Doctor Who_ Nightshade - Mark Gatiss [51]
would spring into his mind that he could announce with This was how they might sound, he thought. Desperate, certainty its coming to pass. It had been that way over the hopeless, forgotten.
Abdication crisis (Billy had heard the King’s departing He got up and padded to the door of his cell, pressing his speech in his mind a whole year before its broadcast), hand against the dark wood.
Churchill’s death, and even the date of the last election It came again, more substantial this time, like a breath of (which had won him ten bob).
wind blowing suddenly fierce. Winstanley slipped on his 142
143
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
shoes and opened the door. The corridor beyond was The man’s shape seemed to shift and change, his skin completely empty.
blurring and glittering like burnished metal. Light began to He looked up the passageway towards the Great Hall and trail from his hands and eyes.
then down towards the kitchens. Nothing. Only a hollow, Holly turned leaden eyes to gaze into his face. The mouth silent darkness.
was huge now, red lips and teeth glistening with spit.
He caught his breath sharply as the moan sounded right
‘Holly!’
by him, fluttering the hem of his habit and creeping down She turned. Vijay had strolled into the room and was the back of his neck. He shivered, wishing he were not alone staring in disbelief at the miasmic cloud into which Holly in that sad corridor. If only the Doctor had returned.
seemed to be sinking.
Winstanley had derived great comfort from the newcomer’s
‘Holly!’ he called again, desperately thrashing his arms at arrival.
the insubstantial entity. There was a crackle of energy and Somewhere, deep in the monastery, a heavy door creaked Vijay was tossed across the room, hitting the wall with and slammed shut. Winstanley jumped out of his skin and tremendous force. He picked himself up, clutching his ducked back into his room, shutting his own door with bruised chest, and stumbled towards Holly. He called her sweaty hands.
name again and again, his voice rasping with despair.
Eventually she turned her sleepy head.
Billy Coote’s door swung shut of its own accord and the
‘Vijay?’
old man’s face jerked in response. The air about his sleeping The cloud seemed to retreat; its staggering brightness body seemed curiously stirred, whispering around the dimming like a sputtering candle.
grizzled locks of hair, teasing at the wide-open, staring eyes Holly forced herself to think of Vijay, their first meeting, which had turned as black and opaque as coal in a their first kiss. He was solid, concrete, substantial. Her snowman’s face.
wavering consciousness strained to lock on to his image as he swam at the edge of her vision. She was suddenly Holly felt herself falling. The man’s grip on her arm had paralysed with fear, her eyes bulging.
become intense, painful; his hand felt hot and searing as if it Vijay waded across the room, the pulsing cloud wrapping were burning into her skin. His face seemed to balloon diminishing tendrils around him. A thick, viscous fluid before her heavy eyes, the mouth expanding into a gaping settled on his skin, running in rivulets into his nose and hole.
mouth. He spat disgustedly and wiped at his coated eyes.
Holly could see things in his opaque eyes and felt Holly could feel a dull pulsing in her head and pressure strangely comfortable. It would be so easy just to let go. So on her skull as if an unseen hand were forcing her down.
easy...
It was too late, she told herself. She was lost.
144
145
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
Vijay’s face rose before her like a painted mask, furrowed Hot tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her flushed with concern and anxiety.
face. ‘I love you,’ she said simply. ‘But he meant so much to Too late.
me. You must understand.’
She was suddenly alert and gulping air with pistol-shot
‘I do,’ said Vijay, stroking her hair. ‘I do.’
clarity. Vijay