Breathing was the only thing that could be heard in that room at that time; Clara's breathing – heavy breaths amplified by the stillness of the space around her.
She currently had her head wedged in-between the door and the doorframe while she crouched down on the floor, her torch clutched in her trembling hands,held up underneath her chin as she listened for the TARDIS.
The Doctor had sounded quite anxious when she had called him to tell him what was happening, as he should've been. If Clara could remember anything that had happened on that day in Victorian London, it would be the utter agony and misfortune that just seemed to follow her around…
When she had first arrived, one of these 'shadow creatures' had attempted to enter her body, but for some reason decided it was a bad idea but it left her with a throbbing pain in her chest and back. After that, she'd ventured around with The Doctor for a while and discovered a lair that the shadows were populating – in this place, she had suffered a torture device being strapped around her neck (a terrifying wheel with spikes that threatened to sink into heroesophagus[1] at any given opportunity, not letting her get into a comfortable posture and hence depriving her of sleep). Subsequent to that, she'd been locked up, chained, almost pushed onto a chair of nails, had bricks thrown at her, been knocked into a pool of dead bodies, gotten amnesia and forgotten utterly everything about her days along with The Doctor. Later, they had found out exactly what the shadow creatures were: they crawled inside you, controlled your actions and drove you mad; making you feel oh-so-alone and fed on your life energy until you had nothing left and disappeared, leaving you lifeless, before moving onto the next innocent victim.
They could be destroyed by fire and light, so that's what The Doctor and Clara did to get rid of them: burned them. And as for their leader Shadow, well, TheDoctor sorted her out good and proper after she tried to take Clara's life. Clara very much believed she had rid the world of these terrible creatures, but oh,how wrong she was…
As she was remembering the torture she had once been through, she heard a very sudden click of a door handle that made her almost fall over in surprise.
It was the back door, leading off from the kitchen (which was straight opposite her at the other end of the room) and a few moments later, the kitchen door creaked open and The Doctor's face appeared, staring across at her.
"Oh, hello, Doctor," Clara whisper-shouted over to him, a rather bothered look on her face, "Took your time, I've been sat here ages."
"Sorry," The Doctor apologised, "…Wait, why are you whispering?"
"Oh, I don't know," Clara huffed, "Just seems like it'd be of some good. Anyway, I'm not quite prepared, nor do I have the means, to burn the street down to get rid of this one monster, what do I do? Chase it round the house? Let it get inside me? Like Shadow did? I'm not-"
"Right, calm down, sweetheart. First thing's first, you'd better come here so we can have a proper conversation," The Doctor hushed her, motioning her over with his hand.
Clara bit her lip and stood up. She flashed her eyes about the room, saw the shadow with its glowing red eyes still focused on her, shone her light at it – but it ran to another part of the room – and scowled before gingerly padding over to The Doctor, who wrapped an arm around her shoulders in his kindly manner.
"I thought we'd gotten rid of them all?" Clara glared as she clung onto The Doctor's shirt with her spare hand, still waving her light about.
"Clara, one family is not a whole race: there's plenty more of these Shadow folk strewn across the universe, you can't expect to be free of each and every one. Since the incident with Shadow, I've been doing a bit of research about their kind: their legitimate title is 'The Midnight Wisps' and there's more folklore about them than I first expected to find… but more about that later. Right now, my precedence is getting you safe, because if they know you're awake after 3AM, they'll force you to a vow of secrecy if you survive. That's what usually happens."
"Usually? You mean it happens a lot?"
"Well, most people encounter the Wisps once in their lifetime at least. They only worry themselves half to death, having no experience with monsters and such. But we can deal with this as long as you're strong, Clara. Understood?"
"Understood," Clara replied, quietly.
The Doctor was about to open his mouth to say something else, but he was interrupted by footsteps coming down the stairs.
"I heard talking; wondered what was going on so I came down," came Saibra's voice from the hallway. She emerged at the door a moment later, looking slightly confused. She caught sight of The Doctor and Clara, holding each other close, and smiled, "Aw! You make such a cute pair!"
"Saibra, I'm warning you, go back to bed. NOW!" Clara snapped, holding her torch as if it were a gun and lighting up the room in the process.
"Why?" Saibra asked, innocently.
Clara bit her lip and sighed before replying,
"Remember me telling you about Shadow?"
"Yes?"
"Well… she wasn't… the last of her kind. There's more, and they're here."
"You're not going to set the house on fire, are you?" Saibra asked, trembling, reaching for the light switch beside her.
"Of course not: all we have to do is try and destroy them by light, or find their leader and somehow warn her away. Turn the lights on, that might work."
But as Saibra flicked the light switch, the lights didn't turn on and the trio was still enveloped in darkness, apart from the glow of the torch (which seemed to be flickering)…
"Well," The Doctor started, "Isn't this a great time for a power cut?"
"Well, what do we do, then?" Clara huffed, annoyed.
"You could always let one-" Saibra started.
"No! I'm not letting one of those appalling THINGS anywhere near me! I've done that before and don't intend to do it again," Clara snapped, adamantly.
Just as she did, her torch flickered once more and the light died as the battery ran out.
Clara swallowed.
"Run."
I[2]
The trio had hurried upstairs and into the spare bedroom, lit all the candles they could find and were now contemplating what to do next whilst Saibra quivered in the corner.
When Clara had told the story of Shadow to her, Saibra had thought it sounded incredibly appalling but Clara had assured her that the events of that day would never come about again.
She now wished that had been the case.
"Doc, tell Psi to stay in bed if he wakes up: the last thing I want is another person worrying about stuff," Clara said at last, "I'll stay here with Saibra."
"Right," The Doctor nodded, heading out into the hallway, carrying a candleholder.
Clara then turned to Saibra.
"Nothing good's going to come by just waiting here, we'll have to do something."
"What CAN we do? We're doomed!" Saibra groaned.
The Hummingbird bit her lip as she thought up a response.
"You know what happened last time?"
"What?"
"I completely lost my mind. You know why?"
"No?"
"Because I was scared. It would've turned out fine and dandy if I'd have kept to my senses and worked out a plan… but I didn't: I fidgeted and worried and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. This time, though, if we all stay calm, it'll be fine. You trust me?"
Saibra nodded.
"Good," Clara smiled, "Now come on: let's think of a plot."
Thinking can be very difficult when you're under a lot of pressure… and, of course, when your life is in jeopardy. It helps to have a friend (or two) to help out in your thinking endeavour, even if those two friends are scared out of their wits, too.
'Last time', in Victorian London, was one of the many things Clara desired to forget, and she wished never to experience it again. Yet here she was: stalked by Shadows in her own home.
She knew exactly how this was going to end, and even though she didn't like it, she knew she'd have to do something awfully stupid and similar to what she did to Shadow: what she'd promised herself never to do again.
It's one thing telling someone not to worry, but it's another to stay calm yourself…
"So..?" Saibra urged, bringing Clara back to reality.
"I… honestly don't know what to do," Clara sighed, sitting up on the edge of the bed. What she'd said wasn't a lie at all, but it wasn't quite the truth, either. She swallowed and began to pace around the room until The Doctor came to see her. She spied a Wisp from the corner of her eye and, though her heart skipped a beat, she stayed collected and didn't flinch.
The awkwardness of the silence intensified until Clara made up her mind on what she'd do and, with a spin, she clapped her hands together and stated her plan.
"We need to find the leader," she said.
"Why?" Saibra asked, uncertainly.
"If the leader of one particular colony dies, the rest of the family follow suit."
"And what do you plan to do when you find the leader?" The Doctor asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway.
Clara swallowed,
"Exactly what I did last time."