Chapter One

Amy should have realized something was up with The Doctor as soon as he mentioned Space Florida.

It was a great place, mind: a human-made planet with a synthetic sun and sand as soft as flour. However, it was also, by The Doctor's standards, extremely dull. There weren't any bad guys to foil, no mystery to uncover, no oppressed people that needed liberating by a handsome stranger.

Everyone was just splashing around and having a good time.

The last time he had taken her here was after Rory had been erased from existence.

"Everything okay?" her husband asked, treading water beside her.

"I don't know," she replied, honestly.

Rory followed her gaze to the ancient Time Lord sitting on a towel underneath a large umbrella. He was completely clothed in his dress shirt, suspenders, and bowtie. Even his boots were still on.

How is he not broiling in that thing? Amy wondered.

The Doctor stared off into the horizon, a blank expression on his face.

"What?" Rory asked. "The Doctor?"

"Hasn't he been acting strange to you? I mean, really properly weird?"

"We are talking about the same man that equates fish fingers and custard with culinary masterpieces, right?"

Amy splashed her husband.

"You know what I mean," she retorted. "Look at him, he's being all… quiet."

Rory shrugged. "He's bored, I suspect. No one is chasing us around or trying to kill us. Frankly, I'm enjoying it."

"Why take us here, though?"

"Because we wanted to relax?" Rory suggested. "We haven't had a vacation like this in nearly a year."

A pang went though Amy's chest. She hadn't seen The Doctor in nearly twelve months. The gaps between his visits were growing. Sometimes it was easy for her to forget. She and Rory had been so busy adapting to their new lives— their real adult lives— to think about the universe and the precarious nature of it. She had been looking for new jobs online when she heard the TARDIS noise in the backyard. The Doctor sprang out excitedly as if no time at all had passed, asking it they wanted to go to the beach planet.

"Where have you been?" she'd demanded.

The Doctor rattled off a list of adventures at super sonic speed, patting her on the head in his frustratingly patronizing way. Even then she could tell something was wrong. While on the surface, he seemed as energetic as ever, she noticed the bags under his eyes.

Rory obviously couldn't see an issue, but he wasn't as versed in Doctor-ese as she was.

She knew her imaginary friend back to front and she could tell he was hiding something from her.

"Try not to worry," Rory told her in his 'nurse' voice. "Let's just have some fun before someone starts screaming."

Amy smiled in spite of her worries. "Fancy some surfing, Mr. Pond?"

"Only if you do," he smiled gamely.

"Race you."

She sliced through the water like a shot, Rory tailing behind.

Amy pushed her spindly arms to work harder, recalling her friend Madeline's birthday party in primary school where she beat all the boys in a sack race. She had shoved a few of them out of the way and may have started before the call "Go!" but she was still declared the best athlete in Leadworth of her year behind Brice McAdams, kicker on the football team.

Soon, she couldn't even feel Rory's splashes from behind her and she smirked in triumph.

Her self-congratulations were short lived as a giant wave struck her from behind, sending her sprawling under the water in a tangle of limbs.

To her dismay, she couldn't tell which way was up or down. A strong current shoved her again and she rolled this way and that. The pressure weighted heavily on her lungs and panic sent her heart beating in a frenzy. She was stuck in an undertow.

Rory. Where was Rory?

She couldn't see anything in the chaos.

Air, she needed air.

Her surroundings were uncharacterized. All that lay before her was an endless stretch of gray. Lethargically, she hovered in the water. Her head was hurting and she could hear her heart slowing.

Tired. So tired.

Her vision started to cloud.

About to lose consciousness, she could make out a large black fish with red eyes gleaming from either side of its face. They flashed with the intensity of an exploding star.

She knew nothing more.

Clarice scanned each item as they slowly rolled past her on the short conveyor belt.

"Did you find everything okay?" she asked the customer, absent-mindedly.

"You already asked me that," the middle aged woman retorted. Her toddler shrieked from the cart, his face blushing red with frustration.

"Oh," Clarice said, awkwardly. "Sorry. Your total is $75.23."

The woman fed her card into the chip reader. "You really need to sweep those aisles. My feet were sticking to the floor."

"I'll tell them that." Although she knew she wouldn't. She peered at the clock on the computer monitor. It was 10:12, over ten minutes past closing. She wasn't even supposed to stay this long. Her shift ended at 8:00 p.m. Nevertheless, a lot of people had called in "sick" unexpectedly and her manager had told her to stay on for an extra two hours. This woman was the last one out.

"This has to be the messiest store I've been in. Have you seen the one on 2nd? Not a speck of dust."

Clarice would have been annoyed if it weren't for the fact that she was reminded by customers at least thirty separate times a day that her store was infinitely inferior to the one on 2nd Street. She'd driven there once out of curiosity and she had to admit they were correct. The other Goldman's served coffee that didn't taste like motor oil and the employees were always smiling. Clarice wasn't sure if it was because they were genuinely happy or if insanity had finally set in.

She handed the woman her purchases, forcing a smile. "Thank you."

The woman's practically nonexistent eyebrows rose to her hairline and her fists cinched at her fleshy waist. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I boring you?"

"No," Clarice's smile fell, "no, I—"

"I'd like to speak with your manager, please."

Her son let out another loud wail that nearly caused Clarice's eardrums to explode.

"She's stepped out, sorry." Kay was likely out back having a smoke with Darren. It was her job to make sure everyone was in line, but most of the time she goofed around with the older employees.

The woman left in a huff, her noisy child in tow who screamed and sobbed as she wheeled him out. Naturally, she left the cart in the parking lot instead of in the carousel where it belonged.

When her white SUV pulled away from the lot at last, Clarice released a long-suffering sigh, allowing her head to connect with the register.

Done.

However, her relief didn't last long. She would have to open tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. She would have to do this over and over and over and over again.

The retail worker screwed her eyes shut, trying to fight off the wave of despair.

Her mother's voice came to her unbidden. This is what you get for getting a General Education degree. You should have been an RN or a nutritionist.

Oh, well. That didn't matter. All that mattered now was that she made her escape before the manager returned. She'd try to convince her to help clean up and she would be trapped here until at least 12:30.

For once she was grateful for her scrawny body as it made it easier for her to slink around without making any noise. She slipped into the break room, put on her hoodie, gathered her meager possessions, and went out the front.

Kay might get onto her tomorrow for leaving the front unlocked, but right now she didn't care. She had to get out. The fresh air smelled amazing although the wind was biting and cold.

She closed her eyes, drinking it in. I'm free.

She looked at her missed messages, but the only one she had received was one from John, asking her to pick him up a Monster on the way home.

Also, you left you book on the couch again.

Clarice rolled her eyes. He was so anal about her leaving her possessions in the living room. Then again, she couldn't complain too much. He had taken her in on relatively short notice. She just had to put up with his eccentricities until she had enough money saved up to stand on her own. However long that took.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to drown out the negative thoughts with options of what to get for dinner. Visions of greasy fast food danced tantalizingly in her mind.

Her car loomed in the distance, the light from the street lamp pouring over it like a beam from heaven.

Mrreeeeeew.

Clarice halted at the strange noise. The hair on the back of her neck prickled and she involuntarily clutched her purse closer to her chest.

Mreeeeeeew

The sound was plaintive and low. A cat.

And from the sound of it, the animal was in agony. It let out another mournful howl from the bushes, about fifteen feet away.

"Oh," Clarice murmured sympathetically. "It's okay." She walked towards the noise slowly as not to startle the creature.

Carefully, she stepped over the nearest median and found a black cat, lying on its side mewling. Had it been hit by a careless customer in a hurry to get home? Was it pregnant and giving birth? Was it just sick?

"It's okay," she whispered, taking a knee beside it. "It's okay, I'll take care of you."

She reached out to pet it, but hesitated. If it was hurt, it might lash out. She peered around to see if there was anyone who might help her, but the only sound outside of the wind was the cat.

When she looked back at the female, what she saw chilled her blood.

The cat had red eyes that gleamed at her like fresh blood.

It let out one more cry before a blinding light flashed around her and she lost consciousness.