"Ok! First things first. What exactly did these creatures look like?" The Doctor said spinning around to face the her servant once again.
"They looked...like...nothing! Sir I have never seen the likes of these creatures."
"Nothing what do you mean nothing? More importantly, what's you name. I need to know names. Names are good." She was beginning to notice he could go off topic very quickly. But he had never asked for HER name. Such a peculiar man not properly introduicing himself to a lady.
"James, sir." James looked positively shaken.
"Sir, I don't like sir. I'm the Doctor, call me that." He once again fished into his jacket for the strange light stick. "Now, explain how exactly these creatures can look like nothing. That's very interesting. I like interesting." James gulped.
"Well, they were faceless creatures. They stood like men but they looked as though they had been picked clean of any human qualities by death himself. And they were...dripping."
"Dripping? Dripping what?" The Doctor had that near terrifying gleam in his eyes once more. It was almost as if he enjoyed the terror.
"I-I don't know si-Doctor. It looked like liquid but it didn't quite fall like liquid. Almost like...paint actually. They were covered in it. It was like it was oozing from their very...well I don't know what." The Doctor smiled.
"Ah very good James. You're very helpful! Now where exactly can I find these creatures?"
"Doctor, to go looking for trouble, would make you something of a madman." She interjected.
"Of course it would! And why shouldn't it?" He said smiling. "James, if you'll show me to these terrifying beasties, and come along..." He stopped. "You. What's your name?"
"Fine time for you to ask, Doctor." She gave him a stern look, trying to scold him. "Andromeda. Of the house of Kinlans."
"Andromeda?" He said almost with an aura of curious pleasure.
"Yes. And you may adress me thusly."
"Right then! Come along. We've got monsters to catch!" He nearly skipped out of the room. Andromeda stood only for a moment more, contemplating whether or not she should follow this stranger. This man was more different to her than any other man she'd ever known. All her natural instinct said she should stay away. Of course, her curious mind would have none of that. And he knew of the whole Universe! It couldn't be possible! But who was she to decline such a tempting offer? Though he seemed eager to confront trouble, he did not himself seem dangeous. His eyes seemed to say something more. An age old story of wonder... She did not believe he would hurt her in any way. She turned to James.
"Come along then. Lead the Doctor where he needs to go and do exactly as he says. That is a direct order." James pulled a hankercheif out of his jacket pocket and wiped his brow nervously.
"Whatever mistress wishes." They quickly followed the Doctor down the hallway towards sounds of chaos.
Something was wrong in this house. Something extremely very wrong indeed... The Doctor scanned each and every inch of the walls looking for something out of the ordinary. Everything looked hopelessly normal. If it weren't for the screams of terror, he'd have thought that nothing was wrong at all.
"James. Where exactly did these creatures first appear?" James quickned his pace to keep up with the Doctor.
"They appeared in the grand hall. They appeared from nowhere really! They were just there. As if they'd crept up silently."
"Good. Andromeda!" He said startling her. "Is there anything about the grand hall that seemed peculiar to you? And not just now, I mean ever. Can you think of anything?"
"No Doctor. It is just as it always has been." She replied. He frowned.
"Well they can't actually have come from nowhere! Think! What's in that room?"
"Almost nothing! It is a room we use only to entertain. My mother does like to display her art some-"
"No no no! That's not helping at all. Sorry, I'm being rude. But it really isn't helpful at all." She glared at him as he ran his hands through his hair in an extremely frustrated manner. He clearly wasn't brought up in a moral household. He had no sense of proper or improper. Or was it just that he didn't know when he was being informal with her?
Suddenly they were hit with a soundwave of chaos. There were people pushing furiously past them in a mad escape from the hall.
"Tell me again why you weren't attending this party of yours?" The Doctor said skeptically.
"My mother insisted that I find a suitor. I told her that I would rather be strung up by the neck for all the town of London to see. She then sent me to my room as punishment." The Doctor smiled.
"Well mother does know best." She smiled back. "Although, such fuss over getting married?" He laughed. "You remind me of a friend of mine. She actually ran away with me on the night of her wedding. Not to worry though. Everything worked out between them." He paused when the great hall was in full view.
"Doctor...you don't think somethings happened to her do you?" He held out his hand to her. She stared at it as if it might bite her but finally let her own grasp onto his.
"Only one way to find out."
They meandered their way through the terrified people as they rushed into the hall, James trailing behind them.
"Mother!" Andromeda called out. She looked around the room frantically, her grip on the Doctor's hand growing tighter with fear.
"Andromeda!" She whipped her head towards the sound. Her mother was backed against one of the walls by a strange almost formless creature.
"Look! There's one now!" James cried out pointing in the direction of her mother.
"Doctor what do we do?" Andromeda pleaded. He wasn't paying attention to her though. Instead he was heading right towards the thing that was threatenig her mother's life.
"Oh you. You are beautiful!" He said walking straight up to the thing. It turned to face him. Andrameda's breath caught in her throat.
It had no eyes...none at all. Its face was elongatet like the skull of some strange animal. It had slits in its face for which to breathe from. But most terrifying was its teeth. There were about three rows of them. Long, thin, and ferocious. It's tounge flicked out between them...it was horribly snake-like.
"Doctor...what is it?" She whispered, hesitantly joining at his side. He smiled widely.
"An Atomorph. Terrible creatures indeed. But how? How did you get here?" He said adressing the Atomorph. "What purpose do you have terrorizing all these innocent humans?" The Atomorph shifted its body so that it now faced the Doctor head on. It spoke in a deep raspy voice that brought chills to her spine.
"We seek the power. The power is all that can stop it." Its tounge lashed out reaching nearly inches from the Doctor's face.
"Stop it? Stop what? What power?" Andromeda latched her hands around the Doctor's arms. Such confidence in the face of terror...how could anyone have so much bravery?
"The destruction of the Universe. Surely you have been told of the prophecy, Gallifrey man."
"Who told you this? And what sort of power do you think you'll find here? I think you may be a few centuries early. These people are highly unadvanced...no offense." He added throwing a sheepish look towards Andromeda.
"Time will collapse at the heart of the Universe."
"Time will-what does that mean?"
"Doctor!" James called out to him. "Just there! They come from the paintings!" The Doctor turned to stare at the walls. As surely as James had said, one of the paintings seemed to be alive. The canvas was being stretched in every direction, twisting but not tearing as a long spindly arm found its way out. Huge globs of the substance that was their skin splashed onto the floor.
"Of course..." The Doctor breathed. "Atomorphs are shape shifting. These ones have been hiding in the paintings... Lying in wait." They stared in horror as the creature stepped fully out of the painting and slithered onto the floor. "But why here? Why now?"
"The power. We seek to destroy it." The Atomorph hissed.
"But you said time will be destroyed without it. Why would you want to destroy time?"
A horrifying sound came from behind them. The Doctor and Andromeda turned with faces twisted in terror.
"James!" She called out helplessly.
An Atomorph had seized his neck, gripping it tightly. The other hand was - as it it seemed - being fed down his throat. His chest was swelling and his eyes stared up at the creature blankly. Suddenly with a menacing crack and a terrible tearing sound, the Atomorph retrieved its hand from James' throat, his heart in its grasp. Blood began to pool onto the floor below the creature. Andromeda began to sob with fear as James fell back onto the floor...
Dead.