Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [110]
It was a mouth. A tiny, toothed mouth, biting at the air. Chiltern grinned mirthlessly, like a skull. He raised his left hand and the Doctor saw that the little finger was a wriggling worm. ‘There are other... additions,’ he rasped, ‘of a more... personal nature. I won’t inflict you with the sight, though they are – or must be to some tastes, if not, alas, to mine – quite fascinating.’ He had limped closer. The Doctor could see the mouth in the eye-socket clearly now, see that there was hair around it and that the little teeth were sharp. A rodent’s mouth. A shrew? A rat? Tears dripped from beneath its chin. Or was that saliva? The Doctor looked away.
‘Oh no!’ said Chiltern harshly. ‘You’ll look at me. You’ll look!’ He pulled open his robe. The Doctor smelled roses, and the next instant a tentacled mass exploded at him. He dodged but the stuff caught him, twisting around his chest and arms and throat, pinning him to the wall. He felt his skin tear in a dozen places but couldn’t move his head to see what held him. Chiltern smiled his death’s-head smile. Gradually, gracefully, there twined into the Doctor’s view a sinuous branch of scarlet blossoms.
The Doctor shut his eyes in pity. Immediately, thorns pricked at his lids. ‘Open, if you want to keep them.’ The Doctor did. ‘Did you enjoy my little disguise? I knew there was a chance you might show up here. I’ve been waiting. And when I heard you at the door, I couldn’t resist trying to surprise you. I think we both agree I succeeded.’ Again, the smile. ‘Very gratifying. But just wait’, Chiltern stepped back, ‘until you see the piece de resistance.’
With a theatrical flourish, he swept aside his robe. Sprouting from his rib cage and occupying the space where his left leg should have been was a tangled, thick-briered rosebush.
‘Always in bloom,’ said Chiltern. ‘A pleasant touch. I suppose it remains forever in the state it was in when we... merged.’ From behind him, he pulled the long cord of the toaster. ‘I’m sure you remember this. I’ve come to think of it as a prehensile tail.’
‘You’re in eight pieces after all,’ said the Doctor, his voice choked from the strangling brier, ‘but only one of them is fully human.’
‘Very good. Yes, I came apart, and when I pulled myself together I pulled an assortment of other things with me. All from the same year. I believe it was 1957. The results are a bit ludicrous, don’t you agree? I think the toast-making mechanism is a particularly good joke. It took me weeks even to figure out what it was. That’s all I’ve really learned about the future: toast is important. My, you’re looking quite sad. I believe my plight has touched your heart. Does that mean you’ll help me?’
‘Isn’t Nathaniel enough?’ the Doctor gasped. Chiltern smiled, as if at a clever pupil. ‘You never left Dartmoor, did you? Where did you hide? An old mine?’ Chiltern just kept smiling. ‘Then you came to him last night, worked on his guilt, talked him around. That’s why he tried to get Anji away from me. You were going to kill me there.’
‘And now I’ll kill you here.’
‘Why murder Sebastian? He wanted to help you.’
‘Did he? He wasn’t making much progress. In the meantime, I was living in a cellar. Now why’, Chiltern moved in close again, ‘do you imagine he locked me away? Do you suppose he thought I was mad?’ The Doctor said nothing. ‘What do you think?’ He gave the Doctor a little shake. ‘Hm?’
‘I think you’re mad as a hatter.’
Chiltern laughed. Then he lifted the Doctor and slapped him into the wall. He held him there, then dragged him down, slowly. The Doctor groaned.
‘I always was you know,’ Chiltern said confidingly. ‘But he wouldn’t let it be. He kept trying to cure me. And what about you, Doctor? Can you cure me?’
‘You’re incurable.’
Chiltern’s