Putty Love, Chapter 2

The Doctor followed Hesper, his companions walking a short distance behind him. They had journeyed further into the settlement, and the Doctor’s curiosity was evident as he darted from building to building, looking at the structures. All were formed along the same basic lines – a spiralling tepee, ranging from ten to twenty feet in height.

‘Caroline, Danny, come here,’ said the Doctor, ushering them over to him with one hand, whilst the other was pressed up against the wall of one of the structures.

‘What is it?’ said Danny. There was a note of weariness in his voice, Caroline thought. She couldn’t understand why he seemed to have no interest in this world at all. He just wasn’t the exploring type, she supposed.

‘Put your hand against it,’ the Doctor said. Caroline and Danny both did so.

‘What is it?’ asked Caroline, not grasping what she was feeling for.

‘Can’t you feel it? There’s a force there. It’s almost humming with energy. It appears to be ceramic upon visual inspection, but when you touch it… it’s so clearly alive.’

‘Yes,’ said Caroline, ‘I can feel it.’ The Doctor was right, she thought. It did feel alive. There was movement. It was subtle, but it was there. The substance felt like it was pushing back against her hand. Gingerly, she pinched it, taking a small amount between her fingers. Gently, she tugged.

‘It feels like silly putty!’ she exclaimed.

‘Yes, it does, doesn’t it?’ said the Doctor, amused. ‘I do so like silly putty. I used to play with it a lot in my last incarnation. I loved blowing bubbles through it. I got one to the size of my entire torso once.’

‘I can’t tell what you’re feeling for,’ said Danny. ‘It doesn’t feel alive to - ’. He was suddenly cut short. A look of fear crossed his face.

‘Danny, what’s wrong?’ cried Caroline.

He looked round, an expression of pain and horror in his eyes. Then he grinned.

‘Had you there, didn’t I?’ he chuckled.

‘Oh, Danny, that’s not funny!’

‘Yes Danny, that’s quite enough of that sort of thing,’ said the Doctor, suddenly serious.

Danny looked slightly hurt. I was only joking, he thought. He started to feel a little angry. Why does the Doctor treat me like a liability? He felt aggravated by the unfairness of it. He never wanted to come to this planet, so why should he be punished for trying to enjoy it?

Wait, he thought. What am I thinking? I’m thinking like a child. What is wrong with me today?

Before he had a chance to say anything by way of apology, Hesper called them over. He pointed ahead with his three hoofed fingers.

‘Desiato is in the central hall,’ he said. ‘Come with me.’

They followed the alien towards what was by far the largest structure in the village. It appeared to be formed of spires, much like the smaller buildings, but they had twisted together into a huge circus-tent-like object.

Hesper walked up to the wall of the structure, and put his hand onto a screen that appeared almost grafted into it. The screen lit up, apparently scanning his palm, and, with a sloppy creaking sound, like a man sucking a sherbet lemon, a rift opened in the material of the wall, expanding to form an archway.

Hesper gestured the three travellers through the doorway. They walked through, into a cavernous hallway.

‘Fascinating,’ said the Doctor.

Though the outside of the building looked almost alive, the inside looked like a Hammer scientists laboratory. It was a fusion of life and machinery, looking not unlike how one would imagine the inside of oneself. Cables, humming with power, twisted their way up the curved walls, embedded in the material and grasped by tentacular protuberances that grew from the walls. Cameras protruded from the walls, and were the walls met at the very top, a huge cluster of light bulbs sprouted. Caroline had the distinct feeling the building itself was watching her.

The hall was filled with seats, simple growths that extended from the floor and stretched to form a bottom-shaped cavity. They were positioned in a rough circle. One seat was positioned slightly forwards from the rest, facing the doorway. In it sat an imposing looking man with short cut fair hair and a strong, masculine face. To his right sat another of the Tarrokku, one with a bluer tinge to his fur than the two the travellers had previously met. To his left, a younger looking human, a thin man with very short black hair, who looked suspiciously at the trio.

‘So you are our mysterious visitors,’ said the man in the middle.

‘Mysterious?’ said the Doctor, smiling slightly. ‘Glad that I can still pull that one off. One never wants to be obvious.’ He bowed his head ever so gently, parting his hands in a gesture of goodwill. ‘Captain Desiato, I presume?’ he said, snapping his head up to look the man in the eye.

‘I am. This is Walters, my weapons officer, and Huhrun, Captain Hesper’s first officer.’

Huhrun bowed gently towards the travellers, while Walters merely gave them a false-looking grin, just a step away from a derisive sneer.

‘I am the Doctor, and these are my friends, Caroline and Danny,’ the Doctor announced.

‘Hello,’ said Caroline, waving and smiling a little nervously.

‘Hi,’ said Danny, sneering back at Walters.

‘And your other friend…?’ queried Desiato, raising a eyebrow.

‘Hmm?’ The Doctor looked around, and noticed that Polly was still on his shoulder. ‘Oh, I’d forgotten about you.’ He looked back at Desiato. ‘Just a friendly native we picked up on the way.’

The captain slid down from his chair and walked towards the Doctor. He fixed him with his tried-and-tested steely gaze.

‘Excuse me for being blunt, but just how did you come to be here? We had no indication that any ships were approaching; our remaining instruments would have told us something as conspicuous as that. Ha, we would have seen you with our own eyes!’ He chuckled slightly, though not much, since it wasn’t funny.

‘We arrived in a time-and-space machine that’s the size of a planet on the inside but smaller than a Portaloo on the outside,’ said Danny.

‘Forgive me,’ said Desiato, ‘but that does sound a little unlikely.’

‘Well, you only have to live with the idea; I have to live in the damned thing!’

‘Although my companion sounds as though he is attempting a joke, he is in fact being entirely serious,’ interjected the Doctor. ‘We have indeed travelled here in a temporal travel capsule. It is called the TARDIS. It stands for-’

‘Doctor, this is indeed fascinating, but you must again forgive me for questioning you,’ said the captain. ‘What I really need to know is this: what supplies does this vessel of yours contain? We urgently need medical supplies, parts to repair our machinery. Meat, too, would be received gratefully, if it could be spared.’

‘Nothing larger than that creature lives on this world,’ said Hesper, indicating Polly.

‘By all means, you may have as much as you need,’ said the Doctor. ‘The TARDIS contains plenty of food and medicine, and I dare say I could find enough bacon for a round or too of sandwiches for all. How many of you are there on this planet?’

‘Fifty-six,’ said Desiato. ‘From an original total of both crews of two hundred and one.’

The Doctor closed his eyes, and sighed remorsefully. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘The trip through the wormhole was not a easy one,’ said Hesper, ‘Much of our medical staff were killed.’

‘On both sides. Very few of either crew made it to the surface. Thankfully those who did land were not badly injured for the most part. Living without doctors has not been too much of a difficulty, until-’

‘Until the disease began,’ said Walters, stepping forward at last. His voice had a high, nasal quality.

‘Disease?’ queried the Doctor.

‘It seems that some kind of pathogen has been infecting the human members of our colony,’ said Hesper. ‘Our limited supplies have been useful in treating some of the symptoms, but we have not been able to purge the infections from the patients systems.’

Caroline and Danny both took involuntary steps backwards.

‘We do not believe it is spread through the air,’ said Desiato. ‘It seems to have been contracted through the food supply.’

‘With nothing to fall back on, you must continuously take in the microbes,’ observed the Doctor.

‘Indeed,’ said Walters. ‘But only the humans are affected. The Tarrokku are immune.’ A note of distaste entered his voice as he spoke the name of the race.

Huhrun finally spoke, his sonorous voice booming at them.

‘Are you again implying something, Walters? Or is your voice stuck in that snivelling tone?’

‘Gentlemen,’ said Desiato. ‘Please. There is no need for these squabbles.’

‘I’m glad you two captains have put aside your differences. It’s good to see that some people are willing to look beyond past differences.’

‘You said that the war finished recently, Doctor,’ said Hesper. ‘For us it finished when we became marooned here. This planet cares not what race we are; we are equal as aliens in this land.’

‘He’s used that speech before,’ said Desiato, a grin on his face. He seemed to be lightening up somewhat. ‘You say you are a doctor? Perhaps you can help defeat this disease.’

‘I’m not that kind of doctor, but I do have some expertise. We’ll be happy to help. Won’t we?

‘Of course we will,’ said Caroline.

Danny said nothing.

Putty Love, Chapter 1

The ship tore through space at an astonishing speed. Its engines were working to burn-out point; all available power being used to push the ship forwards and maintain the shields. It was, however, not fast enough. The torpedo slammed into its rear, crippling the left primary thruster and sending the ship hurtling sideways, away from its projected course.

Captain Desiato was thrown from his chair in the centre of the bridge. As he clambered back to his seat, Yono, the young communications officer, informed him of an incoming transmission.

‘Put it on screen,’ ordered the captain.

The forward viewer was replaced with an image of the Tarrokku commander. The creatures green fur bristled as it looked at the captain, its animosity towards him and his crew evident. It curled back its upper lip to speak.

‘Terran crew, turn back now and there will be no further damage to you vessel. Remain within our space, and you shall be destroyed.’

The image vanished from the screen. Desiato slicked back his fair hair, a look of steely determination on his face.

‘Walters,’ he said, facing the weapons officer, ‘fire the rear cannons.’

Walters nodded, setting a volley of energy pulses from what remained of the rear defences into the Tarrokku ship.

‘Direct hit, sir,’ he reported, the exhilaration he felt clear in his almost breathless voice.

‘Bring us about,’ said the captain, ‘and prepare to launch full defensive capabilities.’

‘Incoming torpedoes, sir,’ Sayto, the first officer reported. The ship was buffeted by the force of the projectiles.

‘Shields down to twenty per cent,’ she said.

If we’re going down, we’ll take those green freaks with us,’ snarled Desiato.

‘Sir,’ Sayto interjected again, ‘there’s some kind of gravitational disturbance forming between the ships. It’s sending out gravity waves of enormous magnitude.’ The ship rocked, as if to back up her observation.

‘Cause?’ asked the captain, annoyed at having to deal with two problems at once.

‘I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s some kind of spatial anomaly that’s been affected by the weapons. Whatever it is, its effects are getting worse.’

The ship was indeed now being smacked from side to side.

‘Are the Tarrokku still firing?’ asked the captain.

‘No, sir. I think they’re just as confused about what’s going on as we are.’

Desiato was about to take advantage of this by launching another attack, when both ships were suddenly swallowed by the enormous wormhole that opened up around them.




The ships screamed through the atmosphere, huge plumes of flame billowing around them as they tore their way to the surface of the planet. The escape pods that both vessels had released had, fortunately, landed a considerable distance away. The two captains stood barely three metres apart, and watched their ships explode on the horizon. Huge mushrooms of black smoke grew rapidly upwards before their eyes.

The captain of the Tarrokku turned its camel-like head slowly towards Desiato. The human greeted this with his most resilient military glower.

‘So,’ came the deep voice of the green creature, ‘now what?’




The Doctor sipped on his lemonade, crossing his eyes to watch the bubbles spiral up his curly straw. He reclined in his deck chair; his long dark coat perched on the back, a knotted handkerchief shielding his bald head from the glare of the sun. He started to slowly nod off.

‘Doctor!’

The Doctor sat up suddenly, spilling the remnants of his lemonade over his blue waistcoat.

‘Oh, Caroline, now look what you’ve done,’ he complained, removing the hanky from his head and dabbing it at his now damp midriff. ‘Did you have to make me jump like that?’

Caroline looked apologetically at the Doctor. She was sitting on her haunches, facing him.

‘Doctor, can’t we go somewhere more interesting?’

‘Don’t you like it here?’ said the Doctor, surprised. ‘It’s a lovely day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing.’

‘It is a lovely day, but I just thought we could go somewhere a little more… unusual. You said the TARDIS can take us anywhere in time and space. So why are we lying around in Hove?’

‘I see your point,’ the Doctor conceded. ‘It’s just… well; I do see the Earth as my second home. After the TARDIS, that is. I did live here for an extremely long time.’ He sat up, and folded his deckchair. ‘Still, you’re absolutely right,’ he said, his voice filling with enthusiasm. ‘There’s an entire Universe to explore out there. Several, in fact.’ He looked his companion in the eye. ‘Sooooo,’ he said, rolling the word around his mouth, ‘where would you like to go?’

Caroline looked back at him, a little taken aback by the Doctor’s sudden change of mood. He wasn’t usually an easy one to convince. She had a sneaky feeling that he’d been angling for her to ask him this.

‘What about Mars?’

‘Mars? The entire Universe to explore and you want to go next door? Anyway, Mars is populated by reptiles, and I know you don’t like them.’

‘Oh, just take me somewhere!’

‘All right,’ said the Doctor, a grin spreading across his face. ‘I’ll set the TARDIS to land on some planet somewhere. I’ll do it at random. That ought to be fun, yes?’

‘OK,’ said Caroline. ‘We’d better wake up Danny.’

The Doctor looked sideways at the brown-haired man lying stretched out, asleep on the grass. He slipped on his coat, and gave him a gentle kick.

‘Come on, lazybones. We’re leaving.’

‘What?’ said the dozing Danny.

‘We are leaving,’ replied the Doctor impatiently. ‘Get a move on.’

Danny dragged himself to his feet, and followed the Doctor and Caroline into the TARDIS. As they entered the console room, the Doctor hopped up to the main console. He began pulling levers and fiddling with knobs in that way he had that made all his actions seem more complicated than they really were.

‘Right then, old girl,’ he said, under his breath. ‘I’m giving you control of this one. Take us somewhere nice, will you? Somewhere interesting.’ He stepped back from the console, as the central column began to rise and fall, its now familiar whining filling the room.

The Doctor stood between his companions, and looked up at the scanner screen. An image of the Galaxy flickered on the small monitor, and then zoomed towards a destination. It halted on a view of a blue planet, traced with delicate silvery clouds.

The whining stopped.

‘Where are we?’ said Caroline.

‘On that planet, I suppose,’ said Danny, still wiping sleep from his eyes.

‘Yes,’ said Caroline, a little annoyed, ‘but what is it called? Where is it in space?’

‘It’s a very long way away from Earth. About forty thousand light years away, on the other side of the Galaxy’s central bulge. As for its name, I’m afraid I have no idea. Shall we go and have a look?’

‘Good idea.’

The Doctor led the way out of the ship. They stepped through the door, out into a field of blue-white grass.

‘It’s beautiful,’ said Caroline.

‘Yes, indeed,’ added the Doctor.

‘It’s another field,’ said Danny.

‘It’s more than just a field,’ said Caroline.

She was right. The silvery blue lawn stretched into the distance, where it eventually met the hazy shapes of a far off mountain range. The sky was white, with silver clouds shimmering as they gently drifted with the breeze. Some distance away, the land dipped into a gentle canyon, at the bottom of which a river ran over iridescent rocks.

A dragonfly, the size of a small bird, fluttered up from the blue reeds that grew from the bank, inquisitively landing on the Doctor’s shoulder.

‘I think we’ve found a new friend,’ he chuckled. ‘What shall we call him?’

The insectoid fluttered what appeared to be long eyelashes at Caroline.

‘“He” is clearly a she,’ she said.

The Doctor breathed the air deeply. ‘I think perhaps I’ll get my deckchair back out.’

‘Doctor, we surely didn’t come all this way just to sit about again.’

‘I agree,’ said Danny. ‘Aren’t there any people about here?’

‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘If we’re going to find them, the best plan of action is to follow the river back to its source. A settlement will always grow up around a source of water.’

‘Okay then,’ said Caroline. ‘Let’s go.’

The Doctor led on again, his coat billowing in the breeze, Polly perched comfortably on his shoulder.




After walking for some time, what appeared to be settlement could be seen on the edge of the trio’s vision. Venturing closer, the travellers could just see silhouettes walking about the buildings. The buildings themselves were of a dull grey composition, a little dowdy compared to the resplendent surroundings. They appeared almost organic in form, spiralling and twisting upwards in elegant spires. As the group walked on, it became apparent that some of the figures were walking towards them.

‘Ah, it seems that we have caught their attention,’ exclaimed the Doctor, happily.

‘I’m not sure I like the look of them,’ said Danny.

‘Oh, nonsense. They look like perfectly acceptable types to me. Anyway, you shouldn’t judge by appearances.’

Caroline, despite herself, found that she agreed. There were two distinct types of character approaching them – four appeared to be human, dressed in what appeared to be rather imposing grey military uniforms. The other two appeared stranger – humanoid, but with camel-like heads and green fur. She was quite transfixed on them, until she realised that they were almost on top of each other.

‘Greetings!’ said the Doctor, extending his hand. ‘I’m the Doctor, and these are my companions, Danny and Caroline.’

The taller of the two alien creatures spoke.

‘I am Hesper. This is Porto, Johnson, Sayto, Tranter and Klein.’ He indicated the second of the green people first, then the humans. ‘How did you get to our planet?’

‘Oh, we just popped by,’ said the Doctor. Sensing that Hesper wasn’t happy with this, he continued, ‘We landed here to explore. I hope that you don’t find that offensive.’

‘Not at all,’ said Hesper.

‘It’s just,’ said Sayto, a young woman, ‘that we wondered how. Has the Fleet finally found us?’

‘Fleet? Oh, we’re not part of any fleet.’ The Doctor continued. ‘Listen, we’ve walked quite a long way from our ship. Is there any chance we could go back to your charming settlement and discuss this over a nice cool drink?’

‘I… suppose so,’ said Hesper. ‘You must forgive us, Doctor. We haven’t seen anyone else since our ships crashed here five years ago.’

‘Crashed?’ interjected Caroline, as the party began once again to walk towards the settlement.

‘Yes. We were pulled through a wormhole, and lost control of our vessels. We landed in escape pods.’

‘Really?’ said the Doctor, intrigued. ‘And what were you up to before the wormhole swallowed you?’

Sayto spoke up again. ‘We were fighting.’

‘Fighting?’ said Caroline. ‘Why? Were you at war?’

‘The Earth Empire and the Tarrokku Confederation were at war for five years, Caroline,’ said the Doctor, slightly under his breath.

‘Were at war?’ said Hesper.

‘Yes, indeed. I’m glad to say that by this stage your respective nations have stopped that silly border conflict and settled a treaty.’ The Doctor decided to change the subject. ‘So, you crash landed, joined forces, and built this?’

The Doctor gestured at the spiralling building that they were rapidly approaching.

‘Most impressive cooperation, I must say. To produce such structures in such little time, with so few people; people who had just been in battle together. Most encouraging!’

‘What else was there to do?’ said Hesper. ‘We would have had little chance of survival if we had continued fighting each other.’

‘Besides,’ said Porto, ‘we didn’t exactly build these.’

‘What, did they grow out the ground, or something?’ said Danny, incredulously.

‘More or less.’

‘Could you elaborate?’ queried the Doctor.

By this point they were almost upon the building. This close up it was clear that it was not smooth, but almost appeared moulded.

‘To start with we sheltered in our pods,’ explained Hesper. ‘But then we discovered this substance.’ He prodded the surface of the tower. ‘It exists in the ground. It’s some kind of life form, living off the electrical energy produced by the microbes and plant life. It’s symbiotic; there are many microscopic species we’ve discovered that bond with it. The larger species seem unaffected by it.’

‘But a large enough electric field can persuade it to grow’ hypothesised the Doctor.

‘Exactly. We tried to contact our government, but the beacon was swallowed by it, almost overnight. It still functioned, but was considerably dampened. We realised that we could build structures by channelling energy through the pods. Over time they grew into the settlement. It exists as a single huge life form, we think. We give it a little energy, and it gives us shelter, encourages crops to grow with its waste chemicals, and gives us somewhere to call home.’

‘What do you call this planet?’ asked Caroline, still intent on knowing where she was.

‘Terrakk. It’s - ’

‘A mixture of Terra and Tarrokk, you’re respective homeworlds.’ The Doctor looked around, impressed. ‘Magnificent.’ He looked round at Hesper. ‘Were you the captain of your ship?’

‘I was.’

‘And the human captain?’

‘Desiato. We will take you to meet him. Come.’

They followed Hesper into the town.

Story 1.5: Putty Love

‘Put your hand against it,’ the Doctor said. Caroline and Danny both did so.
‘What is it?’ asked Caroline, not grasping what she was feeling for.
‘Can’t you feel it? There’s a force there. It’s almost humming with energy… it’s so clearly alive.’

Two ships. Two crews. Two races. The Terrans and the Tarrokku have been at war, but that war is about to come to an end on a distant, blue planet on the other side of a wormhole.

The TARDIS takes Caroline, Danny and the Doctor to that very planet where they discover that the Terrans and Tarrokku have settled down, learning to co-exist with each other.

But somewhere, deep down inside the planet, something stirs. Something is alive. Who is behind it and what does it mean for the already fragile peace between the two races?

This is the fifth story in a continuing range of adventures staring the Doctor, Caroline and Danny.

The Fear Factor, Chapter 14

The two parties went their separate ways and soon the Doctor, Kate and Tremond were at the chapel. The Doctor opened the door and walked inside. He switched the car head lamps off.

‘Now what?’ asked Kate.

‘You have to try and get them here, Tremond,’ said the Doctor. ‘Try and get Tom. Tom’s ghost was created from Vrezan’s psychic powers. He should hear you.’

Tremond nodded slowly, his face stern, and then he looked directly ahead. He closed his eyes and breathed very, very slowly and deeply. Then he began to talk in an almost whisper like voice.




Tom and Vrezan both heard the voice. They stopped what they were doing. Vrezan dropped the bar and Tom seemed oblivious to the pain. He recognised the old voice in his head. He had heard it since he was young and it always seemed to be a voice of salvation; a release from the pain of the world. It was Father Tremond.

Vrezan sneered. ‘Who is this man?’

‘Tremond,’ said Tom slowly. ‘He’s a vicar in my hometown.’

Vrezan brought his fist down on his leg and growled angrily. ‘I was so distracted with you that I never even sensed his arrival. This is all falling apart.’

‘He’s calling to us,’ said Tom distantly. ‘He wants us to go to the chapel. They want to do a deal.’

Vrezan threw his head back and laughed out loud. ‘A deal? A deal with me?! They’re fools.’

‘Perhaps we should hear them out,’ suggested Tom nervously.

‘No!’ yelled Vrezan, but then he calmed a little. ‘Hmmm. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to hear their pathetic offer.’




‘Any luck?’ asked the Doctor.

As if to punctuate the Doctor’s question, the door burst open and standing in the darkness was a very battered looking Tom and an angry looking Vrezan.

‘Thomas,’ said Tremond in a cracked voice. ‘Oh, Thomas....’

‘Shut up, old man!’ said Vrezan nastily. He walked up to the Doctor and looked in his eyes. ‘What’s this deal?’

‘Firstly you must return the young boy, Mark, and return my TARDIS,’ said the Doctor calmly.

Vrezan shimmered in the dull light. ‘What do I get in return?’

‘Give me the TARDIS and Mark, and I shall tell you.’

‘It’s a trick!’ grumbled Vrezan.

‘I promise you it is not.’ He looked down his nose at Vrezan. ‘I don’t want you on this planet anymore. This planet is special to me. It’s a second home.’

‘This planet will be mine.’

‘How do you fancy the entire galaxy?’

Vrezan froze. ‘What?’

‘The entire galaxy. I can take you out there in my TARDIS.’

Vrezan laughed. ‘I’ve done that my entire life.’

‘But your species can’t go everywhere,’ said the Doctor, crossing his fingers behind his back. ‘I can’t take you to places you never even imagined you could visit.’

‘But why would you do that? Why would you put the galaxy at risk for one, small planet?’

‘Because these people are my friends,’ he said, indicating Tremond and Kate. ‘And they mean more to me than anything. I want them safe.’

A lopsided grin appeared on Vrezan’s face. ‘How can I go against that?’ He closed his eyes and a shadow seemed to loom over the room. Then, as quickly as the shadow had descended, it lifted and standing in the corner of the room was the TARDIS, and lying on the floor was Mark. Kate checked him and he was still alive - just.

‘Now, let me inside your TARDIS, Doctor?’

‘No,’ said the Doctor, grabbing his lapels and holding his chin up.

‘What!?’ growled Vrezan. ‘Is this some sort of joke?’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor with a smirk on his face.

‘Did you really think I’d sacrifice an entire world for you?’ The Doctor laughed. ‘For a psychic being you didn’t do a very good job of reading me.’

‘You will die for this,’ said Harold.

He looked at the Doctor who had slowly walked in front of the TARDIS door. He had put the key in the door.

‘NO!’ he thundered, ‘YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME!’ Vrezan vanished for a split second and then reappeared in front of the Doctor.

In a movement faster than anyone could really make out, the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS, pushed the door open and pushed Vrezan inside.

The Doctor grinned. ‘He’s becoming unstable. Losing his control on everything around him. I’ll be back,’ he said, and ran inside.

The TARDIS dematerialised before their very eyes leaving Tremond, Tom and Kate lost for words. A few moments later Tom began to fade ever so slightly and then was gone completely.

Kate felt her chest and then fell to her knees. Gasping for air she held out for Tremond’s hand. Tremond grabbed it and squeezed tightly. Her body went limp and she flopped to the ground.

The power left over from Vrezan had finally left her. Kate had finally died.




A little way from the prison, in Little Newtown, Mr Feathers awoke with a start. He felt Harold J Stevens leave him. He closed his eyes, contentment within his soul at last.




The Doctor was frantically running his hands across the TARDIS console when Vrezan swished into the console room and came to a stop beside the Doctor. He looked at his hands which were flickering and faltering. ‘What is happening? Where am I?’ asked Harold urgently.

The Doctor gave him a smirking glance and then looked back down at the console. ‘You’re in my TARDIS. If you’re wondering why you’re flickering, it’s because you’ve been distanced from the prison by many, many years and many, many billions of miles in space and time. You’re only living off your own, very weak power. The rest of you was trapped inside the prison. Taking you away from Tom and Kate pulled part of you away. And without you there that part of you is dead.’

‘Take me back!’ said Vrezan threateningly.

‘Okay,’ said the Doctor pressing a button.

Vrezan looked at him warily. ‘Another trick?’

‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘I just realised that I didn’t want you haunting my TARDIS for the rest of it’s days.’ The time rotor in the middle of the console stopped. ‘We’ve arrived. Now get out of my TARDIS and let me be on my way. Do with the others what you wish.’

Vrezan smiled. ‘You are an odd man, Doctor,’ he said with a sly laugh.

The Doctor chuckled. ‘Yes I am.’

With a stern look on his face he slammed down the door switch. The doors automatically opened, but the view outside was not of the chapel. This was a view of madness. Swirls of colours and clouds spiralled up, over and around the TARDIS. They were in the space/time vortex.

Suddenly Vrezan felt the force of the vortex dragging him from the console room. His image blurred and shifted as he was sucked through the door. His hands clutched the side of the doors and he screamed at the Doctor. ‘YOU TRICKED ME!’

‘Yes,’ shouted the Doctor over the noise of the vortex. ‘I used to believe that there was a glimmer of good in everybody, no matter how bad they were, but there is no good in you. Your species can survive space travel, but out there, in the vortex, it’s a different matter.’

‘HELP ME!’ Vrezan screamed as he begin to lose his ghostly grip.

‘NO VREZAN!’ shouted the Doctor. ‘You have killed innocent people and you’ll just continue. Never stopping. Never caring. It’s over for you, Vrezan.’ The Doctor pointed out of the doors. ‘Towards the end of that vortex exit is a black hole. It will utterly destroy you.’

But to the Doctors horror he realised that Vrezan was clawing his way back inside. He gripped the doors and made a lunge for the Doctor. His ice cold hands grabbed the Doctor around the neck and he fell to the floor. He found himself being dragged towards the open TARDIS doors with Vrezan still on top of him. But Vrezan couldn’t hold on any longer. The spirit was pulled away from him and sucked out of the doors. He screamed as he tumbled through the vortex and towards the distant black hole at the exit. The Doctor watched sadly as Vrezan was obliterated by the black hole. He struggled across to the console and reached up to find the switch. The doors closed and everything remained still.




When the TARDIS eventually came back to the prison he found Danny, Tremond, Caroline, Alex, Mark and Joanne standing around Kate’s body. Alex was crying and the others stood, grim faced.

The Doctor crossed over and joined the mourners.

‘Is it over?’ asked Caroline quietly.

‘It’s all over,’ said the Doctor.

‘And Tom?’ asked Mark.

‘Gone. It was never really Tom’s ghosts. After all, ghosts don’t exist, do they?’ The Doctor straightened up and looked around. ‘Let’s get things cleared up around here.’




Tom and Kate’s funerals had taken place on the same day, a few hours and a few graves apart. Both families had stayed for each of them in respect. Now the Doctor, Caroline and Danny were sat on a bench in the cemetery looking glum as they watched the families walk away from the graves.

‘Why does it always end like this?’ asked Caroline.

‘It doesn’t always,’ said the Doctor.

‘Most of the time it does,’ said Danny quickly. ‘Someone always dies.’

‘Yeah,’ continued Caroline. ‘Someone always dies.’ And with that Caroline and Danny both got up and walked away towards the TARDIS which had been parked under a tree.

‘What we need is a holiday,’ the Doctor said quietly to himself. ‘I’m always telling myself that and it never works out.’ He looked up and almost leapt out of his seat. Standing before him were two extremely faint people. He squinted at them and they seemed to became more vivid. It was Tom and Kate.

‘How you doing, Doctor?’ asked Kate.

‘I don’t-’

‘Don’t try to understand,’ said Tom gently. ‘I guess we both made it out of the prison grounds. He looked back the family groups. ‘Nice turn out.’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor slowly. ‘But…ghosts aren’t real. Tom, you were never really a ghost.’

Kate smiled. ‘Life is full of questions, and it seems that death is too.’

‘And maybe Vanessa is still out there somewhere,’ said Tom with hope in his eyes.

‘Maybe,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve had my eyes opened. If you’re here…maybe anything is possible.’

Tom smiled and took Kate’s hand. ‘See you around Doctor.’

‘I hope not,’ said the Doctor with a smile. ‘I hope I’ve still got a little longer left in me.’

Kate smiled at him sadly.

They turned to walk off, but Kate looked back. Her eyes had turned sad. ‘I said I wouldn’t say anything, but Danny says he thinks he’s still possessed. Something that happened to him back home.’

The Doctor looked straight ahead. ‘I thought so. I couldn’t be too sure though.’

‘In the chapel, he went crazy. He tried to kill me.’

The Doctor closed his eyes. ‘Thank you, Kate.’




And then the Doctor opened his eyes. Had he been dreaming? Had he drifted off for just a few minutes? All he knew was that Kate and Tom had gone.

Caroline called over from near the TARDIS. ‘We’re all off back to Alex’s parents for some drinks. You coming?’

‘No,’ said the Doctor quietly. ‘I think I’ll wait here for you.’

‘Fair enough,’ said Caroline as she walked to join the group.

For a long while the Doctor sat and waited. He had a lot on his mind and his chest had a twinge of pain in it. Soon the pain passed, but the worries didn’t.

THE END

Next time: Putty Love

The Fear Factor, Chapter 13

The Doctor found himself clamped down into the chair whilst the shadowy, almost transparent figures of Tom, and now Vrezan, stood in front of him.

‘That wasn’t so difficult, was it?’ sneered Vrezan.

‘So what are you doing to do now? Electrocute me?’ The Doctor wished he hadn’t asked.

‘How did you guess?’ said Vrezan, faking a disappointed-sounding voice.

‘Why? What possible purpose could it have? And where are you going to get the power from?’

‘Like I said,’ continued Vrezan, ‘I am a part of this place now. I can draw electricity from my very surroundings.’

Vrezan closed his dark eyes and a second later a dull light flicked on in an old, long-dead bulb over their heads. He looked around and smiled.

‘Well done,’ said the Doctor, ‘you’ve succeeded in turning on a light. What other tricks can you perform? Any bunny rabbits hidden about?’

Vrezan sneered angrily and a faint hum began to emanate from the machinery connected to the back of the electric chair. ‘Do not provoke me, Doctor,’ he growled.

‘Now look, Harold, there’s no need for all this violence.’

‘I think we can dispense with calling me Harold, don’t you think?’

‘Then what do you want me to call you? What’s a popular name on your planet?’

‘My name is Vrezan.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘A War-Wraith? Am I right?’

Vrezan nodded.

The Doctor looked at Tom who was also smiling. ‘Tom, what good would switching on that electric chair do?’

‘It’d kill you,’ said Tom.

‘Exactly! And why would you want to do that?’

‘Because I want you dead,’ said Vrezan. ‘I’m already taking care of your other friends, and it’s time for you to join them.’

The Doctor tried to get up off the chair, but his arms and legs were strapped down. ‘What did you do to them?’

‘That’s no concern of yours. Let’s just say that they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.’

Tom and Vrezan laughed together, but Tom suddenly stopped and looked straight ahead as if he was trying to work something out.

‘This is what you want, is it? You want to skulk about these miserable old prison ruins forever?’ The Doctor had begun to get desperate as the electricity hum got louder.

‘It’s fun,’ grinned Vrezan. ‘Besides, eventually I‘ll expand beyond the grounds.’

‘Don’t count on it.’ The humming grew louder and louder and louder. The Doctor began to feel the hairs on his skin stand on end. His skin began to prickle and he felt pins and needles going through his arms and legs. ‘You must stop this now!’ he yelled to Vrezan.

‘I’ll only stop when you’ve been fried to a crisp,’ grinned Vrezan.

And then it happened. The machine exploded into life. The wires hummed with full power and the electricity was sent coasting through them, heading to the Doctor. Wires had been attached to the Doctors skin and when the electricity hit him it made the Doctor lurch forward. He screamed in agony as the power ripped through his already weak body. His clothes began to smoke as he convulsed in the chair.

For the Doctor, the pain was worse than he could have ever imagined. Even worse than that time when Tressure tortured him on Theen. This was worse than anything he had ever felt before. He tried hard to block out the pain, but it was no use.

Then, without warning, the pain stopped. The Doctor could still feel his skin smouldering and his clothes were charred and ripped. He forced his eyes to look up and saw a slightly unbelievable sight. Tom was standing in front of Vrezan. Vrezan was a few feet off the ground and bent back. His mouth was gaping wide open and a large iron bar had been thrust through his chest. Tom had his hand outstretched and was holding him place.

‘Tom?’ croaked the Doctor.

‘Get out now,’ said Tom quickly. ‘Get out before I change my mind. I can’t latch onto his power forever.’

‘I can’t,’ said the Doctor weakly. ‘The manacles are still around my arms and legs.’

Tom frowned and then, reluctantly, let his release on Vrezan go. Vrezan slowly floated to the ground whilst Tom began trying to break through the manacles. He concentrated hard and then the metal snapped open like plastic. ‘Go now!’

The Doctor stumbled out of the chair and collapsed to the ground. He looked across at Vrezan who was beginning to stir. His hand gripped around the bar and he slowly pulled it out of his chest. Then his head snapped around to look at the Doctor.

‘GO!’ shouted Tom.

The Doctor got to his feet as quickly as he could and began a very struggled run. Tom tried to block Vrezan’s path but he batted him aside and began floating very quickly after the Doctor.

The Doctor was shining his torch ahead, desperate to find the exit and get into the outside world when Vrezan levitated another piece of rubble and slammed it into the Doctor’s back. He fell to floor and rolled around in pain in the thick dust. Vrezan levitated another block of brick-work and brought it down on the Doctor’s leg. He cried out in pain.

‘You are a fool for even trying to escape!’ growled Vrezan.

But before he could say anymore Tom had returned and had forced the iron bar into Vrezan’s neck.

“PUPPET!” screamed Vrezan.

It gave the Doctor just long enough to stumble out of the door and back into the prison grounds.

He lifted his head and looked up towards the prison gates. In the distance he could see them opening, and standing between the iron doors was a man in black. His face was a blur and the Doctor passed out once more.




Father Tremond stepped into the prison ground and looked around him. The air was still and it was almost dark. He noted the buildings in the area. There appeared to be a large building, which obviously served as the main prison building as well as another, much larger building that housed the cells. Beside one of these buildings was an unconscious man. Tremond looked around him and then hurried over to the man.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

The man lifted his head and then smiled at the man in black. ‘Yes, I think I am.’ He tried to extend a hand. ‘Good evening, I’m the Doctor.’

‘Good evening,’ replied Tremond. The old vicar helped the Doctor to his feet. ‘Dear me, you are in a mess, aren’t you?’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor with a heavy sigh. He looked back at the prison building and then, as if only just realising the man was there, back to Tremond. ‘And who are you?’

‘Oh, forgive me,’ smiled the old vicar. ‘I am Father Tremond. I come from Tom’s home town.’

‘Ah,’ said the Doctor, carefully considering his words. ‘I’m afraid there has been a little accident.’

‘I know, I know,’ said Tremond sadly.

‘You know?’

‘Yes. You see, I was fast asleep last night when I suddenly had this dream of Thomas. He was in pain and being goaded into doing bad things by a-’ he struggled to find a suitable word, ‘-by a demon.’

‘Tom must have used Vrezan’s own power to call out. His message reached you in the form of a dream!’ said the Doctor, excitedly.

‘I asked his brother, Jay, if he’d known where he had gone, but apparently they hadn’t spoken for a year or so. Ever since the unfortunate accident with his girlfriend. It was me who had to deal with Thomas’s foolishness. Ever since then I’ve felt some sort of bond with him. He’d always come to me in times of loneliness and sadness. I asked around and found out he had come here.’ Tremond shook his head. ‘Foolish young man.’




Danny had Kate pinned against the door and was refusing to let her go. His icy hands were tight around her neck and he kept laughing in a voice that she was sure wasn’t his own.

‘Let me go!’ she shouted through gasps for air.

‘Poor little Kate,’ hissed Danny. ‘Thought you could control Alex, did you? Thought you were the big boss lady? Poor little Alex!’

‘I don’t....I don’t under…understand!’ gasped Kate.

‘They never do, do they?’

With all of her might Kate managed to force Danny away with a shove of her foot. He recoiled back and landed on his backside, after tripping over one of the disconnected car head lamps. Kate went for the wooden cross and held it up in front of her. ‘I’m warning you, Danny, if you don’t calm down I’ll have to use this.’

Danny had started twitching and the smile had disappeared from his face. He held out a hand and looked away. ‘Please not the cross.’

Kate looked at the cross and then back at Danny. ‘You don’t like the cross?’

Danny curled into a ball and hid his face. ‘The cross will destroy us!

The ones from the church. The ones from the church will destroy us!’ he hissed.

A smile trickled onto Kate’s face and she walked over to him. ‘I don’t know who you are,’ she said, keeping the cross in front of her, ‘but you can help get Alex and Caroline out of that grave.’

‘No!’ hissed Danny.

‘YES!’ shouted Kate and thrust the cross towards Danny’s head making him scream in agony.

‘Very well. I’ll do it,’ said Danny.

Kate smiled and lowered the cross.




It was bad luck for Kate that she didn’t bump into the Doctor and Tremond on her way from the prison ground. Tremond, who had been in a little bit of shock over the announcement of Tom’s death, had requested to go back to his car for a flask of tea. The Doctor escorted the old man through the gates and opened the car door for him. Tremond sat in the drivers seat whilst the Doctor sat in the passenger seat. Both had their doors open.

‘Tom used to be such a good lad,’ said Tremond distantly. ‘His mother used to bring him to church every Sunday morning.’ He took a sip from his tea. ‘Of course he’d get into trouble like most boys of his age did, but he was a lovely little boy. Always happy to be alive.’

‘It seems that the Tom that I met was far from happy,’ said the Doctor flatly. ‘He was moody, secretive and didn’t seem to have a reason to be here.’

‘Yes. The death of Vanessa did that to him, poor boy. He could never forgive himself.’

The Doctor nodded slowly. ‘Vrezan’s twisted Tom up so much he doesn’t know what he wants. He’s not even the real Tom. Just an echo.’

Tremond looked at the Doctor. ‘This Vrezan - what exactly is he?’

‘He’s what the Time Lords called a War-Wraith. They come from the edge of the galaxy. They visit planets, bury themselves in people’s minds and absorb as much info as possible. Then they take over.’

‘But this is all absurd!’

‘Any more absurd than deadly, killing ghosts?’

‘But Venessa’s ghost. How do you explain that?’

‘I can’t,’ said the Doctor. ‘I can’t explain that at all.’

Tremond shook his head. ‘Where are the rest of these…Wraiths?’

‘I think this one is lost. He’s lost and on his own. He’s gotten so powerful that he has almost limitless control over the entire prison area and maybe beyond. All those that he touches seem to be affected by him.’ The Doctor thought back to Feathers, the estate agent, back in the hospital. He had gone so crazy that he thought he was Stevens and Kate was being kept alive by Stevens’ power.

‘Well, our main priority is to get those young people out of there and then sort out Tom and this Vrezan.’

‘Agreed,’ said the Doctor as they both helped themselves to some more tea.




Kate marched Danny across the grounds and towards the cemetery. Every now and again he tried to escape, but Kate would thrust the cross in front of him again and he’d cower onwards.

They arrived at the filled-in grave, and Kate stood beside the patch of earth. ‘Get digging,’ she commanded.

‘Dig?’ said Danny, his voice losing a little of it’s hissing.

‘Yeah,’ she reached for the spade and handed it to him. Danny looked at her in amusement, but he soon grabbed the spade when Kate held out the cross to him again. ‘Now dig!’

Danny dug as fast and as quickly as he could, but all the time he was wondering and thinking about what was going on inside his head. One minute he was fine and then the next....that thing had come back to torment him as if it was trying to take over.

And now he was certain that the Apparite that had taken control of his body back in Thornsby, was still in there.

Danny winced and put a hand to his head. Kate jumped into the pit and put a hand on Danny’s shoulder. ‘What’s up?’

‘I....’ he realised his voice had returned to normal. ‘I have a headache.’

Kate realised the cross wasn’t affecting Danny anymore. ‘What happened to you? Was it Stevens?’

‘No,’ said Danny. He looked at Kate and then threw his arms around her. ‘I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to explain it.’

‘Try,’ said Kate, trying to push Danny away.

‘That thing from another dimension. It’s still in there. Deep inside. It keeps trying to come to the surface.’

‘You need to tell the Doctor. He can help.’

‘I’m scared,’ said Danny, trying to stop himself from crying.

‘I think you better carry on digging.’

Eventually Danny had dug right down to Alex and Caroline. They appeared to be in suspended animation. A glow had surrounded them and had them frozen stiff. Kate touched Alex and the glow seemed to distort and she saw Alex blinking.

Danny looked at Caroline. She had a bony skeletal hand clasped around her neck and a look of pure terror on her face. Her mouth was wide open and a little bit of earth was on her tongue. He pushed her and the glow distorted and then vanished.

A loud gasp of air came from Caroline and she pulled the limp hand from around her neck. ‘Wha-what’s going on?’

Kate knocked Alex out of his glowing force field as well, and he too asked the same question. Stevens had somehow kept the two of them alive and protected from the mud and dirt, no doubt so he could finish them off later.

‘What about Joanne and Mark?’ asked Caroline, still spluttering.

‘Don’t know about them yet,’ said Kate. ‘We’ve gotta go and find them.’

The four them began a jog across the grounds. Danny hung back and then tapped Kate on the shoulder. ‘Kate, can I trust you not to tell anybody about what happened to me in the chapel?’ he whispered.

Kate slowed a little. ‘Danny, don’t you think you should tell them?’

Danny shook his head. ‘No. They can’t help me at all.’ He grabbed her arm gently. ‘Please, Kate, don’t tell anybody. They’ll not trust me again.’

Kate sighed and then nodded. ‘Okay, Danny, I promise I won’t tell anybody.’




Tom was lying on the floor, groaning in pain. Just when he thought the pain had subsided, the bar was thrust down through his stomach, clanging on the floor beneath him.

‘Does it hurt?’ growled Vrezan. He was standing a few feet away and levitating the iron bar. ‘Do you like it?’

‘No!’ groaned Tom, as the bar withdrew from him again. ‘Please, Vrezan! Please stop!’

‘Germ!’ yelled Vrezan, and slammed the bar through Tom’s ghostly form again. ‘Think you’re clever do you? Think you can spurn my offer of help? You are just my puppet. I can switch you off any time I like. You’re nothing!’

‘I’m sorry!’ yelled Tom. ‘I just lost my way. I didn’t know what I was doing!’

Vrezan lifted the bar again. ‘I can’t afford to be friends with someone who dumps loyalty because they don’t know what they are doing.’ He brought the bar down through Tom again. ‘You let the Doctor escape. Now I sense that another two have escaped. They’re massing against me! THEY ARE MASSING!’

Tom gritted his teeth through the pain. ‘They can’t harm you, Vrezan! We can defeat them together.’

‘Together?’ Vrezan laughed in amazement. ‘I don’t want your help any longer!’ He brought the bar crashing down again.




After Caroline had met up with The Doctor and Tremond, they had found Joanne cowering in the corner of one of the dark cells, but there was no sign of Mark, and Joanne clearly wasn’t in any state to give any answers.

‘What do we do?’ asked Caroline urgently. ‘Where could this Vrezan have put Mark?’

‘Perhaps he’s killed him, like he killed Tom,’ growled Alex. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think he’s probably hidden Mark somewhere,’ said the Doctor, trying to work something out in his head. ‘I think he’s probably put Mark in the same place as he put the TARDIS.’

‘And where’s that?’ asked Tremond.

‘Well, it’s quite clear that Vrezan has access to other dimensions that we don’t.’ He bit his thumb nail. ‘I just get the horrible feeling that we won’t be able to get to it.’

‘Then we must persuade this monster to come to us and reveal himself,’ said Tremond. ‘Maybe then we talk to him and get him to reveal your box, and Mark.’

‘Easier said than done. He has incredible powers,’ said the Doctor downheartedly.

‘Then we need to make a stand. Lure him into a confined space. Confuse him,’ said Caroline.

‘The chapel?’ suggested Alex.

‘It’s small and he seems afraid of it,’ said the Doctor. ‘Probably drawing off the human memories of Harold Stevens. Chapels are sacred places and if Harold was religious…then maybe that’s filtering through to Vrezan.’

‘He might let his guard down in there,’ smiled Caroline.

‘Then the chapel it is,’ said the Doctor. He turned to the others. ‘Kate, Father Tremond, come with me. Danny, Caroline and Alex; take Joanne to Tremond’s car and stay out of the grounds.’

Caroline knew that the Doctor meant it this time. She nodded. ‘Okay Doctor, but be careful.’

‘We will,’ said the Doctor. ‘Right, come on everyone.’

The Fear Factor, Chapter 12

The Doctor had headed off for the main prison building whilst Mark and Joanne had gathered up various data collecting instruments and set out for the prison cells. Soon after, Alex and Caroline had left for the cemetery. Now Danny was alone with Kate.

‘I’m worried about them,’ said Kate. She frowned and put her hand to the wound on her chest.

Danny glanced across. ‘Does it hurt?’

‘Just a little bit,’ said Kate, clearly trying to shrug it off. Her body was currently dead and she was trying not to think about that right now. She decided to change the subject. ‘So tell me about yourself then, Danny.’

‘There’s not much to tell really,’ said Danny. ‘I grew up in Thornsby in the UK, met Caroline, went to school with her and college and then moved to Manchester a few years back.’

‘You seem so distant, Danny. Like you’re not really here.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Danny, frowning at her.

‘You and Kate are meant to be great friends, yeah?’

‘Yeah. Since we were little kids.’

‘You’ve hardly said a word to her this whole time. It’s like you’ve cut yourself off from everyone.’

‘Something happened to me back in Thornsby. I’m not exactly sure if I’m okay now.’

‘What?’

‘I was possessed.’

‘By what?’

‘By a ghost.’ He turned to Kate who looked as though she didn’t know whether to believe him or not. ‘Come on Kate, you’re one step away from being a ghost.’

Kate frowned. ‘Real ghosts?’

‘Not exactly,’ said Danny. ‘It was a creature from another dimension. It took over my body. It’s gone now, but since it left I feel…hollow.’

‘Have you told the Doctor and Caroline about this?’

Danny chuckled. ‘Caroline has her own problems, and the Doctor…I don’t know about him. He knows something’s not quite right, but he hasn’t paid much attention to me. Not really.’

‘You need to start talking to people, Danny. That thing with the generator. You knew what to do. You knew how to get that thing working.’

‘I know,’ said Danny. ‘I know.’

He went distant again and Kate noticed, for the first time, that his teeth were pure white and gleamed in the dim light of the chapel. She shivered and the two of them were silent again.




Mark and Joanne made there way across the prison grounds. They just caught a glimpse of the Doctor heading into the main building and then they arrived at some large iron bars.

‘This must be it,’ said Joanne. She looked at Mark who was holding a small EMF detector. ‘Picking up anything?’

‘Nope,’ he said shaking his head wearily. ‘It’s dead.’

Joanne shook her head and then grabbed the box. ‘Maybe if you turned it on it’d work!’ She flicked a switch and the machine started buzzing. A little beeping sound was coming from a small speaker. ‘Wow! Looks like there’s a bit of activity around here.’

‘Do we have to go inside?’ asked Mark, looking into the gloom.

‘We promised the Doctor,’ said Joanne. ‘Come on, we’ll be fine.’




They had found there way into the cells using a torch. After occasionally tripping over debris they finally found a place with enough psychic activity to set up the rest of the equipment and examine the area. They set up a large box-like device in the middle of the room and then sat down on the dusty floor. For a while the machine simply stood there and then, without warning, it began to click.

‘What does that mean?’ asked Mark.

‘It means something is nearby,’ gulped Joanne.

‘Perhaps we should take a look around,’ suggested Mark. But suddenly the machine stopped clicking. The two teenagers frowned. Mark got up nervously and backed to the far wall.

Joanne knelt down over the strange device. She frowned and tapped it a few times.

‘Any luck?’ came Mark's voice.

‘No. The thing seems to be completely dead,’ replied Joanne, shaking her head in frustration.

‘Great,’ sighed Mark from the darkness, ‘that's another fortune we spent for nothing.’

‘Oh well,’ sighed Joanne as she gave the device a little kick. ‘If Tom were here he’d be able to fix it.’

‘I doubt it, he-’

Joanne waited for Mark to continue his sentence.

Nothing.

‘He what, Mark?’

Still no sound.

‘Mark?’ Joanne stepped over to the darkened doorway. ‘Mark are you there?’

No sound came from the doorway. Joanne could feel the panic rising up inside her. Her heart was pounding and she began to tremble. ‘Mark, stop playing tricks!’ she said uneasily.

Joanne stepped backwards and tripped over the device sending her crashing to the floor. She began crying and backed up against the hard, crumbling wall. There she sat for a long time, crying and sobbing into her sleeve.




Caroline and Alex had, meanwhile, made their way across the grounds and back to the cemetery. Alex kept looking back to the chapel. He was obviously very concerned about Kate but Caroline tried to make him see reason.

‘Back there Kate is safe. Nothing bad can happen to her now,’ she said soothingly.

‘You’re right,’ agreed Alex grimly. ‘She’s been killed. What’s worse then that?’

Caroline thought it best not to answer that question, and they carried on walking. Upon entering the cemetery they came across Harold’s grave. Caroline peered into it and shivered. ‘It’s hard to think that a dead body could have clambered out of that.’

‘It’s not hard to not believe anything anymore,’ said Alex, staring into the distance.

Caroline frowned and stood up. She grabbed Alex by his shoulders and looked into his eyes. ‘Alex, you have to try and get yourself together. Bad things have been happening, but the only way we can make it turn out good again is to....is to....well, try and keep calm and not dwell on things.’

Alex, for a moment, looked disgusted with Caroline’s words, but then he smiled weakly and nodded. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just having trouble concentrating at the moment.’

‘It’s fine,’ smiled Caroline. ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘let’s go and check out the other graves.’

But something stopped the two of them in their tracks. It was a scraping sound coming from the bottom of Harold’s grave. A little apprehensively, Caroline and Alex moved towards the edge of the deep pit. Sat in the bottom of the pit was a single, disembodied skeletal hand.

Caroline looked at Alex and then back at the hand and frowned. ‘That wasn’t there before, was it?’

‘No,’ said Alex nervously.

Suddenly the hand leapt up out of the grave and clamped itself around Caroline’s throat. She tried to scream, but couldn’t make any sound come out of her mouth. She found the air being drained from her. Alex tried his best to pull the bony hand away from Caroline’s throat, but it was no good.

‘Help!’ shouted Alex in the vain hope that the Doctor or someone would hear them. ‘HELP!’

Caroline tried and tried to pull the thing away from her throat, but it proved useless. The hand remained tightly clasped around her neck, and she could feel the sharp bones beginning to pierce into her skin. A feeling of tilting sideways and, before she could balance herself with her foot, she was falling into the six foot grave. She landed in the soil with a thump.

Alex yelled and jumped down after her. The two of them tried to wrestle with the hand, but it did no good. Then Alex realised something else was happening. Without anyone doing anything, the earth and soil at the sides of the grave was starting to fall into the pit. Before Alex could react, he found Caroline buried under the earth and his legs buried up to his knees. He looked down just in time to see Caroline’s face completely covered by the earth. He began to panic. His legs wouldn’t move. The soil was filling up the grave. It was now up to his waist and he was stuck fast. Again he shouted out to try and make somebody hear. Now he was neck deep in the earth and Caroline was deep under it. It rose up over his chin and then over his mouth and then finally covered his head entirely. A few seconds later the whole grave was full.

And up above, Danny stared down, confused and unsure of what was happening to him.




Tom stood in the shadows, watching, as the Doctor shone his torch around the main building. He narrowed his eyes when the torch shone into his face but, unsurprisingly, the torch didn’t reveal him. It was then that he became aware of Vrezan emerging from the shadows.

‘How did it go?’ asked Tom.

‘Very well,’ grinned Vrezan. ‘I’ve trapped one of them in the shadows whilst the other is driven insane, and the other two have been buried alive in my - sorry, in Harold’s own grave.’

‘What about Danny and Kate?’

‘I can’t touch them. The one called Danny has....’ he struggled to find the words, ‘...something about him that’s keeping me away. Something...from another dimension.’

‘How has Kate come back to life?’

‘How have you come back to life?’

‘I haven’t.’ Tom thought for a moment. ‘Have I?’

Vrezan chuckled. ‘All living beings leave images of themselves. I’m simply conjuring up your image. And Kate…Kate is a different matter. She absorbed something of me. It temporarily resurrected her.’

Tom looked over to the Doctor’s torchlight. ‘What about him?’

A lopsided grin appeared on Vrezan’s face. ‘Shall we lead him to the execution chamber?’

Tom found himself grinning also. ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’




There was a scrape from up ahead and the Doctor shined his light down the corridor. He was sure he saw a faint shadow slip around one of the doors. ‘Anybody there?’ he called out into the darkness. ‘Is that you, Tom?’

He didn’t really expect a reply, but pressed on anyway. The dust was extremely thick and he was having trouble breathing as he headed deeper in the gloom. Eventually he arrived at what seemed to be a large gate with prison bars running vertically along it. It was slightly ajar so he moved it open some more. The gate screeched - it hadn’t been opened in years, and he squinted into the darkness. There was a very large shape at the end of the long corridor-like room and it was covered with a tarpaulin.

‘Is anybody in here?’ the Doctor called into the darkness.

‘Come forward,’ came a quiet voice that he didn’t recognise.

‘Who’s that?’ asked the Doctor. ‘Is that you Tom?’ He knew that question was stupid. It sounded nothing like Tom.

‘Come forward and I’ll tell you,’ said the voice again.

‘I don’t trust you.’

‘You don’t know me,’ came the reply. ‘How can you judge someone you don’t know?’

‘Good reasoning,’ said the Doctor. ‘I suppose you are this mysterious Harold J Stevens?’

The voice laughed.

‘So it is you,’ said the Doctor slowly. ‘What have you been doing to this place?’

‘This is my place,’ said Vrezan, slightly hurt, ‘and I can do whatever I like to it.’

‘That doesn’t give you the right to terrorise, hurt and even kill people!’ said the disgusted Doctor.

‘I am a soldier!’ growled Vrezan. ‘I’m just living up to my reputation.’ Vrezan sighed and then laughed.

‘And I suspect you’re the one who killed Kate? You’re the one who’s been keeping her alive?’

‘Kate was a mistake. A part of me lodged itself inside her mind, keeping her alive.’

‘You’re not human, are you? You’re not even a ghost.’

‘What human could do all of this?’

‘Like hiding my TARDIS,’ nodded the Doctor.

‘Come forward,’ said Vrezan. ‘I’m just a little way forward.’

The Doctor stepped forward a little. ‘Where?’

‘In the shadows,’ said Vrezan mysteriously.

The Doctor looked about him and then stepped forward. His foot hit something. The Doctor looked down and his heart jumped. Lying on the floor was the body of Tom. The Doctor then looked back to the darkness. ‘What is the meaning of killing Tom!?’ he yelled.

‘Hello, Doctor,’ came a familiar voice at the side of him.

The Doctor turned and his heart sank. Standing in the shadows, with his face obscured by darkness, was a very faint and ghostly image of Tom. ‘What happened?’ he said painfully.

‘He killed me,’ said Tom calmly.

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Tom. ‘But it was the best thing that ever happened to me.’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘I can’t believe this. Tom, can’t you see that he’s got to you, and if he’s what I suspect he is then you’re not really Tom. You‘re just an image. A faded picture?’

‘Sit down please, Doctor,’ said Tom calmly.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Sit down!’

Tom advanced on the Doctor and he was forced to head down into the darkness and to the shape at the end of the corridor.

Tom pointed at the tarpaulin. ‘Remove it and sit down.’

The Doctor straightened himself up and stared down his nose at the young man, determined to not move.

A metal bar flew up from the floor and hit the Doctor on the arm. He winced in pain and clutched his bruised arm.

‘REMOVE IT AND SIT DOWN!’ shouted Tom.

Vrezan laughed from the shadows. ‘Good, good. You’re learning well, Tom.’

The Doctor, still rubbing her arm, removed the tarpaulin and gasped. Underneath was a very large, wooden chair with manacles and wires connected to it. He knew instantly what it was.

‘The electric chair!’ laughed Vrezan.




Danny returned to the chapel with a look of confusion on his face. Kate had been sleeping, but woke up when the young man walked in.

‘Where’ve you been?’ asked Kate sleepily.

‘I just went for a walk,’ he said without looking at her.

‘You were told to stay here with me,’ said Kate, slightly annoyed.

‘Oh, come off it,’ said Danny. ‘You don’t need anyone to look after you. That’s what you seem to think anyway.’

‘You just invite danger in.’

Danny glanced down at Kate and then walked towards her. ‘That’s my problem, isn’t it? I invite in the danger.’

Kate looked up and frowned. ‘Yeah.’

Danny reached out a hand and put it on her cheek.

Kate pulled away when she realised his hand was freezing cold.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Your hand,’ said Kate nervously, ‘it’s so cold.’

Danny glared down at Kate and then smiled. His teeth were pure white and his eyes seemed to glaze over. He spoke, but his voice sounded different. It had a rasping, throaty sound to it. ‘It is so cold.’

‘Danny?’ said Kate worriedly. ‘How’d you do that.’

Danny suddenly snatched out and put a hand around her neck. She screamed at the coldness of his touch. ‘POOR LITTLE KATE!’

She pulled back and clambered to the other side of the room. ‘Keep away from me or I’ll shout for the others!’

‘Do it then,’ hissed Danny. ‘They won’t come. The Doctor, Joanne and Mark are deep in the prison buildings and Alex and Caroline have been buried alive.’ He laughed.

‘Buried alive?’ Kate began to sob. ‘No. This can’t be happening. Not Alex!’

‘They are all going to die!’

The Fear Factor, Chapter 11

The ambulance had arrived at Tom’s flat and a councillor had been sent to comfort the distraught young man. It’d only been a few weeks since Tom and Vanessa had moved into the flat. It was to be a new start for the troubled couple who had had their fair share of arguments and problems. It seemed as though things had been getting much better for them. Tom had stopped complaining and Vanessa had promised to spend more time with him and less with her friends who had constantly nagged her to dump him.

Things had been running so smoothly. Until the gas leak.

‘And can you explain what happened?’ asked the policeman after Tom had calmed a little.

‘I told you already,’ said Tom quietly. ‘A few days ago we found a gas leak. I meant to fix it but V told me to just put tape over it until I had more time.’

‘Tape?’ said the police officer. He looked at his colleague in disbelief and then returned to Tom. ‘Things like that should be repaired immediately.’

‘I know, I know,’ said Tom. He was now trying not to make eye contact with the policeman. ‘We thought it’d be alright.’

‘And now, because of your silly mistake, your girlfriend has lost her life.’

‘She fell asleep in the bath,’ said Tom through gritted teeth. ‘She couldn’t have smelt the gas.’

‘It still doesn’t clear you of any blame,’ said the officer forcefully.

‘I know that!’ shouted Tom.

His councillor put a calming hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged the woman off.

Tom pointed to the officers. ‘I’ve lost the girl that I love. The girl that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.’ He seemed to deflate and fall back in his chair, looking into the distance with lost eyes. ‘It’s because of me that she’s dead. So, if you want, you can lock me away. Someone has to pay for what happened.’ His eyes flicked back to the officers. ‘Just remember, though, that it was a stupid mistake.’

The councillor looked at the two police officers. ‘I think Tom should be left alone for a while.’

The two officers nodded and then got up. ‘We’ll be in touch, and I suggest you stay in the area, Mr Howard.’

‘Yeah,’ mumbled Tom distantly.




‘I’m sorry Thomas, but what you are asking is utterly impossible.’

‘That’s not what Finky said,’ protested Tom.

‘And what exactly did Mr Finklin say to you?’

‘He said you’d brought his old lady back from the dead. He said you’d brought her back as a ghost.’

Father Tremond sighed. ‘Shane Finklin was having disturbances in his home. I allowed him, and his family, to be able to speak, through a medium, to his mother once again.’

‘Exactly,’ said Tom excitedly.

‘You are not being haunted by Vanessa,’ said Tremond with a huge sigh.

‘But I want to be.’ Tom’s eyes blazed with a light that Father Tremond could not make out. ‘I want her to be back with me.’

‘No, Tom,’ said Tremond defiantly. ‘I can’t participate in such an act, and even if I could, then I don’t know if I’d be able to.’

‘But you must-’

Tremond raised his voice. ‘No Tom! And that is the last word on the matter. I am so very sorry for your loss, but dwelling on it will not help the pain.’

Tom looked the old vicar in the eyes. ‘Fine. I’ll get someone else to do it.’

He stormed out of the church. Tremond sat down and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He felt sure that Tom would have to learn the hard way.




Tom literally pushed Jay into the room. Jay kept his balance and then cracked his knuckles. ‘Stay cool, man.’

‘I just want you to do it,’ said Tom angrily.

‘I said I’d check it out, alright,’ said Jay. He straightened up his jacket and then wandered around the dark front room of Tom and Vanessa’s apartment. ‘Hmmm,’ he mumbled, ‘I can’t pick up anything.’

‘You’re just saying that,’ said Tom from the doorway. ‘You’ve gotta find her.’

Jay rolled his eyes and turned back to his brother. ‘Look, I told you that it might be difficult. You know it’s just a hobby. You should’ve got old Tremond to do it.’

‘I asked him but he said no.’

‘Then maybe it’s for the best.’

‘No!’ shouted Tom. ‘I want to be able to speak with Vanessa again.’

‘I’m not a professional. I don’t know what I’d be doing.’

‘Get your friends in, Jay. You can bring her back to me. I know you can,’ pleaded Tom.

Jay sighed and shrugged his shoulders. ‘What the hell. Just don’t blame me for the consequences.’

Tom clasped Jay’s hand and patted him on the shoulder. He would see Vanessa again. He was sure of it.




Things hadn’t gone as planned. Jay and his four other friends sat around the kitchen table whilst Tom stood at the side. Candles and incense sticks had been lit and Tom was looking around himself nervously. Jay and the four other people had held hands to create an unbroken link and Jay was talking very slowly and very carefully.

‘We call unto you, Vanessa. Come back to us. Come back to your love, Tom, and let him speak with you again.’

There was a rumble of thunder from beyond the flat which made Tom even more nervous.

‘Come back to us, Vanessa!’ shouted Jay. He opened his eyes and gripped his friends hands tightly. ‘Come back to us now!’

There was a loud blast of thunder and the candles flicked out. Tom, Jay and Jay’s friends sat in the darkness none of them daring to move. There was a scuttling sound beside the kitchen door and Tom crossed over to Jay. ‘Have you done it?’

‘I don’t know, man,’ said Jay quietly. ‘I told you we weren’t experienced and we’ve never done this before.’

The door creaked on it’s hinges and everybody tensed. Tom looked at each of them and then back to the door. Stealing his nerve he crossed over to the door and flung it open. Standing there was Vanessa. Tom stumbled towards her but then stopped himself and looked her up and down. She was the same Vanessa he had fallen in love with, but now she looked even more perfect. A halo of golden light seemed to illuminate her in the darkness.

She opened her mouth to speak and Tom caught the smell of gas. ‘Why Tom? Why have you brought me here?’

‘I-,’ Tom could hardly contain the emotion that had built up. ‘I wanted to say - to say…sorry.’

She extended a hand and touched his face. The tears burst from Tom’s eyes. ‘There was no reason. I don’t blame you for what happened.’

‘But if I’d fixed the gas leak-’

‘I should have never allowed myself to fall asleep in the bath. You were always telling me not to do that. If I hadn’t then I’d have smelt the gas and gotten out.’

‘But I can’t get over it, V, I can’t...’ sobbed Tom

Before either of them could utter another word the scuttling sound came from near the fridge making all of the astonished onlookers look around in alarm.

‘No,’ said Vanessa quietly. ‘You must send me back.’

‘What is it?’ asked Tom.

‘Tom,’ said Jay carefully, ‘look down there.’

Jay was pointing beside one of the cupboard units. The door was slightly open and what looked like a little black hand was feeling around the edge. ‘What the hell’s that?!’

‘Send me back,’ said Vanessa urgently.

Jay panicked and urged people to hold hands around the table again. Tom refused and got closer to Vanessa.

‘Please, Tom!’ shouted Jay as the scuttling got louder. ‘We have to send her back before it’s too late.’

‘I don’t understand!’ yelled Tom over the scuttling, which was becoming increasingly louder.

‘I’ve read about this, man,’ called back Jay. ‘Get over here now.’

But it was too late. The door of the cupboard was flung open and hundreds of little black scuttling figures flooded out of the cupboard doors. One of them leapt onto Tom’s face and he caught glimpse of what it looked like. The thing was like a cat, but it had black horns and scuttled on its back two legs. Its face was completely devoid of any features apart from two glowing, tiny grey eyes. Tom tried to knock the thing off as the other creatures scuttled into the shadows.

People screamed, the scuttling grew louder and the commotion was more than anyone could take. Through the torrent of creatures stood Vanessa with her head in her hands and crying tears onto the carpet.

A great booming voice came from beyond the kitchen wall. Tom looked up and before his very eyes a shape began to form from the wall. It was a face. A huge, stone face cracking through the wall. The face appeared to have a beard and was talking, but the words were jumbled and the voice muffled. The things continued to wreck havoc and Tom couldn’t take anymore.

He ran for the door.




Father Tremond hesitated as he touched the door handle to Tom’s flat. It had been two hours since Tom and his friends had made a run for it. At first Tremond was reluctant to help, but he could see Tom and Jay were desperate. Now he stood in front of the door with his bible in his right hand. Jay and Tom stood behind him nervously.

Tremond turned to face the two men. ‘I warned you, Tom, but you wouldn’t listen. Now we have to face the consequences.’

‘What consequences?’ asked Tom, a little puzzled.

‘You can’t just bring back someone’s spirit and then put them back again like a bottle of ketchup. If the process had been done properly,’ he glared at Jay, ‘then it would have been a simple thing to do, but you have unearthed other monsters.’

‘Then just put them back,’ said Tom desperately.

‘It’s not that easy, Thomas,’ scolded Tremond. ‘They won’t go back. They have to be destroyed and in destroying them I shall have to destroy all spirits within the flat.’

‘But that means…’

‘Yes,’ said Tremond quietly. ‘That means destroying Vanessa.’

‘But there has to be some other way!,’ pleaded Tom.

‘There isn’t,’ replied Tremond sadly. ‘I shall be some time.’

Tom was frozen in the spot as he watched Tremond open the door and disappear into the darkness of the flat. His eyes quivered and he stood there, waiting…

He waited a long, long time.

Jay was sitting on the wall outside, whilst Tom stood in the same position, watching and waiting for the priest to emerge from the flat. It had been almost an hour and he hadn’t moved an inch. All the guilt and sorrow had been too much and he had been unable to let out anymore emotions. He blamed himself, he blamed Jay and he blamed those evil little creatures in his flat.

Just when he thought Tremond had disappeared for good, the door clicked open. Standing in the doorway was the old vicar looking very drained, tired and withered. He looked as though he hadn’t had any sleep for days, and yet he still managed to hold his dignity. Tom looked at him hopefully.

Tremond walked slowly over to the young man and put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Your home has been cleared of all spirits.’

‘All?’ called Jay from behind.

‘All,’ confirmed Tremond.

Tom nodded slowly as Tremond patted him on the shoulder and walked past him. ‘Vanessa,’ said Tom making Tremond jump. ‘Will I see Vanessa again. You know, when I die?’

Tremond sighed heavily and looked down to the ground. ‘I may follow the church, Tom, but even I am unable to predict what happens beyond this life. I believe that we all join together in the kingdom of Heaven and we see our loved ones once more.’

‘Vanessa?’ asked Tom, although he already knew the answer.

‘Thomas, Vanessa has gone. She has been totally destroyed. Her spirit, her memory, her entire being has been lost forever.’

When Tremond had walked away and Tom was sure he had disappeared, he stepped up to the flat door and placed his hand on the doorknob.

Jay got off the wall and touched him on the shoulder.

Tom rounded on his friend and his eyes bore deep into the smaller man.

‘I’m sorry, man,’ said Jay. ‘I wish I had-’

SMACK! Tom floored Jay before he could finish. Then, without another look back, he stepped into the doorway and slowly closed it shut.




Across the quiet suburban road, the images of Vrezan and Tom stood, watching the scene that had just unfolded before their eyes.

Tom turned to Harold, his eyes full of anger and sadness. ‘Why did you show me that? I didn’t need to see it.’

‘You did need to see it,’ said Harold calmly. ‘You needed to be made to see that you are definitely dead.’

Tom stepped in front of the killer and pressed his face close to him. ‘But why show me this?’ he said through gritted teeth.

Vrezan simply smirked and shrugged. ‘Just thought it’d be fun to see why you hated the spirit world so much.’

‘You see this as “fun”, do you?’ growled Tom.

‘For me, yes.’ He grinned.

Tom snapped. His fist drew back and he thrust it straight at Vrezan’s stomach. His arm, to Tom’s horror, had simply gone straight through his body making an odd swishing sound. Tom frowned in confusion and retracted his fist. Vrezan laughed and Tom decided to aim for his head. The same thing happened. Then, as if something had suddenly plugged his good humour, Vrezan slammed his fist into Tom’s face. Tom was taken aback and collapsed to the floor.

‘How did you do that?’ he stuttered.

‘Psychic power,’ replied Vrezan, his disgusting grin now back on his face.




Soon they were standing back in the dark prison. Vrezan had regained the control of his bodily remains and Tom was crouching once again over his body.

‘Are ghosts and spirits real then?’

‘Why are you asking me that?’ chuckled Vrezan.

‘What was that that I saw in my flat. Venessa. What was it all?’

‘I don’t know. There are many mysteries in this universe, kid. Perhaps you opened the door to another dimension. I really don’t know.’

The young man pinched the end of his nose. ‘What can I do now?’

Vrezan lumbered over to Tom and put a withered and rotten hand on his shoulder. ‘You say you want to take revenge on the spirit world for taking Vanessa away? I suggest you take it out on the person responsible for your death.’

‘You?’ queried Tom.

Vrezan smiled and levitated a very real iron bar and dangled it in front of Tom. ‘True, I may have killed you with this object, but I am not the one responsible for your being here.’

‘Then who?’

‘Your friends.’ Vrezan sighed when he saw Tom frown. ‘Your friends who are in the prison grounds at this very moment. If it weren’t for them you would have never joined their stupid ghost hunting group in the first place. You wouldn’t be here crouching over your dead body.’

‘But why? What’s your reason for all of this? Don’t you want to go back to your own people.’

‘They abandoned me. This planet is my playground now. I want to expand myself outside of these prison walls. I want to experience more of your kind.’

There was a sound from towards the entrance to the main prison building. Tom looked towards Vrezan and frowned.

‘It’s the Doctor,’ he said, his rotten tongue licking his yellow teeth. ‘Kill him.’

‘Kill him?’ said Tom uncertainly.

‘I will help you,’ said Vrezan. ‘I will help you through this.’

The Fear Factor, Chapter 10

The Doctor had decided to leave the teenagers with Caroline and Danny to discuss what had happened whilst he made his way towards the cemetery. With his hands deep in his pockets and a sombre look on his face, the Doctor walked into the tiny space lined with wooden crosses and stood on the edge of Stevens’ grave. He looked down into the six foot pit and a gust of wind whipped up and caused the time travellers coat to billow up around him.

He crouched down and whispered. ‘Where are you Harold? And what are you?’

‘Doctor?’ came a voice. The Doctor looked around and standing in the opening between the walls was Caroline. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes, Caroline, I’m fine. It’s Harold that I’m bothered about.’ He looked back to the grave. ‘Where could he have gone?’

Caroline crossed over to the Doctor and knelt beside him. ‘Never mind him. What about Tom? Danny and Mark haven’t seen him for ages.’

‘I believe Tom is a very resourceful young man. He’ll be just fine.’




Tom was dead.

He fell to the floor and gazed up at the disgusting face that leered at him from the darkness. He tried not to look at it, but that strange human desire for looking at something so gruesome was too strong.

‘Do you like me?’ hissed the remains of Stevens. The thing extended a bony hand towards the shivering Tom. ‘Why do you shake?’

‘Because I’m scared,’ gibbered Tom as he stared at Steven’s rotting face.

‘You are dead,’ chuckled Stevens. ‘You’ve no need to fear me. We’re both the same now.’ He pointed towards Tom’s lifeless corpse. ‘Take control of your body.’

‘I’m not dead,’ said Tom desperately. ‘I can’t be dead.’

‘Your body’s over there, boy,’ said Stevens. He walked over to it and lifted it to it’s feet. Stevens smiled. ‘You’re dead, kid.’

Tom’s mind was racing. Was this really death? Where were the angels and where was God waiting at the end of the tunnel with the light?

‘I can read your thoughts,’ said Stevens. ‘I know what you’re all thinking.’ He grinned. ‘There is no God.’

Tom’s face exploded with rage. ‘There isn’t a God for you!’ He brought himself up to Stevens’ level. ‘That’s why you’re still here! That’s why you’re haunting this place.’

Stevens threw what consisted of his head back and let out a guttural howl-like laugh. ‘You poor pathetic creature. Haunting? I’m not haunting this place, I’m trapped.’

Tom looked around the darkness. ‘It’s the same thing, isn’t it?’

Harold shook his head. ‘Maybe if I was a ghost. But I’m not a ghost.’

‘What?’

‘Let me tell you a little story about me.’ Suddenly Stevens’s grizzly body went limp and dropped to the floor in crunch of bones. Standing over the remains was a shadowy figure. Tom could only just make out the colour of blue.

‘Follow me,’ said the shadow as it walked off into the darkness.

Tom felt compelled to follow.




In the prison grounds the group were sat on the grass in a circle.

The Doctor sighed and looked at each one of the teenagers. ‘We don’t know where Tom is, we don’t know where Harold J Stevens is, and we have no idea why Kate is back with us. The one thing we do know, almost certainly, is that the three incidents are related.’

‘What do we do then?’ asked Alex. ‘I mean, Tom has to be here somewhere.’

‘Maybe not,’ said Caroline. She nodded her head towards the point where the TARDIS had stood. ‘The TARDIS vanished and it’s nowhere to be seen. So did the van.’

‘To be fair,’ continued the Doctor, ‘the TARDIS may have been moved into the cells or somewhere else on the complex. Or it might have even moved itself. The van could have been stolen.’

Caroline nodded.

‘So,’ said Danny pointedly, ‘to repeat Alex’s question - what do we do?’

The Doctor breathed in and gave a heavy sigh. ‘We need to search this entire complex.’

‘With our eyes?’ asked Joanne.

‘Yes, and with the equipment you have. You are ghost hunters after all. I assume it’s all still in the chapel?’ asked the Doctor.

‘It was when I left there yesterday,’ said Kate.

‘Why leave the equipment but get rid of your box and our van?’ asked Mark.

‘Perhaps, if it was Harold J Stevens, he was scared away by the equipment and couldn’t go near it,’ suggested Joanne.

‘Let’s not speculate,’ said the Doctor. ‘Let’s just find Tom.’

‘Any clues on Kate yet?’ asked Alex hopefully.

The Doctor looked at Kate and smiled sadly. This was one problem that would only be solved when the evil force was destroyed. ‘I’m sorry, Alex. We’ll just have to wait and see on the Kate front. I do, however, suggest that she gets some rest.’ Kate nodded and then the Doctor clapped his hands together. ‘Come on then, everybody. We’ve got some hard work to do and I don’t fancy having to stay here tonight.’




I was lost. So very, very lost. Lost from my own kind as I fell to your planet. Burning. I burnt across your sky until I came crashing down to Earth, landing in a forest clearing, creating a huge crater.

The air was warm and the sky was clear. The stars glittered down on me as I climbed from the burning hole in the ground. But I had forgotten who I was. I was a blank slate. Nothing but a shadow.

I made my way across the forest clearing and from out of the trees there came a man. A young man with red hair.

He stood with a pretty, blonde woman. Such a beautiful thing. He was clearly shocked at my appearance - just a shadow. A faceless, featureless shadow, but he extended his hand in friendship. The idiot! I took his hand - and took his form. That is what we do, Tom, do you see? That is what my people do. I had forgotten all of who I was, but I knew the basic instincts of my race. It’s something that never goes away.

So I was drawn inside this young, foolish man. I became him.

‘Who was he?’

Harold J Stevens.

The man I took over - possessed if you like - was Harold J Stevens. And his memories replaced my own, lost ones. He was out here camping with his fiancee. Pretty, pretty Patricia. But I was damaged. The crash had damaged me. And I panicked. As soon as I knew I was safely within Stevens’ body I made my way through the forest.

Patricia followed me.

She was scared of me. She tried to stop me. She could see I needed help. Warrior instinct took over and I killed her. Snapped her neck in an instant.

And I enjoyed it.

‘You’re sick!’

Am I, Tom? Really? Because this is who I am. My people travel from planet to planet. We are shadows, the “thing” in the corner of your eye. We bury ourselves in people’s heads and absorb all of their memories. Then we send in the troops and decimate worlds.

‘So you’re an alien?’

Got it in one, Tommy-boy.

‘So, you lost your memory?’

Yeah. But by the time it had started to return, I realised I had been trapped. The longer we spend in a persons body, the more chance we have of being tethered - trapped - to it. And by now I was on the run from the police, killing anybody or anything in my way.

And so I ended up here, at Sherman prison. And then they executed me. Except that they didn’t. They only killed the physical form of Harold. I survived outside, but was trapped here, unable to leave as my kind had travelled so far away from Earth. They had abandoned me.




The Doctor had disconnected the cars headlights and managed to rig them up in the chapel to provide better light for the group. The camp beds had been re-set up and a rug had been placed over the floor for them to sit down.

Kate shivered upon entering the room and crossed over to the wooden cross lying beside the far wall. It was still sticky with her blood and she took it to the door and threw it out just before Alex came in.

‘You okay babe?’ asked Alex.

‘Yeah,’ said Kate’s dry voice. ‘Just getting rid of a few memories.’

Alex smiled and turned back to the others.

Kate quickly shifted a cushion over her pool of blood on the floor. It’d do no use to get him upset again.

‘So,’ said the Doctor, who was holding a sheet of paper, ‘are we all clear what we’re going to do?’

‘Yes,’ they nodded in agreement.

The Doctor took out a pencil from his coat pocket and pointed to Mark and Joanne. ‘You two will check out the cell area.’ He pointed to Caroline and Alex. ‘The two of you will check out the grounds and cemetery areas.’ He turned towards Kate. ‘I’m afraid you’re going to be staying with Danny.’

‘What?’ asked a confused Danny.

‘Somebody’s got to stay and look after Kate,’ said the Doctor.

‘I can look after myself,’ Kate said.

‘Perhaps it’s best if I stayed with Kate,’ said Alex urgently.

‘No, no, no,’ said the Doctor ,who had screwed up his sheet of paper and was shaking his head in frustration. ‘I can’t be doing with any emotional liabilities. Alex and Caroline, Mark and Joanne, Kate and Danny here whilst I go off to the torture chambers.’

Caroline rolled her eyes. ‘Won’t Mark and Joanne be an “emotional liability”?’ she asked.

‘Not at all.’ The Doctor smiled at the couple. ‘If anything they will work better together.’ He turned back to Danny. ‘Now, I don’t want anymore arguments from anybody else. All we have to do is find Harold J Stevens, find Tom and somehow put an end to Harold’s frighteningly scary haunting.’

‘Just another day at the office then,’ said Caroline under her breath.







Tom sat in the corner of the room, his knees drawn up to his chin.

The shadowy figure of Harold was standing nearby, smiling.

‘So what’s your real name?’ asked Tom, not quite believing his was actually an alien.

‘Vrezan.’

“That’s…an interesting name.”

More thoughts were swirling around Tom’s confused head. ‘But I’m really a ghost, aren’t I?’

Harold - or Vrezan - chuckled. ‘Not exactly. I’m keeping your soul - your aura - alive. If that’s what you class as a ghost, then that’s your choice.’

‘This is all too much,’ said Tom, shaking his head.

‘It’s really very simple. It’s all just a part of my psychic make-up. Just the same as how I’m able to control things around me and read people’s thoughts…and show people their past.’

Tom looked up quickly. ‘What? No. Please, no.’

The air shimmered around Tom and Vrezan.

Now they were standing in a bathroom. A young, blonde haired girl was lowering herself into a bath. Time seemed to move on a little. Now the girl was asleep and calm in the warm water. Although Tom and Vrezan were unable to smell it, the choking stink of gas was beginning to creep into the bathroom.

Tom fell to his knees. ‘No…,’ he said quietly.

The girl remained sleeping and silent.