Continuing from 'The Unquiet Dead - Part I'

✧

THE DOCTOR LED LILY DOWN THE SNOWY STREET, arm in arm, passing by a traveling choir singing, 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.' The ginger was soaking every single detail- from the passersby's faces to the architecture of nearby buildings. She was on cloud nine but the Doctor was another story. She looked at him. "I get this isn't new to you but you could at least try and have fun."

He made a face. "No, it's just so normal."

She married her eyes. "Normal?" Lily questioned. "Doc, not every trip has to be us fighting for our lives and saving the universe."

"But how can I ever get my two remaining points with-" He scrunched his nose. "Normal?"

She wanted to tell him what that meant to her. How, ever since she created this odd point system, the Doctor seemed adamant about getting a perfect ten in Lily's eyes. She wanted to voice that and opened her mouth to do so but was quickly interrupted by the sounds of terror-filled screams and hoards of people rushing out of the nearby theater. "That's more like it!"

✧

Entering the very theater people were so desperate to get out of, the pair halted when they saw a ghost-like blue entity flying throughout the building. The play spectators were terrorized- Lily making sure to move away so they could exit. "Fantastic!" The Doctor exclaimed with a large grin.

Lily couldn't look away from the blue entity. Her eyes stayed trained on its flight path. "That can't be a ghost."

"Maybe it is?" The Doctor cheered. "But that's the fun of it, Red. Exploring the unknown!"

She looked at the Doctor and couldn't help but smile as well seeing the look on his face. That's when she spied a couple carrying an unconscious elderly lady out of the theater. "Oi!" She tried to get their attention but they seemed to ignore her, disappearing outside. Something was wrong. She put a hand on the Doctor's arm. "I'll be back." She didn't pause to hear his response as she was already out the doors

Once Lily made it outside she saw on the other side of the street a dark-haired woman, in servant's clothes, loading the elderly lady into the back of a black carriage. "Hey!" Lily started crossing the seemingly empty street, having to lift her skirts to avoid the cold and wet snow. "What are you doing?"

The woman stopped when she saw Lily now at her slide. "Oh, it's a tragedy, miss." She stuttered. Lily could detect that she was lying through her teeth. "Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary."

Lily, not believing a word she said, reached into the still-open carriage and lightly grazed the elderly lady's neck. She ripped her hand back at what she discovered. "She's got no pulse." Lily felt sick. "Oh, my god, what did you do to her?"

When an arm snaked around her waist Lily was caught too off guard. She was too slow in pushing him off- eyes widening when a cloth was pressed against her nose and mouth. The struggle didn't last long as Lily succumbed to the chloroform and her body became limp.

✧

Lily Carter slowly opened her eyes, still pretty dizzy as the room spun around her. She slowly sat up, her head pounding, and noticed she was on top of a long table. She rubbed both of her eyes with the heels of her hands. Remembering the events of what led up to that moment she vowed to give those two a piece of her mind when she escaped and found the Doctor.

She heard movement from her left and looked over to witness a man had risen from a wooden coffin. Lily was frozen in horror, watching as the man turned to face her- his eyes were void of any life in them and his skin pale white. He started groaning at her as if he was unable to speak coherent words. "You have got to be kidding me." Lily wasted no more time talking to a man who was not able to speak back. She launched herself off the table, wobbling a bit as she got down on her feet. "Let me out!" She cried out a few times, banging on the locked door, and took a second to look behind her, seeing the same elderly woman as before rise from another wooden coffin. They were both advancing slowly towards her. She screamed louder, pulling the doorknob. "Let me out of here! Please- let me out!" She wouldn't let herself cry. "Open the door!"

She stepped back when the door opened and the Doctor was standing in the doorway. She wasted no time in hugging him. He wrapped his arms around her waist. "You okay?"

She nodded into his shoulder. "I am now." When she pulled away she saw an unknown man watching from behind them. "Who's your friend?"

The Doctor kept a hand on Lily's waist, clutching her to his side, and looked at the "zombies'' as he answered her. "Charles Dickins."

"Oh, okay." Seeing that it wasn't the best time to voice her excitement on meeting such a well-known author, being an inspiring one herself. She just took in a breath and looked back to the man and elderly lady who stopped their advances and stood, staring at them.

"It's a prank." Dickins declared. "We're under some mesmeric influence."

"No, we're not. The dead are walking." The Doctor spoke, then nodded to the "zombies," his hand clutching tighter on Lily's waist. "My name's the Doctor." He greeted them in not an inviting tone. "Who are you, then? What do you want?"

"Failing." Lily's heartbeat quickened as the man spoke. But instead of just his voice other voices left his mouth- all in a high pitch. "Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain." They sounded afraid. "Help us. Argh!" One last cry left both of them- blue gas like the entity from the theater exited their bodies through their mouths. It slithered through the air before disappearing into the gas lamp. They collapsed, corpses once again, and the room fell silent.

✧

They all migrated to the lounge room of the morgue. They had all introduced each other, the old man calling himself 'Sneed' and the woman Lily had spoken to before being taken was his servant, 'Gwyneth.' Gwyneth was currently pouring tea into cups that sat on a serving tray. Sneed was the only one sitting- the other three sharing a sense of adrenaline that kept them from resting.

"First of all, you drugged me," Lily was letting it out at Sneed when she saw the Doctor, in the corner of her eye, leaning against the mantle of the fireplace. "Then kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man." She added with a sneer. She heard the Doctor chuckling from where he stood.

Sneed yelled back at her. "I won't be spoken to like this!"

Lily pointed an accusing finger at him. "I ain't finished!" She was going to get answers out of him, one way or another. "You stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swam off and left me to die! So come on, talk!"

"It's not my fault!" Sneed exclaimed. Lily leaned back and folded her arms, waiting for his excuse. "It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs," Dickens shot him a dirty look that made Sneed stutter. "the er, dear departed started getting restless."

Dickens muttered. "Tommyrot."

"You witnessed it!" Sneed argued. "Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps."

Lily backed up and let herself lean on the other side of the fireplace. She smiled when Gwyneth walked up to her- a teacup on top of a saucer in her hands. "For you, miss." She placed it on the mantle next to Lily. "Peppermint leaves and a spoonful of honey. Just as you like." She then strolled off.

Lily looked over at the Doctor who was still watching Sneed and Dickins, listening closely to their conservation. So, she took the cup and gave it a prompt sniff. She hummed when she smelled the familiar aroma and decided to take a sip. Lily blinked. It was perfect. She gave Gwyneth a confused expression- trying to think back on if anything gave away her tea preference.

"One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service." She sipped on her tea, listening to Sneed speak. "Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."

"Morbid fantasy." Dickens insisted.

"Oh, Charles, you were there!" The Doctor was fed up.

He scoffed. "I saw nothing but an illusion."

The Doctor glared. "If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up."

The ginger spotted the fire on a nearby wall sconce flicker. "The light," Lily spoke up, placing her now-finished cup back on top of the mantle. "Is something up with the gas in the building?"

"That's new," Sneed answered her. "Never seen anything like that."

"I saw it first when I arrived. It means it's getting stronger." The Doctor told Lily, migrating closer to her. "The rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through."

"What's the rift?" Lily asked.

"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."

Sneed sat up. "That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations." Dickins had seemed to have enough and Lily watched him exit the house, slamming the door close. She frowned and Sneed, who took a pause at the loud sound, swallowed before continuing. "Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

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- Kayleigh