Sunday Story – From Beyond the Stars – Part Two

If you haven’t read part one you can pop over here and catch up Part One

Amy took the papers from him but he still did not look up at her.  She turned and headed back towards the corridor where she has found the library in her wandering through the endless corridors.  Just before she turned right to enter it she looked back over her shoulder, he had not moved, and the look on his face was one of indescribable sorrow.  Amy opened her mouth to speak then decided against it, she had seen that look before but only when he thought she hadn’t seen.  It had been at Byzantium, it had been so quick she could have thought she had imagined it if she had not known him so well, he had been watching the mysterious River Song at the time.  She knew there was more there than either was willing to say but now she looked down at the handwritten story in her hand and wondered how many more secrets were hidden in the recesses of the TARDIS.

She retraced her steps but the rooms seemed to have changed, she was sure she had reached the place where the library had stood only a few minutes ago but now a reading room with large, inviting leather sofas welcomed her.  She smiled the TARDIS had a habit of providing what you needed rather than what you wanted and this was perfect.  She picked one close to a glowing log fire which had been lit in an ornate fireplace, kicked off her boots and stretched out sinking down into the soft seat and began to read once more.

It has been two hundred summers since that fateful day when I fell from the sky and my new life began.  I had been returning to my home world its location is not important as no one reading this will ever know where it is nor how stark in comparison to this wonderful colourful world in which I found myself.  

I was so incredibly weak as gravity drew me down, I fell so far so quickly I had to draw on my energy reserves just to stay intact.  My form, my real form is that of light but in this atmosphere the concentration required to stay complete not to dissolve, dissipate was almost impossible, then I saw her.

She was so incredibly beautiful but damaged so badly.  I could see the disease which had ravaged her internal organs despite to youthful appearance she outwardly displayed, she had weeks months at most, I had only hours before I was too weak to carry on.  It was the perfect solution, she welcomed me and I healed her flesh and transformed it.  It was a mutual choice I would never have entered her without her consent she knew she was dying and wanted to live, we both wanted so much to live, and we did for a long time.  It is strange for the first few years it was she who led the interactions with others and I was the voice in her head whispering to her, I cannot say when we traded places but at some point we did now we exist as one neither of us would have lasted so long on our own.

Marietta was mistress of a large house just outside Passo Pordoi, her husband was much older than she was and incredibly rich but lacked to taste to make his wealth any comfort to either of them.  At first he seemed pleased by the strength and vitality which reappeared on his brides cheek but soon his own health began to decline.  I did not think anything of it after all he was already old but the signs were there, maybe I never wanted to see them.

After his passing we began a new life, Marietta taught me so much about this wonderful human race the colours, the art the music, I was in love with it all.  We transformed the house into a palazzo and invited the most interesting and beautiful people from all over the country to join us.  We entertained constantly, occasionally it would seem one or more of our party would become overly fatigued but they would go away recover and then rejoin us.  Every now and again we would close the house and in that time of solitude we would reinvent ourselves, Marietta explained to me the life span of mortals and how we must disguise our extended existence.

Time passed so quickly the faces around us changed frequently and we managed to hide who we were for so long, I never thought we were hurting anyone, we just wanted to live and be loved.

And then everything changed the knock came late one night just as I was retiring for the night I paused watching as the footman opened the heavy wooden barrier and stepped back allowing the stranger to enter.  His attire was strangely cut, a long brown coat whirled around him as he spun round taking in his surroundings, then he caught sight of me and froze.  It seemed his eyes penetrated the deepest corners of my soul.

“Hello, I’m the Doctor and you are beautiful.”

Amy had not heard the door open and was unaware the Doctor had entered the room until he cleared his voice at the side of her.  She looked up to see he was holding a tray.  She smiled up at him.

“Tea and Jammie Dodgers the answer to all the problems in the world.”

He shook his head “there are some things even jammie dogders can’t fix.”  He looked round the room “I haven’t seen this room for so long, it isn’t really me, well this me anyway.”