"No, no, it's a trick. It's got to be some kind of trick."

The Doctor couldn't help grinning ear to ear.

"I swear, no tricks. It's bigger on the inside."

"But… how? What is it?"

"It's called a TARDIS. Stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space."

"I don't understand."

"It's a space ship that can travel through time."

Annie moved her head side to side, almost as though she was looking for something. What people usually took with confusion and amazement, she seemed to be taking with fear and suspicion. He steered her away gently.

"Come on, Annie. Can you show me how you got here?"

She nodded silently, and hesitantly picked a direction.

The going was slow. The Doctor noticed flecks of blood here and there, and clawed footprints, but opted not to tell Annie what he saw.

"We're coming to a corner," he warned her with a hand on her shoulder. She took a few steps away and stopped to think. She no longer looked scared as she recalled her steps, just sad, and defeated. And that was so much worse.

"This way," she pointed to the right with an almost skeletal-looking hand, voice sounding dead.

He tried to think of something – anything – he could say. He was so lost in his thoughts that it was the Doctor who tripped and nearly face-planted into the sidewalk. Annie stopped at the sound.

"What was that?"

He looked back to see a long, white stick lying on the ground. He picked it up, hurriedly wiping off specks of blood with his coat.

"Hold out your hands," he said, grinning.

"Why?"

"I believe this belongs to you," he placed it in Annie's tentatively outstretched hands.

"It's not broken." Annie felt along its length, the ghost of a smile on her lips. "Thank you," she whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear.

They continued, Annie's steps just a touch more confident with her regained independence. The Doctor soon grew used to the steady hypnotic tapping as Annie swung the cane lightly along the ground in front of her. He was surprised when it stopped suddenly, and found they were at another corner.

"Down there," he barely heard her as she pointed. He could see a dark mass halfway down the street, hanging off the curb.

"Maybe you should stay here."

"No," Annie shook her head. She stayed behind the Doctor, clutching the cane to her body, not allowing it to touch the ground.

A few meters away from the dark shape, Annie stopped.

"I can smell blood," she whispered, voice trembling as tears rolled down her face.

"Just stay here, okay?" she nodded, and he stepped away, crouching to examine what was barely recognizable as the body of a dog. He looked around and saw that the harness had been discarded on the sidewalk a short distance away, the leather ripped to shreds and the metal handle twisted and pulled apart.

"What did this to you?" he muttered to himself, looking from the bloody mess on the ground to Annie, who was even more pale than before.

"Maybe you should sit down," he led her a bit farther from the remains of the dog, sitting her against a wall and putting his coat over her shoulders. "I'll only be a minute."

He returned to the dog and began scanning it with his sonic screwdriver, searching for any kind of visual clue at the same time. He knew of more creatures than he would like to that could be the culprit, but there had to be something that would tell him exactly what this one was. He checked the readings, and shook his head, scanning once more to be sure. Looking closer at the carnage scattered along the sidewalk, he found fragments of dull, thickly ridged scales and dark, mangled feathers. Evidence that his scans were correct, and that made his stomach clench.

"No, no, that can't be right," he said to himself. "I thought they were gone, I didn't think there were any left on Earth."

"Any what?" Annie asked quietly from where she was sitting.

"What?" he turned around quickly, surprised for a moment that she had heard him. "Guess I'll have to remember not to think out loud around you," he said as lightly as he could manage, and returned to the tiny figure. She ducked her head and smiled weakly through the tears drying on her cheeks.

"So, what was it?" she asked quietly.

"Well," the Doctor rubbed the back of his head, trying to think of the best way to explain. "It's a creature that came to this planet a long time ago. It inspired quite a few legends."

"It was an alien?" Annie raised her head, eerily blank eyes happening to fall on his, causing a pit of uneasiness that forced him to look away.

"Yes, an alien creature that hunts by blinding its prey. Obviously that's not going to work on you. You're lucky."

"Yeah, lucky," she muttered.

"Come on, let's get you out of here," he had found what he needed to know, there was no point in staying there any longer. Who knew when the creature would return to finish off its meal; and if it did, the Doctor had no idea how he would fight it.

He pulled Annie to her feet, half carrying her back to the TARDIS.

Annie groaned and put her head face down into the pillow.

Do I have to do anything today?

She reached out for her watch on the bedside table, but her hand smacked against a wall.

"Ow! What the hell?" she sat up, inspecting the wall, suddenly remembering what had happened the night before: the monster, Charlie, the phone box that was bigger on the inside, a stranger trying to help her…"

"Ah, you're awake," a cheery voice said from behind her. "Good."

She jumped and spun around, heart racing.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he took her hand and wrapped it around a warm cup. "It's tea."

"Thanks," she adjusted herself to sit more comfortably on the bed, sipping at the tea.

A chair scraped along the floor and creaked quietly as the man sat down.

"How are you doing?"

"Okay, I guess," she turned her head side to side, listening. She vaguely remembered being half carried back to the phone box. She wasn't in the same large room she had been in before, but she could still feel that faint, unmistakable vibration.

"Am I in the…" she paused to think. What had he called it? "Am I in your ship?"

"The TARDIS, yes."

"Do you live here?"

"I do."

"And who are you, exactly?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor… who?"

"Just the Doctor."

Annie sipped her tea, the silence weighing heavily.

"That thing…" she said quietly, the morning bringing with it a seed of doubt. "That was real? You aren't just messing with me?"

"It's real, yes. Though I didn't think any still existed on Earth."

"What is it?"

"It's called a mortifer. It inspired the basilisk legends on Earth. It hunts by blinding it's prey-"

"No it doesn't," Annie said, surprising herself by cutting him off. If there was one thing she new, it was mythology, and she couldn't help but correct him, even if she continued on much more timidly. "I mean, I… I thought that if it looked at you, you died."

The Doctor laughed quietly, "by extension, I suppose. Most people who suddenly found themselves without sight would freeze on the spot, and the ones who didn't wouldn't be moving very quickly. Easy prey."

Annie's cheeks grew hot, and she tried to hide it by draining the last of her tea. And then a horrifying thought occurred to her.

"Will it come after me again?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry."

She gripped the teacup hard, heart pounding. What if it was out there waiting for her? She started to panic. "What am I supposed to do? I can't see it! I barely got away from it. If I hadn't… if your ship hadn't been there…"

He covered her hands – still holding the teacup – with his.

"You can stay here until we figure it out, you'll be safe in the TARDIS. It can't get in here."

"I don't want to stay here!" she pulled away from him, the fear becoming overwhelming. "I want to go home. I want this all to go away. I want to read about stuff like this, I don't want to live it. I never wanted to live it!"

"I'll make it safe for you, and then you can go home. I will, I promise," the Doctor said putting his hands on her arms.

"Don't touch me!" she nearly screamed it at him, holding the teacup in one hand, wanting, just for a moment, to throw it at him. Instead, she curled her knees to her chest and buried her head in them, just wanting to block it all out, convince herself that it was all a dream, that she would wake up, and everything would be the way it had been before.

The Doctor sighed as he gently pried the teacup from her fingers, and his footsteps faded into silence.

A/N: Reviews and critique always appreciated! Hopefully this all flowed okay. It used to be probably twice as long, but then Annie informed me that the backstory I had given her - which was originally the main focus of this chapter - was, in fact, completely incorrect.

Soooo... yeah. I had to cut out some pretty massive chunks and try to patch it all up as best I could.