Benjy gasped. ‘How did you do that?’

‘It wasn’t a real gun,’ said the Doctor, ‘just your memory of the one your father used to have. I simply erased it from your mind by blasting a couple of neurons. Sorry about that. Not strictly something I should do. But then, neither is this …’

The Doctor activated his sonic again. This time, Mr Parsons himself disappeared in an explosion of tiny particles.

Benjy spun to stare up at the Doctor. ‘You killed my dad!’

‘That wasn’t your dad,’ said the Doctor. ‘It was just an image of him. At first, I thought he must be the Shroud that has invaded your mind – but he couldn’t be. He was too surprised to learn that this wasn’t really his land. Which means, the parasite must be you!’ He pointed his sonic down at Tess the dog.

‘Very clever, Doctor!’ growled Tess.

Benjy’s eyes widened in amazement. ‘My dog can talk!’

The Doctor nodded. ‘I had a dog that could do that, once. You’d be amazed how quickly the novelty wears off.’ He continued to aim his sonic screwdriver at Tess. ‘Leave this man’s memories, and I will find you and your kind another planet to live on.’

Tess threw her head back and laughed. ‘Why should I leave, Doctor? The feast has just begun … Remember, boy …’ hissed the dog. ‘Remember how you shot me to stop my agony.’

‘Not likely,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve wiped his father’s gun from his memory.’

‘Then I shall remind him of another gun,’ sneered Tess.

Flash!

There was a shimmer in the air and, suddenly, Benjy was holding a plastic ray gun with red lightning bolts painted along the side.

‘What?’ The Doctor scowled. ‘That’s a toy space gun! It does nothing scarier than make a silly noise.’ He turned and whispered to his sonic screwdriver. ‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that.’

‘Really?’ said Tess. The dog turned to her young master. ‘Would you care to demonstrate the power of your toy?’

Benjy shrugged, aimed his ray gun at the fence and fired. A purple laser bolt shot from the end with a sound like Pnew! The wood exploded into flames.

‘That’s impossible!’ cried the Doctor.

‘Not to a child,’ said Tess. ‘To an 8-year-old boy, a toy gun really works. That’s how he remembers it.’

‘Then I have to make him forget that as well,’ said the Doctor. ‘Benjy, this isn’t how it happened! The Shroud is manipulating your memories, trying to intensify your grief. You have to remember, Benjy. Remember how it really happened. But you can only do that if you admit to yourself that none of this is real.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Benjy. ‘I’m just a kid.’

‘No, you’re not,’ said the Doctor. ‘You’re Ben Parsons, the 45-year-old editor of the Dallas Morning News newspaper. You’re married to Jane, and you love both her and your job very much.’

‘Don’t listen to him, boy!’ snarled Tess. ‘You know the truth! You know you’re only 8 years old and that you shot your dog to put her out of her misery!’

Ben began to raise the gun again.

‘Remember, Ben,’ urged the Doctor. ‘Remember …’

Benjy paused. ‘Wait,’ he said, looking down at Tess. ‘You said I’m 8 years old, but that ain’t right. I was 10, nearly 11. I remember because my dad got me a new puppy for my 11th birthday to replace Tess!’

‘That’s it!’ cried the Doctor with a smile. ‘You’re doing it.’

‘And it didn’t happen outdoors near the fence, neither. We were at the ranch, out back by the chicken coop.’

The Doctor grabbed the reins of Mr Parson’s horse and leapt up into the saddle. He held a hand down to Benjy. ‘Then what say we go there and remember some more, partner!’

Warily, Benjy tossed the ray gun aside. It exploded into sparkling atoms before it hit the dirt. Then he took the Doctor’s hand and climbed up into the saddle behind him. ‘Let’s go!’

The Doctor snapped the reins and they were off, galloping across the plain. Benjy clung on tightly, his arms around the Doctor’s waist and his face buried in his back. No, against the shoulder. No, his face was in the Doctor’s mass of dark hair!

‘Whoa!’ exclaimed Ben, looking down at himself. He’d grown over thirty years in as many seconds, and his voice was suddenly deep and booming. ‘I guess you were right about me being 45 years old, Doctor!’

‘It’s a good age, 45,’ the Doctor shouted over his shoulder. ‘That’s how old I was when I left primary school.’

‘You cannot defeat me, Doctor!’ snarled a voice.

The Doctor and Ben looked down. Tess the dog was racing across the plain alongside the horse.

‘I can if I beat you to the ranch,’ called the Doctor.

‘And how are you going to do that, if Ben can’t remember his father’s horse?’

The stallion Ben and the Doctor were riding on vanished in a shower of sparkling atoms, and the two men tumbled to the ground. Laughing, Tess the dog ran on towards the farmhouse on the horizon.

‘That wasn’t fair,’ said the Doctor, climbing to his feet and dusting himself down. ‘And if the Shroud isn’t playing fair, then neither will we.’ He turned to Ben. ‘There’s no reason why we should take the long route. Picture the ranch in your mind. Out back, by the chicken coop …’

Flash!

The Doctor and Ben stepped out of the back door of the ranch house. It was a clear night and the Moon cast an eerie glow over the chicken coop.

There was a man kneeling in the yard, his back to them. ‘Mr Williams!’ Ben exclaimed. ‘The veterinarian.’

The vet stood and turned, the limp body of Tess the dog in his arms. ‘Benjy,’ he said, surprised. ‘Your dad told me you were in bed, asleep.’

Ben turned to the Doctor. ‘This is how it really happened,’ he said. ‘The vet came and—’

Suddenly, Tess raised her head to the sky and howled. ‘Noooooo!’

Flash!

The Doctor and Ben found themselves standing in a dusty old attic, surrounded by boxes and tea chests packed with odds and end.

‘Blimey,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s a bit of a mess in here.’

‘Where are we?’ asked Ben. ‘What is all this stuff?’

‘We’re in your mind,’ said the Doctor. ‘These boxes are filled with your memories. The Shroud is trying to make you focus on the bad ones, but you mustn’t let it. We have to concentrate on the happy ones.’

‘How do we do that?’

‘By searching for them,’ said the Doctor, beginning to rummage through the nearest box. ‘How about this?’ he asked, producing a fishing rod.

Flash!

The Doctor and Ben were suddenly sitting in a small boat in the middle of a dark lake. The moonlight glistened on the surface of the oily, black water.

‘Oh, no!’ said Ben.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked the Doctor.

‘This is from when I was 17,’ said Ben. ‘I came fishing late at night by myself. I’d … I’d had a couple of beers …’

The Doctor glanced down at the collection of empty beer cans in the bottom of the boat. ‘A couple?’

‘All right,’ sighed Ben. ‘I came out here to drink beer. Fishing was just a cover story. I lost my oars, and couldn’t get back to shore.’

‘And?’

‘I was out here all night, at least until the storm came.’

Right on cue, a clap of thunder sounded and raindrops began to ping off the empty cans. But there was another sound, too – a splashing sound. The Doctor looked over the side of the boat to see Tess the dog swimming past.

‘I thought I’d have to find a bad memory myself, Doctor,’ she said. ‘But you’ve done all the hard work for me.’

‘This has gone far enough,’ snarled the Doctor. ‘I’m sorry, Ben – this may sting a bit …’ He whipped out his sonic and aimed a blast at the sky. Then he lashed out with his hand and punched a hole in reality.

Ben winced, as though he’d just taken a bite from a slice of lemon. Through the hole, he could see the dusty attic on the other side. The Doctor slipped the sonic away, grabbed the edges of the tear and ripped it further so it was wide enough for the two men to climb through.