The Littlest Timelord: Cracks in Time

Chapter 26

"He was the doctor who took care of Van Gogh when he started to go mad."

"I knew that."

"Look!" Amy said, grabbing the Doctor's hand. She pulled him over a painting of a church. "There it is. The actual one."

"Yes. You can almost feel his hand painting it right in front of you, carving the colors into shapes..." The Doctor's eyes zeroed in on something in the painting. "Wait a minute."

"What?" Amy asked.

The Doctor pointed to something in the window. "Well, just look at that."

"What?"

The Doctor ruffled the back of his hair, nervously. This was supposed to be a calm trip, but it was quickly turning into something else. "Something very not good indeed." he said.

"What thing very not good?" Amy asked.

"Look there, in the window of the church."

In the window was an odd looking monster.

"Is it a face?"

"Yes. And not a nice face at all. I know evil when I see it and I see it in that window."

The Doctor walked over to the tour guide and pulled out his psychic paper. "Excuse me. If I can just interrupt for one second. Sorry, everyone. Routine inspection, Ministry of Art and Artiness. So, er..."

"Doctor Black," the tour guide said.

"Yes, that's right. Do you know when that picture of the church was painted?"

"Ah, well, ah, well, what an interesting question. Most people imagine..."

"I'm going to have to hurry you. When was it?"

"Exactly?"

"As exactly as you can. Without a long speech, if poss. I'm in a hurry."

"Well, in that case, probably somewhere between the first and third of June."

"What year?"

"1890. Less than a year before...before he killed himself."

"Thank you, sir. Very helpful indeed. Nice bow-tie. Bow-ties are cool."

"Yours is very..."

"Oh, thank you. Keep telling them stuff".

The Doctor turned around and grabbed Amy's hand. "We need to go."

"What about the other pictures?" she asked.

"Art can wait. This is life and death. We need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh."

The Doctor lightly shoved Amy towards the exit.

Elise hesitated, looking back at all the paintings.

"We'll come back", the Doctor told her, softly, "Promise." He made two crossing motions over his hearts.

Finally, Elise took his hand and let him lead her back to the TARDIS.

They stepped out into an alleyway.

"Right, so, here's the plan. We find Vincent and he leads us straight to the church and our nasty friend," the Doctor said.

"Easy peasy," Amy told him as they made their way out of the alley.