The Companion

It was our weekly meet up once again and this time we were at Liam’s place. It was strange, however because I couldn’t quite recall what happened the last time we had one of these. The evening as I had remembered it came back as quite hazy, sort of like the disjointed way a dream is constructed. The fact that I couldn’t find an explanation for this apparent memory gap frustrated me. It felt as if I had very little control over what I committed to memory.

I sat on the couch, not quite taking in what everyone else was saying. It all felt like background buzz to me.

“Harry? Are you all right?” said a soft voice and I looked up to see Kylie and immediately grinned. The radiance she had about her, even through trials was enough to bring me back into the room and remember what I had here.

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m fine,” I said, patting the seat on the couch next to me.

“Are you sure? Because you were frowning a bit,” she said as she lowered herself down beside me.

“Ah… well… I don’t know.”

“Do you want to talk?”

“I guess I should… its something that the Doctor should know as well,” I said, as my eyes found him on the other side of the room having a chat with Louis.

“Is it to do with the… problem?”

“A bit, yeah.”

“Ok, go wait in the hall and I’ll get him. This shouldn’t be overheard, well, not just yet anyway,” she said, patting my knee gently before going over to where the Doctor and Louis were sat.

I stood up and slowly made my way out into the hall, trying to make it look like I was going to the loo. The change of atmosphere was a bit more dramatic than I had expected. The lounge really had been abuzz with conversation while here in the hall it was a lot easier to make sense of my thoughts. I leaned against the wall and gave a sigh of relief just as Kylie and the Doctor slipped through the door.

“You all right to talk, Harry?” Kylie asked, coming over to take my hand and squeeze it gently. I nodded slowly.

“What’ve you found?” said the Doctor, probably a little too eagerly.

“Well… this thing happened at work today and… there was a woman,” I started slowly.

“A woman!” said the Doctor.

“Doctor!” said Kylie, trying to make sure he stayed on topic.

“Right, sorry, go on Harry,” he said, folding his arms and giving me his full attention.

“A woman, yeah and erm… the crack kind of opened and… it took her and the boys thought I was nuts or something… and then something else happened but I can’t quite… remember,” I finished.

“Yes, I suspected something had happened particularly with the absence of one of your band mates,” said the Doctor.

“What are you talking about? They’re all here… all three of us,” I said, frowning slightly.

“Four, Harry. There were four of you. Four boys… well, technically five, put together into a band that rose to fame in a matter of months. Kylie has told me all about it,” said the Doctor.

“Uh, Doctor?” said Kylie.

“What?” he said.

“Maybe not the time,” Kylie whispered to the Doctor but not quietly enough for me to miss it.

“Am I missing something?”

“Yeah, I’m still annoyed about that,” I said, putting my two cents in.

“You two really need to stop being so cryptic,” said the Doctor quite loudly.

“I thought I told you,” said Kylie, before giving me a quick glance and then proceeding to turn the Doctor away momentarily and give him a quick run down on why we were missing a member. Of course, she could have spoken in front of me, I wouldn’t have minded.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t realise it was a touchy subject,” said the Doctor once he and Kylie had turned back from their little hurried conversation.

“It’s not a touchy subject. Look, I’m getting on with it, they are too,” I said, pointing back towards the lounge. “It’s been long enough so I think it’s about time we stopped treating Zayn as a taboo subject.”

“Sorry,” Kylie whispered.

“Don’t apologise. You have my best interests at heart. I know that and I appreciate that. But this isn’t the time to be moping about the past. That’s long gone,” I said. “Doctor, you said ‘technically five’ before. What did you mean?”

“Your band originally had five members, recently or not so recently whittled down to four except… you can’t remember one of them. Oh but of course… this explains it all,” said the Doctor and he began to pace in a small circle.

“Explains what?” said Kylie.

“Why one of the lads is missing, why Harry has looked so confused all evening and why… actually it doesn’t explain a whole lot but it is a start,” said the Doctor.

“Wait… what?” I said.

“Oh keep up, will you? Harry you saw the crack “eat” the woman, for want of a better term. One of your band mates is missing but you can’t remember him and neither can Kylie. He was taken too,” said the Doctor and as he did, my blood ran cold.

“But… I…” I couldn’t seem to find the right words to sum up what I was thinking.

“You’re confused, it’s ok. It’s only natural but I promise you, I will try my best to fix this,” said the Doctor.

“Then maybe I should mention… maybe it’d help if…” said Kylie, quietly.

“Yes?”

“I should probably tell you… I’ve been hearing voices.”

“Voices? Inside your head kind of voices? Or just voices in general?”

“No, I mean voices coming from the crack at the shop.”

“Interesting… very interesting. This… might mean something. We best take a look,” said the Doctor.

“Now?” said Kylie.

“No time like the present.”

“I agree,” I said.

“All right, I’ll tell the boys, and then I’ll meet you two at the TARDIS… and Doctor, look after him,” said Kylie before she made her way back into the lounge to inform the boys that we were off.

“Come on, Harry, an adventure awaits,” said the Doctor opening the door and bounding outside.

“An adventure… yeah,” I said, following slowly behind.

“You’re sad,” said the Doctor, noticing my tone of voice.

“I don’t quite know,” I said, following him to the end of the driveway.

“How do you think you feel?”

“Since you mentioned what could have happened today, this weird sort of feeling has crept up on me. Like I’ve lost someone,” I said.

“Did you feel like this before you told me about what happened?”

“I didn’t really notice but… I suppose I have,” I said.

“I see,” he said quietly as we walked up to the TARDIS, which was sat on the grass just around the corner from Liam’s. The Doctor quickly unlocked the door and held it open, “After you.”

Notes