Screamager (short story)

Screamager
Main character(s):	Victoria Waterfield
Featuring:	Second Doctor, Jamie
Main enemy:	Banshee
Main setting:	Ireland, Summer mid-14th century
Key crew
Writer:	Jacqueline Rayner
Release details
Part of:	Short Trips: Monsters
Release date:	30 September 2004
Short Trips short stories
← Previous	Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
Next →	The Colour of Monsters

Screamager was the tenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Monsters. It was written by Jacqueline Rayner. It featured the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield.

Summary

Victoria is staying at the home of Cormac and Sorcha, in 14th century Ireland, while the Doctor and Jamie take care of business elsewhere.

Three days into her stay, Cormac and Sorcha's son Tadhg becomes ill. That night, Victoria lies in her bed in the kitchen that she shares with the old servant Martha. Unable to sleep, she looks out the window and sees a white, almost green face staring in the window. She screams, which brings Cormac, Sorcha and Cormac's brother Niall running to the kitchen. Victoria tells them she saw a monster, but the face is gone. Now that the household is awake, they notice that Tadhg has a bad fever.

The next day, the doctor attends Tadhg. He plans to bleed him, but Victoria protests, saying that he needs to be kept warm. No one listens to her, and she makes her way to the kitchen, where Martha still lies in her bed. She is dead.

Later that day, Sorcha wants Victoria to pray over her rosary with her, but Victoria can't because she's a Protestant. That night, Victoria sees the face at the window again, and screams again. However, the family doesn't come to her because Tadhg has died.

Next morning, Sorcha is ill. Niall returns from visiting the village to report that seven people, including the doctor, have died from the fever. Victoria decides to look for the monster by daylight, but the villagers she encounters warn her away, saying, "Keep away! Diseased!"

Cormac becomes ill and is put to bed with Sorcha. Victoria tries to convince Niall that the monster is causing the illness, but he thinks it's a punishment from God.

Once again that night Victoria sees the face and screams. Niall enters but sees nothing. He rushes upstairs, and Victoria follows. Cormac and Sorcha are dead. Niall, enraged, calls Victoria a witch and begins to strangle her. He is stopped by the Doctor and Jamie, who have just arrived.

Victoria tells the Doctor everything, and he tells her the disease is the Black Death. He also notices that Niall is suffering from the plague.

That night, the Doctor and Jamie keep watch with Victoria. When the face appears, Victoria screams, but the Doctor calmly calls the monster in. He identifies it as a Banshee, whose cry heralds death. The Banshee has come for Victoria, not as a victim of the plague, but as someone whose scream has heralded several deaths. The Doctor refuses to let Victoria go with the Banshee, and explains that there is one person in this family who will not die — Niall. The Doctor has given Niall some of Victoria's blood, which has some protection against the plague. The Banshee shrieks and disappears.

Back in the TARDIS, Victoria thinks about all the deaths she has seen.

Characters

• Second Doctor
• Jamie McCrimmon
• Victoria Waterfield
• Niall
• Cormac
• Sorcha
• Tadhg
• Martha
• Doctor
• A Banshee

Worldbuilding

• Victoria is a Protestant and therefore doesn't have a rosary.

Notes

• This story depicts the arrival of the Black Death in Ireland, which in the real world was in 1348.

Continuity

• At night, shadows remind Victoria of an Ice Warriors, whom she'd met in TV: The Ice Warriors ^[+]Loading...["The Ice Warriors (TV story)"] and a Yeti, specifically describing the new ones from TV: The Web of Fear ^[+]Loading...["The Web of Fear (TV story)"]
• Victoria decides that she will leave the TARDIS soon. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
• Victoria recalls how her screams have portended death in the past, alluding to deaths at the hands of a Cyberman in TV: The Tomb of the Cyberman ^[+]Loading...["The Tomb of the Cyberman (TV story)"], a Yeti in TV: The Web of Fear ^[+]Loading...["The Web of Fear (TV story)"] and a Dalek in TV: The Evil of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["The Evil of the Daleks (TV story)"].
• The Doctor tells Victoria, "Perhaps your screaming will save people instead next time!" (TV: Fury from the Deep)

External links

• Screamager at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Screamager at The Whoniverse