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Dec 29, 2023

The Unquiet Dead

Eidolism — Noun — The Belief in Ghosts and Spirits

"I am still trying to unveil my mystery."

The Tardis supplied them their own rooms, Lillie's was her dream room with dark purple walls with multicolored stars and galaxies that constantly shifted and twinkled. The Tardis landed roughly making her fall off her bed, her arms shot out and flipped over, falling on her knees. She got up and ran out of her room and to the console.

"What the hell was that?" She asked.

"He can't drive." Rose answered.

"Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. Eighteen-sixty. How does eighteen-sixty sound?

"What happened in eighteen-sixty?" Lillie asked.

"I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!"

The landing was tough, knocking all three of them over as they grinned and laughed.

"Blimey!" Rose chuckled.

"You're telling me. Are you two all right?"

"Yeah. I think so. You?" Rose helped her sister up. "Nothing broken? Did we make it? Where are we?"

The Doctor went to the console and checked the scanner which Lillie suspected wasn't one hundred percent accurate.

"I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December twenty-forth, eighteen-sixty."

"That's so weird. It's Christmas." Rose mused.

He gestured towards the door, "All yours."

"But it's like, think about it, though. Christmas. Eighteen-sixty. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again. Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago."

"No wonder you never stay still." Lillie smiled.

"Not a bad life."

"Better with three." Lillie mused.

"Come on, then." Rose took her sister's hand and they started to the door before the Doctor stopped them.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"Eighteen-sixty." Lillie shrugged.

"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella and Sarcastic Miss Marple.” He gestured to Lillie’s sarcastic clothing. “There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!"

"What?" Lillie asked, her head hurting from all these directions.

The Tardis suddenly lit up a path for the sisters who grinned and ran off, giggling.

Rose picked out an era-appropriate maroon dress under a black cloak while Lillie found a black and midnight blue dress and matching boots. She wore over it a baby blue winter cloak with white fur that reached the back of her knees, which seemed to be forced on her by Rose. Her hair was in Victorian rag curls but only at the ends with one lock of hair in those majestic Victorian waves hung beside each side of her face.

The Doctor was working under the console when the sisters returned.

"Blimey!" He exclaimed, seeing Lillie. His memory flashed back to Nova, her multicolored hair. Her amethyst-colored eyes. Her smile.

"Don't laugh." Lillie warned.

"You two look beautiful..." He caught himself and looked down, "considering."

"Considering what?"

"That you're human."

"I think that's a compliment." Rose muttered.

"Aren't you going to change?" Lillie asked.

"I've changed my jumper. Come on."

"Typical." Lillie scoffed, playfully, "We have to put these on while he just has to change his jumper.”

"You stay there. You've done this before. This is ours!" Rose said.

The sisters hurried to the Tardis doors, Rose looked out, snowing falling, she pressed her black boots into the snow, leaving a track that wasn't there before. She smiled at Lillie, and they went outside. Lillie tilted her head back as the snowflakes were caught in her dark hair.

The Doctor joined them, "Ready for this? Here we go. History."

The Doctor soon bought a newspaper even though Lillie swore he had previously mentioned that he had no money, "I got the flight a bit wrong."

“Well, that’s not surprising.” Lillie teased.

“Oi!”

"I don't care." Rose said, grinning.

"It's not eighteen-sixty, it's eighteen-sixty-nine."

"I don't care."

"And it's not Naples."

"I don't care."

"It's Cardiff."

That made Rose falter slightly, "Right."

"Rose, we're in Cardiff over a century in the past." Lillie grinned. "This is amazing!"

Rose admired her sister's joy. She had never seen her so happy. She knew they had made the right choice in joining the Doctor.

They soon heard screaming from inside a nearby theatre.

"That's more like it." The Doctor said as he and girls ran into the theater.

The trio came inside, fighting past the fleeing crowd to see blurs of blue gas flying through the air, wailing loudly.

"Fantastic." The Doctor said and then ran towards the stage as the sisters watched as a duo, an old man and young woman went to the corpse and picked her up.

"Oi! Leave her alone!" Rose shouted.

"I'll get them." Lillie shouted as she was the smallest of the trio and would have an easier time getting through the crowd.

"Be careful!" The Doctor shouted.

"Be careful, Lillie!" Rose echoed.

She pushed through the crowd and ran out of the theater to the duo who were packing the woman into their coach.

"Oi! What'd you two think you're doing?!" She shouted.

The woman went to her to speak her. She had black hair, pale skin, and brown eyes, she was quite pretty yet she had a deep sadness in her eyes, she was dressed like a mere servant.

"Oh, it's a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary." She lied in a Welsh accent.

Lillie pushed her out of the way and felt for the woman's head and her neck for a pulse. She had no pulse and was cold to the touch.

"She's cold. She's dead! Oh, my God, what'd you do to her?" Lillie asked in disbelief.

The old man snuck up behind her and pressed a pad of chloroform to her mouth, her nostrils burned with a sickly-sweet smell before everything went black before she could fight back more than digging her fingernails into his arms and scratch deep marks into his skin.

"What did you do that for?" The woman exclaimed.

"She's seen too much. Oof, she’s heavy.” Lillie’s weight seemed to be getting slowly heavier and heavier. “Get her in the hearse. Legs."

The Doctor and Rose came out of the theater with the angry man on stage hot on their trail to see the woman pushing Lillie’s head into the hearse.

"LILLIE!" Rose screamed as the woman ran back around to the front and they drove off with her sister.

“You're not escaping me, you two. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?” The man demanded of them. Rose wasn’t listening at all, she looked like she was going to start crying.

“Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks.” The Doctor said and took Rose’s hand, running to the nearest carriage. “Oi, you! Follow that hearse!” They got in.

“I can't do that, sir.” The driver said.

“Why not?” Rose demanded.

The man who had followed them stuck his head in. “I'll tell you why not. I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach.”

“Well, get in, then.” The Doctor said and pulled the man inside, “Move!”

The driver cracked the whip and the carriage moved down the street.

“Come on, you're losing them!” The Doctor shouted.

“Everything in order, Mister Dickens?” The driver asked.

“No! It is not!” The Charles Dickens said.

“What did he say?” The Doctor asked, Rose, despite, knowing who that was as Lillie was a fan of The Signalman, couldn’t care less while her sister was in danger. Otherwise, she’d be in a similar state as the Doctor.

“Let me say this first. I'm not without a sense of humour…” Charles Dickens started.

“Dickens?” The Doctor asked.

“Yes.”

“Charles Dickens?”

“Yes.” Charles Dickens said, a bit irritably.

“The Charles Dickens?”

“Should I remove the gentleman and lady, sir?” The driver asked.

“Charles Dickens? You're brilliant, you are. Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?” The Doctor said, excitedly.

“A Christmas Carol?” Charles Dickens asked.

“No, no, no, the one with the trains.” The Doctor said, trying to recall the name.

“The Signalman.” Rose said, distractedly, never taking her eyes off the trolley. “Lillie loves the view of reality transition.”

“Yeah, The Signalman, that's it. Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius.” The Doctor agreed. That had been one of the first stories Nova had showed him when he was in the academy.”

“You want me to get rid of them, sir?” The driver asked again.

“Er, no, I think they can stay.” Charles Dickens said.

“Honestly, Charles. Can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan.”

“A what? A big what?” Charles Dickens asked, confused.

“Fan. Number one fan, that's me.”

Rose was sure Lillie could give him a run for his money.

“How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?”

“No, it means fanatic, devoted to. Mind you, I've got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit.” The Doctor said.

“I thought you said you were my fan.” Charles Dickens frowned.

“Ah, well, if you can't take criticism. Go on, do the death of Little Nell, it cracks me up.” He noticed Rose giving him a glare, “No, sorry, forget about that. Come on, faster!”

“Who exactly is in that hearse?” Charles Dickens asked.

“My little sister, Lillie.” Rose said, her eyes back on the hearse. “She's only eighteen. It’s my job to protect her.”

“It's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger.” The Doctor said.

“Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books?” Charles Dickens asked, “This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!

“Yes, sir!”

“Attaboy, Charlie.” The Doctor grinned.

“Nobody calls me Charlie.”

“The ladies do.” The Doctor said.

“How do you know that?” Charles Dickens asked.

“I told you, I'm your number one…”

“Number one fan. I know.”

Gwyneth and Mister Sneed, the duo that abducted Lillie, they were carrying the unconscious teenager into the morgue. Oddly enough, she seemed lighter when they pulled her out of the hearse but once again she seemed to be slowly getting heavier and heavier.

"The poor girl's still alive, sir! What're we going to do with her?" Gwyneth asked.

"I don't know! I didn't plan any of this, did I! It isn't my fault if the dead won't stay dead." Mister Sneed said as if this was something anyone would do as they placed her down on a black table in the middle of the room.

"Then whose fault is it, sir? Why is this happening to us?" Gwyneth asked and she left. Mister Sneed followed her and locked Lillie inside.

There was a knock at the door while Mister Sneed and Gwyneth were in the hallway.

"Say I'm not in. Tell them we're closed. Just, just get rid of them."

Gwyneth opened the front door to find a nineteen-year-old woman with blonde hair who looked ready to kill, a fire blazing behind her green eyes and flared nostrils, looking quite like her mother, and two older men.

"Where the hell is my sister?" Rose demanded, slowly, it was evident in her voice that if she didn't find out soon, she was going to lose it.

"I'm sorry. We're closed." Gwyneth told them.

"Nonsense. Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master." Charles Dickens demanded.

"He's not in, sir." She lied and tried to close the door.

"Don't lie to me, child. Summon him at once." Charles Dickens shouted, slamming the door back open.

"I'm awfully sorry, Mister Dickens, but the master's indisposed." The girl said, she looked terrified, Rose would've felt sorry for her if she hadn't just kidnapped her sister.

A gas lamp behind her flared as the Doctor noted. "Having trouble with your gas?" The Doctor asked.

"What the Shakespeare is going on?" Charles Dickens asked.

Lillie awoke sooner than chloroform is supposed to last, thankfully not in a coffin, unaware of the corpse that was sitting up in its coffin behind her.Oddly enough, Lillie felt refreshed, not at all like waking up or even waking up from chloroform.

Lillie saw the man in the coffin who was groaning like a zombie.

"You all right, mate?” He continued to groan, staring at her with dead eyes, not blinking as he grabbed the sides of the coffin. “You're kidding me, yeah? You're just kidding. You are kidding me, aren't you?" The man climbed out of the coffin and walked in a zombie-like manner towards her. "Okay, not kidding." She got down, moving away from the man.

The Doctor moved past Gwyneth to the flaring gas lamp.

"You're not allowed inside, sir." She insisted as Rose moved past her as well. “Ma’am.”

"There's something inside the walls." The Doctor said.

The door was locked and if she had the proper equipment, say a bobby pin, she’d be able to pick the lock but she didn’t have one or pockets. What kind of dress had pockets?

The woman from earlier reanimated in her coffin, sitting up, groaning.

Lillie picked up a vase and threw it at the man, he only stumbled back.

"The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas."

"LET ME OUT!" A voice screamed, "OPEN THE DOOR!"

"Lillie!" Rose shouted, running to find where her sister's voice was coming from.

"PLEASE, LET ME OUT!"

Mister Sneed shouted at them, "How dare you..." Rose pushed past him, aggressively she would have to deal with him later. "This is my house!"

“Yeah, and you kidnapped my sister!” She shouted back at him as her sister continued to shout.

“LET ME OUT! ROSE!? DOCTOR!? SOMEBODY HELP ME! ROSE!?”

"Shut up." Charles Dickens told him, running past him.

Gwyneth hurried to them and Mister Sneed pointed at her, because this was her fault that it was his idea to kidnap Lillie in the first place.

"LET ME OUT! SOMEBODY, OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR! ROSE, HELP ME! AAHH!" Lillie screamed as the man grabbed her. Some unknown instincts from another life kicked in and she fought, kicking him back as they continued to approach.

The Doctor kicked the door open, and Rose hurried inside.

"Get off my baby sister!" She shouted pulling her sister away from an oncoming female zombie.

"Rose! Zombies, they're zombies." Lillie cried.

"It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence." Charles Dickins said.

"No, we're not. The dead are walking."

"Who's your friend?"

"Charles Dickens." Rose said.

"Okay. Wait what? As in Signalman Charles Dickens." Lillie asked.

"My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?" The Doctor asked the zombies.

The man, Redpath spoke in a distorted young child's voice, "failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!"

Then the gas left the bodies and they collapsed.

In the living room, Rose and Lillie were shouting at Mister Sneed while Gwyneth poured them all tea.

"FIRST OF ALL, YOU DRUG MY SISTER, THEN YOU KIDNAP HER..." Rose screamed at the man.

"AND DON'T THINK I DIDN'T FEEL YOUR HANDS HAVING A QUICK WANDER, YOU DIRTY OLD MAN!" Lillie added, just as angry as Rose as the Doctor grinned.

"I won't be spoken to like this!" Mister Sneed exclaimed but Rose continued to shout.

"THEN YOU STICK HER IN A ROOM FULL OF ZOMBIES! AND IF THAT AIN'T ENOUGH, YOU SWAN OFF AND LEAVE HER TO DIE! SO COME ON, TALK!"

"It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs," they all glared at the man's bluntness. "The, er, dear departed started getting restless."

"Tommyrot." Charles Dickens scoffed.

"You witnessed it! Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps. One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."

"Morbid fancy." Charles Dickens reasoned.

"Oh, Charles, you were there." The Doctor said.

"I saw nothing but an illusion." He denied.

"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up."

"Doctor!" Lillie snapped at him, warning him not to be rude.

"What about the gas?"

"That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stronger." The Doctor said, "the rift's getting wider, and something is sneaking through."

"What's the rift?" Rose asked.

"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."

"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations."

Neither of the girls noticed that Charles Dickens had gotten up and left until the door slammed shut.

"Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

The Doctor grinned as Lillie rolled her eyes.

Later, Rose and Lillie joined Gwyneth in the pantry, the sisters started to help Gwyneth wash up.

"Please, misses, you shouldn't be helping. It's not right." She said.

"Don't be daft. Sneed works you to death." Lillie dismissed.

"How much do you get paid?" Rose asked.

"Eight pound a year, miss." Lillie said.

"How much?" Lillie asked, hoping she just didn't hear him correctly.

"I know. I would've been happy with six." She said.

"So, did you go to school or what?" Rose asked.

"Of course, I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper." Gwyneth replied.

"What, once a week?" Lillie asked.

"We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second."

"Me too." The sisters chimed.

"Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own." Gwyneth giggled like it was a the most sinful thing she had done.

"I did plenty of that. I used to go down the shops with my mate Shareen. We used to go and look at boys." Rose said.

"Well, I don't know much about that, miss."

"Come on, times haven't changed that much. I bet you've done the same."

"I don't think so, miss."

"Gwyneth, you can tell me. I bet you've got your eye on someone."

"A guy or a girl?" Lillie asked and Gwyneth, as homosexuality was not as hated but more so considered a topic of taboo and considered with more curiosity or indifference than homophobia, just gasped in shock at Lillie’s forwardness in the topic but didn’t mention it.

"I suppose. There is one lad. The butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him."

"I like a nice smile. " Rose said.

"Me too," Lillie laughed. "Nice smile with sharp wit and a strong sense of compassion. Ooh, and good hair! Good hair, preferably dark and a nice face. Preferably friends first."

"Good smile, nice bum." Rose said.

"Well, I have never heard the like." Gwyneth said and then all three girls laughed.

"Ask him out. Give him a cup of tea or something, that's a start." Rose said.

"I swear it is the strangest thing, misses. You two have got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild thing".

"Maybe we am. Maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed." Rose said.

"Oh, now that's not fair. He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve." Gwyneth said.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Thank you, miss. But I'll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me."

"Do you have any other family?" Lillie asked.

"A few cousins here and there, all live in Cardiff, don't see them very much though." She shrugged, "Maybe your dad's up there waiting for you two too."

Lillie stiffened, staring at her in shock. How did she know? Rose and Lillie's father, Pete Tyler had died when Rose was six months old, Jackie had just given birth to Lillie the week prior. Seven days.

"Maybe." Rose said.

"Who told you he was dead?"

"I don't know. Must have been the Doctor."

"Well, that also doesn't make sense, we haven't even tell him about our dad." Lillie said.

"Our father died years back. Lillie... never got to meet him. I was just a baby." Rose said.

"But you've been thinking about him lately more than ever. Both of you."

"I suppose so.”

“And you, Miss. You have vague memories of a father-like figure that you don’t quite remember. And another mother. One who was very insightful and wise. Beautiful.”

“Wh-what?” Lillie stammered. She never told anyone about those flashes.

“How do you know all this?" Rose asked as Lillie studied the young woman.

"Mister Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. Much how people say about you, Miss. When they think you’re not listening. But you can read them better than most. You can sense things.” She was looking at Lillie, she realized she had done it again and changed the subject. “I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, miss?"

"No, no servants where I'm from." Rose said.

"Or at least, we never did." Lillie added.

"And you've both come such a long way."

"What makes you think so?"

"You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half-naked, for shame. The naked women and the naked men together… And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky… no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone." She said, "The things you've seen. The darkness, the big bad wolf." She told Rose then turned to Lillie, "and you're unlike them all... Unlike all humans, and unlike all of your true kind. The dying star princess that could cheat death. Forever, if you chose to.”

Lillie suddenly stumbled back as the dizziness and a terrible migraine washed over her.

"Lillie?" Rose said, going to her, concerned.

"Ah, so how's the Dying Star Princess." A cheeky voice said.

"Ah, shut it, Koschei." Her voice responded playfully in an Australian accent, "Or I'll have you thrown in the dungeon."

“I see who you love. Why, I’ve never seen the likes of that. I see your power… your pain and it hurt… it hurts you so much… and your fear…” The fear she currently had was much easier to look at, “You fear how they will react. You fear they won’t love you anymore. Not just for who you love but what you are…”

“Gwyneth…” Lillie croaked out, grabbing her wrist and snapping her out of it and the memories of the pain vanished from Gwyneth’s head as if erased one by one.

Gwyneth stumbled back and profusely apologized. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, misses."

"It's all right." Rose tried to reassure her but Lillie seemed properly shaken.

"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it." She rambled.

She could see more, more than the sisters knew. She saw lives Lillie hadn’t lived. She saw the pain that would destroy her optimism if she remembered. She saw her heartache and her constant fascination that followed her through them all, that could be killed… with but a raven.

"But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?" The Doctor asked, making them jump. When did he get there?

"All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head." Gwyneth confirmed.

"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key." He said.

"The key?" Lillie asked

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts." She said

"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."

"What to do where, sir?" Gwyneth asked, confused.

"We're going to have a séance."

Lillie turned to her sister, confused, and pointed to the Doctor, "Did he just say we're gonna have a séance?"

Everyone gathered around a table in the living room.

"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in Bute Town. Come, we must all join hands." Gwyneth explained, sheepishly.

"I can't take part in this." Charles Dickens scoffed.

"Hey, Scrooge. Come on, have an open mind before saying Bah Humbug." Lillie said, looking at him, expectingly.

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Oi!" Lillie snapped, "don't you dare antagonize her, now drop the Harry Houdini attitude and sit down." Charles Dickins looked confused. While Harry Houdini was alive, he wasn't known... not yet. Not for his magician fame and definitely not for his ironic abhorment of anything supernatural.

"I love a happy medium." The Doctor said after a few beats of silence.

"I can't believe you just said that." Rose said as Lillie groaned, throwing her head back.

“Come on, we might need you. Come on, all it took was that one experience in the Signalman to change the skeptic’s point of view of reality. Give it chance and you may be turned from a skeptic to a believer." She raised her eyebrows in a challenge. Charles Dickins sat between Lillie and Gwyneth.

"Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out."

"Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden." Gwyneth said and then whispering started.

"Can you hear that?" Rose asked.

"Nothing can happen. This is sheer folly." Charles Dickins said.

"You know not everything can be explained with logic and reason." Lillie smiled. "So, you never want to listen to reason."

"Look at her." Rose added.

"I see them. I feel them." Gwyneth said as blue gas tendrils drifted above their heads.

"What's it saying?"

"They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through." The Doctor said.

"I can't!" She cried.

"Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link." The Doctor said.

"Yes." Gwyneth said as blue outlines of people appeared behind Gwyneth.

"Great God! Spirits from the other side." Mister Sneed gaped.

"The other side of the universe." The Doctor said.

"Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us," the figure spoke with the distorted voice of two children and Gwyneth spoke along them.

Lillie narrowed her eyes, skeptically. They deserved her sympathy but she didn’t trust them, it was a gut feeling. The first thing they said was: “Pity the Gelth”.

"What do you want us to do?"

"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge." The Gelth instructed.

"What for?"

"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction." The Gelth said.

"Why, what happened?"

"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came."

"War? What war?" Charles Dickins asked.

"The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."

"So that's why you need the corpses."

"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us." The Gelth said,

"But we can't." Rose said.

"Why not?"

"It's not... I mean, it's not..."

"Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives." The Doctor snapped.

"What if it were your loved ones? The ones you lost! Your best friend, maybe! Your partner." Lillie said, darkly. The Doctor only stared at her surprised by her bluntness and surprising knowledge. His mind flickered back to his last partner, his best friend. Supernova. “What if it was Nova?” A pang in both his hearts.

"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth." The Gelth said before retreating back into the heat lamps.

"Gwyneth?" Rose hurried to the dark-haired girl who had collapsed.

"All true." Charles Dickins said, he seemed to be stuck between horror and amazement.

A little while later, Gwyneth has been laid on the chaise longue while Lillie dapped a wet cloth to her forehead.

"It's all right. You just sleep." She shushed.

"But my angels, miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?" She asked.

"They do need you, Gwyneth. You're their only chance of survival." The Doctor said.

"I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles." Rose said as Lillie gave Gwyneth a glass of water, "Drink this."

"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?" Sneed asked.

"Aliens."

"Like foreigners, you mean?"

"Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there."

"Brecon?" Sneed asked, oblivious.

"Close. Outer space." Lillie said with blank snark deadpan in her tone and Sneed couldn't tell if she was being serious or not.

"And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked." The Doctor continued, "Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl." Charles Dickins realized.

"They're not having her."

"But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through." The Doctor said.

"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers." Charles Dickins mused, fascinated like only a writer could.

"Good system. It might work."

"You can't let them run around inside of dead people." Rose said.

"Why not? It's like recycling." The Doctor said.

"Seriously though, you can't."

"Seriously though, I can."

"It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should respect them even in death." Rose said.

"Do you carry a donor card?"

"That's different. That's..." Rose stammered.

"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying."

"It's not the Gelth you're worried about, it's your guilt." Lillie said, darkly, "you'd be singing a different tune if it was your loved ones. Reminders of what you lost. What if it was your family's bodies? Or Nova’s.”

The Doctor looked at her, unsure on why she was being so rude all of a sudden. She didn't know herself but it was striking a cord in her. But she was right, he wasn’t sure if he could face a constant reminder of his family. Of Susan. Of Nova.

"I don't care. They're not using her." Rose said,

"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth asked, suddenly.

"Look, you don't understand what's going on."

"You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid." Gwyneth said.

"That's not fair."

"It's true, though. Things might be very different where you're from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me.”

“I don’t think they’re the angels you think they are.” Lillie said, darkly but was ignored.

“Doctor, what do I have to do?"

"You don't have to do anything."

"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me."

"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?"

"That would be the morgue."

"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" Lillie deadpanned, dryly.

Now in the morgue where just a few hours ago, Lillie was being attacked by zombies.

"The thing is, Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed, 'cause I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in eighteen-sixty-nine." Rose said.

"Yeah, well, neither were we walking around in eighteen-sixty-nine." Lillie pointed out.

"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing." The Doctor told them.

"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder." Charles Dickins noted.

"Here they come." Rose said.

A Gelth came out of a gas lamp by the door and stood under a stone archway. There was nothing about the Gelth that Lillie didn't trust.

"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him." The Gelth said.

"Promise you won't hurt her." Rose told the Gelth.

"Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth." Lillie noted how the Gelth had ignored Rose's question. Always "Pity the Gelth."

As if they were trying to push it on them. To pity them. Almost like they were trying to guilt-trip them. For some reason, that caused a burning hatred in the pit of Lillie’s stomach, despite not having any big manipulators in her life, at the very most Jackie would guilt-trip her into doing something.

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?" The Doctor said.

"My angels. I can help them live."

"Okay, where's the weak point?"

"Here, beneath the arch."

"Beneath the arch." Gwyneth repeated as she went to go stand beneath the arch, inside the Gelth.

"You don't have to do this." Rose said.

"My angels."

"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!"

"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" Gwyneth gasped.

"Bridgehead establishing."

"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

"It is begun. The bridge is made." The Gelth said, Gwyneth opened her mouth a blue gas started to come out.

"She has given herself to the Gelth."

"Rather a lot of them, don't you think?" Lillie asked.

"The bridge is open. We descend." Then the sweet blue apparition turned red like flames with teeth. The voice was now hard and deep, "The Gelth will come through in force."

"You said that you were few in number." Charles Dickins exclaimed.

"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." The Gelth growled as the dead started to rise.

"Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you." Mister Sneed demanded.

"Mister Sneed, get back!" Rose shouted as a corpse grabbed him and snapped his neck and a Gelth then inhabited his body.

"I think it's gone a little bit wrong." The Doctor observed.

"Oh, you think!?" Lillie sneered at him, sarcastically.

Sneed lifted his head, his brown eyes were now ice blue, "I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us. We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead.

"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" The Doctor shouted.

"Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth."

Sneed backed the time travelers up against a metal gate

“Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so..." Charles Dickins stammered before he could finish a Gelth screamed and he ran off.

The three moved behind the metal gate where the bodies couldn't get them.

"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you. I pitied you!" The Doctor shouted.

"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh."

"Not while I'm alive." The Doctor said.

"Then live no more."

"But we can't die. Tell me we can't. We haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for us to die. Isn't it?" Rose asked.

"I'm sorry."

"But it's eighteen-sixty-nine. How can we die now?" Rose exclaimed.

"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you two here." The Doctor said.

"It's not your fault." Lillie said.

"We wanted to come.

"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff." The Doctor said.

"It's not just dying, is it? We'll become one of them." Lillie pointed out.

"Then we'll go down fighting, yeah?" Rose said, taking her sister by the hand.

"Always." She nodded and took the Doctor's hand. "Together."

"I'm so glad I met you. Both of you." The Doctor said.

"Us too." The sisters said and then Charles Dickins ran back in.

"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" Charles Dickins shouted.

"What're you doing?"

"Turn it all on. Flood the place!"

"Brilliant. Gas." The Doctor said as Lillie's blue eyes lit up with understanding.

"What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose asked, not understanding.

"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous." Charles Dickins asked.

"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" The Doctor said.

The corpses turned and they started to shamble towards Charles Dickins.

"I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately."

"Plenty more!" The Doctor exclaimed and he ripped a gas pipe from the wall. Making the Gelths leave the corpses, making the corpses fall.

"It's working."

The trio of time travelers came out from behind the gate. Lillie went straight up to Gwyneth and grabbed her hand, Gwyneth looked at her in acknowledgement, her eyes clearing.

"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels." The Doctor said but she only looked at Lillie.

"Liars?" She asked.

"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" The Doctor said, "Only you can do it."

"I can't breathe." Rose coughed.

"Charles, get her out." The Doctor instructed.

"I'm not leaving her." Rose said, stubbornly.

"Neither am I." Lillie said as she started to cough.

"They're too strong." Gwyneth said.

"Remember that world you saw? Rose and Lillie's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift." The Doctor said.

"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out." She said as she took out a box of matches.

"You can't!" Rose shouted.

"No!" Lillie pleaded.

"Leave this place!" Gwyneth said.

"Rose, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!"

Charles Dickins took Rose and tried to get Lillie but Gwyneth spoke up, grabbing Lillie by the wrist. "Lillie. Come here. Please."

Lillie walked over to the girl and she whispered something in Lillie's ears. "I see who you really are. The only person who could make the most fearsome of creature beg for mercy but would get none. The warrior princess who was forced to conform. The warrior princess who had to resurrect the Doctor's evil counterpart. The Destroyer of Daleks."

Images flashed behind Lillie’s eyes and Gwyneth continued.

“You… you’ve got half-memories of lives you haven’t lived. There’s one constant companion who follows you. Your… your impossible girl… she resembles a girl I’ve seen… a girl who you always see. He hardly notices her but you always do and she vexes you so. She is impossible like you are impossible but that’s impossible because you are impossible… an anomaly… and you fear… you… fear what your sister will think… your mum… they won’t accept you… they won’t be able to see you. That’s what scares you most of all. That they won’t love you anymore. Not just because of who you love but because of who you truly are…”

"I don't know who you're talking about." Lillie whimpered.

"The girl. She fascinates you, not just because she's impossible but for who she is… because you love her. You always do.”

Flashes of who Gwyneth saw flashes behind Lillie’s eyes. She knew one but many were not her.

Lillie stepped back, staring at her with wide eyes, when Rose pulled her away and they ran out with Charles Dickins.

As the Doctor ran out of the building a few minutes later, KABOOM!

Rose, Lillie, and Charles Dickins ran to the Doctor.

"She didn't make it." Rose said, sadly.

"Gwyneth..." Lillie muttered, sadly.

"I'm sorry. She closed the rift."

"At such a cost. The poor child." Charles Dickins said as a single tear fell down Lillie's cheek.

"I did try, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes." The Doctor told the girls,

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lillie asked.

"I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch."

"But she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?" Rose said.

"'There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' Even for you, Doctor." Charles Dickins quoted.

"Hamlet. Shakespeare." Lillie whispered to Rose.

"She saved the world. A servant girl. No one will ever know." Rose said.

"We do." Lillie told her.

The four walked to the Tardis and the Doctor turned to Charles Dickins, "Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long."

"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked him.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital." Charles Dickins said, noticeably more spirited than he was before.

"You've cheered up." Lillie noted.

"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them." He said with the excitement only a writer could possess.

"Do you think that's wise?" Rose asked.

"I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth." He said.

"That sounds brilliant." Lillie laughed, "you should do that."

"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic." The Doctor said.

"Bye, then, and thanks."

Rose shook his hand and then kissed his cheek as the Doctor opened the Tardis door.

"Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?" Charles Dickins said.

"You'll see. In the shed." The Doctor said, vaguely.

"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?" Charles Dickins asked.

"Just a friend passing through." The Doctor said.

"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?"

"Oh, yes!" The Doctor said, truthfully.

"For how long?"

"Forever. Right. Shed. Come on, girls."

"In the box? All of you?

"Down boy. See you."

"Bye, Mister Dickins." Lillie said and then kissed his cheek like Rose did.

In the Tardis, Rose asked, "Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?"

"In a week's time it's eighteen-seventy, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story." The Doctor said as Lillie's heart fell.

"Oh, no. He was so nice."

"But in your time, he was already dead. We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy. Let's give him one last surprise."

The Tardis materialized as Charles Dickins' confusion turned to amusement.

Lillie went to her room as she pondered what Gwyneth had told her she clutched her necklace and then it was gone.

She took her phone out and phoned Lars.

#the eccedentiast #supernova #doctor who #katherine langford #Gelth #The Gelth #Charles Dickens #Non-Christmas Christmas Special #Rose Tyler #Ninth Doctor #9th doctor #Bad Wolf mention #Gwyneth #Cardiff #1869 #Youtube

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