Clara yawned; another long day lay behind her. She, Psi and Saibra had all gone for a day out together, and the Doctor had tagged along. The day before, they had gone to Earth's parallel dimension to have a look around and had inevitably gotten separated. Now they were all back together and had decided to go out for coffee together on a dark chilly March evening.
They were heading back home in Psi's car, as they believed if they went in the TARDIS, something would go wrong.
Unfortunately for them, that's what was about to happen.
"Tired?" The Doctor asked Clara, who, sitting behind him, absent-mindedly stared out of the window.
"Of course…" Clara replied, yawning. She turned her head to the side to look across at Saibra, who was currently eating a sandwich. She was about to drift off to sleep, but she was awoken by Psi's voice speaking, suddenly:
"Well, I have to drive all the way back home, too, and drop Saibra off."
"You don't have to," Clara shrugged, "Why don't you just stay the night at mine? I've got two spare rooms, I don't mind."
Saibra smiled, clearly keen on the idea.
"That ain't a bad idea…" Psi agreed.
"That settles it, then!" Clara nodded, and then went back to staring out the window. She frowned when she thought she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye, but brushed it off as she was still tired and thought she might've imagined it. Maybe she shouldn't have been so certain…
Later that night, as she lay in bed, she cycled through her list of things she had to do every night. The door was locked, the windows were closed, all the lights were turned off and no electrical appliances were on. Everything should've been fine, and yet she still felt restless.
Closing her eyes, she attempted to fall asleep again, when she heard it: a quiet dripping noise coming from downstairs.
Frowning, Clara picked up her torch and tiptoed out into the hall. Trotting down the steps, she reached the living room door. It squeaked as she pushed it open, but over the creak, she heard a whoosh come from inside.
She shone her torch around the "empty" room that wasn't as empty as it should've been.. She saw, at the other side of the room, behind the armchair, a slightly darker patch of shadow. Shining her light over it, it seemed to move. She continued following it until it stopped beside the other armchair and two red lights flashed out of it at her.
The two crimson glows looked worryingly like eyes.
It flashed into Clara's mind that she knew exactly what these eyes belonged too, even though she had before believed that they were all gone...
She slowly closed the door and scrambled up the stairs in the dark, taking care not to wake Psi or Saibra.
She darted into her room, shut the door, turned on the lights, picked her phone up and, with shaking hands, dialled The Doctor's number.
She got a reply a few seconds later, hearing the TARDIS whirring in the background.
"Clara?" The Doctor's slightly confused voice answered, "Something wrong? You never ring up for anything."
"Doctor," Clara whispered, less-than-calmly, "The shadows, the shadows in Victorian London, Shadow and her children… they're back… and they're here…"