Falls the Shadow by Daniel O'Mahony Read Free Book Online

undisturbed for years. Not here. Ace could believe that people actually worked here.
    The Doctor agreed. He pointed his torch upwards, so that the beam danced on the ceiling. Picked out in the light, was a web of dangling wires connected to an exposed light‐
bulb. The Doctor cast the beam further down the passage, finding further bulbs set at regular intervals along its length.
    ‘The lights suggest that someone uses this place,’ he said. ‘Lives here. Possibly.’
    ‘Possibly?’ Ace asked.
    ‘It looks industrial. Very heavy and intricate, without the need to disguise its functional nature. Hardly the norm in a domestic situation? Besides, how old is it? It’s not proof of anything.’
    ‘This is the bit where one of us suggests we split up and look around,’ Bernice said chirpily. There was something gleefully sadistic in her psychology that thrived in adversity. ‘And the monster picks us off and eats us one by one. Since you two are looking so grim, I think it’s going to have to be me. I’ll go this way,’ she said, pointing down the length of the main passage. ‘You two try down the other way. Meet back here in five – ten minutes. Scream if there’s any trouble, yes?’
    There were nods, a brief exchange of torches. Then Bernice slipped into the darkness and the Doctor and Ace pulled into the side‐
corridor, walking side‐
by‐
side and in silence.
    The passage ended sharply in a plain metal slab of a door. The beam of the Doctor’s torch flattened against its smooth surface, revealing that it had been painted an unappetizing shade of cabbage‐
green. The paint was beginning to flake. The door was indented with a hand grip, but was otherwise unfriendly and impregnable.
    Ace stopped by the door, and stared at it single‐
mindedly.
    ‘Ace, I’m sorry if I’ve seemed a bit brusque,’ the Doctor said softly, close to her ear. ‘It’s just I’m very worried about the TARDIS.’
    Ace hummed an acknowledgment but didn’t look at him. She was preoccupied with the door. She dug her hand into the indentation and tugged.
    ‘Ace, you’ve shown me you can survive in a totally alien environment without the TARDIS to fall back on,’ the Doctor continued, apparently oblivious to her efforts with the door. ‘In that respect, you’re a better person than I am. I need the ship. I don’t want to see it hurt… damaged.’
    The door hadn’t budged. Not an inch. It couldn’t just be the weight. It had to be locked.
    ‘There’s something in this place powerful enough to tear the TARDIS from the vortex. If that thing is malevolent then imagine what it could do to you, or to Benny? We’re playing in the dark, gambling for our lives, with a hand we don’t understand, against a dealer who’s cheating. If I seem on edge, it’s because I’m worried. Terrified,’ he added.
    ‘You’re not alone, Doctor. Perhaps I’m just naturally antagonistic…’ Ace muttered, tugging sharply at the door several times, failing even to make it rattle. ‘Why won’t you open, you bastard?’ she yelled, her frustration finally getting the better of her.
    ‘It opens inwards,’ the Doctor hummed. Ace landed a vicious thump on the side of the door and it opened silently. A vexed smile settled on her lips, a light blush on her cheeks.
    The room was as functional and bare as the rest of the building. Its walls were an insipid shade of grey‐
brown, occasionally enlivened by colourless scraps of wallpaper overlooked when the rest had been scraped away. The other rooms had been cold, but the chill was pronounced here. Briefly, Ace felt the sharp, icy brush against her skin, before her combat suit reacted and grew warm. Though colder than the rest of the cellar, the room seemed lighter. It was dark, but not the enveloping blackness of the other rooms. It was half‐
dark, the shadows robbed of their deeper levels.
    Ace glanced upwards, and saw a light fitting dangling from the ceiling by a bare flex. There was no