The Haunting of Bryck Place (audio story)
The Haunting of Bryck Place was the third audiobook released in the Interludes series. It was released on the bonus downloads of the audio anthology Silver and Ice. It was written by Georgia Cook and featured the Seventh Doctor and Ace.
Publisher's summary
Hackney Village, the 1540s. Bryck Place is a new construction: the first house in London built from bricks – but it already has a ghost. The apparition of a young woman, dressed in black, walks the halls nightly, whispering strange incantations. Nobody knows what this entity is, or what it wants, until Ace and the Doctor arrive to unlock the mystery...
Plot
Agnes walks Bryck Place alone at midnight and sees the pale apparition of a woman in black climbing the stairs, whispering, as she does every night. The servants all know about the woman, whom they believe to be some sort of revenant, but have not told Sir Ralph Barr or Lady Elin.
In a London tavern, the Doctor and Ace briefly meet Agnes, who runs in screaming and runs away upon seeing them. Ace follows her through the streets and, when she eventually does catch up to her, Agnes is surprised to find that she is flesh and blood and, after the Doctor catches up, says that Ace looks just like the spectre at Bryck Place. On the way there to investigate, Agnes tells the Doctor and Ace about the ghost and surprises them by telling them that the house is brand new.
The Doctor, Ace and Agnes see the spectre. Ace, angry at having her form stolen, goes to attack her before the Doctor stops her, worried about what could happen, and they follow her until she enters a cupboard and disappears. The Doctor wonders if a painting of a woman that he notices is haunted and examines its old and gaudy frame. In the morning, the Doctor and Ace meet Lady Elin and learn that the frame was purchased by Sir Ralph from the widow of a Scottish lord. Time distortion causes the house to start falling apart as it tries to exist in multiple times at once.
After escaping upstairs with the Doctor, Agnes and Lady Elin, Ace sees and follows the spectre until she vanishes into the portrait. Ace grabs the Doctor's umbrella and destroys it, revealing a secret passage. She and the Doctor head down a metal staircase and follow a network of tunnels; the Doctor says that they are inside a degrading memory vault and, when the place starts to rumble, tells Ace to remember the directions that the spectre gave. They reach a chamber containing a formless mass above a dais, which the Doctor explains is the corrupted memory that the vault was built to hold. To restore the vault, the Doctor touches the dais and replaces the memory with one of his own after Ace declines to do so.
The Doctor and Ace exit the vault, close it behind them and find the house restored. The spectre was a memory of Ace, bleeding out due to time distortion. Upon returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor apologises to Ace for asking her to place a memory in the vault and tells her that the memory he put there was of her.
Characters
Worldbuilding
- New York and New New York are both known as the City That Never Sleeps.
- Ace cannot remember what she learnt about the Tudors in school.
- Ace has seen London in 800 BC, its smog-filled cobbles in 1840 and its towering spires in 2800.
- Sir Ralph Barr is in Scotland, overseeing business for the King.
- Mrs Fairfax is the cook.
- The Doctor has psychic paper.
- Lady Elin's portrait was painted by Mr Holbein.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Ace mentions Gabriel Chase. (TV: Ghost Light)
- Ace remembers the sharpness she saw in the Doctor at Maiden's Point. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
- Ace remembers the drudgery of Iceworld. (TV: Dragonfire)
Footnotes
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