TTV Series Episode 2: The Inner Circle

Crystal stepped out of the TARDIS, and looked around in awe.

“Where are we?” she asked the Doctor, who followed her.
“The Asteroid Bazaar,” the Doctor announced. “It’s a market on an Asteroid.”
“It’s amazing,” Crystal smiled.

She turned around, but the Doctor had gone. He waved at her from beside a stall, where a woman was offering him a drink.

“Fancy a drink, me darlin’?” a voice asked.
“No thanks,” Crystal replied.
“Come over here,” the voice said. “What’s your name?”
“Crystal, you?”
“Podmore,” Podmore replied. “What’s a pretty young lady like you doing on the Asteroid Bazaar?”
“Visiting,” Crystal replied.
“Eh, come ‘ere a sec!” Podmore gasped.

Slightly nervously, Crystal leaned over to Podmore, who grabbed her locket. With a slight feeling of pain, Crystal slapped him around the face, and he dropped it from his hands.

“What you do that for?” Podmore scowled.
“What did you touch my locket for?” Crystal growled in reply.
“Just wondering,” Podmore said. “And I was right.”
“Huh?”

Podmore leapt across his stall and grabbed Crystal. She screamed, and tried to slap him again. The Doctor heard the scream and turned around, running towards them. He was a few seconds away, when Podmore and Crystal vanished.

“No!” he shouted.

Several people stared at him as he threw Podmore’s stall over, and ran into the TARDIS. A few feet away, a figure watched the Doctor go, and smiled.

“Things are unfolding faster than I thought,” Madame Rene muttered, also vanishing.

Crystal groaned and landed with a thump. Immediately her eyes were blinded by white lights, and she heard Podmore a few feet away.

“She’s one of you,” he said.
“You really must choose a better time to enter,” a woman sighed. “We don’t need her on our table.”
“Sorry,” Podmore replied. “Will I be paid now?”
“Later,” the woman said. “Now, go.”

There was a zapping noise, and Podmore vanished.

“She doesn’t look special,” another female said. “Though you wouldn’t believe it from all the male attention she’s getting. That was directed at you, Finley.”
“Shut up,” a male replied.

Crystal sat up on the table and rubbed her eyes. Gradually, everything came into focus around her. She blushed, and slid off of the table when she saw the eyes glaring at her. Counting the number of people at the table, she remembered something the Doctor had told her:

“The crystal in your locket is keeping you alive,” he’d said. “But your body is dying. This has only ever happened seven times before.”

One of the women stood up, and moved to address her.

“Hello,” she said. “What’s your name?”
“Crystal Harris,” Crystal replied. “Where am I?”
“We are the Inner Circle,” the woman said. “Of death itself. We have all died, and are kept alive by personal objects. I take it your locket is the thing keeping you here?”

Crystal nodded. The woman showed a bracelet on her wrist, which, Crystal noticed, contained a small purple crystal.

“My name’s Tina Feldon,” the woman said. “And this is Finley Bradford, Vivian Darkwood, Seldon Oz, Mercedes Tiermann, Dennis Welch, and Hadrius Andes – our oldest member, who was a Roman soldier killed in battle.”
“Hello,” Crystal smiled. “But what am I doing here? Why did Podmore kidnap me?”
“Because he saw that you were like us,” Dennis said.
“Do we do it?” Seldon asked.
“No,” Vivian said sternly. “You never know when we might need a new member.”
“And she seems nice,” Tina added.
“I ain’t killing no dead girl,” Mercedes said helpfully.
“Hadrius – it’s up to you,” Seldon decided. “You’re the oldest.”
“Let her go,” Hadrius nodded. “Like Vivian said, we never know when we’ll need a new member. And we all know that new members are hard to come by. You can go.”

Crystal looked confused. Hadrius pointed to the door of the room, signalling for her to leave.

“But what were you going to do to me?” Crystal asked. “What were you deciding?”
“They were decided whether to kill you or not,” a voice said from behind her.
“Doctor!” Crystal cried, hugging him. “You found me.”
“Yup,” the Doctor grinned. “Like I said before, the Inner Circle only has seven members. And you’re an eighth dead person – they couldn’t have eight, it’s only supposed to be seven! Heaven forbid there should be eight!”
“We’ve said she can go,” Hadrius said. “Now leave.”
“We’re going anyway,” the Doctor frowned.

He took Crystal and led her away. She looked back once more at the Inner Circle, who could have easily killed her.

“We’ll meet again, you know,” Tina said.
“I know,” Crystal nodded. “But I’d hate to be one of you when I come along. After all, there can only be seven members…”

The End