Doctor Who_ Bad Therapy - Matthew Jones [119]
The Doctor felt a new sensation in the room; a powerful warm emotion rising up around him. He struggled for words to describe it as he glanced around at the costumed people in the room. Following Tilda’s example, every Toy in the room had closed their eyes, a look of deep concentration on all their faces. The room fell into silence.
It was their sense of belonging the Doctor felt. Trust, comradeship and the quiet love of siblings. It was being transmitted from and between each of the Toys, filling the room with their experience of adversity and their new bonds of friendship and community.
A sharp clattering sound startled the Doctor. He looked around to see the mannequins Moriah had brought with him let their spears fall to the floor.
Distracted by the powerful emotions of the Toys, their link to Moriah’s will was interrupted and they became disorientated and sluggish, moving with the graceless uncertainty of drunks.
‘Stop it! Stop it immediately!’ Moriah roared. ‘How are you doing this? It is impossible!’
∗ ∗ ∗
206
Gordy heard the voice of his devil screaming in rage just as Carl bundled Jack Bartlett into the back of the Rover. For a moment, he thought that the voice was coming from inside his head. And for a terrifying second he wondered if he were completely mad, but then he heard a woman shouting in response to the devil’s screams and he knew the voice was real.
Gordy looked back at the dancehall. Could it be that his devil had come?
Had he crawled up out of the depths of Hell itself? Gordy had planned to kill all of his devil’s enemies to win back his approval, but if instead he could help his devil now, surely then he would be grateful and would forgive him his moment of cowardice at the club?
‘Keep Bartlett here,’ Gordy shouted to Carl as he leapt out of the car. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’
The voices were coming from the dancehall. Gordy ran into the room expectantly and then slowed to a halt when he didn’t see his devil. He looked about uncertainly, searching for him, but there was only the Doctor, some skinny woman and a big grey bloke in a suit.
‘What’s going on?’ Gordy demanded. ‘Where is he? I heard him, I heard my devil. Where is he?’
The Doctor laughed. He was laughing at him. ‘Hello, Gordon. This is turning out to be quite a reunion. There’s someone here I think you might be interested in meeting.’
Gordy felt a red haze of anger descend upon him. He hated the Doctor.
Hated the way he looked at Gordy, as if he wasn’t anything special. He hated the way the Doctor wasn’t scared when he threatened him, and just looked back at Gordy with pity on his face.
‘Come in Gordon, let me introduce you.’ The Doctor indicated the bulky man with his hand. ‘Gordon, this is the Prince of Darkness. Prince of Darkness, this is your willing but misguided slave, Gordon Scraton.’
‘That’s not the devil. Where is he? I heard his voice.’
The man in the grey suit was boiling with rage and ignored Gordy completely. ‘This is your doing, Doctor? You have perverted my work. You have altered the mannequins somehow so they have betrayed me.’
‘Actually, Moriah,’ the Doctor informed him, ‘they did it all on their own.
You should be proud – you’ve created new life in the Universe.’
Gordy stared at the large man in the grey suit. He had no idea what they were talking about, but that voice was unmistakable. It was him! The large man in the grey suit was his devil. Gordy blinked. Where were his horns? His scarlet face? He didn’t look like the devil at all. Perhaps he was disguised?
Perhaps he had to make himself look like a man when he walked abroad amongst the unsuspecting people of the world?
207
‘It’s me,’ Gordy said. ‘It’s Gordy. I need to talk to you. I need you to understand what happened.’
The grey man glanced at him, frowning at the distraction for a moment, before turning back to the Doctor. The ‘devil’ might just as well have punched Gordy in the guts. Gordy had seen that look before, all too many times, on his older brother’s face. Albert had never had the time