Time Book I

The Unquiet Dead

CHAPTER 15| PRAISE THEM

   Rose and the Doctor talk while walking into the morgue, when Dickens interrupts.

   "Doctor, I think the room is getting colder."

   "Here they come," Rose says. A Gelth comes out of a gas lamp by the door and stands under a stone archway.

   "You've come to help. Praise the Doctor! Praise (Y/N)! Praise them!" the Gelth says.

   "Promise you won't hurt her."

   "Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."

   "We'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, alright?" (Y/N) says.

   "My angels. I can help them live," Gwyneth says.

   "Okay, where's the weak point?"

   "Here, beneath the arch," the Gelth says. Gwyneth stands under the arch, inside the Gelth. "Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!"

   "Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" Gwyneth says. "Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!" Gwyneth opens her mouth, and blue gas comes out.

   "She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend," the Gelth says. The sweet blue apparition turns flame red with sharp teeth. It's voice deepens and hardens. "The Gelth come through with force."

   "You said that you were few in number," Dickens says.

   "A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." The dead begin to rise from their place.

   "Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you!" Sneed says.

   "Mister Sneed, get back!" Rose says. A corpse grabs Sneed and snaps his neck. A Gelth zooms into his mouth.

   "I think it's gone a little bit wrong," the Doctor says.

   "I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us," Sneed says.

   "No," Dickens says.

   "Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth," the Gelth says looking at the four living people left in the room. Dead Sneed backs Rose, (Y/N), and the Doctor up against a metal gate.

   "Doctor, (Y/N), I can't. I'm sorry. this new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so-" Dickens says.

   "Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your live for the Gelth." The trio hide behind the metal gate, where the corpses cannot reach them.

   "I trusted you. I pitied you!" the Doctor yells.

   "We don't want your pity. We want this world and all it's flesh."

   "Not while we're alive!" (Y/N) says.

   "Then live no more." Dickens runs out of the house, but blue gas seeps out round the door. He runs down the street chased by the Gelth.

   "But I can't die. Tell me I can't. I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die isn't it?" Rose asks the two.

   "We're sorry!" (Y/N) says.

   "But it's 1869. How can I die now?"

   "Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all our fault. We brought you here."