Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [84]
The features of the woman on the bed shifted subtly, as if they were a malleable mask refitting to a different underlying face. ‘I’m here,’ said Constance Jane’s low voice.
‘Yes, Miss Jane, it’s the Doctor. I have a question. Do you know of any other home the Drs Chiltern might have had other than in London or on Dartmoor?’
‘No.’
The Doctor’s mouth tightened in disappointment. He looked up at Sabbath.
‘We haven’t heard from Mayview at the clinic,’ Sabbath said.
‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘And I have yet to hypnotise Chiltern.’ But he didn’t look hopeful. Sabbath came over and examined Miss Jane’s face.
‘She looks like a different woman.’
‘She is a different woman.’
‘Which is the fundamental personality?’
‘Millie stores the memories for the other two and is aware of their actions, while they know nothing of her.’
‘And Chiltern?’
‘That’s more complicated. When Sebastian Chiltern used the machine on himself, he fractured into multiple personalities, like Miss Jane here, but each had its own physical being. And because each personality, however minimal, is different and autonomous, they all experience reality separately. Octave was one personality parcelled out in several bodies, and when one Octave died, they all died. That’s obviously not the case here.’
‘Sebastian appears to have been dominant.’
‘Yes. And now he’s dead. I don’t know what that means for the others.’
‘And how many were there?’
‘There should have been eight altogether, but we’ve only seen three, one of them apparently deformed.’
‘Could it have absorbed the others?’
‘Possible.’ The Doctor nodded, tapping his lip with a finger. ‘Distinctly possible. Or they could be somewhere else, providing another haven for him.’
‘Hadn’t you better hypnotise Chiltern?’
‘In a minute.’ The Doctor took Miss Jane’s hands. ‘I want to speak again to Millie, please.’ Miss Jane looked distressed, but the expression was almost instantly wiped away by the re-emergence of her other self. ‘Thank you. Millie, sometimes you see the future don’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you see it now?’
Her face twisted. The Doctor held on to her hands.
‘What do you see now?’
‘I...’
‘What do you see?’
Her head rolled. ‘No! I...’
‘What is it!’
‘Nooooo!’
Millie jerked out of the trance. She snatched her hands away, glaring at the Doctor. He slumped back in disappointment.
‘What did you see?’ said Sabbath impatiently.
‘I don’t remember,’ she said angrily. ‘It felt... You frightened me!’ she yelled at the Doctor.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said tiredly.
‘It’s all your fault anyway.’
‘Yes.’ Interest sparked in the Doctor’s eyes. ‘You said that before. What did you mean exactly?’ She glanced warily at Sabbath. ‘You may speak as freely in front of my colleague Dr Watson as with myself.’
‘I thought his name was Sabbath.’
‘Quit playing, Doctor,’ said Sabbath warningly.
‘Never mind us,’ the Doctor told Millie. ‘The seance – why was that night different from all other nights?’
‘It was you,’ she said sullenly.
‘What about me?’
‘I saw the future. That hadn’t happened before. And you were the future. And you were the past. You made me fall.’
‘Fall?’
‘Before I could come and go, just for a little while. I fell towards you, like falling off a cliff. I was... heavier after that. More real.’
‘You fell into being.’
‘I suppose.’
‘What does that mean to you?’
Tears appeared on her face. She turned quickly away. ‘I don’t like it out here.’ she muttered sulkily. ‘It’s hard. It was fun just slipping out now and then to play tricks.’
‘Leaving Miss Jane to handle the consequences,’ said the Doctor.
She nodded without embarrassment.
‘Then why not simply return... “inside” and stay?’ said Sabbath.
She turned on him furiously. ‘Because the bitch wants to kill herself! Which takes me with her!’ She burst into tears. ‘I don’t want to die!’
Sabbath raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, who nodded glumly.
‘And what do you expect the Doctor to do?’ Sabbath asked curiously.
‘I don’t know!’ she sobbed into her handkerchief. ‘But