PS Creativity > Fan Fiction > Darkness on the Edge of Town > Epilogue

a Fifth Doctor adventure written by Paul Clement

Epilogue

London 1872

It was a usual, though unpleasant, side effect of a public execution that the crowds of people became unruly. There were always going to be those few individuals that were swept up in the atmosphere of the event who would throw insults and occasionally punches.
What concerned the Doctor was that this time, the anger and hate seemed somehow to have been intensified. Almost every face he had seen had been pinched with anger and rage, it was almost as if something was heightening the emotions of the people.
He realised that he hadn’t been paying attention to the person walking by his side for some time, and now she had fallen into a stony silence.

“I’m sorry, Ace. I’ve got quite a bit on my mind at the moment. You were saying something about the state of the roads, weren’t you.”

Ace stepped away from the shelter of the Doctor’s umbrella, shaking her head in annoyance. “Professor! That was about ten minutes ago. You haven’t heard a word I’ve said since, have you?”

“I was thinking. Look, I said I’m sorry, why don’t you tell me again.” The Doctor looked at Ace who was looking with interest at the square they had just entered. The rain was coursing through her long hair, causing it to slide in front of her face. She didn’t seem aware that the Doctor had said a word. “Honestly, Ace. You say that I don’t listen to you, then you do the exact same thing.”

Turning to him with a big grin on her face, Ace gave him a look that said got you. “Now you know how it feels, don’t you.” She watched the crowds forming in the square, they were shouting and throwing rotting vegetables at something, but she couldn’t make out what. “Doctor, what’s going on?”

“A hanging!” the Doctor said with contempt. “The crowds are here for the entertainment.” He pronounced the last word with a voice full of disgust.

“They’ve come to watch it?” Ace asked in horror. The Doctor nodded and she looked back at the crowd, her face hardening. “Scumbags!”

“Perhaps you should wait there,” the Doctor said, pointing to a tea shop they had just passed. “There’s something I just need to check out, I’ll meet you there in five minutes.” He watched as Ace walked over to the building and entered before moving to the back of the crowd.
He started to make his way through the throng, using the handle of his umbrella to pull people out of the way when he couldn’t get through. Harsh faces turned to him as he passed, but he ignored their shouts, concentrating on getting to the front of the mass of bodies. Finally he stood facing the empty gallows. The noose was bobbing in the wind, empty for the moment, but beside it stood the hangman and his victim. The man about to be hanged was a coarse looking man, a thin scar running down from his left eye to his jaw line. As the hangman slipped the rope over his neck, the crowd whipped up into a frenzy. Still certain that the heightened emotions were not natural, the Doctor looked across the gallows to the gentlemen standing behind. A familiar face captured his attention just before a wave of pain rushed through his mind. Stumbling back, the Doctor tripped over the legs of one of the crowd behind him and slipped to the floor. He forced himself upright, still unsteady on his feet and looked back at the face he had recognised. It was a young man, pale and gaunt but dressed in expensive finery. The man gave him a knowing smile, and the pain in his head intensified, through the pain, even above the noise of the crowd, a mental thought was being forced into his mind. Two words, that should have been as dead as the man he was looking at…”Lloigor Lives!” The Doctor pushed his way back through the crowd, oblivious to the people he knocked over. As he reached the periphery of the, he looked back but the man who had once been Sebastian Marwood had gone, and fading fast was the pain that he had felt. He walked towards the tea shop, a little unsteady on his feet and more than a little afraid.

The End.

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