Chapter Text
“So where are we?” Clara asked with a smile on her face as she stepped out of the TARDIS. The smile on her face soon vanished at the scene before her. What almost looked like a barren wasteland apparently used to be one of the most extraordinary exotic planets in a far away Solar System. “Doctor… what happened here?” she asked, turning to face the rather disgruntled Time Lord.
He rubbed his forehead as he turned taking in his new surroundings, frowning as he did so. He stepped forward, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. The trees looked charred, black with soot from some sort of fire maybe, the once three foot tall luscious green grass short and brown, dead for what could be years. Bodies of many of the exotic birds lay featherless in piles, obviously moved by some sort of creature possibly.
“Corpsophilia…” he said, his eyes roaming over what used to be the equivalent of the Amazon Rainforest, blooming usually at this time of year with fabulous fruits and flowers of all different colours, the thick trunked trees reaching high into the purple sky above. He stuck a finger in his mouth, before holding it before him. “Year three thousand and forty five.”
Clara watched him as he walked, trying to figure out the cause of its destruction. She’d been promised a beautiful planet, with strange creatures, new foods and stunning flowers, yet she was given something completely desolate and destroyed.
She stepped forward, deciding maybe it would be safer to stay close to the Time Lord, just in case they weren’t in fact alone on Corpsophilia. She swallowed thickly, her eyes scanning over the dead trunks, frowning at the long claw marks.
“Hey, Doctor you told me before we landed that-that this planet was filled with creatures that believed in peace right?”
“Of course. Corpsophilia, despite the unforgiving name mind, was home to sentient creatures who believed living in peace was best.” he said, bending down slightly, swiping his fingers over a root sticking up through the black earth. “They disliked violence. They didn’t kill, they fed off what the planet gave them. Fruits, flowers, leaves, bark you name it.”
Clara hummed, pulling her coat closer to her body, the temperature rising and falling almost sporadically. She bent down, leaning to get a closer look at the marks she’d seen on the tree. “Did they have claws? These creatures?” she inquired, reaching out her hand slowly as she heard the Doctor thudding around behind her.
She tried to picture some of the creatures the Doctor had described, yet everything veered off from claws. Her fingers were close now, twitching slightly as she went to touch the marks, feeling an odd heat coming from the tree. Her eyebrow raised and now she was certainly intrigued.
“Clara they had no-”
She turned her head to see him frozen, staring at nothing behind the tree he was examining, sonic sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose. She pulled her hand back quickly, before moving slowly towards him.
“Doctor? Doctor what’s-ouch!” she cried as she walked face first into something invisibly solid. Suddenly she found it hard to breath. Her chest constricting as her hands pressed against the invisible wall blocking her off from the Doctor. She had never seen him spin that quickly before, his Sonic Sunglasses slipping down his nose as he did so.
“Clara! Clara, I told you not to touch anything!” he cried, his arms flailing as he strode towards the invisible wall parting them.
“Oi!” she cried, taking her hands away from the wall and throwing them in the air, with a glare that would send any creature running. The Doctor’s lips twitched slightly as he pushed up his Sunglasses to scan the unwanted partition. “I’ll have you know I didn’t touch anything! I was about to but you randomly stopped talking which is always alarming!”
“Stop shouting.” he said, his fingertips touching the wall before him, causing great purple ripples through it. Clara did seize her shouting, her mouth hanging open and her big brown eyes wide as she watched in shock. “Now what have we got here then… maybe some sort of force field?”
It was almost mesmerising, burst of colour through the bleakness of this planet, it was beautiful yet oddly unsettling. She leaned closer, tapping her finger against the wall.
“Hey, how come it doesn’t go purple when I touch it?”
“Clara really? That’s all you’re worried about?!” cried the Time Lord on the other side struggling to get any sort of reading from the strange wall. He frowned, removing his Sunglasses, staring at her dead in the eye. Clara found herself feeling uneasy.
“Sorry. What are we supposed to do? What happened here?”
“I’m still trying to figure it out… but something tells me we aren’t going to find the peaceful sentient creatures anywhere.” he murmured raising his eyebrows as he cast a glance to his right. “Keep your eyes peeled at all times. Listen carefully to everything around you and if anything seems odd to you… Keep moving. Never stop do you hear me Clara?”
She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. She felt the uneasy feeling bubbling up in her stomach as she watched the Doctor give her a fleeting smile before setting off, following the wall as he went.
She suddenly felt very alone, apart from her friend, the one man who would know what to do if something went a little bit tits up as the kids say now a days. She frowned, wrapping her coat tightly around her before deciding to follow the purple ripples.
She had to stay as close as she could to him for as long as was possible. She had to know what else to do…
***
He’d been following the wall, tapping it occasionally to give Clara direction. He could here her footsteps, boots snapping the twigs on the floor as she followed. Eyes peeled. Listen. Keep moving. He frowned, his skin prickling as the temperature began to spasm again.
He stopped when the only noise he could hear was that of his own breathing. His fingers tapped the wall again, the purple bleeding into red. He turned his head just a little to the left, casting a glance over his shoulder. His stomach turned. Clara was nowhere to be seen. He turned quickly, his hearts pounding heavily in his chest.
“Clara! Clara!” he shouted, furiously trying to retrace his steps, in a failed attempt to figure out where he’d lost her…
“Ooooh Doctor. What a shame, let’s hope she’s clever, to get herself through Hell’s Maze.”
“Who are you? What have you done with Clara!” he yelled, staring up at the black inky sky, his eyes wide and his hands clenched tightly into fists. He wasn’t in the mood for childish games, such as this one. Hell’s Maze… what an awful name.
“Oh nothing. Lack of concentration Doctor, is what happened. Oh look at that… The Whispers have caught her scent!” The Voice cackled loudly, the walls lighting up violently around him, horrible waves of noise erupting from them.
“Akh!” he cried, falling to his knees, his hands pressed to his ears trying to block out the dreadful sound.
“Tick Tock Doctor, the Whispers are coming. They’ll trap you in and steal your soul. Tick Tock Doctor… Time is running out.”