The Night the Earth Stood Still

The House

My alien friend took Amethyst's hand, and the four of us began to make our way to Amethyst's run-down home she'd been staying in. I couldn't imagine what'd it be like to live by myself. No family, no money, no Rory... It would be my own personal hell.

"How far is it?" Rory panted.

"Not much farther!" replied Amethyst. After making our way past shops, pedestrians, and homes, not to mention the odd looks we received from people on the streets, we came to a small cottage at the end of a street with red brick and black shutters. The grass in the yard was completely brown, there were no flowers or bushes; no greenery at all. Nothing to spike a bit of interest in the eye. The four of us walked up the narrow sidewalk and Amethyst opened the door for us.

The interior was bleak, the furniture looked like it hadn't been used in months. Cobwebs had taken over parts of the house. The corners of the baby blue wallpaper was falling off. There were no signs of life and I felt the urge to leave. No wonder she didn't like it here.

"Well, this is it. The only place I could call home," Amethyst announced.

"So when do you feel like someone's watching you? All the time or just at night?" asked the Doctor, analysing everything in sight.

"At night, mostly, when I'm feeling alone in the world and crying myself to sleep," she answered.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, pressed the button and waved it in front of everything in sight.

"Doctor?" I asked, "What if it's some alien that wants scared little kids?" He turned and looked at me, "That's not possible, is it? It probably is, isn't it."

"Amelia Pond you might be on to something!"

The Doctor turned to Amethyst and took her aside.

"What does it say to you? What does it sound like??"

"Just... A voice. The same one every night. Then I hear a scream, and it's morning. That's my relief. Morning," she explained.

"What are you scared of?" the Gallifreyan asked softly.

"Being alone," came the timid response, "I hate it. I'm also a bit scared of the dark, even though that sounds quite childish. When I'm alone in the dark, something happens. I start to hear voices in my head. 'We see you', they say. It truly scares me. I used to think it was just my insanity from losing my family, but I've been on my own for quite some time now and I think it's really starting to get to me."

Amethyst turned to me.

"Where are you three from?" she asked.

I looked at the Doctor, and he nodded, letting me know it was okay to tell Amethyst the truth.

At that moment, Rory pulled me aside.

"Can we do this?" he asked, motioning the Doctor to join us.

"Of course we can," I assured him.

"She's just a little girl. What harm can come to us if she knows where we're from?" concluded the Doctor.

I let out a deep breath, trying to gather my thoughts. What would our story sound like to a normal person? Well, I guess Amethyst isn't exactly what most people would call "normal", but she's not a time traveller.

"We're from the year 2012," I began, "Well, we are," I added, taking my husband's hand in mine, "but he's not," I looked at the Doctor, and back to Amethyst.

"How'd you get here then? And what's 2012 like? I wonder if I'll still be around..." she wondered.

This time it was the Doctor who spoke, his words piercing through time and space as he explained his importance in all of this.

"I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. I've got a ship called the TARDIS that can travel anywhere in time and space. I'm 950 years old, and just happened upon Amy a long time ago, and she and Rory have been travelling with me for a long while," the alien explained.

"They always told us in school that wasn't possible," Amethyst stated, "I guess the teachers were wrong."

I smiled. She actually believed us. Usually we just get funny looks and questions, but Amethyst was indeed different.

Her eyes sparkled like she'd discovered something no one else knew about. Well, she had.

"Can you help me, though? Can your knowledge of the future help me?" she wondered aloud.

I thought we had a leg up on the whole

"World-War-Two-starts-tomorrow" thing. We knew what and when was gonna happen.

"It may assist us, but we've only got till tomorrow. We have to leave by tomorrow afternoon," the Doctor responded, frowning.

"Why? What's tomorrow? Something bad?" our new friend asked.

"World War Two," Rory announced. Nice going, stupid face. He should've let her know gently.

"What? Surely this time a war can be avoided, especially a world war!"

The Doctor let out a huge sigh and buried his face in his hands.

"Rory! You can't tell her the future!"

My husband looked confused, but that's almost normal for him.

"Why not? It's been a possibility for quite a while now, or back then, well, now, here, in this year. Yeah..." Rory defended himself, quite badly, I must add. The Doctor stared at Rory, rolled his eyes, and turned back to Amethyst.

He intertwined his fingers after straightening his ridiculous bow tie.

"Now," he said in that powerful voice that can turn back alien armies, "Let's defeat the Vaxic."