The souls of possessed children

Donna was walking along a pathway, her gaze locked at the ground as she kept rubbing one hand against the other to keep the warmth.
She´d left the TARDIS to take a walk.

She could see humans walking past her. They were all so focused on getting home.
It was quite obvious that it was winter. But she wasn´t sure of what year, or what country she was in. Her guess´d be something around the 18th century.

As she kept walking, she spotted a child in the corner of a street. No, not //a child//. She saw children, every one of them staring at strangers who were passing by. The looks that the children gave her as she watched them carefully made her shiver.

Something was wrong with these children. One of the children suddenly rose, his expression filled with anger as he started walking towards her. And as she turned to walk away quickly, the little boy returned to his corner.

"Are you new in town?" Donna heard a woman´s voice ask behind her. She blinked a few times before turning around again to face the woman.

"Yes, I am new." Donna replied quietly, not daring to look at the children again. "What´s the matter with the children?"

"They´re not our children anymore... Just don´t look at them." the woman said as quickly as she could, before hurrying away.

Yes, something was definitely something wrong with these children.

Olivia had popped out of the TARDIS for a breath of fresh air and a casual stroll around whenever or wherever she was. Her blue gaze trailed around, taking note of everyone's somewhat old clothes and the wide streets filled with bustling people and horse carriages. Livvy ignored the weird looks she was getting from people; she supposed they weren't used to denim jackets or jeans just yet, but the stares were still pretty rude.

Sighing, Olivia self-consciously fiddled with the hem of her shirt as she turned down an alleyway to appear in the next street, mentally picturing all of the routes she'd taken so she wouldn't get lost. A chill suddenly running down her spine, Livvy stopped walking and looked around with a confused expression, her gaze falling on a bunch of children hanging out near the sidewalks. Blinking, she wondered if they were homeless before a little girl turned to look at her with a blank yet surprisingly upset face.

Quickly turning her head away as she figured the child didn't want to be stared at, Olivia bit her lip and continued walking down the sidewalk. She couldn't shake the creepy feeling she got from even remotely glancing at the children, but she most certainly didn't want to risk looking back at them now. When something bright caught her eye, Livvy perked up and turned to see a certain person standing a short distance away. A relieved smile crossing her face, she hurried up to the red-headed female and greeted her.

"Donna! Finally, a familiar face." Olivia mumbled before her expression got serious and her tone grew fearful. "Hey, did you notice anything creepy? Y'know, about the kids over there? I'm not trying to offend anyone or anything, but they kinda freak me out..."

"Oh, hello Livvy." she managed to smile a little, putting her hands in her pockets as she felt how she started to loose the ability to feel them, because of the freezing weather. "Yes, I did notice that. One of them started walking towards me, but it stopped when I looked away from it.. It´s like.. they don´t want people to pay attention to them."

She furrowed her brows as she re-played the scene where the woman had told her about the children. The people in this place were scared of them- it was obvious. "And oh, a woman told me something about it. Not much, though, but she said that they weren´t children anymore, and that I shouldn´t look at them.. or something like that." she explained. Something inside her was telling her to go to the children and ask them, but she didn´t dare to. Something dark was on their mind. Something beyond human knowledge.

Olivia frowned upon hearing what Donna had to say, racking her brain for any reasonable explanation but coming up with nothing. "That's strange... They could just be a little self-conscious, that's all?" She tried to lighten the mood with a suggestion she knew was probably fake and with a sigh, she folded her arms over her chest. "Even if that was true, it doesn't entirely explain the bad feeling I get about everything." Livvy mumbled, more so to herself than to Donna.

When she added something about a woman giving her a warning about the children, an odd look crossed Olivia's face. "What do you mean, they aren't children anymore so we shouldn't look at them? Not only is that confusing, it's a little rude too." She muttered, her gaze cast downward as she tried to resist the urge to look over towards the young people. The last thing anyone needed was an argument/fight between any kids and future females.

Donna shook her head, "I don´t know." she replied. "That was everything she said, and then she just, sort of, left me. People are afraid of being on these streets. I mean, did you notice how cold they seemed when they walked past you? I think they´re trying to get home as quick as possible, not to-" she suddenly stopped talking, her eyes wide as she saw something behind one of the kids. She didn´t mean to look at it, but she couldn´t resist. What she´d seen was a shadow. A shadow of a woman, behind a little boy. When the boy noticed that she´d seen it, he hissed at her and she looked away quickly.

"Look at the shadow behind him. It´s not the shadow of a kid. It´s the shadow of a woman." whispered Donna, her expression confused, yet she could hear her own voice trembling slightly.

Olivia begrudgingly nodded her head. "Yeah, they wouldn't stop staring at me. Whether it was fear or disgust, I don't know." She answered with an upset pout, remembering all of the strange looks she was getting from almost everyone she passed in the streets. Instead of being annoyed like she usually was though, it sent chills running down her spine; their eyes seemed blank yet dark with a negative emotion, she just didn't know what. When Donna suddenly stopping mid-way in her speech, Livvy frowned in worry and slightly tilted her head to the side. "What's wrong?"

She got her answer when Donna mildly explained the situation and she couldn't help but hear the small tremor in her tone. "A woman?" She whispered back, keeping her voice quiet as she slowly gazed over her shoulder towards the children. "Oh gosh..." She absently mumbled, her eyes widening as she caught sight of the shadow of a grown-up woman behind the skinny male. "I don't... what's going on? Are they like, possessed or something ?" Livvy questioned, hastily turning back to look at Donna when some of the kids scowled at her.

She blinked, her expression cold as she tried not to look back at the shadow. "I wish I knew. But I guess the people of this town noticed that. That´s maybe one of the reasons they´re scared to death of them. I pity the people. The children, and the parents. Or I don´t know. Maybe they aren´t possessed at all. Maybe something else is going on." she let out a quiet sigh, digging her nails into the palms of her hands. She couldn´t feel them because of the coldness.

Before she even managed to glance at the children, she spotted a wet page on the ground. Slowly, she knelt to pick it up. She held it up to examine it, her eyes dancing before her finger as she followed the text with it. "Missing women.." she said quietly after finishing reading it. With an emotionless expression on her face, she handed the page to Olivia.

Olivia hummed in thought. "Yeah, I noticed how everyone strayed away from them. Some even crossed the streets so they wouldn't be too near and they held their heads high so they couldn't look down." Her tone was distant as she tried to figure something out, though she came up with nothing and drew out a long sigh. "To be honest, possession is all I got. Normally I would say it was a sickness among young children but the shadow thing kind of threw that idea out the window."

She watched in curiosity as Donna picked up a soggy piece of paper from the ground, wondering what made it catch her attention before it was handed to her. "Huh?" Livvy mumbled, her eyebrows creasing into a frown as she quickly read over the page. When she was finished, her gaze trailed up at Donna with worried fear in her eyes. "You think that the missing women went missing because of, well, this? They were unwillingly put into children's bodies? Maybe they were actually turned into children..."

"I don´t know.." she replied, shaking her head. She understood why the women were scared of the children, but she didn´t understand the children. What were they? Possessed? Shapeshifters? She pursed her lips as she tried to connect everything. Missing women, shadows, children. Images were flying through her head, trying to collide. But they couldn´t. The things she knew about this weren´t enough. To find a connecting, and to solve it, she needed help. Help from someone who knew more about this. She could just knock on a door, and start asking questions. For it wasn´t possible for someone in this town not to know anything about this. They lived here, and they were afraid.
Donna needed more facts, more knowledge, if she wanted to solve this. And she was quite sure that Livvy wanted to solve this as well. "Olivia, maybe we should ask someone about it.. I mean, we can just knock on someone´s door and walk into their flat before asking questions. It´s obvious that they won´t talk about it here."

"Me neither." Olivia sighed, her shoulders slumping forward just a bit as she gave up trying to figure out what was going on. She ruled out possessions; there was no reason why missing women should be taking control/residing inside of small children and besides, how could they even do it? Another weird alien species or was it something more sinister than that? Then she went to the next theory her mind came up with; skinwalkers, or shapeshifters. Whatever people call them in this time. It was a reasonable explanation, but what about the shadows? A shapeshifter's shadow didn't reveal its true form to anyone. Or at least, shouldn't...

"You mean, just walk right in?" Olivia snapped out of her thoughts to answer Donna's suggestion with a small expression of surprise. She didn't usually resort to forceful matters until the the situation was definitely plausible for the action... maybe this time, it called for it. "Yeah, maybe we should do that. They're probably scared of discussing it outside where the children can hear, so the privacy of someone's home would be good." She added her input with a reluctant nod of her head.

"We´re from the police. Undercover, obviously, because they were all weird-y with hats and stuff in the 18th century, right? No, no, no! Detective´s. We´re detective´s..." Donna stuck her hand into her pocket and took out a psychic paper. "And guess what I got from the TARDIS? Well. It´s not mine, but I needed to use it a few days back, and I forgot to give it back to the Doctor." she furrowed her brows, pointing at a random direction. "Anyways. Let´s find a flat or something, shall we?" she said, heading to the direction, motioning to Livvy to follow her as she tried not to look at the children. She wanted to solve this. Because this was so wrong. So very wrong. Homeless children, scared parents, and.. she didn´t even know the rest. But it was beyond human knowledge.

"Right. Detectives wearing clothes in materials that probably aren't invented yet." Olivia mumbled, gesturing towards her denim jacket and jeans. Though Donna had a good point; pretend to be a detective or someone of the law in order to get the answers both of them so desperately wanted. Or needed, whatever was more valid. At the mention of the psychic paper, an amused smile crossed her face. "I used that not too long ago; I don't think the Doctor even knew I had it." She admitted with a quiet chuckle, remembering how she'd picked it up and put it back after using it for three hours. Snapping out of her thoughts, Livvy absently followed after Donna as they headed down the street in search for a flat for residential questioning. "So do you think anyone actually knows what's going on?"