Misfortune: A Time Travel Romance (Ball and Chain Book 1)

by David L. Hilton

  The room was silent, and I glared at the man, who looked away, probably ashamed now. "Tell me, how many times a day have you thought that maybe, just maybe, you were hurting it?" He doesn't answer. "How many!?"

  "Hazel--" the Doctor says, but I glare at him too, and he backs up.

  "I never... Thought of it like that..." The man muttered.

  "Course you haven't," I said coldly. "You're a Whitecoat. You only think about how something will benefits you. You're scum. Monsters like you don't deserve to live." I turned to the Doctor, "Release the Star Whale."

  The tension in the room is heavy, and I turn on my heel, walking away. My fists are clenched and my nails driving into my palms. I went to go stand near the railing where the tentacles were.

  I heard them talking for a few minutes, the Doctor raises his voice a few times, but I didn't really listen. I glanced at the tentacle that it waving around beside me. Then, it stops, and seems stop at me.

  I looked at it, as the tentacle stretches itself over the short railing, and near me. It rubbed its claw against my face. A small smile finds itself on my lips, and I gently stroke the hard claw. "I'm so sorry," I whispered softly. I can't help but feel myself in the Star Whale's situation. Being trapped and tortured relentlessly. Crying day in and day out, wishing that maybe someone, something, might come and save me. Being pushed to the point where I wish that they would kill me. That the bloodthirsty Whitecoats were doing this all for the sake of 'science'! It was so they could better humanity, make humanity stronger, better, more efficient. And doing it by any means necessary.

  This wasn't fair, I thought, rubbing my wing to calm myself down. This is not fair, at all. Not fair to the Star Whale, to the people, to anyone! Cruel is the only word that seems to describe this situation. Cruel is the word that describes most situations that I find myself in, when caused by humanity. Usually is followed by evil, brutal, and inhumane.

  I sighed and ran a hand through my messy mane, "Humanity is evil," I muttered to myself, standing up and walking over to where the Doctor was.

  "I thought I had made it clear that nobody human has anything to say to me," he growled, working on some sort of circuitry.

  "Not fully human," I shrugged, taking a seat beside him.

  "You said that you hated humans, is this why?" He asked, and I gave him a short nod in response.

  "One of the reasons."

  "You have more?"

  "I have hundreds," he rose an eyebrow, "Had a lifetime to think about it."

  "You're only fourteen."

  "For someone who came from where I did, then that's more than a lifetime," I sighed, and covered my eyes with my arm, peeking out enough to see Mandy and some other kid talking, laughing, and playing with the Star Whale's tentacle.

  "This school you talked about. What did they do to you?" The Doctor asked.

  I didn't answer, I just stared at the kids, "They look so happy," I murmured, loud enough for the Doctor to hear.

  The Doctor stared at me, about to say something, when suddenly Amy shoots up. "Doctor, stop," she shouted. "Whatever you're doing, stop it now! Sorry, Your Majesty. Going to need a hand."

  She drags the woman to the buttons, and slams her hand on the abdicate button. The Whale roars, and the ships begins to shake. I notice that a small girl near the tentacles slips and falls under the railing.

  Quickly, I run as fast as I could, and jump down. My wings out, and fly down the shaft. I catch the screaming girl mid-fall, and fly back up the shaft. As soon as I get back to the edge, I pushed the girl back, my wings hanging limply and my arms are shaking.

  I carefully pull myself back up, l feel a tentacle snake around my waist, and helps me. "Hazel!" The Doctor says, as soon as I'm back on the ground.

  I look over to the girl, who has tears in her eyes, "Hey, hey," I said, bending down to her level and taking her by the shoulders. "Are you okay?"

  She holds out her arm, which had a deep cut on it. She must've snagged it on a loose pipe or something when she fell, I thought. "It hurts, doesn't it?" She nodded, a few more tears falling down her cheeks. "It's okay. I can fix that." I got to my chest, taking out one of my knives that I kept in my bra, and slit my wrist, making blood come out lightly. I take her hand and rub my blood over her arm, and the wound. Quickly, it begins to close.

  "Whoa..." The girl awes, feeling her arm. "How'd you do that?"

  "Does it hurt anymore?" I asked, avoiding the question, and she shook her head, no. "Good. Good. That's great," I nodded. "Go on then."

  Her arms wrap around my neck, "Thank you!" She said. I stood there stiffly for a few seconds, and she lets go, and runs off.

  I stand up shakily, my wing is throbbing with pain. "You saved her," the Doctor says.

  I nodded, and felt my wing, but when I moved it, a sharp pain went through it. I hissed, and retracted my hand. "Are you okay?" The Doctor asked as I took slow step. I felt the aftereffects of healing the girl are hitting me like a bag of bricks.

  I quickly gripped the table where the Doctor was working. I heard the Doctor shout my name before my hands loosen, and I hit the ground with a heavy thud.

  •••/-/•-/•-•/•••/••••/••/•--•

  I woke up groggily to the same white pearly ceiling. I shot up to see the Doctor sitting beside me, reading a book. He glanced at me, then back down at his book, then back at me, with a surprised look on his face.

  "You're awake!" He grinned, throwing the book behind him.

  "The Star Whale!" I said, "What happened to the Star Whale!?"

  "It's fine. Flying about with a country on his back," he grinned. "Liz Ten's still in authority, and nobody's getting hurt!"

  At the news, I sighed, and leaned back in the bed. "You said you hated humans, but you saved that girl," the Doctor says. "Why?"

  "She was a little kid, whole life ahead of her. I couldn't just stand there and watch her die," I said. "I'm not that cold-hearted."

  The Doctor stared at me, then he clapped his hands together loudly. "That's nice to know. You hurt your wings badly when you were saving her, and when I landed on them -- so sorry about that, by the way. I've wrapped them up as best as I could, so I hope you don't mind."

  I nodded. "Great," he grinned. "Amy and I got a call from a friend, so we're going to get to that. You... Stay here. Relax. Heal, et cetera. If you need anything, Amy said to give you this," he dug into his pocket, pulling out a slip of paper -- not before pulling out several other things that shouldn't even fit in there -- and handed it to me. "Amy says that it has her telephone number on it. Use that."

  He jumped up and went to the door, "I'll see you when I get back!" With that, he exited the room, with me sitting there, with a slip of paper in my hands.

  "What?"

  Chapter 4: chapter four:

  Hazel's POV

  After the Doctor left without another word, I sat there for a few moments, just staring at the door, until finally, I got up. My bare feet rubbed against the cold metal flooring, as I walked down the hallway. It was really quiet, the entire TARDIS was just eerily... Silent, except for the humming sound that came from the halls.

  My footsteps were light against the metal flooring, and I looked around. After about ten minutes of mindless wandering, I came across a room, with the door opened.

  Curiosity getting the better of me, I went in, discovering a huge room. It was filled with bookshelves that went as high as nearly fifty feet and as far back as the eye could see. I gaped, and walked around. I spotted a few wood-burning fireplaces and comfy looking chairs beside it.

  I walked around the bookshelves, looking around. There were books varying from scientific theories to histories of entire plants to even fiction!

  After just browsing, I decided to take a few off the shelves and skim through them, and put them back. I soon grew weary of just standing there 'skimming' through, so I just took a bunch that I thought were interesting, and bring them over to the comfy looking chairs, and thoroughly reading
through them.

  With the fire -- that lit itself -- crackling softly, and a very comfortable chair that I could sit in without having my wings ache, and a bunch if books for me to read, I got comfortable very easily. I had gone through at least seven book, three were fantasy and the rest were about the cultures of other planets and civilizations.

  Apparently, what felt like a few minutes was really hours. I heard someone enter the room, "Hazel? Are you in here?" A Scottish voice said.

  "Over here!" I called, not wanting to move from my current comfy position. I was upside-down on the end of a chair, reading. I saw Amy and the Doctor in my peripheral vision.

  "Is that comfortable?" She asked amusingly.

  "Yes, actually, it is," I nodded, flipping another page. I saw the Doctor come over, and move his head to read the spine of the book. "Hm... Angel on High by Jazz Patteran (A/N totally not James Patterson). Isn't this one about the kids with wings?"

  "Yes, it is," I turned the next page, "Completely unrealistic. How are you going to go to school with wings on your back and expect nobody to notice? And you can't just put a over-sized jacket on top, they'll still see the bumps! You've got to tie them down, and tuck your shirt under it so no feathers fall out!"

  The Doctor rose an eyebrow, "Looks like you've given this a lot of thought. How far are you?"

  "I've had ten minutes to think about it," I said. "I'm just finished, give me a second." I read the last few pages, a frown forming on my lips, and I rose an eyebrow.

  "You read the book in ten minutes?" Amy questioned, disbelievingly.

  "Yeah, I know right," I sighed. "I had to reread it to understand the plot since its all over the place! This author needs to choose a story and stick with it!"

  Amy chuckled and I tossed the book behind me, making it hit the stack of other books. Amy nodded impressively, and I flipped off the end of the chair and hitting the ground. "Oh look at you," the Doctor rolled his eyes, "All flippity!"

  I grinned, then stumbled a bit, "Okay..." I muttered, "Must've given her too much blood, jesus."

  The Doctor gave me a look, "I've meant to ask you about that," He took my arm, pulling up my sleeve, and checking the cut that I gave myself. "You cut really deep..."

  "What did you do that for, anyway?" Amy asked, peering over at my arm that held a short pale line that was the cut.

  "My blood. It... Kind of like healing blood," I rubbed the back of my head. "It'll heal wounds, usually."

  "'Usually'?"

  "Well, sometimes, it'll be very acidic and just burn through things, but that's rare and beyond the point."

  "Your blood heals people?" Amy frowned, "What else do we not know about you?"

  "I can turn invisible, control metal, and my voice mesmerizes people into doing whatever I want them to do." At this, Amy froze.

  "... Are you serious...?" She asked, dumbly, I nodded.

  "You can turn INVISIBLE!" The Doctor nearly screeched. "Lemme see, lemme see!"

  I rolled my eyes, "I can't keep it up for long. I'm not fully healed. But," I closed my eyes, and focused. A minute later, I looked at my hand, which was translucent. "Like I said, I can't do it fully."

  The Doctor looked like a child on Christmas, and pointed his flashlight at me. I puffed out my cheeks, and looked away. "Stop pointing that flashlight at me. It's annoying."

  "It's not a torch!" He scolded, "It's a sonic screwdriver!"

  "A sonic screwdriver?" I frowned, I read about sonic technology earlier. "You sonicked a screwdriver? Why not a gun or something?"

  He gave me a look, "How do you know about sonic technology?"

  I rolled my eyes, went to the table where the stack of books were and pulled out a particular navy colored book, and chucked it at him. Unfortunately, he caught it before it could make contact with his face.

  Amy looked at the book, "'Everything You Could Possibly Know About Sonic Technology'."

  He huffed, and tossed the book behind him, "Okay, fine. Hurry up and change. I wanna show you two something!" He clapped his hands, took Amy's hand, and ran out the room.

  "Change where?!" I called, going after him.

  He stopped in his tracks. "Oh right. You don't have your room yet. Go down that hallway, take a right, two lefts, up the steps, and once you see the fork in the hallway, you know you're going to the wrong way."

  I opened my mouth to object, but he was already gone.

  I sighed, and began my way down the hall, mindlessly wandering. Again.

  •-/-•/--•/•/•-••/•••

  After a while, I had found Amy, who had been looking for me. She, fortunately, helped me find the room I was looking for, which was actually a hallway, with a bunch of doors.

  "Pick a door," she instructed, "If it opens, then it's yours. Or so the Doctor told me."

  I nodded, and tried all the doors. After my eleventh try, when I had nearly given up, I heard the door click, and the creak open. I looked at Amy, who smirked at me.

  Just before I opened the door, I heard the footsteps race down the hall, and enter the hallway. "Wait! Wait!" The Doctor said, out of breath.

  "What?" I questioned, a bit mad that he had sent me on a wild goose chase earlier.

  "I wanna see your room," he grinned.

  I rolled my eyes, and opened the door. At first it was really dark, but then the lights turned on, and I gasped.

  The room was huge. The ceiling stretched really high, nearly as high as the Library's, and was very wide. The walls made it look like I was outside. Like, it actually looked like it was outside! There were 3-D clouds going from side to side of the room, and the bed was along the side. It was a bunk bed, but instead of having a bed on the bottom, it was just a table. Along the wall were tall trees, painted into the wall, but had cubicles in them that held books. It made it look like the tree was hollowed out! I noticed that in the ceiling, there were small hammocks that were swinging back and forth.

  This... Is mine...?

  I just stared at the room, not moving, "Wow, the Old Girl must really like you, to do something like this!" The Doctor awed, looking around. Amy followed him, looking around. "The holograms were a nice touch don't you think, Hazel?"

  The Doctor turned to me, his eyes slowly widening, "You're crying! Why are you crying?" He looked at Amy, "Why is she crying!?"

  Tears slowly fell down my face, hitting the soft green carpeting beneath my toes. I quickly wiped them away, and sniffed, "I'm sorry, it's just... I've never had an actual bedroom before..." A smile broke out through my tears. "Thank you."

  He blinked, and looked at me, "Oh. Um, you are welcome then!" He smiled at me, and fixed his bow-tie. "I hope you like it then!"

  "I love it!" I grinned.

  •••/-/---/-•/•

  I had dressed in a over-sized large blue hoodie, the same shade as the exterior of the TARDIS, with my wings tied back tightly. I wore jeans, and black sneakers as well, and my hair was tied back into a tight ponytail.

  Once I had also checked my wings too, it felt pretty fine, apparently. The bullet wound had completely closed up, and I know someone -- probably the Doctor -- had put some kind of healing cream in it because it healed faster, and I could smell it.

  I walked down the long corridors of the TARDIS, before finally finding the console room. "Ready?" Amy asked, standing near the Doctor.

  "Yep," I nodded. "Let's go!"

  •••/---/-•/--•

  We were in a museum, about 12,000 years later. "Wrong. Wrong," the Doctor complained. "Bit right, mostly wrong. I love museums."

  "Yeah, great. Can we go to a planet now?" She pleaded, "Big space ship? Churchill's bunker? You promised me a planet next!"

  "Amy, this isn't any old asteroid," he scolded. "It's the Delerium Archive, the final resting place of the headless monks. The biggest museum ever. And besides, Hazel seems to like it!" He grinned over at me, as I examined one of the artifacts in a glass casing.

  I was studying the large irregularly shaped stone. It w
as a dark red, and according to the plaque, from the Jilieriun Galaxy, one I had read about in the book. The people thought that this particular stone could grant wishes, and was really rare. This is the last one that was scavenged before the entire galaxy collapse due to something called the 'Time War'.

  "She's staring at a rock," Amy huffed. "'Sides, you've got a time machine, what do you need museums for?"

  "Wrong. Very wrong. Ooo, one of mine. Also one of mine!" He grinned, looking at the artifacts. I turned around and rose an eyebrow at him.

  "Is this how you keep track?" I asked.

  "No. Well, yeah. But that's beyond the point," he said, and picked up a small black box.

  "Oh great," Amy rolled her eyes, "It's an old box."

  "It's from one of the old starliners. A Home Box," the Doctor turned it over, examining it.

  "What's a Home Box?" Amy asked.

  "Like a black box on a plane, except it homes," I rolled my eyes at his explanation. "Anything happens to the ship, the Home Box flies home with all the flight data."

  "So?"

  "The writing, the graffiti," he explained. "Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords. There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple gods."

  "What's it say?"

  "'Hello Sweetie'."

  He carefully takes the box out of it's casing. "Why are we doing this?" Amy asked as he picks up the box.

  "Because someone on a spaceship twelve thousand years ago is trying to attract my attention," he explained. "Let's see if we can get the security playback working."

  He grabbed out hands, and we ran back to the TARDIS.

  Just before we entered, I swear I saw a glimpse of shimmering black wings with brown dots in one of the casings, on the wall. "Wha--"

  The doors were closed on my face and the Doctor and Amy scurried over to the console, fussing over the box. I frowned, there's no way... I didn't just see my wings. That's not possible...

  Suddenly, the TARDIS jolts again. I move to the railing and hold on. The Doctor goes to the door, and opens it, just as a blur of a blonde messy hair comes in.