Checkmate (Doctor Who fanfiction)

The Author (Epilogue)

About the author:

Checkmate was originally written by Ruby Oakley, in 1940.
During an interview, the author agreed that all the adventures had truly been lived. It struck readers as a surprise when she refused to admit that the adventures were made up. Some people believed her, yet some deemed her crazy. When later questioned, she continued to defend the book. She refused to introduce the Ponds to her growing fanbase, breeding even more suspicion as to whether or not she was telling the truth. New York's best private detective, Melody Malone, refused to investigate the case, deeming it too "immature." In 1942, Ruby Sarah Oakley was submitted to a mental institute, where she lived out the rest of her life insisting upon what she claimed was real. Most copies of her novel/biography were destroyed, until it became a collector's rarity. There is evidence that the mysterious Ponds visited Oakley on numerous occasions after she had been submitted to the hospital, though many speculate that this was just hallucinations that caused her to leave false evidence. If Amy and Rory Pond existed, whether or not they were who Oakley said they were, they led a quiet life out of the spotlight, just as Oakley wanted them to.

Oakley died early on May 1, 1947, at only forty three. Her nurse reports that her last words were "People have always and will always try to erase me. They can't do that. But they will forget me. Everyone forgets fire after it goes out unless it burned them."

Speculators say that she was implying that only her alleged "Doctor" would remember her for who she really was.

To this day, no one really knows whether or not she was truly a miraculous time traveller at one point, or just a woman who was infected by her character's insanity.

One thing is for certain; if Ruby Oakley's universe truly was as she claimed, then perhaps our lives are not so insignificant as we might have thought.

THE END

So, here we are. You and me, on the last page. It's been quite a ride, hasn't it? I think we've all learned something.

I know a lot of you thought this would be direct insight to Ruby's day to day life in the 1900s, but the truth is that his whole book has been a flashback to when Ruby and the Ponds traveled with The Doctor, written by Ruby herself. It seemed only fitting.

I am so glad you all have been here through this whole mess. You've all been so supportive, and I really couldn't ask for better readers. It's been such an amazing adventure. I have one more chapter to post, that focuses on where the character of Ruby came from. It's not really a part of the story. But until then,

Read On, Awkward Ferrets!

~ TheLivingParadox