Doctor Who: If Only In My Dreams (Christmas Special 2023)

Stave 3: Where Are You Christmas?

     I laid in bed until I realized something was wrong with my room. I looked around, and saw that all my stuff was gone. It was replaced with someone else's almost as if someone new lived here now.

     On my nightstand was a picture of a woman in her 40s. Was that who lived here now? No it couldn't be. Who keeps a picture of themselves on their nightstand? Maybe the woman was a friend or relative.

     I clicked the lights on. The room was so boring. Everything fun was gone, so basically all of my stuff. 

     The Doctor did have a time machine. Was this even the same night? I looked out the window, and saw it was still snowing. Now that confirmed it. This couldn't be a coincidence. It had to be the same night.

     What was I meant to do now though? All those Christmas memories went bad. The Doctor was out of action. I needed to do something. Maybe the TARDIS could take me back?

     I pushed the handle forward. I didn't lock the door. Why wouldn't it open? Great! I had a time and space machine parked in my bedroom, but couldn't use it because it was locked!

     The TARDIS made a strange wavering, pulsating noise. I assume it meant something bad, a warning perhaps? If that was the case, what was it trying to warn me of? 

     I could hear soft shuffling footsteps downstairs. Who was that? It couldn't have been Mom or Dad. Usually when they walked it was with a thump that shook the whole house. Was it the Doctor?!? Maybe he survived!?!

     I ran down the stairs to the sitting room. Wait... Where was our tree? Maybe this wasn't Christmas Eve? Maybe the TARDIS overshot the date by a bit?

     It took me a moment, but soon, I noticed the cloaked figure sitting in one of my leather chairs. I physically jumped. Even though I couldn't see into the shadowy hood, it felt like the figure was staring at me.

     "Who are you?" I asked.

     The figure kept staring silently.

     "What did you do with the Doctor?"

     "I did nothing to him," a scratchy masculine voice replied.

     "Now don't lie to me," I said. "I saw you do it! You sort of absorbed the Doctor into your cloak." For some reason when I said that, the word Abzorbaloff came to mind.

     "Fine! Do you want to see what's happened to the Doctor!?"

     I backed up against the wall, ready to make an escape if I must, "Ummm... Yes please."

     The figure raised up both his arms, and opened his cloak. The Doctor's pale face was semi translucent, and in his chest. His previously green eyes were now replaced with completely grey ones.

     I walked up a step. "What's happening to him?"

     "He's fading... All stories from childhood do eventually." The figure closed his robe and reopened it. Now instead of the Doctor's face was another. Only this face was much more faded, I could hardly see who it was.

     I stumbled forward to get a closer look. Who was that? They looked oddly familiar. I got so close that I was right up in front of the figure, and that's when my jaw dropped to the floor. It was Santa Claus. His face was in the figure. He was fading. I fell to my knees. "Please! What can I do?! How do I save them!?"

     "There's nothing."

     "Nooo! There has to be something!" I grabbed the figure, and shook him so hard that his hood came flying off. It was my face under the hood, but much older. "Wha... How are you me?"

     "I am what you become. It's time to grow up! Time to put away childish games like Father Christmas and Doctor Who!"

     Suddenly, I felt myself being sucked into the cloak. I screamed as loud as I could, but it felt like I was yelling out into an abyss.

***

     I woke up. That's when everything came into perspective.

     "Doctor Who isn't real," I mumbled to myself. "He's just a character I watched on TV when I was a kid."

A Grown Up Christmas List: Coming December 24th