Timeless [Doctor Who/11th Doctor]

3. Golden

CHAPTER THREE

Any sign of rejoicing about the monsters leaving had long faded from the man stood in front of me. He hung his head low, letting out a sigh that sounded like it had been held in for a hundred years.
"That's good, right?" I tip-toed towards him. "It's good that they left?"
Sorrowful, his eyes lifted from the floor to look at me. "Yeah," he whispered, the tone contradicting his words. "It's good."
Gently, I bumped my fist against his shoulder. "Cheer up then," I laughed. "I'm pretty sure you just saved the world."

Silence graced the air as we made our way down the rain-painted steps, the sun warming my icy skin from the cold rain-water that dripped from my hair.

The gate was now lifted, a frightened man popping his head up from the counter in the little gift shop at the entrance.
The Doctor, as the deadly spirit had called him, stepped through the glass doors - and I could've sworn I heard him mutter under his breath "I do love a gift shop," before approaching the shopkeeper with care.

"You're safe now, don't worry. Just some, uh... pesky kids playing a prank."
The man narrowed his eyes behind his glasses, "It's you, isn't it? It's actually you."
Jeez, what was he - famous?
"I've read about you in the history books. My favourite is World War Two, with those metal things. Brilliant stuff!"
"Oh, stop it," he laughed, flicking his hand in the air like he was swatting the compliment away.
I just stood in the corner, tossing a bouncy rubber ball with an image of the castle printed on it, my brow furrowed slightly.
"Doctor," The man whispered in disbelief, shaking his hand firmly. "It is such an honour."

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As he walked down to the bottom of the hill, I couldn't help but run to follow him. Despite having done plenty of chasing already that day.
"Are you going to explain any of that to me?" I shouted after him.
He spun back around to me just as he reached a police box I had never seen before at the edge of the empty car park.
"I think you got most of it, bookshop girl," he said, running his hands through his rain-soaked hair.
"Not the... the ghosts, or whatever." Standing right in front of him, I chuckled and shook my head, "All that stuff you said, all those words... Who are you?"
He shrugged, smirk overtaking the gloom on his face. "I'm the Doctor."
"I thought you were John Smith," I laughed, mocking the normality of such a name for such an unordinary man.
At this, he couldn't help but laugh back. "Just the Doctor. Sorry, had to blend in here for a while to figure out what was really going on. And you, Charlotte Thorne - if that is your real name," he joked. "You were brilliant today."

My mind retraced the way we ran in the storm, the floating ghost and the haunting whispers in the dark. As I stood there, puzzled as ever, he turned his back to me and walked closer to the police box.
"Hey!" I followed, refusing to let this go. The most confusing day of my life had just unravelled, and I still hadn't woken up from it yet.

He was now stood by the door of the blue box, mischief glinting like a sunbeam in his eyes. I couldn't help but wonder if it was just any old blue box or...
"Who are you?"
"I already told you."
"No, really. You just saved the world and now you're going to just... strut away and stand in a police box for a few hours?"
This seemed to only trigger his mischievous look further.
"Well... you could come with me," he propositioned, speaking so carefully that he made it sound like the universe's most important question.
"Stand in a box with you for a couple of hours?" I scrunched my face up in disgust. "You might have just saved my life, but I'll pass, thanks."

All he did in response was click his fingers, which opened the navy doors. My stare was locked onto him, until I dared to glance to my right and look inside. Before my eyes, a golden paradise curved around a centre-piece of wires and buttons and green lights. I reached my hand past the door, waiting to feel the surface of the picture he had stuck up, but it went straight through the entrance.

When I averted my wondrous gaze back to the Doctor, he was still looking right at me with a knowing smile. He was waiting for me to say something.
"Nice place, this," I decided on.
"I guess," his smile grew wider. With his hand stretched out, he gestured for me to step inside. I was almost scared of when my feet touched the metal slope that lead up into the glowing arches, like the magic might crumble beneath my toes. Bad dreams always seemed to end just as things got better.

One step. Nothing vanished just yet. I took another careful step, my eyes struggling to take in every detail.
"Oh, hurry up," the Doctor joked from outside.
I spun back to grin at him as I finally reached middle of the room. He followed in, hands soon fiddling with different levers on the sparkly console. As he pressed various buttons, music started playing and the lights flashed. Okay, he was just showing off now.

"Are you magic or something?" I raised my eyebrow at him. Witchcraft would be the least weird thing to happen to me that day.
Forever ignoring my questions, he leaned against the console beside me and asked, "So do you want to come?"
I glanced to the side, looking at him quizzically. "There's more?"
"Oh, bookshop girl, there's always more. There's entire galaxies out there if you want."
"Entire galaxies, huh?" I giggled and bumped my shoulder against his.
He pushed me back and shook his head with a grin.
"If you could go anywhere, absolutely anywhere, where would you go?"
"I don't know, Paris?" I shrugged. "Are you offering plane tickets or something?"
Pushing himself up off the console, and flicking more levers, he just beamed. "Paris it is!" He shouted up to the ceiling as the whole room began to shake and a whooshing sound erupted around us.