The Doctor (18 page)

I spent the days out on the lake, both in the water and on the boat with my father and granddad. My granddad pretended he was fishing the whole time, but he never seemed to catch anything, and he always tried to tell me that pulling the cap low over his face was to make sure he didn’t scare the fish away. He never did explain how the snoring helped him to fish.

We’d come back in after a day out on the lake to a lovely home cooked meal, and then spent an evening playing games by the fireplace. Looking at my mother resting on the sofa, I longed more than ever to find her, to find out where she was and what had happened to her.
 

The memory went away and was replaced by the one I had been dreading. Once I had realised that these were images from my childhood, I knew this would come.
 

We were back in the old house again; the little boy was in the room and he was crying, calling out for his mother, but she wasn’t there. He was still dressed in his pyjamas, just standing there with tears streaming down his face. My heart wrenched watching him. I remembered everything from that day, every feeling running through the boy was flooding back into me. The realisation that my mother had gone, that she had left me, was just too much to bear. People had tried to make me feel better, but nothing did and I remember I cried the whole day, and for many days after that, until I realised she just wasn’t coming back.
 

Later that day my father tried to explain that my mother had left, but it wasn’t because she wanted to, just that we didn’t know where she was or why she’d gone. I had been so sure my father would be able to find her, because that’s what fathers did—they fixed things when they went wrong. I just hadn’t been able to understand why he didn’t go and bring her back.

I watched in the memory as the police arrived and looked around the house, dusting for prints and checking for entry points. The look on the policeman’s face when he told us they would look into it was one I will never forget. They had given up before they even started searching.
 

Once the police had gone, I was left alone in the living room, staring at the pictures on the walls. I finally realised where these memories were coming from – it was Sarah who was showing them to me, and all the pieces of the puzzle were clicking into place now.

The memory stayed with me; I stood in the middle of the empty living room of my old family home, all alone. Even the cat had abandoned me. And that’s when Sarah spoke again, breaking through into the memory.

‘Jack, I’m sorry for everything. I finally know who I am, and now you should too,’ Sarah whispered in my head, ‘I’ll keep him locked up here, so you’ll all be safe, but you need to go home now. Don’t worry about me, he can’t hurt me anymore.’

‘Thank you for showing me those memories,’ I said swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat. I wanted to say so much more, but I just couldn’t find the words, ‘Be careful Sarah.’

‘I will. Look after yourself, and Daniel too.’
 

It went quiet and Daniel came back into view, looking very concerned, a deep frown etched onto his face. He was pretty pale from the loss of blood. The werewolf stood nearby, rocking back and forth, watching both of us. He was actually looking worried too.
 

‘Jack, are you okay?’ Daniel asked. I nodded, and then shook my head.

I understood now, I knew who I was in those memories—it was my father’s viewpoint I was watching from. Sarah wasn’t my sister after all, she was a fragment of the projection the Doctor had created, but she was the one thing he didn’t understand, the one thing he hadn’t created on purpose. Sarah was a manifestation of his sub-conscious; she was my father, but she was the good part of him, the sane part, the one that didn’t want to kill and torture people. She was the only part of him that could still remember who I was. She was the father I knew before my mother vanished.

I held tightly on to her hand as our surroundings began to change. I could feel a stinging in my eyes as I realised she wouldn’t be coming with us, that she’d be staying here, with him, stuck in his head as she always had been.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Daniel

‘What happens now?’
 

Groaning, I stretched my aching body and made a few attempts to sit up. Apparently lying on a hard wooden floor for a long period of time did not bode well for movement later on.

‘Jack?’

There was a mumble from a few feet away that sounded a lot like Jack. Looking around, I realised we were back in the old house. It didn’t look like we had made it any further than the entrance, and I could just about see the front door behind my head. Trying again to get up, I managed it this time. I sat up rubbing my sore muscles and looked around. Jack, too, was sitting up and leaning against the wall.
 

Thankfully my clothes were now in one piece. They were dusty from the floor, but otherwise intact. Pulling up my sleeves and top, I was relieved to find that my skin was also in one piece. The attack had only happened on the island and not in real life. Well, that was one good piece of news anyway.

Now there was no mist in the house, I could see the inside didn’t look any better than the outside. The floorboards were secured with rusty nails, some sections of the floor were broken, some were even missing completely. The staircase to my left looked like it would crumble if anyone stepped foot on it and the whole place smelt damp and musty.
 

‘How long have we been gone?’ I wondered aloud. It felt like we’d been on the island for ages, but there was no sense of time there. It could have been hours, days, even weeks. Okay, perhaps weeks was an exaggeration.
 

Jack shrugged, ‘No idea, but based on my very sore back, I’m guessing it was more than a couple of hours.’

Suddenly it dawned on me that we were missing someone. ‘Jack, where’s Sarah?’ I asked, looking around for her. She’d been right next to Jack when the room had started to disappear, but now he was sitting there with nothing but empty space around him.

‘She wasn’t real, she was part of the projection,’ Jack said quietly, ‘The Doctor didn’t know it, but she was the good part of him trying to fight what he was doing. Now she has.’ There was a hint of pride in his voice as he spoke.
 

I didn’t quite follow, ‘You’re saying she was the Doctor?’

‘The good part of him, yes.’

‘What about the bad part of the Doctor?’

Jack looked up and glanced around the room, ‘He should be here somewhere. We have to find him and make sure he’s definitely safe. He must be, or we wouldn’t have returned from the island.’

‘So where is Sarah?’ I pressed. How does a person just disappear like that?

Looking at me, Jack said, ‘I believe her consciousness has returned to the Doctor. I also believe that she is now the dominant personality inside his head. She should live on in whatever projection she decides to create for herself. The Doctor—the evil part anyway—will be locked up, and his physical body will remain in a coma of sorts for the rest of his life.’

A scraping noise behind me made me spin around, expecting the worst. Jack must be wrong, the Doctor was here. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was just the werewolf creeping up behind me. Not sure quite why I was relieved—I thought I’d left him behind.

‘Jack?’
 

‘Yeah?’

I kept my eyes warily fixed on the wolf who was now sidling towards me and looking up at me with eyes a puppy would be proud of. ‘Why has the werewolf tagged along? I thought he’d stay on the island?’

There was nothing but silence behind me. I wrenched my eyes off the wolf just to make sure Jack was still there. He was frowning at me, shaking his head.

‘Dan, I don’t see the werewolf.’

‘How can you not—he’s right there,’ I said, pointing at the great lump of fur that was now leaning up against my leg.

Jack just shook his head. ‘Nope, don’t see him. I guess in the real world it’s just you that can see him. He obviously didn’t fancy being left behind.’

I grumbled to myself as I made my way across the room. The wolf followed, his nose butting up against my leg.
 

‘Will you back off!’
I said in frustration to the wolf. He just pushed his nose closer to me. Great, couldn’t I at least have had an obedient creature following me around? I heard Jack stifling a laugh.

‘Come on,’ I told him wearily, ‘we’d better find the Doctor. I’ve had enough of this place now.’

‘Agreed.’

We left the hallway and carefully went through the surrounding rooms. The first one we came to was empty, the second was furnished and very dusty but otherwise clear, and the third, fourth and fifth we couldn’t even get into as the ceiling had collapsed in on them. Every time I heard a creak my panic increased. This place was fit for nothing more than demolition. We’d be lucky if we made it out before it fell in on itself.
 

‘We’re going to have to check upstairs,’ Jack said, ‘He’s clearly not down here, and that’s the only other place he could be.’

Yes, why not, let’s go up a set of stairs that look like they couldn’t support the weight of a mouse. What a good idea.
However, I followed him back into the hall and we both hesitated at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the mouldy carpet and damp wood. It really didn’t look good.

‘Maybe we should call for backup now?’ I suggested. Jack ignored me and put his foot on the first step. It seemed to hold his weight, despite the awful creaking sound it was making. I held my breath as he made his way up; he got half way there before it all went wrong. The step he stood on crushed under his feet into a cloud of dust, and he fell through the gap.

‘Jack!’

The dust cleared and a choking sound came back assuring me he was still there. He’d grabbed hold of the bannister on his way down and it had somehow held strong. Pulling himself up, he dusted his clothes, threw a grin in my direction, and continued up the steps.

‘I’m at the top,’ he called a few minutes later, ‘Just give the middle step a miss, the rest of them are fine.’

Easy for him to say when he had made it to the top and didn’t have to climb them again. For all he knew he’d just weakened the lot of them and I wouldn’t even make it past step one.

‘You’ll be fine,’ he said. I heard footsteps upstairs as he wandered into the various rooms.
 

‘Get out of my head,’ I yelled back, before making my way up the death trap. If I didn’t join him quickly I’m sure he would find a new way to risk his life, and I don’t think Tez would be too happy with me if he turned up and Jack was in lots of little pieces.
 

It didn’t take long to find the Doctor. He was lying on a bed in the one room that looked lived in. It might have been the master bedroom at one point, and it looked like he had everything he needed in this one room.

Jack was standing over the bed, checking the Doctor’s pulse. ‘He’s alive, but definitely in a coma. She really did it; he won’t be waking up from this any time soon.’

Never would be too soon as far as I was concerned.

‘I think it’s time we called for backup now,’ I said. This whole place made me feel so nervous. As always, Jack was one step ahead of me, and was already dialling someone on his phone.
 

‘Tez, it’s Jack… We found him…. Yes, yes, yes and no… That little problem has resolved itself, but speak to Tom will you, I think we could use some help… That’s great, okay, we’ll see you soon.’

‘Let’s get outside,’ Jack said, ‘Backup is on the way, and I could do with some fresh air.’

I couldn’t agree more. ‘You don’t have to tell me twice,’ I said, leaving the room quickly. The wolf was bounding up and down the stairs as if to say, ‘This is easy, I don’t know what you’re complaining about.’ I gave him the best glare I could muster.

Once we were safely down the death stairs and back in the hall, Jack broke the silence.

‘Err, Dan?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, following him towards the door. Something in the tone of his voice put me on edge.

‘I have a bit of a confession to make.’

That didn’t sound good, ‘Uh huh?’

‘If you recall, back when I met you at the adventure park, you told me about the rampage the wolf had been on, where he’d killed your friend?’

Rex had never been far from my mind, but I had done my best not to think about him directly, it was too painful. My response to Jack came out as nothing more than a small noise in my throat. Jack stopped and turned to face me.

‘Dan,’ he said delicately, ‘I wasn’t completely truthful with you, I knew a bit more than I was letting on. The news reports said that three people had been badly injured and were being treated at the hospital. No fatalities were mentioned.’

It took me a moment to digest what he was saying. No, they must have been mistaken; I saw Rex fall off the coaster. There is no way anyone could have survived that fall. My hand found the wolf who was standing next to me and I steadied myself against him.

Jack continued, ‘I asked Tez on the phone how everyone was and they are all recovering. Dan, Rex is alive. Apparently he didn’t fall as you thought, he clung to the side of the coaster until the fire brigade were able to get him down. He lost a lot of blood, but he’s alive and doing well.’

I sank to the floor, much to the wolf’s delight as he nuzzled up against me. I couldn’t believe it.

‘He’s really alive?’ I croaked, looking up at Jack. He nodded and grinned at me.

‘Come on, let’s get out of here. Tez is sending the cavalry and they’ll be here soon. I for one would like to sit outside until they arrive. As long as it’s not raining anyway.’ He held his hand out and pulled me up off the floor, steadying me as I got to my feet.

I laughed. ‘I think I’ll take a bit of rain right now. Anything that doesn’t involve mazes of corridors, cells, misty islands, and crazed serial killers is fine by me.’

Jack pulled the front door open and sunlight streamed in through the open door. It was chilly outside, but the sun was glorious. Grinning, we ran through the door and out towards the car. It was good to be back, and outside. We leant up against the car and watched the road, waiting for backup to arrive, just enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. Despite the cool temperature, I had no intentions of getting inside the car. We’d spent way too long stuck inside, it was good to be free.