Doctor Who_ The Hollow Men - Keith Topping [93]
In the Academy, his always-active imagination had been one of his greatest gifts, the one attribute that drove him on to greatness and doomed him to mediocrity. Now it was a curse. The Doctor shook his head, looking around the public bar of the Green Man.
In a scene of quiet devastation, the butterflies were little pockets of movement and light. His eyes wide in amazement, the Doctor approached the display cases. Within, the creatures had revived, despite the pins that kept them impaled on small squares of cork. Their legs flapped in anger at their new imprisonment, futile wings beating together.
„Jack kept you here,‟ whispered the Doctor. „Now Jack is releasing you.‟
Without warning, the ground shook.
The Doctor ran to a window, and saw that the green itself was... writhing. The ground squirmed and bucked as great threads of evil twisted beneath it.
The floor beneath the Doctor‟s feet shuddered again, and then became still. He returned to the cabinets, noticing a large split in one of the glass covers.
A rainbow of butterflies poured out, a fast-flowing stream of light in the cloying gloom of the Green Man. Moving as one, the creatures flapped over the counter, and disappeared out of sight.
The Doctor walked behind the beer pumps. The trapdoor was open, and the insects poured down into the basement.
Intrigued, the Doctor followed.
The cellar was dark and smelled of hops. The tarpaulin covering had been pulled away from the tunnel entrance, revealing a dark mouth of natural stone. The butterflies flowed down it, encouraging him on.
Water dripped from the walls of the tunnel, and sonorous murmurings from all around indicated that this was the heart of Jack - and that Jack was still moving. The passage widened into a cave, dominated by an ornate mirror. The butterflies streamed into the mirror, passing straight through and vanishing from sight.
The Doctor stood before the frame of gold. There was no reflection. Over his head, the last few insects fluttered through the mirror.
The Doctor breathed deeply, knowing that this was where everything started - and, hopefully, where it would end.
He stepped through the mirror.
CHAPTER I5
CEREMONY IN A LONELY PLACE
Rebecca picked up the fallen pitchfork and brought its full weight down on the scarecrow‟s back. The prongs bit deep into the mass of straw, but the little creature clung tenaciously to Denman, slowly throttling the life from him.
Rebecca shouted for Trevor, but he was nowhere to be seen. She turned in panic, and found what they had been looking for: a can of diesel fuel. She fell to her knees, her hands scrabbling at the cap, rusted solid with age. After four attempts, Rebecca finally got the top to move. The can squealed in protest.
The pungent smell of the fuel hit Rebecca full in the face, and for a moment she felt dizzy and overwhelmed. Then she remembered Denman, and heard the choking rattle of his breathing. She turned and hurled the can at the stickman.
This time the blow was unexpected, and it knocked the creature away from Denman. The policeman collapsed in a heap, clutching at his own throat as tightly as the stickman had.
The terrifying little creature rose to its full height. Its eyes, deep in the now exposed face of vegetation, screamed vengeance. Rebecca got to her feet, crying out at the stinging pain in her knees, bloodied by the barn floor. All she could think about was her mother‟s childhood tales of Jack‟s implike children.
A hiss of outrage emerged from the creature. It moved with great deliberation towards Rebecca, hands outstretched, stick-fingers clicking as they closed in a fist, then opened again.
„Go away!‟ screamed Rebecca.
Somewhere an engine kicked into life with a low growl, but Rebecca was unable to tear away her eyes from those of the stickman.
„Please,‟ she said in a hoarse whisper. The machine noise increased.
The creature was only inches away. She could feel its breath on her cheeks.
The roar of the machine cut through her stupor.