CHAPTER ONE — RUNNING FROM PLASTIC
juniper and rose — part one

"Rose, I have a bad feeling about this." — juniper holloway

JUNIPER HOLLOWAY SMILED AS SHE TUCKED A PIECE OF HER SOFT BLONDE HAIR BEHIND HER EAR AND QUICKLY NOTED DOWN THE INTAKE FROM THE DAY'S SALES. She had always been a bright girl, she could calculate large sums in her head and retain information much longer than anyone else in her class. Her teachers would constantly praise her work and encourage her to aspire for higher goals, but Juniper was never interested in that, she just wanted a quiet, comfortable life not one full of stress and unmet deadlines.

Henrik's Department Store was her life, most of her friends would call her sad when she told them this, but they didn't understand how much this place meant to her. Before Juniper Holloway, it was a mess, any employee would verify that, but she turned it around. Juniper turned a store that they used to call 'worthless', 'a disgrace' or 'beyond hope' into a place of happiness and laughter. She loved the store like a mother would a child and would always go out of her way to make sure all the employees were happy with their jobs which is how she met her best friend — Rose Tyler.

It was closing time in the store and by now most of the employees had gone home except from Juniper and Rose who were staying behind to help clear things up after another busy day. Afterwards, when the two girls were about to walk out of the door, they were stopped by a security guard who handed Rose the lottery money she needed to give to Wilson. The teen hit her palm against her forehead in embarrassment. "I can't believe I forgot." She grumbled, looking down at the money now in her hand.

Juniper chuckled and turned to her friend with her signature friendly smile. "It's fine. Everyone forgets something now and then. This morning, I forgot that my house keys were still in the door and I had to rush back and get them." She reassured Rose who smiled gratefully in response. "I'll tell you what, I'll come with you and after we can go and pick up some ice cream on the way home."

"Sounds like a plan." Rose cheerfully said as they headed towards lift to take them down to the basement.

THE BASEMENT HAD NEVER BEEN JUNIPER'S FAVOURITE PART OF THE STORE, BUT THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT IT THAT DIDN'T FEEL RIGHT AS THE TWO BLONDES MADE THEIR WAY DOWN THE CORRIDOR. It was making Juniper uneasy and her hand had a slight tremor in it so she clutched the strap of her bag tighter in an attempt to stop the shaking, it worked, to some extent.

"Rose, I have a bad feeling about this." Admitted Juniper as the eerie atmosphere just got worse. She couldn't help but feel as if they were being watched and she quickly turned around to find... nothing. There was nothing there. Well, nothing except the occasional stationary mannequins and rail of clothes .

Seeing her friend's state of fear, Rose placed a calming hand on her shoulder which seemed to have done the trick.

"June, everything's okay." It was Rose's turn to give the reassurance that time. Juniper inhaled deeply to try and tranquilize the panic she was feeling for a reason she didn't know. "Wilson?" Rose called out as she made her way towards the door to his office. "Wilson. We've got the lottery money." Juniper rapped her knuckles against the door but there was no answer. "Wilson. You there?"

The wavy haired blonde tried the door but was surprised to find it locked. She tried knocking again. "Wilson, are you in there? It's Juniper. Me and Rose can't stay long because they're about to lock up for the night." She spoke to the door, but like before, there was no answer. Now she really was getting worried.

"Wilson?" Getting tired of the lack of a reply, Rose sighed heavily. "Oh come on."

After a quick moment of debate, the twenty-six-year-old brought out her spare keys making Rose look at her with a raised eyebrow. "What?" Juniper questioned, looking between Rose and the door. "He could be in trouble, we have to know if he's okay. We could always break down the door, but I don't want to add it to my list of things to do, not to mention the trouble we'd both be in."

Just as she was about to place her key in the lock, there was a loud bang further down the corridor. Both girls turned to look. "Hello?" Rose and Juniper called out.

The manager faced her friend. "What do you think that was?" She asked both curiously and anxiously, taking a step forwards in the direction of the sound.

Rose shrugged cluelessly. "I have no idea, maybe it's Wilson." She suggested. It didn't matter what part of her wished it was in fact their colleague, the chill that was travelling up her spine was telling her it was someone or something else entirely. "Hello? Wilson, it's Rose and Juniper."

Juniper placed her arm in front of Rose protectively as they cautiously advanced down the corridor. She had to admit, she was curious as to what the source of bang was, but at the same time she had this terrible nagging feeling telling her that she was in danger, that she had to get Rose out of there. But her curiosity was too strong to ignore and she ended up walking side by side with her best friend who kept calling out for their missing colleague.

The blonde duo opened a set of doors and entered the main storage room for their spare mannequins. Juniper's hand instinctively went up to grasp her locket, a good luck charm of sorts, because the pieces of plastic were giving her the creeps and she just knew they were going to need all the luck they could get. Rose managed to find the light switch and flicked it and Juniper watched as they turned on one after the other. "Wilson!" Shouted Rose, her patience growing thin as her anxiety grew.

They kept going until they found another set of doors, but they were also locked.

At another loud bang, they both spun around to see that the doors they had come through just seconds before had been slammed shut. Juniper and Rose exchanged a look of fear and shock before they ran over to find that they had somehow locked themselves. What on Earth was going on?

"Impossible." Juniper muttered in disbelief, her hands still tugging on the unmoving handles but with no success. The friends jumped at yet another loud bang.

Rose swivelled on the spot so she was staring down the mannequin lined corridor. "Is that someone mucking about?" She inquired, her voice trembling ever so slightly, evidence of how afraid she was. As she began to walk forwards, Juniper grabbed her wrist and then the two of them continued through the poorly lit basement.

After all of this is over, we need to relight this place, Juniper thought, the areas of darkness not helping with their panic.

"Who is it?"

There was a weird creaking noise behind them so the girls whipped around to see a mannequin head staring at them, but then... it moved.

Creaking as it went, the mannequin advanced towards them. Rose and Juniper took steps backwards as the latter stared at it with wide eyes, unable to comprehend what was in front of them. "What on Earth?" She whispered, and as soon as the words came out of her mouth, she knew her mistake. If this was in fact real and not a cruel prank, then this creature was certainly not from Earth.

A sudden jolt of pain rushed through her skull resulting in her grip on Rose to tighten and would probably leave a bruise on the teen's arm. Rose, unlike Juniper, was trying to convince herself that it was in fact a joke. "Ok. You got me. Very funny." She told the plastic sarcastically, giving it one of Rose Tyler's signature glares. Juniper's heartbeat continued to increase the moment she noticed that it wasn't just the single mannequin that was 'alive', there were others and they were all advancing towards them. The girls continued to back up. "Right, we've got the joke! Whose idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it?"

Juniper shook her head, her eyes never leaving the rising number of moving mannequins. "Rose, I don't think this is Derek." She told her friend as they kept retreating, tripping over boxes and other random objects in the process until their backs hit a wall. The elder of the two placed herself in front of Rose because if those strange plastic people thought they were going to take them without a fight, they had another thing coming.

But just as they raised their hands ready to strike, another stab of pain shot through her skull at the same as a hand grabbed her wrist and she looked to see a peculiar big eared man with leather jacket and a kind smile on his face who was holding Rose's wrist in his other hand. "Run!" He told them and that was exactly what they did.

The stranger dragged both Juniper and Rose along with him as he ran down the corridor with the plastics hot on their tail. His hands slipped from their wrists until he met theirs and held them tight as they continued to flee from the angry mannequin mob. Another jolt of pain went through her skull, she was at three now and it was starting to make her nauseous. The two blondes and their mysterious saviour hurried towards the lift and dashed inside.

The man in the leather jacket was the last inside after making sure that both girls were safely in the lift. He quickly pressed the button but before the doors could close completely, a dummie placed his arm between the closing doors in an attempt to keep them open. Luckily, the mysterious hero grabbed it and even though it looked like it was trying to strangle him, he managed to rip it off so the doors could close.

Juniper and Rose looked at it in shock. "You pulled his arm off!" Rose exclaimed, trying to make sense of what happened.

"Yep, plastic." The man replied a little too calmly before throwing the arm at Rose who fumbled with it before gripping it tightly with both hands. Befuddled, Juniper raised her eyebrow at the stranger, he was acting so casually after what had just happened as if he had done it a million times.

Rose scoffed lightly at the arm. "Very clever, nice trick. Who are they, students? A student thing or what?" Rose queried the man who just stood there with his arms crossed as if nothing had happened. Juniper couldn't help but notice his eyes; they appeared to be normal, but she could see the age in them, the pain that he was trying to hide behind a smile.

The man turned back to face her. "Why would they be students?" He asked curiously.

Rose shrugged. "I don't know."

"You said it. Why students?"

A heavy and pain-filled sigh escaped Juniper's lips as she rested her aching forehead against the cool metal walls. The mystery man gave her a concerned look at the sound of her discomfort and was even more worried when he noticed she had no physical injuries that would explain such pain. Rose turned to her friend with worry etched onto her face before turning back to the man. "Cos... that many people dressed up and being silly has to be students." She rationalised.

He gave Rose a wide smile and Juniper couldn't help but think it was sarcastic. "That makes sense. Well done." He praised her.

"Thanks."

"They're not students." And there it was. Juniper's mind started to ache again, the pain increasing as she started to think. If they weren't students then who were they? Or what were they? Every time she attempted to think about it, strange plastic creatures, the possibility of aliens, her mind began hurting, it was as if her own head was warning to stay away.

Rose sighed exasperatedly. "Well whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's gonna call the police." She told him and at the unfamiliar name, the man turned to her.

"Who's Wilson?" He inquired, looking between the girls. Juniper was looking slightly better, he noticed, well it was true, she felt better as well because her headaches had currently ceased.

Juniper used a hand to try and straighten up her blouse that had gotten creased in all the running as she replied. "He's the Chief Electrician."

"Wilson's dead."

Disbelief and shock washed over the girls at the news and Juniper raised her hand, placing it over her mouth as tears threatened to spill from her hazel eyes. She cared for everyone at the store, and even though Wilson could be a pain sometimes, that included him too.

When the lift came to a stop, the man immediately got out and went straight for the button panel. "That's not funny." Rose informed him after noticing the sorrowful expression on her friend's face. If the strange man was joking about Wilson, she was definitely going to hit him for making her friend feel so sad for no reason. "That's sick!"

The man placed a hand on each of their shoulders, moving them away from the panel so they couldn't see what he was doing. Juniper managed to catch the small blue light and the light buzzing noise the device in his hand made, but couldn't tell what it was. "Mind your eyes."

By now, even Juniper had had enough of not getting the truth from this stranger who seemed to know everything that was going on in the basement of her store. So, she was damn well pissed off. Looking at the man with a curious and slightly angry glare that she could tell frightened him a bit, she asked. "Who are you?" Juniper gestured to him before moving her hand to point to the lift next to them. "Who are they? And what is going on?" The man ignored her questions and continued on.

Rose huffed in irritation and shouted after the man. "She said 'Who are they?'!"

"They're living plastic creatures." Finally an answer, even if it was a bit obvious, but he didn't stop there. "They're being controlled by a relay device from the roof, which would be a great big problem IF I didn't have this." He came to a stop to show them a bomb which he had pulled out of his jacket. Juniper's eyes widened with fear. It had been in his pocket the whole time? What if it had gone off? "So I'm gonna go upstairs and blow it up." Both her and Rose followed him as he made his way to the fire escape door and turned back to face them. "I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No." He ushered them out of the door. "You two go home. Go have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this. If you do, you'll get them killed." The man closed the door, leaving the two friends standing out in the street, completely confused. When they heard it open again, they spun around to see him looking at them. "I'm the Doctor, what are your names?"

"Rose." The blonde girl replied, still slightly in shock over what had just happened.

Then, the man turned to look at the hazel eyed girl whose head still throbbed. "Juniper."

He grinned like a mad man. "Nice to meet you both." He waved the bomb around as if it were nothing. "Run for your lives!"

The girls exchanged a frightened look before running for their lives just as the man had suggested. Rose was too busy fleeing that she didn't even realise that she was still holding the plastic arm. People gave them strange looks as they passed, but the girls didn't care in the slightest. They were almost hit by a Taxi whilst crossing the road, but after experiencing what they had just gone through, you would be distracted, wouldn't you?

After safely making it to the other side of the street, they both sighed in relief. But it was short lived when a sudden loud explosion caused them to turn back to see the roof of Henrik's Department store ablaze. It made Juniper's heart ache, she had worked on improving her store for so long and now it was in flames. Rose grabbed one of her hands as the other reached up to clutch her locket. It was a strange feeling, but the weird living plastic, unexplainable things and even the name 'The Doctor' were somewhat familiar but she couldn't figure out why. At least she'll have a lot of time to think about it whilst job hunting, which because of the evening's peculiar events, was exactly what she was going to do.

Hi there! Soo here is chapter one of Until the Stars Burn and Juniper and Rose have been introduced to the Doctor.

Juniper's mind is betraying her, it's trying to block out anything alien related because it thinks it's protecting her. Her parents could never have know that the transformation wouldn't go to plan and it's causing horrible headaches.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely, Rosie aka Winter326