Soul's Shadow (Doctor Who - SI)

Part II (III)

I awoke in utter darkness, my head aching in a weird, pounding way. Slowly I sat up, groaning quietly and trying to remember what had happened and how I had gotten here.

Where even was I?

My hands fumbled around in the darkness, reaching nothing but the floor beneath me. Wood? There was a seam, another one. The material felt warm. Definitely some kind of wood. No walls. None I could reach from here, at least. Also, the fact that I was able to reach around meant my hands weren't tied together. Were my feet? No.

Carefully I lifted myself from the ground, always holding my hands over me, in case there was something I could bang my head against. It was so horribly dark... As soon as I stood, my head started to spin. There was no way to tell how wide the space around me was, no way to orient myself or to get my mind to keep its balance.

With a sigh I sat down again, tried to look at my hands. Was there really no light at all? Or...

I gulped, my heart suddenly pounding fast and painful in my chest. Had I gone blind? Had the Master done something to my eyes? The glasses on my nose were also missing.

Right, he had taken it, before sending me to sleep. Hypnotism? Was that why he had come so close and touched my head? I reached up, feeling for my temples as if it would do anything.

Well, there was nothing to gain from sitting around. Carefully I got to my knees and fumbled the ground in front of me, inching a little forward and repeated the process. If I was blind there could be an unseen drop right in front of me, and I wasn't in the mood to fall to my death.

I didn't get far, though. Probably one or two meters, at most, when my hand suddenly touched cloth. I poked whatever was in front of me.

"Stop that," someone hissed. "And be quiet."

"Master?" I asked perplex, keeping my voice low. The surprise vanished quickly, however, got replaced by annoyance and a little anger. "What did you do to me?"

"Shhhh, quiet."

I felt his hand on my arm and got dragged forward, falling against his shoulder. Inwardly I got myself ready to fight, but he didn't do anything else.

"Why can't I see?" I whispered, trying to ignore that he still held my arm. Somewhat clumsy I sat down next to him, shoulder to shoulder.

"Because it's dark, duh!" he hissed back, his eye-roll practically audible.

Alright. At least something.

From nearby there were steps, coming closer and closer. The Master tensed and his hand snapped to my mouth to prevent me from making any noise. Not that I had intended to, unknowing as I was. If there was something dangerous outside, I sure as hell didn't want it to eat me!

The steps halted right in front of whatever place they were in. Time stretched to a small eternity, the silence making my heartbeat appear unbelievably loud. It took me a second to realize I was clutching the Master's sleeve with both hands, but I couldn't bring myself to let go just yet. Only when the steps proceeded and eventually vanished did I unclench my fists and let out a breath.

A chuckle resounded through the dark. "Really, you should be more afraid of me than anything else."

"Better the devil you know..." I muttered and relaxed a little.

My response brought out another chuckle and I felt him move away, getting to his feet and doing something. A strip of blindingly bright light flooded the room, made me flinch and hold an arm over my eyes.

"Don't make fuss, human. And come quick, before the Doctor is back."

"The..." I took my arm down and blinked a few times to get used to the light. It wasn't that bright, actually. A quick look back with squinted eyes also revealed we had been in some completely empty room. Not even windows. That really made me wonder what its purpose might be. "Just now... that was the Doctor?" I tried again, barely able to wrap my head around this.