Praeses Domina Ultimum - Doctor Who

Chapter Eight - Lockets, Lies and Cyberphobia

I think a garden gnome is haunting me. 

I glanced over my shoulder and I saw a garden gnome in the corner of my eye, then went back to writing. By the time I realized what I had seen and looked back, it was gone. 

What sort of Prisoner Zero Garden Gnome Hybrid BS is this?!?

Try to guess which part I wrote at one in the morning 😂

Freddie's POV.

I woke, staring at a ceiling covered in stars. 

Someone must have carried me to my room after I passed out. The same someone had also moved the bookcase to get a better look at the mural on the wall. I got up and walked towards it, tracing the letters on the Hollywood sign before I saw the snow globe. Towers and spires trapped in a glass dome. The city from my dreams.

Sighing, I walked back towards the foot of my bed and picked up my backpack, pulling it over my shoulder. I opened my bedroom door and peaked out into the hallway. The coast was clear.

As I left my room, I heard a noise that sounded a bit like static. I turned, looking at the name painted on my bedroom door. It was glitching, like an old tv when there's no single, the paint color and font changing every time. 

Fred-Ro-Trey-Dvora-Fr-Roma-Lu-Freddie. 

It stopped. I walked away, not noticing the name on my door glitch again, before it reset once more.

I went down the winding, identical halls, walking past hundreds of round things. The kitchen and library were both empty. Rose and Mickey were nowhere to be found. I had wanted to say goodbye, but seeing them would make leaving harder. 

I entered the console room as quickly and quietly as possible. The Doctor was distracted, writing something on a sticky note in some kind of circular scripture. 

Somehow, I made it to the doors unseen. I was just about to push the door open when- 

"Fred?"

Welp. That plan went right out the window. 

I turned slowly to face the designated driver. "Ummm... hi..."

The Doctor stuck the sticky note to the scanner and looked up. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," I lied, trying not to look him in the eye. 

'I really don't want to talk about it.' I thought as he made his way over. 'Not to you.'

"Fred I'm just trying to help." 

That was the second time he had reacted like that. It was almost like he could hear me. He had done it once at the school, and he did it again on the ship. He even looked nervous every time I thought of shoes. I was too distracted by the androids and weird daydream things to notice. 

Could he actually hear me?

"Where's Rose?" I asked, remembering the blond's absence.

"She's visiting her mother."

"And Mickey?" 

The Doctor froze mid step. "He's... he's gone home."

He hesitated. I had helped mum with fake journalist interviews while investigating alien activity. Hell, I helped Kate with an interrogation once. I've been doing this for so long- well, about three or four years now to be semi precise, which feels like a long time but probably isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things- I know when someone is avoiding the truth.