Clarence (Chapter 6)

Chapter 6 (Memories of the Future)

Owen dared to open his eyes. He might have well have still had them closed as all around him was darkness. Nothing but complete, ink-black darkness. He was on his back and his head was pounding. He began to breath rapidly, trying to get a hold of the situation.

If he was dead then where was heaven? Where was his son?

He sat up and hugged his knees into his chest and began to sob. Was this all there was after life? No heavenly gates, no past family members? Nothing but darkness?

And then he saw the flash of colour stepping out of the shadows as Clarence appeared in front of him.

And then he realised that he wasn’t in heaven at all.

He was in Hell.




It had started to rain as the Doctor, Lilly and Holly approached the circus. The Doctor pulled up the collar of his coat, stuffed his hands into his pocket and marched forward.

The closer they got to the circus the harder the rain started to come down.

“Can’t we find shelter?” said Holly, hoisting her jacket up over her head.

“Here,” said the Doctor, going in his pocket and tossing them a short umbrella, which Holly quickly unfastened and unfurled. Lilly ran under the shelter of the umbrella, which barely kept them covered.

The Doctor strode between the caravans until he was only a few metres away from the circus entrance.

“I’m here to speak to Uncle Joe,” shouted the Doctor. His eyes flicked from side to side, watching for any sign of movement.

“We should just go in,” said Lilly.

“No, wait,” said the Doctor, holding a hand up. “Come on, show yourself! Somebody!”

The door to Carlotta’s caravan burst open and Ringo came hurrying out, a transparent umbrella held above his head. “You should turn and go away,” he said, nervously.

“And why ever should I do that?” asked the Doctor.

“Uncle Joe told your friends not to return,” said Ringo, looking towards the tent nervously.

“He never told me not to return though, did he?” said the Doctor, his eyes darting to the nervous mans.

“Well…no, but…”

The flaps of the tent opened and Carlotta came walking out, her eyes transfixed on the three intruders.

“Carlotta,” said Holly, “are you okay?”

Carlotta pointed towards the Doctor, her eyes unblinking. “Turn around now.”

“You know something’s wrong here, don’t you, young lady?” said the Doctor.

“Turn around and leave,” said Carlotta.

“You said that Clarence was a lost cause,” said Holly. “You were desperate to get away.”

“TURN AROUND NOW!” shouted Carlotta, her voice merged with that of Uncle Joe’s booming voice.

“Make us,” said the Doctor, as he tilted his head back and looked down his nose at the young woman.

Carlotta opened her mouth and a low, guttural growl came from somewhere deep inside her. The Doctor winced as she continued to point at him and then began to stagger backwards.

“What…what are you doing?” he said, as he almost tripped over his feet.

Carlotta didn’t answer.

“Please, Carlotta, stop this,” said Ringo.

“YOU WILL NOT INTERFERE, RINGMASTER!”

Ringo nervously backed away, bowing ever so slightly.

“Leave him alone!” yelled Lilly, running at Carlotta.

Carolotta raised her other hand and pointed towards Lilly and Holly, causing the two of them to wince in pain and fall to their knees.

“Please…release…them,” said the Doctor.

“You will suffer now,” said Carlotta, as the Doctor fell to the floor and screamed in agony…




Holly was standing on a hill that overlooked her town. It was raining here as well, but the trees at the entrance to the woods sheltered her. Her face was wet, but it wasn’t wet from the rain. It was wet from her tears.

She watched as distant, armour-clad lizards descended from the a maelstrom of swirling clouds above her town. They lizard creatures rode some kind of flying bike and continually shot down blasts of energy at the buildings below.

She could hear the screams coming from down there, but she was too frightened to go and help. Her family were down there somewhere, and there was nothing she could do.

“Holly…” came a familiar voice.

She looked to her right and gasped as she saw her sister, Agatha, struggling on her hands and knees up the hill.

“Aggy!” she cried, running over to her and dropping to her knees beside her.

“Help,” sobbed Agatha.

It was then that Holly realised that Agatha no longer had any legs. They were both gone from the knees downwards and a trail of blood snaked up the green hill like two brushstrokes on a canvas.

“Help…me…” said Agatha again as she reached out a dirty hand towards her sister.

Holly screamed…




“This isn’t you,” said Ringo to Carlotta, as he looked down at the three prone bodies on the floor.

Carlotta turned to Ringo, but did not say anything.

“We can’t just leave them like that.”

Carlotta turned back towards the tent. “Gordon, we need some help moving these three.”




Lilly was running faster than she had run in a long time. Faster than that time she had accidentally smashed Andrea’s TV and had legged it out of the house. Faster than that time she and Craig had swiped a bottle of vodka from Dunlop’s car boot.

The lights had gone out in the TARDIS and it was cold. The TARDIS was confusing to navigate around when the lights were on. When the lights were off it was even more confusing. She turned to her left, expecting to run through the door to the swimming pool. Instead she ran straight into the wall, bashing her forehead.

She slipped to the floor in an almost comical fashion and put a hand to her forehead.

“You alright, sis?” came a voice.

Lilly’s eyes opened and she stared ahead of her. Standing there in the shadows was Caleb dressed in a black blazer, trousers and a white, open-necked shirt which was covered with bright, red blood.

“Caleb…” was all she could manage.

“You lost?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, not daring to take her eyes off him.

“I was lost. I was lost a long time ago. And then the Doctor saved me and took me away, like it had always meant to be. And then you killed me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, her mouth quivering in fear. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Too late now, Illithia,” he said, looking down at the blood on his shirt.

“It’s something that I am trying very hard to say sorry for.”

“You can’t apologise for this,” he said. “We never should have looked for you. My mother never should have had you.”

“Please…don’t say that,” she said, trying to fight back her tears.

“Don’t try and apologise for this,” he said, jabbing a finger into his chest. “Just be ready for what’s to come.”

“What do you mean?” said Lilly.

“Holly will need you. The Doctor will need you. The Kro’Tenk are coming. Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t,” said Lilly, shaking her head.

“And Jacarthia…ask the Doctor about Jacarthia.”

“What’s Jacarthia?”

“I told you to ask the Doctor,” said Caleb. He was beginning to fade away now. “Jacarthia is where you will have to make your choice and then either everything will change, or everything will change.”

“What does that mean?” asked Lilly.

“You will find out soon.”




Three of the clowns were carrying the unconscious bodies of the Doctor, Holly and Lilly. The three of them were covered in mud and wet grass from being on the ground, and Gordon was busy directing the clowns to take them inside the tent.

“What’s he going to do with them?” asked Ringo worriedly.

“I’m already doing it,” said Carlotta, her lip curled into a slight smile.




The Doctor was sat at a table in a cold, metal room, his hands in his lap. He daren’t look up. Not that he was afraid, more that he was ashamed at what had happened. Ashamed at what he had let happen.

But this was a long time ago for the Doctor. This was when he was a different man. His white suit was splattered with dry mud and the right arm had been torn off, exposing his purple shirt underneath.

Behind him a metal door slid open and a man in a suit walked in. He had swept back, chestnut hair and a deep-lined face. He was carrying a folder in his arm and he walked passed the Doctor, glanced at him once and then sat down opposite him on the other side of the table.

“Still thinking about it, are you?” asked the man.

“How can I not think about it?” said the Doctor, in a different voice.

“What’s done is done,” said the man, placing the folder on the table.

“And I’ve tried to get by,” said the Doctor, refusing to make eye contact. “And I really did get past it. I haven’t thought about it for a while now.”

“The guilt should have died when you died. When you regenerated.”

“Guilt never dies,” said the Doctor. “It may fade, but it never dies.”

“I’ve moved on,” said the man. He opened the folder and spread out half a dozen different photographs of different people. “We’ve all moved on.”

“Have you heard anything from them since you left?”

The man shook his head.

The Doctor closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“You have to stop this, Doctor. Otherwise it will consume you.”

“I should have died after I regenerated from this,” he said, indicating himself with his hands.

“But you didn’t. You fought to stay alive. You were granted a reprieve and you regenerated into that young man that you are now. Be thankful for that. The universe still needs you, Doctor.”

“But Jacarthia-”

“Don’t say that word again. Don’t utter that word ever again. We made our choice. You made your choice.” He gathered up the photographs and then tilted his head to the side. “You chose what you did because you believed it to be the right choice. Sometimes the things we do don’t always justify the means. Now grow up and stop crying.”

The Doctor didn’t answer. Now he looked different again. He looked as he did in his current incarnation, the white suit now gone.

The man put the photographs back into the folder and got up from the chair. He stepped around the table and headed for the door. He stopped and turned back to the Doctor. “Come and see us some time. You know where we are, old chap.”

The Doctor nodded. “Thank you, Roger. Thank you.”




The Doctor opened his eyes. He was looking up at the red and white ceiling of the large tenth. They had been dragged inside and were lying down on a blanket of wood shavings. The Doctor rubbed his eyes and then sat up.

He looked across to Holly and Lilly - they were just beginning to stir.

Carlotta was sat nearby on the floor rubbing her forehead.

“Are you okay?” asked the Doctor.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, glancing over at him.

“You’re psychic, aren’t you?” asked the Doctor. “You made me see what I saw in my dream.”

“Not me,” said Carlotta. “Uncle Joe just used me as a transmitter.”

“What’s happening?” said Holly groggily.

“Take it easy, Miss Dangerfield,” said the Doctor, glancing back at her. “You too, Lilly.”

“I’m putting my alarm on snooze,” said Lilly wearily.

“Carlotta, you need to take me to Uncle Joe.”

“You’re already here,” said Carlotta, nonchalantly.

“I beg your pardon?” said the Doctor.

“WELCOME, DOCTOR,” came the booming voice the Uncle Joe.

The Doctor got to his feet. The inner circle of the circus was in darkness, but slowly the lights began to increase until the centre of the ring was fully illuminated. What sat in the middle was like something from an old nightmare.

On a plinth that had ascended from underneath the ring was a huge, quivering mass of pink, scaly tissue, like a giant brain, with numerous tentacles shaking and quivering around. In the middle of the creature was one, single blue eye that blinked slowly.

“Uncle Joe, I presume?” said the Doctor.

All the creature could do was laugh as the Doctor, Holly and Lilly looked on in horror.

To be continued...