camera out of the student union, so the other three were there with sleeping bags and beer and stuff by the time I arrived. I set up the camcorder by the door, so it took in the whole of the, well, living room I s’pose. It meant we were on camera all the time.
I turned it on around eleven, when Michele went out to get the Chinese, and I’d stocked up on 90-minute tapes, so it meant one of us had to wake up every so often to change tapes. So we sorted out a rota. I said I’d stay up first, till the first tape ran out. Michele would do the next and so on.
I sat up while they slept, changed the first tape but was still wide awake so let Michele sleep on. I had a book for class to get through, which was fine. I changed the second tape about two and thought I’d wake Michele up.
But I must’ve dropped off cos the next thing I knew, Marty and Michele were giggling to each other, and it was about four thirty.
And he had the bloody ouija board and was moving the glass around with his fingers. God knows what Michele thought Marty was doing, it was so obvious he was spelling I AM A GHOST or whatever but she thought it was funny.
I watched them for a few minutes and hoped Janet wouldn’t wake up or she’d freak.
Then I noticed the camera wasn’t recording, so I whispered to them but they ignored me.
So I got up. And that’s when they looked at me. Straight at me.
And that was… that was when it must’ve happened. God, it must’ve been then, and I didn’t understand.
I didn’t notice their eyes at first, I saw the smiles. I can see the smiles now, I mean, not really smiles, something so cruel, so twisted… Then I saw the white eyes. Not just white, but like, like bright lights, I’m telling you, it was freaky. I thought maybe something was reflecting into their eyes, cos I couldn’t see pupils or anything, just white… light I s’pose. But there was nothing else on, nothing to reflect.
Janet woke up, I know that cos I heard her swear and yell at them about the Ouija board.
And that’s when I was really scared. Yeah scared, cos they ignored us both then and went back to the board, and I’m telling you, mate, that glass was moving by itself.
And it spelt out two words, I dunno what they meant. Torch and Wood. I thought it meant they were going to burn the building down.
And I can still hear Michele now speaking but it wasn’t… I mean… it just wasn’t her voice, you know? Someone… something else spoke, I dunno, through her? Hold on, let me think about this. Can I have something to drink please?
(Tape stops, then resumes, DI Laurence reidentifies everyone on the tape and states the time and date. See separate report for exact timings.)
OK, thanks. Yeah I’m OK. Right. So, the voice. Janet is well freaked now, and I’ll be honest, mate, I’d almost wet myself. That voice. So cold, it felt like we were in a freezer suddenly. An abattoir or something.
And Janet and I staring at them, our mates… and Michele spoke to us but it made no sense. She just said about the darkness and Phyllis and the lights. It made no sense. And Janet and me, we ran, I mean just got the hell out of there. But we tried to get to the front door and that’s when we saw the ghost. I saw the ghost. Janet says she’s not sure what she saw, but I’m telling you, it was a bloody ghost. A bloke, sort of there and not there. I’m not talking the whole white sheet, Scooby-Doo thing, but a bloke stood there. I could see he was speaking, shouting almost, but couldn’t hear anything he said.
And we were out of there.
But this is important because I think, yeah, yeah, I’m sure sitting here now, I think it was saying what Michele had been saying – the mouth, I’m picturing it, “darkness” and “the lights”, I’m sure that’s what it was yelling.
And then you lot turned up the next day at uni and arrested me. But I’m telling you, that’s what happened. We didn’t hurt them or anything. Why would I kill Michele – we were together, if you know what I mean. I wouldn’t do that to her.
Where’s Janet – she must be able to tell you this… I mean, she was at uni too, wasn’t she? You must’ve got her when you got me, she’ll tell you they were… They weren’t dead when we ran… ran away… from them…
TEN
Ianto closed the file and added it to the pile on Jack’s desk, just as Owen sauntered in.
‘Just us chickens, yeah?’
Ianto nodded. ‘Looks like it. We sit around at home while the womenfolk go out and do all the work.’
Owen grinned wolfishly. ‘Don’t let Jack hear you call him a woman!’
Ianto managed a smile back.
Owen nodded at the files. ‘Heavy going?’
‘Yeah. And nothing concrete in any of them. Just read about some poor kid whose two mates, were found immolated in number 6 Coburg Street. One of them was his girlfriend. The police tried to pin it on him and another girl, but there wasn’t enough evidence. Poor kid said it was the ghost.’
‘Once upon a time,’ Owen said, sitting on the edge of Jack’s desk, ‘dunno ’bout you, mate, but I’d’ve laughed at that. But in our world, ghosts and all that, who’s to say what is and isn’t real?’
Ianto shrugged. ‘S’posed to find out, aren’t we? But I’m not seeing anything that links the Tretarri area with Jack’s weirdness. You got anything?’
‘Nah, same old test results you always get from Jack – normal for him, less normal for us, but at least he’s consistent.’
Ianto pondered on this. ‘Look, I found out he’s been doing this for… years. I mean with back-from-the-dead Jack, how many years is open to interpretation, but well over seventy-five. So it’s not something new. And we know he’s not always been based at Torchwood, although he’s been in and out of here for a long time. So whatever it is that stops him going in, it’s before Torchwood. It’s something in him.’
‘Ask him,’ Owen suggested. ‘Seriously. Say it’s time for some answers.’
Ianto thought about this, too. ‘I’d like to offer him some options, cos you know him – he’ll just clam up, brush it aside. But if we can piece some stuff together from what we do know, we could challenge him.’
‘You can challenge him,’ Owen corrected. ‘I’ll just get my head bitten off.’
‘Maybe you will. So what do we know?’
‘Bugger all, frankly. I sit down and try and put two and two together where he’s concerned and always get five.’
Ianto was enthusiastic now. ‘Exactly, and maybe that’s the way to get answers from Jack. We draw wrong conclusions, hopefully he’ll correct us.’
‘Or let us believe ’em, cos it suits him that way.’ Owen pulled up a chair and sat down. ‘Right. He’s old. Dead old. Been here since Queen Vic was on the throne, Tosh reckons. And he can’t die, which – and I say this as the best doctor studying alien biology in the world – I can offer no grounds for. His cells just go back to how they were. I’ve studied his blood, tried messing around with it. It doesn’t reform, it doesn’t mutate or even clone itself. It just reverts back to how it was before. Which, frankly, is bloody weird and not a bit scary.’
‘Time Agent. When we met Captain John, he said they were Time Agents.’
‘Never told us what that meant though. But hang on… What if, assuming this isn’t all bollocks and they’re not conmen doing the most protracted swindle in history, what if they can travel in time. That’s gotta do something to you, I’d’ve thought.’
‘How do you mean?’
Owen frowned. ‘The human body, it’s designed for certain stresses, certain events in your life. But is it designed for time travel? I’m not saying it isn’t, but we don’t know it is. We do know that Jack’s the only person actually unable to enter Tretarri, even if no one else stays for long.’
‘And,’ Ianto worked it out slowly but surely, ‘Jack is the only time traveller we have to hand.’
‘So maybe that’s the connection. Whatever makes him able to stand time travel, makes him unable to get into Tretarri.’
‘Which would,’ said Jack from the doorway, ‘mean that whatever is in Tretarri, is related to chronon energy of
