"Final Days"
by Paul Clement

A slight sound alerted him.
Opening his eyes, he looked up from the bed and tried to see around his darkened room. He spotted someone standing a few feet away. Whoever it was, they were watching him. Giving a small cough to alert the person that he was awake, he tried to prop himself up in his bed. The pillows had slid down while he slept. He tried to manoeuvre them into position but he couldn’t twist himself round to do it.

‘Let me help you,’ a familiar male voice stated from the other side of the room.

The person walked across the room in a couple of strides and he felt strong arms slide under his body. He was pulled into the person’s chest as his pillows were arranged behind him, then he was lowered gently back onto his bed in a more upright position.

‘The light,’ he rasped, his voice sounding old to his ears. ‘It’s on the cabinet.’

When the lamp was switched on, he had to close his eyes for a second. He slowly opened them again and looked at the person who was now standing next to him. Beneath a Fedora hat was a face he recognised. His face split into a smile. ‘Doctor!’

‘How are you, Aidan?’ the Doctor asked, concern in his eyes.

‘Old.’ Aidan tried to laugh, but it descended quickly into a fit of coughing.

‘I meant to visit you more often,’ the Doctor said. ‘I should have come to see you every day.’

‘You’re busy Doctor, I know that.’ He reached out a hand, and held onto the Doctor’s arm. His hand was covered in liver spots and wrinkled skin. He didn’t look at himself much, he hated to do it, but the Doctor was here and he wanted to see the face the Doctor saw when he looked at him. ‘There’s a mirror in the cabinet. Could you get it for me?’

Opening the drawer, the Doctor removed a small hand mirror and passed it to him. Taking hold of it, he felt the Doctor place a hand on his own. ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

In answer, Aidan gently removed the Doctor’s hand and raised the mirror up to his face. ‘Old, so old,’ he muttered looking at the reflection in the glass.

He tried to look at the face objectively. How old would he say he looked? Eighty? Eighty-Five? Somewhere within that face, under the lines, wrinkles and white hair he could see his real self. He saw the impudent smile, cheeks that would flush red when he was embarrassed and eyes that roved everywhere looking for the next source of enjoyment.
He put the mirror down beside him on the bed and laid back into his pillows. Closing his eyes, he thought about when he was younger. Remembering when he first met the…

‘Doctor!’
Aidan ran down the stairwell, taking three steps at a time. Reaching the landing, his foot submerged in a puddle of water that had built up there. He could feel his trainers soaking up the dirty fluid.Grimacing in disgust, he didn’t notice the door behind him swing silently open. Suddenly, he felt something grab his arm and he was pulled back through the doorway.

‘I told everyone to get out of here,’ the Doctor fumed. He untangled his arm from the Doctor’s umbrella and tried to get his breathing under control. ‘I was too late,’ he replied. ‘By the time I got to the bottom of the block, the building had been sealed. Besides, I thought you might need some help.’ The Doctor looked at him for a moment and sighed. He knew what the Doctor was thinking. He wasn’t a help at all, he was just some dumb fifteen year old kid that the Doctor would be forced to protect.

‘How many stairwells are there?’ the Doctor asked.

‘Three, one at each end of the building and the one here in the middle.’ He shifted his feet uncomfortably and heard them squelch of the concrete floor.

‘I need to get down to the boiler room, I left something there,’ the Doctor said.

‘This way,’ he said, pointing down the corridor that ran past the front doors of the flats that were on this side of the block. The Doctor nodded and started to jog down the corridor. Aidan wasn’t sure whether the Doctor wanted him to stay where he was or go with him. Choosing the latter option, he chased after the Doctor. He tried looking out of the windows as he ran behind the Doctor, but he was too high up to see the ground below. The sky was starting to darken though; it looked like it would rain soon. As he passed one of the flats, the door burst outwards, showering the corridor with glass and splinters of wood. He felt a sharp pain in his hand as a shard that used to belong in the doors small window imbedded itself into his flesh. Pulling his injured arm protectively into his body, he looked back as something emerged onto the corridor from within the flat.

The creature, he remembered the Doctor calling it a Serataph, looked a lot like a bat with a four foot body. A mixture of saliva and blood dripped from its mouth and as its head turned fully in his direction, the Serataph’s lips drew back to reveal a set of razor sharp teeth. The Serataph tried to spread its wings out, but the corridor was too narrow. It tried again, and the leathery wings knocked mortar from the walls. It still couldn’t fully extend them though. Watching in fascination and horror, he realised the creature had given up trying to fly down the corridor and was instead walking slowly down it with jerky movements. He tried to turn away, but his legs felt rooted to the spot. The Serataph was slowly bearing downing on him and he couldn’t move. Panic started to creep up through his body and then the Doctor was there.

‘Run,’ the Doctor ordered half dragging him to the stairwell. They burst through the doorway and the Doctor took something out of his pocket. He couldn’t see what the Doctor did, but when he’d finished he tugged at the door that was now locked. ‘Come on, we need to get to the boiler room.’

‘That was a vampire bat,’ he muttered breathlessly as he hared down the stairs behind the Doctor. ‘I don’t believe it, a vampire bat.’

The Doctor shook his head as he ran. ‘It was a Serataph.’

‘I’ve seen Dracula, Doctor,’ he shot back. ‘I know a vampire bat when I see one, and I’ve just seen one.’

‘There’s nothing supernatural about the Serataph,’ The Doctor responded between breaths. ‘They’re living beings like you and me. They need blood to survive the same way you need water.’ A thud reverberated down the stairwell as the Serataph tried to open the door. The second thus was accompanied by the cracking of wood as the door split under the force of the Serataph’s impact. A high pitched screech of triumph echoed around the stairwell.

‘We need to move faster,’ the Doctor said. He added another burst of speed from somewhere and started to leap down the stairs at a phenomenal rate. ‘The stairwell’s wide enough for the Serataph to able to fly down,’ his voice called back in explanation.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and burst out onto the landing. Breathing hard from his exertions, he pointed off into the murky basement corridor. ‘The boiler room’s that way, Doctor,’ Aidan said.

‘Just a minute,’ the Doctor replied, fiddling with the door lock. He pulled at the door and gave a satisfied nod when it wouldn’t open. ‘That should slow it for a few more seconds.’ They raced along the corridor, their feet splashing in the murky water that had accumulated there. Stopping in front of the boiler room door, the Doctor opened it up and groped around for the light switch. He’d been down here a few times before, when his mum had needed the caretaker to do a job for her, so he was very surprised with what he saw when the lights finally came on. The boiler had been stripped down, and its parts cannibalised. Wires lead from the electric meter to a machine that had been assembled in the centre of the room from the boiler parts and who knew what else.

The Doctor quickly checked the machine, using the point of his umbrella to press a number of buttons on it. He looked up, his face seeming satisfied. ‘Get behind the door,’ he ordered. ‘When the Serataph comes in, it will be concentrating on me. You should be safe there.’

Aidan gave a nervous smile. ‘You can trust me, Doctor. I’m not going to get in the way of that thing.’ He looked at the machine again. ‘What does that thing do?’

‘Behind the door!’ The Doctor gestured firmly in the direction he expected him to go. When Aidan was safely in place behind the door, the Doctor spoke again. ‘The Serataph don’t have a long life expectancy. This machine will literally drain the years off of him.’ The door at the bottom of the stairwell didn’t survive the first blow. The noise was deafening as its destruction echoed through the basement. The Serataph gave a piercing screech as it started to come down the corridor.

‘Whatever happens, don’t come out from behind that door,’ the Doctor said. He backed away from the machine towards a lever that had been built onto the side of the electric meter. The Serataph was getting closer. Aidan could hear the strange breathing sound the creature made as it approached the boiler room. He glanced quickly from behind the door and looked at the Doctor. He seemed nervous and there was a thin bead of sweat building up on his top lip. The Doctor placed his hand on the lever, ready to pull it down. The sound of the Serataph coming down the corridor stopped.

It had to be close. The steps had been slow, but they had sounded quite close before they stopped. He realised that he couldn’t even hear the Serataph breathing anymore, and by the looks of it, the Doctor was aware of it too.
The sudden force of the Serataph launching itself into the room knocked the door back into him. His shoulder took the brunt of it, leaving left arm feeling completely numb. The Serataph was on the Doctor before he could even bring the lever down. He brought his umbrella up in a defensive action, a hand gripping it at each end. That was the only thing that stopped the Serataph from tearing into the Doctor’s throat. From his vantage point, Aidan could see the chords in the Doctor’s neck start to bulge at the exertion he was being forced to use just to hold the Serataph off. There was no way that he could hold it at bay and pull the lever down.

He knew the Doctor had told him to stay where he was, but if he didn’t act now, it might be too late to save him, and with the Doctor gone, he’d be next. Launching himself across the room, Aidan aimed straight for the lever. The Serataph was so intent on his attempt to get beyond the Doctor’s umbrella that it hadn’t even realised that he’d made his move. The Doctor had though, and gave him a look of consternation and fear.

‘No!’ the Doctor cried. His hand took hold of the lever at the same moment that the Doctor’s cry alerted the Serataph. The creature’s wing swung round, catching Aidan in his midriff and flung him backwards. The lever slammed down before it slipped from his grasp and Aidan found himself lying on his back on the floor.

Aidan saw the Serataph pulled away from the Doctor, but before the creature could move towards him, the machine kicked into life. Light flooded out of it, sweeping though the Serataph and onto him. Pain seared through his body and he convulsed on the floor, while the Serataph dropped down beside him. He writhed around for a moment, and then unconsciousness beckoned. When he woke up the Doctor was standing over him. Of the Serataph there was nothing but a dusty outline on the floor. He tried to move, but he felt weak. So very…

‘Old.’

His eyes snapped back open. The Doctor was still there by the side of his bed. He grabbed his coat sleeve in his rheumatic hands. ‘I saved your life, Doctor.’

‘I know,’ the Doctor replied, ‘and I wish there was some way I could save yours.’ He left the rest unsaid. He didn’t need to say anymore, his eyes told the rest.

‘I’m fifteen years old. I look like I’m eighty.’ Tears rolled down his cheeks. ‘My body’s old, they say I’ve only got days left.’

He wiped the tears away on his pyjama sleeve. ‘Tell me, Doctor. How many others have lost their lives to save you?’
‘Too many,’ the Doctor said. He looked sad, but there was a touch of anger in his eyes as well.

Aidan was silent for a moment. Finally he spoke. ‘I’d like you to go now, Doctor,’ he said. He watched as the Doctor nodded and silently made his way to the door. Before the door opened, he called out. ‘Doctor, you won’t forget me will you?’

The Doctor walked out of the room, his voice sounded hoarse when he replied, ‘No, I’ll never forget you.’