[Sarah Jane Adventures 03] - Eye of the Gorgon

by Phil Ford

  Bea stopped swaying with the music and sat down. She didn’t look dreamy any more, she looked sad. ‘Edgar, I loved him so much, and he’s been gone so long. What I wouldn’t give to hear his voice just once more.’

  She looked at Maria, and smiled again, but it was still sad, ‘We had adventures once, such adventures. But no one believes me now. No one listens to you when you’re old.’

  ‘I believe you, Bea!’

  But Bea’s eyes had wandered to the window, and her mind had flown to another age.

  ‘Bea!’

  Clyde looked at his watch, it was forty-five seconds off 3 o’clock. He hoped Luke was in place. He looked up at the rope that hung down in front of him. He hoped he could do this okay.

  Five seconds later, Luke checked his watch. He had used what he remembered from the book on the abbey’s history to negotiate his way through its network of secret passages, and now he was hidden behind a tapestry in the great hall. He could see the nuns gathered around the portal which glowed ever-brighter. He heard one of the nuns say something about alignment being at forty-five per cent and Sister Helena said that was good. Another nun asked about the Abbess — Luke noted that she wasn’t with the others in the hall.

  ‘Her strength is failing,’ said Sister Helena. ‘Soon we will select a new host.’

  Host? Luke wondered, what was that all about?

  ‘Soon the Gorgons and humanity will be one.’

  And in the abbey bell tower, that was when Clyde’s watch turned to exactly 3 o’clock and he started hauling on the bell rope.

  The sound of the bell rang through the great hall.

  Sister Helena’s eyes flashed, ‘What on Earth… ?’ She turned on the other nuns, ‘Find out what’s going on!’

  And as the nuns rushed out, Luke took his chance and bolted from the cover of the tapestry.

  He saw the talisman on the portal and lunged for it, grabbed it. But in the same instant the double doors of the great hall flew open — Luke saw the Abbess in a wheelchair framed by the doorway, but didn’t hang around. He ran for the door at the other end of the room as the Abbess raised her veil. Luke heard the Gorgon make a horrific noise and instinctively ducked as serpents of blue light hit the chair that he hid behind. He saw it turn instantly to stone. Luke ran again and threw himself through the door. As he slammed it behind him, the Gorgon’s light serpents struck it and it was transformed.

  Luke ran through the abbey. The history book had left him with a perfect mental plan of the abbey, and he didn’t need to stop and think. Moments later he burst through the front door and was running down the steps. He saw Clyde running towards him.

  ‘You got it?’ Clyde shouted.

  Luke held up the talisman in answer.

  But that was when they saw the nuns.

  They seemed to come from everywhere. Dozens of them. They didn’t run, but they didn’t need to — there were just so many. They moved steadily, almost seeming to float in those black gowns over the ground.

  ‘They’re everywhere,’ Luke gasped.

  And they were.

  ‘Quick! This way!’

  Luke and Clyde turned and saw Sarah Jane. She was on foot near the woodland that bordered the abbey grounds. But even as they ran towards her, more nuns emerged from the trees, and in moments they were surrounded, the nuns crowding around them, hemming them in. There was no escape.

  Then as if by silent command, some of the nuns moved aside to reveal Sister Helena. She stared at Sarah Jane with cold eyes and smiled, ‘Sarah Jane Smith, how convenient of you to drop by.’

  The nuns locked them in the cellar. There was no chance to make a run for it. Not then. Sarah Jane knew an opportunity would come along, it always did. But the chances of escape took a nosedive when the nuns took her bag — and the sonic lipstick with it — before slamming the heavy old cellar door on them.

  The loss of the sonic lipstick didn’t concern Clyde much, however. He was rapping at the cellar walls, trying to find another secret passage. Luke had read all about them, he told Sarah Jane confidently, he had them all stored in that superbrain of his. But Luke didn’t recall any down here. He had other things on his mind.

  ‘Mum, I think the Gorgon is dying,’ he said.

  Sarah Jane raised an eyebrow, ‘What makes you think that?’

  ‘We saw her stumble, like she was sick,’ said Clyde, breaking off from his wall tapping.

  ‘And I heard Sister Helena talking about them having to find a new host. And she said something about that when the portal opened humanity and the Gorgons would be one.’

  Sarah Jane suddenly felt ill. So that was what the Gorgons wanted with Earth! Back in Bannerman Road, Sister Helena had said the Gorgons needed humanity in order to survive, but Sarah Jane had never imagined just what kind of nightmare that meant…

  That was when the cellar door opened. A couple of nuns had come to take Sarah Jane to Sister Helena. Sarah Jane told Luke and Clyde not to worry, she would be fine. She wasn’t sure that she believed it — but at least she wasn’t going to be locked in the cellar any more, that had to be an improvement on the current situation.

  The nuns took her to the great hall, where the talisman was once again installed on the portal which now glowed with bright light. Sister Helena was waiting for her along with the Abbess in her wheelchair.

  ‘What makes you think the Gorgons will still want to invade?’ asked Sarah Jane as she was led in. Three thousand years is a long time.’

  ‘Not for the Gorgons.’

  ‘Without host bodies to carry them? The Gorgons are parasites, aren’t they? A life form that lives on another. That depends on it to feed and survive. Your Abbess was human once, wasn’t she?’

  Sister Helena spoke with pride, ‘The Gorgon gives its host life beyond human years. The Abbess has carried the Gorgon for 200 years. But there have been many hosts over the generations, and now she grows weak.

  ‘Her time is coming, and the Gorgon has chosen a new host to lead its domination of Earth.’

  Sister Helena stared at Sarah Jane, ‘You, Miss Smith.’

  Chapter Twelve

  The statue that cried

  Chrissie had had quite enough.

  First Maria had thrown a hissy fit and stomped out on her. And what had she done? Just shown a bit of maternal concern for the company she was keeping. That’s all.

  Then Alan had taken a pop. Said she was insensitive turning up on their doorstep the way she had. Well, yes, she knew she hadn’t been the perfect mum, but Maria was still her daughter, and she had every right to spend some time with her. It was just coincidence that she and Ivan were on a bit of a break.

  Yeah, come to think of it, there was Ivan as well, wasn’t there? And Carlos, the salsa teacher.

  Blokes!

  Didn’t matter how much hair gel and moisturizer they used, underneath they were still just cavemen.

  But at least she had walked out on Ivan. Now it looked like Alan had followed in Maria’s stroppy footsteps and done a runner.

  After they’d had their barney, Alan had said he was going to look for Maria. That had been hours ago. It wasn’t like it was going to be that tough to find her; she was going to be with Calamity Jane across the road, wasn’t she?

  Chrissie reckoned Calamity Jane had got her sights set on Alan. It wasn’t Maria she was interested in at all, she’d just befriended her to worm her way in with her hunky old man. Chrissie had to admit to herself that Alan was still quite a hunk, even compared to Ivan… and Carlos. And she was pretty flaming sure that’s where she was going to find the two of them now!

  Well, Chrissie had had quite enough. And now she was hammering on Calamity Jane’s front door.

  No one answered.

  Chrissie did what every suspicious mum and wife did. Even ex-wives. She shouted through the letterbox.

  ‘Maria? Are you in there? Alan?’

  Still no answer.

  So she opened the gate and went around the back and peered throu
gh the window.

  She didn’t quite know what she expected to see.

  She never expected to see a statue of Alan in Calamity Jane’s lounge.

  Chrissie’s brain reeled. What sort of a woman was she dealing with here?

  Obsessed!

  She had read about women like this in her magazines.

  The window opened to her touch and Chrissie, heart-in-mouth, unsure of exactly what she was planning to do, but knowing there was no way she could just walk away from this statue of her husband, climbed into the lounge.

  It was uncanny, she thought, as she stood before it, it almost felt like Alan was in the room. If Sarah Jane had sculpted this, then she had done a good job. She really had him. Maybe taken a bit off his bum, but she supposed that was — what was it they call it? — artistic licence.

  ‘Suppose you’d be flattered if you knew, wouldn’t you?’ she said to the statue. ‘Always did fancy yourself a bit, didn’t you?’

  But maybe he did know — maybe Alan had posed for Sarah Jane.

  ‘No,’ Chrissie shook her head as she looked him over. ‘You wouldn’t pose in them old jeans and trainers, would you? And she’d want to get you in the all-together, wouldn’t she? Cheeky old… ’

  Then Chrissie caught hold of herself, ‘So is this what it’s come to? Talking to a flaming statue instead of the real thing?

  ‘Maybe her and me aren’t so different. Both of us have to make do with what we can. Difference is, she doesn’t know what she’s missing, does she?’

  The statue seemed to be giving her a look — like it was all her fault.

  ‘I know,’ she told it. ‘I should have tried more. Should have done more, listened more… what do you want me to say? The world doesn’t revolve around me? Yeah, I get it. Now. ’

  ‘Still, you’re all right — you and Maria. Better off without me around messing things up. Well, like I said, I can make do. That’s ’til I mess up again. Which I will, of course, ’cos I’m me, aren’t I?’

  She sighed, realised how ridiculous she must look, and went over to the window, ready to leave the way she had come.

  She turned back to Alan once more, ‘Anyway, been nice talking to you.’ Then she left.

  She didn’t see the single tear that fell from the statue’s eye.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Twenty past three

  Sarah Jane was right, wasn’t she? I thought meeting creatures from other planets was going to be exciting and cool… but she told me, she said it wasn’t anything like that.

  ‘In the end it just messes you up. Your whole life. And the people you love.’

  Maria was fighting back tears as she spoke to Bea without knowing whether she could hear her or not. The old woman sat gazing out of the window the way she seemed to have been for ages. The clock on her mantelpiece said it was twenty past three. Maria had just forty minutes to save her father.

  ‘That’s why Sarah Jane’s on her own,’ Maria continued. ‘That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? With no one in the world that really cares.

  ‘This is how we all end up, isn’t it?’

  She almost jumped when Bea’s fingers wrapped around her hand. ‘I had my Edgar,’ said Bea. ‘You’re young, you will find yours.’

  Maria looked into the old woman’s eyes, and felt her heart beating fast, ‘Bea! Are you really there?’

  ‘What sort of a question is that? Where else would I be?’

  Maria beamed with relief, ‘Bea, I haven’t got much time. The Gorgon — it’s turned my dad to stone. Is there a way to save him?’

  Bea’s fingers went to her mouth, a gesture of horror, ‘Your father? Oh, dear. Oh, deary-dear. That’s — that’s most unpleasant.’

  Maria saw Bea’s narrow shoulders shudder. ‘I should know,’ she continued, ‘it did it to me, you know.’

  Maria couldn’t believe it — Bea had been turned to stone, and survived! She could have screamed with joy.

  ‘Those nuns,’ Bea said. ‘They came after the talisman.’

  ‘But Edgar saved you. He must have. How?’

  ‘The talisman,’ she said, prising the word out from an ungenerous brain. ‘It is the key to the doorway between this world and theirs. But it is more. It returned me to flesh and blood.’

  The talisman! Maria saw all those sudden hopes of saving her father spiral to the ground like dead leaves on an autumn breeze.

  ‘The talisman,’ she said. ‘The Gorgon’s got it.’

  Bea’s eyes blazed, ‘Then you have to get it back! Not just for your father — for every soul on Earth!’

  Maria set her jaw with determination, of course she did, and she would. To save the planet, but first of all, to save her dad.

  ‘Thank you, Bea,’ she said, and jumped up. But Bea grabbed her hand, ‘Not so fast, young lady! Reach my… ’ her lips tried to shape the word. Her eyes flared with anger, ‘For goodness’ sake! My mirror! Get my mirror.’

  She indicated a small mirror with a silver handle on the nearby dressing table. Maria took it and handed it to Bea. It was the least she could do, she thought. But Bea shook her head, ‘I don’t want it! What do you think I’m going to do? Comb my hair while you take on that monster? It’s for you!’

  Maria didn’t understand, she looked from Bea to the hand mirror and shook her head, ‘For me?’

  Bea rolled her eyes impatiently, ‘Whatever do they teach you in school these days?’

  Chapter Fourteen

  Serve the Gorgon

  Luke had been right — there were no secret passages to offer an escape from the locked cellar. But that didn’t mean they weren’t going to get out of there. Whatever was going on upstairs, whatever Sister Helena and the Abbess were doing with Sarah Jane, he and Clyde were going to get out of there. And he was going to do it with an old flat trowel that he found among the rubbish down there.

  Clyde was unimpressed, ‘You’re going to dig a tunnel?’

  ‘No,’ Luke told him. ‘I’m going to make a screwdriver. The old fashioned kind.’

  Upstairs, the Abbess hadn’t moved for some time. Sarah Jane had been watching her, and watching the light from the portal grow in intensity. The nuns had tied her up, but that didn’t mean she was ready to give in to the horrible fate the nuns and their Gorgon mistress planned for her.

  ‘Not long now, Miss Smith,’ said Sister Helena. ‘As the Abbess weakens more the Gorgon will release its hold on her and you will become leader of a new race ruling Planet Earth.’

  ‘You can do what you want to me,’ Sarah Jane growled, ‘but this planet will never bow down to that thing!’

  Sister Helena sneered, ‘It will. And so will you.’

  Sarah Jane strained against the ropes that bound her. There was no way it was going to end like this, she told herself. No way. But the ropes wouldn’t give. Her only hope, she knew, lay with the boys. If only they could find a way to escape!

  And at that moment Luke’s makeshift screwdriver was removing the last screw on the lock mechanism of the cellar door. Clyde watched over his shoulder and passed Luke a rusty old nail that he had found while Luke worked on the screws. Luke used the nail to fiddle inside the mechanism for a moment or two as Clyde held his breath.

  If this doesn’t work…

  And then the lock sprang open.

  The boys exchanged a grin, then stepped cautiously out into the corridor. No sign of any nuns — yet.

  ‘We need a plan,’ said Luke.

  But Clyde was already making his way up the old stone steps, ‘Yeah, sure. When well get the chance well work one out. Meantime, we’ve got to find Sarah Jane.’

  ‘The great hall,’ said Luke. ‘That’s where they’ve got the portal. She’ll be there. Come on.’

  And Luke knew exactly what he was looking for — another secret tunnel.

  Meanwhile, Sarah Jane was watching the glow of the portal carefully. It had begun to change. Other lights were beginning to swim and swirl in the glow. She felt the slightest breeze touch her
face. She felt it grow stronger.

  The portal was close to opening.

  Sister Helena’s face was alive with excitement, ‘The Gorgons are coming! Their new queen must be ready to meet them!’

  Sarah Jane felt the nun’s eyes fall on her, ‘Bring the host forward.’

  Sarah Jane wasn’t about to scream, or beg for mercy, but there was no way she was going to go easily, either and she struggled as two nuns drew her to face the Abbess in her wheelchair.

  ‘Don’t struggle, Miss Smith,’ Sister Helena preached. ‘Embrace your destiny.’

  ‘The Gorgon is controlling you,’ Sarah Jane told her. ‘It’s controlling all of you! You have to fight it! If you don’t, they’ll come through that portal and destroy all the human race!’

  But Sister Helena was unmoved, ‘No. The Gorgons will save us. From wars, from greed. We will exist only to serve them. We will be at peace everlasting. And you will be our queen!’

  The nuns around Sarah Jane began to chant. Serve the Gorgon! Serve the Gorgon!

  From behind her, another nun put a blindfold around Sarah Jane’s eyes.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded.

  ‘If you saw the Gorgon as it transferred its essence to you, you would be turned to stone, Miss Smith. We wouldn’t want that. And neither would you.’

  Sarah Jane snarled defiantly, ‘I’d rather end my days as a lump of granite than carry around that abomination in my head!’

  And that’s when Luke and Clyde broke from their cover behind a tapestry and charged towards Sarah Jane and the nuns that held her. Clyde bowled two of the nuns over and Luke had his hands on Sarah Jane’s bindings before other nuns grabbed them.

  Sister Helena clapped mockingly, The cavalry to the rescue, I don’t think.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Sarah Jane,’ said Luke. And she felt her heart break.

  ‘Hold them,’ said Sister Helena. They will be the first prey for our new queen.’

  ‘No!’ cried Sarah Jane. ‘Boys, don’t look. Close your eyes. Whatever you do, don’t look!’

  And Sister Helena lifted the Abbess’s veil.