‘Everyone all right?’ asked the Doctor as he returned.

‘I’m a bit worried, Doctor,’ Amy began, but Miss Leake interrupted her.

‘Nothing to worry about at all!’ she said. ‘We were just being silly, weren’t we, Mrs Collins and Mrs Hooper?’

‘Well, you might have been being silly, I’m not so sure about them,’ muttered Amy under her breath.

The theatre lights dimmed again. The Doctor made his way back to his seat. Amy still felt concerned about the two old ladies, but wasn’t sure what to do. She decided she would tell the Doctor all about it after the show.

The curtain rose for the second half. The Doctor didn’t talk over the magic this time. He seemed troubled.

Finally it was time for the big showpiece, Graveyard Ghosts. Mist swirled across the stage, which was now covered with gravestones and statues. Amy shivered to see one that looked like a stone angel. ‘Makes me think of you know what,’ she said to the Doctor under her breath.

Tall trees twisted at the sides of the stage. A girl poked her head out from behind a tree, then crept out to the middle of the stage. She was young and pretty and dressed in a Victorian-style white nightgown. Long, dark hair curled down her back. Suddenly a pale, bony hand thrust through the turf of a grave.

In the second row of the stalls, Mrs Collins and Mrs Hooper screamed and screamed and screamed.

Chapter Three

THE OLD LADIES wouldn’t stop screaming. The show kept going, but there were nervous looks from the people on stage.

Miss Leake was trying to get the two screaming women to be quiet. Rory went to join her, and helped lead Mrs Collins and Mrs Hooper up the centre aisle. Amy was going to help, but noticed that the Doctor was sitting still. His eyes hadn’t left the stage.

‘Shouldn’t we see what’s wrong?’ she asked.

He shook his head, although his eyes didn’t move. ‘Rory will cope. Rory will be perfect. I need to see this show. I need to see it right to the end.’

Amy was torn. Go with Rory or stay with the Doctor? She dithered for a second, then sat back down. The Doctor was right. Rory would be fine on his own. He was great with old people. It sounded like the real action would be here.

On stage, Sammy Star emerged from his grave, dressed as a skeletal monster. The mist cleared. The Doctor and Amy watched as the monster crept up behind the young girl.

She shrieked and tried to run, but sharp spikes shot through the stage floor in front of her. She backed away, but spikes sprang up behind. The ‘monster’ began to pluck apples from a twisted tree and throw them. They stuck, proving the sharpness of the spikes.

More and more spikes herded the girl towards the base of the tallest tree. She began to climb. The bark of the tree fell away, revealing a spiral walkway. Sammy Star scooped up an armful of daggers and moved underneath.

The girl was running now. Sammy Star thrust his daggers up through the walkway, each just missing the girl’s feet. Following her, behind and below, he rammed home dagger after dagger. The blades stuck there, pointing upwards, a dangerous, glittering path.

The girl reached the top of the walkway. There seemed to be no escape for her. Sammy Star was still climbing up behind, weaving his way through the dagger points. Below, the spikes gleamed.

Finally the girl could go no further. She turned round and there was the monster, facing her. He held up a hand and opened it to reveal an apple. The girl tried backing away, but there was nowhere to go. Sammy Star threw the apple...

The apple hit the girl. With a scream she toppled backwards, falling towards the spikes.

Amy gasped. Everyone in the audience gasped, except the Doctor.

The very instant the girl began to fall, there came a blinding flash of light from the stage.

Amy blinked her eyes. When her vision cleared, she could see that the girl had gone. In the centre of the spiral, amid the spikes, stood the angel statue.

The crowd began to applaud loudly. There were even some cheers and whistles.

Amy didn’t clap or cheer. Neither did the Doctor.

‘The angel moved...’ Amy whispered.

‘Oh yes,’ replied the Doctor grimly. ‘The angel moved.’

‘So it’s...’

‘It’s a Weeping Angel,’ said the Doctor. ‘A stone-cold killer. A lonely assassin.’

As the applause died away, the lights on the stage faded. There was only one spotlight, and it was on the Weeping Angel.

‘We have to keep looking at it...’ said Amy under her breath, scared. ‘If we stop looking at it, it’ll move. It’ll get more people.’

The curtain fell.

Amy jumped up, thankful she was in the front row. She ran to the stage and clambered onto it. The audience murmured, wondering if this was part of the act. She scrambled under the curtain.

Two men were carrying the Angel off stage. ‘Hey!’ Amy called after them.

‘Who are you?’ said a voice. Amy spun around. Sammy Star had come back onto the stage. He was no longer in his graveyard outfit and was now wearing a purple suit. ‘Look, I’ll sign your programme if you wait at the stage door, but get out of here now, OK? Time for me to take a bow.’

‘I’m not a fan!’ Amy told him. ‘I’m trying to save people’s lives! Do you know what that statue is?’

The Doctor pushed through the curtain. ‘Oh, I’m quite sure he doesn’t,’ he said. ‘He only knows what it can do. He’s just using it.’

Sammy Star stared at them for a moment. The look on his face scared Amy, it was so fierce.

‘No one is going to ruin this for me,’ he snarled. ‘No one. Do you hear me? This is my moment.’ He turned to the side of the stage and beckoned. Two burly men appeared. ‘Throw them out!’ he hissed. ‘Make sure they don’t set foot in this theatre again.’

‘Time to go!’ said the Doctor. He took Amy by the hand and pulled her to the edge of the stage. They ducked under the curtain, jumped down and ran up the centre aisle. The security men were close behind them.

As the audience began to applaud Sammy Star’s curtain call, the Doctor and Amy made it to the exit. They raced through the foyer, nearly knocking over a lady selling It’s Magic! T-shirts. ‘Oooh,’ said the Doctor, pausing for a second.

‘You don’t need another T-shirt!’ Amy yelled, dragging him to the doors.

The security men didn’t chase them once they were out of the theatre. They just stood in the doorway looking fierce.

‘Yeah, and stay out!’ the Doctor shouted at them, waving his fist in the air. ‘Oh, hang on, might not have got that quite right...’

The summer sun was low in the sky now. Amy and the Doctor walked to Trafalgar Square and sat at the base of Nelson’s Column.

‘Weeping Angels can send people back in time,’ Amy said to the Doctor. ‘So when the falling girl vanished, she must have been zapped into the past.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Oh yes, it’s all been very carefully planned. A Weeping Angel can’t move if anyone’s looking at it. The audience can see it the whole time. Even if they’re not looking straight at it, it’s in everyone’s field of vision. In the corner of their eye. Until the very end. The light flashing so brightly dazzles them all. The Angel is free and can move. The nearest target is the falling girl. It touches her and sends her into the past. Yum yum, nice bit of time energy for the Angel, and a nice trick for Sammy Star. All the people applaud.’

‘There’s one thing I don’t get, though,’ said Amy. ‘How does he bring her back? How does he do the trick night after night?’

The Doctor didn’t answer. He got up and walked over to a lamp post. A poster had been stuck to the black metal and he pulled it off. He came back and handed it to Amy without a word.