Chapter 1
"Still not working?" Clara asked, wandering into the control room with her blanket draped round her shoulders and a tired look on her face.
The Doctor had been up all night, tirelessly trying to fix a problem with the TARDIS' taking-off system.
"No…" He sighed, wiping his brow with his sleeve and laying down a tool of some description.
"Where have we landed, anyhow?" Clara asked.
"I don't know, you'll have to take a look…" The Doctor smiled at her, then nodded toward the door.
Clara slowly and carefully pushed it open and looked out…
Houses. Dark. Night.
It was… a street. A poor street…. In London: Victorian London.
"I think the TARDIS has a thing for Victorian London…" She mumbled.
The Doctor stood beside her and opened the door wider,
"We do seem to be here a lot…" He agreed.
"Hey, maybe we can find Madame Vastra and Jenny…"
"That's a point, maybe they'll let us stop with them for a while. I'd better put the TARDIS on invisibility so no-one attempts to ring the police, though…" The Doctor said, pressing a button on the sonic screwdriver, "Let's go."
They stepped from the TARDIS and took in a breath of fresh air. Ok, maybe not that fresh… they coughed.
"Now, if I'm correct, it's this way…" The Doctor said to himself as he spun around and headed down one of the back alley streets.
Clara followed closely behind.
They headed slowly down the slum streets and passed sleeping paupers lining the alleys.
It was… rather depressing, in Clara's opinion.
As they stepped onto one of the main streets, a black mist flew past them and a muffled scream was heard behind them.
The Doctor turned to his companion,
"We should probably sort that out first…"
"What could it be?" Clara whispered.
"Anything," The Doctor replied, "How should I know?"
"Jack the Ripper?"
"No, that problem was solved a long time ago."
"What happened to him?"
"Vastra ate him."
Clara's face fell,
"Wow," she said, quietly, "I would never have guessed-"
"No you wouldn't, would you, so now come on we need to find it, whatever itis."
And the mist passed them again. It wasn't a mist as much a blur. Definitely something living.
Another muffled scream sounded and The Doctor and Clara were silent.
"This way," the Time Lord whispered, turning left with his companion in tow.
The shadowy blur was quick and they were only just able to keep it within view running from lane to lane.
Soon, unsurprisingly, they lost sight of the blur and stumbled out onto Paternoster lane, where Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax's (A.K.A the Paternoster gang, believe it or not) stately home was set.
As they were catching their breath, little did they know that the shadow was close behind, waiting for a time to strike.
Clara yelped as she felt something cold drive into her back.
Couldn't have been a knife, it wasn't that sharp, but she didn't particularly care, all she cared about was getting her breath back and trying not to choke on air.
The Doctor turned, sharply, to her. He turned backwards and caught a glimpse of the shadow crawling off into the back alley streets again.
Clara fell onto The Doctor and choked on her own breath, the coldness was gone, though, she noticed.
"That was not OK," she gasped.
The Doctor said nothing. He didn't know exactly what was going on but he could guess that whatever it was wasn't coming nicely.
"Inside ASAP," He whispered, leading his companion by the small of her back.
Strax came to the door, a napkin draped over his arm.
"Ah, Doctor," He welcomed, still straight faced, "Just like you to turn up with all these strange goings-on."
"Strange goings-on?" Clara put in, "What do you mean?"
"Surely you've heard of all the deaths?" the Sontaran butler asked.
Both Doctor and companion shook their heads.
Strax said nothing, just opened the door wider and ushered them inside.