Happy New Year!

The end of the year is always a time for reflection and change. Out with the old, in with the new. At least, it's usually that way.

I can't really say I'm particularly looking forward to anything about New Year's celebrations simply because I don't really have any plans to celebrate. Will I be up until midnight? Yes, I'm an insomniac, as I've said many times before. But so far my plans are staying locked up in my room as the plumbers try to fix a leak in the shower (that'll probably be most of the day). I'll probably be reading and writing and chatting with friends. Thank you age of communication.

As for reflection and change, I haven't actually really thought about it. Some much for the reflecting part of that. I like the way my life's going. I need to procrastinate less and probably stop biting my nails, but I doubt I'll be successful at either of those. Still, New Year's resolutions were made to be broken, unless you're a person with an incredible amount of will power.

May 2011 bring you all happiness and good health and prosperity and all that good stuff.

Callie

Oh What To Do To Die Today

Lately I've had a feeling of sluggishness. The kind of sluggishness where you don't know what to do, don't particularly feel like doing anything, and just can't really be stirred into motion for anything. I've also been having a lot of trouble falling asleep at night, so that might have something to do with it.

Whenever I get really tired  it never fails that somebody asks me if I'm alright. Apparently I seem sick when I'm sleep deprived. But I swear, I've never felt so tired as I did last night for whatever reason.

I think I need a project to get over the sluggishness. I'll throw myself into my writing and see if that helps. Maybe not if my brain's as dead as it was last night, but it's worth a shot.

Callie

Winter Wonderland

Winter wonderlands don't exist where I live. I'm from the south. It's four days until Christmas Eve and I was out today in short sleeves. The slightest hint of ice on the ground, which happens maybe once every few years, and all the kids shout "SNOW" and rush outside.
Still, the Christmas spirit reigns supreme. Lights, carols and of course advertisements are all over. Things have been somewhat stressful here, but I'm trying not to let that ruin the holidays for me. I love this time of year and almost never find myself in a bad mood.
So, like the song says, have yourselves a merry little Christmas. And leave a comment every now and then, if you can. I'd love to hear what you think, and feel free to ask me questions.
Callie

City of Shadows Part 6

Last part to of City of Shadows. Doctor Who and all related characters and items belong to the BBC. Robin belongs to Nightingale. And if you have time, please comment. I'd love to hear what you guys think.

            Robin stepped out of the TARDIS with the same look Michi had had on her face the entire time. A look of absolute amazement, but it somehow didn’t show any surprise.

            “That was incredible!” she exclaimed.

            “You know,” the Doctor said, coming out right behind her, “You’re probably the first person not to say ‘It’s bigger on the inside.’ Well, you and Michi.”

            Robin smiled. “I’ve never been one for stating the obvious.”

            Michi looked around them. “We’re at the power plant. Does that mean you’re going to hook up all the lights in the city the way you did the lights at the hospital?”

            “Exactly,” the Doctor said. “All the Vashta Nerada all over the city will be too weak to hunt, completely harmless. Eventually they’ll start eating road-kill or small animals, maybe, but they shouldn’t be a threat. I’ll just set it so that the lights all intensify for a minute or two at noon every day to make sure it stays that way.”

            And so after much use of the psychic paper and the Doctor’s “honest face” they worked their way into the power plant. Everywhere they went the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and set to work, calling out instructions to Michi and Robin.

            They’d been through most of the power plant. Michi and Robin were hooking up containers of theta particles to a power grid in case of blackouts.

            “Finished with this one,” Michi called out.

            And then she saw it. The lights were blacking out down the hall. Michi’s heart tightened in her chest. The Vashta Nerada were coming.

            “Come on Robin!” Michi shouted as she went to join the Doctor in the island of light they had set up ahead of time. She made it, but realized Robin hadn’t followed. She turned around, and there was Robin, a determined look on her face, struggling to finish the one last bit of wiring.

            “Just leave it Robin, get over here!” Michi called to her.

            But Robin wouldn’t leave it. The shadows were coming closer and closer. Finally, Robin got the last bit wired up, just as she was swallowed up by the darkness. They heard a scream, and a sickening crunch, and then nothing.

            “No!” Michi called out, instinctive taking off towards the spot where Robin had been working. But the Doctor grabbed her arm.

            “There’s nothing we can do!” he told her. Michi looked up at him, and could tell he hated, absolutely hated, having to say that. He continued with a gentler tone. “Come on, gather the lights, stay out of the shadows. There’s one last bit of paneling we need to get over there.”

            Michi stared at the spot awhile longer. She knew she hadn’t really known Robin very well, but her death still seemed somehow personal. But the Doctor was right; there was nothing they could do. She nodded, and started preparing to make the move around the corner.

            But when they did round the corner, Michi noticed a flash of light coming from behind them in the area they’d just left.

            “Doctor, did you see that?” Michi asked.

            “See what?”

            “That light,” Michi told him. Of course, being towards the back edge of their lights she might have seen it better. “There was a flash of light coming from over there.”

            They looked, but all they could see now was darkness.

            “You don’t think…” Michi started.

            “No,” the Doctor said. “I’m sorry, but it’s not possible. Robin’s dead.”

            After a pause the Doctor went to work, determined to finish before anybody else died. Michi took another few seconds before going to help.

A few minutes later lights came back on all over Austin.

***

            Michi hung up the phone and returned it to the Doctor. She’d checked in and all her friends and family were safe. Michi felt glad to have that weight off her shoulders, and a bit proud too. She hadn’t mentioned the Doctor or her part in events, not even to Miki or the Doctor-obsessed Thena. Nobody ever told their loved ones about the Doctor if they didn’t have to.

            “I supposed you liked this better when it was all just a story,” the Doctor said, leaning against the TARDIS’ control column.

            “A bit, yeah,” Michi agreed.

            “It’s a brilliant life,” he said, “a fantastic, amazing life. It’s full of danger, and monsters and the unknown. Full of things you couldn’t begin to imagine. But…”

            Michi’s heart skipped a beat in anticipation of what she was sure came next.

            “You could come with me, if you want,” the Doctor offered.

            Michi thought for a minute. She’d be leaving behind her friends, her family. What about school? What if something happened to her?

            But in the end, it wasn’t really much of a choice. School and a daily routine were boring. The TARDIS travelled in time, she could have a thousand adventures and be back only seconds after she left. And she knew she couldn’t pass up something like this. It was the trip of a lifetime.

            Michi smiled. “I’d love to! I’ve had enough of Halloween for this year anyways.”

            The Doctor grinned, putting a hand on a lever. “You sure you’re ready for this?”

            “Heck yeah!”

            “Well then,” the Doctor said, pulling the lever, “allons-y!”

            Michi stood there, mirroring the Doctor’s grin as the engines started, and hanging on for dear life with the worst driver she had ever met at the controls.

            “I must be dreaming,” Michi thought. “This is way too good to be true!”

            But it couldn’t be a dream. She could feel the ancient power of the TARDIS, hear its engines, and see the Doctor right in front of her, looking as excited as Michi. This was real. And it was forever.

            Michi laughed, more excited than she’d been about anything in a long time. She was off to explore the stars.

City of Shadows Part 5

Doctor Who and all related characters and items belong to the BBC. Robin belongs to my friend Nightingale.

After a few minutes they had an island of light set up with the survivors huddled together shouting about skeletons and lights and shadows. All of a sudden Michi felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, and there was a girl, surprisingly calm, with long black hair down to her knees and silver eyes. She looked to be maybe a few years older than Michi.

“Hi Michi,” she said. She was smiling a little, and didn’t seem at all disturbed by what was going on around her.

Michi didn’t know what else to do.

“Hi. Um, do I know you?” Michi asked her. She did seem a bit familiar.

            “I’m Robin,” the girl said. “I’m in your math class.”

            “Oh,” Michi said. “Right, of course. Sorry, I guess I don’t see you much.”

“That’s all right. Not many people notice me.” Robin was still smiling.

The conversation was getting uncomfortable, so Michi pushed past the subject.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

            “I’m visiting my brother,” Robin told her.

            “Oh,” Michi looked back at the Doctor who was waving his arms around, trying to get her attention. “I’m sorry, um, I’m a bit busy right now. Do you mind…?”

            “Of course,” Robin said.

The Doctor was trying to explain something to Michi, but he could barely make himself heard over the loud nervous chatter around them.

            “There’s no…killing people…was the…Nerada…you hear…?” was all she could make out.

            Michi gave up. “HEY! If you don’t mind could you please just shut up?!” she shouted. The crowd fell silent and turned towards her. “Thank you. Doctor, I don’t think you’re going to be able to get the Vashta Nerada to give up this time. Is there any way you could get the lights back on?”

            “Well the only way would be to rewire the power supply. It could be used to…that’s it! Michi you’re brilliant!” he wheeled around to talk to the receptionist again. “Slight change of destination, could you tell me where the electrical room is?”

            At this point she was too shocked to protest. “Second door to the right.”

            The Doctor handed Michi a light. Then he pointed to Robin. “You…what’s your name?”

            “Robin.”

            “Right, Robin, grab some lights and come with us. And whatever you do, stay out of the shadows!”

Robin did as she was told, more than willing to help. Making sure everybody was safely in the center of the lighted area they set off down the hall.

            Once they’d made it to the electrical room the Doctor put on his glasses, took out the sonic screwdriver and started messing with the various controls. He started yanking on wires, tossing seeming random pieces of metal over his shoulder and a million other things that made no sense whatsoever to Michi or Robin. The one constant was the sound of the sonic screwdriver.

And to Michi, it looked exactly like something from the show. The Doctor, with his black-framed glasses he wore just for the way they looked, working on a machine with that determined, focused look at his face. She felt herself slipping back into fan mode. Michi wished she had paper to draw it.

            “What are you staring at?” the Doctor asked without looking up.

            “Um, I was…I was just wondering. Where do all these lights get power from? They don’t have any cords or places for batteries or anything.”

            “Self-charging theta particles,” he told her as he worked, tossing a screw to the side. “The Time Lords developed them. At the core of those lights are super-charged, highly energetic particles, dozens of them. They’re the only particles that naturally stay in an energized state, and so they power themselves up again after burning any energy. They virtually never run out of power.”

            “That’s amazing,” Robin said. She didn’t seem at all put off by talk of alien technology. She seemed to be keeping up with everything really well.

            The Doctor made one final adjustment and then all the lights came on brighter than ever. Michi shut her eyes against the sudden brightness.

            “There we go, molto bene!” the Doctor exclaimed. “Worked like a charm.”

            “How’d you do that?” Michi asked as the lights dimmed back down to normal.

            “Simple enough really,” the Doctor said, putting his glasses back into his pocket.
“I basically made the system a thousand times more efficient energy-wise and rerouted all the excess power to the lights.”

            “Did it kill the Vashta Nerada?”

            The Doctor spied a shadowy corner and stepped out of the light before Michi or Robin had a chance to stop him. Michi sighed with relief when he turned around, still in one piece, to finish explaining.

“No. You can’t really kill the Vashta Nerada, but something that bright should weaken them for say, oh, around 24 hours. The lights just need to come on again every night. Everything’s back to normal.”

            “What about everywhere else?”

            The Doctor smiled. “I’ve got an idea about that.”

City of Shadows Part 4

Doctor Who and all related characters and items belong to the BBC. Also, I apologize for the awkward way the parts fit together at times. It wasn't meant to be broken up like this.

            “You still blew up the school?” she asked incredulously.

            “I can’t go off what they said,” he put the lights down and made his way to the control panel. “It’s an imperfect way to communicate. It’s…” he searched for a way to describe it. “It’s as if they have to talk in a language they aren’t quite fluent in yet, always struggling with the right words. I’ll just do a quick scan of the city…” He started messing around with some dials and watched as figures came up on the screen. “It looks like I blew up your school for nothing. We’re too late. There are millions of them all over Austin. Dozens of people could be dead by now. Not one person will survive the night.”

            “My family,” Michi said. “My friends…you’re telling me they could all be dead.”

            The Doctor looked at her sadly. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

            Michi took a deep breath, trying to grasp what that meant. “They could be dead, not they are dead,” she reminded herself forcefully. “Don’t let yourself mourn yet. They might still need you.”

            “What’s the next step,” she finally asked.

            The Doctor was silent for a moment before he answered. “I can take you home. You can pack a bag and I can take you and your family someplace safe. The TARDIS isn’t big enough for me to take everybody in the city but…’

            Michi thought of her best friend Miki. She thought of Caleb and Nathan and Moose and Thena and all her other friends. There were hundreds of people in Austin. She couldn’t leave them behind to die.

            “It wouldn’t be right,” she told him, shaking her head.

            The Doctor nodded understandingly, and gave Michi a small smile. He looked almost proud of her decision. Then he clasped his hands together. “Right, what stops the Vashta Nerada? Light…I might be able to get enough energy but where would I find enough lights to cover the whole city? What else…” He started to pace again and run his fingers through his hair. “I convinced them to let an entire planet evacuate once, but I can’t speak to them now. But the P.A. system in the school…the P.A. system! That’s it! There are dozens of buildings with P.A. systems; we just need to find one the Vashta Nerada can use. Like…a hospital! We’ll start with the hospitals. People are always on the intercoms there.”

            He set out at the controls with the push of a few buttons. The screen changed to a map of Austin marked with green moons (“The intergalactic symbol for hospital,” the Doctor explained). He ran around the control column, arms a blur, pushing buttons and pulling levers. Michi held on tightly as the ship began to toss about and the engines started up with their distinct noise. One of the most amazing sounds anybody could ever hope to hear, Michi thought. It meant the infinite possibilities of time travel, and the arrival of the amazing, impossible Doctor. Michi couldn’t help grinning. She was riding in the TARDIS with the Doctor at the controls! No matter what the situation, that was still freaking awesome.

            Finally they came to a stop. Again the Doctor aimed a light at the door before opening it. They were just outside St. David’s Hospital. The Doctor pulled out his detector. “Still dinging, they’re in there.”

            This time the building’s power was still on, but the Doctor insisted they carry as many lights as they could with them. Most got shoved into his pockets.

            “How are you fitting all those lights into your pockets?” Michi had to ask.

            “They’re bigger on the inside,” the Doctor explained. “Like the TARDIS.”

            “Won’t we stand out carrying these around?” Michi asked.

            “Who said we needed to blend in? That’s so boring!”

            Inside the hospital they went up to talk to the receptionist at the front desk. The Doctor gave her his most school-boyish smile. He set down his lights and after a bit of searching pulled out the psychic paper.

            “Hello, John Smith, Health Department,” he introduced himself. “This is our new intern, Michi. I was just doing a…routine inspection, nothing out of the ordinary. Just, you know, checking up on the hospital and all that. Have you noticed anything unusual going on around here?”

            The woman gave the Doctor a suspicious look as a call for a Dr. Wills went out over the intercom. “Nobody said anything about an inspection,” she said.

            “Yeah, well, it was kind of last minute,” the Doctor said, still smiling. “Wanted to show the intern what it was like working out in the field, so to speak. Kind of a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Tell me though, has there been anything odd happening?”

            The woman raised an eyebrow at him. “Not a thing.”

            “Dr. Wills please report to the O.R.” the intercom requested.

            “Are you sure?” the Doctor asked. “Nothing at all? No sudden deaths or missing patients or employees? No fake skeletons popping out of nowhere for Halloween?”

            “How specific,” the woman said pointedly. “The only thing I can think of would be the outbreak and we’ve reported that to the CDC. We’re following all protocols and taking the proper precautions.”

            “And what outbreak would that be?”

            “Dr. Wills please report to the O.R.”

            “The outbreak we’ve been facing the past two or three days,” the woman said. “Surely they told you about it. Some of the patients have died of an unknown contagious disease. We’re told to keep away, as is everybody else. Not even the families get to say goodbye to the bodies.”

            “What have they told you about it?” the Doctor asked.

            “Only what I’ve told you.”

            “Doctor…Doctor…Doctor…” The voice on the intercom took on a familiar, broken speech.

            “Doctor,” Michi said.

            “I noticed,” he said, and then he turned back to the receptionist. “Where are the controls for the P.A. system?”

            The woman pointed down the hall. “Third door on the left.”

            “Thank you,” the Doctor told her. But before they made it to the hallway the lights at the far end went out. Then the lights before them, and the lights before them, all the way down the hall. People started to scream.

            “Lights!” the Doctor yelled. They started setting up the lights to cover as large an area as they could, making a refuge in the middle of the lobby. “Everybody, stay out of the shadows!” the Doctor called out repeatedly, trying to make himself heard over the mass confusion.

City of Shadows, Part 3

Doctor Who and all its characters and devices belong to the BBC.

            Michi stared wide-eyed at the object hidden around the back of the school. She felt a rush of excitement as she recognized the little blue police box. But Michi knew that its phone was a fake, and the little box was much bigger on the inside.

            “The TARDIS!” she exclaimed.

            “Best ship in the universe,” said the Doctor proudly. “Come on!”

            They went inside, and Michi was struck speechless by the amazing sight of the TARDIS. She stared in disbelief at the huge control room while the Doctor ran around rummaging through storage bins. As Michi studied the central control column (it was just like in the show!) the Doctor pulled out dozens of lights of all different sizes, ranging from flashlights to the kind you see them use to light up movie sets.

            “We’re going to need a lot of lights to get rid of the shadows,” the Doctor was saying. “That’s the only way we’ll get through the school.”

            He gingerly put an explosive device in his pocket, grabbed a handful of lights and dashed out. After a few seconds he seemed to realize Michi wasn’t behind him. He stuck his head back inside. “You coming or what?

            Michi snapped out of fan mode, picked up the rest of the lights and followed.

            “Wait, I thought you said it was too dangerous to go inside the school,” she said.

            “No, I said it was tricky the way you blocked the lights,” the Doctor corrected her, still heading towards the school. “We need to get inside to blow the building up.”

***

            The Doctor aimed a big light at the school’s door and opened it carefully. All of the lights in the school were out. “I thought they might cut the power,” he said. With the help of a flashlight he ripped the butcher paper off the nearest window.

            “Right, Michi, make sure the way back is well lit. Don’t let any shadows come up behind us. We need to get to the center of the building.”

            Slowly and carefully, they made a trail of lights leading to the cafeteria, which the Doctor said would be the place where the bomb would do the most damage. To Michi the school had never seemed creepier. The partial lighting would have been enough to add to the effect, but a school isn’t meant to be so silent.

Then they passed the office. The principal’s voice came on over the intercom.

            “Everybody out of the building!”

            “But that’s impossible,” the Doctor said, his eyes wide. They turned and saw a well-dressed skeleton working the P.A. system from the principal’s desk.

            Michi had jumped a foot in the air at the unexpected announcement. She stared nervously at the bones as she tried to get her heart-rate back to normal. “Doctor, I thought you said they couldn’t talk.”

            “They can’t,” the Doctor told her. “Or at least, they shouldn’t be able to talk. No technology you have can retain brain wave patterns after death.”

He addressed the Vashta Nerada. “How are you doing that? What are you using to speak to us?”

            “Everybody out of the building!”

            “Yes I know you want us out,” the Doctor said impatiently. “But I also know you can say more than that man’s last words if you can speak at all. So I’ll ask you one more time, how are you talking to us?”

            After a few seconds the voice spoke again. “Students, can I have your attention please. We have a few announcements.”

            “You’re able to use the P.A. system because he was using it when you killed him,” the Doctor said, his face lighting up with realization. “It still contains the thoughts and emotions behind his last words and you’ve tapped into that the way you tap into the thoughts and emotions in data ghosting. Brilliant! I mean, terrible, of course, since an innocent man had to die, but still. You can only say things from previous announcements over the intercom then, am I right?”

            “That’s right!” the voice said, loaded with cheesy, over-done enthusiasm.

            The Doctor looked at Michi, raising an eyebrow. “Our principal was always really enthusiastic,” she said simply.

            “Ah,” the Doctor said, and turned back to the principal’s skeleton. “Right, I’ll make you a deal. You give me 24 hours to get this building condemned, you don’t kill anybody in that time, and after that this building and everything in it are fair game. The school becomes your hunting ground.”

This time, when the voice came it sounded broken, piecing together words from different sentences. It was one of the most awful things Michi had ever heard.

“This…city…is…ours.”

            “What do you mean the city is yours?” the Doctor demanded.

            The skull of the skeleton turned as if to look directly at them. Michi gasped in fear, and only just managed to stop herself from taking a step back.

            “We…will…not…give…up…food…or…the…school…or…any…other…part…of…the…city.”

            “But what do you mean…” the Doctor stopped, his eyes widening with fear as the answer came to him. “You’ve spread all over the city. Any shadow at any point in Austin could be infected. You haven’t just taken over the school. It was too small for all of you, wasn’t it? You needed more space, an entire city.”

            “Doctor what do we do?” Michi asked.

            “We…get to the TARDIS, now! Go on, I’ll be right behind you with the lights. Just go and stay out of the shadows!”

            Michi was about to protest, but saw the look the Doctor gave her and thought otherwise. She took off running. For a while she could hear the Doctor scrambling to gather up the lights, but she soon left him behind. She realized how badly she wanted to be back in the sunlight. How badly she wanted to get out of the school. Something had talked to her through a dead man! That’s just not normal!

            She waited for what seemed like hours. Finally the Doctor came back to the TARDIS. Michi heard an explosion go off as he closed the door.

City of Shadows Part 2

I do not own Doctor Who, the Doctor, the TARDIS, the sonic screwdriver or the Vashta Nerada.

Michi was glad when she got back in time for Great Ideas. It was the one class she looked forward to. She wouldn’t be able to warm up any from the late October chill in the school, though; every room in there was freezing.

            Michi noticed that the school was very quiet. A building full of teenagers should never be this quiet. It was a bit unnerving. But, Michi thought, if everybody was in class then maybe it would seem to be a bit quiet from the outside.

She was almost to the building when somebody called out to her.

            “Oi!”

            She turned around and saw a tall, skinny man with spiky brown hair running towards her. Michi stared in amazement. “He looks like David Tennant!” she thought excitedly. The man was even wearing a long coat and sneakers like the Doctor, David Tennant’s character from the T.V. show Doctor Who.

            “Listen to me, don’t go in there,” he said. Michi noticed that, strangely enough, he had a Scottish accent like David Tennant. The Doctor, however, spoke in a British accent and it was the only way the man seemed different from the character. “There’s something inside there, something dangerous. I’ve been keeping an eye on the school and something’s not right. Just turn around and go home right now.”

            Michi looked at the man like he was crazy. “What do you mean something’s not right? It’s a school! Of course something’s not right about it. Who are you anyways?”

            The man sighed and pulled out a tattered brown wallet and showed her an I.D. card that read “John Smith, Texas Department of Health and Public Safety.” Michi couldn’t help but think the I.D. was similar to the Doctor’s psychic paper Thena had told her about. She’d said it would show you whatever the holder wanted you to see. Also, she remembered, Thena said that the Doctor often used the name John Smith.

            “I think there’s some kind of infestation in the building,” the man continued. "It could be very, very dangerous and I can’t have you going back in there until it’s safe. I’ve already evacuated everybody else.”
            Michi stared at him. “Wait, how’d you do that? I was just here a few hours ago, and classes were going on as usual. I hadn’t heard anything about this.”

            “Yeah, well, I’m a very…convincing person,” he said. “I’ve got an honest face. Anyways, that’s not important. There’s something in there. You have to listen to me!”

            “What is it?”

            The man paused, obviously surprised by her calm cooperation. Clearly he wasn’t used to having people pay serious attention to him so quickly. He opened his mouth, but seemed unsure of how to answer her.

            Michi gave a small smile. “Your name’s not John Smith is it?”

            “No,” the man had seemed to decide lying wasn’t going to work. “Oh I hate when they see through the psychic paper, so much easier when you don’t have to start from scratch. I’m the Doctor, hello!”

            “I knew it!” Michi cried out.

            The man seemed really thrown by this. “I’m sorry, have we met? Things don’t always happen in the right order around me.”

            “No, but you’re the Doctor!” Michi said. She thought about the Doctor from the show, a 900-plus-year-old Time Lord, the last of his kind, who saved the universe thousands of times. Then she realized she was talking to somebody who was supposed to be a fictional character. That might be something to worry about. She didn’t really mind though, this was much more exciting than school.

            The Doctor was still obviously confused, so Michi quickly said “Let’s just say your reputation precedes you. Anyways, what’s really in the school?”

Almost immediately the Doctor got over his confusion. “I think it’s the Vashta Nerada,” he said, storing the wallet away in the depths of his coat pocket. Michi just gave him a blank look so he continued. “The Vashta Nerada live in shadows, hunt in shadows. They’re a colony of carnivorous creatures that are found on almost every planet. They feed off the meat of any living thing, strip it clean in seconds. They’re why most species have a fear of the dark. But usually you find them in forests.”

            “But then what are they doing in a school?”

            “Plenty of paper in a school, paper comes from trees, trees come from forests. Some of their seeds could have been transferred. They could’ve grown and set up hunting grounds here easily enough.”

            “So what makes you think they’re here?”

            The Doctor pulled out a device from his pockets. It looked like a little remote control of some kind, with dozens of buttons and a little spinning satellite-looking dish at the top.  “My detector’s dinging. It dings when there’s stuff. See, look, the little dish is spinning.” He became more serious. “And students have disappeared haven’t they? I asked around, and just this morning a girl didn’t come back from decorating.”

Michi was sick with sudden realization. “That wasn’t a fake skeleton I saw earlier was it?”

            “I wish I could say it was.”

            Michi took a slow breath. She’d seen a dead body. Somebody she knew had died. She didn’t want to think about that. It was horrifying.

But she realized something. Ignoring it might mean more people ended up that way. “Right, how can I help?”

            The Doctor looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Not many people were so quick to volunteer. “You sure you want to?” he asked. “It’ll be dangerous.”

            “I don’t want anybody else to die.” The look of shock and sorrow on Michi’s face was replaced by one of determination. She met the Doctor’s gaze, ready to help.

            The Doctor gave her an approving look. “Right. Ok, then—I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

            “Michi.”

            “Alright Michi, first rule is stay out of the shadows. The Vashta Nerada could be in any of them. Not a finger in the shadows, understood? Unfortunately the way you lot have got the lights covered makes getting into the school a bit tricky.” He started to pace. “You said there was a skeleton, what was it like?”

            “I…I just thought it was fake,” Michi said. “It was…clean, white like it had to either be really old or fake. It was inside a school! It couldn’t have been there that long; somebody would’ve noticed a dead body. But…it was wearing clothes. Nobody puts clothes on a fake skeleton. It…it was in the shadows. They had other fake skeletons around the school, I just thought…”

            The Doctor continued his pacing, oblivious to Michi’s shock. He began to talk out loud, letting his thoughts run through his words “Definitely the Vashta Nerada. Right, quarantining the school wouldn’t work. Humans can’t resist a ‘Keep Out’ sign. And they’d want to come back, build again at some point. I could seal up the school with the sonic screwdriver, but I can’t be sure that’d last. Besides I need to know how they got here to make sure there aren’t any more in the city. But I can only be sure of that, or make a deal with them, if I can talk with them, and I’d need a data ghost to do that…”

            “Data ghost?”

            “Something from your future,” The Doctor murmured in response. He seemed to be only half-listening to her, too busy with his own thoughts. “There are devices that can temporarily hold an impression of the electrical pulses of the brain after death. The dead can keep talking, just rambling on, for a day or two. The Vashta Nerada can take advantage of this and talk to others but…”

            “Somebody would have to die,” Michi finished.

            “Simplest option left would be to blow up the school,” the Doctor concluded. “That should wipe out all of the Vashta Nerada.”

            “Just blow them up, simple as that?” Michi asked, shocked that the Doctor was even suggesting that. She couldn’t believe she was hearing this.

            “I don’t have any other choice,” the Doctor looked at her. “It would be so much better for you if you just went home right now and forget you ever met me. But I don’t think you’d do that.”

            “Not a chance,” Michi said. “This is…amazing. You’re talking about an alien species inside my school! And I want to help, so tell me what you need.”

            The Doctor hesitated. “I don’t know what you’ve heard about me,” he said. “You’ve probably heard about a strange man who comes out of nowhere whenever there’s trouble. And it probably sounds incredible. But this is the real thing, and I can’t promise you’ll be safe.”

            “That’s kind of what makes it more exciting,” Michi told him.

            The Doctor grinned. “Come with me”

City of Shadows Part 1

This is the first part of the story I wrote for Michi for her birthday. Told you I'd put it up.
Michi hated Monday mornings. Thena and Moose weren’t making things any easier either. The two sisters couldn’t help but beating up on each other every five seconds, forcing Michi to referee.
This morning it happened to be Thena who started it. She’d been going on about an episode of NCIS to Michi. Moose rolled her eyes, the way she always did when Thena quoted anything. A lot of the fighting was about whether Thena was obsessed with certain T.V. shows or not, a topic Thena of course was being very defensive about.
And of course Thena wasn’t too happy about Moose rolling her eyes at her again and so punched her sister on the arm. Moose did the same with Thena, retaliating in the same way only harder. Thena always felt the need to punch back, and soon, as usual, Michi had to get between them.
“Hey, no hitting your sister!” she told them, pinning Moose’s arms behind her back. Seeing as how Thena and Moose fought almost every day, she’d had a lot of practice in this. “I started it anyways. I was asking Thena about the episode since I hadn’t seen it yet.” She always felt the need to defend Thena and her quotes. Moose was stronger than her sister and an athlete and Thena was…well, she looked very victimized and helpless, though it really was her fault for punching back. Besides, Michi liked Thena’s quoting abilities.
After a minute or two both sisters had gone back to a cease-fire, though Moose was still going on about how people only saw when she was the one doing the hitting. Having nothing else to do, Thena started reading and Moose pulled out some homework. Seeing that the two had finally settled down, Michi brought out her drawing. She’d been up late finishing the line art for it since she finally had a night without much homework and was really proud of how the picture was turning out. She was basing it off a new Vocaloid song she’d heard. Michi started coloring, beginning with the warm colors. She only had a few minutes to work on it, though, until the two-minute bell sounded through the hallways. With a sigh Michi packed up and got to her feet.
As she went to first period Michi saw a senior putting up Halloween decorations from a box. Michi knew this senior from Japanese. “What was her name again?” Michi asked herself. “Avery White, that’s it.”
This was the first year the school was trying to decorate in any way. All of the students were getting really excited about it, Michi too. She’d wanted to help with the decorating but didn’t have enough time. Her life was filled with school, homework and drawing for the most part. Avery had put up butcher paper over the lights to dim them and was heading towards a shadowy corner with a bunch of cobwebs.
It seemed everybody was getting into the Halloween spirit that year. The students were all excited, partially because of the decorations. Michi had heard everybody talk about what their costumes were going to be, even people who never knew what they were going to dress up as. It seemed to be all people could talk about.
It could’ve just been a coincidence, but there seem to have been a lot of disappearances lately. The police were at the school quite a bit questioning people. They obviously didn’t have any leads though. There wasn’t any pattern, any clues or anything at all to make sense of it. People had just started vanishing without a trace in the past week or so.
Michi thought there must have been a full moon or something. She wasn’t too worried. A school’s a crowded place. But still, everybody was kind of on edge about it. The disappearances might have been why some people were getting so caught up in the creepy feel of Halloween though.
A flicker of movement caught Michi’s eye. She thought she’d seen something in the corner Avery was about to decorate. It was just a slight movement in the corner of her eye, like there was something in the shadows. Michi shrugged it off.
“I guess Halloween’s getting to me too.”
After math Michi had to leave for a doctor’s appointment. She needed a physical for tennis next semester and her mom thought it was time for a check up anyways. She went to say hi to Avery on her way out, but Avery was gone. She’d left a nearly full box of decorations. The corner looked finished though, filled with cobwebs and a skeleton.

Watch Your Mouth

Due to the enormous amount of stress I've been under, I've been cussing quite a bit lately. Normally I don't cuss much, but when you combine an insane amount of projects in which a million things could go wrong with extreme sleep deprivation (a mixture otherwise known as the week before finals) a word just slips out sometimes. And then I wind up throwing most of my friends into shock.
My sister says she's very disappointed and upset that I've started cussing. We were always taught not to and so I should know better. As her former theater teacher says "you only say a four-letter word when you have nothing smart to say." I don't think there's anything wrong with saying a bad word every now and then, so long as it doesn't become a habit. It's normal to just let one slip without realizing it.
But she's right. I've been cussing way too much, and I don't want to make it a habit. But I'm pretty sure it's just the stress. I'll stop once finals are over.