The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 9)

Chapter 9 (Assistant 559)

Whilst myself and Eve sat on the sofa worrying, the Doctor had rigged up some of his equipment that he had brought in the previous day. He had attached two small wires to the jewel and fixed his sonic screwdriver to the wires.

“This may not work,” he said, looking up at the two of us, “but it’s all we have left to try.”

He activated the screwdriver, the jewel began to glow a little bit and then a strange, monotone voice followed by an old woman’s voice began to speak.

“This jewel has been used to record something. How about we have a listen?”





THIS LOG IS DAMAGED. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ONLY FRAGMENTS NOW EXIST.

LOG OF ASSISTANT 559: CODE NAME - QUICK

EXTRACT 1

It is my first day on the planet Earth after spending the last 40 years on Thrax with King Tabien and his family. After a significant period of rest I am pleased to say that I am ready to resume my duties, albeit in a totally different environment.

The Hub has sent me to a small town in the South of the country known as England on planet Earth. Many Assistants have visited the planet before, but not for a number of years now. I will be the first.

The local date and time is July 15th 1899. I shall be caring for the children that belong in the Horner family. Yvonne Horner is a matron at a local hospital and Nicholas Horner is the manager of a ship builders. Their children are James and Poppy Horner, aged 8 and 10 respectively.

EXTRACT ENDS

DAMAGE IN RECORDING LOG. PLEASE WAIT FOR PICK UP.

EXTRACT 4

...very pleasant children, but there is something not quite right about them. They are very placid and not as excitable as children should be. Maybe this is because their parents appear to be quite strict with them. I spoke to Poppy, the eldest, and she said that they very rarely get to see their parents. When their parents return from work they eat and then have to retire to their rooms...

...my accommodation leaves a lot to be desired. The parents are in the master bedroom at the front of the house and the children share the middle room. My room is at the back of the house. Unfortunately the Horner’s have told me that I will have to pay for a bed myself. Until my first payment I will have to make do with a makeshift pile of straw set into just under the floorboards and a few blankets. It will suffice for now. I’ve lived in much worse conditions...

DAMAGE IN RECORDING LOG. PLEASE WAIT FOR PICK UP.

EXTRACT 14

...speak to me like that again. The gall of the man! It’s no wonder he gets through as many workers as he does at his ship building empire. No offense to the Grand Assistant, but if he spoke to me like Nicholas Horner speaks to me I would not be working for him any longer...

...cold porridge...

...seriously considering taking my leave unless something happens. I have a bed at least...

DAMAGE IN RECORDING LOG. PLEASE WAIT FOR PICK UP.

EXTRACT 22

I have spoken to Human Resources regarding my issues on Earth. They have told me that no matter what I must see the job through. We are, after all, Assistants. We assist. It seems I must swallow my pride and continue to let the Horner’s treat me like a second-class citizen.

DAMAGE IN RECORDING LOG. PLEASE WAIT FOR PICK UP.

EXTRACT 26

...shaking. I am a little disturbed by what I have just seen. James was washing his hands when I noticed a bruise to his forearm. When I asked him about it he tried to brush it off and say he did it falling out of a tree. I don’t know. And they are so frightened. I gently tap against the wall each night along the landing to signify it is time to go to bed, but James says it terrifies him. I’ve seen him eyeing up my cane with fear and distrust. I need to investigate further into...

DAMAGE IN RECORDING LOG. PLEASE WAIT FOR PICK UP.

EXTRACT 31

...confirmed. Today Poppy has a cut behind her ear. I have spoken to the Horner’s about this, but they deny all knowledge and have simply told me that children get themselves into all sorts of scrapes. Whilst I believe this to be true, I also know that there is something else going on. I have been here for two weeks. These are not the type of children who get themselves into scrapes. They seem to be devoid of any fun. I will wait for more evidence to...

DAMAGE IN RECORDING LOG. PLEASE WAIT FOR PICK UP.

EXTRACT 37

...to leave or not? I can’t leave though. Not after what I have just witnessed. James was home from school and was ill. Nicholas Horner was also home feeling ill. I took the opportunity to go to the shops and buy groceries. When I returned, earlier than expected, I heard shouting coming from the kitchen. I remained quiet and witnessed Nicholas Horner continually beating James with a cane – my cane! When Horner senior realised I was there he stopped. I have told him that, whilst a child may sometimes have a beating from their parents or teachers, outright beating the child to within an inch of his life is in line with child cruelty. I have informed Horner that I shall be reporting him to the authorities. He has left the house for the moment, but has threatened to deal with me later. I must be on my guard. Right now James’s wounds need tending to...

DAMAGE IN RECORDING LOG. PLEASE WAIT FOR PICK UP.

FINAL EXTRACT

...final...dying...the pain....

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

CONTINUE.

This is my final report. Mrs and Mrs Horner returned later in the day whilst I was washing the laundry. They confronted me about what I had witnessed. I told them that I was going to report them to the authorities. The rest is a blur.

As I left the kitchen I was struck on the back of the head by a blunt object. My vision turned cloudy, but I felt myself being dragged up the stairs. I heard Mr Horner bellow at James to stay in his room.

I tried to turn and escape only to feel another blow to the back of my head - the killer blow. As we all know our bodies are different to Humankind. The brain – the mind – lives on beyond the body unless we are shut down correctly, so whilst my body may be dying, my mind will continue to live. I can only hope that someone finds my body and ends it completely.

I wasn’t sure of where I was being taken, but I do know that the Horner’s took me up some ladders and into darkness. I remember seeing Mrs Horner’s wicked face illuminated by candlelight and then being thrown against a solid wall with the two evil creatures looking at me.

“You’ll tell no-one, Miss Quick,” was the last thing I heard Mr Horner say. My vision shut down and all I could hear was the hammering of nails on wood - and then nothing.

This is my last log entry. I hope those children will be safe from their parents.

I hope...all...children will be safe...



END LOG.

To be continued...

The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 8)

Chapter 8 (Bones)

“What are you thinking, Doctor?” I asked.

I’d only know him for a day, but I’d never seen him looking so frustrated and confused. He sat there on the sofa in the front room, leant forward with his chin resting on the palm of his hand, his elbow balanced on his knee.

“Excuse me?” he said, almost as if he hadn’t heard me.

“I asked you what you were thinking. You know?”

He shook his head. “I’m actually feeling quiet positive, Emily.”

I was taken aback. “Sorry? Positive?”

“Mmm-hmm,” he nodded.

“But that ghost has taken away Holly. Your friend.”

“Yes, but it’s confirmed a few things for me.”

“Which are what?” I asked.

“That our old lady ghost cannot be a spirit.”

I frowned again. I seemed to spend most of my time frowning. “But you said-”

“I know what I said,” he interrupted me. I hated it when people did that, but somehow he didn’t make me angry, “but this changes everything. Completely and utterly. Ghosts don’t abduct people.”

Okay, that made sense, but if anything it threw everything else into confusion. If it wasn’t a ghost then what was it?

I looked across to the sofa. Eve was fast asleep. She was absolutely drained from the antics from the ghost – cos I’m just gonna keep calling it a ghost for now – and had crashed out not long after Holly had disappeared.

Now there were just the two of us.

“How are we going to get her back then?”

“By continuing on our original plan - ending this tonight. Well, before dawn at least. I want a nice slap up English breakfast after this as a way to celebrate.”

“Sounds good,” I said, smiling.”I’ll even cook it for you.”

“But first we need to lay out a timeline of events.”

“What about the message on the wall? It said to give her or Holly will die. Who does she mean?”

“Well ‘her’ is either you or Eve. Without gathering together all the information we can’t know for certain.”

We made sure Eve was sound asleep and then went through to the kitchen. The Doctor made us two steaming hot mugs of black coffee and then we sat down at the table. He got out a piece of paper from his blazer pocket and a pencil.

“So, firstly, when did you move into this house?”

“Well, it would have been when Eve was 6, so early 1979. I lost Julian the year after,” I felt sad again thinking about him.

The Doctor wrote down 1979 on the paper and then drew a timeline up till this year – 1986.

“And you never had any trouble in all that time?”

I shook my head. “No. Like I said before the house has always felt cold and uninviting. It doesn’t feel like a home, but we never had any issues at all and certainly no ghosts.”

“Okay, so when was the first event.”

“The other night when we heard the tapping on the walls.”

He wrote down ‘tapping’ on the paper.

“Can you think of anything else that has happened? Anything significant that happened on that day?”

“Eve turned 13.” I was worried that this was the direction it was headed in anyway.

“Nothing else?”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“No,” said the Doctor. “It may be connected, but I don’t think it’s the significant factor.”

He rapped his fingers on the table and then chewed the end of the pencil, sticking his tongue out at the woody-taste.

“How did you care for Eve when you were working?”

“We had a babysitter - Tash. Natasha Jones.” My eyes narrowed. “And the night that Tash left the ghost started up.”

The Doctor clicked his finger, pointed at me and then wrote down ‘babysitter’ on the paper. “Deciding factor.”

“But what’s Tash got to do with this?”

“Nothing. Well, nothing personally to do with it.” He leant back on the chair. I heard it creaking. The chairs were pretty cheap and prone to collapse at any minute. “You cared for Eve until Julian passed away. Then after struggling you got in a string of babysitters, correct?”

“Yeah. There was Carol and Jenny and then Tash.”

“Eve was protected. She had an adult protecting her until the moment Tash left.”

“But I’m still here. I’m an adult protecting her.”

“Yes, it’s interesting, isn’t it? The moment Tash left Eve had no protection other than her mother.”

I was struggling to understand the significance. “I’m her mother. I’m the best protection she can have.”

“But our old woman ghostly doesn’t seem to think that,” he said, grinning.

“Okay, but we’re still no closer to discovering why she wants Eve. So Eve isn’t protected now, except by me, but we know nothing.”

“I think our answers – or at least some of them – may lie in that attic.”



I’d checked up on Eve one more time and pulled the blanket a little higher over her before we headed back up the stairs. Strangely, although I was still scared, I wasn’t as worried now knowing that it was potentially not a ghost and that we were getting closer to an answer.

We were now armed with head torches and two hand torches as we ascended the stairs. The Doctor had also, somehow, managed to remove the strip light from the kitchen and rig it up to light up when disconnected. He placed it in the attic and it illuminated the room pretty well.

We crawled along to the backboards and the Doctor examined them. They had been nailed down against the wooden support beams and the nails looked older than modern day ones. He grabbed the hammer we’d brought up with us and began hammering at the board.

I hoped the neighbours wouldn’t complain or that we wouldn’t wake Eve up, but the wood was very brittle and it didn’t take long for the heavy hammer to splinter the wood. Once we were through we were able to pull the rest of the board off to make a hole big enough for us to get through. The Doctor told me to stay back and then crawled forward, shining the torch into the darkness.

I almost retched. There was a horrible, foul, musty stench coming from the space. The Doctor had taken his tie off and made a makeshift mouth cover.

“What’s back there?” I asked, peering forward.

“Come and see. It’s safe,” he said.

I grabbed my torch, pulled my top up over my nose and mouth and edged forward. My torch light hit something against the wall of the house. It was covered in dust, but it was unmistakable. I gasped as I looked down at it.

Curled into a foetal position was a small, almost-skeletal corpse with most of its clothes rotted away. The mouth was wide open and it looked to have been in some distress or agony when it died.

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” was all I could say.

“I think we’ve found the body of our old lady,” said the Doctor sadly. He crouched in front of the corpse and frowned. There was something not quite right about the skull. It looked Human, but in the centre of the forehead was an oval-shaped hole. It almost looked like a socket – too smooth for it to have been caused by a blunt instrument.

“What is that?” I asked, peering closer.

“This isn’t a Human skeleton,” said the Doctor, his eyes lighting up. “I have no idea what species it is, but something was here, imbedded in its skull.”

“Hey, look at this,” I said, noticing the torchlight glinting on something. I picked up what looked like a brass oval with a green jewel fixed into it.

The Doctor took it off me and peered at it.

“Was it for decoration, do you think?” I asked.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “In fact I think this may be what’s causing all of your problems.” He bit on the end of his finger nail and then looked at me. “I need to get to my TARDIS. The equipment there will help me determine what this old lady is.”

We made our way out of the attic and the Doctor went to the front door. “Go and wake Eve up. I need to take you both with me.”

I nodded as he turned the door handle. But something was wrong. He tugged and frowned.

“What’s up?”

“Did you lock the door?” he asked.

“No,” I said, grabbing the key from the side table drawer and turning it in the lock. “It’s unlocked.”

“Then why won’t the door open?” he asked, pulling on the door.

“Try the back,” I said.

We headed through the middle room to the kitchen and tried the back door. The same thing happened. The door was jammed shut.

The Doctor had a thought and went to the front room. Eve was stirring now, awoken by our rustling about.

He pulled the curtains open and then stepped back in shock. Outside, instead of orange streetlights and the fence to the disused railway, there was nothing but blackness. It was totally and utterly pitch black.

“What the hell’s happening?” I said, pressing my face to the window to try and see if I could see anything at all.

“She’s trapped us,” said the Doctor. “She’s isolated us from the rest of the world.” He looked at me and the closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, Emily, but we can’t get out of this house.”

To be continued...

The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 7)

Chapter 7 (Under the Covers)

Madness erupted in the attic. Mainly madness from myself. The Doctor seemed pretty calm, but I had been tensed up as tight as a spring when the torch had gone off. The first thing I did was yelp as I lost all bearings of where I was.

I relaxed a little when I felt the Doctor’s hand on my arm, but the panic rose inside me again when I realised that he also had hold of my other arm. And then the realisation dawned on me. I had a sleeveless top on, so I could feel the Doctor’s warm, gentle hand on my lower arm, but the second hand, clasped around my left arm, was not a warm, gentle hand. It wasn’t a male hand. It was a cold, bony, old wrinkled hand.

I yelped. Actually, no, I didn’t yelp. This time I screamed and pulled away, feeling myself collide with the Doctor. I felt around for him. He was still sat down and I had somehow found myself sat between his legs like some weird, in-the-dark version of the ‘Oops Upside Your Head’ thing we used to do at school discos.

“Stay calm,” I heard him say, his hands trying to grab at my shoulders to secure me.

And then I felt the cold hand again, this time on my bare midriff. My top must have ridden up slightly and the cold hand was trying to grab at my belly.

I turned around and tried to scrambling away, not realising in my blind panic that I was literally crawling over the Doctor as I felt the hand grabbing at me. I could feel sharp, pinpricks of pain on my bare skin and on my back. I pushed past the Doctor and headed for the light coming from below. I flung myself at the hatch and, if it hadn’t been for the step ladder breaking my fall, I would have gone headfirst down to the carpet below.

I sort of tumbled and fell until I was sat on my bum looking up at the hatch, panting heavily.

The Doctor came down the steps the normal way; feet first, closed the hatch behind him and turned to face me. He crouched down in front of me and looked into my eyes.

“Mum, are you okay?” came Eve’s voice from downstairs.

“Doctor, what’s going on?”

“We’re fine,” said the Doctor, still looking at me. “Emily, are you okay?”

I couldn’t help it. I burst into tears and buried my face in his chest, my tears soaking his jacket. He put his arms around me and pulled me in close, rubbing my back.

“It’s okay,” he said, soothingly. “It’s all over now.”





“Well?” asked the Doctor, as he stood outside the downstairs bathroom door, impatiently.

I was in the bathroom. I’d taken my top off and was looking in the full-length mirror. On my tummy was a set of bright red scratches. I turned around to look over my shoulder at my back in the mirror. The same thing - red scratches. I touched them and winced in pain.

“Emily, do you mind if Holly comes in?”

“No,” I said, distantly.

Holly knocked and then slipped inside. She looked down at the scratches and then at me. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrified,” I said. “What could do this to someone?”

“They look vicious, Doctor, but they’ll heal.”

I put my top back on and went outside. The Doctor had gone downstairs to the kitchen and was pouring a cup of tea for the four of us. Eve was busy gathering as many chocolate biscuits as possible.

“I really think you should both leave here,” said Holly.

“No,” said the Doctor, pouring milk into each of the cups.

“No?” I said. I was now seriously starting to think about it.

“This entity is something different. It has poltergeist tendencies and normal haunting tendencies and now it’s doing something else.”

“The scratches?” asked Eve.

The Doctor nodded. “Demonic properties.”

“Oh, God,” I said, sitting down at the table, my head in my hands.

The Doctor was at me straight away. “I will get to the bottom of this, but I think this ghost has a connection to you. It wants you.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Holly.

“It attacked Emily in the attic. It didn’t even bother with me. I could feel it there climbing over me to reach for Emily, but it ignored me completely. It wanted you.”

I didn’t know what to say. The Doctor put my mug down on the table and I just stared at it, watching the steam gently rise from it.

“I think that if you left it would stop, but the ghost would still be in the house, lying dormant. The only way we’re going to be able to stop her is by having you here in this house. She’s only going to be defeated if you’re here, Emily.”

“But it’s utter madness,” said Holly. “If they just packed up and left and never returned they’d be okay.”

“But she’d still be, hiding away between the cracks in time,” said the Doctor. “And I can’t leave a job undone.”

“So what do we do?” asked Eve.

“We wait until morning. We all have a good night’s sleep and then myself and Emily will head up into the attic again - with a hundred torches if we have to - and find out what’s in that hidden space behind the panels.”

“Do I have to go up there again?” I asked. I already knew the answer.

“Not if you don’t want to, but I could do with some help, Emily.” He sat down next to me and put his arm around me. “I promise you that I will keep you safe.”



That night I don’t think any of us slept a wink. Eve was in bed with me again and Holly and the Doctor had taken to sleeping on the sofas downstairs. I turned to face Eve, who had thankfully drifted off, and looked up at the ceiling. She had been up there somewhere – the old woman – crawling above my bedroom ceiling. It made me shudder to think about it.

I tried not to think about it. Instead I tried to think of warm and fluffy things - kittens and summer and holidays by the seaside. I reached across to the bedside table and switched on my little portable radio. The Shipping Forecast was on Radio 4. I found listening to people talking would help me to drift off.

Slowly but surely, as the voice called out it’s names – Dogger, Cromarty, Viking – I drifted away in the night sea...

“Emily.”

I opened my eyes. It was still dark. The radio was on. Static filled my ears.

“Emily.”

I frowned. Who was saying that? My blood ran cold as I listened again.

“Emily.”

It was an old voice. An old woman’s voice - hissing and rasping and sounding as evil as they come. I began to breathe heavily as the voice seemed to mix and mingle in the static.

“Emily.”

I yelped and threw my hand down on the radio, switching it off instantly.

“Mum?” came Eve’s tired, half-asleep voice.

I was about to reply when I felt something towards the bottom of the bed. It felt like it used to do when our old cat, Topsy, used to sit on the end of the bed. It was right next to me feet. I froze as I sensed Eve drifting off again.

And then I felt the bottom of the bed cover being lifted up. I could feel the cold air on the end of my toes. I daren’t look down the bed. I pulled the covers tighter around me and continue to stare at the ceiling. I was going to burst into tears at any moment.

And then it happened. Two cold, old, gnarled hands grabbed my feet and then my ankles.

I yelped again and they gripped tighter. I tried to pull my feet away, but the hands wouldn’t let go. The more I struggled, the tighter they gripped. I could feel her – the old woman – dragging me down my own bed. I turned and twisted and tried to crawl away.

By now Eve was wide awake and was looking at me. She screamed.

There came the thunder of steps up the stairs, a light flicked on, the door opened and the hands let go.

The Doctor was there in an instant.

“What’s happened?” he asked, looking around the room.

“She was here. She was here,” I said, unable to control myself. “She grabbed my ankles. She tried to take me!”

“It’s alright,” said the Doctor, sitting on the bed and putting his arms around me. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I should have let you stay downstairs with us.”

“Mum, are you okay?” asked Eve.

“Eve, will you go downstairs and wake up Holly,” said the Doctor. “We can’t wait until morning for this. We have to deal with her now.”

Eve nodded and, as afraid as she was, put her slippers on and headed downstairs.

“She’s going to kill us, isn’t she?” I said, looking up at the Doctor.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “She will not harm you or your daughter. I promise. This ends tonight.”

I closed my eyes, nodded and continued to sob.

“Doctor,” shouted Eve from downstairs.

“Yes?”

“Something’s not right.”

“What do you mean?” asked the Doctor, gently moving away from me and walking to the landing.

Eve was at the bottom of the stairs looking up at him.

“What’s wrong? Where’s Holly?”

“I don’t know,” said Eve. “I checked the kitchen, the bathroom...everywhere. She’s just vanished.”

“Doctor,” I said, worriedly, looking across to the piece of wall between the two bedroom windows.

The Doctor re-entered the bedroom and looked at the wall. On it, scratched into the paint work was crudely written words. They read:

“GIVE HER TO ME OR SHE DIES.”

To be continued...

The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 6)

Chapter 6 (Talking Time in the Attic)

When I was little I remember believing in ghosts and ghouls and stuff like that. When I was eight years old I’d caught a midnight showing of “The Signalman” on BBC2 and it had terrified me. But as I got older the real world took over and I soon started to realise that the chances of anyone coming back from the dead was unlikely. It was stupid. All those TV shows like Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters – they had to be fake.

But after what had happened since last night I was starting to wonder, but my first thought was whether it was Julian or not.

“It’s not Julian,” said the Doctor, sadly.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked

“Because this spirit, if that’s what it really is, doesn’t seem to be communicating in the way a loved one would communicate.”

“Doctor,” said Holly, frowning, “you said it was a ghost. Now you’re questioning if that’s really what it is.”

I hadn’t even noticed him saying that myself. I was too caught up on wondering why my house had a ghost living in it.

“Not only that but the Doctor said it was a woman’s hands. Cold hands,” said Eve.

I looked across at my daughter. She was sat with her hands in her lap, trying not to make eye contact with anyone. She always did this when she was scared. Her left knee was also shaking.

“Eve,” I said, putting my arm around her, “it’ll all be okay, won’t it, Doctor?”

The Doctor’s eyes flicked up to meet mine and then his worried face broke out into a grin. “Emily, there are very few situations I’ve gotten mixed up in that have ever not been okay.”

“He’s right,” said Holly, smiling at her friend. “If there’s anyone you want on your side then it’s the Doctor.”

“So what’s the plan then?” I asked, noticing the black clouds over the houses in the distance. A thunderstorm was coming in.

“We have to wait for her next move,” said the Doctor, sitting back on the armchair.

“You’re joking, right?” said Eve.

“I’m afraid not,” said the Doctor.

“But wouldn’t it be safer if we cleared out? You wanted myself and Eve to leave.”

“A rash choice. An idea born in the heat of the moment,” said the Doctor. “I’m not entirely sure what this thing is. As a rule I don’t believe in ghosts. I believe in shadows and creatures that can appear as ghosts, but not actual ghosts. And I can’t make a move until she makes a move and shows me a little more of what she’s about.”

“Okay,” I said, “but we can’t just sit here waiting for something bad to happen.”

“I agree,” said the Doctor, getting to his feet. “Firstly I need to take a look at the history of this house.”

“The TARDIS?” said Holly.

“No,” said the Doctor.

“But surely-“

“The TARDIS won’t help us there. We can’t simply hop back for the answer. It doesn’t work like that. No, we need to do our own investigations.”

“Perhaps the council will know something.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, remembering back to something from a few years ago. “When we first moved in we put some things up in the attic. There were boxes at the back. Julian dragged one of them over but it was full of rags and stuff. We always said we’d clear it out but I guess we just forgot about it all.”

“It may not be connected to our ghost lady,” said the Doctor, “but it’s worth a try.”

“Oh, fantastic,” said Holly. “You want to head up into an attic in a haunted house?” Holly laughed. “We’ve all seen ‘The Grudge’.”

“The Grudge?” frowned Eve. I didn’t know what Holly was talking about either.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said the Doctor, noticing mine and Eve’s worry. “I’ll go up there.”

“I’m coming with you,” I found myself saying, feeling braver than maybe I should have done.

“I really don’t think-”

“It’s my house,” I said softly. “Holly can stay down here and look after Eve. I want to help you with this.”

The Doctor nodded. “Just follow my lead then.”

“Mum,” said Eve, reaching for my hand.

“Eve, I’ll be fine,” I said, taking her hand and stroking her arm affectionately. “Holly will take care of you.”



The attic was just outside my bedroom door. As we headed up the stairs I took a glance at the back bedroom door, which was now closed, but quickly looked away. I was terrified of seeing something stood there.

The Doctor reached out and took my hand. I felt worried for a moment and pulled away. A man hadn’t held my hand since Julian. It threw me off. I was that scared earlier on when he’d done it that I hadn’t even flinched.

“Everything okay?” asked the Doctor, noticing my discomfort.

“I’m good,” I said, nodding. “I just...well, it’s stirring up feelings, that’s all.”

“Of your husband?”

I nodded.

He turned to look at me and put both hands on my shoulders. It felt comforting and I relaxed a little. I didn’t even know this man, but he had a way about him. A kindly way that made me feel like I could trust him.

“If you want to go back-“

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “This thing is living in my house. Maybe if we get rid of it the house might start to feel like a home at last.”

“Yes,” he said, looking around the landing and removing his hands from my shoulders, “the entity has clearly been the reason for the coldness and general uneasy feeling here, but I can’t understand why she hasn’t made a move until now.”

I shook my head. The house was always cold and uninviting, but we’d never, ever witnessed any weird activity.

“Has anything changed over the last few days,” he asked, as he pulled out a set of stepladders from behind the wardrobe.

“Oh, God,” I said, realisation hitting me. “Eve turned 13.” I’d seen “The Exorcist” years ago. I knew about the stories. I knew what a teenage girl meant.

“What would her turning 13 have to do with anything?” he asked, unfolding the ladder.

“Poltergeists. They seem to prey on adolescents, don’t they?”

He frowned. “Well, so-called poltergeists do, but we haven’t experienced total poltergeist activity.”

“But the slamming doors and stuff.”

“Yes, there’s that, but there’s more than that. More than just a noisy ghost. Each of these things must be connected. A poltergeist stirs up trouble and throws things around. So far,” he continued, as he set the ladders under the hatch, “we’ve had tapping on the walls, very rhythmically, a picture fall off the wall, a bedroom door slamming and cold hands grabbing my wrist.” He looked back at me. “This is more than a poltergeist. This is a different, more intelligent manifestation.”

He began to climb the stairs as I felt a chill run up my spine. Somehow I didn’t feel comforted. The idea of a naughty ghost throwing stuff around was frightening in itself, but not as frightening as something with an actual purpose.

I watched as the Doctor pushed open the hatch and pulled himself up inside. He then reached down for me as I climbed and, grabbing my arm, was able to lift me up. I was fairly slim and didn’t weight much so he didn’t struggle.

He went into his pocket and flicked on a torch. It was amazingly bright and lit the entirety of the attic up. My heart sank when I saw some of mine and Julian’s boxes stacked up not far from the hatch. It wasn’t much – some mementos and stuff from the old house – but it made me sad.

“Alright?” asked the Doctor, noticing me looking at the boxes.

“I’m fine,” I said. “It’s just...sad.”

The Doctor looked at me and sat down next to me. He took my hand. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through – having to bring up a teenage daughter on your own.”

“Do you have any family?” I asked, realising I knew absolutely nothing about him.

“Nobody close by,” he said, looking wistful. “I have an adopted brother in London and a niece...well, she’s somewhere else. I miss her a lot.”

“I miss Julian,” I said, trying to fight back the tears. I’d always been strong. I had to be strong for Eve’s sake. I’d cried a lot in the days after his death, but always made sure I was alone and that nobody was about. I couldn’t break down in front of my daughter.

“Death is a strange emotion to deal with,” he said. “I’ve lost people before, but I’m always comforted.”

“In what way?”

He frowned and looked uneasy. “The nature of what I do means that death is never the end. I can always see those people again. Well, most of the time.”

“I don’t understand.”

He took a deep breath. “I’m a time traveller.”

I couldn’t help myself. I let out the loudest laugh I had laughed for years.

“I’m telling the truth,” he said, laughing back at me. “You heard Holly mention the TARDIS.”

“Yes,” I said, remembering the strange name, “but I assumed that was...I don’t know. A code name or something.”

“It’s my time machine,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye.

“Don’t be so daft,” I said, shaking my head, still grinning.

“It’s absolutely the truth,” he said. “I’ve seen the fall of Troy and World War One. I’ve seen it all.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said, looking for a crack in his face.

“Well whether you believe me or not is beside the point. What I am trying to say is that death is not the end. I can say goodbye to someone and then go back and see them earlier in their life. They may die in a linear sense, but it doesn’t mean it’s over.”

“Then why don’t you?” I asked him.

“Because I respect that not everyone can time travel. Most people have a beginning, middle and end. I can jump off the bus in the middle and go back to the beginning, but that’s not fair on the people I care about. The people I love.”

I frowned at him. He looked like he completely believed in what he was telling me. “Prove it.”

“After we’ve dealt with your ghostly old lady,” he said, shining the torch towards the boxes. “Perhaps an evening out to watch Shakespeare might convince you.” He smiled.

I watched as he scrambled on his hands and knees towards the old, battered cardboard boxes. Somehow what he was saying was comforting; no matter how crazy it sounded. Somewhere, back in the mists of time, myself, Julian and Eve were happy.

The Doctor blew off some dust from the boxes and opened them up.

“They’re a bit damp,” he said.

“This house is damp,” I said, knowingly. “What’s in them?”

“No answers I’m afraid,” he said, pulling out some old, filthy rags. “Just rags covered in oil. No doubt used for cleaning a car or bicycle or something.”

I shook my head in disappointed, but then noticed he was looking up at the roof and then the wall in front of him.

“What is it?” I asked.

“This attic, I’m assuming, stretches the entire length of the top floor.”

“Yeah, well it should do. I don’t come up here very often.”

The Doctor looked at the hatch and then across the floorboards to the wall. “On the other side of this wood should be the outer wall of the house, yes?”

“If it stretches the length of the house then yes,” I said, not really understanding him.

“Except it doesn’t.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“It doesn’t stretch the entire length.” He knocked on the wooden panels. “This panelling is around 3 feet from the front of the house.”

“Meaning?” I asked, still trying to join the dots.

“Meaning that on the other side of these panels is a block of space that we know nothing about.”

“A secret compartment?”

“A secret compartment,” smiled the Doctor.

I looked at him with a smile for a good few seconds...and then the torch bulb exploded and the attic was plunged into darkness.

To be continued...