Chapter Text
Melody gasped for breath, the tiny room she was trapped in feeling like an oven. She slammed her hands on the wall, hoping the noise would attract attention. It was the same nightmare she’d been having for the past three weeks. It usually ended when she gave up fighting but this time her desperate slamming on the wall had drawn attention. A door formed in the wall and swung open. She crawled out, taking deep gulping breaths of air. A soft breeze cooled her skin as she pulled herself together, feeling sandy earth between her fingers. Looking up she saw a vibrant red sky. This time she recognised it, the planet with the silver trees and the domed city. She clambered to her feet and began running in the direction of the dome. If she was going to suddenly be on this strange world she was going to find out why. Her feet kicked up small clouds of dust as she ran, her robes flaring behind her. In the distance she saw a figure, the first living being she’d ever seen on the strange planet. It turned, its striking silver eyes meeting hers for a split second before she awoke, gasping, her blankets wrapped around her legs. She slid the rest of the way off the bed and landed on the floor with a thud.
She groaned and rubbed the back of her head, kicking away the twisted duvet, and sat up. Six thirty. Not enough time to go back to sleep even if she wanted to. She went to shower before her alarm went off. Her new phone sitting safely on her bedside table, waiting to trill out its attempt to wake her up. At least she had time to cover the dark circles under her eyes with concealer so noone noticed she was still getting the kind of sleep she hadn’t had since she was recovering from getting her spine implants. It would get better, she knew that, but in the meantime she felt like hell. As long as it was a quiet day she’d be fine.
Owen winced slightly at the smell of burned flesh as he stepped into the scene, his boots splashing on the sodden carpet. The report had been from a house fire that had centred around a person that had, apparently, spontaneously combusted. The body was certainly charred. He approached, examining the mess.
“What do you think?” Jack asked.
He tilted his head. “Well, the fire didn’t cook them from the outside in.”
“So it did start inside him.”
“I’ll need to take the body back but unless there’s any residue that didn’t burn off, which I doubt with how his bones have snapped open, I’m not sure what I’m going to find.”
“Do what you can. The last time I saw a spontaneous human combustion case it turned out to be not so spontaneous, and was more like a temporal flamethrower.”
“Only spontaneous human combustion cases I’ve heard of didn’t set the rest of the room alight and left their feet intact. This looks more like he was made of petrol and newspaper.”
“Thinking he wasn’t human?”
“Maybe? It’s hard to tell anything in this state. Even cremated bodies leave bones behind that need to be ground down but these bones are one step from dust. I don’t think getting him into a body bag’ll be too hard but we might end up needing a shovel.”
Gwen let herself into the room, getting back from having a quick word with the officers that had been the first on scene after the firefighters. “This might no- bloody hell.” She cringed slightly at the sight.
“You’ve seen worse. We might what?”
“Sorry, yea. This might not be the first fire that started so strangely. There was one last week.” She shook off the shock and continued. “At first they thought it was an accident. The deceased was working in a garage when he went up in flames. The other workers tried to put him out but he was dead before they managed to extinguish him.”
“Let me guess, he looked like he’d burned from the inside out.”
“According to their statements he was spraying what they thought was petrol from his mouth. Like he was producing the accelerant.”
“That would explain some of this but not everything.”
Jack nodded. “Get them to send us what was left of the first body and his address. Any clues here might be incinerated but theirs won’t be.”
“What are you thinking?”
“They had to come into contact with something and with an effect this violent I doubt it’s something widely available.”
The second man had lived alone and, surprisingly for his age and occupation, he owned his own home. The semi detached property blended in to the rest of the neighbourhood that seemed to contain older couples and families.
As they entered the property one of the neighbours, an elderly gentleman, stopped at the fence. “The place getting sold already?” He asked gruffly.
“No, not yet. We’re just finishing up the investigation.” Gwen said politely.
“Should have been doing that months ago.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve reported him enough times. Engine roaring at all hours of the night. Exhaust fumes wafting in.” The man huffed.
A voice from his house pierced the air. “Oh leave the poor officers alone Geoffry! The man’s not going to be bothering you now is he.”
The man huffed again and hobbled off into the back garden. A grey haired lady with a soft, motherly, smile and a walking stick emerged from the home.
“I’m sorry about him. He’s just grumpy because his hip’s playing him up.”
“It’s fine.” Gwen said with every ounce of her good natured charm. “We’re from a slightly different branch so could you tell me a little about the issues you had with your neighbour?”
“Oh, of course. Now, I know we shouldn’t talk ill of the dead, but he was always awfully noisy. Liked his fancy cars. Nothing wrong with that, but he was always running them in the middle of the night and up until two weeks ago all you could smell was fumes.”
“Two weeks ago?”
“We still heard the engine but he must have got some kind of air filter because it didn’t smell at all anymore. I thought he’d got himself one of those fancy electric cars but it looked the same to me.”
“Well, I hope your next neighbour is quieter.”
“Thank you. You have a nice day.” She smiled before hobbling back into the house.
Gwen turned to join Jack and Owen in the second mans house.
Tosh sent the first part of her research into the two dead men to Gwen before leaning back in her chair, stretching her shoulders. She looked over as Melody walked past.
“Oh, Mel, when you get lunch can you grab some cake? I meant to pick some up last night but I completely forgot.”
“Sure.” Melody nodded. “Anything else while I’m out?”
“Not that I can think of. Are you alright? You look a bit pale.”
“Hmm? Oh, I’m ok. Just a few bad nights sleep.”
“Is there anything you want to talk about?” She pulled the chair from Owens desk over. “Noisy neighbours?”
Melody sat, appreciating the small amount of rest. “Just the usual. I’ll be fine.”
“Nightmares.” It wasn’t a question. “I hope it’s nothing prophetic.”
“No, no. Nothing like that… Well, last night I saw that red planet again. The one with the silver trees.”
“It’s been a while since that came up.”
“Yea. This time there was someone there. I couldn’t tell much about them but… They had silver eyes.”
“Maybe it was a reflection. Recurring dreams are your mind trying to tell you something after all.”
“Maybe.” She didn’t look convinced.
“After what happened, did you speak to Heather about it?”
“Yea. She felt better after getting back to normality.”
“And you?”
“I… I didn’t want to make her deal with that when it was still such an open wound, you know?”
She reached over and took Mels hand. “Haven’t you talked to anyone?”
“I just want to put it behind me.”
“Melody. It’s no wonder you’re not sleeping. I know you like you keep yourself to yourself but you have to let these things out.”
“I know… I thought I was ok at first. Like, really ok… Then I was in the kitchen and it got really warm because I was cooking… I… I just started shaking. I couldn’t breathe… I’ve had panic attacks before and I knew what it was but at first I couldn’t work out what triggered it. I’ve been trying to keep the window open and a fan on at night but it hasn’t stopped the nightmares. I know they’ll stop eventually, they always do, I just need to get through this.”
“You don’t have to do this alone. If you’re having a bad night and need to talk, you can call me. You could call any of us.”
Mel nodded, her eyes fixed on the floor. “Thanks.”
“Look, why don’t you take a nap. Just an hour or so.”
“I… Yea, that actually sounds good.” She stood and walked over to the sofa, slumping down into it. Her head barely hit the cushion before she was out.
Owen whistled his appreciation of the perfectly shined and upgraded car sitting in the garage as he switched on the light. He had to admit he’d gladly take it home with him if he didn’t think the paintwork was too garish to get away with. Plus that would be theft from a dead man. He was a bastard, but not that much of a bastard. Stepping around the vehicle he began to realise something was wrong, a crowbar sitting next to the garage door. On closer inspection the door had definitely been cracked open at some point and by the chipped paint on the crowbar said that had been what had been used. He lifted the edge of the door, finding it still unlocked. Why would someone break in and leave the very expensive car? Crouching down he tried to see if there was some kind of clamp being used to keep it where it had been parked, but no. Nothing. Well, nothing around the wheels. On the floor lay a long piece of tubing. It looked like the kind used to siphon off fuel and it was sat just below the fuel cap. He picked it up with a gloved hand and sniffed it. To his surprise it didn’t smell of anything. He opened the fuel cap, expecting the strong scent of petrol but that too gave nothing.
“Window shopping?” Asked Jack from the doorway.
He waved his boss over. “Smell anything strange?”
“No.”
“Exactly. As new as this looks there’s wear on the tyres. It should smell of petrol.”
“Maybe he used old tyres.”
“You don’t put old tyres on a car like this.”
“So what are you suggesting?”
“They’ve been putting something other than petrol in the fuel tank and don’t want anyone knowing what.” He held up the tubing. “If we’re lucky whoever emptied the tank left their DNA on the end of this and some of whatever the hell they’re using inside.”
Ianto crouched, teaching over to wake Melody up. He’d left her for a couple of hours, having already worked out that she hadn’t been sleeping a week before. He’d tried to broach the subject but she was a master of deflection until the sleep deprivation really set it. He smiled softly as she stirred, one arm wrapped around Syn. Tax sat just under the sofa keeping a diligent watch.
“Morning.” He said softly.
She opened one eye and pushed herself up from the cushions. “Sorry. How long have I been out?”
“Just a couple of hours. The others are on their way back and I didn’t think you’d want the questioning from Owen.”
“Thanks. I should go out and buy lunch soon. Any requests?”
“For you to be fully awake before you go out so you don’t get run over.”
“I’m fine. I promise I won’t end up under a car.”
He gave a sceptical look.
“Or over a car. Or in contact with a car in any way shape or form.” She rubbed her eyes and rolled her shoulders.
He helped Syn down off the sofa before standing back. “Just be careful.”
“I will. Oh, Tosh, what cake do you want?”
“Anything that looks fancy.” Tosh smiled. “It’s my mums birthday so we’re going to celebrate over video call tonight.”
“Aww that’s really sweet. I’ll find something nice.”
“Thanks. I’ll pay you back.”
“No problem. I’m feeling a bit better now so I think the fresh air’ll do me good… Ok, no buttercream.”
“What?”
“You just said.”
“I didn’t. I mean I thought about it but I’ve been keeping my thoughts quiet. Maybe I need to practice more.”
Mel blushed brightly. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realise I must have been listening out. I’ll get ready to go.” She rushed off in embarrassment.