The Eighth Horcrux

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Alex Kingston was one of the brightest, happiest, bubbliest people Matt Smith had ever known; she was always flirting with him and laughing at his jokes and every day on set. No matter how badly his day was going, he could always count on seeing her smiling face. That smile that lit up the whole room; the one that had made him fall in love with her as soon as they had locked eyes. And the smile that made him trip over things and literally fall at her feet sometimes multiple times a day. But that was beside the point. The point was she was one of the happiest people he had ever known, so when she started to seem distant a few weeks into shooting the new season of Who, he knew right away that something was wrong. He thought he might have been imagining it at first. When he went over to ask her if she was ok, the look that had been in her eyes completely vanished and the usual smile was back on her face. But as the week wore on, the smile didn't reach her eyes. Alex was a bloody good actress, but she wasn't fooling him.

It was the end of the week and Matt was determined to figure out what was wrong. He got to set early in the hopes that he could talk to her before they started shooting. Moffat and the crew were already busy setting up for the day. He walked into the break room and found Karen in one of the fluffy armchairs hunched over her iPhone with a Starbucks coffee cup in her other hand.

"Hey, Kaz," Matt greeted her.

"Hey," she replied, without looking up.

"Have you seen the Kingston this morning?"

"Yeah, she went that way," Karen waved her hand to the left, in the direction of the read-through rooms.

"Thanks," Matt turned to go.

"Are you going to confess your undying love?" Karen teased.

Matt rolled his eyes. Karen had figured out his crush on Alex ages ago, and still proceeded to make fun of him about it.

"Goodbye, Kaz," Matt said.

He made his way through the dimly lit hallway until he found a door that was slightly ajar. He leaned his head inside, searching for any sign of Alex. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but when they did he could make out her form curled up in the corner behind the long mahogany table.

"Kingston?" he said softly. He turned on the light and saw her eyes open.

"Matt," she said, sitting up abruptly. Her golden curls were in a halo of adorable disarray as she stood up and rubbed her eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"Oh, yeah I'm fine," she waved her hand dismissively. "I was just tired."

She looked tired. No, she looked exhausted. There were dark rings under her eyes and her normally bright green eyes lacked their usual sparkle. It looked as if it caused her excruciating pain to move as she walked over to him.

"Are you sure?" he asked quietly. "You don't seem to be yourself lately."

"I'm fine, darling," she said airily. "You don't need to worry about me."

He had planned to do everything he could to get the truth out of her, but now the words he had planned to say died in his throat. She looked completely like herself again. Maybe he really was imagining things after all?

"Did I wake you up?" he asked.

"No, no, it's fine. I was just dozing. I needed to get to set soon anyway."

"Ok," he hesitated. "You know that if something's wrong you can talk to me, right?"

Just for a split second, he saw her mask come down. The mask that she always wore when facing the world. Just for a split second, he caught a glimpse of her true self when she looked up at him then, their eyes meeting. She looked so exposed, so...vulnerable. But as soon as that look had come, it was gone. And she was waving him off again, telling him that he needed to stop worrying about her and that nothing was wrong.