Thorn Bush (Doctor Who Story)

Chapter 29: The Crimson Horror

Jonas Thursday sits before them in the conservatory in 13 Paternoster Row, brother of Edmund Thursday who's been killed by the Crimson Horror. The mention of the death in the news and his brother's subsequent request for an audience means it's the beginning of a new episode as well as the fact that the Doctor and Clara have fallen into the clutches of Mrs Gillyflower.

"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting. I'm told you are the investigator to see if there are strange goings-on." Mr Thursday says from where he sits across from Kathy and Vastra, heavily veiled, while Jenny stands next to them.

"I read of your brother's death. Another victim of the Crimson Horror, I believe." Vastra says.

"So, it is claimed. He was a newspaper man. He and a young woman were working undercover." Mr Thursday further explains. "Tell me, madam, do you know what an optogram is?"

"It is a silly superstition, sir. The belief that the eye can retain an image of the last thing it sees."

"Now, now, what's wrong with silly?" Kathy pointedly remarks.

Vastra gives her a slight nod, realising what she's implying.

Mr Thursday hands over a couple of the photographs he had taken of his dead brother Edmund's staring eyes to Jenny, who hands them on to Vastra and Kathy. Kathy feels dread fill her as she spots a face that she knows is Eleven.

Vastra throws back her veil to have a better look as she murmurs in shock, "Good grief."

"Oh, God." And Mr Thursday faints.

The three women share an amused look, shaking their heads.

——

Kathy, Jenny and Vastra enlarge the photographs to reveal an image of a red-faced, screaming Doctor. Just as Kathy had remembered. They immediately make plans to head to Yorkshire.

"According to my research and what Kathy has been able to tell us," Vastra explains as they travel in the carriage to Sweetville, "Sweetville's proprietor holds recruitment drives for her little community. She is only interested in the fittest and the most beautiful."

Jenny and Vastra sit on one side while Strax and Kathy sit opposite.

"You may rely on me, ma'am." Strax smugly declares.

Vastra looks at him blankly. "I was, in fact, speaking to Jenny and Kathy."

Strax pulls a face. "Jenny? If Madam Davis only has this weak and fleshy boy," Vastra holds back her wife at that remark, "to support her in this assignment, I strongly recommend the issuing of scissor grenades, limbo vapour and triple blast brain splitters."

Kathy sighs, even if she doesn't already know his reply because of the show, she knows him well enough now to know. "And what for, Strax?"

"Just generally. Remember, we are going to the north."

Kathy sniggers to herself at that last remark.

——

Kathy and Jenny go ahead, leaving behind Vastra and Strax, to join Mrs Gillyflower's meeting on the Present Moral Decay and the Coming Apocalypse at a local chapel.

Mrs Gillyflower stands in front of her congregation, a good turnout, speaking from a podium. "Bradford, that Babylon of the moderns with its crystal light and its glitter, all aswarm with the wretched ruins of humanity. Men and women crushed by the devil's juggernaut." The congregation murmur in agreement.

Jenny is listening carefully while Kathy just stares in disbelief, wondering how people can be so entrenched in these ideas.

"And moral turpitude can destroy the most delicate of lives. Believe me, I know. I know."