#292 - The New Empire
Episode 1 by Gothic Rose the Bad Wolf
Episode 2 by imbored22001
Episode 3 by The Ghost of Gothic Rose
Episode 4 by imbored22001
Episode 1
by Gothic Rose the Bad Wolf
Marcus Bohler was in his laboratory, where hed spent most of the last 3 years. He was 25 years old, prodigal, with long, lank brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He had a handsome face, but repelled women with his cold and miserable personality. His mother whispered to her friends about him, he knew - Poor Marcus. All he ever wanted was his silly inventions and clockwork things. He doesnt have any time for girls. He could hear them giggling now, a cruel memory. He was going to prove them wrong. His new invention was going to take the British Empire, and the world, by storm.
All he had left to do was find a suitable organic donor - a human brain - to make the creature come alive. His creature. Marcus closed his eyes and fell back into his dream of being the most famous and admired scientist of the Victorian world. His delusion.
***
Elizabeth Bohler peered out at the two strangers, a little nervous. They looked like the kind of strange people her son might have dealings with. The man wore a dark and battered leather jacket and he looked to be about 40, but without the time worn features of most people of that age. His female companion was wearing tight bluish trousers and a red jacket. Elizabeth was stunned at the bright colour of it.
She narrowed her eyes at them, Are you from Russia?
The girl glanced at her companion and raised her eyebrows. The man smiled unnervingly at Elizabeth and held out a hand, which she hesitantly shook. Ive come about the rooms, he said, Are they both empty at the moment?
Yes, said Elizabeth warily.
Good. Ive brought my niece - Rose - down to London for a short holiday. Shes not been here for a while and I wanted to show her sights, the man continued.
Elizabeth was confused. The sights of London? Did his niece want to see the smog and the squalor? She snorted disbelievingly and forced herself to smile. I suppose youd better come in. When did you want the rooms for?
Oh, straight away, said the man breezily, stepping confidently over the threshold. The girl came in more cautiously and stood looking around her.
Ill be keeping an eye on you... Elizabeth warned the girl, who stuck her hands in her pockets and stood up to Elizabeth.
You what? You think I want to steal any of....
Rose- remonstrated the man, He touched her shoulder and raised an eyebrow, Its a different culture, remember?
Elizabeth glared at them both and started up the stairs. And I want payment up front, she snapped over her shoulder.
Well, I dont think much of the landlady... muttered Rose, as she followed the Doctor up the stairs.
****
Rose was impressed by her room though - it had a proper view, for one thing. She was so used to sleeping in the windowless room in the TARDIS that it was almost a shock to see that this room had a window. There was a pair of huge and ancient apple trees right outside, just beginning to bear fruit. Rose had forgotten the simple beauty of he own planet in all her adventures.
Wow, she whispered, staring.
Hasnt the girl ever seen trees before? grumbled Elizabeth.
Not in this decade, she hasnt, replied the Doctor.
***
Elizabeth Bohler couldnt sleep that night. She always slept badly when there were new lodgers in the house. She grew even more apprehensive when the man, Doctor Smith, let himself out at half past one in the morning. Her imagination started to run riot - what if hed murdered the girl and was running away, or was going to an opium den? He was strange enough for anything like that, Elizabeth thought.
She tried to shake off these horrid fantasies, but they wouldnt go away. She had felt this way shortly before her husband had been murdered 7 years ago. Elizabeth tried to soothe herself with thought of her beloved James, and had almost fallen into sleep when she felt a soft, strong smelling cloth clamp over her mouth and nose.
In her surprise, Elizabeth took a deep breath of the stuff, and her eyes began to water. Through the mounting greyness, Elizabeth saw her sons face floating before her. She tried to scream, so he could help her, but the noise was muffled by the pad held tightly over her mouth. She passed out while trying to struggle and fell limp onto her bed.
Marcus removed the pad, which had been heavily doused in chloroform, and hoisted his mothers body over his shoulder.
In the room above, Rose awoke with a start and looked around, bewildered. What was that? The bumping noises? Still half asleep, Roses mind went back to her dream - where shed been trapped in a room and something was trying to get in...slamming against the walls of her prison, banging and crashing. That was what the noise was. Just a part of her dream.
What about the scream? yelled something in her head.
What? Rose mumbled, as she drifted back into sleep.
***
Rose woke at 11 oclock the next morning, to an empty house. There was no sign of Elizabeth, so she assumed that the woman had gone shopping or something, but the Doctor had disappeared too, which worried her. In the end, Rose resigned herself to the fact that he wasnt coming back for a while, perhaps even days.
She did venture into London, but was disappointed and shocked at the condition and appearance of the people. Rose couldnt believe that her home city could look like this.
Marcus Bohler came out of his lab in the evening and just stood staring at her in a kind of daze until she ventured to ask him where his mother was. Marcus looked at Rose, as if to say Who? Oh, her. Oh dear, and fled back to his dark laboratory. Rose had tried to talk to him the previous night, but it was as though the young man had a mental wall around him, with signs that read - Dont talk to me, and Dont touch me, I bite etc.
Later, Rose settled in a lovely velvet armchair in the living room to read.
She awoke to find that night had fallen. The first thing Rose was aware of was a faint swishing noise, which must have been what woke her. She saw a shadow pass the door, silhouetted even blacker than the dark hallway. Her first thought was an absurd one, but it made perfect sense to Rose in the crushing darkness - the daleks were back. They must have chased them through time and space, and now they had finally found Rose when the Doctor wasnt here to help her.
The thing was moving back towards the door. Rose looked of somewhere to hide. There was nowhere. She dived behind the velvet chair and tried to keep as still as she could, knowing it wasnt going to work anyway.
Rose could see through a gap between the chair arm and the backrest, and she could see the creature now her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. It was clearly not a dalek, but it looked to be a similar sort of thing. Its squarish body seemed to made of some kind of metal, with a sphere on top of it for a head. The sphere had two eyeholes in it. The creature came through the door and cannoned straight into a small table, sending a vase and other assorted oddments flying. Its head swivelled round towards Rose, eyes pointed right at her.
Rose crouched as still as possible, with a terrible feeling that it was looking at her with a human intelligence. She heard footsteps in the hall and Marcus Bohler appeared in the doorway. He uttered a harsh barking noise - the creature turned slowly and wheeled over to its creator. Marcus half pushed it down the hall, back to his laboratory, Rose assumed, grateful that he hadnt seen her.
Episode 2
by imbored22001
After her near run with whatever creature Marcus has down in the lab Rose decided that she should inform the Doctor. She didnt know where he had gone but it was worth a try. She snuck up to her room and pulled on a jacket lifted up the window and climbed down using a handily situated tree its branches thick enough to support her weight. After reaching the ground level Rose made her way through the small courtyard keeping low and in the shadows just in case she was being observed.
She had found the TARDIS but it was empty as far as she could make out and the Doctor wasnt anywhere nearby. Rose wished not for the first time that she had some way to contact him, and made a note that if she got the chance she would by him a mobile phone or at least give him her old one and get herself a new one.
***
Marcus made a few more adjustments to his creation before plugging it into the power source he had set up on a rickety old table. He placed a book he had picked out of the bookcase to prop the leg up in place. He smiled ironically at the appropriateness of the title, Frankenstein, how quaint. As the generator was set in motion he pondered on the fact the new lodger, the blond girl, had seen his littleinvention. Oh, yes he had seen her cowering behind the couch poorly hidden, but what use was his creation if no one saw it. He couldnt very well present it proudly, like a schoolchild presents its infantile drawings to his late mother. That would be rather impossible. Instead the girl, she would be his audience, his critic, his admirerthen she would be his inventions second victim after the surly leather jacketed fellow who had disturbed his mother so.
***
Rose climbed back in thought the window drooping onto the carpeted floor feeling a trifle dejected at her failure to find the Doctor. She sighed. How many two hearted alien Doctors were there in London? It couldnt be that hard to find him.
Penny for your thoughts, my dear, said a voice out of the darkness.
The dying embers of the fire hardly giving any lights. Rose physically jumped in the air in surprise.
W-whos there? Whos that? Show yourself, demanded Rose, backing slowly towards the window.
Its only me, replied Marcus, looming forward. I heard a noise, and wondered if you were alright.
Im fine, she snapped, thinking that there was something very sinister about this guy.
Are you sure, you look a little agitated?
I was just a little startled by you appearing in my room.
Oh, I apologies. I didnt mean to actinappropriately. I will leave immediately.
Quite.
Marcus paused at the door with his hand on the handle and he turned slightly towards her.
See you at breakfast, he said. Something about that statement felt threatening. And your uncle.
Rose watched him leave and shivered. That man gave her the creeps. She locked the door just in case he decided to return before breakfast.
***
Marcus removed a small brown bottle with its faded label from the old oak cabinet containing various chemicals. It was a mild sedative. He placed it on the table ready for the morning.
Episode 3
by The Ghost of Gothic Rose
The house was quiet, and cold, and seemed to be waiting in anticipation for something to happen, like the building was holding its breath. Rose couldn't sleep, despite the comfort of the locked door and the latched window. There had been no sign of the Doctor or of Marcus's mother all day and Rose was beginning to worry about Mrs. Bohler. Dhe knew the Doctor could look after himself, but as for the little shrew like woman....
She rolled over in the bed and waited for the dubious noises to stop in the room below her. Rose guessed that directly underneath her room was Marcus' laboratory and she did not like the sounds she heard down there - clangings and rattlings and what sounded like sawing at one point. She shuddered, knowing that if she heard his footsteps approaching her room, she'd be leaping out of the window, broken bones or no broken bones. There was just something very wrong about that young man, and it wasn't just his quiet brooding personality. Something in him was inherently evil. Or overly ambitious. Over the last year, Rose had learnt that those two things could be one and the same, given the right background.
Finally - at 2 am by her mobile - she heard the sound of footsteps ascending the stairs and froze, praying that he wouldn't come into her room. She was reassured by the fact that it would take him a minute or two to smash open the door and by then she could be well away, but try telling that to her nerves. Her heart was beating like a hyperactive clock and she felt sick deep down in the pit of her stomach.
Rose lay rigid in bed, every muscle poised to flee or fight, and then the footsteps passed her door and continued to the other end of the landing - to Marcus's room, she guessed.
For an hour, Rose stayed in her room, passing the time by playig Darts and Snake on her phoone. After there had been no noise from the rest of the house for an hour, she dressed in her jeans and t-shirt (but leaving her shoes and socks off) and crept out. It took nearly five minutes to get out of the room, she was so intent on not letting the old wooden door emit a single creak. It took another five minutes to get down the stairs, one foot at a time, pausing to listen for movement upstairs every few seconds. Once in the hallway, she was far enough away from Marcus to walk normally, although still concious of any tiny noise she made - the pad of her feet on the floorboards, the possiblity of knocking something over in the darkness of the unfamiliar house, and she made her way slowly, carefully and as quietly as possible to what she hoped was Marcu's workshop.
She marvelled at how stupid she was being, wandering downstairs to snoop through a madman's workshop, with dalek like robot creatures roaming about like gunslingers. 'Rose, you're just too damn ballsy. You'd walk in on a burgler armed with a baseball bat with a pillow stuffed up your top as a makeshift bullet proof vest rather than sit about listening to it,' she scolded herslef menatally. So? If it wasn't for that characteristic she'd never have ended up with the Doctor in the first place.
She slowly turned the doorknob toMarcus's workshop, holding her breath and wincing at every little creak and crack the door made. 'Why is everything in this house so old?' She wondered angrily, fishing her mobile out of her pocket to use as a light. Rose quickly scanned the room to make sure there was nothing...waiting for her, like the robot she'd seen last night. There was nothing there. She stepped all the way into the room and propped the door open with a book she found on the floor - "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. 'That's appropriate. If he's been up to what I think he's been up to...' She thought, glad that it was a good sized hefty hardback. You never knew...
Rose started to prowl around the room, noting all the scientific apparatus that may or may not have been used to create Marcus' srobot. She opened a few drawers, stared blankly at sheets of paper filled with formulae she could never begin to understand. She stuffed them into her jeans pocket anyway, knowing the Doctor would be able to make sense of them. When she found him...
It was while she was looking in the drawers that Rose became aware of the smell. The closest she could come to decribing it was a mixture of rotten meat and frying bacon. It grew stronger towards the back of the room, where a huge wicker ottoman resided. Bracing herself, she lifted the lid and looked down.
Rose was too shocked to scream, as she strared at what was inside the ottoman. There was absolutely no doubt that the woman in there was dead - you needed a brain to be alive, and the hole in the top of her skull clearly showed that a brain was one thing this corpse was short of. Rose let her eyes travel further down the womans body, and guessed that a few of her other organs - heart, lungs - appeared to be missing as well. The look on Marcus's mother's dead face was one of faint surprise, but not pain or fear. Thank God she hadn't been totally aware of what was happening to her. Marcus really was insane.
'That's it, let's get the hell out of here...' A little voice said in Rose's head, but she was immobile, paralized by the shock of seeing the mutilated woman.
Then she heard the crash in the living room. For a second she wondered if she was going to faint. 'Please don't be the dalek thing, please don't be the dalek thing...' She whispered under her breath like a mantra. She glanced around for something heavy and settled on a massive enclyclopedic volume, before creepig n back to the door. Before she could reach it, the door swung open of its own accord. A human face peered in and then focused in her direction. "What are you doing in here? Doing a little bit of private investigating? Very clever! Well done you."
The Doctor strolled in and sniffed the air curiously. "Blimey - what's he been cooking in here? Brains?"
Rose nodded, still slightly stunned, and wondered how the Doctor could be so quiet. Sure - it was fine for sneeking past the enemy or whatever, but she could have had a heart attack. Or attacked him with volume R-S of the Enclyclopedia and history of Scientific studies, which she still clutched in a trembling hand.
***
Upstairs, Marcus Bohler awoke with a start. Rose had not been the only one to have heard the Doctor's entrance.
Episode 4
by imbored22001
Where have you been, demanded Rose, almost hissing under her breath. I looked for you everywhere.
Ive been busy.
With what?
This and that. I had some business to sort out. Now what have you been doing while Ive been away? Making friends I hope.
Its Marcus, hes gone psycho. He killed his mum.
Well, we all want to do that sometimes-,
Dont joke about it, she replied, agitatedly. You dont understand hes gone all Frankenstein on her, taken her brain and put it in some strange machine.
What machine?
It looks a bit like a Dalek.
Really?
***
Marcus shrugged on his quilted dressing gown, and slid on his slippers. He pulled off the dust sheet covering his creature and activated it, polishing it affectionately with his sleeve. He wanted it active just in case he needed some form of defense. He walked swiftly out of the room towards the basement taking hold of a fire poker and weighing it in his hands ready to take a swing at any intruder. Marcus crept downstairs avoiding the creaky floorboards so as not to give any warning. He wasnt going to let anyone steal his invention not ever and he would protect his work by any means at his disposal.
***
I found these in the drawer over there, she handed him the formulae. I think there some kind of plans. Do they mean anything to you?
The Doctor took them from her flicking through the pages with an intense frown on his face.
Hmmm.
Hmmmm? What does that mean?
It means we have trouble on our hands.
You certainly do, said Marcus taking them both by surprise. Those belong t me thief.
His entrance had been so stealthily no one had realized how long he had been standing there. Marcus swung the poker at the Doctor it connected with the back of the Timelords skull with a sickening clunk. He sunk to the floor unconscious. Rose screamed.
Be quiet, snapped Marcus, as he approached Rose. Blood stained poker in one hand he grabbed her wrist with the other. I will not have my work disturbed.
You killed him, exclaimed Rose, on the edge of tears, panic in her eyes. She glanced down at the prostrate body of the Doctor, then back at Marcus, his piercing blue eyes full of hate.
Hes not dead yet, he sneered. I need him for the experiment.
Let me go! Please-,
No.
He put down the poker on the thick battered wooden bench that housed several bottles and scientific equipment. Marcus dragged her towards a chair which sat in the corner picking up some rope as he went.
What are you going to do?
Im going to make the first in a long line of tests of my brilliant creation, He shoved her into the seat and began tying the ropes. And you are going to be my audience.
Youre mad, she exclaimed, struggling to escape her bonds. You-,
She paused having seen movement in the background. The Doctor was coming to; Rose realized she had to keep Marcus distracted.
You wouldnt hurt a girl would you? I can tell youre a gentleman. There is no need for these ropes.
Oh, my dear you can fool me that easily. I cant have you go running to my rivals telling them all my secrets can I?
He went to turn away.
Wait, please. Wait. I dont quite understand what it is you want to achieve. Explain it to me, she fluttered her eyelashes, cringing inside at how clichd this was, but she knew from experience that every megalomaniac liked to boast. Please?
Episode 1 by Gothic Rose the Bad Wolf
Episode 2 by imbored22001
Episode 3 by The Ghost of Gothic Rose
Episode 4 by imbored22001
Episode 1
by Gothic Rose the Bad Wolf
Marcus Bohler was in his laboratory, where hed spent most of the last 3 years. He was 25 years old, prodigal, with long, lank brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He had a handsome face, but repelled women with his cold and miserable personality. His mother whispered to her friends about him, he knew - Poor Marcus. All he ever wanted was his silly inventions and clockwork things. He doesnt have any time for girls. He could hear them giggling now, a cruel memory. He was going to prove them wrong. His new invention was going to take the British Empire, and the world, by storm.
All he had left to do was find a suitable organic donor - a human brain - to make the creature come alive. His creature. Marcus closed his eyes and fell back into his dream of being the most famous and admired scientist of the Victorian world. His delusion.
***
Elizabeth Bohler peered out at the two strangers, a little nervous. They looked like the kind of strange people her son might have dealings with. The man wore a dark and battered leather jacket and he looked to be about 40, but without the time worn features of most people of that age. His female companion was wearing tight bluish trousers and a red jacket. Elizabeth was stunned at the bright colour of it.
She narrowed her eyes at them, Are you from Russia?
The girl glanced at her companion and raised her eyebrows. The man smiled unnervingly at Elizabeth and held out a hand, which she hesitantly shook. Ive come about the rooms, he said, Are they both empty at the moment?
Yes, said Elizabeth warily.
Good. Ive brought my niece - Rose - down to London for a short holiday. Shes not been here for a while and I wanted to show her sights, the man continued.
Elizabeth was confused. The sights of London? Did his niece want to see the smog and the squalor? She snorted disbelievingly and forced herself to smile. I suppose youd better come in. When did you want the rooms for?
Oh, straight away, said the man breezily, stepping confidently over the threshold. The girl came in more cautiously and stood looking around her.
Ill be keeping an eye on you... Elizabeth warned the girl, who stuck her hands in her pockets and stood up to Elizabeth.
You what? You think I want to steal any of....
Rose- remonstrated the man, He touched her shoulder and raised an eyebrow, Its a different culture, remember?
Elizabeth glared at them both and started up the stairs. And I want payment up front, she snapped over her shoulder.
Well, I dont think much of the landlady... muttered Rose, as she followed the Doctor up the stairs.
****
Rose was impressed by her room though - it had a proper view, for one thing. She was so used to sleeping in the windowless room in the TARDIS that it was almost a shock to see that this room had a window. There was a pair of huge and ancient apple trees right outside, just beginning to bear fruit. Rose had forgotten the simple beauty of he own planet in all her adventures.
Wow, she whispered, staring.
Hasnt the girl ever seen trees before? grumbled Elizabeth.
Not in this decade, she hasnt, replied the Doctor.
***
Elizabeth Bohler couldnt sleep that night. She always slept badly when there were new lodgers in the house. She grew even more apprehensive when the man, Doctor Smith, let himself out at half past one in the morning. Her imagination started to run riot - what if hed murdered the girl and was running away, or was going to an opium den? He was strange enough for anything like that, Elizabeth thought.
She tried to shake off these horrid fantasies, but they wouldnt go away. She had felt this way shortly before her husband had been murdered 7 years ago. Elizabeth tried to soothe herself with thought of her beloved James, and had almost fallen into sleep when she felt a soft, strong smelling cloth clamp over her mouth and nose.
In her surprise, Elizabeth took a deep breath of the stuff, and her eyes began to water. Through the mounting greyness, Elizabeth saw her sons face floating before her. She tried to scream, so he could help her, but the noise was muffled by the pad held tightly over her mouth. She passed out while trying to struggle and fell limp onto her bed.
Marcus removed the pad, which had been heavily doused in chloroform, and hoisted his mothers body over his shoulder.
In the room above, Rose awoke with a start and looked around, bewildered. What was that? The bumping noises? Still half asleep, Roses mind went back to her dream - where shed been trapped in a room and something was trying to get in...slamming against the walls of her prison, banging and crashing. That was what the noise was. Just a part of her dream.
What about the scream? yelled something in her head.
What? Rose mumbled, as she drifted back into sleep.
***
Rose woke at 11 oclock the next morning, to an empty house. There was no sign of Elizabeth, so she assumed that the woman had gone shopping or something, but the Doctor had disappeared too, which worried her. In the end, Rose resigned herself to the fact that he wasnt coming back for a while, perhaps even days.
She did venture into London, but was disappointed and shocked at the condition and appearance of the people. Rose couldnt believe that her home city could look like this.
Marcus Bohler came out of his lab in the evening and just stood staring at her in a kind of daze until she ventured to ask him where his mother was. Marcus looked at Rose, as if to say Who? Oh, her. Oh dear, and fled back to his dark laboratory. Rose had tried to talk to him the previous night, but it was as though the young man had a mental wall around him, with signs that read - Dont talk to me, and Dont touch me, I bite etc.
Later, Rose settled in a lovely velvet armchair in the living room to read.
She awoke to find that night had fallen. The first thing Rose was aware of was a faint swishing noise, which must have been what woke her. She saw a shadow pass the door, silhouetted even blacker than the dark hallway. Her first thought was an absurd one, but it made perfect sense to Rose in the crushing darkness - the daleks were back. They must have chased them through time and space, and now they had finally found Rose when the Doctor wasnt here to help her.
The thing was moving back towards the door. Rose looked of somewhere to hide. There was nowhere. She dived behind the velvet chair and tried to keep as still as she could, knowing it wasnt going to work anyway.
Rose could see through a gap between the chair arm and the backrest, and she could see the creature now her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. It was clearly not a dalek, but it looked to be a similar sort of thing. Its squarish body seemed to made of some kind of metal, with a sphere on top of it for a head. The sphere had two eyeholes in it. The creature came through the door and cannoned straight into a small table, sending a vase and other assorted oddments flying. Its head swivelled round towards Rose, eyes pointed right at her.
Rose crouched as still as possible, with a terrible feeling that it was looking at her with a human intelligence. She heard footsteps in the hall and Marcus Bohler appeared in the doorway. He uttered a harsh barking noise - the creature turned slowly and wheeled over to its creator. Marcus half pushed it down the hall, back to his laboratory, Rose assumed, grateful that he hadnt seen her.
Episode 2
by imbored22001
After her near run with whatever creature Marcus has down in the lab Rose decided that she should inform the Doctor. She didnt know where he had gone but it was worth a try. She snuck up to her room and pulled on a jacket lifted up the window and climbed down using a handily situated tree its branches thick enough to support her weight. After reaching the ground level Rose made her way through the small courtyard keeping low and in the shadows just in case she was being observed.
She had found the TARDIS but it was empty as far as she could make out and the Doctor wasnt anywhere nearby. Rose wished not for the first time that she had some way to contact him, and made a note that if she got the chance she would by him a mobile phone or at least give him her old one and get herself a new one.
***
Marcus made a few more adjustments to his creation before plugging it into the power source he had set up on a rickety old table. He placed a book he had picked out of the bookcase to prop the leg up in place. He smiled ironically at the appropriateness of the title, Frankenstein, how quaint. As the generator was set in motion he pondered on the fact the new lodger, the blond girl, had seen his littleinvention. Oh, yes he had seen her cowering behind the couch poorly hidden, but what use was his creation if no one saw it. He couldnt very well present it proudly, like a schoolchild presents its infantile drawings to his late mother. That would be rather impossible. Instead the girl, she would be his audience, his critic, his admirerthen she would be his inventions second victim after the surly leather jacketed fellow who had disturbed his mother so.
***
Rose climbed back in thought the window drooping onto the carpeted floor feeling a trifle dejected at her failure to find the Doctor. She sighed. How many two hearted alien Doctors were there in London? It couldnt be that hard to find him.
Penny for your thoughts, my dear, said a voice out of the darkness.
The dying embers of the fire hardly giving any lights. Rose physically jumped in the air in surprise.
W-whos there? Whos that? Show yourself, demanded Rose, backing slowly towards the window.
Its only me, replied Marcus, looming forward. I heard a noise, and wondered if you were alright.
Im fine, she snapped, thinking that there was something very sinister about this guy.
Are you sure, you look a little agitated?
I was just a little startled by you appearing in my room.
Oh, I apologies. I didnt mean to actinappropriately. I will leave immediately.
Quite.
Marcus paused at the door with his hand on the handle and he turned slightly towards her.
See you at breakfast, he said. Something about that statement felt threatening. And your uncle.
Rose watched him leave and shivered. That man gave her the creeps. She locked the door just in case he decided to return before breakfast.
***
Marcus removed a small brown bottle with its faded label from the old oak cabinet containing various chemicals. It was a mild sedative. He placed it on the table ready for the morning.
Episode 3
by The Ghost of Gothic Rose
The house was quiet, and cold, and seemed to be waiting in anticipation for something to happen, like the building was holding its breath. Rose couldn't sleep, despite the comfort of the locked door and the latched window. There had been no sign of the Doctor or of Marcus's mother all day and Rose was beginning to worry about Mrs. Bohler. Dhe knew the Doctor could look after himself, but as for the little shrew like woman....
She rolled over in the bed and waited for the dubious noises to stop in the room below her. Rose guessed that directly underneath her room was Marcus' laboratory and she did not like the sounds she heard down there - clangings and rattlings and what sounded like sawing at one point. She shuddered, knowing that if she heard his footsteps approaching her room, she'd be leaping out of the window, broken bones or no broken bones. There was just something very wrong about that young man, and it wasn't just his quiet brooding personality. Something in him was inherently evil. Or overly ambitious. Over the last year, Rose had learnt that those two things could be one and the same, given the right background.
Finally - at 2 am by her mobile - she heard the sound of footsteps ascending the stairs and froze, praying that he wouldn't come into her room. She was reassured by the fact that it would take him a minute or two to smash open the door and by then she could be well away, but try telling that to her nerves. Her heart was beating like a hyperactive clock and she felt sick deep down in the pit of her stomach.
Rose lay rigid in bed, every muscle poised to flee or fight, and then the footsteps passed her door and continued to the other end of the landing - to Marcus's room, she guessed.
For an hour, Rose stayed in her room, passing the time by playig Darts and Snake on her phoone. After there had been no noise from the rest of the house for an hour, she dressed in her jeans and t-shirt (but leaving her shoes and socks off) and crept out. It took nearly five minutes to get out of the room, she was so intent on not letting the old wooden door emit a single creak. It took another five minutes to get down the stairs, one foot at a time, pausing to listen for movement upstairs every few seconds. Once in the hallway, she was far enough away from Marcus to walk normally, although still concious of any tiny noise she made - the pad of her feet on the floorboards, the possiblity of knocking something over in the darkness of the unfamiliar house, and she made her way slowly, carefully and as quietly as possible to what she hoped was Marcu's workshop.
She marvelled at how stupid she was being, wandering downstairs to snoop through a madman's workshop, with dalek like robot creatures roaming about like gunslingers. 'Rose, you're just too damn ballsy. You'd walk in on a burgler armed with a baseball bat with a pillow stuffed up your top as a makeshift bullet proof vest rather than sit about listening to it,' she scolded herslef menatally. So? If it wasn't for that characteristic she'd never have ended up with the Doctor in the first place.
She slowly turned the doorknob toMarcus's workshop, holding her breath and wincing at every little creak and crack the door made. 'Why is everything in this house so old?' She wondered angrily, fishing her mobile out of her pocket to use as a light. Rose quickly scanned the room to make sure there was nothing...waiting for her, like the robot she'd seen last night. There was nothing there. She stepped all the way into the room and propped the door open with a book she found on the floor - "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. 'That's appropriate. If he's been up to what I think he's been up to...' She thought, glad that it was a good sized hefty hardback. You never knew...
Rose started to prowl around the room, noting all the scientific apparatus that may or may not have been used to create Marcus' srobot. She opened a few drawers, stared blankly at sheets of paper filled with formulae she could never begin to understand. She stuffed them into her jeans pocket anyway, knowing the Doctor would be able to make sense of them. When she found him...
It was while she was looking in the drawers that Rose became aware of the smell. The closest she could come to decribing it was a mixture of rotten meat and frying bacon. It grew stronger towards the back of the room, where a huge wicker ottoman resided. Bracing herself, she lifted the lid and looked down.
Rose was too shocked to scream, as she strared at what was inside the ottoman. There was absolutely no doubt that the woman in there was dead - you needed a brain to be alive, and the hole in the top of her skull clearly showed that a brain was one thing this corpse was short of. Rose let her eyes travel further down the womans body, and guessed that a few of her other organs - heart, lungs - appeared to be missing as well. The look on Marcus's mother's dead face was one of faint surprise, but not pain or fear. Thank God she hadn't been totally aware of what was happening to her. Marcus really was insane.
'That's it, let's get the hell out of here...' A little voice said in Rose's head, but she was immobile, paralized by the shock of seeing the mutilated woman.
Then she heard the crash in the living room. For a second she wondered if she was going to faint. 'Please don't be the dalek thing, please don't be the dalek thing...' She whispered under her breath like a mantra. She glanced around for something heavy and settled on a massive enclyclopedic volume, before creepig n back to the door. Before she could reach it, the door swung open of its own accord. A human face peered in and then focused in her direction. "What are you doing in here? Doing a little bit of private investigating? Very clever! Well done you."
The Doctor strolled in and sniffed the air curiously. "Blimey - what's he been cooking in here? Brains?"
Rose nodded, still slightly stunned, and wondered how the Doctor could be so quiet. Sure - it was fine for sneeking past the enemy or whatever, but she could have had a heart attack. Or attacked him with volume R-S of the Enclyclopedia and history of Scientific studies, which she still clutched in a trembling hand.
***
Upstairs, Marcus Bohler awoke with a start. Rose had not been the only one to have heard the Doctor's entrance.
Episode 4
by imbored22001
Where have you been, demanded Rose, almost hissing under her breath. I looked for you everywhere.
Ive been busy.
With what?
This and that. I had some business to sort out. Now what have you been doing while Ive been away? Making friends I hope.
Its Marcus, hes gone psycho. He killed his mum.
Well, we all want to do that sometimes-,
Dont joke about it, she replied, agitatedly. You dont understand hes gone all Frankenstein on her, taken her brain and put it in some strange machine.
What machine?
It looks a bit like a Dalek.
Really?
***
Marcus shrugged on his quilted dressing gown, and slid on his slippers. He pulled off the dust sheet covering his creature and activated it, polishing it affectionately with his sleeve. He wanted it active just in case he needed some form of defense. He walked swiftly out of the room towards the basement taking hold of a fire poker and weighing it in his hands ready to take a swing at any intruder. Marcus crept downstairs avoiding the creaky floorboards so as not to give any warning. He wasnt going to let anyone steal his invention not ever and he would protect his work by any means at his disposal.
***
I found these in the drawer over there, she handed him the formulae. I think there some kind of plans. Do they mean anything to you?
The Doctor took them from her flicking through the pages with an intense frown on his face.
Hmmm.
Hmmmm? What does that mean?
It means we have trouble on our hands.
You certainly do, said Marcus taking them both by surprise. Those belong t me thief.
His entrance had been so stealthily no one had realized how long he had been standing there. Marcus swung the poker at the Doctor it connected with the back of the Timelords skull with a sickening clunk. He sunk to the floor unconscious. Rose screamed.
Be quiet, snapped Marcus, as he approached Rose. Blood stained poker in one hand he grabbed her wrist with the other. I will not have my work disturbed.
You killed him, exclaimed Rose, on the edge of tears, panic in her eyes. She glanced down at the prostrate body of the Doctor, then back at Marcus, his piercing blue eyes full of hate.
Hes not dead yet, he sneered. I need him for the experiment.
Let me go! Please-,
No.
He put down the poker on the thick battered wooden bench that housed several bottles and scientific equipment. Marcus dragged her towards a chair which sat in the corner picking up some rope as he went.
What are you going to do?
Im going to make the first in a long line of tests of my brilliant creation, He shoved her into the seat and began tying the ropes. And you are going to be my audience.
Youre mad, she exclaimed, struggling to escape her bonds. You-,
She paused having seen movement in the background. The Doctor was coming to; Rose realized she had to keep Marcus distracted.
You wouldnt hurt a girl would you? I can tell youre a gentleman. There is no need for these ropes.
Oh, my dear you can fool me that easily. I cant have you go running to my rivals telling them all my secrets can I?
He went to turn away.
Wait, please. Wait. I dont quite understand what it is you want to achieve. Explain it to me, she fluttered her eyelashes, cringing inside at how clichd this was, but she knew from experience that every megalomaniac liked to boast. Please?
- Write the next episode
of The New Empire -
