"Monochrome" - Part Four

Part Four

            Alan had only rested his eyes for a few minutes, nearly drifting off to sleep, before Susan emitted an ear-splitting scream that woke up him and probably anyone else onboard that plane. He didn’t have a chance to ask her what was wrong when she grabbed his hand and yanked him out of his seat, leading him out the same way they came in – through the lavatory door.

            They made it back into the endless office corridor, reuniting with Candace, the Doctor, Ian, and Barbara.

            “Oh, Grandfather, it was horrible!” Susan clung to the Doctor.

            “What happened in there?” Ian asked Alan, gesturing to the door he and Susan just stepped out of.

            Alan shrugged. “Ya got me. One second, we were chill. And then the next…”

            “I think we’ve seen enough terrifying things through these doors,” Barbara declared. “Is there any way out of this place?”

            “That man – Rod,” Candace said. “He gave us the answer.”

            “He did?” the flabbergasted Alan uttered. “All I heard was a bunch of crazy from that dude.”

            “But he did give us the answer,” Candace reiterated. “The key is our imagination.”

            “Our imagination?” Barbara grimaced.

            “Think about it,” Candace suggested. “Rod said how this place lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. And what’s the one thing that connects those two together?”

            “Imagination,” the Doctor answered. “Yes, yes! Brilliant deduction, my dear!”

            Alan scratched his head. “I still don’t get it. We’re just gonna imagine our way outta here?”

            “That’s exactly what we’re gonna do, hon,” Candace told him.

            After giving him a kiss on his forehead, she proceeded to face one of the white doors. Prior to opening it, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, imagining what she wanted to see on the other side: her destination.

            A white light flooded the corridor on their way through the opened door.

            Once it dispersed, the travelers discovered themselves back in the study room of the Fremonts’ luxurious mansion. There was commotion in the adjacent room, which they knew to be the living room, as if a television program was on. They figured the Fremonts were gathered there.

            “What’s the plan?” Alan asked. “How do we handle that lil’ dude this time?”

            “Leave it to me,” Candace said. “I know what needs to be done.”

            Alan detected a somberness to her tone that insinuated something severe. Even Barbara sensed it, and it made her uneasy most out of them all. Could Candace have finally reached a boiling point after being sent to that dimensional plane?

            Straightening herself, she added a few more inches to her towering height as she pried open the sliding mahogany doors that separated the study and living rooms. Sure enough, the Fremonts were gathered around a big, fancy television set; but they weren’t the only ones there. The entire town had been summoned – presumably at Anthony’s command – for the viewing party.

            It was obvious that no one wanted to be there.

            Every single adult in the room had their eyes mindlessly on the tube, appearing as if they were lobotomized (and perhaps Anthony resorted to such measures to keep them complacent).

            He sensed the presence of Candace, the Doctor, and their companions straightaway. Stepping away from the TV, he glared right at Candace. “You escaped,” he hissed. “That don’t matter! I’m gonna do something worse to you, ‘cause you’re bad people, and you deserve to have something bad happen to you!”

            “Now, see here, child! You have no—!”

            Candace held up her left hand to silence the Doctor’s reproach. “You’re right, Anthony…we are bad people,” she said, much to the disbelief of her fellow travelers. “And you have every right to inflict whatever punishment you see fit on us.”

            The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, Susan, and Alan could not fathom whatever risky idea Candace conjured up with. She had willingly placed them once again at the mercy of a disturbed six-year-old boy with unimaginable power. There was no way Anthony would refuse an opportunity to deliver an even harsher price for their insolence.

            And yet, there they stood, still breathing.

            Anthony hadn’t budged an inch since Candace’s acceptance. “You’re not gonna fight back?” he questioned, sounding just as bewildered as the Doctor and the others.

            “Why would we?” Candace returned.

            “Because everyone always wants to,” Anthony responded. “I can hear it in their thoughts. They want to destroy me. So I send them someplace where they can’t hurt me.”

            “They’re just scared, honey. You’re a special lil’ guy. You’ve just never been given real love, because so many people live in fear of what you can do.”

            “But isn’t that a good thing?”

            Candace shook her head. “No, sweetie. It’s not. You deserve so much better.” She then offered her hand out to him. “Come on. There’s something I want to show you.”

            Anthony hesitated to accept her offer.

            Then he looked at her face – that warm, loving smile on her beautifully aged face. He had never seen anyone smile that way at him before – not even from his own mother. There was no denying this woman, as threatening as she first appeared to Anthony with her mountainous stature and imposing build, had only the friendliest of intentions for him.

            He accepted her hand and, in conjunction, her offer to step out of the mansion with her and her friends. Together, they headed back out across the cornfield until they reached the TARDIS…Candace’s TARDIS.

            “Good heavens,” the Doctor exclaimed in his surprise. “This was never here before! Where did it come from? What is it?”

            “It’s my TARDIS, Doctor,” Candace slyly replied.

            He looked on her with newfound interest. “Y-Your what?! Then that means you’re a…a…a…”

            “A Time Lord,” Susan finished his thoughts, sharing in her grandfather’s wonder. With this revelation, she turned her attention on Alan and asked him, “And you’re one, too?”

            Alan regretfully shook his head. “No. I’m sorry.”

            Susan wasn’t all that disappointed. “It’s still nice that your mother is one.”

            Candace led Anthony and everyone else inside the tall, black rectangular solid that was her Gallifreyan module. Anthony was immediately overwhelmed – first by the much larger interior and afterwards by all the alien tech around.

            “Are you…special…like me?” Anthony asked Candace.

            “Not like you, Anthony,” she said. “And, if you come with me and Alan, we’ll find a world – a good world – somewhere out there where you’ll be safe with people who’ll love and care for you. Until then, Alan and I will give you that world.”

            “We will?” Alan cautiously queried, until Candace shot him with a stern glance that made him quickly change his attitude. “We will.”

            Anthony was touched from Candace’s once-in-a-lifetime proposal.

            But none was more-so moved than the Doctor himself. He expressed this admiration just as soon as he had a moment alone with Candace outside her TARDIS. “Quite the peaceful resolution to this incommodious state of affairs, my dear,” he said. “Perhaps I could learn to adopt such an approach in my lifetime.”

            Candace smirked. “You will.”

            “There are many questions I have about your Time Lord history, of course.”

            “Doctor, I reassure you, we’ll be more acquainted…in due time.”

NEXT WEEK!