Nicole, who was spending her vacation at her parents' house, woke up at 5:00 a.m. to go on a walk to see the sunrise. She did not sleep well last night due to strange noises she heard outside her bedroom window. It had been a week since she last saw the Doctor and wondered if he would come back. After she shut the front door behind her, she turned around and stopped in her tracks. At the end of her parents' driveway was the Doctor kneeling on the front lawn looking down a massive hole beside a tree. Nicole walked up to him and cheerily said, "Good morning Doctor!"
The Doctor stood, turned around, and exclaimed with eyes sparkling, "Good morning Nicole!" He gave her a quick hug and stated, "I was coming to get you, but I was getting these strange readings on my sonic screwdriver and it led me to this mysterious hole in your lawn. So, this must be your house."
"It's my parents' place. I took time off after helping the police in Toronto solve the Adversus Monstrum case, thanks to you. I will head back to Kingston next week." She redirected her attention back to the hole. "How did that hole get here? It wasn't there yesterday evening."
"From the readings on my sonic screwdriver, it is a portal to another world that shouldn't have opened. Something or someone very powerful created this hole."
Suddenly, this grey, furless, mole like creature popped out of the hole. The creature stood on its hind legs and was about four feet tall. To Nicole, this creature looked like a giant version of a naked mole rat. It looked at them with a curious expression and asked, "Have you seen where my friends are? They came up this hole and disappeared."
"No, I haven't," said the Doctor with a look of concern, "Have you, Nicole?"
"No, but I did here some squeaking in the night. I thought it may have been racoons."
The mole like creature asked, "Were they making a sound like this? Chickory-squee, Chickory-squee."
"Yes, that was the sound I heard last night in my backyard."
"What is your name, and where are you from?" inquired the Doctor.
"My name is Squeaks, and I am from an underground world called Paraiso. However, it is not the same world it used to be. My world used to be a peaceful place where our species the Chicories were free." Then, Squeaks put his paws on his forehead and yelled out in pain while crying out, "Help me before it takes over my mind!"
"Doctor, do something!" Nicole exclaimed while Squeaks was still yelling in pain. The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at Squeaks' head for a few seconds. The Doctor's face turned into a look of disappointment and sadness while saying, "It is too late. Whatever this is, it now has complete control over Squeak's mind."
Nicole looked at Squeak's face and saw that his green eyes had a hazy look. She tried waving her hand in front of his face, but he did not move. "It is like he is under a spell." All of a sudden, Squeaks turned around and jumped down the hole followed by two other mole rats that came out of a backyard of a neighbour's house.
The Doctor and Nicole knelt down on the grass and looked down the hole. "I am afraid I won't be able to give you a ride in the TARDIS today."
"That is okay. It looks like Squeaks needs our help. Although, don't you get this feeling that there is something evil when you look down this hole?"
"Yes, I do. It reminds me of an adventure I went on with somebody in the past where I looked down a hole and felt it was forbidden to enter. However, it did not stop me from exploring." The Doctor's face had a sad look as if he remembered someone he lost, but the look disappeared in a second. "Are you ready to jump down this hole?" asked the Doctor. Nicole froze in fear, but he reassured her by saying, "Don't worry, the evil I sense is not as great as to what I faced in the past."
She gave a sigh of relief and said, "Whatever it takes to save the Chicories. How are we going to get down there since we have no clue how deep the hole is?"
"We will slide down," said the Doctor smiling. They sat down by the edge of the hole, pushed off with their hands, and plunged into darkness.