Doctor Who_ Nightshade - Mark Gatiss [37]
one, drawing Cooke’s screaming body into them. Grey got Bridget and Mary walked towards him, their perfect, to within a few yards of the horror and then flung himself heart-shaped faces smiling delightedly.
back against the walls.
‘Papa! Oh, Papa!’
‘Get out! Get out!’ he screeched at the men below. ‘For Their voices were like a balm to his grief.
Christ’s sake! Or we’re finished!’
‘Oh my little pretties!’ he cried out, his voice cracking Cooke was merging with his daughters now, forming a with emotion. He stumbled towards them across the column of blazing light in which shapes seemed to twist like walkway.
monstrous embryos.
‘Sir Harry!’
The men hesitated below. Grey shielded his face from the Cooke looked down. Ralph Grey and two other men were intense light before him and bellowed at the soldiers.
gazing up at him in horror.
‘We are bewitched! Go! For your souls’ sake!’
‘Sir Harry, this is the Devil’s work!’
The terrified men scrambled at the heavy doors and flung Cooke fell to his knees again, gazing appealingly at the them open. Outside, the night was strangely calm. They ran little figures before him as if willing them to be real.
at full pelt away from the castle, lungs and legs searing with
‘But my daughters...’ he said desperately.
pain.
‘Your daughters are dead, my lord.’ Grey kept his calm, Grey knew that his position was hopeless. His idea of though fear was coursing through him.
rescuing Sir Harry was impossible; the knight he had served
‘Dead?’ Cooke looked at his daughters with sad, so faithfully had vanished into the ball of fire before him.
exhausted eyes.
Grey began to heave himself over the battlements, his tired
‘Come away, Sir Harry. I beg you. Come away.’
hands gripping at the ancient stonework for support.
Cooke glanced down at Grey and then at the happy, Tendrils of energy whipped and crackled about him as the smiling faces in front of him.
column of energy slid nearer. He paused briefly on the
‘Come, my dears. Come to your father,’ he said hoarsely.
ramparts, the world spinning dizzily about him. He
‘No!’ Grey cried out, bolting for the steps.
wouldn’t survive the fall, he knew, but there were worse The little girls grinned and moved swiftly to their father things than death. The nebulous thing which had been Sir with outstretched arms, their skirts whispering over the Harry lapped at the stonework like hellish flotsam. Grey floor.
closed his eyes and threw himself into space.
Cooke opened his arms to embrace them and began to squeal horribly as their little faces fell inwards, smiles 104
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DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
Jackson saw them first, racing across the moor as if the Cautiously, Jackson mounted the stone steps and emerged devil were at their heels. He looked up from his recumbent on to the walkway.
position as terrified cries echoed through the night. In an Sir Harry Cooke lay sprawled on his back with a look of instant his men were alert and on their feet.
abject horror on his face, his limbs smashed and broken.
‘I knew it!’ he cried delightedly. ‘I knew they were Jackson walked slowly towards the corpse, stretching out a hereabouts!’
gloved hand to touch the purple face.
But the smile froze on his lips as he saw the gibbering He cried out as his fingers pushed straight through men tumbling through the undergrowth towards him.
Cooke’s forehead as though through rotten fruit. He
‘Take your prisoners, lads!’ Jackson ordered, jogging up to shuddered and felt bile burn his throat as the body Will Todd as the young man collapsed on to the ground.
crumbled to greasy dust before him.
The Roundheads laid hands on the fleeing enemy as they Outside the gates, the horse began to snort and stamp, staggered into the circle