Doctor Who_ The City of the Dead - Lloyd Rose [69]
Dupre's voice rose higher. Then, for several minutes, nothing happened.
The breeze continued to play softly around the Doctor's sweating face and burning chest. Teddy Acree was completely silent. The smell of scorched tallow drifted on the air.
'Ul-Bhar-lnl boomed Dupre.'El-Bhar-In.El!El!Ej-eir
'Oh, stop,' whispered the Doctor. 'Please stop. Don't You don't ' He groaned.
His head rolled. In a corner of the ceiling, a light flashed. The Doctor's body bucked and he made a high, terrible sound. The light flashed again.
'Ej-el!' Dupre cried triumphantly, and the light blazed bright as a magnesium flare.
Then it smiled.
The grin strobed in and out of view. In between flashes, the darkness was total. Dupre was breathing noisily, perhaps crying. No longer convulsing, the Doctor lay rag-limp. Each time the teeth flashed, they were nearer to him. He watched them without expression. In one lightburst, he looked over and up at Dupre, who was indeed crying, his eyes fixed on the manifestation, his face exultant. The Doctor told himself that this wasn't a bad state to die in, that in fact it was near ideal, but when the light came again he still hesitated for a second before turning his head and blowing a gap in the dust circle.
Dupre stared at him in horror, frozen in the unnatural light like a figure in a photograph. When the light flashed again, he was halfway to his knees.
The next flare showed him crouched desperately at the damaged edge of the circle. The Doctor shut his eyes. Then the light burned redly through his lids and Dupre screamed and screamed and screamed.
In the quiet that followed, the Doctor listened for Acree. There was no sound.
'Teddy?' said the Doctor. 'It's over now. He called it and it came to him.
That's what they do if there's no protective barrier, go to the one who calls.' The Doctor felt as if he'd been slapped against the floor about forty times. 'Teddy,' he said weakly, 'can you unchain me?'
'I can see now.' Acree's voice was almost inaudible.
'That's very impressive, considering there's no light. Are you all right?'
'I thought I was seeing before, but I was wrong.'
'I need for you to unchain me.'
He heard Acree unsteadily feeling his way along the wall. A match flared, and he saw the sculptor bend to light one of the skull candles, trembling so badly he almost couldn't touch the flame to the wick.
'Everything's all right,' the Doctor reassured him.'It's over.'
Acree turned towards him, holding the candle. His mouth fell open. His eyes widened. He began to shake more violently.
'Teddy ?' said the Doctor, bewildered.
Acree pointed a shaking finger at him. 'You're one!'
'One what? Will you -'
Teddy ran, dropping the candle. Before it sputtered out, the Doctor saw him pull the door open and bolt into the darkness.
'Teddy!' he shouted angrily. But Acree was gone. Well, the Doctor thought resignedly, at least the door was open. People would come tomorrow to reset the effects for the haunted house and he could call for help.
He wished it weren't such a long time to wait.
Chapter Fifteen
Sin and Sensibility
In the event, the wait wasn't long. The Doctor was lying morosely on the concrete making a list of all the places he'd rather be, and hadn't got further than number four hundred and seventy-seven (Philadelphia) when he heard footsteps tramping through the Nightmare. He called out and in a minute was squinting into a torch beam held by one of two black cops. As Acree had fled, he had triggered a silent security alarm that went off at the police station.
The more the Doctor explained that he had no charges to press, hadn't known his assailants and didn't want to go to the hospital, the more dubious his rescuers became. He saw them exchange glances: White people!
'What is all this shit?' one of them asked as they escorted him out through the Nightmare of Horror.
'It's a fundraiser.'
'What for?'
Cemetery preservation.'
They exchanged the Look again. But they were civil to him, and greatly relieved