Chapter 10 (Void)
The Doctor looked up from the ring, his eyes sad. Eve was awake now and was sat next to me, her head buried against my shoulder
I sniffed and wiped at my eyes. “She was trying to protect those children.”
The Doctor nodded sadly. “She was sent from another world to care, to help out, and when she realised something was going wrong she was killed for doing the right thing.”
“And they just hid her away upstairs in the attic that whole time.”
The Doctor exhaled. “We have no way of knowing what happened to the kids or the Horner’s after that.” He picked up the ring and turned it over in his fingers. “I suppose we should be thankful that this ring still exists.”
“But why’s she trying to trap us?” asked Eve.
“She’s not,” said the Doctor.
“No,” I said, realising things, “she’s trying to protect you, Eve.”
“Protect me from what?” said Eve.
“Well it all fits together,” said the Doctor. “The psychic projection of Miss Quick lay dormant for some time. The upheaval in this house of you losing your husband awoke her, but you got nannies in to help you care for Eve.”
“She was a nanny so didn’t feel like they were a threat.”
“Exactly. When Tash left all Eve had was you – the only thing she knows about Human mothers is that they are dangerous. She saw you as a threat to your own daughter.”
“But I love her. Surely she saw that.”
“You have to realise, Emily, that Miss Quick’s Human body is dead. The actual force that she was – the force that existed within that body – is the one that has been haunting this place. It’s confused and damaged and doesn’t know what it’s doing. It’s seeing everything in black and white. There are no grey patches.”
“But how could she trap us in the house? And where’s Holly?” asked Eve.
The Doctor crossed over to the window and put his hands in his pockets, looking at the inky blackness outside. “Holly most likely stepped outside the house – maybe for some fresh air or something – for just five minutes. We’re still in the house and she’s outside, but Quick has put a veil between the building and the outside world. Psychic projections again.”
I rubbed my forehead and closed my eyes. This was all getting a little too much for me. “Okay, so how do we stop it? How do we fix this?”
“We need to hand Eve over to Quick.”
“What!” Eve and I blurted out at the same time.
“Are you loopy?” asked Eve.
The Doctor crouched down in front of Eve and took her hand and then mine. “Listen, we know that Quick isn’t going to hurt Eve. She’s a child. She cares for children. Holly, I and you, Emily, are adults. We’re the ones she wants to hurt.”
“So we just do as she says?” I said.
The Doctor nodded. “She won’t hurt Eve. I truly believe that.”
“This is crazy. We don’t even know how we are meant to give Eve to her.”
“Yeah, like, is there some magic doorway or something?!” said Eve, clearly getting worried.
“I think it’s a little more mundane than that,” said the Doctor, getting to his feet, “but if we do this we have to make sure that we follow exactly what she wants.”
“But we can’t know for certain that she doesn’t want to harm Eve.”
“Emily,” he said, putting his hands on my shoulders and looking down at me. For a moment – just a brief moment – I felt like someone cared for me again. Someone other than Eve, that is. His blue eyes just seemed to pierce into my very soul. “Emily, do you trust me?”
“I don’t really know you,” I said, my voice barely audible.
“But do you trust me?”
I waited for a moment. I had to catch my breath. “Yes,” I said.
He smiled a perfect smile and then leant in and kissed my forehead.
When he released me I closed my eyes and almost swayed backwards before the reality of what was going on here snatched me back.
“Doing what Miss Quick wants will put this all right.” He turned to Eve. “And you have to do exactly what she says.”
Eve nodded quickly, but looked at me with fearful eyes.
I walked over to her and put my arms around her. “Sweetheart, you’ll be fine.”
“I have here,” said the Doctor, going into his jacket pocket, “a device from the future. It’s called a mobile telephone. I’ve connected it up to mine. It works like a video camera. You sit it up there on top of the TV and it will broadcast a live picture of you to your mum and me.”
“Okay,” said Eve, taking the phone from him. “Wow, this is from the future?” she said, turning it over in her hand.
“Don’t tell anyone,” said the Doctor, holding his finger up to her. “Now there’s just one other thing we need to do. One more thing that I think might help our confused lady with putting an end to this.”
I watched as the Doctor descended the ladders with the skeleton in his arms. He moved with the utmost respect and looked down with pity at the odd-skulled corpse. He smiled sadly and laid the bones down on the blanket I had taken out from the airing cupboard.
“Such a stupid, stupid waste,” said the Doctor, as I helped him to wrap the remains up in the blanket.
Once the body was fully covered he gently carried it downstairs to the middle room.
“Is that her?” said Eve, nervously.
I nodded. It must have been scary for her. She’d never seen death this close before. Even I hadn’t. I’d refused to see Julian’s body. I didn’t want my last image of him to be lying on a mortuary slab. I wanted happy memories; his smiling, shining face.
“It’s okay, Eve,” said the Doctor, putting his arm around her shoulder.
“So how exactly do we play this?” I asked, really just following his lead and not really knowing what to expect.
The Doctor cleared his throat and looked all around the room. He was holding the jewel in his hand. “Miss Quick, my name is the Doctor and this is Emily Webster. I hereby ask you to release myself and Emily so we can leave Eve Webster in your capable hands. For you to protect her.”
Nothing.
“Miss Quick, please, you know this is what you want us to do.”
“Nothing’s happening,” I said.
The Doctor held out a hand. There was something. A very slight, gentle breeze. I only knew because the Doctor’s fringe was very gently flapping about.
And then the TV flicked on. The black screen had two, white letters on it which spelt out. “GO”
“Mum...” said Eve, nervously.
He took the strange telephone device from Eve and put it on top of the TV. “You’ll be just fine,” he said, as he took my hand and guided me out of the middle room and to the front door.
“It’ll be fine, sweetie,” I said, trying not to break down at seeing my terrified thirteen year old being left in the hands of a confused alien ghost.
The Doctor put his hand on the door handle, said a little prayer and then opened it.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Holly standing outside, her hands in her pockets and shivering. The rest of the world was there as well - the dark railway line, the wooden fence and the grey-tinted grass in the pale moonlight.
“Doctor, what’s happening?” asked Holly, trying to get back into the house.
“No, no,” he said, guiding her away and shutting the door. “I’ll explain when this is all over.”
“But-”
“Shush,” he said.
He brought out a similar telephone device and switched it on. I was astonished. We could see a live image of my little girl standing in our room. I wanted so much to go back in there and help her, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew we had to end this tonight.
“Eve, I’ve rigged this up for two-way communication,” said the Doctor to the video device. “Are you there?”
“Yes,” came my little girl’s voice, “but I’m scared.”
“It’ll all be over soon, Eve,” he said. “Time to be brave. Show Miss Quick that you don’t need her.”
“Show her that your mum loves you, sweetheart.”
To be concluded...
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