Torchwood.

“Owen?” Gwen called out, startled by the noises of rusty chains being knocked about. A hand clasped tightly over her mouth. She bit hard and screamed. “Gwen!” said Owen’s voice reassuring her that he was safe. He clutched his and Gwen turned away. He led her along the corridor. “I could have sworn we came from the other way” Gwen told him. Oddly, Owen didn’t reply. No lame jokes, no sleazy pickup lines. Infact, today in particular, Owen hadn’t shutup about the night they spent together in his flat. Something was wrong. They weren’t getting any nearer to light, and this wasn’t Owen. Gwen picked up a rusty hook and swung it into his leg. He smirked and slowly his skin slipped away, melting, revealing a hideous creature. It had long, brown nails, rotting skin, the flesh around it’s eye sockets had started rotting away, it had a terrible stench too, Gwen tried hard not to gag. It was worse than that of the corridor leading down to the sewer. It lurched at Gwen, scraping her leg. She bled, and as she did, it lifted a swift finger to it’s mouth and licked the blood from it’s finger. Gwen screamed, dropping the hook and partly deafening herself, as the creature transformed into her before her eyes.

***

Earlier, Torchwood was informed of an odd call receiver by the police at the dead of night. A man had called up claiming to have found bodies, hanging from hooks in a basement. Though before he could take another breath came a large thud, followed by a rasp hissing. When the police went to investigate the investigating police didn’t return. That’s when special ops, Torchwood was called.

“So Jack, what is it?” Gwen asked, trying to make light conversation to avoid Toshiko’s constant questions of “What was he like?” or “How far did you go?”
“Dunno.” Jack replied dully. “How long has this been going on?” she asked. “Dunno” he replied, duller than before. “Oh.” Toshiko said aloud, “How long have you two been going on?” ‘Christ. Will the questions ever end?’ Gwen thought to herself. Owen hadn’t helped much. He hadn’t stopped talking about it. And when Tosh asked a new question, he’d burst into laughter, being stuck next to him in the cramped van hadn’t helped the matter much either. This wasn’t the first time they’d spent the night together, but it was definitely the most gossiped about.

As they got out of the van and started making the rest of their way to the house, the whole town was unsettled, occasionally giving them an evil eye. “Dopplegangers.” One woman cried, “That’s what took my brother!” “There aren’t any flippin’ dopplegangers.” He tried to reassure her, but he was getting relatively angry. The whole town was abrupt with rumours and mistrust. She sobbed into his arms. Gwen and Ianto walked over to comfort her. Owen followed Gwen, and soon they were all approaching the couple.  

“What’s wrong?” Gwen asked wondering about all the talk of ‘dopplegangers’ was about, “What’s been happening to all these people?” “Dopplegangers,” the woman blurted out between the tears. “She’s just got a silly idea in her head. The whole town’s up in arms at the moment.” The husband whispered to Gwen, trying not to upset his wife further. Ianto pulled out a PDA. “You shouldn’t have that!” Toshiko yelled at him. “Well, it’s helping us” he replied with a smug smirk. He quickly tapped in Doppleganger just as they all headed to the old house.

A man greeted them, a man of his early twenties, tall, slender, attractive. He introduced himself as the mayor. As he left them to do their stuff Ianto pulled back out the PDA. “Ok, this is where the people went missing,” he told them “the caller said that a creature lived here. Jack, you go upstairs, I’ll stay on this floor, Tosh, you go to the basement and Owen and Gwen can have the sewers.” “Oi.” Jack interrupted, “Who’s in charge here?” “Sorry. Awaiting Orders… Sir.” Ianto replied apologetically. “Like I said, nice plan.” Jack pulled out his cellphone, the others all pulled out theirs. “But Tosh is with me.” Ianto started searching the ground floor, while Jack and Toshiko climbed to the top floor, and Gwen followed Owen down the stairs.

Jack heard a noise from the other side of the door. He called Tosh over and slowly opened the door. There was a scream, it was just a girl. But something was odd. She didn’t have a reflection in the mirror. There was an old folklore that told of dopplegangers, saying they had no reflection. Or so that was what Ianto told them. It saw Jack staring into the mirror, bringing his gun up. It lurched at him just as Jack pulled the trigger. It fell in a slump to the ground. Toshiko stared at the body that lay at their feet as the flesh melted away revealing a hideous creature. Ianto ran up the stairs as he heard the gunshot, “What is it?” he asked. “Got it,” Jack called back.

“You scared?” Owen asked smirking, “I could always hold you.” That greasy smirk spread across his face. Gwen tossed her eyes. “You like to keep you work and play separate? I see.” He told her. “Get over yourself!” she shrieked back. There was a scream, shortly followed by a gunshot. As they stopped to look around they could see chains and hooks from the ceiling. Rusty, bloodstained chains and hooks. The concrete floor had little pools of blood along it. There was a rustling noise between the chains. Gwen and Owen drew their guns. It was behind them. Gwen spun around to find she was on her own.

“Owen?” Gwen called out, startled by the noises of rusty chains being knocked about. A hand clasped tightly over her mouth. She bit hard and screamed. “Gwen!” said Owen’s voice reassuring her that he was safe. He clutched his and Gwen turned away. He led her along the corridor. “I could have sworn we came from the other way” Gwen told him. Oddly, Owen didn’t reply. No lame jokes, no sleazy pickup lines. Infact, today in particular, Owen hadn’t shutup about the night they spent together in his flat. Something was wrong. They weren’t getting any nearer to light, and this wasn’t Owen. Gwen picked up a rusty hook and swung it into his leg. He smirked and slowly his skin slipped away, melting, revealing a hideous creature. It had long, brown nails, rotting skin, the flesh around it’s eye sockets had started rotting away, it had a terrible stench too, Gwen tried hard not to gag. It was worse than that of the corridor leading down to the sewer. It lurched at Gwen, scraping her leg. She bled, and as she did, it lifted a swift finger to it’s mouth and licked the blood from it’s finger. Gwen screamed, dropping the hook and partly deafening herself, as the creature transformed into her before her eyes.

Jack jumped over the banisters and rushed down to the basement as he heard Gwen scream. There were so many thoughts in Jack’s head, ‘Was it a false alarm? Were there more of them? If so, was it really Gwen? Who knows.’ All Jack knew was that he had to get down to Gwen and Owen quickly.

As Jack made it down the stairs Gwen ran into his arms. “They took Owen and nearly scared me to death,” she sobbed. Ianto tripped on a loose floorboard at the base of the stairs and stumbled over. Gwen laughed a little between the sobbing. It was good to know her sense of humour was unscathed. As Gwen wiped the tears from her face, makeup all smudged, Jack led them down the corridor to find Ianto.

The corridor had started looking like a mine shaft, but towards the end was concrete. A fowl stench caused Jack to gag and Ianto to vomit, much to Gwen and Toshiko’s amusement. Jack spotted a fresh trail of blood as they came to a fork, and decided to us it as a guide.

“Get back” Jack whispered to them sternly, ushering them back to the shadows. Light was shining from above, and as Ianto checked the GPS, it said they were under the mayor’s house. How could he not have noticed? There were chains hanging from the ceiling. Hooks on chains. Bodies on hooks. “Oh god,” Gwen muttered. On one of the hooks was Owen. Some of the other people were alive, others dead. The mayor strolled out casually, stroking Owen’s face. Jack’s eyes widened as he realised the truth. Gwen caught a glimpse of an open cupboard. She crept over silently, making sure the mayor was preoccupied. Jacks eyes were firmly stuck on the mayor. Gwen opened the door ajar. Inside was shelves of explosives. As Gwen opened the metal cupboard door an inch further it creaked. All attention was on Gwen now. Gwen was frozen in fear, and as the mayor snarled at her, Jack shot him in the chest. He collapsed to the ground and Ianto ran over to let Owen down, along with the other alive hostages. As Owen pulled down the last one, there was a snarl. More than one. They were all around. Everyone turned to face the door.

Gwen grabbed a bunch of explosives and followed them out the huge metal rolling door. Jack took the explosives from Gwen as, about a dozen, dopplegangers approached them. He made sure everyone was out of the way before lighting the fuses and tossing them at the dopplegangers. He followed the others and as the room behind exploded, they all dived to the floor.

Fire swept through the sewer. They dived to the ground just in time. Gwen was unsure if some of the people were still breathing, god knows how long they’d been trapped. Above the ground the mayor’s house exploded into a ball of flames. Everone stared as the thick, black smoke engulfed the sky above, blocking the sun. Amongst the burning rubble was the mayor’s photos. A picture of the mayor at school. A picture dated May 15th 1947.