𝑫𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑬𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔 ☆ The Glorious Series ｟ BOOK 2 ｠

Hide [Part 3]

Inside, House, Parlor, Night...

There was now a slide projector set up as the Doctor and Lexi handed Alec the slides from the photographs they had taken

"What's wrong?" Emma enquired as she walked over to where Clara was looking at the photos pinned up on the board.

"Nothing really. It's just..." Clara sighed. "I kinda just saw something I wish I hadn't."

Emma tilted her head. "What did you see?"

"That... everything ends."

"No, not everything. Not love..." Emma shook her head before looking over at Alec. "Not always."

"Right! Done! That's it, gather round, gather round. Roll up! Roll up!" The Doctor spoke up as Jupiter and Lucas walked up beside him, Jupiter using her sonic on the projector. "The Ghast of Caliburn House - never changing, trapped in a moment of fear and torment. But, what if she's not?" He questioned. "What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here? What if a second to her was one-hundred thousand years to us? And what if somebody has a magic box - a blue box, probably - what if said somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?" He asked as the slides showed his and Lexi's photos almost like stop-motion as they revealed a young woman.

"You see?" Lexi questioned, pointing at the woman. "She isn't a ghost at all. However, she is definitely a lost soul."

"Her name? Hila Tacorian." Jupiter added, pointing at the woman's face. "She's a pioneer. A time traveller. Well, at least she will be in a few hundred years."

"Time travel's not possible." Alec shook his head. "The paradoxes-"

"Resolve themselves, by and large." The Doctor said, cutting him off.

Lucas tilted his head as he gazed at the woman's photograph. "So... How long has she been alone?"

"Well, time travel's a funny old thing. I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed..." The Doctor trailed off. "approximately three minutes ago."

"Crash landed?" Emma glanced at him. "Where?"

"She's in a pocket universe... a distorted echo of our own - they happen sometimes but never last for long." The Doctor explained before blowing up two balloons. "Our universe." He stated, holding out the balloon in his right hand. "Hila Tacorian's here," He held out the balloon in his left hand. "in a pocket universe. Emma, you're a lantern, shining across the dimensions, guiding her home." He told her, bringing the two balloons together before deflating them. "Back to the land of the living."

"But what's she running from?" Clara questioned.

"Well, that's the best bit." Lexi grinned, spinning around to face her. "We don't know yet."

The Doctor smiled. "Shall we see?" He then used his sonic to change the slide, Lucas uncrossing his arms as Emma's smile vanished while Alec peered over his glasses

Jupiter walked up in between her parents, the three of them looking stunned as they gazed at the slide, Clara's facial expression being much the same as theirs.

On the slide was some weird looking, distorted sort of creature.

"Okay..." Lucas started. "What the hell is that?"

"I... don't know." The Doctor replied softly before clapping his hands together. "Still, not to worry!"

"So, what do we do?" Emma asked him.

"Not 'we', you..." The Doctor corrected, going to Emma. "you save Hila Tacorian because you're Emma Grayling."

"And you, Miss Grayling," Jupiter began, giving the woman a kind smile. "are the lantern. And I'm afraid that the rest of us are just along for the ride."