Doctor Who BBCN10 - The Nightmare of Black Island Read Free Page A

wind.
    She caught the Doctor by the arm. ‘Listen.’
    The Doctor turned from the TARDIS, head cocked to one side. The sound came again, high-pitched and almost cat-like, cutting through the sound of the wind.
    Rose felt goosebumps run down her spine. ‘It’s a baby. Poor thing sounds terrified.’
    ‘It’s not happy, certainly.’ The Doctor pulled a pair of opera glasses from his coat and peered at the lights blazing from the distant farm buildings. ‘And keeping the house awake by the look of things.’
    ‘Where are we exactly?’ Rose asked.
    ‘Wales, according to the instruments.’ The Doctor swung his gaze out towards the horizon. ‘West coast, just along from Tenby, I think.
    Village called Ynys Du.’
    ‘Come again?’
    ‘Black Island. Not the kind of place you usually find ravening four-armed creatures, I must admit, but probably very good for sea bass.
    Ah. . . ’
    ‘What is it?’
    The Doctor nodded out to sea. ‘Your mysterious lighthouse?’
    Rose followed his gaze. The racing clouds cleared from the moon for a moment and she could make out the tall, slender shape rising from the jagged mound of black rock in the bay. She shivered again, though this time not from the cold.
    ‘Yeah. That’s it.’
    12

    The Doctor adjusted a small dial on the opera glasses, peering intently at the lighthouse through the computer-enhanced lenses.
    ‘Doesn’t look as though it’s been used for years. Shame. Make a nice little home, that would. Tricky to get your milk delivered, but no problem with the neighbours.’
    ‘Great if you like fish.’
    ‘Exactly!’ He lowered the glasses and turned to her. ‘Where did you see the fisherman?’
    Rose nodded down the cliff. A well-worn path snaked through the gorse, winding its way to an untidy jumble of rocks at the water’s edge.
    ‘Down there, on the rocks.’
    The Doctor raised his opera glasses again, scanning the coast. ‘No sign of any monsters. . . Hello. . . ’
    Rose’s heart jumped. ‘What is it? Have you seen it?’
    ‘I think there’s someone there.’ The Doctor frowned. ‘Thought I caught a glimpse of someone at the shoreline.’
    ‘The creature?’
    ‘Not unless it’s taken to wearing a long white coat.’ He tucked the glasses back into his pocket. ‘Come on. Let’s take a closer look.’
    The Doctor set off down the rocky path, his own coat billowing out behind him.
    ‘Hang about!’
    Rose set off after him a little more cautiously. The rain and spray had made the path treacherous and gorse barbs tore at her clothes as she pushed her way down the narrow sheep track. By the time she reached the bottom, the hems of her jeans were streaked with mud, her trainers sodden.
    The path ended at a narrow spit of land, scrubby grass that sloped down to the sea. Huge wet boulders, flecked with foam and seaweed lay jumbled up against the shore. The Doctor was squatted on top of one of them, seemingly oblivious to the spray that swirled around him each time a wave crashed in. He was prodding at the rock with his sonic screwdriver.
    13

    He glanced up at her as she picked her way over. ‘Nothing. No sign of monster, fisherman, anything. . . ’
    ‘What about your white-coated figure?’
    ‘No.’ The Doctor pursed his lips. ‘No sign of him, or her, either.’
    ‘Well, they can’t have got past us. There’s no other way down from the cliffs and they’d be mad to take a boat out in this. You must have been seeing things.’
    The Doctor hopped down from his rock. ‘Perhaps I dreamt them.’
    ‘That’s not funny.’
    ‘Neither is this. Look.’
    The Doctor pointed at a rock pool, little more than a crevice in the wet rock. Rose raised a hand to her mouth. Among the seaweed and barnacles the pool was bright red.
    The Doctor knelt down, scanning the liquid with his screwdriver.
    Rose knelt next to him.
    ‘Is it. . . ’
    ‘Blood, yes.’ The Doctor’s face was grim. ‘There’s more here. And here.’
    Leading Rose by the hand, the Doctor