FicWad

Rose has an unexpectedly emotional reaction to being in the Tardis again, even though it has changed significantly from the last time she was here. The ship rocks and sways as they move, then settles and drops into idle. She realizes she's tearing up and swipes at her eyes.

“You alright?” The Doctor asks.

Rose nods, manages a smile. “Yeah, I'm fine.”

“You're dripping on my floor.” The Doctor nods at her feet, where the snow is melting into a small puddle.

“Sorry.”

“Come on, lets go get changed.” John touches her arm and navigates her toward the door at the far end of the console room.

It takes him less time to get out of his clothes, and she loses him when he steps out of the closet and vanishes. Rose finds her way back, but stops in the doorway.

The Doctor is alone, turning dials and flipping switches as the Tardis clicks and hums. “That's...that's odd...where have you been off to?” She raises her voice, addressing Rose. I don't bite, you know. Not unless you ask really nicely.”

Rose laughs somewhat sheepishly and steps into the console room. “Sorry, you're just so...different.”

“New new Doctor.” She flashes Rose a grin and wink.

Rose stumbles forward, throws her arms around the Doctor.

“Oh, hello!” The Doctor laughs.

“Doctor, I-” It's the first time she's actually said the name since they arrived, and whatever she'd intended to come after is lost as her throat closes up.

“Oh, oh, ssh, it's OK.” The Doctor tightens her arms around her. “Come on, now, you're going to get me started.”

“Now isn't that typical, been here ten minutes and you've already got some girl crying at you.” John says from the doorway.

“What can I say, I have a gift.” The Doctor says.

“Shut up.” Rose leans away. “I was worried about you, you know.”

“Me? Why?”

“I dunno, because you're you?”

“Fair enough.” The Doctor concedes. “Well, gang, we have a mystery to solve-”

She pulls the exterior door open and bright sunlight pours in. They have landed beside a small garden shed, a rather large house stands before them surrounded by a lawn that needs cutting.

The Doctor takes off walking across the lawn, John closes and locks the door behind them.

Footsteps can be heard from inside, then the door opens. A very tired looking man stands in the doorway, blinking at them from eyes surrounded by dark circles.

“Can I help you?”

“Adrian Kelsey?” The Doctor flashes the psychic paper at him. “I'm the Doctor, this is John Smith and Rose Tyler.”

“Doctor?” Kelsey runs a hand through his hair. “I'm sorry, there must have been some sort of mix-up.”

“Your child isn't missing?” The Doctor swaps the psychic paper for the photo of the little girl.

“Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry, please forgive me. I've just never...I didn't realize that...” He looks uncertainly at the group, trying to decide who he should address, the woman who had spoken to him seems to be in charge. She also seems to be more amused than annoyed with his fumbling, and he abandons his attempts to apologize. “Please, ah, come in.”

“Alright, why don't you start at the beginning.” The Doctor says when they are in the parlor.

Kelsey takes a deep breath. “It began when we moved into this house. My wife had passed away the previous year, a riding accident, and that spring my father died quite suddenly, leaving me a fairly sizable inheritance. A patient of mine in London mentioned this house, some relative of his lives in the town, and I made an inquiry and found the price to be quite fair.


At first, I just thought it was the house settling. We had to do some renovations, and of course in a new place...strange noises. It sounded like something in the walls...not rats or mice, more like...snakes. Huge snakes.”

He shakes his head and laughs. “I called a repair man, and he said that I was insane, but he came out and had a look. We didn't find any snakes, but we did find a door in the basement, behind a set of shelves. We pried it open but found it had been bricked over, and as he was charging me by the hour we stopped there.

That night, I heard the sound in the walls again, louder and closer. It sounded as though the thing or things were moving down the hall, towards my daughter's room. I leaped out of bed and ran down the hall, threw her door open and snatched her out of bed, convinced that something had come to take her. The sound stopped, then, and I took her back to my bed.

The next morning, I sent her to spend a few days with her aunt and ventured down into the basement with a sledgehammer, determined to remove the brick wall and see what was hidden behind the door. I smashed through the brick and found a layer of wooden planks, nailed on from the inside. When I broke those free I...” Kelsey hesitates. “I almost don't want to say.”

“Please, go on.” The Doctor says. “We've all seen our share of strange things.”

“None as strange as this.” Kelsey says. “When I cleared that door, I swear to you I found myself looking into a city, a city in the winter, it was even snowing. I was so shocked I slammed the door by instinct. When I opened it again a moment later, the wall was there as though it had never been broken.

I know what you must be thinking, that I fell asleep and dreamed it, or had a hallucination. And at first, that's what I believed as well.

I had an emergency patient, who took up most of the day, and I returned home so exhausted that the strange room in the basement was the farthest thing from my mind. The next day, however, I took it upon myself to remove the bricks once more. And once more, I found the city.

This time I left the door ajar, and ran upstairs to call for my friend and partner Dr. Frank Andrews. I didn't dare tell him what I had found, but asked him to come to my home as quickly as he could. When he arrived, I brought him immediately into the basement, but the city had gone again, leaving only the wall. 

I was quite agitated, and after some convincing Frank agreed to take up a hammer himself and aid me in the removal of the wall for the third time. We broke away the bricks and boards, but there was no city beyond them.

What we found instead was a room, perhaps ten by twenty feet, which appeared to have at one time been used as a laboratory, a long table ran across the back wall upon which were various test tubes and microscopes. We also found a number of boxes, we searched several of them but found them to contain only more slides, test tubes, and the like.

While we were exploring the room, both of us began to feel a distinct chill in the air. And we noticed as well an odor, a sweet, rotten smell, like fermenting fruit. Shortly thereafter I began to feel light headed, as did he, and the both of us abandoned the room and closed the door.

I did open it again later, and to be honest I half expected to see bricks, but the room was still there.”

Adrian Kelsey pauses and looks at the visitors, who have been listening with interest. When none of them question his story, he goes on.

“For a few days, things were quiet. I brought Penny back home, and warned her to avoid the basement, which of course she needed little encouragement to do. My practice began to pick up, and I hired on a full time housekeeper and nanny, Agnes McDuffy. Several days after moving in, she began to complain of headaches, for which I prescribed her a powder. For the next few weeks, Miss McDuffy seemed to have a variety of mild but persistent symptoms, varying from headaches and nausea to tremors and faintness. Throughout this she carried on with her duties, and seemed quite hesitant to seek my aid.

One night, she had been working for me for perhaps six weeks, she came up to my study in a state of high agitation, almost hysterical. I managed to calm her after a time, and asked her what had happened.

She said 'Mice and rats I don't mind, nor ghosts and ghouls, but as God is my witness, I cannot live with the snakes in the walls.'

I knew, of course, as I had heard them myself. But I assured her, as the workman had me, that there was nothing living in the walls.

She left less than a week later, I awoke to find that she had packed her things and ordered a cab late in the night. She works at a hotel now, I believe, I don't know which. I'm sure you have that in your files somewhere.

The Doctor nods. “We can look her up if the need arises. What happened after she left?”

“Well, I couldn't leave Penny at home alone, and I certainly couldn't have her at my practice, she was very young, not quite four years old. For a few days I left her in the care of the sister of my nurse, and though she was happy to watch her the poor woman had ten children between her own and those of family and neighbors, and I couldn't bring myself to add to the burden.

“I hired a young woman by the name of Carlotta, Italian by birth but with excellent English. She had come over to marry some rogue who abandoned her, I believe. She was only with me a short time, one day she fled from the house screaming that it she had seen the devil. I have no idea what became of her.

But the two of them must have talked to their friends quite a bit, because it was two months before I was able to find another nanny.”

“What did you do with your daughter during this time?”

“She stayed with her aunt. I devoted myself to my practice, and even took to sleeping on the couch. I said it was because I was tired at the end of the day, but to be perfectly honest I found the thought of staying alone in the house rather daunting.

When I did stay in my own room, I fancied I could hear things moving about in the walls, and footsteps coming up the basement stair, though of course I never found anything. Sometimes the rooms would become cold, and I could smell the same scent as in the basement, like mildewed fruit.

One day it occurred to me that I was being rather ridiculous, avoiding my own house. I hired a few lads from the village and we ventured back down into the basement room, and we removed everything from the interior, throughly cleaned and disinfected the room, then used bricks and plaster to fill in the door.

I had almost given up hope of finding a nanny when I finally had a response to my add, and hired Anne Turner. She was a devout Catholic and insisted on hanging crosses in every room of the house, I normally don't encourage that sort of religious decoration, but I was willing to allow her whatever small comforts she desired. 


And Penny absolutely adored her, she had been...standoffish, I suppose, with the others. But Mrs Turner, they seemed to connect, somehow. It was almost as if Penny and Mrs Turner had already met.

She did not seem to be troubled by sounds in the walls, though she did occasionally comment on the sweet, mildewed smell. She believed in the restorative properties of fresh air, and would keep the windows wide open unless it was pouring rain or freezing cold.

It was six months before the first incident. This would have been in early December.

Mrs Turner came to my practice with Penny, very upset. Apparently, passing by the cellar door earlier in the day she had heard what she believed to be some sort of animal, possibly a large rat.

She found the basement very dark, and felt a very cold draft, she described it as the 'breath of the tomb', accompanied by the same sweet, rotten smell, very strong now. She could still hear the thing, whatever it was, thumping and skittering about. She was not faint of heart, and proceeded to fetch a lantern and heavy stick, then walked down the stairs to confront the animal.

When she reached the bottom stair, she found the air so cold that she could see her breath, and the smell almost overpowering.

I'm sorry, I failed to mention- after we walled the doorway up, I had installed a heavy shelf, secured to the brick behind the plaster. This she found shaking violently, as though struck repeatedly from behind.

The lantern went dark, and she felt what she described as the presence of a great evil filling the room. She clutched the cross about her neck and began to recite the rosary.

She could hear the shelves banging against the wall, and from behind them began to pour a phosphorescent steam or mist which filled the room to a height of several feet, and covered the bottom few steps. The shelf came away from the wall and fell to the floor, exposing large cracks in the plaster from which the light and mist were emanating.

At that point she fled, locked the door, grabbed my daughter and came to get me.

She refused to enter the house again unless accompanied by a priest, and by that time I was ready to try anything to resolve this problem. It took a bit of convincing, but eventually Father O'Hara agreed to come along.

I don't know how much of our story he believed, though he did certainly seem concerned at our distress. Mrs Turner kept Penny in the yard, and the Father and I entered the house. Immediately we were assaulted by the sweet, rotting stench. There was a slimy film about the cracks under and around the door.

We took up lanterns and set off down the stairs. We found the inside of the door and the stairs coated with the same thin film, which was slightly tacky and clung to our shoes.

In the basement, we found the shelf toppled over on the floor. The plaster was badly cracked and had fallen away in several places, exposing the brick. A few of those had toppled down as well, and when I shone my lantern through the gap we could see the room beyond.

Father O'Hara recited several passages from the bible, and sprinkled some holy water about. I admit I was half expecting chaos to erupt, but it provoked no response. We lifted the shelf and leaned it against the wall, covering the missing plaster. He left a list of bible verses and prayers we were to say if we were bothered further, and a vial of holy water, and then took his leave.

That night a terrible storm came up seemingly out of nowhere. As the rain and hail pounded on the house and the wind howled we began to hear noise from the basement again. We both went to the basement door, under the crack of which we could see the light and mist she had spoken of.

We began to recite the verses of the bible and anoint the door with holy water. The door began to rattle and bang against its hinges, as though struck by something from behind. This went on for several hours, with the pounding becoming so violent I feared the door would split open or fly free of the frame. But it held, and at last with morning the sky cleared and the sounds ended.

We both immediately rushed upstairs to check on my daughter, who appeared to have slept soundly through the entire affair.

Mrs Turner was, of course, quite distressed and eager to leave the house, and so she roused and dressed Penny and took her out to do some visiting. I fortified myself with a stiff drink and then took up the lantern, stick, and holy water and opened the basement door.

Once again, the smell was almost overpowering. I shined the light around the room and found the basement littered with boxes and toppled shelves. The heavy shelf we had put back against the wall had come down again, and now lay broken on the floor. Many of the bricks had fallen away, exposing the room beyond.

I pulled more of them away, until I was able to see clearly into the room. The rear wall seemed to have been cut cleanly away, exposing a cave or tunnel. From the shadows inside of the opening there came a cold, damp wind, and it was from this that the smell seemed to originate.

As I stood, attempting to decide whether I should venture into the room, I heard something moving around. The thing that came from that tunnel...I don't quite know how to describe it. It was egg-like in shape, standing perhaps to the height of my knee. From the underside protruded a number of tendrils or tentacles, and it was using these to crawl along the floor at a surprisingly quick pace.

I sprung backwards in surprise as it clambered rapidly from the hole into the basement, and before I could react, the thing had scrambled up the stairs and vanished through the door into the house.

I pursued it as quickly as I could, locking the basement door behind me, and searched the house. Eventually I found the body of the creature in the back garden, it seemed to be rapidly decomposing, and within minutes had liquefied and soaked into the ground.

I believed, then, that the incident was over. I did not know what the creature was, and with no evidence of it's body doubted I ever would.

It seemed as though that was the end, with the death of the strange creature the noises and smell vanished. When I went back to the basement, I found to little surprise that the rear wall of the little room was once more solid, with no evidence of the opening I had seen. 

Christmas passed without incident, and not long after I had a new, sturdy wall put in place sealing off completely the strange little room.”

Kelsey comes to a stop again, looking at his visitors, trying to judge their reactions. They all have expressions of interest and slight puzzlement, but he sees nothing of the disbelief he has become accustomed to.

“When did things start up again?” The Doctor asks.

“It was after the spring thaw. It had been quite wet for several weeks, and rather warm. I was upstairs, moving a trunk of winter clothes into the attic, when I caught the scent again, the sweet rotting smell. I searched the attic but could not find the source.

As the weather became warmer, the smell seemed to come and go. Mrs Turner noticed it as well, and several times we searched the house for it's source.

We were closing the fireplaces one day. I went into the guest room, which had not been used since I purchased the house, and had last been throughly cleaned several months prior. Immediately upon opening the door, I was faced with the sweet, mouldering smell. I was able to follow it to the fireplace, it seemed to be coming down the chimney.

I took up a poker and thrust it as far into the chimney as I was able, but felt nothing out of the ordinary. I fetched some kindling from the box by the hearth and set it alight. The room immediately began to fill with smoke, I doused the flames and threw open the windows.

I fetched a lantern and a chimney brush. I was hesitant to lean under the opening, and first inserted the chimney brush. The brush came in contact with something, and after poking the object and establishing that it did not seem to be reactive, I finally put my head into the fireplace and used the light to look up into the chimney.

I could clearly see that what appeared to be roots or vines had blocked the chimney. My first thought, of course, was to call in a professional cleaner- but though I avoided mention of any of the strange events if at all possible, I was already beginning to lose credibility in the community. I felt that I required some sort of proof, if only to convince myself I had not gone mad, as my only comfort there was that Mrs Turner shared the experiences.

And so, instead, I took the next two days off from practice. I explained the situation to Mrs Turner, and suggested she and Penny vacate the house, but it seemed that the old girl was in it 'till the end, and instead arranged a visit with Penny's aunt again, and took her there while I assembled materials- I intended to strip away the wall and remove part of the brick chimney itself. My father, as you know, was a builder by trade as a young man, before his back gave out, and I had often assisted him in construction and felt confident in my ability to safely repair any damage I might inflict.

I also acquired the original construction plan for my house, and by the time Mrs Turner returned I had laid out the tools we needed, and determined by the papers that the chimney could best be accessed through the closet in the next room.

I removed the closet ceiling, and built a platform several feet above the floor, and then began to pull away the boards and hand them out to Mrs Turner and made quick work of stabilizing the chimney before carefully removing several bricks and clearing a hole though which I could shine a light.

I found the vine like structures ran up the chimney for several feet, and down below they were protruding from an object similar to the egg creature I had witnessed. I prodded the thing and found it leathery and unresponsive. Until, that is, I attempted to cut through one of the vines.

Immediately it began to ooze deep purple liquid, so strong was the horrid sweet rotting smell that I was momentarily overwhelmed and stumbled out of the closet, gagging. The thing in the chimney could be heard then slithering around, soot and bits of broken brick fell down into the fireplace.

I regained my senses and entered the closet again, a handkerchief pressed against my nose and mouth. I found the remains of the vines clinging to the interior of the chimney, but the...creature...had vanished. I charged upward, while Mrs Turner took off down the stairs, clutching a poker about which she wrapped her rosary.

Several moments later I heard a piercing scream, and dashed down the stairs to find her on the floor of the living room, dead. There was not a mark upon her, it seemed her heart had failed. There was a fair amount of soot about the hearth, and tracked over the carpet, though where the thing had gone I could not determine.

I summoned the authorities, who determined as I had that the cause of death was coronary failure. They took her body away, and after a time left me alone. Later that night, I heard a sound, a strange sound from down at the back of the yard. I don't know how to describe it, as bellows perhaps. And thought I saw a flash of light.

I though, then, of moving- of simply abandoning the house. But I could not afford to do so- between the days I had stayed home, and the building dis-trust of my patients, even removing our belongings would be near impossible. To make matters worse, Penny's cousin fell ill, and my daughter had to return home.

When news broke in town of the death of Mrs Turner, my house became a symbol of bad luck. I had a few loyal patients, but most of them preferred to see my partner. To make matters worse, the townsfolk seemed to believe that Penny herself might bring them ill fortune.

One of my patients ran a school for girls, and agreed to allow Penny to attend, though she was slightly younger than was normally preferred. Penny excelled in her studies and was, by all accounts, a bright and friendly child, who seemed completely unaware of the odd events which surrounded her home.

Five days ago now, I awoke and found Penny missing, the bedclothes were tossed about, and the floor and blankets were streaked with soot. I...I imagined her in the chimney, and terror filled me as I fetched a light, but was quickly able to establish that they were all clear. I...haven't seen or heard from her since."

Kelsey comes to a stop and looks down at his hands, waiting for their reaction. There is what feels like several very long moments of silence, then the Doctor speaks.

“Have you had any disturbances since Penny went missing?”

“No.” Kelsey says.

The Doctor nods and stands up. “Thank you, Dr. Kelsey, you've been most informative. I believe I'd like to have a look around, now.”

“Yes, of course.”

The Doctor looks at John. “Chimneys or basement?”

John groans. “I suppose I have to be a gentleman, don't I. I'll ruin my clothes for you on one condition-” He lifts his hand and makes a motion which most people would associate with a TV remote.

“I can live with that.” The Doctor pulls out the sonic screwdriver and tosses it to him. “Break it and you're making me a new one.”

“Promise?” John arches an eyebrow.

“Cheeky young thing.” The Doctor waves him away. “Why don't you go with him, Dr. Kelsey. Rose, you're with me, unless you object.”

“Not a bit.” Rose grins.

“Yeah, yeah, abandon me to do the dirty work.”

Dr Kelsey looks at the Doctor and Rose again. “I...I know it seems quite impossible, what I'm saying, but-”

“We'll be fine.” The Doctor says.

Kelsey glances at John, who nods. “The ladies can take care of themselves.”

Kelsey nods. “As you wish. The basement door is on the hall to the left, the key is hanging on the frame. Which fireplace would you like to see first?”

“The one in Penny's room.” John says, and he and Kelsey head toward the staircase.

The Doctor and Rose find the basement door locked. The Doctor runs her fingers around the crack between door and frame, rubs them together.

“There's some sort of residue-” She sniffs her fingertips, wipes her hand on her jacket. “Hand me that key, would you?”

She takes it from Rose and inserts it into the lock, keeps a hand on the knob to keep the door closed while she turns it. The mechanism releases with a soft click. They wait a few seconds, and when nothing happens, the Doctor turns the knob and pulls the door open.

The basement is dark, and she pulls a flashlight out of her pocket and shines it down the stairs.

“Tell me, is that something you do to the clothes, or just more Time Lord magic?” Rose leans in and peers over her shoulder.

“Sorry?”

“That stupid pocket trick you're always pulling.”

“Pocket dimension.” The Doctor says. “And, ah, it just sort of...happens. Well, no, that's not really true, it happens for a reason, but...well, you see, a friend and I had a disagreement about exactly what temperature constitutes 'very hot' and one thing led to another...”

“And this ended with your pockets being bigger on the inside?” Rose arches an eyebrow.

“Um, yes.”

“Which one of you was right?”

“That's not important.” The Doctor says.

“Ha. In other words, you lost.”

“Hmpf. I can be wrong sometimes.”

“Really?” Rose widens her eyes.

“I should have sent you up the chimney.” The Doctor says.

“I don't think I'd fit.” Rose has been watching the light sweep slowly across the room.

The Doctor starts down the stairs, keeping the light primarily on the opening. They find an unbroken storm lantern on one of the cellar shelves, the Doctor flicks a lighter out of her pocket and sets the wick burning.

“Here, you can play Keeper of the Flame.” She hands the lantern to Rose. 



It is noticeably colder in here, and there is a faint trace of the smell Kelsey had mentioned, like rotten fruit.

The Doctor pulls a pair of sunglasses out of her pocket and puts them on. Rose glances over at her, arches an eyebrow.

“Really?”

“What, you don't think they make me look cool?” The Doctor says absently, she's looking at the newly plastered wall, though Rose doesn't think she could possibly see much. “Hm, I'm definitely picking up some paranormal activity, Ray.”

She takes the shades off and hands them to Rose. “Here- look.”

Rose shoots her a doubtful expression, then puts them on. 


The room seems to get brighter, the bricks of the wall standing out in three dimensions. She  can see the shape of the room behind the sealed door. The back wall clears slightly when she focuses on it, the lines becoming sharper, there is a rough circular shape that seems to shimmer slightly. 

“What's that line?” Rose hands the glasses back to the Doctor, who pockets them again.

“Residue, I'd imagine from the mist he was speaking of. It's dissipated everywhere else, but here, when the wall formed again, a layer was trapped and preserved. Whatever it is, though, it's long gone.”

She raps on the wall with her knuckles. "Hm, I don't particularly feel like tearing down walls right now, I think we'll come back with the Tardis to have a look. But you know what I'm really curious about-” The Doctor motions for Rose to follow and heads back towards the stairs. “Kelsey obviously wasn't expecting us, so who went to all this trouble? And what are they really after? A father in search of his child is one thing, but some third party has decided to intervene here.”

She closes and locks the basement door, and within a few minutes they have found John Smith and Dr. Kelsey.

“Oh my.” Rose lifts a hand to her mouth and laughs at her soot-smeared husband.

“Shake my hand, I could do with a bit of luck.” The Doctor says.

“Yeah, laugh it up.” John rubs at his face, inadvertently removing the one remaining clean spot.

“Find anything?”

“Traces of some unknown substance around the fireplace in Penny's room, and there's definitely been something crawling around in the chimneys but if it's still here, I can't find it.”

“Yes, that's the conclusion we reached as well.”

“So, what do you think?” Kelsey asks.

“I think something very strange is going on around here, and we're going to get to the bottom of it.” The Doctor says. “Alright, we need to go have a look at a few other things."

Kelsy nods slowly.  “Penny, is she...do you have any idea what happened to her?”

“Not yet.” The Doctor says. “But if it's possible to find her, we will.”

Kelsey walks them to the door, is slightly surprised to see them walk around behind the house. He thinks they must be inspecting the yard, but then there is a strange noise, a mechanical straining and pumping sound, like some sort of forced bellows. He bolts out into the yard and around to look, but the back garden is completely empty. The Doctor and her companions have vanished into thin air.