Whitechapel
CHAPTER FOUR
The Steward drove into the darkened alleyway, the wind was blowing in his face making the tune he was whistling sound slightly odder than it already did. Not many people had heard of it, but then most Londoners hadn't...not just yet anyway.
The Steward came to a stop, blinking slightly as he saw all the light from around him getting darker as he looked round the small alleyway. He jumped down from the carriage, carrying on with his whistling, going over to the horse and stroking its head gently.
"Who's been a good ol' fella tonight eh?" he said smiling softly at the horse. "We'll be 'ome soon I promise..."
The horse whined as the Stewarts hand grazed over the horse's ear and in slight confusing and fear of being trampled the Stewart stepped back, grabbing the horses reins and pulling him down to the ground again.
"Shhh it's ok..." he said patting the horse in what he hoped was a soothing manner. It had worked in the past whenever his horse had been panicked by something.
But somehow this time there was something different. It was never a pleasant sound to listen to, but the handy thing about it was that it warned the Stewart of what he was about to uncover.
He lit a match, the darkness was literally so bad that not even he could see anything. Everything was... well pitch black down this little alleyway. He should have just gone round the other way, which alright would have taken an extra ten minutes to get to the club, he'd gone down the alleyway because he knew that he could then go round the back of the club... which worked most of the time.
He glanced at something on the floor, something red pooling around his feet. The Stewart lifted the match a little bit further finding skin, fresh cut skin with blood pooling out of it. The Stewart felt all the colour drain out of his face, and shot back to the horse. He jumped slightly as he heard something falling over at the other end of the courtyard. He spun round just in time to see a black cloak disappearing into the distance.
Whoever had killed this woman; had obviously just left the courtyard. But little did he know, as he cried for help, that this wasn't the only murder that had taken place this evening.
The TARDIS had gone. It had literally gone, The Doctor rubbed his hands through his hair in annoyance as he walked down the alleyway they'd parked in for what seemed like the fifty millionth time. Rose staggered along behind him; the annoyance of having a human travelling with him was that in reality they needed sleep.
A lot of sleep if he was frank.
And right now, Rose looked as if she might fall asleep on the floor if they didn't stop soon.
"Can't we..." a yawn cut Rose off as she looked at him, "Do this in the morning Doctor...please lets go and find Ginger's place. She'll have a bed..."
"Rose," The Doctor said looking at her, "If we were to do that, then I think you might find that the TARDIS will never get found. She broke down, she could be anywhere Rose, anywhere around here."
"Or anywhere in outer space Doctor." Rose said quietly, "Look you said so yourself, when she's repaired herself then she'll be alright. And she'll come and get us... why wouldn't she?"
"Because it's just slightly possible that she won't remember where we are." The Doctor replied looking her straight in the eye, "Believe me Rose, she might be alive..."
"Well you can feel 'er in your head." Rose yawned leaning against darkened wall, "Tell her where we are and she'll come back and get us."
"She's a ship! She's not gonna..."
"You said she was alive a moment ago," Rose said her tiredness replaced by a sudden burst of energy, "Look, you said so yourself, she'll come back and land where she dropped us off. Now seriously how long could that take?"
"Do you really need to know that?" The Doctor said looking at her, "It could hours, it could be days..."
"Well then," Rose interrupted taking his hand, "Going and staying with Ginger isn't going to harm us or the TARDIS. We'll come back first thing tomorrow to see whether she's landed again alright?"
The Doctor remained quiet as Rose walked him down the alleyway and towards the pub that they'd been in earlier that evening. He felt Rose shiver slightly and slipped his coat over her shoulders. He smiled back at her as she smiled gratefully back at him, taking his hand and leaning her head against his shoulder.
"You know Doctor," Rose started looking up at him, "I love travelling with you."
He couldn't help but grin at her, "I know."
"So," Rose said stopping walking and staring up at him, "Don't think that I'll want to go home if the TARDIS doesn't come back for months yeah? It's all part of the package, I told you that night I signed up for it. Well this is all part of it right?"
The Doctor wasn't listening, he was glancing beyond her. Well that wasn't the first time Rose had been attempting to pour out some sentimental speech and the Doctor hadn't listened to one word of it. She remembered Sarah Jane telling her that he'd done that a few times with her as well... even though he looked completely different it was obvious that some character traits remained whether they liked them or not.
"Doctor?"
"Rose close your eyes." The Doctor said looking her, "Don't look round ok?"
"What...why?"
The Doctor looked at her and put his hands over her eyes for her, before guiding her down the street whilst she complained loudly.
"Doctor!" Rose exclaimed "What are you doing? This might not appeal to you as much with whatever Time Lord advanced sensory vision you 'ave but I'd quite like to see where I'm going!"
"Shh..." the Doctor whispered in her ear, rolling at her eyes. Of all the times to make a fuss, it'd be now wouldn't it? Just as he was getting her away from what appeared to be some kind of grizzly murder scene. Rose would want to know the details; but if he was honest, he didn't want her to see this. He couldn't let her see a woman torn open, and by the looks of it had part of her kidney along with her dignity removed from her.
He felt queasy himself looking at it.
"Doctor what's going on?" Rose whispered nervously, "Please tell me Doctor...you're frightening me..."
He stayed quiet for a moment and took his hand away from her eyes before quickly turning her back to the murder scene.
"Rose something has happened... something...well terrible. So you must not look behind you alright? Promise me you won't look whatever happens? Especially after what I'm about to tell you..."
Rose nodded in understanding looking up at him, and he carried on looking at his watch.
"A woman has been murdered...right behind us..." he cut off as Rose paled and was in the middle of turning when he pulled her into the shadows again keeping her back to the woman. "You mustn't look, it's..." he trailed off as he heard someone whistling nearby and looked at Rose in a why which he hoped was saying "don't say a word."
She seemed to get the message and cuddled into his shoulder as he pulled them further into the shadows of the wall. If any one were to catch them right at this moment in time then they'd be suspects of whoever killed the woman that was lying on the floor in the gory state.
A Policeman walked past them; and stopped. The Doctor closed his eyes and held Rose closer as he saw him approach the woman, a scream of his echoed out around the courtyard and a whistle began to blow.
"Help!!" The Policeman shouted before blowing on the whistle again, he ran off somewhere down the street and the Doctor assumed that it must be to collect help.
And he knew he had to take the chance to escape from around here now. He grabbed Roses hand tighter and ran down the street keeping her close by. If the murderer was close by, then he didn't want Rose to be a target. Whoever it was that was killing, appeared to be targeting women which he hoped wouldn't mean that Rose was going to be a number one target.
It was only as he dragged her into the safety of the nearest abandoned courtyard near some kind of club; that he realised the woman that had been laying on the floor, the woman who'd been so brutally murdered had been Catherine.
Catherine from the Pub.
And then he heard Rose scream beside him, he moved just in time to stop her from falling to the ground and hitting her head as she fainted.
It seemed like the alleyway they'd been walking down wasn't the only place that'd been a murder.
Because lying on the ground, in a similar mangled state was Elizabeth. The same Elizabeth that they'd also met in the pub earlier that evening.
It seemed that the women in this part of London was in grave danger.
But who would be next?