by BBC
‘Here, boy! Come on!’ said Clyde.
Luke knew there was only one reason why K-9 would have disappeared from this dimension. ‘Something must have happened to the real K-9.’ His face fell. ‘Mum…’
Rani rushed over to him and hugged him. ‘She’ll be okay. She’s brilliant, your mum.’
But Luke shook his head. ‘You’ve not seen him, Rani. You don’t know what he’s like.’
Luke pulled away from Rani. If the Nightmare Man was alone with his mum, she was in real danger.
In the attic, the Nightmare Man and Sarah Jane Smith were circling each other. It was so dark. Sarah Jane looked over at her unconscious son. Then she glanced at the destroyed K-9 and Mr Smith. She was terrified, but she was determined not to show it.
‘It’s good to meet you at last,’ said the Nightmare Man, with a sinister smile.
‘You know me?’ asked Sarah Jane.
‘I feed on every nightmare that every man, woman and child has ever had,’ he replied. ‘And you’ve had so many. The things you’ve seen. And Luke, your fear of what might happen to him.’
Suddenly he stopped moving and gasped with pleasure. ‘Oh, and those dreams about the Doctor, when he never came back and you thought he was dead. Oh, they were good.’
Sarah Jane stopped walking. She stared up at him. ‘I’m not scared of you.’
He took a step towards her, towering over her. He tilted his head, a look of intrigue on his face.
‘What’s the matter?’ she said, with a forced smile on her face. ‘Not used to someone arguing back?’
He smiled back down at her.
‘Well, go on then,’ she shouted. ‘If you’re so strong, send me to sleep.’
He started to reach out for her. His pale, white, deathly hand so close to her face. ‘You want to have nightmares?’
‘You’ve taken my son! My friends! This is already a nightmare! What else have I got live for?’
His hand was so close. He smiled.
‘Come on, do it!’ she screamed.
There was a pause and then he replied, his voice calm and mocking. ‘You think if I send you to sleep, then you’ll be able to join Luke. Oh, and I almost fell for it.’
He smiled at Sarah Jane as tears formed in her eyes.
‘So what do we do?’ asked Rani as Clyde came back from his search for K-9.
Luke shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’ He looked so scared.
‘It’s all right,’ said Rani. ‘We’re here.’ And she took his hand.
The Nightmare Man gasped in pain! He could feel Rani taking Luke’s hand. He could feel the hope it was giving him.
‘Why am I wasting my time on you, old woman?’ he raged. ‘They’re still together! I can feel them!’
And for the first time in hours, Sarah Jane smiled. ‘They’re together, even in their dreams. And that’s what’s hurting you!’
She laughed, full of hope.
‘To be scared, he needs to be alone! He will be alone! Forever!’
The Nightmare Man bared his rotten teeth at her, then vanished. Sarah Jane stopped laughing.
‘No! Come back! Come back!’
But she was alone.
Rani and Clyde were both comforting Luke.
‘It’ll be all right,’ said Rani.
‘It’s us. We can do anything,’ said Clyde.
Suddenly, there was so much noise. It was like an earthquake as the corridor seemed to be shaking itself to pieces. The three friends clutched each other, trying to stay upright. The sound of thunder and mocking laughter and Brahms’ Lullaby rang out down the corridor. And then it stopped, as suddenly as it had started.
‘You two all right?’ whispered Clyde.
They both nodded, but then Rani saw something at the end of the corridor. ‘There’s someone there.’
Luke stepped back. ‘It’s him.’
And suddenly, the dark figure at the end of the corridor raised his head. It was the Nightmare Man. He started laughing as he strode towards them.
‘What the hell are you?’ asked Clyde. He wasn’t sure why the man scared him so much, but he did.
Rani grasped Clyde’s hand.
‘I’m the Nightmare Man,’ he replied. ‘And you two are going to suffer!’
‘You’re just an alien,’ said Rani, bravely. ‘We can stop you!’
The Nightmare Man laughed. ‘Remember your nightmares! Remember me!’ He stared at Clyde.
Clyde was running, running for his life! Behind him, his mum was turning into a monster. Blue veins were spreading across her face. Clyde knew it wasn’t real. This had happened to his dad, this wasn’t real but he kept on running. He turned a corner, finding himself on Bannerman Road and there, with their backs to him, were Sarah Jane, Luke and Rani.
‘Help me!’ he shouted. ‘Please! It’s my mum!’
But he knew there was something wrong. Even before they turned around, he knew that something was wrong. They turned and he saw… blue veins working across their faces. They were turning into Berserkers. He’d seen it happen to his dad and it was his worst fear! And now it was happening to everyone!
Clyde looked up at the Nightmare Man. ‘I know, I remember my nightmares. So what?’
‘Remember who was behind you… Remember…’
Clyde turned around, ready to run away from his possessed friends and, just as he did, he caught a glimpse of something…a white hand, a pale mocking face…but it was gone.
‘You! You were there!’ Clyde was really getting scared now. ‘You were in my nightmares.’
‘All of them!’ The Nightmare Man hissed. ‘Hiding behind you, in all your nightmares!’ He turned to look at Rani.
‘Please, no…’ she began, but he grinned down at her and she remembered.
The clock was ticking. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. Rani looked down at the exam paper and tried to stay calm. She’d done lots of revision, so she hoped she’d be okay.
‘You’ll be fine,’ her dad said, smiling down at her. Then he walked to the front of the school hall. ‘You may begin.’
Rani turned the exam paper over and stared at the question. She gasped in surprise. It wasn’t in English! Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Time was running out. She started to panic, grabbing her pen and starting to write. If she could just write something, everything would be okay. Nothing happened! There was no ink in the pen! Her answers were blank! She put her hand up!
‘Dad!’
Her dad had his back to her. Tick-tock, tick-tock…
‘Dad, please!’
Slowly, he turned around. Tick-tock, tick-tock…Rani screamed! He had bright red, glowing eyes and was holding a red balloon! She jumped up and backed away!
‘What’s happened to you?’ she shouted.
‘I just want to play. Come and play with me. Come and be my friend,’ her dad said, smiling. He started to nod his head from side to side. Tick-tock, tick-tock…
‘Daddy!’ Rani screamed and turned around, ready to run and…a glimpse of a white hand, a pale mocking face…and it was gone and…
‘You were there!’ she stared up at the Nightmare Man, terrified. ‘You were there!’
‘I’m in every dream!’ The Nightmare Man took another step towards them. ‘Every nightmare.’
Suddenly he reached out and placed his cold, dead hands on their faces, stroking their cheeks. ‘So you see, I’m not just an alien. I’m your worst nightmare. Remember…’
Both Clyde and Rani gasped as they remembered. Their nightmares about the monsters they’d fought, about the end of the world, about bad things happening to their friends and families…and in each one the Nightmare Man, standing there, behind them, feeding on their fear.
‘You see? Do you finally understand?’ The Nightmare Man started to howl with laughter. ‘You’re nothing. You’re pathetic children, scared of the dark.’ He crouched down so their faces were level. ‘Scared of me!’ he hissed at them.
Clyde and Rani both looked over at Luke. The Nightmare Man had se
parated them. Luke was alone.
‘Luke! Please!’ Rani called out to him. He’d met the Nightmare Man before. ‘What do we do?’
But Luke was just staring, terrified. Behind Clyde and Rani, two of the red doors opened. Voices echoed out from the black voids.
The Nightmare Man kept advancing and Clyde and Rani were forced back towards the open doors.
‘You’re going back into your nightmares and you’re going to be locked in them forever! Trapped for eternity!’
Behind her, Rani heard a voice calling out. It was Louise Marlowe. ‘Breaking news, Rani. You’re coming back to me!’
Behind him, Clyde also heard a voice. It was the twisted version of Sarah Jane. ‘Oh, Clyde, you’re so stupid!’
They both stared up at the Nightmare Man. ‘Please, no!’
But he just laughed and laughed. ‘Night, night, kids.’
Clyde and Rani turned to look behind them. The black voids. The nightmares. Blue veins and red eyes and balloons and monsters and screaming and howling winds and thunder and noise! So much noise! Tick-tock, tick-tock! All of it, pulling them back! It was all over. They were going to be trapped in their nightmares forever! Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, ticktock ticktock ticktockticktockticktockticktocktick -
‘No!’ shouted a voice. It was Luke.
The Nightmare Man, Clyde and Rani all stopped and turned to him.
‘I beg your pardon?’ whispered the Nightmare Man, with a smile.
‘I said, no!’ repeated Luke.
‘Oh, your nightmares haven’t even begun.’
Luke stared at him, furious. ‘Just listen to me.’
The Nightmare Man shrugged. ‘Why should I?’
‘Because you keep telling me about you and what you want, but you’ve never asked about me.’
The Nightmare Man started to laugh. ‘What? What are you talking about? I’m the Nightmare Man!’
Luke took a step towards them. He held his head high, no trace of fear in his eyes. ‘That’s what you call yourself, but you’re just an alien. Well, I’m called Luke Smith and I was made by aliens to destroy the world.’
He took another step forward. ‘This brilliant woman, Sarah Jane Smith, she found me. And she made me good. And she found others. A boy called Clyde. And a girl called Rani.’
He paused and glanced at Clyde and Rani. They were just staring at him, on the verge of falling into their nightmares.
‘This world has faced so many nightmares, but there’s always been someone to stop them. Us!’ he continued. ‘Because when we’re together, we can do anything. You know, I was scared because I thought my mates wouldn’t be there for me.’ He stopped and laughed. ‘But never mind Oxford, they followed me into my nightmares! Three kids breaking down the walls of dreams to be together. Something no one’s ever done before.’
He paused again and stared at his two friends. ‘Because together, we’re unbeatable!’
For a moment, there was silence. Then the Nightmare Man started to clap, slowly. ‘Oh, very good. But you really think words can stop a creature like me?’
Luke suddenly grinned. ‘I wasn’t talking to you.’
Clyde looked at him and then looked at Rani. They both smiled.
‘He’s right!’ said Rani.
‘Together, we stop the aliens!’ said Clyde.
‘We stop the nightmares!’ continued Rani. They pulled away from the open doors and ran towards Luke. The three of them looked up at the Nightmare Man. They weren’t scared or even nervous. They were confident.
Luke took Rani’s hand. The Nightmare Man gasped in pain.
‘Because, when we’re together…’ said Luke.
He took Clyde’s hand. And the Nightmare Man gasped again.
‘We’re not scared,’ Luke continued. ‘So you’ve no hold over us now.’
The three of them began to advance on the Nightmare Man, forcing him back towards the open doors.
Clyde grinned. ‘We’re brilliant when we’re together.’
The Nightmare Man was gasping in pain. ‘Get away from me! Get away!’
Rani blew him a kiss. ‘No. You can’t stop us. We’re not scared.’
Luke grinned at her. ‘So there we go. The boy made by aliens to destroy the world, saves the world yet again.’
The Nightmare Man screamed as he found himself being sucked in through one of the doors. ‘No, please! Mercy!’
But before anyone could do anything, he was sucked into the darkness and the door slammed shut behind him.
‘Oh, hello love!’
The Nightmare Man turned and jumped back in horror. He was in Clyde’s burger bar and there, sitting in her scooter, was the wizened old form of Sarah Jane. The clock above them tick-tocked merrily down at him.
He turned back but the door had gone. He was trapped!
In the corridor, Luke, Clyde and Rani were still holding hands as they watched the light fade behind the door.
Rani looked at Luke. ‘You did it!’
He shook his head. ‘We did it.’ Then he took a deep breath and grinned. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
Clyde nodded. ‘Yeah, time to wake up!’
The three of them looked at each other.
‘How are we going to do that?’ asked Rani. ‘How do we wake up?’
Luke reached out and pinched Clyde’s arm. Clyde yelped and Rani laughed and…
The corridor was empty.
The Nightmare Man was pacing up and down in the burger bar. ‘No! I can’t be trapped here! This can’t happen to me!’
Like Clyde before him, he ran to the main doors and tried to open them. He shook them so hard, but they didn’t move. ‘Let me out! Children of Earth, I demand you sleep and you dream and you fear! You will fear me!’
Sarah Jane just smiled at him. ‘Oh come on, come and sit down. And I’ll tell you all about my brilliant son.’
The Nightmare Man turned and looked at her with disgust. ‘No,’ he gasped.
But Sarah Jane continued. ‘His name’s Luke Smith. And he’s going to live happily ever after.’
And the Nightmare Man started to scream.
Sarah Jane was trying to repair K-9. Once the Nightmare Man had left her, she’d forced herself not to give up. She’d managed to get Mr Smith working and now she was attempting to fix K-9. He was only a robot dog, but he was her robot dog and, for many years, he’d been the closest thing she’d had to a real friend. She sat there, in silence, working on him. Once K-9 was up and working, then the three of them would start again. They’d find a way to rescue Luke. She wouldn’t stop until they had.
‘How is the –’ Mr Smith began, before stopping. In a gentler tone, he continued. ‘How is he?’
Sarah Jane just shook her head. ‘K-9? Can you hear me?’
There was no answer. The attic was silent. She looked over at Luke. Nothing.
‘What am I going to do?’ she asked Mr Smith in a quiet voice.
‘Mistress?’ said K-9 as he suddenly started to power up.
‘Oh, K-9! You’re going to be okay!’ And she gave him a big hug.
And then, another voice sounded behind her. ‘And what about me?’
She let go of K-9, stood up and turned around. Her son was awake. Luke was awake and he was starting to stand up. She ran over to him and hugged him so hard he could barely breathe!
‘Oh, thank God! I thought I’d lost you! Oh…’ She started to cry.
‘You’re never, ever going to lose me,’ Luke replied, with a smile. Then he pulled away from her, so grown up and confident. ‘I’m going to check on the others.’
He ran out of the attic. Sarah Jane went to the window and saw that the sun was rising. The night was over. She turned to K-9 and smiled.
‘I’m going to miss you.’
‘Master Luke will be back at Christmas,’ he replied.
Sarah Jane went over and sat down next to him. She rested her head on his. ‘I meant you.’
‘Mistress?’
‘For years, you were pretty much all I had. A metal dog, looking after me,’ she paused and fought back the tears. ‘But you see, he’s my son. And he’s going off on a big new adventure and…so are you.’
K-9 understood. ‘I will look after him.’
‘Good dog,’ said Sarah Jane. ‘Good dog.’
Chapter Seventeen
A new day
‘Luke, my darling! How are you?’
Luke grinned. Rani’s mum, Gita, was always guaranteed to put a smile on your face. She was lovely, but also completely bonkers.
‘Rani!’ She called upstairs. ‘Rani, Luke’s here!’ She turned back to him. ‘You’ll never guess what happened last night!’
He didn’t get a chance to guess.
‘Me and Haresh, we both had nightmares! Both of us! And I was talking to that Mrs Griffin down the road – you know the one with the eye – and she was saying she’d had nightmares as well! All of us! We all had nightmares! Did you?’
Luke shrugged. ‘I don’t really remember.’
‘Rani!’ Gita shouted again before continuing. ‘Mine was about the toaster. It was broken, so I got a man in. Haresh is no good at technical things like that. So this man comes in, and he turns out to be a lizard! And he was chasing me right round the house! I didn’t know what to do. It was quite terrifying. How are you anyway, my darling? Ready to go?’
Luke nodded. Then squeaked, as suddenly Gita wrapped her arms around him in a huge hug. ‘Oh, you look after yourself, Luke. You’re such a lovely boy. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’
She pulled back and gave him a wink. Luke suspected that there wasn’t much Gita Chandra hadn’t done. He looked up to see Rani coming down the stairs.
‘Laters, mum,’ she said, pushing past Gita and joining Luke outside.
‘Laters, my darling,’ Gita replied, closing the door.
Rani and Luke walked to the end of her driveway, then she linked her arm with his.
‘You all set then?’ she asked.
‘Yeah,’ he replied.
They looked both ways and crossed the road. Luke’s bright yellow car was parked in the driveway. There were suitcases strapped to the roof rack, and more bags on the back seat.