lostwolf | Thicks Man's Blood With Cold

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10

Chapter 11. A Pale Horse

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
Bible, Revelations 6. 8.

Rose knew she was losing her mind. Only the steady pounding of her head against the arm of the sofa was keeping her intact, and still she could feel herself fracturing. It was here. The Wraith. She could feel it, a malevolent presence, lurking at the periphery of her vision, waiting, stalking her. Soon it would descend and devour her, and she was no longer entirely sure she cared.

She could no longer feel the Doctor. Had he left her? Had all his promises, once more, been for nothing? She didn’t know and found she couldn’t care. Nothing mattered but the need to escape this hell she was trapped in. Her head was screaming, shrieking for sleep and it was deafening her, swamping her with need until she felt ready to claw her way into oblivion for relief. She grabbed at her hair, pulling, tearing. Nothing helped. God. Please! Her skin was alive, pulsing, thundering, so noisy. Driving her insane. Stop. Stop it! Please! Sleep. I need. Please! She was vaguely aware of her fingernails gorging at her own flesh, digging at her wrists, seeking the source of the noise that screamed. Shut up!

And then she could hear it. Laughter. It was here, her salvation! Oh, please! Please, take me. Let me rest! And it was there, a pale grim shadow, depleted by her denial of it and oh so hungry and she was ready and willing and opening her arms for its embrace. There was such exquisite pleasure in its deadly bite that she groaned in rapturous release as it descended upon her mouth and suckled like a hungry child on the life she had to offer.

Think. Think! There had to be a way. His people had banished them, he had to be able to find a way. It couldn’t be impossible.

It captured Rose in the void; was drawn to her torment and hitched a lift while she slept. It had been manipulating her dreams ever since, driving her grief and loss to feed its insatiable appetite. There was nowhere they could run to, Rose took hell with her, tethered to her soul until it was ripped from her. The Wraith was not constrained to the TARDIS; Rose had dreamed while at her mum’s flat. It was bound to her until it released her, and Wraiths only released their prey through death. Weeks of feasting and soon it would devour her and he could think of no way out. Rassilon, he was going in circles. The creature would not free Rose until it killed her; only then would it surrender her body, in search of a new victim, only then would he be free to contain it, cast it into the void. The TARDIS could capture it, bind it with arton energy, long enough, he hoped, for him to eject it into the rift. But only once it had relinquished its hold on Rose. Which meant her death. He could see no other possibility. Its hold on her was too firm. Her unconscious had not been free of it since the parallel world, her body slowly being drained of energy and vigour, her dreams haunted and cruel, a nourishing meal for its greedy need.

Suddenly his mighty brain paused. Wait. That wasn’t true. The bunker. She hadn’t dreamed in the bunker. At least, not of horror. Why not? It couldn’t have been his presence, whatever Rose might imagine. His presence imbued the TARDIS and she had dreamt unremittingly of horror while within his ship’s walls. The planet, then? Something about the planet. He hurtled towards the console room, flinging himself at the terminal there, calling up the readings from their time on the pleasure planet. Atmosphere, oxygen content, gravity, what, what was it? The place was virtually earth. Nothing special. Light refracted differently, but they’d been underground, no light there. But there had to be something. Something. Come on! She’d dreamed of pleasure, not terror. Pleasure, why pleasure. Oh, please. Was it that simple? So absurdly basic? Could it really be?

His laugh was cut agonisingly short as pain pulsed up his arm. The band at his wrist constricted, sending shocks into his nervous system. No! Rose! It had her! Fumbling with his sonic screwdriver, praying he was right, he sped for the library. Hold on, Rose, hold on!

Rose felt the floor rise up to meet her back as her limbs crumbled beneath her, her strength deserting her. The Wraith moved with her, almost tender in its embrace of her failing form. Her exquisite pain, the torment of her tortured mind, filled it with power so intense that it glowed black. Just a little more and it would be whole. It held her close, pretty pretty little girl who brought it such life; it would give her death as a caress. Slowly it undulated above her, sliding a gentle hand across her belly, before dipping softly beneath her skin. It cooed to her, sighing her name, as it slid its hand up through her abdomen, driving into her chest cavity, insinuating itself beneath her rib cage, before solidifying sharp fingers stretched lovingly towards her heart. It gasped with pleasure, feeling the oh-so-fragile pulse against its fingertips as they lay, poised, against her heart’s flesh. Its caress was slow this time, ardently prolonged. Like an attentive lover, knowing she was nearly at the end, it eased her towards it, savouring her sensations, echoing her descent towards glorious oblivion with a rapture of its own.

It was shuddering against her, pleasure rippling through its limbs in time to the beat of her heart, as it wound itself around her. Keening its intense need, the torn flesh of its mouth moved to devour hers, it tongue teasing the last of her breath from her.

Sleep, little one. Sleep.

Rose felt her eyes drifting closed as the fingers curled beneath her ribs, cupping her beating organ in its frigid palm.

So fragile. It whispered and she whimpered.

‘Please!’

But of course, it laughed, For you, anything. You rebirthed me, child. For that I thank you. Sleep now. And it began to clench its fingers into a fist.

‘NO!’

The air buzzed blue with storm and fury and fire and then all was silence.

Chapter 12