Doctor Who_ Ghost Light - Marc Platt [30]
The curtain that covered the alcove across the chamber slowly drew open to disclose the tableau of two Victorian gentlemen in dusty evening attire. The heads of both figures were bloated and grey, dried and flaking like the sloughed skins of creatures which had long outgrown these bodies.
One was an insect, its huge eyes bulging at the sides of its hairy head and sharp mandibles extruding from its mouth. Instead of hands, serrated pincers protruded from its gold-linked cuffs.
The other figure’s head was reptilian, but its chameleon eyes were set low down, almost at the wattles on its throat.
There seemed to be no mouth on its gnarled head, but its hands must have been humanoid because they were encased in white kid-gloves. This must be another of Josiah’s displays, and it was the most repulsive so far.
There was a hiss from close by. The heavy door set in the granite buttress creaked back and forth in its portal.
For a second, the eye watching through the spyhole met directly with Ace’s own stare.
The girl shuddered and started to back away. Was this the terror she had felt before? And would it still be waiting for her in the house’s future, the future which was her past? It was starting all over again. She was going to get trapped in a loop of time, endlessly travelling through the same events on a Möbius strip of her own making. And that thing would always be watching her for ever.
The door stayed closed, but it creaked to and fro, mocking her fear. Then the voice came, rough and half-growled like an animal learning to talk.
‘There’s a new scent in the dark. Listen! Pulsing, warming, racing blood. Smells like Ratkin!’
One eye in the reptile husk’s head swivelled towards Ace. Both figures in the tableau began to twitch and sway.
‘Go on!’ ordered the voice. ‘Move yourselves! Move!
Ratkin’s come to visit!’
Slowly, step by shuffled step, the husks moved forward towards Ace. She heard the fluttering of wings in her head.
The frozen birds shrieked all around her, the energy pulsed and the voice chanted, ‘Move! Move! Move!’
‘Doctor!’ yelled Ace. She scrambled for the tunnel. The reptilian husk opened the flaplike mouth on the top of its head and bellowed. The insect chittered its response.
‘Fetch!’ urged the voice.
The two creatures staggered forward like tangled puppets in pursuit of their prey.
Through the eyes of the reptilian husk, the creature saw Ratkin struggling with the doors to the lift. ‘Trap’s biting shut, Ratkin! No way up!’
The creature wanted Ratkin to squeal as the husks closed in, but it just kicked and squirmed.
‘You don’t frighten me!’ it yelped as the husks reached for it. It called ‘Doctor!’ again as they grasped Ratkin and dragged it back towards the chamber.
‘Fetch closer,’ ordered the voice as the husks approached the door.
The insect husk’s pincers cut into Ace’s arm, forcing her to give up her struggle. ‘What do you want?’ she yelled at the watching eye.
The voice mocked her without mercy. ‘No escaping, Ratkin! No way up. No hoping!’
‘You don’t have to hide in there,’ she retaliated. ‘You’ve got me. You can come out now. I dare you!’
There was a pitiful whine which deepened into a snarl.
Ace tried to pull back but was held fast as the door swung outward to reveal the darkness inside the cell.
A half-lit shape covered in filthy rags slowly emerged from the shadows. Suddenly a figure darted in front of Ace and slammed the door shut. The trapped creature screamed with rage as Nimrod jammed the bolt back into position. With the will that animated them momentarily broken, the husks slackened their grip allowing Ace to pull free.
The door shook under a battery of blows from inside.
‘Are you hurt, miss?’ asked Nimrod.
‘I’ll survive,’ she said. ‘What is that thing in there?’
The trapped creature had fallen silent. Nimrod, apparently no worse for wear from his attack, regarded the cell door.
The voice inside hissed out again, ‘My freeness! Open door!’ and the husks lurched back into life to obey.
Nimrod pulled Ace clear of their path. There was a hurricane lamp on the floor,