Doctor Who_ The Nightmare of Black Island - Mike Tucker [3]
She giggled, aware that it was turning out to be a very odd and mundane dream, when she noticed the child looking at her: a small child in pyjamas, clutching a soft toy, staring straight at her and smiling. For some reason that she couldn’t explain, a shiver ran down 6
Rose’s spine.
The child started to laugh and the sky darkened, lightning cracking through the air.
Rose found herself moving now, swooping over the gorse, sailing out off the cliff and sweeping down over the water. Dark shapes loomed up from the darkness: cliffs, jagged rocks, a lighthouse, its paintwork faded and peeling, the glass in the lamp room cracked and broken.
Pale, sickly green light washed over her and she was aware of masked figures watching her, chattering in a strange incomprehensible language. The lighthouse sped past and a roar suddenly cut through the air, harsh and terrifying.
Rose’s dream rapidly degenerated into nightmare as a vile fourarmed creature hauled itself from the sea below her. Steam curled around it and the sea boiled as it lumbered up on to dry land, rain hissing on its armoured skin. Its claws reached out for something lying on the ground and Rose realised with horror that it was a young man, fishing equipment scattered around him, his arms raised in a futile attempt to ward the creature off as he scrabbled backwards over the wet grass.
Rose desperately wanted to look away, already knowing what was going to come next, but, as is the way with nightmares, she couldn’t tear her eyes from the horror unfolding before her. The creature let out another guttural bellow. Flames leapt from its throat and Rose felt a wave of hot, fetid air wash over her. A monstrous arm swung into the air and she gasped as she caught sight of wickedly barbed claws glinting in the rain. As the arm came down, the young fisherman slumped backwards, his blood staining the rocks. The creature turned and fixed Rose with blazing eyes. It roared again, reaching out for her. Rose tried to scream, but no sound would come from her throat. Above the roars of the creature she thought she could hear the sound of a child laughing. Then the huge taloned hands closed around her. . .
And she woke with a start, almost tumbling from the chair. The Doctor looked up from a screen, concern in his eyes. 7
‘Are you all right?’
Rose ran a hand through her hair, her eyes flicking around the shadows that pooled in the corners of the console room.
‘Yeah, a dream, that’s all. A nightmare.’ She shivered, pulling the Doctor’s coat around her shoulders.
‘Not surprising really, is it? Considering the stuff we end up seeing. . . ’
She rubbed sleep from her eyes and shuffled over to where the Doctor was prodding at the console. ‘Don’t you ever sleep?’
‘Nah. Tried it once, didn’t like it. I prefer it when it’s quiet.’
Rose gave a snort. ‘Yeah, right. Like it’s ever quiet with you.’ She nodded at the console. ‘What are you doing?’
‘It seems that you’re not the only one who was having nightmares.’
He cocked his head to one side and peered at her. ‘Can you remember what your dream was about?’
‘Things. Creatures. . . ’
‘Creatures?’
‘Yeah, I was at the coast. Not a beach with sand, but lots of rocks. . . and a lighthouse. There was a storm. And a kid, a little boy who kept laughing. Then this thing came out of the sea, a big sea monster sort of thing, four arms, breathing fire. It killed a man, a fisherman, and it was starting to turn on me. . . ’
The Doctor’s frown deepened. ‘Well, isn’t that strange.’
Rose was puzzled. ‘Why? What’s up with that? It was just a dream, wasn’t it?’
The Doctor nodded at the screen in front of him. ‘Seems like you and the TARDIS both had the same dream. We picked up some very odd readings while you were asleep. I’ve been tracing them back to their source.’
Rose crossed to