Prologue

You travel around the world and you think you've seen it all, London, Paris, Rome. Heck, maybe you've even been to the moon and you think that's all that's out there. I go through space every day. I've seen more than you could imagine. You're probably wondering how, you're probably wondering who I am. You'll find that out.

Chapter 1

It was a cold winter's day like any other. I got ready and bundled up to walk to school. No matter how much I begged my mom to drive me, she always claimed I needed my exercise and some fresh air. In other words, she wants me to freeze my ass off because she's too lazy to get out of bed.

I got to school right before the bell which was rare for me. I was basically running to class when I heard an awful noise. It sounded like a rat was stuck in a shower drain. I walked towards the noise. It led me to the front of the school where I found a blue English telephone booth. I was about to walk away slowly when a man popped through it.

"Hello!" he said like we were old friends bumping into each other on a bus.

I looked around expecting to see people staring at this guy just as blankly as I was, but when I turned around all I saw was an empty hallway.

"Where is everybody?" I asked backing up

"Home" he replied plainly

"But it's 8:00 a.m." I stated

"Its 4:26 p.m." he said looking at his watch. I noticed it was on backwards. I glanced at my own watch: 4:26 it was, 4:27, 4:28 the minutes were moving like the seconds should. What was going on here? Then it hit me, this was a dream.

"Pinch me" I demanded holding my arm out to this man

He did like I'd just asked him to scoot over on our theoretical bus.

"Ouch!" I screamed pulling my arm away. Alright, I thought, this isn't a dream.

"What's your name?" he asked

"Paige, what's yours?" I said

He stepped out of his box

"I'm The Doctor" he said holding out his hand.

What? Who names their kid The Doctor? Pushy parents trying to get their kids to take the job they could never get. I noticed I was standing there staring at him while he held his hand out waiting for me to shake it.

He must think I'm insane! I thought ...or maybe I am. He was still standing there, arm still outstretched, but I didn't want to shake his hand. I didn't have time for this, I needed to get home.

"I'm just gonna go" I said moving past him

"No!" he shouted holding out his arm in front of me

"Why?" I asked

"Because there's a reason you stayed"

"But why did they all leave?"

"Because it's 4:47, pay attention!"

"I know that, but how did they know it was time to go with the minutes moving so fast" I said gesturing towards my watch

"The question is why you didn't. See, to them this was a normal day, to you and I, the time is moving so very fast, they do not notice, they are part of it, they move with the time, their lives are on fast forward, but they don't notice"

"But why do we notice?"

"Well, I notice because... well, it's complicated and I don't know why you notice and that's why you have to come with me"

"No way, I'm not coming with you, I don't even know you!"

"Look, your in danger, and you just have to trust me," he paused for a second "but I understand if you want to go home"

I thought about my boring life, my boring family...

"Won't it just be more dangerous if I do come with you?"

"Look-"

"Yes or no?"

He sighed

"Yes"

"I'm in"

Chapter 2

"So why did you come here, out of all the places in the world that are probably experiencing this, why here?" I asked glancing around my much hated private school

"Because the problem is coming," he paused for a moment, licked his index finger, stuck it up in the air and span around on his heels once "from downstairs" he finished

"Downstairs?" I repeated but he was already heading towards the door leading to the basement.

I never thought much of the basement, no one ever went down. I'd assumed it was for storage, but The Doctor seemed to have another idea.

He was now standing before the door attempting to turn the doorknob.

"It's always locked" I told him, he didn't reply, instead he pulled out a little... device... thing out of his pocket

"What is that?" I asked him. It was glowing green and buzzing and he was pointing it towards the doorknob

"Sonic screwdriver" he stated holding it up. He shoved it back in his pocket and turned the doorknob.

I stood there with astonishment, how did that thing open the door? I had no time to question though, because The Doctor was already walking down the stairs.

I followed after him warily. I watched my step as I slowly walked down the spiral staircase. The door slammed behind us, I jumped and looked behind me, no one was there but the door was firmly closed.

I checked my watch: 5:00. There's no turning back now I thought as I continued down the stairs.

I started to fear what we would see down there. Would it eat me? Kidnap me? Before I could finish my thoughts, we were at the bottom.

I looked around the basement. There were leaking pipes, old, rusty tools and a single hard hat, but no monsters, no eating kidnapping monsters, yet...

I followed The Doctor around the corner. I didn't like the feeling of my back to a dangerous room. I felt like I was constantly being watched by something.

We turned the corner to find a shed. It looked quite out of place in this old basement as it was not raggedy and worn, but brand new. The Doctor approached it and opened the door. To my surprise it was open. Maybe it's a trap I thought but I didn't have time to say it before The Doctor was in.

He held the door opened for me as we walked in. He didn't seem scared, he almost seemed exited, but my thoughts were soon distracted by what lay before us in the shed.

At first I didn't believe it, it wasn't possible, but there it was. My living room, an exact replica, the only difference was that everything was backwards. My couch was on the opposite side of the room, as was all the rest of the furniture that was originally on the other side. The paintings, my dad's sculpture, the bookshelf, it was all reversed. Even my fish bowl was there reversed of course, but it was empty. It was the only difference, besides the reverse thing, that I'd seen in the whole room.

I looked towards The Doctor, he was lifting up things looking on the bottom of them and scanning them with his "sonic screwdriver" I supposed he was trying to figure something out.

I looked back at the fishbowl, it was still empty. I walked towards it and pressed my nose up against the glass. For a second, all I saw was the waters of an empty fishbowl but then, out of nowhere this face popped up. This alien face, staring me strait in the eyes.

I jumped back and screamed.

"What? What happened?" asked The Doctor, tentatively

"There, there was a face!" I explained pointing towards the fishbowl

The Doctor looked in the bowl himself. Though, he did not jump back, he simply examined the creature with great interest

"Oh, hello...yes you are quite beautiful...but what do you want?" he said

I stood there in shock, I admit if you weren't terrified and you saw that thing, it would be kind of beautiful, its green scales glimmering in the light, but I couldn't believe The Doctor could talk to it and look at it with such calmness.

He stepped back.

"What is it?" I asked

"It's an alien from the planet Phylum, I don't know what it's doing here, though... do you know what all this is?" he asked

"It's my living room, but everything's backwards" I explained

"Yes, yes that makes sense..."

"How on earth does that make sense?"

"Because their using you to see, hear be...human"

"But why, why would they want to be human?"

"Because their species does that, they take form of other species"

"Why?"

"To get what they want"

Chapter 3

"So they observe humans, imitate them and then trick people into trusting them?" I asked

"Yes" he replied, I could tell I only had half of his attention. He was scanning the fishbowl with his "sonic screwdriver" and kept flipping it up. Over and over again he did the exact same thing and expected different results. Isn't that the very definition of insanity?

I leaned against the wall and watched as he stood up and walked into my kitchen on the other side of the room. We had knocked down the wall separating the kitchen from the living room a couple years back, my mom had said it would be lovely but my dad hated it since the moment it was suggested.

I stayed leaning against this wall staring as he opened my fridge and pulled out leftover chicken from last night. He turned and kneeled down to open a drawer. He pulled out a clear bowl and a wooden spoon.

He placed the bowl on the counter and placed the chicken in it. He mashed up the chicken with the spoon and then picked up the bowl.

He walked over towards me again and poured all the mashed up chicken into the fishbowl.

Homemade fish food? I thought.

He stood back and waited. Soon enough the creature came and picked at the food.

The Doctor put his hands in the bowl and scooped up the creature. It was about the same size as a toad and it wasn't very happy.

"I come in peace, I simply want to know what you want" said The Doctor

I was surprised when the creature replied

"We want her" he said looking towards me. I froze. "And we will get her" he continued.

I felt something on my arm. I tried to scream for The Doctor, but before I knew it, the world faded away and everything turned black.

Chapter 4

I woke up in an odd room. All the walls were silver. Everything looked very robotic.

I was lying down in an uncomfortable bed; well it was really more of a table than a bed but still.

I tried to sit up but every muscle in my body ached, so I stayed down.

It took me a minute to remember everything that had happened, The Doctor, the creature, my reversed living room, the time; it was all coming back to me in random order.

There was a noise at the door. I turned my head to see who was there. A giant robot marched in. I closed my eyes so that he would think I was still unconscious, maybe that way he wouldn't hurt me. As I closed my eyes, an image popped up in my head of his hand grabbing my arm. I shook my head to get the image out. All this turning and shaking was killing my neck, but I didn't care, I had more important things to worry about- like getting out of here.

When I opened my eyes again, the robot was gone. I looked around the room again, this time I noticed something very odd. This was my room, everything was silver but this was my room. My bed, my posters and this table I was lying on, was my coffee table.

I remembered how the fishbowl in my reversed living room was the only difference I noticed. I searched for that difference, but found nothing.

I sighed and looked at my old dollhouse. I had so many fond memories of that thing. As I looked at it, I noticed something very odd. This dollhouse was an exact replica of my house.

Despite the pain in my body, I managed to get up and walk over to it. Every detail of my house was there. Beside the fishbowl in my living room, there was a bowl with specks of mashed up leftover chicken. I realized that that is where The Doctor and I were before.

Before I could figure anything else out, I heard the horrible buzzing noise that The Doctor's sonic screwdriver made.

A huge eye peeked in my window. I froze with fear.

"It's alright" a familiar voice said "It's me"

It was The Doctor; I was surprised by how relieved I was to see him. I was even more surprised by my reaction

"Doctor!" I screamed as I ran up to him. I tried to hug him but a clear wall formed before me

"Force field" said the doctor

"Right..." I said

"I don't know what's going on or why you're so tiny, but I'll find out, just hang in there!" said The Doctor

"Tiny?" I repeated. Then it hit me "I'm in your dollhouse!" I exclaimed

"Yeah" said The Doctor

"I have a dollhouse too, and there's that mashed up chicken you made beside the fishbowl in the living room, so that's where we used to be." I explained

"I'd kiss you on the forehead right now if it weren't for this stupid force field" he said. I laughed

"So what exactly is going on now?" I asked

"Well I don't know all the details but here's what I do know, we are in different dimensions of your house and we have to get in the same dimension, or we'll lose each other forever and the cybermen are messing up the time because the cybermen always do that"

"So how do we get in the same dimension?"

"Well if I knew, I'd tell you!"

"And you're finding out?"

"Well, I'm," he stopped talking and stared at something behind me. I turned my head to see a robot, or cyberman, standing before me

"Doctor?" I cried, but it was too late, once again, I felt something on my arm, the world faded away and everything turned black.

Chapter 5

I woke up yet again in a strange room. The furniture was on the ceiling and I was lying on the floor. At first, I thought all the furniture would fall down on me, but after a brief moment of panic, I realized that everything was staying firmly on the ceiling. I looked around me to find that I was on the ceiling, but because it was upside down, it was the surface that I was lying on.

I got up. I looked down at my school uniform, it was torn and wrinkled. I attempted to figure out which room of my house I was in.

This was not a room in my house though, this was my homeroom class. The people were gone, but the desks and chairs still remained.

There was something written on the blackboard. I would have expected it to be written upside down, but it was not, which made it easy to read the message:DON'T BLINKit read. I wondered what it was talking about when I felt the same feeling I had earlier felt in the basement of my school, the feeling of being watched.

I turned around to find that on the other side of the room was a stone statue of an angel. It was hiding its face in its hands. I almost felt bad for it, but then, literally in the blink of an eye, it removed it face from its hands.

I stepped back and blinked again. Its hands where now at its sides and it was staring right at me. I realized that this was what the message on the blackboard had meant-for every time I would blink it would be a step closer to killing me. I wasn't going to let that happen though.

I looked straight at this angel, its eyes had no pupils and no color and I stayed staring at them until The Doctor walked in the door.

"Doctor!" I screamed keeping my eyes on the angel

"Paige, listen to me, don't blink and whatever you do, don't look into its eyes" he said

Well he could have told me that earlier

"What happens if I looked in its eyes?" I asked but I was already finding out. I noticed that I couldn't move my foot. I looked down to see that my foot had turned to stone; I was turning into an angel.

"Doctor," I whispered through tears

"Paige, it's alright you're not one of them"

"But I will be!"

"No, you won't, nothing is happening, your foot is made of human flesh, do you understand me?"

I nodded

"Now look at your foot" he said. I did so and found that it was, very well, made of human flesh

I looked behind him, expecting to see an angel, but the angel was gone.

"Where did it go?" I asked The Doctor

"It's gone, it was never here, it's not real" he said

"Of course it is, it was right there"

"No it wasn't it was never real, none of this is real"

"Of course it," I was cut off by a word coming from the hall, a single word

"Exterminate" a voice said

A huge... thing popped through the door

"What is that" I asked The Doctor. It had two arms, one was a whisk and the other was a plunger. It had something sticking out of its head and it was blue

"A dalek" he said

"Right..."

"Exterminate!" the thing repeated

"But it's not real" The Doctor said

"Yes it is!" I was starting to get frustrated with him

"No, none of this is real, Paige, it was never real, I'm not real, all the monsters aren't real, you're dreaming"

"What?"

"You fell asleep in class" he said

"You're sleeping in class" he said

"You're sleeping in class" he repeated

"You're sleeping in class" he said one last time and then before I knew it, I felt something on my arm, the world faded away and everything went black.

Chapter 6

"You're sleeping in class" I heard my best friend say. I opened my eyes and found that I was in my homeroom class. Everything was where it should have been and I saw my best friends hand on my arm.

A lot of people would probably be relieved by this, but I was as disappointed as a little kid on Christmas morning finding coal in their stocking.

"No" I whispered to myself

I got up, took the hall pass and ran to the bathroom. When I got there I locked myself in a stall and cried.

Then I heard a wonderful noise. It sounded like a rat stuck in a shower drain. I followed it and it led me to the front of the school where I found a blue English telephone booth

The Doctor popped out in no time. He was wearing the same hard hat I had noticed earlier in the basement.

"Hello again, Paige" he said. I ran up to him and hugged him.

"I was just travelling through time and space when I found myself in this neighbourhood, I thought I'd stop by" he said

"What happened with the different dimensions and blah, blah, blah and all the, this isn't real?"

"I had to make you believe that so we could get out of there, because they were in your head so if you didn't believe in the people in your head then they wouldn't exist" he explained

"But what about now?" I asked

"Oh, their long gone now, they've moved on to another species"

"Huh,"

"Well, I should really get going now; I've got all of time and space waiting for me"

"Can I come with you?"

"I thought you'd never ask"

We entered the box together; as I walked in I realized that it was huge

"Yes, the TARDIS is bigger on the inside" said The Doctor

"Wow" I said. The Doctor smiled. He went to the middle of the TARDIS where all the controls were and pressed a bunch of random buttons

"Oh, and Doctor," I started "What's with the hat?"

"It's a hard hat," he said as we took off, "hard hats are cool"