My Ghosts Come Back

I Met a Man Who Wasn't There

AN: This one is an audio story recommended by a friend. Honestly, it's here because Donna sees somebody and her description brings me joy.

Hopefully it doesn't come across as just the transcript of it. Here's Death's Deal!

==MGCB==

Pompeii was still heavy in their minds when the mauve alerts started going off. Terra wasn't as surprised as one would suspect. She'd been in the TARDIS during Rose Tyler and Martha Jones' runs. There were other adventures not on screen. Terra was used to that, by now. The whole Year was a...well...a whole year of that. A mauve alert was nothing to fret over.

After some debate between the Doctor and Donna, they arrived on Death's Deal. A very pretty planet by all appearances. The hundreds of hundreds of distress calls painted a bloodzone, ravaged by blown metal and still burning fires. The terrain in contrast was a wonderland. Imagine, if you don't mind, Finding Nemo if it was written by H.P. Lovecraft and also not underwater. A still beautiful landscape to look at without revealing the horrors beneath.

Terra originally suspected ninjas. As a ninja herself she was quite schooled on where a ninja could hide even in such bright conditions. The Doctor dismissed this idea as he'd dismissed all of Terra's ideas.

Five minutes after they landed, they were responsible for twenty-two deaths. Not so much 'responsible' actually but anyone could blame them if they chose. In truth the Doctor and Terra had done nothing. Nothing at all. Arguably, their very presence should've been a warning that the area was dangerous. The title of the planet should've warned anyone away.

A tourist ship known simply as the Attraction explained that they were a tourist trap for the rich. The guide, Hickory Flimms, explained they were some thrill seekers that paid a small fortune to boast that they walked on the planet.

Terra counted twenty-seven aliens in all. Each of them were some variety of human. Many explored the nearby terrain before the ground opened up for a...well...this is where Lovecraft's style comes in. Remember the images that came to you when this idea came about, of what Lovecraft would do to that world.

The creature- alien- eldritch horror whatever- ascending from the ground could only be described as an esophagus with three tusks. Terra was surprised at how monstrous the thing was. Even as high up as she watched it go-over two hundred feet- she would bet another hundred feet were hidden below.

She'd made it a point to never meet the worm from Spongebob Squarepants. Seeing this thing made her feel justified in that decision.

The worm came up to eat the TARDIS, then tried and failed to eat the Attraction. The tusks pierced the engine, setting off sparks. It set the ship and the worm ablaze. In it's haste to leave without being eaten, passengers were left behind.

The only survivors of The Attraction were: Hickory Flimms himself, a Mistress Qwelleen of the Orcheight Guild, a Nimosite anthropologist from the planet Ceratesh called Krux, and two space pirates, Tad Groogan and Lyric. Just Lyric.

Terra could understand the first three and why they came. Flimms needed the job and money. Krux (they were just a walking barnacle man, complete with tentacles for hands! Tentacle hands, she'd never seen the like. Forget Finding Nemo, this world was clearly Spongebob but somehow worse) was probably doing it for study purposes- to see the land themselves. Qwelleen- from that probe she stuck in the ground before the worm arrived- wanted resources from it. That was just a guess from Terra. Why else would Qwelleen have done it?

Of course nobody paid mind to those questions. Everyone was a bit panicked on how exactly they would get off Death's Deal with no ship and where apparently giant worms can and will kill you. Tad Groogan came up with a great idea!