My first, and last attempt at poetry

So on re-opening my blog I found this post I made nearly exactly a year ago. I don't normally write poetry, and this is basically why... But after showing it to a few close friends they have assured me that while they are extremely emo they aren't that terrible, so thought I would send them out into the wider world for more scrutiny! Please be gentle!

~original post~

So I was working a 16 hour shift on Saturday because of the rugby. Very hard work, not only was it an incredibly long shift but also not much to do, and when it got busy there were quite a few arseholes, which are always fun to deal with!

I wrote this around 14 hours in to my shift. Never attempted poetry before. I can see why. My brain was running on empty and I felt rather shit. So apologies that it is unbelievably shit and emo!

Manipulation Overload.

Tangled in his web of lies,
Enthralled by the sickly sweet words, whispered:
"I love you".
Its hard to get release, to get free,
A casual glance, a smile, a word,
Has you crawling back for more.
Just one more touch, caress, word:
"I love you".
Falling ever deeper,
Swirling mists, rising black waters,
Sent to devour, to confuse, control.
When he is not there: spite, hatred,
But arms so easy to fall back into.
The seemingly kind embrace,
Which traps your heart,
Destroys your soul:
I want you,
I need you,
"I love you".


Snakes

The snakes are back again.
Writhing around my stomach,
        My chest, my throat.
Making it hard to think,
        To breathe, to speak.
Why are you doing this?
Why can't you stop?
Why me?
Their emerald eyes flash mockingly in silent reply.
Break down in darkness,
Only comfort the floor, the bottle,
A night cap for the troublesome snakes.
Sing them to sleep, anything to lessen their pain.
Curl up around them;
Play on their fears, believe their lies.

The Commuter - a short story

So I want to get back into writing again as no longer being a student I have nothing creative or intelligent to put my mind to. This is something I knocked up in half an hour while I was on the train home, inspired by a gentleman sat opposite me. It is the first short piece I have written, also the first one without any death or murder or violence so I am not sure if it is actually any good! Feel free to comment about what you think...

The Commuter 

He sat there, slowly taking sips from his cardboard cup of scolding hot, yet pitifully weak coffee. The train rocked on the tracks, causing the person squeezed into the seat next to him to jostle his arm as he lowered his coffee back down. He raised his eyebrow slightly, the only sign of annoyance he made. He sighed and took off his glasses so he could rub at his tired eyes. It was only 4 o'clock but it was already dark outside and rain lashed the windows as the train sped through the English countryside. A combination of earlier winter nights and terrible British weather made for great travelling. The weather would only get worse when he got off the train and trudged to his empty flat. A stereotypical presumption about living in Wales, but at this time of year almost certainly true. He finished rubbing his eyes and replaced his glasses firmly on the bridge of his nose. Two hours from London to Cardiff, enough time for him to go over and finalise the proposal that his boss was nagging him about. First week back after the Christmas break and already the relaxed atmosphere had been replaced by stress and caffeine highs once more.

He sighed and refocused his eyes on his laptop screen. Thankfully he had managed to find a seat at a table so had room to work. Unfortunately due to rush hour he didn't have much leg room. Or space to think. The carriage had the faint whiff of wet dog and was full of damp grumpy commuters and excited students, returning back from home to their life of alcohol fueled *studying*. It was a while since he had been a student. A while since he had been able to drink his night away in a club with friends, not having a care in the world. But he was in the *real world* as they call it. A pencil pushing office man, working all day and night to make that little bit more money for someone else to enjoy.

He reached into his bag and pulled out a sandwich, opened it with his teeth and started munching while he loaded his proposal up onto the screen. His laptop was slow, struggling at loading simple programs. He really should send it in to get it fixed but when would he have the time for that? His friend said he would have a look at it next time he came over, but when does he have time to socialise these days? His other friend said he should invest in a Macbook. Super efficient and bang up to date. But when would he be able to afford to spend that much on himself? Especially just after Christmas. No. He will just have to sit and wait for it to load. And try not to throw it out the door at the next station stop. The program loaded and he quickly scanned the text to see where he had got up to and obediently started typing away. He momentarily worried that the repeated tap tap tap of his keys would annoy the other passengers, but a quick glance around showed him they were all absorbed in their own personal world of misery and technology.

"The next station stop is Swindon. If you are leaving the service here please make sure you take all of your personal belongings with you and mind the gap between the train and the platform edge. The next station stop is Swindon." The tannoy blared out. This was followed by a crowd of people slowly getting out of their seats, stretching their aching limbs and reaching for their belongings. He was knocked and bustled by the people leaving, yet was given one minute of calm in which he could relax and regain a bit more space in his seat. The calm didn't last for long though as a young mother with a screaming toddler jammed into the seat next to him. She rammed a lollipop into the wide screaming mouth of her child and then proceeded to make a very loud angry phone call to someone called "Jake".

He let out a deep irritated sigh. The proposal can wait. He closed the program and started up the next episode of Breaking Bad and settled back in his seat.

Doctor Who: The Ice Machine Monster

There was a bang, a crash and a gurgle.

"Hmm, the ice-machine is making a lot more noise than normal today" thought Amy as she opened the back room door.  She put down the empty ice bucket and switched on the light. It flickered on and then off and then finally sputtered into life. As the door closed shut behind her the sound of the club and drunken shouting died to a distant drone. She breathed a quick sigh of relief, relishing the fresh air without the stale smell of sweat and alcohol. The room was more or less empty except for the ice machine to the left of the door and lots of pipes and pumps connecting the barrels to the bar out front. Boxes of bottles and cans littered the floor in organised chaos. Waiting to be taken out and consumed by an eager drinking horde. A blue tarpaulin hung from the ceiling, separating the room into two halves, and behind this was where all the barrels were kept. The door to the back of the club through which the barrels were brought down was letting in a cold draught, however she swore it was a lot colder than it normally was in the room.

Amy walked over to the ice machine in the corner and pushed open the hatch to get to the ice, picking up the plastic scoop. The real plastic scoop had gone missing a couple of weeks ago and it hadn't been replaced yet, so instead they were using one made out of an old 6 pint milk bottle. Not as sturdy as a real scoop but it did the trick. She re-read the 'do not leave scoop in the machine it will get covered!' sign once again, as she always does.

More bangs and gurgles from behind the blue curtain made her jump. She giggled at how pathetic she was being.

"I've been watching far too many horror stories" she scolded herself.

She reached into the machine and started filling up the bucket with ice. There was another bang, this time followed by a hiss and the sound of something being dragged across the floor.

Amy turned around nervously, then started filling up the bucket quicker.

"It is really busy in the club, I better go back." She thought to herself.

She pulled the ice machine hatch closed just as the lights in the room went out.

"Hey! What's going on?" she shouted, her voice shaking slightly. "James? Is that you? Very funny, now stop it! You're starting to freak me out".

She started feeling her way to the door, to turn the lights back on. She tripped over one of the boxes of bottles, banging her knee and came up cursing.

"If this is one of your stupid jokes I am going to bloody kill you!" She made it to the door and felt along the wall to find the switch amongst the pipes leading along the wall. She found the switch but it was horribly wet and sticky for some reason.

"Urgh!" She said, turning it on. The light flickered again and turned on. She looked at her hand and saw that it, and the light switch, were covered in yellow slime.

"Oh my god what the hell!?" She said, quickly wiping her hand on her jeans. She felt something warm drip onto her neck, she flinched, and wiped it away instinctively to find that it was covered in more yellow slime. Warm this time.

Another drip onto her face.

She looked up.

And tried to scream.

It was too late.

The door clicked shut again and a small puddle of water slowly formed under the door from the dropped ice.

Amy's colleagues assumed she had simply quit work without saying anything.

It had happened before...

'Doctor Who' is copyrighted to the BBC

Dragons, dragons dragons!

Ok, so my plan on writing one of these a week has already fallen through! But I have a spare 5 mins so thought I would do one now :)

Not much has really progressed in the world of Hesti recently. More gone backwards or not moved at all. I have just given in my notice at my place of work, which I have mixed feelings about. I love working there but with Christmas and Masters I just wouldn't be able to keep it up. Going to be very sad to say goodbye to all the lovely people I work with but hopefully I will be able to keep in touch, from the other side of the bar! It does also mean I can pick up some shifts at the Baths again over Christmas, which I have to admit I am really looking forward to. I always loved walking around the Great Bath when it was a cold miserable day because the steam used to make it so atmospheric, so really looking forward to what it will look like in the dead of winter!

I am also failing in buying things. Since having a job I actually have money and it is great! Only I keep forgetting that I won't have a job soon and therefore stop spending!!! Just bought a load of jewellery off of the internet for my various piercings and managed to basically get all of the sizings wrong. Another classic Hesti moment! So as a result I am now re-stretching my ear from a 3/3.5 to a 4, because for some reason I think that would be easier than sending them back for new sizes! I also bought a big bag of balls (te he) because I kept pinging the balls off of my bars when drunk, so now I have 50 balls of various colours but no where to put them so I want more jewellery and more piercings! Bit of a fail.


One sort of good thing that is happening at the moment is I am actually getting on with writing my essay! Well, when I say writing I mean reading books and making notes and thinking up awesome one liners that I want to put in! Today I went to the library and got a book out called 'J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator' by Hammond and Scull. For some obsurd reason I never realised that Tolkien was an artist and most of the original pictures for his texts were actually done by him! The picture of Smaug I put on the bottom of my last post was by him! No idea! And yes I feel very stupid for not realising! Today I have completely fallen in love with his work and now want to get one of his dragons (the one to the left) tattooed on my wrist (if I ever man up enough to get one done that is!). That dragon is (apparently) inspired by Beowulf and the words underneath read 'hringboga heorte gefysed' which is taken from the Old English which means 'Now was the heart of the coiling beast stirred to come out to fight.' How cool is that!? So yeah, my day has been predominately dragon filled!

Writing essays, thinking about working at the Baths and also updating this has made me feel a bit homesick which is strange but I must soldier on. I have work tonight which hopefully won't be too bad and I might be able to pick up a few tips to add to my jar! If it is empty (which is quite often is at the start) I think I will just either sit and think, or clean and think about my essay some more, just to at least pretend that I feel on top of it all!

I leave you with another of Tolkien's paintings which I really want to have on my wall at some point, it is 'Smaug flies around the mountain'


Laters!
x

Thank you! & Update!

Ok, first things first, thank you so much to everyone who has read my blog I have over 1000 views! ^_^ Means so much to me! Especially all the awesome comments I have had back from it telling me how good my Doctor Who episode is! The amount of times I've been told I need to give it to the BBC to make it in to a real episode is unbelievable! Personally I don't think they would even give it the time of day!

Secondly I should probably apologise about not writing anything for ages! Been caught up in Masters, working and, who am I kidding, drinking whilst back at uni! Hopefully cutting down on the last one and picking up the other two more! I have a new positive 'get sh*t done!' attitude!

Thought I would let you know what I am doing in my Masters, as I think it is pretty cool! First off I am doing a module on the Myth of King Arthur, which I absolutely love! I did my undergrad dissertation on Merlin so I am very happy with this! Thinking of getting the feminist out of her bag for my essay for that one which could be interesting! The other module I am doing is Tolkien's Medievalism, which basically means I am reading Tolkien's work alongside the medieval texts which inspired him. Have you ever thought of reading Beowulf alongside the Hobbit? No? Well do it! It is so cool! I am planning on writing my essay on dragons and how cool they are! Well not really, but how Tolkien uses Dragons in his children's stories and comparing them to the dragons in Beowulf and other Old English texts. Which, in my honest opinion is pretty blooming cool!

I think I will try and start writing this once a week again. It might be pretty boring after the excitement of Doctor Who though. I am hoping to write another story for this (This time a murder mystery!) But I need time to do that, and at the moment when I have spare time I should be reading or writing my essays! (Part of my new attitude!) Hopefully it will last for at least a while!

Here is an illustration of Smaug from the edition of the Hobbit I own myself

Laters! x

Doctor Who episode 6: The Finale

“YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME DOCTOR. I WILL HAVE YOUR POWER” I could hear the tentacle writhing below, scraping its way up again and shuddered. The Doctor took my hand again and pulled me towards the door. Ben-Ged was shaking himself awake as we ran past, trying to find his gun. We ran through the door and the Doctor locked it. (read the first episode here)

*opening credit music* oooooooooweeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 

“That should give us a bit of time!” The Doctor said, fishing a torch out of one of his many pockets.

“Why didn’t you use the torch on the way down?” I asked accusingly. “I don’t want to know how many rats I stepped on!”

The Doctor grinned at me as he started running down the tunnels, picking paths at random as we came to intersections, the torch’s light skittering as he ran. After a couple of minutes we came to a door set into the wall. It looked new and recently used. The Doctor looked at me.

‘Shall we give it a go?’

‘Please! I want out of these tunnels!’

The Doctor zapped the lock and pushed the door open slowly. We walked out onto a fire escape, with stairs leading up to street level; there was another door down to our right which the Doctor made for.

‘So not up and out to the safe outside world?’ I asked sarcastically.

The Doctor ignored me and pushed through the door back into the museum and we entered the Temple Courtyard. I remembered being here 2000 years ago, the first time that we met Apulia. Back then it was fantastic in its magnificence, flanked by pillars and statues. Now it was dark and damp from being underground for too long. The walkway beneath our feet rang out loudly as we moved along it. The Doctor paused opposite the head of Sulis Minerva, a remnant of the once sacred site not preserved in its glass case. I looked at it and the Doctor started monologue-ing to himself  

‘He, it, whatever Malum Sanatore is, controls everything in this building. Don’t touch anything. Especially the water. Remember when we were by the Great Bath? Did you get a strange urge to touch the water? He is attempting to control everyone who enters this site. Seeping their power away from them, with or without, their consent.’

I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked back to the statue nothing had changed. I had a bad feeling.

‘Doctor...’ I said.

‘I need to figure out what to do. How to stop this. He can’t have the Tardis. I’ve hidden it away, put the shields up as they would say. But if he gets me, he gets the tardis, and that can’t happen.’

‘Doctor!’

‘What?’

‘That head, just moved.’

The doctor turned to look at the bronze head of Minerva. And it turned to look at him.

‘Errr yes now that is not right.’

The floor shook and the room was filled with laughter.

‘YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME DOCTOR. YOU ARE IN MY DOMAIN.’

The glass surrounding the statue’s head cracked and shattered, the casing which appeared to be holding it up broke away and the head rose up on a mechanical body.

   ‘MY SERVANTS HAVE DONE ME PROUD. FITTING EXTRA DEFENSIVES IF THEY WERE EVER NEEDED.’

With a groan Minerva wrenched free from the ground and stepped towards us.

   ‘I think this is the time when you normally say run!’ I said grabbing the Doctor’s hand and pulling him away.

   ‘The technology is absolutely fascinating! In order to do that he has fused modern technology with his knowledge of alien craftsmanship.’

   ‘Yes, yes the killer robot is awesome now let’s please get away from it!’

As we ran away from the temple courtyard I heard the door to the tunnels smash open as Ben-Ged came out. Shots fired and we ducked as the walls around us were filled with bullet holes.

   ‘Where are we going?’ I said as we ducked into a corner to catch our breath.

   ‘The Sacred Spring. There must be something there!’

   ‘Isn’t that the other way though?!’

   ‘Yeah, but the museum is all linked up, sort of like a figure of eight, if we keep going back through the museum we can find some stairs down to the Great Bath and from there to the Sacred Spring.’

   ‘How do you know all this?!’

   ‘I have a good head for directions!’ The Doctor grinned. ‘Come on. Just a bit more running to do!’

We started running again, through the museum, past the Gorgon’s head and up the stairs towards the start of the museum.

   ‘This way’ The Doctor said pushing through a door concealed in a wall.

   ‘Wow the people who designed this place sure like secret wall doors!’ I said closing the door quietly behind me and followed the doctor down the metal staircase to the Great Bath.

   ‘Hopefully they won’t realise that we have back tracked…’ the Doctor said as he hurried to the sacred spring.

The Sacred Spring was dark, lit only by the emergency lights from the building around it, even so, you could still see the steam swirling over the surface. The heat coming from the surface was warming after the cold of the night.

There was a bang as the door to the back stairs was flung open and the sound of metal on metal rang out as Minerva started making her slow way down the stairs.

   ‘Damn. That didn’t work. Quick, climb over the top of the arch into the spring. But stay on the sides. Don’t touch the water itself.’

The Doctor helped me climb over the top of the wall and lower myself down onto the small ledge surrounding the spring. When I had edged myself down and over to the floor around the side the Doctor followed. He pushed me round the spring until we were hidden from sight in one of the alcoves. The floor was damp and covered in bird poo so slippery under foot. The Doctor motioned me to be quiet as he saw Minerva’s head appear over the top of the wall. There was a metallic grating sound as the head turned to look over the spring, but thanks to the angle of the archway we were hidden from sight. Minerva slowly moved back down again and continued on towards the exit of the museum, still searching for us.

   ‘What now?’ I mouthed.

   ‘We’ve escaped Minerva but I doubt Ben-Ged will be so easily fooled.’ The Doctor whispered. ‘We need to stop Malum but I can’t figure out how yet’ He hit himself in the forehead with the flat of his hand. ‘Come on think! How many plans have I foiled? How many times have I come up with solutions? Don’t fail now!’

   ‘Think it through.’ I said.’ What is Malum trying to do? Get power in order to get back to his home planet to take over and most likely enslave them as that is what most evil masterminds want to do. How is he doing that? By stealing their energy or ‘power’ from people by either drawing them into the water or absorbing them whole, through mind control. So, first off get rid of the water and then knock out the mind control..?’

The Doctor stopped and looked at me.

   ‘That isn’t a bad idea. Right! I remember Rosa saying there was an overflow system for the spring. We just need to get to that and drain it into the river. Once it is out of this site and away from Malum it should become harmless. I can’t touch the water though so not sure how to do that…’

   ‘I’ll do it.’

   ‘Are you sure? It’s pretty dangerous.’

   ‘Doctor being with you is pretty dangerous! And yes, you said yourself you can’t touch the water or all will be lost so it is up to me! I think I can see the over flow point anyway. You go back to the issue desk and figure out a way to stop that beacon.’

   ‘Sounds somewhat like a plan!’ The Doctor grinned. ‘Keep your head down, Ben-Ged is still about, once you’ve done it, don’t stick about and come find me in the reception hall.’

   ‘Will do.’

The Doctor gave me a long look before turning and making his way back over the top of the wall into the museum. I watched him go and then looked around me; I saw a long metal bar lying on the floor nearby, most probably left behind by the operations team earlier in the day. I went over and picked it up, not too heavy which was useful. I moved around the spring until I could see the dark shape of the gate in the water. I needed to shut the gate into the Great Bath and open the one to the overflow system. This was going to be easier said than done. I walked back around the spring till I was standing above the sluice gate to the Great Bath; I raised the metal bar above my head, shifted my footing slightly and then rammed the bar down. And missed. The bar hit the edge of the spring and bounced off jarring my hands.

   ‘Ahhh!!’ I dropped the bar and jumped up and down rubbing my arms to relieve the pain. ‘Right, retarded moment over. Try again.’

I repositioned myself and held the bar over the edge of the spring this time. Raised it once more and brought it down heavily onto the top of the gate. This time it hit on target and I felt it shift under the impact and was rewarded by a heavy grating sound as it moved and then fell into place, shutting the stream off.

   ‘Yes! Right now for the other gate.’ I got down onto my belly and shuffled to the edge of the floor, looking over the spring. The sluice gate to the overflow system was already open but not nearly open enough to drain the water quick enough. I lowered the bar into the water onto the top of the gate and began hitting it downwards in order to open it more. It wouldn’t budge. I tried again and again, getting more worried about the amount of noise I was making and hoping Ben-Ged wouldn’t turn up. I tried raising the bar up above my head to give some more weight behind the hits. As I brought it down I was caught off guard by a seagull flying overhead, breaking the silence with its raking call which made me jump and I dropped the bar into the spring and it sank noiselessly to the bottom, the steam swirled over the place where it had sank almost mocking me.

   ‘No!!’ I groaned. I looked up and tried to see if there was anything else I could use to open the gate. Nothing. I sat up and started to think, and then I heard the almost soundless noise of approaching boots on the steps behind me. Ben-Ged-Bentovin. I was in full view with nowhere to run, if he looked over the top of the spring I would be a goner. I looked around me desperately and then my gaze settled on the dark waters of the spring. I know the Doctor said not to touch the water but what choice do I have? If I stay here I will be shot by Ben-Ged, and fed to Malum. Game over, no second chances, no questions asked. But if I get into the spring I could kill two birds with one stone; hide from Ben-Ged and shift the gate open.

My mind made up I slipped into the dark waters. The heat of the waters took my breath away. I felt down with my feet until I could feel the gate directly underneath me. I took a deep breath and ducked under the surface of the water just as Ben-Ged’s head appeared above the wall of the spring. The heat of the water was over powering. I felt like I was in a cooking pot. The water slowly tugged at me as it flowed past me into the partially open gate. I lowered myself down, using the wall of the spring to steady myself, until I could feel the top of the gate. I pushed down with all my strength. It wouldn’t move. I kept pushing until I thought my lungs would burst. I needed to go back up for air. I couldn’t breathe. I had no way of knowing if Ben-Ged was still there, hopefully he had moved on, but right now I didn’t care, I needed air. I slowly worked my way back up to the surface of the spring, holding my face towards the top so it would only be my face that broke the surface. I gulped in mouthfuls of air, trying to keep my ragged breathing quiet. I risked a quick glance towards the arch of the spring, and there to my horror stood Ben-Ged smiling at me.

   ‘Hello.’ He said and raised his gun.

I took another deep breath and quickly re-submerged into the hot water. There was a muffled bang as Ben-Ged fired and I felt a bullet skid past me in the water and nick the top of my shoulder. I screamed, pain flooding through me, releasing precious air.  That was far, far too close. I positioned myself above the gate of the spring, crouching so my feet were on top of the gate and my arms were in the opening. I pushed, straining, feeling my strength slowly fading as I put everything into opening the gate, the wound on my shoulder burned. I looked up and saw a dark presence looming over the water. Ben-Ged had climbed over the spring wall and was stood above me, taking his time to line up the perfect shot. In my frustration I let out another cry, releasing more bubbles and giving away my position even more. Suddenly I felt a jolt beneath my feet; the gate gave way with a rust groan, and fell away from the wall. The water rushed through the new gap dragging me through it. I tried in vain to cling onto the wall and was pulled through into the dark swirling mass of water.

I woke, coughing and gasping to find myself half in a pool of fast flowing hot water. I got my breath back and looked around to find that I had gone through the overflow system but had, thankfully, been stopped from going down the drain and into the river by a large boulder blocking the water’s path. The water flowed around it regardless but I had been saved. My whole body ached as I moved, the wound on my shoulder had closed, (a saving act from Malum perhaps?) but my shirt was stained with blood. I picked myself up and climbed over the barrier back into the museum, watching my footing in case I slipped and ended up further down the drain. I ran back up the stairs, (how many times must I run around this museum tonight!?) and made it back to the reception hall.

   ‘Doctor?’ I whispered.

The Doctor’s head popped up over the top of the desk and he gestured me over.

   ‘What took you so long? What happened are you ok?’ He said, noticing the blood on my clothes.

   ‘I got into a bit of trouble with the spring and Ben-Ged… but I’m ok, the water did its trick.’

   ‘You went in the water? Why does no one listen to me!’ The Doctor started grumbling.

   ‘Ok, so enough of my failings, have you got anywhere with your part of the plan?’

I stepped up behind the desk as the Doctor popped back down again. He had ripped up part of the floor and had dragged wiring out from the floor and the audioguide boxes and was busy ‘sonicing’ them.

   ‘I have isolated the main beacon and have rigged this audioguide to stop it.’ He said, pointing to an audioguide which was covered in wires and plastic, all seemingly held together with a series of elastic bands.

   ‘Ok so that is the mind control issue. What are you going to do about the evil alien living under the city?’

   ‘That is an issue I have yet to get to.’ The Doctor said fiddling some more.

   ‘Err Doctor?’ I said

   ‘Yes?’

   ‘I think I just heard something…’

Simultaneously we both slowly raised our heads above the desk and saw not only Ben-Ged at the entrance, but also Minerva-Robot.

  ‘Fantastic!’ I said quickly hiding back behind the desk as they both started moving towards us. ‘You better knock that beacon out now!!’

  ‘Trying, trying!’ He said zapping the audioguide and changing settings. ‘Does Ben-Ged still have a gun?’ he asked me.

I snuck a quick look back over the top of the desk and jumped back down as an audioguide box exploded above our heads.

   ‘You know what? I am going to take that as a yes!’ I said ducking from flying plastic. ‘How long do you need?’

   ‘What?’

   ‘To get that working? How long do you need?’

   ‘Two minutes should do it.’

   ‘Ok, diversion central here we come!’ I said, diving to the right and scrabbling along the floor.

   ‘Be careful!’

   ‘Don’t worry, he’s already shot me once, he isn’t that good a shot!’ I laughed.

I looked around me for something to distract them with and settled on a box of audioguides. I ripped open the doors and started pulling the guides out of their sockets. I lobbed the first one over at random and heard it smash on the floor. The footsteps stopped. I sneaked a peak over the top of the desk and saw it had done the trick; both were looking away from the Doctor and towards me.

  ‘That’s right; you jumped up piece of metal! This way!’ I flung another audioguide and hit Minerva in the face with a clunk. The robot reeled but then started walking again. I threw another one at Ben-Ged but he ducked and it glanced off his shoulder, he fired his gun again and more audioguides exploded in a shower of plastic and purple string. I moved further back down the desk.

   ‘How’s that coming along Doctor?’

   ‘Just a little bit more time!’

   ‘Ahhh!!’ I jumped back over lobbing a stapler I found on the side. ‘Hurry up!’

Ben-Ged strode up to the desk raising his gun, aiming at me. And fired. It jammed. Ben-Ged growled and fired again. Still jammed. He threw it away and lunged over the desk; I jumped out of the way and clambered over the desk, knocking a till over in the process. Ben-Ged grabbed my foot and dragged me back down again.

   ‘Got it!’ The Doctor shouted. ‘And…. Stop!’ He said, pointing the audioguide at the World Heritage symbol. Ben-Ged froze, his hands towards my throat, he blinked, his lifeless eyes widening as Malum’s control over him was gone for the first time in ages. His arms lowered.

   ‘What the…?’

I looked at him and then punched him in the face. Taken by unawares he fell back unconscious into the desk.

   ‘What on earth did you do that for?’ The Doctor asked.

   ‘Big security guard with a gun who has no idea what is going on. I think he would be safer not being around to ask all the questions…’

The Doctor paused.

   ‘Good point.’ He said moving round the desk to where Minerva lay. Whilst being caught up by Ben-Ged I hadn’t realised what had happened to her. She lay just in the door way of the desk. Dangerously close to where the Doctor had been working. I got up and joined him looking down at it.

   ‘So that knocked out all Malum’s control of the site?’

There was a loud rumbling and the room shook.

   ‘DOCTOR! YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH THIS! I STILL HAVE THE UPPER HAND!’

   ‘I’m going to say yes!’ The Doctor grinned at me.

   ‘Ok, so I ask again, now what?’

The Doctor was sat on his haunches and was thoughtfully poking the robot.

   ‘The audioguide blocks out the beacon but only in a limited area. He can’t control anything in the museum, but the tunnels will still be his. If we put Ben-Ged back down there it would be evil kill-y robot again.’

   ‘Ok, so let’s not do that then.’

   ‘But, if we use Minerva, re-program her, attach the beacon cancelation to her and march her back to her ‘master’ and…’

   ‘He’ll be stuck!’ I finished for him. ‘But what if he gets around it?’

   ‘I could wire up something…’ the Doctor said half-heartedly, running a hand through his scruffy hair. ‘But just because there is an alien living underneath it, doesn’t justify blowing this whole place up!’

   ‘Can’t you temper it? Not use quite so many audioguides…? I don’t know’ I shrugged. ‘But an audioguide bomb does sound cool!’ I grinned.

   ‘We’re talking about blowing up a world heritage site because of a killer alien! …and yeah it is pretty cool.’ He grinned back.

The Doctor ripped open the chest area of the robot, revealing a complicated jumble of wires and flashing lights. The Doctor grinned again.

   ‘Oh aren’t you pretty’ The Doctor purred. ‘Almost a shame to blow you up…’ He leant over and grabbed some wires and audio guides from the side. I slumped down on the floor next to him. ‘Are you alright?’

   ‘Yeah, just all this running and being shot at has made me pretty tired, and I have a bit of a headache.’

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at me, pausing in his work, concern showing on his face.

   ‘How long were you in the water for?’

   ‘I don’t know, I think I passed out when I went through the drain…’

   ‘The drain?! I’m surprised you made it out alive!’

   ‘All in a good days work!’ I smiled.

The Doctor went back to twiddling and fiddling and five minutes later he sat up and clapped his hands together. I had fallen asleep momentarily and jumped with the sudden noise.

   ‘Done! Pass me that audioguide’ He gestured over behind me.

   ‘yeah, umm yeah, ok’ I said, getting up and passing it to him, shaking my head to try to clear my head.

He took it and pressed some of the buttons and some lights in her chest cavity flashed in response.

   ‘Awesome! Right seeing how taking the whole robot there seemed a bit excessive I have managed to use her technology to boost the cancelation signal and also wire it up to blow when we press this button.’ He pointed to the ‘play’ button on the audioguide which he then passed to me. He bent back down and put his hands in amongst the wires and pulled them out of the casing. ‘One portable alien bomb. All we need to do is chuck this down into the well and then run.’ He said smiling.

  ‘ok, so we have the bomb, we have the control. What are we waiting for?’

   ‘Nothing, lets get going!’

Once again we started towards the entrance to the museum, I remembered back to the morning when I was excited about seeing the changes, now I was filled with a sense of dread along with excitement, of what will happen in the next half an hour. We made it back down into the tunnels, even without the threat of a mad-mind-controlled-alien/human/robot it was still ominous going back into the dark.

The Doctor led the way through the door, carrying the jumble of wires in front of him, he had given the audioguide to me which I carried around my neck for safe keeping.

   ‘Even if Malum has any more nasty things under his control down here, the beacon from Sulis should cancel it out long before they reach us.’

   ‘Reassuring!’

The floor rumbled and the walls shook.

   ‘DOCTOR YOU STILL THINK YOU CAN STOP ME. WHY? I HAVE BEEN HERE FOR MILLENNIUM, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN MAKE ME LEAVE?’

   ‘Malum?’ The Doctor shouted back. ‘You say you are all powerful so I am assuming you can hear me. ‘You may have been here for millennia but what gives you the right to kill these people? You are bored and tired of being stuck here, I get that. Normally I would offer you a lift away, anywhere you like, but you pose too great a risk for me and my ship. So I offer an alternative alternatum. Leave these people alone. Stop killing them, stop controlling them. Take what you need to power your ship and leave. If you have been here so long you must have taken enough to power part of your ship if not the whole craft. You can escape and that should be enough. If not I will stop you.’

   ‘HMMMM. SOUNDS TEMPTING DOCTOR. BUT ALSO BORING.’ Laughter filled the tunnels and the walls began to shake uncontrollably.

   ‘Come on’ The Doctor said to me, ‘Looks like we are having to stick to the original plan.’ He took the audioguide from around my neck and pressed a few buttons then gave it back to me. ‘Ok, bomb is primed.’ He shook his head. ‘Hopefully it will be enough and not too much.’

   ‘Will it kill him?’

   ‘No, from what I figure he and his ship is buried right down near the core of the earth, we need to throw this down the well and hopefully that will collapse the area he is in and also restrict his access to the spring, he will be trapped, but Bath will be safe again.’ He started along the tunnels again and it didn’t take us long to find the doorway into the room where Ben-Ged had taken us earlier.

   ‘Ready?’ He asked me.

   ‘Yep.’

   ‘Ok, on the count of three we burst in, I run in and get this down the well and you – ‘

   ‘Distraction central! I got it!’ I said cutting in.

The Doctor grinned.

   ‘One… two…. Three!’ The Doctor kicked the door open and the lock burst with a smash. He would have liked to say he ran in, but it was more falling in after the force used to open the door.

   ‘WELCOME BACK DOCTOR!’

Tentacles whipped up and out of the well and came speeding towards us. I ducked as one sped past my shoulder, and hit the floor with a thump. The Doctor had similarly dived out of the way, skidding along the floor until he came up against the wall on the other side of the room to me. He looked up to check I was alright and I nodded. Right diversion central! I checked the position of the tentacles and stood back up.

  ‘Hey Malum! You big tentacle alien. What are you? Some sort of Hentai reject?!’ I ducked as more tentacles rushed my way, leaving the Doctor open to run across the room.

  ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?’

The Doctor was suddenly swept off his feet by a low swinging tentacle.

   ‘I WILL HAVE YOUR POWER DOCTOR.’

  ‘Not if I have anything to do about it! Catch!’ He threw the wire bomb towards me and I jumped up and caught it and started running towards the well. A sudden sharp pain filled my whole head stopping me dead in my tracks. I screamed and dropped the bomb, bringing my hands up to cradle my head.

   ‘Doctor!! Ahhhh Doctor, what is happening!’

Malum laughed. ‘YOU CAN’T EVEN KEEP THOSE CLOSE TO YOU SAFE. HOW DO YOU INTEND TO DO SO FOR AN ENTIRE PLANET?’

The Doctor tried to get up to get to me but a tentacle had grabbed his legs.

    ‘It’s because you went in the water. Somehow he is finding a way to get past the beacon and he is trying to control you. You have to fight it!’

   ‘I’m trying! It hurts so much’ I said through gritted teeth, sinking to the floor. I could see nothing but white due to the pain, which was increasing, becoming unbearable. It felt like there was a white hot grip on my brain, which was crushing it mercilessly. The Doctor’s voice was getting fainter as he shouted at me to fight through it. I had a sudden urge to stand up and walk forward. If I could only get up and move forward the pain would go. All thoughts and fears of Malum and the tentacles faded as I picked myself up and started walking forward. I thought I heard the Doctor shouting behind me but I didn’t care, the pain was fading into a dull blank space, my thoughts with it. I didn’t need to think, just keep walking and it will be ok. I moved forward, still blind but managing to keep my balance, each step forward brought eased the pain. I felt something come up against my legs, I thought it might have been a small wall. All I needed to do was climb over it and I would be ok, the pain would completely gone. I put my hands out and felt the top of the wall, I smiled, it wasn’t high at all. I picked up one leg in order to climb over, a gust of cold air from the floor came up and hit me in the face smelling of damp and dark. It was strangely soothing, just a little further and I would be ok, I knew it. My leg brushed the top of the wall, making my trouser leg damp and then there was a piercing scream inside my head, the soothing presence I had felt before was gone and all I could think was pain once more. I felt a pair of hands pulling me backwards, I struggled against them, if I just made it over the wall I would be ok! I heard someone shouting but couldn’t make out who or what they were saying. The screaming had stopped now but pain still filled my head. I was being dragged across the floor, the cold and damp seeping through my clothes was helping me to come back around. What was happening? My vision was slowly returning and I could make out someone bending over me.

   ‘Doctor? Is that you?’

   ‘You’re back!’ My vision was back fully now, but the pain in my head made keeping my eyes open difficult. ‘come on’ he said pulling me to my feet, ‘we need to get moving, we have one minute before this place blows!’

The Doctor started pulling me along, I felt weak and sick from the pain but the further we went the more it faded.

   ‘Wait, what happened? How’d you get the bomb in the well?’

   ‘Malum was controlling you, your time in the water meant he had a grip on you, and when we were next to him I underestimated his power. You nearly walked into the well.’

  ‘What? What happened? I don’t remember anything other than pain and the idea that it would go.’

  ‘I managed to get free by stabbing the tentacles with a piece of rock and then whacked up the controls, careless of me and it nearly resulted in you going over.’

We had reached the door to the fire exit, and the Doctor made for the stairs going up to the street.

   ‘This way now, we need to get as far away as possible, altering the controls may have altered the strength of the bomb.’

   ‘DOCTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ Malum screamed.

   ‘Aaahhhh!’ I screamed, dropping to my knees as Malum’s full rage and anger filled my head.

  ‘come on! Keep with me!’ The Doctor shouted, basically carrying me up the stone stairs. We reached the double doors of the fire exit, the Doctor leant me against a wall as he pulled off the metal bar which secured the doors shut, pushed them open and then dragged me through and down the steps. We started running again but weren’t quick enough as a massive bang and explosion through us off our feet. Rubble and smoke filled the air. The screaming in my head abruptly stopped and blessed silence took its place. The Doctor was mouthing something to me and I realised that I couldn’t hear anything from the explosion. Sound slowly returned, car and house alarms were going off, dogs barking. The night was filled with noise and light, much different to how it had been when we were first brought to see Malum. We walked back around the building to see what damage had been caused and to the Doctor’s great relief the terrace around the Baths seemed mostly intact. A few of the Victorian statues had fallen off due to the blast though. The surrounding buildings on the other hand were not so lucky. It seems that Malum’s tunnel was situated underneath the surrounding shops and it was these that had taken the brunt force of the blast. A crater was all that was left of what used to have been Debenhams. We stood staring for a short while until the noise of fire engines and police started coming close.

   ‘Come on, we don’t want to be here.’ The Doctor said taking my hand. ‘How’s your head?’

   ‘Ok I think…’ I said putting a hand to my forehead. ‘He stopped, like I mean, I could hear him screaming and then it was silence. Did you kill him?’

   ‘No, I don’t think so, just trapped him. He won’t be able to control people here anymore. His access to the outside world has now been broken.’ He looked at me. ‘Come on, lets get you to the Tardis and I can look over you properly.’

   ‘They may not realise it, but the people of Bath are a lot safer now than they have been for a very long time.’ I said looking back on the museum as people came out to witness the destruction and we made our slow way back to the Tardis and on to more adventures.

Doctor Who 5: Malum Sanatore.

Read the story from the start here: Doctor Who and Bladdud

“Hey! What do you guys think you are doing?” The night-watchman yelled.

“Sh-”

“Run!” The Doctor yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling me from behind the issue desk. We ran into the corridor towards the terrace.

“Which way?! The museum is all locked up now?” I shouted.

“Uhh…” The Doctor was stumped, now of all times to become unsure of which way to go.

“Fire exit! Come on!” I pulled the doctor to the left and we ran to the door and pushed the bar to open it, “No, it’s locked! Who locks a fire escape?!” The night-watchman had rounded the corner and was gaining on us but the Doctor had pulled out his sonic screwdriver and zapped the lock so I almost fell over as the door opened. The Doctor ran out of the door and, once again, promptly collided with someone outside. The man threw the Doctor to the floor as I slammed the door shut.

“Hey!” I said jumping forward to pick the Doctor up.

“Stop right there Missy” The man said, producing a gun from his under his suit jacket.

I stepped back and put my hands up defensively.

“Doctor…?”

The man reached down and pulled the Doctor up by the scruff of his coat.

“You’ve become too interested in the wrong things, Doctor.”

“Oh yeah? I seem to do that a lot apparently. Anyway I don’t want to talk to you, I want to talk to your master. Who is controlling you?”

“Master?” I asked.

“Yeah, remember the mind control beacon? Listen to his voice, look at his eyes. Someone is controlling him. You don’t sound completely human old chap!”

It was the security guard from earlier who had escorted the young family from the Baths. His voice sounded dull and lifeless with a metallic rasp to it, and his eyes were also dull, of a man long held prisoner within himself.

“Who are you?” I asked nervously.

“Ben-Ged-Bentovin” the man replied. Then he  laughed, but without humour. “ Well he used to be. But humans are so weak, they give up without a fight!” he sneered.

“That’ because they aren’t used to having someone like you poking around in their heads.” The Doctor retorted.

“But you…” He inhaled deeply. “You smell different, you smell powerful. You have the essence of something very… tasty on you.”

“Tasty…?” I was starting to get worried now.

“He’s not going to eat us, don’t worry, he means the Tardis.” He stopped and looked at Ben-Ged. “Well am I right?” He demanded.

Ben-Ged smiled, revealing strangely pointy teeth, “I do not know its name but the box of light… come! My ‘Master’, as you call him, would prefer if he talked to you face-to-face.”

He prodded the Doctor in the small of his back with the gun to make him move.

“You may have a gun but there is two of us and only one of you, what if we don’t want to go with you? You can’t kill us because your master wants us alive.”

Ben-Ged clicked his tongue and the guide from earlier appeared from around the building to the left and a young woman appeared from the right. Both had lifeless scarred eyes and were grinning empty smiles showing sharp teeth, the street light glinted off of their Roman Bath name badges.

“I think that sentence should be added to the list with ‘what could go wrong’ or ‘this is going to be the best Christmas Walford’s ever had’” The Doctor sighed.

“Sorry” I mumbled as the guide moved in behind me.

“That’s ok, I had wondered where he had gotten too”

Ben-Ged gave the Doctor another push towards the woman and we set off, going around the side of the Baths. I had only just noticed how cold the night air was after the stuffy museum and started to shiver. The streets were empty, there was no noise from people or cars and even the birds seemed to be silent. Bath Abbey posed a menacing back drop to the small party as we moved away to finally meet this unknown Master. The Doctor gave me a quick grin, one that I hoped to be a ‘don’t-worry-I-know-exactly-what-I-am-doing’ smile and not a ‘I’m-completely-bluffing-but-isn’t-this-fun!’ smile. But for some reason I had my doubts. We went around the corner past the gift shop and I vaguely heard the Doctor muttering about how much he likes little shops and then we came to a stop by the Stall Street entrance. The entrance to the museum looked large and menacing in the star-less night.  The man pushed the Doctor forward and it was then that I noticed that the symbol from on top of the audio-guide box was also on the floor in front of the door.

“Stand there.” Ben-Ged said, pointing to the symbol.

I was pushed forward to join the Doctor and he had to catch me before I fell. The two guides stood behind us and Ben-ged moved in front of us.

“Ok, so what’s going on now?” I asked.

The ground beneath our feet shifted with a jolt, knocking us off balance and then slowly started descending.

“Ah clever! It is a lift with a perception filter, not that there is anyone around, but if there were we would be completely invisible to them. I had a friend who used one to get into his ‘secret base’. The Tardis uses the same technique to stay hidden.” The Doctor explained to me before a nudge from our guards silenced him.

We slowly descended underneath the street into a dark tunnel. It was obviously used frequently as it felt aired and free of dust. Ben-Ged pulled a torch out of his jacket and turned it on, you could hear the faint noise of movement as rats and mice scuttled away from the people invading their homes.

“This way” he said and moved forward. We walked for about 5 minutes, mostly in the dark as Ben-Ged was the only one with a torch and it only gave out a small weak beam of light which lit his path but did not allow much light to fall behind, so I often tripped over cables or soft lumps which I could only assume were dead rats. The floor was made of uneven Bath stone, which made walking difficult, and there were large sections of stone (from the monument I presumed) scattered around which I kept walking into. I had very bruised shins very quickly. Ben-Ged eventually stopped and turned to the tunnel side, pulling a small switch that was hidden behind some carefully arranged cables and a door slid open revealing a dark space beyond. He turned his lifeless eyes onto us.

“In.”

We were pushed forward into the darkness, Ben-Ged moving in behind to keep us moving. We stumbled along in the dark until a voice halted us.

“STOP” the voice rumbled through the air and tunnel floor, seeming to emanate from the ground itself.

“I have brought the ones you wished to meet Master”

“WELL DONE BEN-GED-BENTOVIN. YET AGAIN YOU NEVER FAIL TO SERVE ME. YOU SHALL BE REWARDED FOR YOUR SERVICE.”

There was a click and a rumble and sudden brightness filled the room. Momentarily blinded it was difficult to see where we had ended up. I staggered backwards into Ben-Ged, who pushed me forward again with the barrel of his gun, my hands shielding my eyes blinking. The Doctor put his hand on my arm. We were in a small room, the walls made of cut sandstone, dusty in age. Water had seeped into the room from both the ceiling and the floor, allowing mould to grow in the damp and dark environment. The room was empty apart from what appeared to be a stone well in the centre, and it was from here that the voice seemed to be coming from.

“Who are you and why do you bring us down here in this manner?” The Doctor demanded.

“I WANTED TO MEET YOU, DOCTOR. THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL YOURSELF, IS IT NOT?”

“Yes, I am the Doctor, but you haven’t answered my question. Who are you?”

“MY REAL NAME IS UNPRONOUNCABLE IN YOUR HUMAN TONGUE BUT MY FIRST SERVANTS CALLED ME ‘MALUM SANATORE’  AND I DEEMED IT PERMISSABLE.”

“Malum Sanatore… the evil healer? What is your true name? I might be able to understand it” The Doctor said.

Laughter filled the room and then a strange combination of clicks and throat gurgles filled the room.

“Maybe not then.” The Doctor admitted. “Malum Sanatore has a nice ring to it… you could be Mal-y for short! A lot less of a tounge twister than your servants name! How long have you been here for?”

“EONS. TO LONG FOR EVEN MY MEMORY TO COMPREHEND”

“How did you get here?”

“AN UNEXPECTED SOLAR STORM KNOCKED MY SHIP OFF OF COURSE AND I CRASHED HERE AND HAVE BECOME STUCK EVER SINCE. I REMAINED DORMANT FOR PERIODS OF TIME BUT THEN I DECIDED I HAD HAD ENOUGH OF THIS ROCK. I NEEDED ENERGY TO POWER MY SHIP IN ORDER TO ESCAPE, SO I DREW THE POWER TO ME. I BECAME A GOD! MY SHIP HAD CAUSED A CRACK WHICH WATER FLOODED THROUGH; I USED THIS TO MY ADVANTAGE. HUMANS ARE SO EASY TO MANIPULATE AND BEND TO YOUR WILL. A SMALL AMOUNT OF HEALING, A TASK EVEN A CHILD COULD DO, AND THEY COME RUSHING.”

“So you healed Bladdud then?” I asked.

“I CARE NOT FOR NAMES!” The voice shouted. “THE FIRST ONE CONSIDERED HIMSELF KING. HA. IT WAS NOT HIS DESIGN TO BUILD HERE BUT MINE. HE BROUGHT HIS PEOPLE TO ME AND I FED OFF OF THEIR ENERGY.” The voice paused. “I SENSED YOU BACK THEN DOCTOR, THAT FIRST DAY. AH THE POWER THAT YOU CARRY WITH YOU. I WOULD HAVE HAD YOU THEN BUT YOU SLIPPED MY GRASP.”

“But I thought it was you who pulled us forward?”  I asked.

“Not entirely,” the Doctor replied. “The Tardis was being drawn towards the power of this creature. But it has only just reached that point. You have obviously increased your efforts to gain power.”

“I GROW TIRESOME OF THIS PLACE. THE SECOND TIME I FELT YOUR POWER, WHEN MY FAME WAS AT IT’S HIEGHT, I ONLY HAD HALF THE POWER THAT I NEEDED. PEOPLE GAVE ME THEIR ENERGY FREELY IN OFFERINGS TO THEIR GODS BUT STILL IT WAS NOT ENOUGH. SO I BEGAN TO FEED OFF OF THEIR ENERGY THROUGH THE WATER ITSELF.”

“And then the Roman Empire collapsed, leaving you with no worshippers.”

“A SLIGHT HINDERANCE. BUT EASILY SOLVABLE WHEN THE AREA WAS REPOPULATED. HOW ELSE DO YOU THINK THE MONKS FOUND THE SPRING AND DECIDED TO BATHE HERE?” if the voice had a face I would swear that it was smirking now.

“So let me get this straight. You crash landed here and in order to leave you have been taking people’s energy to power your ship and in return you would heal them to keep people coming. I’m not going to lie, I fail to see the big issue here.”

“But it wasn’t enough. People stopped bathing here nearly 50 years ago, you aren’t even meant to touch the water at all now, so you had to come up with another way to feed your ship. All those missing people in Bath, the unsolved murders, the people in the river? They were you and your ‘slaves’. The staff often joke about the amount of wives and husbands who go missing when they visit the baths, usually just to be found spending too long in the museum. But how many of those tourists wind up here? In your lair? Dropped down to where you wait, hungry for power? What happened to that small boy?” The Doctor rounded on Ben-Ged-Bentovin now, angry and accusing. “Do you remember him? You escorted him ‘out of the building’ for ‘being dangerous’. Did he and his family actually make it out of the museum?”

“They were needed.” Ben-Ged said his voice free from emotion.

“DOCTOR YOU GET INCREASINGLY ANGRY YET WHAT CAN YOU DO? YOU LIKEWISE ARE HERE, IN MY ‘LAIR’ AS YOU CALL IT.”

“I can offer you a way out. I can help you escape from here and go home.”

“OH I WOULD HAVE LOVED THAT. ‘WOULD’ BEING THE CORRECT WORD. I HAVE FINALLY TASTED THE TRUE POWER THAT RISIDES ON YOU AND YOUR COMPANION AND I WANT IT. WITH THE POWER OF THE BOX OF LIGHT I CAN NOT ONLY RETURN TO MY HOME PLANET BUT ALSO RULE IT. I WAS BANISHED FOR BEING SMALL AND WEAK AND YOU CAN GRANT ME THE POWER TO RETURN!!!”

Scrapping and scratching noises were coming from the depths of the well, I turned round to see that the two museum staff members had moved forward from their positions flanking the door to come towards us. I backed away, towards the well.

“Doctor! Now would be a great time to come up with an ingenious plan to save us!”

“Thinking!!”

One of the guides, ‘Darren’ his name badge read, was quickly approaching the Doctor so he started backing away towards the wall, avoiding the well. The woman was headed towards me, a scary grin on her face, getting closer, pushing me towards the well. A large scrapping sound came from behind me and I turned to see a large tentacle come out of the well. It was black, dripping water and slime. I wanted to scream but found that I couldn’t. I just stared at it, my mouth wide. While my back was turned the woman grabbed me and started dragging me towards it.

“Doctor! Help!!”

“Wait! Don’t do this! I can help you!” He shouted, battling with the Darren, Ben-Ged closing in on him too.

The tentacle snaked out as if testing the air and then rushed straight towards me, wrapping itself tightly around my wrist. I pulled my arm back suddenly, hitting the woman in the face so she staggered back and dropped me, and managed to drag myself free across the floor. The tentacle recoiled slightly and then made a dash towards my leg and wrapped myself around my ankle and started pulling me across the floor towards the well and the darkness beyond. I clawed at the floor, trying to get a grip to hold onto but the flagstones were flush and I kept being pulled slowly closer. The Doctor was fighting Darren, desperately trying to get over to me, he feigned a punch and then used his foot to hook the man’s legs from under him. He fell with a heavy thump and the Doctor quickly jumped over him and ran towards Ben-Ged, flooring him with a single unexpected punch, and kicked the gun away. He rushed over to me, grabbing my hand.

“Don’t worry I’ve got you!”

“Get this off of me!”

The doctor fumbled in his pocket with one hand bringing out his sonic screwdriver and zapped at the tentacle around my leg. The voice from the well screamed and tightened its grip, and pulled me across the floor with a yank.

“Doctor! Stop helping it!”

“Sorry, sorry… wrong setting…” He twiddled with the controls.

“Doctor!” The tentacle had now pulled me half way up the wall of the well, dragging my leg into the cold and damp darkness. I grabbed hold of the edge of the top but could feel my strength fading.

The Doctor rushed forward and zapped the tentacle again. This time the tentacle recoiled with a sharp hiss and the doctor dragged me back over the top of the well and we fell into a pile and then quickly shuffled away from the well. The woman had picked herself up and was walking towards us hissing. The tentacle reared back up from the well and darted towards us at the same time that the woman did and collided with her. The tentacle grabbed her, and pulled. Dragging her kicking and screaming into the well. The screams faded and were replaced with gurgling as she entered the water with a splash.

“But, but she was one of it’s slaves….?” I gasped.

“It didn’t care who it has as long as it has someone. It isn’t going to wait for long though. It still wants the Tardis and the power it has.” The Doctor said standing up. “You ok?”

“Yeah.. I’ll… I’ll be alright” I said, levering myself up.

“YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME DOCTOR. I WILL HAVE YOUR POWER” I could hear the tentacle writhing below, scraping its way up again and shuddered. The Doctor took my hand again and pulled me towards the door. Ben-Ged was shaking himself awake as we ran past, trying to find his gun. We ran through the door and the Doctor locked it.