TEN

 From nowhere a storm began to build just above our heads, it was like being trapped in a confined space with a whirlpool as it spun around the exhibits. It was bitterly cold as it took our breaths away. The Doctor was thrown violently to the other side of the room and pinned against the wall, while the rest of us huddled into a group and tried to force our way to the other exit. But the supernatural storm that was the prelude to a gateway from another Universe increased in power, knocking us all to the floor. I looked up and could see Jasmine and Paul banging on the door, desperately trying to reach us but the door was sealed shut. Then I remembered what happened to Keith the first victim, who was pulled into the portal or time eddy as the Doctor called it, so I got on my hands and knees and crawled over to my parents and Kyle who were paralysed with fear.

 “Get up!” I gasped. “Start crawling, we’ve got to find something to hold onto!”

 Dad nodded and began to help mum as I helped the feather light Kyle along the floor, we were moving in a chain with myself at the rear. But just at that moment the room suddenly lit up with a huge flare of intense light. I looked over my shoulder and that’s when I saw a whirlpool of shimmering particles. The atmosphere was breaking up, reality itself being altered as the museum wall disappeared and in its place a never ending tunnel of blinding light. But I could see no sign of life on the other side. My dad had almost made it to an exhibit cabinet he then turned round and got to his knees to help my mum but there was another gust of wind that threw my bear of a dad up into the air like a rag doll. Mum screamed as dad flew through the air above us, heading towards the portal. I reached up and grabbed hold of dad’s shirt, somehow finding the strength to pull him back down towards the ground. But my dad was in the grip of the portal’s gravitational pull. I gripped his hand but felt him being sucked away from me. I was fighting an invisible force, like a twisted tug of war but I couldn’t see the opponents on the other side… Mum was clinging onto a cabinet for dear life, while Kyle was wrapped around mum’s waist and with one hand I was gripping onto her legs. I could feel my dad’s fingers slipping through mine as he vertically hovered above the ground. I looked through the portal again and that’s when I saw the shadowy figures moving closer, something was finally there. Their forms were insubstantial and skeleton like, their eyes without expression as I heard a low, guttural groan. But I couldn’t make out exactly what the creatures were and then everything drastically changed. One moment we were being pulled and then the next I could feel a force pushing against us. It then started becoming difficult to breathe as though the atmosphere was changing, we simply couldn’t hold on like this much longer. I glanced in desperation at the Doctor.

 “Everybody hold on!” The Doctor shouted as that mad and wonderful man ran headlong towards the portal with a fire extinguisher. “Take that!” The Doctor yelled as he flung the extinguisher through the portal. There was an almighty bang and flash of light, the storm stopped instantaneously and the portal  closed. Dad crashed onto the floor, luckily I managed to roll out of the way. Jasmine and Paul fell through the doors they were pushing against and landed in a heap.

 “Good old elf ’n’ safety!” The Doctor beamed as he leapt to his feet and dusted himself off.

 The relief spread through the room as we all got to our feet and hugged each other.

“So that was a portal, a gateway to another world? And I nearly got sucked into it…Thank you for holding on sweetheart…” My dad gasped, none the worse for his ordeal as he held me tightly in his shaking arms.

 “Anytime Pa. But it’s the Doctor you really want to thank.” I glanced over his shoulder and smiled at the Doctor. “How did you stop them?”

 “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The Doctor explained nonchalantly. Then glancing over impressed with Kyle as he finished the sentence with him. “So they do teach you kids’ useful stuff at school after all.”

 “Nah, read it in Usborne’s Encyclopedia of Science.” Kyle grinned at the Doctor.

 “Newton’s third law of motion…” Paul added quietly. Everyone in the room glanced at the shy and softly spoken man. “In my job you end up watching an awful lot of late night Open University programmes.” The security guard explained and then with an anguished expression he turned to the Doctor. “So that tunnel of light, is that what took Keith?”

 “I’m afraid it was, only it looks like they are getting better at creating openings into this world. And did you catch a glimpse of them Anna?” I nodded. “I did too and they didn’t look like the talking kind. We’ve got to stop them gaining entrance to this world and find out what they want. Has everyone been evacuated to a safe distance?” The Doctor asked Paul.

 “Yes Doctor, the emergency services are on their way but how are we going to explain this to them?”

 “The way it looks at the moment we might need to consider evacuating the whole of the city centre.” The Doctor added ominously.

 Jasmine came over to me and after an awkward moment we hugged each other.

 “I’m glad you’re here and the Doctor…” My friend glanced nervously over at the Doctor. “Will he be able to stop what’s happening here?” Jasmine frowned her eyes full of confusion, I understood that feeling, her whole world had been turned upside down.

 “I trust him with our lives Jasmine. If anyone can sort this out, then the Doctor can.” I smiled and hoped my friend would feel reassured.

 “Anna, let’s start again. I’ve missed you.” Jasmine smiled back and we hugged again. I had to smile to myself, technically speaking I hadn’t fallen out with Jasmine, it hadn’t happened for me yet…         

 Mum after embracing dad began to rearrange her clothes and tidy her hair. She then came over and hugged me, uttering something in my ear about how proud she was that I had saved dad’s life. She then started straightening my dishevelled hair.

 “It was the Doctor who saved us all Mum.” I managed to disengage myself from her fussing. Our power struggle from moments ago was still fresh in my mind.

 “Only just Anna!…” Mum replied sounding affronted, she was blaming the Doctor for everything that had happened to us since entering the museum. She turned her steely gaze upon him. “So Doctor you chuck a fire extinguisher into the portal… How could you possibly have known that was going to work?”

 “Do you want the truth. I didn’t…Well not for certain but it worked.” The Doctor smiled with disarming honesty. “As soon as that lot started pushing against us, I calculated the right level of velocity and pushed back. But I don’t think we’ll be so lucky next time.”

 “We blag a lot basically.” I added to annoy mum.

 “Yeah we tend to make it up as we go along.” The Doctor beamed.  

 “The pair of you are insane!” Mum huffed, my dad laughed but then stopped suddenly as she glared at him.

 “You know Caroline, a simple thank you would just suffice.” I could sense the Doctor was starting to lose patience with my mother but this was no time for petty arguments. “Right everyone!” The Doctor clapped his hands together, were the first stirrings of a plan formulating in his brilliant mind?

 I guess we would never know as we were interrupted by a number of alarming things…First the lights began to flicker, this always made me nervous only to be accompanied by the sound of thunder which was growing closer. I ran into an adjoining exhibition room and glanced up at the glass ceiling, the sky was unmistakably black, it was as though we had been thrown forward in time and now it was night. The adrenalin from earlier on had worn off and I was beginning to feel the cold again. I looked around and realized everyone was looking at the same thing as me.

 “Right everyone stay calm.” I looked at the Doctor and was about to ask him what he was going to do next.

 “Doctor…Why is there a wizard standing in the corner over there?” Everyone turned round as one entity and our eyes followed young Kyle’s hand as he pointed to a man who looked suspiciously like Gandalf in flowing robes and long, white beard and a pointy hat…But there was very little that could throw the Doctor off his stride as he walked boldly back into the Staffordshire hoard exhibition towards the bizarre apparition.

 “Oh hello, I thought for a moment there our Kyle was hallucinating. So who might you be?” 

 The stranger in response to the Doctor, merely let out an almighty sneeze.

 “Sorry, this always happens when I travel through the dimensions and take on a corporeal form.” The stranger who came across as being a bit doddery blew his nose upon his sleeve, I glanced over at everyone else and could see a few raised eyebrows. Though when I looked into the old man’s eyes they blazed with fierce intelligence like the Doctor’s and were full of hidden depth. “Have you still got the final component for the time key? The Doctor responded by patting the pouch around his neck. (Well I assumed that was what the old man was referring to.) “Good, than all is not lost… Time Lord, I’m here to help you but we’re running out of time…”      

“Oh really…You don’t say.” The Doctor rolled his eyes.