- 𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 !

030

—chapter thirty | Vincent and the Doctor.

—AMY POND HAD FORGOTTEN RORY WILLIAMS. It seemed so odd to not have Rory around anymore. But to Amy Pond, everything seemed normal. That's why they were in a museum. A Van Gogh museum.

"So this is one of the last paintings Van Gogh ever painted. Those final months of his life were probably the most astonishing artistic outpouring in history. It was like Shakespeare knocking off Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear over the summer hols." The trio walked towards the group. "And especially astonishing because Van Gogh did it with no hope of praise or reward."

"Thanks for bringing us." Amy thanked the Doctor while Eve looked around in amazement.

"You're welcome."

"You're being so nice to us. Why are you being so nice to us?" Amy asked.

"I'm always nice to you."

"Not like this. These places you're taking us - Arcadia, the Trojan Gardens, now this. I think it's suspicious." Amy glanced at the Doctor who glanced at Eve, the redhead smirked.

"There's nothing to be suspicious about."

"Okay, I was joking. Why aren't you?"

"Each of these pictures now is worth tens of millions of pounds. Yet in his lifetime, he was a commercial disaster. Sold only one painting, and that to the sister of a friend." The tourist explained as Eve looked over Amy's shoulder and into the book she held. "We have here possibly the greatest artist of all time, but when he died, you could have sold his entire body of work and got about enough money to buy a sofa and a couple of chairs."

The group laughed. "If you follow me now..."

"Who is it?" A boy's voice rang.

"It's the Doctor." Another spoke making the group turn around. "He was the doctor who took care of Van Gogh when he started to go mad."

"I knew that."

"Look! There it is, the actual one." Amy dragged the two over to a painting.

"Yes. You can almost feel his hand painting it right in front of you." The Doctor looked at the painting. "Carving the colours into shapes... Wait a minute."

"What is it?" Eve asked.

"Well, just look at that." The Doctor pointed to the window on the painting. There was something in it.

"What?" Amy asked this time.

"Something very not good indeed."

"What thing very not good?"

"Look," Eve pointed out to Amy. "In the window of the church." Amy leaned closer to see. "It's a face."

"And not a nice face at all. I know evil when I see it and I see it in that window." The Doctor said before he went toward the Tour guide with psychic paper. "Excuse me. If I can just interrupt for one second. Sorry, everyone. Routine inspection, Ministry of Art and... Artiness. So, um..."

"Dr. Black."

"Yes, that's right. Do you know when that picture of the church was painted?"

"Ah, what an interesting question. Most people-"

"When was it?"

"Exactly?"

"As exactly as you can. Without a long speech, if poss. I'm in a hurry." The Doctor said making Dr.Black think.

"Well, in that case, probably somewhere between the 1st and 3rd of June."

"What year?"

"1890." Dr. Black said. "Less than a year before he killed himself."

"Thank you, sir. Very helpful indeed. Nice bow-tie. Bow-ties are cool." He smiled at the two girls before looking at Dr. Black.

"Yours is very..."

"Oh, thank you. Keep telling them stuff. We need to go." He took Eve's hand causing Amy to run after them.

"What about the other pictures?" She asked as she looked back.

"Art can wait. This is life and death." The Doctor pushed Amy ahead of them. "We need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh."

_

"Right, so here's the plan." The Doctor said as the three stepped foot out of the Tardis. "We find Vincent and he leads us straight to the church and our nasty friend."

They began to walk away from the big blue box. "Easy-peasy." Amy nodded.

"Well, no. I suspect nothing will be easy with Mr. Van Gogh. Now, he'll probably be in the local cafe - sort of orangey light, chairs and tables outside." The Doctor described while Amy looked through her book to find the said image. She showed it to the two.

"Like this?"

"That's the one."

"Or like that?" Eve pointed towards the exact cafe right in front of them. The Doctor looked up before smiling at her.

"Yeah, exactly like that." The Doctor and Eve walked towards the cafe with Amy following behind. "Good evening. Does the name Vincent Van Gogh ring a bell?"

The man the Doctor was talking to walked away with disgust. "Don't mention that man to me."

"Excuse me." He looked towards two women cleaning the tables. "Do you know Vincent Van Gogh?"

"Unfortunately."

"Unfortunately?" Amy questioned.

"He's drunk, he's mad, and never pays his bills." One of the women told them as Amy and Eve stood and watched.

"Good painter, though, eh?" The Doctor said which made the two women burst out laughing. There was a voice from inside the cafe as The Doctor sat down.

"Come on! Come on! One painting for one drink. That's not a bad deal." Vincent Van Gogh came walking out of the cafe alongside the Cafe owner.

"It wouldn't be a bad deal if the painting were any good. I can't hang that up on my walls." Amy, the Doctor, and Eve were all silently freaking out. "It's bad enough having you in here in person, let alone looming over the customers day and night in a stupid hat. You pay money or you get out."

"I'll pay if you like." The doctor spoke up.

"What?"

"Well, if you like. I'll pay for the drink. Or I'll pay for the painting and you can use the money to pay for the drink."

"Exactly who are you?" Vincent asked the man with the bow tie.

"I'm... new in town." Vincent looked at him.

"Well, in that case, you don't know three things. One, I pay for my own drinks, thank you." He said making everyone except The Doctor, him, Eve, and Amy laugh. "Two, no one ever buys my paintings or they would be laughed out of town, so if you want to stay in town, I suggest you keep your cash to yourself."

"And three, your friend's cute, but you should keep your big nose out of other people's business." He told the Doctor making Amy smile while Eve just watched. "Come on, just one more drink. I'll pay tomorrow."

"No."

"Or, on the other hand, slightly more compassionately, yes."

"Or, on the other hand," Eve slowly but carefully walked passed the two and towards the Doctor. "to protect my business from madmen, no."

"Or...?"

"Oh, look," Amy spoke up making them turn to her. "just shut up, the pair of you! I would like a bottle of wine, please, which I will then share with whomever I choose."

Eve glanced at the Doctor. "That could be good."

"That's good by me." The owner told them.

"Good," Amy said before walking into the cafe. The owner pushed the painting to Vincent as The Doctor and Eve stood.

"It feels wrong." She told him. "So wrong."

"I know." The Doctor muttered. "But she can't remember him, so what can we do?"

__