful brilliance, jagged arcs of electricity passed between the globes, enveloping the figure on the slab. Then the room went dark.
It took a moment for their eyes to readjust to the gloom. As they did so, Ian saw that the shape on the table was starting to move. An arm reached upwards, and then the rest of the figure followed it. The cloth covering fell free, and Ian and the Doctor were staring at a horrible apparition.
The creature was made from sewn-together pieces of cadavers. The stitching was still visible, and not at all pretty. It had little hair, a squared head, and twin bolts in its neck. Its clothes were ragged and dark. Twin red eyes burned under huge brows. They seemed to be staring right at the intruders.
Ian grabbed the Doctor, and began to drag him from the room. The Doctor started to protest, struggling to remain. Ian couldn’t understand why—unless the Doctor didn’t understand what that thing back there was. After all, the Doctor was not of the Earth. ‘That’s the Frankenstein monster!’ Ian hissed. ‘It can’t be real! It’s just a story, a film... It can’t be real. It can’t be! ’
‘Will you kindly stop dragging me like a sack of potatoes!’ the Doctor snapped back, pulling himself free. ‘If what you say is true, then there has to be some logical explanation for this.’
‘And that is?’
Smoothing his collar back into place, the Doctor cleared his throat. He wanted another look at the creature, but now that he considered the matter, the thing did look rather ferocious... ‘Well, why don’t we find the ladies and see if they can shed any light on this, mmm?’ In an abrupt about-face, he moved very quickly from the room. ‘Come along, come along, don’t dawdle!’
Ian took a last look at the creature, which was still on the table and watching him. ‘I’m right behind you,’ he assured the Doctor, and hastily fled the room.
The monster continued to stare at the doorway for a moment, and then it lay back down on the table. Its huge hand pulled the sheet back, until the monster was covered again. The machinery started to settle back into slumber, just like the creature. All was as it had been in the room.
Above them, from some tower in the castle, a lone bell began to peal.
In the lobby, Vicki and Barbara had finally caught their breath. As they heard the bell, they peered around the edge of the TARDIS. Thankfully, the coffin had remained shut once Barbara had dropped the lid.
‘Ask not for whom the bell tolls,’ she muttered softly to herself. ‘I feel as though my hair has turned white.’
Vicki glanced up, and then stifled a yelp. ‘It has !’
Alarmed, Barbara pulled a lock of hair in front of her face. It was its normal rich brown. Vicki started to giggle, and Barbara took a playful swat at her. ‘One of these days...’ she warned the teenager. ‘My nerves aren’t up to jokes like that.’
‘I’m sorry, Barbara,’ Vicki said, calming down somewhat. ‘I just had to do something to break my gloomy mood.’
From behind them, a deep, resonant voice intoned: ‘Good evening.’
They spun about. In the shadows, they could just make out a tall, gaunt figure and nothing more.
Essaying a tight smile, Vicki managed to answer, ‘Good evening.’
‘Who are you?’ Barbara demanded.
In response, the figure moved forward, into the weak light. He was well over six feet tall, pale of face, but with brightly coloured lips. His eyes were intense, unblinking. A long, flowing cape, lined with red velvet, covered a dark suit and an intensely white shirt. ‘My name,’ he said, with a slight bow from the waist, ‘is Dracula. Count Dracula.’
‘You can’t be!’ Barbara exclaimed. ‘Not really. Where are we, anyway?’
‘Welcome to Castle Dracula,’ the figure said. There was another crack of lightning and a crash of thunder, and he moved back into the shadows. After a second, Barbara followed him, only to meet smooth stone. He had vanished.
‘He’s... gone,’ she whispered, feeling the stone.
‘Thank goodness for that,’ Vicki answered. ‘He gave me the creeps.’
‘There’s something very wrong here,’ Barbara said, trying to discover a secret panel, a hidden door— anything that would show her where he had gone to. He couldn’t really have vanished... could he? He couldn’t really be Count Dracula. There wasn’t any such person! Or was there? Had the TARDIS taken them to a time when Dracula—some Dracula, at any rate—lived? She remembered that there had been someone named Vlad... Vlad the Impaler, he’d been called. He had been a Dracula, and a real Count. Could they be in his home? ‘Why did he just walk away?’ she asked, as much of herself as of Vicki. ‘There must be a catch here somewhere. What do you think, Vicki?’
For once, there was no sound from the youngster. Barbara glanced round, and instantly saw the reason for that.
There was no sign of Vicki anywhere in the hall.
Fighting down the panic that threatened to overwhelm her, Barbara backed away from the wall and frantically scanned the room. Vicki was nowhere to be seen. Feeling weak, Barbara collapsed int
o a high-backed chair near a solid-looking wall, and tried to think.
The chair spun around on a hidden hinge, as the wall section revolved. With a click, the wall had reversed itself. An identical chair now stood on the same spot as the old chair. The only difference was that this one was empty. Barbara had now vanished as well.
Ian and the Doctor came hurriedly down the stairs, glancing behind themselves as they did so. Thankfully, the creature they had seen had not followed them. Arriving in the hallway again, both men looked around. Neither Barbara nor Vicki was there.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, the Doctor snapped, ‘Now where have those young women got to?’
Ian shook his head. ‘You know, there’s something terribly familiar about all of this, Doctor. Yet I know I’ve never been here.’
‘Mmm? Oh, don’t be so certain of that, my boy.’
Puzzled, Ian examined the smug expression on the Doctor’s face. ‘Surely I’d remember a place like this if I’d seen it before.’
The Doctor waved his hand airily, dismissing the point. ‘Oh, I know that physically you’ve never been here before—but mentally I think you’ve been here many times.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Nor do I, fully,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘But it’s beginning to get clearer as I think about it. You’ve seen old horror films, read the scary books I saw you with that ridiculous volume in the TARDIS, you know! You’ve had nightmares before. Monsters in haunted houses, creaking doors, thunder and lightning—and here it is, every bit of it.’ He threw his arms wide to illustrate his point, almost hitting Ian with his walking stick.
Ducking, Ian tried to laugh off what the Doctor was talking about. ‘Are you trying to tell me that this place exists only in my mind?’
‘Oh, not just your mind, my boy, but in the minds of millions.’ With a far-off look in his eyes, the Doctor began weaving his theory. ‘Everyone who ever saw a horror film... All who read the works of Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley... Everyone who tried to frighten an audience with old, dark houses, rats, bats, spiders and... things. All those untold horrors lurking just below the conscious mind—the fear of the unseen, the unknown, the unliving... It’s here, all of it!’
Fighting the chain of logic that the Doctor was constructing, Ian protested: ‘All of what you say may be true, but this is a real house.’ He slapped his hand on a wall. ‘It exists. It’s solid.’
‘Exists, yes,’ the Doctor said, scornfully dismissing the facts. He tapped his temple, significantly. ‘In the deepest, darkest recesses of the human mind—that’s where it exists, my boy! Millions of minds, secretly believing that all of this must somehow be real. How many people, on dark nights, have heard footsteps in the blackness and imagined they were being followed by some uncanny creature? How many people have walked into haunted houses, defying the spirits—and all the time secretly afraid that they would confront the unknown and unknowable? The immense power of their fears, their beliefs, their nightmares—that has made this place a reality! A house of horrors, yanked from the deepest recesses of the human mind!’
‘You mean...’ Ian struggled to follow the Doctor’s poetic soaring, ‘you mean that we’ve strayed into some strange nether world—neither real nor unreal—an illusion, a belief so powerful that it actually exists?’
‘Precisely,’ the Doctor beamed, patting Ian’s hand condescendingly. ‘When you think about it, it’s all so logical. What do they train your minds on in those vaunted English schools of yours?’
Ignoring the insult, Ian smiled. ‘Then we’re safe, Doctor.’
‘Safe? Haven’t you heard a word I’ve been saying? How can we be safe here in a dimension of nightmares?’
‘Don’t you see?’ Ian asked, eagerly. ‘If this is a realm made from the frightened dreams of men , then the Daleks can’t land here, can they?’
The Doctor was astonished, and then pleased. ‘You know, I do believe you’re right, my boy. Perhaps they do teach something worth while at Coal Hill School after all! The Daleks could never land here. Never!’ Gripping his lapels, he preened himself happily, certain of his chain of logic.
Unfortunately for the Doctor and his companions, reality was not quite as accommodating as the Doctor’s beliefs indicated. In the next room, with its soft whine, the Dalek time machine materialized.
Chapter 9
Fallen Spirits
The Patrol Leader turned with satisfaction from the screens inside the time machine. ‘The scanners indicate that the enemy time machine is still here. We have caught them.’
‘Which planet are we on?’ The Second-in-command asked.
‘Earth. They have changed their geographical and temporal location by only a few units.’
‘They cannot elude us this time.’
‘No.’ The Leader moved away from the controls. ‘Disembark the search force.’
The Daleks began to glide out of their time machine, ready to seek out their foes. Following the instructions of the Leader, they dispersed to look through the dark corridors and rooms. Unlike their four targets, the Daleks had no innate fear of either the shadows or the unknown. If something existed, it could be destroyed; if it did not exist, then it was of no importance. They also had, naturally, no knowledge of the creatures of human myths and imagination.
Exploring upstairs, one of the Daleks came upon the laboratory. Scanning the area showed one humanoid figure, stretched out on a table. Moving forward to investigate, the Dalek passed between the large tubes.
Instantly, the rings of light began to float upwards, inside the vacuum tubes. The Dalek spun about, seeking for whoever had triggered the machinery. There was still no one in sight but the unmoving figure on the table. Switching to infra-red, the Dalek saw that a low-level photoelectric eye had been set up between the tubes. Passing through the beam had set the machinery into motion.
The light-tubes had built up to their peak again, and the twin globes moved over the sheeted figure. A blast of electricity sizzled through the air, and then the being on the table began to stir. The Dalek had no interest in the appearance of the creature—all humanoids looked equally ugly to it—but it was displaying some form of intelligence, even though it was not registering as a living being.
‘Halt!’ the Dalek grated. ‘You will answer my questions!’
Ignoring the order, the Frankenstein monster pushed back the sheet, and sat up, swinging its legs to the floor. Evidently, the creature would not obey. The Dalek opened fire at it. In the stream of radiation, the monster seemed totally untouched. Then it simply lay down again and covered itself.
The Dalek was worried over the immunity this being showed to the lethal radiation fire. No living creature was supposed to be able to withstand a sustained burst as this creature had. Before the Dalek could reach the logical conclusion, a bell began to peal hollowly from some floor above. The Dalek whirled about, and set off to investigate.
Blissfully unaware of how wrong his conclusions were, the Doctor was once again feeling confident. As usual, this made him smug and garrulous. Ian had difficulty in getting him to listen, but then reminded him that Barbara and Vicki were still missing.
‘Where can they have gone to?’ he asked. ‘We would have seen them if they had gone upstairs. And they certainly didn’t want to get too far away from the TARDIS.’
‘Listen!’ the Doctor interrupted him, holding up a hand. ‘There’s somebody coming, Chesterton.’ He gestured towards the door leading from the room to the rest of the castle. ‘Behind there.’
Before they could move, something hit the door hard. The solid oak cracked, split and showered all over the floor. The bulk of it simply collapsed forwards. In the door frame stood a Dalek, scanning the room. As it saw Ian and the Doctor, its gun came into firing position.
‘Get under cover!’ Ian yelled, propelling the Doctor towards the stairs. Both of them ducked behind the stonework as the Dalek fired. It had had no time to reset its weapon from the broad-spectrum energy
blast used on the door to the killing radiation beam. Curtains over one of the windows burst into flames from the force of the blast, casting an eerie red glow over the room.
The Doctor tapped Ian on the arm and pointed. The TARDIS door was facing away from the shattered door. ‘We have to get back to the TARDIS,’ he hissed. ‘It will protect us while we enter.’
Ian nodded, and peered round the edge of the stairs. The Dalek was trying to move the door out of its way on the floor so that it could enter the room after them. While it was so occupied, Ian led the Doctor in a sprint for the TARDIS. The Dalek reacted, but by the time it could fire again, they were safely under the cover of the TARDIS, which absorbed the blast without any apparent ill effects. The Doctor fished hastily in his pocket for the key.
‘So there you are!’
Ian and the Doctor spun around, to see a wall panel opening beside the TARDIS. Barbara and Vicki, both covered in dust and cobwebs, emerged, brushing at their hair and clothing.
‘Where have you been?’ the Doctor snapped, testily.
Vicki grinned. ‘We stumbled into these really weird tunnels, hidden in this place and—’
‘Tell us later,’ Ian broke in, pushing the Doctor back to the TARDIS door. ‘The Daleks are here, and we’ve got to move fast!’
Vicki glanced around in horror, then screamed: ‘Look out!’
The Dalek that had been examining the laboratory had now reached the top of the stairs. From there, it had a perfectly clear field of fire at the TARDIS doors. At the same moment, the Dalek in the doorway finally pushed its way into the room, moving grimly towards the TARDIS.
The second Dalek was the closer of the two. The one upstairs waited. Vicki dived for cover, just as the Doctor finally succeeded in fumbling the TARDIS doors open. The second Dalek triggered another of the photoelectric beams, and a panel behind it in the wall opened. Fearing an ambush, the Dalek spun about.