Starman [ Life on Mars / Doctor Who Crossover ]

Chapter 8 The Seeker

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In 1942, a boy stood on a street.

It wasn't a large street. Crowded in on either side by two-story flat-houses, the thin, snake-like curve of the road made it small to anyone who might see it from above, naught but a tiny crevasse in the sprawl of the city, edged in by bricks and mortar. But to a boy, it might seem huge. It might seem mountainous, insurmountable, a canyon cut straight from sky to ground. It might seem like the walls of the world, conspiring to keep him caged.

The boy swallowed a lump in his throat and rubbed the bruises under his collar, clammy and wet from sweat and cold. It'd been hours since he'd run out his front door with little more than an old shirt and stinging welts, since he'd soaked up enough mist and rain to feel a sodden rag.

Alarms blared. A shiver traveled up the length of his spine and situated itself between his shoulders, where he sagged from awful exhaustion. He was tired and hungry. He was scared.

He'd lost someone, here on the street he lived.

Here on Percy Lane.