‘Because we need to be here,’ answered Tom angrily.
‘I wanted to stay behind until Joanne woke up,’ said Mark worriedly.
‘She may never wake up,’ replied Tom, giving Mark an angry look, ‘so we need to be here to find out exactly what happened to her.’
‘She will wake up,’ said Mark defiantly.
Tom had waited until the Doctor and Caroline had left the cabin, and then he’d spoken to the others. He’d formulated a plan during the night. Determined not to let this Doctor push him around, he’d decided that their best bet would be to head back to the prison and find out exactly what had happened. Alex absolutely refused to go, but Danny, and to some degree Mark, had all been pretty eager. Mark in particular wanted to find out about Kate and also try and find some explanations to Joanne’s condition. Danny…well, he didn’t reveal what his motives were.
Alex had protested, but Tom had drummed the other two up so much that nothing could stop them. Alex reluctantly agreed to stay behind and look after the very ill Joanne.
Now Mark was regretting coming back to the prison.
The day had started miserably and the long walk from the cabin to the prison had been a very wet and cold one. Now Tom was standing beside the iron gate with his hands pressed against it.
‘You won’t find anything that way,’ laughed Danny. ‘You’re not a psychic are you?’
‘It’s worth a try,’ grunted Tom.
‘Kate will still be in there,’ said Mark nervously. ‘We should have called the police.’
‘No chance,’ said Tom as he pushed the gates open. ‘I don’t want the cops sniffing around here when I’ve got work to do.’
‘What work?’ asked Danny.
Tom didn’t answer as he led the other two inside. The prison grounds looked a lot different in the cold morning light. Now they could see everything: the chapel, the graveyard walls and the generator room, as well as the main prison building that housed the cells.
‘It still looks gloomy,’ said Danny. ‘I can’t believe we almost spent a night here.’
‘It was a big mistake, wasn’t it?’ said Mark indirectly to Tom.
‘Nothing is ever a mistake if you can correct it,’ said Tom darkly as he headed towards the chapel.
‘We’re not going in there, are we?’ asked Mark. ‘Kate’s gonna be in there.’
‘Wrong. Kate’s body will be in there. Kate herself is probably up there,’ said Tom, pointing to the sky.
‘I didn’t know you were religious, Tom,’ said Danny, who was becoming more and more fascinated by him.
Tom turned on his heel and looked at Danny. ‘Let’s get one thing straight, Danny. Nobody really knows anything about me.’
Danny watched as Tom turned around again and made his way to the chapel. He raised his eyebrows then followed the odd young man.
Arriving at the chapel, Tom, steeling his nerve, gripped the door knob and pushed the door open. He stepped into the room and then stepped back with a gasp.
‘What’s up?’ asked Mark nervously.
‘Is it Kate?’ added Danny.
‘In a way,’ said Tom slowly as if trying to work things out.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?!’ asked Mark.
‘Well, she’s not in here.’
Alex sat in silence in the cabin. In other circumstances this cabin might have been a cosy little retreat, but today all he wanted to do was go home and have Kate back.
A noise from the girls bedroom made Alex turn his head. He walked over to the door and into the bedroom. Lying on the bed was Joanne - and she had woken up!
‘Joanne? Joanne are you okay?’ asked Alex as he crossed over to her.
‘What’s happening,’ groaned Joanne. ‘I’ve got such a bad headache.’
‘Joanne, what happened to you?’ asked Alex, sitting beside her on the bed.
She winced in pain and tried to think back. ‘All I remember is Harold J Stevens.’
‘Who is Harold J Stevens? You kept repeating his name all last night.’
‘I don’t know. I’ve got this image of a man. He was calling to me, trying to get me to give in to him.’
‘And then?’
‘Then I blacked out.’
‘Yeah...’ Alex thought back to the previous night. ‘Then everyone went crazy. I can’t understand why you’ve woken up now.’
Joanne eased herself into a sitting position. ‘I just remember seeing Kate in a dream. She was walking through the forest and then…well, then I woke up.’
‘You saw Kate?’ asked Alex slowly.
‘Yeah.’
Alex tried to swallow. ‘Joanne, Kate’s dead.’
‘What??’ faltered the usually jolly girl.
‘She was killed last night in the prison. We managed to escape and get to this cabin. I don’t understand it fully. The Doctor and Mark found her body, but they didn’t tell me much more than that.’
‘Oh god.’ Joanne buried her head on Alex’s chest and he too found it hard not to cry again.
It was almost noon by the time the Doctor and Caroline had found the hospital in Little Newtown. They were both tired and Caroline demanded a cup of tea at the hospital cafeteria, but the Doctor said that it was imperative that they saw this man as soon as possible.
Now they were standing at the hospital reception.
‘And you are?’ asked the receptionist.
‘The Doctor, and this is my friend, Caroline Parker.’
‘And are you a relation to Mr Feathers?’
‘Not exactly,’ said the Doctor, ‘but I have reason to believe that he can help us with our investigations.’
‘And what investigations would they be?’
‘Ghost hunting,’ butted in Caroline.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. ‘Paranormal investigations. Look, I am the scientific advisor to UNIT.’
‘And who are they? A film crew?’
The Doctor searched his pockets and managed to produce an ID card. It had the name “Doctor John Smith” and contained a picture of a white haired man with a long, pointy nose.
The receptionist looked at it. ‘Is that stolen, because that’s definitely not you.’
‘It is!’ snapped the Doctor. ‘It’s me before I lost my hair.’
Caroline tried to catch a glimpse of the card. That definitely wasn’t the Doctor’s photograph. She thought back to their conversation on Theen and about how the Doctor’s people could regenerate themselves.
‘Look,’ he continued, ‘just call the number on the card. It’s in England.’
The receptionist eyed him up suspiciously. ‘Very well, sir.’
The Doctor grinned at Caroline. ‘Everything’ll be alright now.’
The receptionist spent a few minutes on the phone and quietly spoke to the operator and then put the receiver down. ‘Are you trying to play a joke?’
‘I don’t understand,’ said the Doctor.
‘The operator told me that the number you were requesting had been closed down in the late 1980’s.’
‘Ah…’
Caroline was certain the Doctor wasn’t going to get anywhere and decided to show some initiative. ‘Help!’ she screamed, and ran towards a private section of the hospital, screaming as loud as she could.
‘Stay there!’ said the receptionist to the Doctor, and made a run for Caroline.
The Doctor grinned. ‘Well done, Miss Parker,’ and he quickly ran around the reception desk and began clicking through computer files. When he was sure he had the information he wanted, he left the desk and followed the signs to the appropriate ward.
‘Here it is,’ said Danny slowly.
Tom and Mark looked down at the cross which bore the name “Harold J Stevens”.
‘So,’ said Tom, ‘here lies the grave of the mysterious Harold J Stevens.’
‘What do we do?’ asked Mark.
‘Nothing,’ said Danny.
‘We dig the grave and find out who the hell he was.’
‘You’re joking?!’ spluttered Mark.
‘Have you ever know me to joke, Mark? We dig and we dig until we find his body.’
It had taken a while, but Alex had managed to calm Joanne down and make her some pasta that had been left in storage at the cabin. Now the both of them were tucking into their tasteless, rubbery shapes, staring into their bowls and occasionally looking at each other when they didn’t think the other one would be.
‘So,’ said Alex after a long silence, ‘where do you think we go from here?’
‘Home,’ said Joanne quietly. ‘I hate this place. I hate this cabin, this forest and that evil, evil prison.’
‘The others seem to have different ideas. The Doctor and Caroline want to talk to that mad man and Tom and the others…well, you know what Tom’s like.’
‘Yeah I do, unfortunately. He needs the number of a good therapist,’ said Joanne as she stabbed at her twirled piece of pasta.
‘I can understand him to some degree. He lost his girlfriend too…’ Alex trailed off and stared beyond Joanne.
Joanne smiled weakly and put an affectionate hand on his arm. ‘We’ll find out who did that to Kate, and then the cops can sort him out.’
Alex sighed and shook his head. ‘It was a ghost, I know it. It was Harold J Stevens.’
‘Alex-’
‘No,’ interrupted Alex. ‘There was nobody else in the grounds with us.’
‘Well supposing this Harold J Stevens was some psycho who followed us? Did you think of that?’
‘Well-’
A knock on the cabin door made the two of them stop talking. Alex frowned and crossed to the door. ‘Is that you, Doctor?’ he asked.
‘Alex, it’s me,’ came a familiar, female voice.
Alex began shaking and flung the door open. The sight that stood before him made him fall to his knees and sob out loud.
Standing in the doorway was Kate.
It had turned noon and Mark and Danny were in the cemetery digging up Harold J Stevens’ grave. They had been at it for about 20 minutes and felt they were getting nowhere. Danny was about to give up when Tom walked through the gap in the small wall and shot him an angry glare.
‘Keep digging!’ ordered Tom.
‘Alright, alright,’ said Danny. ‘Anybody would think we were prisoners or something.’
Tom sneered and left the cemetery again. He crossed the prison grounds and headed for the chapel. The sun was trying to break through, but the clouds still threatened rain. He looked all around him and then stopped himself from heading any further. He listened to the slight wind that was blowing in the forest outside the grounds. The tree-tops could be seen blowing beyond the high prison wall. It must have been a nightmare to spend the rest of your days here with no friends, no family and no loved ones to speak to each day. Maybe that’s what had made Tom so bitter and uncaring. That’s how he felt of himself anyway. He had nobody to love anymore.
He turned around and began a steady walk towards the huge building which contained the prison cells and other monstrosities. How the government had let this place carry on for so long was anybody’s guess.
Tom arrived at the large iron doors and pushed them open with little effort. The musty air could be smelt inside. Although it was a fairly dull smell, Tom couldn’t help but think he could smell rotten flesh. Taking a deep breath and, covering his mouth with a handkerchief, the young man headed into the darkness. He could have switched the lights on that Danny had gotten working the night before, but that would have scared the ghosts away, he was sure.
‘Looking for someone?’
Tom felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end. He was sure he’d just heard someone speak. He gritted his teeth and looked into the blackness. ‘Show yourself!’
Why was he doing this, he thought to himself. Why couldn’t he just let the spirits lie in peace. Perhaps it was him that had aggravated Harold J Stevens. However, every time he began to doubt himself he just thought back to what had happened to Vanessa. That fuelled his purpose and flared up his anger again.
‘Show yourself!’ he screamed into the darkness. His voice echoed an identical reply.
Tom yelled out in anger but then felt himself get pushed towards the floor. There was a sharp pain in his back where he had been thumped with some kind of object. He winced in pain and felt everything around him go blurry. His dark eyes looked all around for signs of his attacker. He felt somehow different. He felt odd, like his whole body could just float away. Then, from out the darkness, a figure stepped forward.
‘You called?’
‘Who are you?’ asked Tom.
The Doctor sneaked into the room and then closed the door behind him. Lying on the bed, neatly tucked under some white hospital sheets, was a young man with short, blonde hair. He was sleeping and lay very still.
The Doctor pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed. He cleared his throat, looked around him and then spoke. ‘Mr Feathers?’ He looked back at the door and then to the patient. ‘Mr Feathers, can you hear me?’
‘Is that you, Georgie?’ mumbled Feathers, still with his eyes closed.
‘No. I am a friend though. I need to talk to you about what happened at the prison.’
Feathers frowned but his eyes remained tightly shut. ‘The prison?’
‘Yes. You and Mr Dodds visited there with an estate agent. You were the only one that came back. The other two were never found.’
‘Dodds…’ Feathers’ voice trailed off as he ran the name through his head. ‘I remember Dodds.’
‘Yes, he was your colleague. You wanted to buy the prison land.’
‘He’s dead,’ said Feathers.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes.’
The Doctor looked back to the door. He could hear footsteps coming down the corridor - and they were getting closer. ‘How did he die?’
‘He was killed.’
‘By whom?’ The Doctor was getting anxious now.
‘He was killed by me.’
The Doctor froze as Feathers opened his eyes.
‘He was killed by me! He was killed by Harold J Stevens! ME!’
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