Escape (ON HOLD)

Chapter Nine

"W-what do you mean?" I stammered, quite confused.

He didn't move and just continued to stand there, his hands clasped behind his back. He was studying my face as if he were looking for something he could never find. Or for something he already knew was there. Then just as suddenly, he spun around and marched back over to the console. He flipped a few switches and then beckoned me over. He grabbed the glass from me and set it aside, then he grabbed my hands and shoved them down into the gooey part of the console yet again. It was warm and soft and felt slightly wet, and at first there was a slight pinch on my fingertips, different than the first time.

"Ow!"

"Oh, stop your whining and concentrate. Try to think about everything that happened before the orphanage and when you see the darkness, concentrate on that."

"But why? And what is this?"

"I'm hooking you up to the Tardis mainframe. It will take us, quite literally, into the darkness of your mind. Hopefully there will be something on the other side."

"And if there's not?"

"Well... Oh, just shut up and think already."

I frowned, but did as he instructed. I thought back to the day at the orphanage, of me hiding in the corner. I tried to think about what I had been doing right before that, but nothing came to mind but the blackness and darkness. So I concentrated on that, on the darkness and emptiness. I could only hope I was doing exactly what I was told and that something good would come from it. I also hoped that if we did figure out who I was and where I came from, that I wouldn't have a tragic past like the one I currently had.

"It's working. Keep doing whatever it is you're doing!"

"It's rather difficult when you're yelling at me!"

"Shut up and think!"

It suddenly became painful to think about nothing, which was what I was doing in a sense. I struggled to keep my mind clear and the Tardis began to make the strangest of noises, stranger than the usual ones, and it started to shake as well.

"No, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor yelled.

I opened my eyes and yanked my hands free, stumbling backwards. The Doctor ran around the console frantically as lights started to flash and alarms went off.

"Doctor, what's wrong? What's going on?" Clara asked.

"Whatever pudding brain did sent us to another dimension! A very, very dangerous things to do and the Tardis doesn't like it! She's trying to fight it, because we aren't just going to any dimension, we are going for the worst one possible! I've had some experiences with the impossibility of traveling between dimensions, and last time things got ugly... Friends of mine were trapped... Horrid story, but anyways, what we're doing is tearing a hole in the fabric of time and reality! Again."

"What?! What do you mean again?!"

"This is what happened last time and this is the reason why traveling between dimensions is so dangerous and stupid! And pudding brain here just had to do it!" He pointed a finger at me accusingly.

"I was only doing what you told me to do!" I yelled back. "How was I suppose to know that trusting you would rip time and space?! I don't even know what that's supposed to mean!" He frowned at me, but seemed slightly saddened, and continued running around the console.

Finally there was a thud, but it shook the Tardis quite a bit and caused more alarms to go off. The Doctor paused what he was doing and stared at the door. Then he slowly and cautiously walked forward, pausing again to listen momentarily before slowly opening it.

"Oh dear..." he quietly said. Clara and I shared a look before joining him over by the door and peering out.

"Whoa..." Clara said. "That's..."

"Dark..." I finished. There was absolutely nothing out there, not even the slightest bit of light. It, quite literally, was nothing but blackness and darkness never ending. I stepped to the edge of the Tardis and peered down, hoping there was some form of ground. To my surprise, there was nothing there when I stepped out, though I didn't fall at all. I didn't dare venture too far though.

Clara's phone suddenly began to ring and she pulled it out, looking at the caller ID. "Oh, it's Danny..."

"Who's Danny?" I asked.

"He's, um--"

"PE teacher," the Doctor interrupted somewhat grumpily.

"How many times must I tell you he's a math teacher?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Doesn't seem right; I can't wrap my mind around it." Then something suddenly occurred to him. He grabbed Clara's phone from her and pulled out his sonic screwdriver again, simultaneously answering the call. "Do not hang up the phone," he said into the speaker.

Clara looked like she was about to lose it. She reached for her phone back, but the Doctor pulled it out of her reach. "Doctor!"

"What?"

"Give it back!"

"No. Haven't you noticed? We are in a completely different dimension and you're still getting cell service!"

"So?!"

"So? So?! It shouldn't be possible! Now shut up and stop whining!" He continued to mess with her phone and she stood there, glaring at him.

I walked a little bit farther from the Tardis, slowly. The farther away I walked, the lighter my surroundings became until suddenly I was in the middle of a high tech city street. I looked behind me and I could no longer see the Tardis.

Buildings towered above me, reaching high past the low laying clouds. Aliens and people of all colors, shapes, and sizes crowded on the street, pushing past me. Above were cars, if you could even call them that, flying through the night sky. To be honest, it was exactly what you might picture if you were to think of a futuristic city in a different dimension on some unknown planet. And it had me second-guessing what I was really seeing. Though everything was tangible, it all shimmered ever so slightly like it was nothing more than a projection. Then I noticed something curious. I was in the middle of a bustling city, but I couldn't hear or smell a thing. I didn't know what to think of it all, so I turned around and started walking in the direction I thought the Tardis was in. But it wasn't there anymore.

The farther I walked in that direction, the more the scene around me began to change. It started to change into a rolling countryside, a picturesque rolling countryside. And again everything seemed to be shimmering slightly.

"Doctor!" I yelled, hoping I really hadn't just managed to get lost in a different dimension. "Clara?! Doctor!" There was no reply.

"Who's this Doctor and Clara you keep calling for?"

I jumped and then spun around with a small squeak. Standing behind me was a boy who looked to be about my age, with shaggy blonde hair and dark eyes, casually standing there and munching on an apple.

"No one," I finally managed.

"Hm." He seemed unconvinced and rather uninterested.

"Who're you? And where am I?"

"Who am I?" he snapped. "None of your concern. And as for where you are, you're in the Third Dimension, you idiot."

"What--"

"Is the Third Dimension?" he interrupted. He groaned. "The fact that you even have to ask... What, did you get lost or something?" he asked sarcastically. I nodded. "Great. Well good luck getting back to wherever the heck you're from." He turned and started to walk away.

"Wait!" I ran after him, putting a hand on his arm.

He spun around, furious. He pushed me back. "Don't you ever dare touch me," he growled. His hands started to glow as if there was something underneath his skin. Then he paused and stared at me, open-mouthed. I looked down to see what he was staring at and saw that my hands were glowing as well. They. Were. Glowing. Glowing! I didn't even bother trying not to freak out.

The boy stepped a bit closer, cautiously. "Who are you...?"