Yowzah Oneshot Collection (3)

128(G)

       Nightmares In Candlelight

                  RayvenFeather

River closed the eyewitness reports and sighed. She picked up her journal and looked at the date printed on one of the pages; 22/04/11 5:02pm Lake Silencio, Apparently the day The Doctor dies, she sniffed, not if she could help it.

“Tick tock, goes the clock, and what now shall we play? Tick tock, goes the clock, now summer's gone away.” A short, stumpy woman in an eye patch appeared out of the shadows.

“Hello?” River was confused, nobody should be here now, she had made sure she was alone.

“Such a lovely old song. But is it about him?” The woman asked.

River concentrated on the woman, trying to find out why she looked familiar, and why she had the urge to run from her. She decided to play along.

“You know about the Doctor?” River said excitedly, standing up.

“So very well. Oh, don't try and remember me. We've been far too thorough with your dear little head.” She said looking, at something over her shoulder.

River turned to see who the woman was looking at to see two pale, menacing creatures advancing towards her.

“Oh! What are they? What are those things?!”

"Your owners.”

River whipped around, confused and frightened, but couldn’t remember why. “My what?”

“So, they made you a Doctor today, did they? Doctor River Song. How clever you are.” River smiled nervously at the compliment, her urge to run growing stronger by the second. “You understand what this is, don't you?” the woman said, turning her attention to the date in her diary.

“According to some accounts, it's the day the Doctor dies. By Silencio Lake, on the Plain of Sighs, an Impossible Astronaut will rise from the deep and strike the Time Lord dead.” The woman commented, a strange light gleaming in her eyes.

“It's a story.” River said, gathering her belongings, tired of this madwoman’s ramblings.

“And this is where it begins.”

River froze, still confused at what this woman was going on about.

“You never really escaped us, Melody Pond. We were always coming for you.”

River looked up, her eyes wide, panic spreading through her body. “How do you know who I am?”

“I made you what you are. The woman who kills the Doctor.”

River watched in horror as two soldiers came through the Library door, holding parts of a spacesuit.

“No!” she cried, struggling as two more soldiers came and seized her arms, one of them injecting her with what only could be a sedative. The world began to fade and all River could hear was the woman’s cruel singing as they forced her into the suit.

“Tick tock, goes the clock, and all the years they fly. Tick tock, and all too soon, your love will surely die…”

River awoke feeling only pure terror. Still thinking that she was back in the library at Luna, she panicked as she felt arms gripping her shoulders and fell back upon her instincts, she wriggled out of her assailant’s grasp, pinning him onto the floor.

“River it’s me!” The Doctor shouted from beneath her.

River blinked rapidly, realizing that she was safe on the TARDIS in their bedroom and she’d rolled off of the bed and was pinning The Doctor to the floor. She released her hold on him, quickly got up and strode out of the room, vigorously wiping the tears from her eyes and readjusting her bun.