Revery of Madness (Doctor Who)

II - A hint of something bigger

"Wh... where's Cassy?" Roka exclaimed, frantically turning around herself. "Dam! She was right next to me!"

"Not here, not upstairs either," the Doctor remarked, waving her screwdriver over the now shrunken mass of black scribbles on the back wall. It had calmed down a lot, even the scratching noises had vanished.

"Are you alright?" was the only thing the Master wanted to know, already observing Roka from head to toe. Then he scolded, "You bloody idiot! Who knows what could have happened! Why didn't you call me earlier?"

Roka winced slightly, evading his penetrating glare. "To be fair, you always say ghosts aren't real," she tried meekly. "Thought you'd just laugh."

He growled in return, probably because Roka's words weren't so far from the truth. Instead of saying more, he only ruffled through her hair and finally trod next to the Doctor, who had her whole face scrunched up at the readings on her Sonic.

"Well, it's certainly no ghost." The Master's eyes darted towards the black wall, then back at the Time Lady.

"It might be just that," she answered, although sounding as if she were talking more to herself. "I don't get any readings. At all. It's as if..." She waved a hand over the mass, "it just doesn't exist."

"Bollocks!" the Master called out, ripping the Sonic from her hand to repeat the procedure. He also grabbed an old metal rod to poke the wall. The scribbles didn't react, didn't lash out, nor did they spread. All while Roka, briefly, told what exactly had just happened.

"Makes no sense," the Master grumbled, glaring hatefully at the Sonic and ignoring the Doctor, who wanted to get it back. "No readings. How can that stuff yield no readings?!"

"Has it... gotten Cassy?" Roka wanted to know. "She can't be anywhere else. It was just so dark and..." She let out a deep breath, a guilty consciousness gnawing on her. "Dammit. That's all my fault. She was so afraid and I... just wouldn't listen."

"We'll get her back, don't worry!" the Doctor called out, straightening her back. "There aren't that many creatures, who could do something like this, we'll just have to-"

"We... won't do anything," the Master growled, towering menacingly over the blond woman. "That human isn't of my concern. And that parasite," his finger shot towards the wall, "isn't either. I only want to get away from here."

With that he hurled around and strode towards the stairs. "I stabilized the connection to River, by the way," he casually told Roka, trying to drag her with him by grabbing her sleeve.

A little perplexed about his behaviour it took her a second to react. Roka carefully tore her arm away and stopped, suddenly realizing he was serious.

"H... hey," she let out. "I'm not going to just leave. Cassy needs help."

The Master blinked at her, then scrunched up his nose. "No, she doesn't. If my device works as intended, we won't stay here for long anyway."

"That's not the point!"

"I'm definitely not going to leave this unsolved," the Doctor tossed in.

The Master rolled his eyes at her. "C'mon, how many weird alien parasites are there on this rock? More than you can count. More than you can get rid of. If I start wasting my time with this, we'll be stuck here forever. Besides," a wicked smirk plastered itself on his face, "I really don't care about any one of those apes."

Roka scowled at him, pursing her lips slightly. "I'm one of those, remember?"

"Oh, you know what I mean," he mocked, putting a finger under her chin. "And you're not like them. You're so much better, little crow."