The Doctor (9 page)

‘You are.’

‘Okay, fine, I’m mildly interested,’ Jack said, ignoring the look on Tez’s face. ‘But either way, you know I have to go now. And no backup.’

I could tell Jack was winning this argument. He was rather persuasive. He certainly had managed to control the wolf quickly.

Before I knew it, Jack was grabbing hold of my arm and guiding me out of the room, after the other two. Tez was a big guy, all muscles; he ought to have a good chance against a werewolf even without his superpowers. Beth had her arm wrapped around him, and was glancing fearfully behind her as we followed. I lowered my gaze in shame.

‘Don’t worry Daniel,’ Jack said, noticing my movement, ‘Let’s just get you sorted, get the wolf under control. You can worry about your love life later.’

Easy for him to say. It had taken him seconds to control the wolf. I’d been trying for years and look what had happened.

Slowly, we all made our way towards the entrance of the park, keeping a look out for any stray people. Thankfully the main park was deserted. The entrance, however, was a different matter. The camera flashes were blinding, even from this distance, and the noise level was huge. Hopefully we were far enough away to not make it in to any of the photos. I stared miserably down at the fur where my hands were supposed to be. As we approached the entrance, Jack and I veered off to the left while Beth and Tez walked boldly towards the people at the gates, giving us chance to slip by unnoticed. As much as I would like to think Beth’s tears were part of the distraction, it wasn’t true, they were genuine tears. My insides were twisting and knotting as I watched her walk away.

‘Come on Dan,’ Jack said quietly, leading me to a side entrance he had spotted, ‘Tez will look after her.’ The police and reporters exploded into cheers when they saw Beth walking towards them. I could hear them shouting question after question at her. I just had to hope she was less frightened now I wasn’t there.

So much attention was directed to Beth and Tez that we managed to walk across the parking lot without being noticed. The missing girl had been found in one piece. The evil creature hadn’t eaten her for dinner. I knew that’s what they were all thinking.

‘Here we are,’ Jack said cheerfully, unlocking the car door. He climbed in, started the car and put on some music. The noise was reverberating around my head. I could tell he was trying to cheer me up, but it wasn’t working.

‘Alright grumpy, I’ll turn the music off then.’

‘Sorry,’ I said glumly, ‘I’m not used to someone being in my head like this.’

‘Can’t say I’m enjoying it at the moment,’ Jack said sincerely, ‘It’s not much fun being in your head. Remember what I told you before. Focus on taking control of the wolf.’

‘Yeah, you said you’d explain that. Who was that Doctor you were talking about? What did you mean by non-paranormals—are there more of you? Of me? … And where are we going?’

Jack looked like he was in a much better mood now. I imagine Tez was not quite so happy at the moment. Personally I thought we’d be lucky if we made it out of the parking lot before the ‘backup’ arrived.

‘We,’ Jack said confidently, ‘are off to find the Doctor.’

‘Can he help me get rid of the werewolf?’

Jack hesitated for a moment. ‘Yes, and no.’

I was after a little more of an explanation than that. Jack seemed to be pondering what to say next. He drove out of the parking lot with no problems, and turned onto the dark street. He kept glancing in the rear-view mirror, making sure we weren’t being followed, but there was no sign of other cars on the road. It was a few minutes before he spoke again.
 

‘The Doctor is someone we’ve been after for a very long time. Tez and I are part of the Paranormal Agency’s Detective Service. We attend paranormal—and yes there is a whole paranormal world out there, but I’ll leave that for another time—as I was saying, we attend paranormal crime scenes and pretty much fight the bad guys. Only difference is, our bad guys are paranormal too.’

‘So who’s the Doctor?’

‘He is a paranormal who has taken to creating monsters within his unwitting victims.’

My whole body went cold as I processed this. My voice came out in a croak, ‘You mean like me?’

Jack just nodded. There was silence for a while. I couldn’t quite understand. I’d always wondered how the wolf came to be inside me, but I’d just assumed it was who I was, something I’d been born with. It was as if I should have known it all along; someone had done this to me.

‘I believe the Doctor is a telepath,’ Jack said quietly, ‘who is convincing his victims that they have these monsters inside them. I also believe that you can overcome this.

He glanced at me, ‘Daniel, it’s all in your head. I know you have physical symptoms, but the mind is a powerful thing. If you can convince yourself that the wolf is nothing more than your imagination, I believe you will be free of him.’

No, that wasn’t possible. I looked down at my hands. They were covered in fur. How could my mind change my body like that? It wasn’t possible.

‘The mind is capable of so many more things that you
servas
realise,’ Jack said, ‘It shouldn’t be possible for a man to turn into a werewolf, and yet here you are. Is it that hard to believe that the mind is able to make such changes?’

‘I guess not,’ I said. What he said was true. By all rights I shouldn’t be able to turn into a werewolf. Jack shouldn’t be able to read my mind. Tez shouldn’t have been able to stop me mid fall and keep me hanging in mid air. After the last 24 hours, I was just going to have to accept I would not understand this new world. Actually I’m not sure I wanted to understand it.

We turned down another road and I watched out the window as we drove. The sun had come and gone, and rain was pounding noisily on the car. I’d always liked driving in the rain. Beth had too. My thoughts drifted to what she was doing now, and I hoped the others were safe, that Jeff and Ty were being treated. But I couldn’t think about Rex.
 

My chest felt tight and I held back the tears. I couldn’t believe he was gone. It was this Doctor. He’s done this to me. He made me into this creature, into the thing that had attacked Rex. The tightness in my chest remained but the tears turned to prickles of anger. I would do everything I could to rid myself of the wolf. Then I wanted revenge.

Jack was humming to himself now, and he seemed preoccupied. Suddenly a question came to my mind, ‘How do you know where to go? Those memories you got from my head barely showed anything. It was dark and rainy, but apart from that there was very little to see.’

He hummed a little louder and I thought he was just going to ignore my question. Pretend he hadn’t heard. Then he stopped, ‘I’ve been there before.’

I waited for him to continue, but he just started humming again. Clearly he was not going to elaborate, and I wasn’t about to pressure the one guy who was keeping the wolf at bay for me.

Returning my gaze back out the window, I watched the world pass us by. There was something very peaceful about being in a car on a rainy day like this. The sound of the rain beating down on the windscreen was strangely comforting. We were driving through a quaint little village now, a triangle of green grass lay off to our left, and small shops with closed signs hanging over the doors sat at the edge of the street. It was completely deserted, but somehow I seemed to recognise it. Even the old wooden bench under the great oak tree looked familiar.

I was about to say something when Jack spoke up, his voice graver than before. ‘We’re almost there.’

Quite quickly I started to feel sick. I had no idea what to expect, but judging from Jack’s demeanour, this guy was not simply going to give up and leave with us. I was starting to wonder why on earth I had got into the car in the first place.
Because you and the wolf would both be locked up right now if you hadn’t
, a little voice inside my head said.

Trying to keep my voice steady, I asked, ‘What’s the plan?’

Jack laughed quietly. It was not a particularly comforting laugh to be honest.

‘No idea. I’m hoping something will come to me when we get there.’

Oh great. Maybe it would be better if Jack just stopped suppressing the wolf. At least then we might have a chance before we die. We had driven out of the village now and were trundling along a pot-holed road, with fields spread as far as I could see to my left and every so often there was a dilapidated house to my right. What had happened to this place? It’s like the whole village had just vanished and never returned.

‘Cheer up,’ Jack said, ‘We’re here.’

I grunted, ‘How is that supposed to cheer me up?’

He pulled the car onto the drive of a particularly large, and particularly decrepit house. I was impressed it was still standing. On second glance it wasn’t completely standing; the mess of stone to the side suggested the back end had fallen in at some point. We both got out of the car and into the rain, which showed no signs of stopping any time soon.

‘I do hope you’re not planning on going in there,’ I said, dreading the answer. He just grimaced at me and walked towards the front door.
 

‘Seriously Jack, this place is falling to pieces. The whole thing could fall down on us as soon as we step inside. No one in their right mind would live here.’

‘Exactly,’ he said calmly, reaching the front door, ‘Ready?’

I just grunted at him again. It was the clearest way I could express my true feelings for what was going to be the most idiotic thing I would do in my entire life.

Positive thinking, that’s what Beth always told me. You can achieve anything if you think positively enough. Can’t say it had worked for me before, but what did I have to lose?

CHAPTER TWELVE

Sarah

’14 years, 6 months, 15days… and counting.’
 

I was back in my cell now and absolutely worn out. He’d had me running from him every day for the last week, although it felt like it had been months.

Picking up one of the stones that lay on the floor, I scraped another mark on the wall. I don’t really know why I bothered counting anymore; the days all merged into one horrific nightmare. At least he’d kept my mother out of the picture recently. I shuddered at the thought; the image of her had haunted my dreams every night since he’d shown me her ghost. Well, his version of her ghost anyway. I refused to believe it was really her.

Taking the photo out of my pocket, I fondled it gently in my hands. This was my mother, the one I remembered. She was so beautiful, so kind and loving. Feeling the familiar pressure building, I put the photo away quickly. I’d cried enough in the last week. I’m sure that was the only reason he had let me keep the photo; I was tormenting myself, and he didn’t even need to do anything. I just wish I knew what had happened to her. Then again, part of me didn’t want to know. Surely it couldn’t be good.

I stood up and walked across my cell to the barred window. Standing on my tiptoes, I looked out over the misty land. I couldn’t see the forest that I always seem to end up in when he lets me escape. From here I could see nothing but rocks leading down to what I assumed was the sea. The mist was too thick there, so I had never been able to see past it.
 

It had become a habit of mine, looking out of this window and trying to plot it on the map in my head. I was determined to get to those rocks and make my way down to the water. Or what I hoped was water. I had a plan to make pieces of a boat each time I escaped, and then one day I would be able to just sail away. He wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. But, so far, I hadn’t made it out of the forest. The last few times I hadn’t even made it out of the building.

When I’d seen him on his latest visit, he’d seemed pre-occupied, like his heart wasn’t in it. Normally he looked delighted at the prospect of torturing me but he was almost bored when I ran. Worryingly, he was still terrifying, even when he wasn’t trying to be.

Letting go of the cold bars, I stretched and ran around the room trying to loosen up my stiff joints. There wasn’t much space in the cell, but I soon got some momentum going, running from one side to another. I practically bounced off the walls as I hit them. Running was something that kept me sane, it cleared my mind and gave me something to focus on. The better I became at running, the better I would be at escaping. It was the one thing I had control over.

Panting, I sat down on the floor and stretched my legs out in front of me. The pain of my muscles stretching was actually a relief after the throbbing discomfort of sitting down for hours at a time on the stone floor.

Suddenly a grainy image flashed in my head. An image of an old house, one that looked like it had been abandoned for many years. I shook my head. It wasn’t the first time I’d thought about that house, but I had no idea why. I’d never been anywhere other than the island, at least I thought it was an island we were on, and as far as I knew there were no buildings here other than the one I was locked up in. I did wonder if my mother had told me about it years ago, but why would I be picturing something I’d never actually seen myself?

I went back to my stretching and closed my eyes, focussing on the pain. The image came again, clearer this time. I studied it, trying to see anything that was familiar. Come to think about it, I’d only been seeing that old house for the last few days. There’d been another image before that. It had looked how I’d imagined the fairground my mother had told me about. It had been her favourite place to go as a child, with huge rides and stalls selling all kinds of food.

A voice floated into my head.

They’ll be here soon.

Who’d be here soon? A frown creased over my forehead. That voice had sounded so much like him. The same gritty, low tone that terrified me as soon as he spoke. I shivered. What was he up to now? And who was he talking about?

I tried to distract myself by walking around my cell. It didn’t look like he wanted to play today, so I had to content myself with the small amount of space I had. My head was swimming with questions. I knew my father quite well now, better than he thought I did and I was certain this was not him playing with me. In fact, I don’t think he even knew I’d heard his voice. Perhaps even his thoughts.