Odyssey Ch. 07

"It's only a few days."

Hatter sighed internally but externally smiled benevolently.

"No worries I am a big Timelord after all. Nothing to worry about."

He could hear the insistent tick of an atomic clock in the background.

"You know I have been planning this trip for months. Quite the highlight of the year."

He grinned and wrinkled His eyes and lied with all the expressions He knew how too. Your leaving Me was all He could think. They always leave. Companions always leave.

"You have a lot to do anyways. Writing to catch up on, plans to peruse."

He was beginning to crack a little. First the 'new male friend' conversation, now this. She was leaving.

"I got you a present. See!"

She pointed the camera at the white box on the floor of her room.

"I can bring it on the way if you want."

"No need. It would just mean extra pressure for you. No you take your time on the trip, enjoy, relax, have fun. I am fine really."

They always leave. Companions always leave. Hatter felt the tears welling but decided they were wasted. No point crying, no point letting His reality show. No one saw His misfortune, they all thought this life was some sort of endless holiday. Regeneration was no gift, it was a curse.

"Almost five hundred years old and not one real friend."

K9 didn't reply. He never did. Just sat or laid, slept, just was.

"You going to leave Me K9?"

Now He started to cry.

"Fucking idiot thinking that."

He touched the knife on the console. Didn't look at it just wanted to feel it was still there. K9 snored. Hatter smiled through the pain and bent to rub him behind the ear.

"Good old boy. Daddys here. You get some sleep you had a busy day."

The second screen on the console blinked a number. He ignored it. No calls right now. He was getting used to being alone again.

Evil is as real as you make it. Some races actually think it exists as a separate entity to be breathed in and out like a gaseous substance. Hatter knew better. Evil existed in everything, as real as goodness, as real as life itself. He had lived on this planet for close to sixty years now. Worked His way through two regenerations and companions almost too many to remember. He recognized the evil in Himself. Saw the flaw that divided His character and accepted it and its consequences.

"You really are fascinated by puppets."

He recalled their conversation and the way the truth had been spoken but only recognized by Him. She had a way of divining the truth behind His actions. Maybe that was what attracted Him, the scalpel to His essence He was afraid to wield.

"Why do you like them so much?"

He fought to find an honest answer but decided to lie.

"They make Me laugh."

"I think they are a bit scary."

Hatter considered this proposition. Puppets and clowns. Puppets and old wives tales. Puppets and urban legends. Humans, so gullible.

"Your race finds everything scary they don't understand, It amazes Me sometimes you ever came down from the trees."

She smiled knowingly, like He had said something clever or important. He moved His hand inside the paper bag and momentarily lost Himself in play.

'"That's the way to do it!"

She looked mystified.

"Mister Punch. That's what he says in the puppet shows."

Her face was still confused.

"Punch and Judy. It's a version of an old play about good and evil. Puppeteers perform it with glove puppets for children to watch at fairs."

She was listening intently. She always listened intently but never heard His cries.

"Really not important. Just making noise."

The console blinked again. Same number, same caller.

"Hello."

He tried to sound a little interested.

"Good evening Hatter, how was your day?"

Speed of thought can be a curse. The multiple conversations possible from such an opening gambit sped through His consciousness like an almost endless meteor storm.

"Quiet acceptably bland."

He chose a defense that was bound to produce stalemate.

"You and your search for the bland! Anyone would think you only live to avoid excitement."

He smiled, happy in the knowledge that the caller could never know how right she was.

"How was work?"

Asking that question was always a good avoidance. She would talk incessantly know without need of any response on His part except for the occasional nondescript noise.

He had stopped listening after the first two sentences happy in the knowledge that any question from the other end could be answered with a neutral interjection. Certainly He had no interest in the drama that was undoubtedly being unfolded for His imagined amusement but equally didn't like to be rude.

He swallowed the two pills quickly. Just because you live a long time and can regenerate doesn't stop you getting sick. She was still talking. He grunted in response to a pause.

"So she said she was quite willing to do it. Really excited in fact!"

Hatter frowned. Obviously the conversation had taken a turn and He was now floundering in the unknown.

"Well that's a good thing."

That response must be suitable whatever the circumstances.

"So what exactly did you tell her?"

He imagined crossing His fingers behind His back.

"Just that You would play with us both."

"Yes definitely. Whom exactly is she again?"

It was a risky question but He needed information.

"A friend from way back. We had a bit if a thing but it never went anywhere really. She is very physical and very submissive."

"Nice."

Suddenly He was interested.

"So when are we talking?"

"Your eager."

Well of course I am you stupid bitch. As if the thought of having a couple of submissives to play with wouldn't make Me eager.

"Was more thinking about you having a new experience."

He was pleased with the lie.

"I want to watch You use someone."

"How very voyeuristic of you."

"Be totally helpless while another services You."

"Masochistically orientated too! Arranging your own torture."

"Yes."

Hatter found her compliance quite interesting. He had suggested she find Him a new partner quite casually and had used the voyeur tease quite unscrupulously. For some time He thought the matter had been forgotten but obviously the bate was just slow working.

She continued, endlessly. He snarled and stared into the distance trying to remember the exact line.

"But for the father nothing!"

Yes that was it, damned Bene Gesserit Mother, just like the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Plentitude on New Earth. Hatter shuddered and put the image of cat people out of His mind.

"But for the Hatter nothing more like."

Her droning stopped and He realized He had spoken allowed.

"What do you mean nothing for you? Its all for you!"

Hatter thought quickly.

"Nothing I like more. That's what I said. Did you mishear again? Damn connection probably. For Hatter nothing more He would like than your present."

He heard the sigh of relief escape her mind and smiled wickedly. Stupid humans. Stupid stupid humans. Then it struck Him how boring they really were. How much like puppets. His marionettes, dancing, performing for His amusement.

"You ever been inclined to call Me Master?"

He heard her gasp and could imagine the pictures painting her brain. Little did she realize the real irony, Hatter called Master, how appropriate, how truly predictably suitable.

"Yes, Master."

Damn these humans and their so easily persuaded natures.

"I was joking. No Master please. Its one thing guaranteed to turn Me off."

"Yes Hatter. Sorry Hatter. Forgive me Hatter."

He pushed the disconnect button and listened to the whine of the dead line. Like Me, disconnected and whining. The map was still on the adjacent screen.

"Just a couple of days. Be back before you know it."

Repeated in His voice her words seemed even more hollow and unbelievable. Perhaps He had taught her too well. Damned humans, still evolving.

He slapped her hard. She had asked Him too, He obliged. He felt nothing beyond the slight sting to His palm.

"Again Sir."

His arm swung absent mindedly and the noise just about penetrated the void enclosing His being.

The girl shook. Maybe she climaxed, He didn't care. He was reacting, playing to command, now He was the puppet.

"Yes Sir, yes. Take Me."

Momentarily the fog cleared and He focused, then it was gone again, lost in a sea of melancholy.

The girl slurped away happily at His cock. Licked and sucked with a skill and determination that might in other circumstances have been appreciated.

"I want your seed in my belly Sir."

The words were supposed to be arousing, dirty, nasty, but they just floated in the air without point. Sometimes He was a slave to position, an unwilling actor in a play of someone elses choosing. Why He participated was difficult to ascertain. Perhaps it was just easier to say yes than no.

"I didn't believe my good fortune when you talked to me Sir."

For fucks sake she was a barmaid. He had asked for a drink of water.

"I knew you wanted me Sir, knew you would take me, use me."

The girl was on auto pilot and was heading for another orgasm with or without His attention.

"I don't even know your name."

She didn't hear the sadness in His voice, or if she did was too far gone to care.

"Renata Sir. My name is renata."

He could smell her excitement even in abject disinterest.

"I have dreamed of this ever since we met the first time Sir."

Hatter stared at her face momentarily but she was still a stranger.

"I got a job at that pub just because you come in occasionally Sir."

"What?"

He was trying to fathom her meaning but not much was making sense at all.

"I got a job there so I could meet you Sir."

The girl was boasting, proud. As if somehow this peccadillo made her stalking meaningful.

"Why would you want to meet Me?"

"You're a Timelord Sir. Everyone wants to meet a Timelord. You are Master of the Universe."

"I don't want to disappoint you renata but I are the shit on the universes boot sole."

The girl thought for just a millisecond then went back eagerly to her fellatio.

Hatter wanted to crush her, but He couldn't. Wanted to take her stupid pointless hopes and dreams and tear them into the shreds they deserved, but He couldn't. Everything she was, every morsel of her being was exposed like the fragile skein of a spider's web and He couldn't break one strand. He was trapped in her reality as sure as He was trapped in that other woman's. A figment of other creatures fantasies, an illusion of ever thinning smoke.

"Tell Me renata do you think you could love Me?"

The girls eyes turned into pools of water on a moonless night. Deep dark pools full of danger from unknown monsters.

"Oh yes Sir. I love you already."

"Why would you love Me? I am the most evil Man in the universe."

"No Sir, you're not evil. You're a hero, kind, considerate, compassionate, everyone's friend. You're the person we all look up too and want to be. You're the last of Your kind and the Savior of us all. Earth would never survive without Your guiding hand to lead us."

Hatter looked away and smiled. Yes she recognized Him well enough. Decidedly He was indeed the most evil Man in creation.

"Many years ago My dearest friend the Face of Boe called for Me to speak to Him once more before He died. He begged Me come close and whispered these words.

'You are an evil enigma Hatter, but a necessary one. Like god if you did not exist they would have to invent You to give the cosmos some meaning beyond misery and death.'

And so I continue. Do not ask more of Me."