The Green Soul

Chapter 15

Rose walked towards the door, pushing past the Doctor.  She opened the door and smiled warmly at Marie and Ben, who stood just outside.  "We're ready," she said to her.

"I've discovered something," Ben said casually as they started to walk along back to the staircase.  "The... Entity, you called it?  We did not summon it, but it seemed to attack your wife, Doctor Smith.  How will we bring it about?"

"I'll talk to it," Rose replied, "I've no doubt it remembers being in my head.  It is not of this world, Mr. Glasser.  Its mind is probably miles and miles above ours."

She missed, as she usually did, the incredibly proud glance the Doctor threw her way at her words.

Marie nodded.  "It sounds logical," she said, "And you are both people of logic, I understand."

The Doctor nodded, "Yes, and I think Rose's idea will work fine," he said, "If she speaks to it, it might recognize her as someone who is willing to help and speak through her, as it did last night.  And if not, all it takes is a touch to make it leave."

Rose shivered at the thought.  She couldn't imagine living a whole life without ever being touched, which is what the entity had gone through.  It had possibly even lived eons longer than her or even the Doctor, all without feeling the warmth of another being, even while it was inhabiting someone. 

The four of them walked to the parlor and were seated in the couches facing each other that they had sat in upon their first arrival.  Rose wanted nothing more than to reach over and grab the Doctor's hand in hers, but at this point, it was only her pride stopping her from doing so.  Her fingers twitched without her permission.

The Doctor set a hand on the small of her back as she was sitting forward and rubbed his palm in soothing circles across the fabric of her dress.  It should've been comforting, but the only thing Rose could think of was what that would feel like without the hindrance of fabric.  She catalogued the sensation of his hand, against her dress (Reality) and skin (imagination) away for later, when her body would be iced from the inside.

There was a heavy silence over them, remembering exactly what they were doing, the danger they were putting Rose in.  Rose realized this was not a situation to take lightly, but somewhere in her mind she realized if she saved Ben and Marie, even if she died, it would be worth it.

"Alright, are we ready?" Rose asked quietly.

The Doctor's hand froze on her back and he slowly pulled it away, knowing he wouldn't be able to touch her as they were doing this.  An uneasy feeling crept up his back and he repressed a shudder at the odd sensation.

"Whenever you are ready," Ben nodded, his wife with an anxious look on her face beside him. 

Rose heaved a harsh sigh and sat farther forward in her seat, her eyes cast over Marie's head and to the wall.  "Remember me?"  She called, "I want to help you, but you're gonna have to talk through me again.  It's okay, cause my... Husband, Doctor James Smith, he's going to grab my arm and get you right out of me, so you don't have to worry about hurting me.  Okay?  Just come here and tell us what you want."

Almost the second Rose finished speaking, she slumped back onto the couch, her eyes closed. The Doctor had to physically restrain himself from reaching out to her, her neck tilted at an odd angle as she collapsed backwards.

She shot into a standing position so fast that the Doctor wondered if there had even been a moment when she had fallen backwards, or if he had just imagined it.  He blinked hard, trying to clear his head and focus on what was happening to her right now.

Her eyes flew open and she inhaled sharply before leveling out, her eyes staring, unseeing, at a point on the wall.  The others in the room, on reflex, got to their feet as well, all eyes fixed on her. 

"So cold," Rose murmured.  No.  Not Rose.  The Entity.

"Tell us what you need," the Doctor said, hoping to get its attention.  "We'll do our best to help you."

Rose's gaze shot to the Doctor, her eyes wide and glassy.  "I know not what I require," the Entity said mournfully.  "But you... You, Doctor James Smith, you have a tool you could use to find out what I need.  I could imprint you, and let you begin your research on me."

"My sonic screwdriver?" The Doctor asked, furrowing his brows.  He turned to a confused Ben and Marie Glasser.  He waved his hand dismissively.  "Oh, you know, science things.  Very ahead of the times, believe me."

"Yes!" The Entity cried, a ghoulish parody of Rose's voice.  "Yes, yes, the sonic device!  If I imprint on it, you may discover more about me than I know.  I beg you, I beg, you, please!" 

"And how do you know that?" The Doctor asked suspiciously, "How do you know that you need to get in the sonic?"

"It calls to me," the Entity replied, shifting Rose's eyes back to the wall above Marie's head.  "It would help me, I know it would.  You could create another sonic if you chose, could you not?"

"Of course I could, but we don't even know if you'd break the sonic when you inhabit it," the Doctor argued back.

"That is true," the Entity lowered Rose's head.  "That is true," it said quietly, a tear slipping from Rose's eye.  "But I would not want you to blame me when I only want to be saved.  I am so lost."

"I know you're lost," Marie said sympathetically.  "That's why we want to help you, you understand that, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Good, then you must know that a broken.... Sonic device?" She looked at the Doctor for conformation and he nodded.  "It will not stop us from helping you.  Mrs. Smith, the body you are inhabiting, she is... Convinced you are not of the devil, and convinced that we can help."

Rose's head snapped up.  "I am not of the devil," it said firmly.  "I promise."  Rose's lower lip trembled.  "I want to touch someone." Rose fingertips stretched towards Marie, but the other woman backed up.

"You can't touch any of us, it'll make you leave Rose," The Doctor reminded the Entity.  

Rose's hands lifted to cover her face.  "She is lonely too!" The Entity shouted, its voice muffled by her fingers.  "She only wants to be loved, she is always reaching, even now, reaching, reaching, for someone who will never reach back, who remains to be distant!"

The Doctor began to feel uncomfortable.  That's what Rose thought?  That he was never reaching for her?  Didn't she know that he always wanted to be with her?  Always wanted to reach for her?

"Then she does not know that someone very well," the Doctor replied, "Rose is well loved."

"A man, who Mrs. Smith courted," the Entity reached one of Rose's hand out as if pointing to a memory, "He is forgotten when you come into the moment, Doctor Smith.  Every piece of you, that is what she craves, oh, there is so much loneliness in this mind, so much great suffering and pain." 

Rose's body collapsed to the floor and the Entity started crying in earnest.  She was on her hands and knees now, one palm brought up to cover her eyes.  "No, she is so full of love, so full of energy and excitement, but she feels as though none of it is returned, how unfair, this poor human girl!"

The Doctor couldn't take any more.  He reached down and grabbed Rose's arm and she screamed.