i should probably mention that all of the chapter titles are vine references. just because i mean, like... why not.

disclaimer: i have achy joints and no ownership rights over doctor who! seriously, my joints hurt. why did i choose to go to school in the midwest. i thought you weren't supposed to get achy joints until you were like 50.

They didn't go very far. The Doctor eventually stopped in the middle of a large reception area, setting the ghostbusters tube down with a clank.

"Okay, here we go," He hummed, and began to fiddle with what looked to be a control panel at the top.

Beatrice took the time to lay out the remaining cables off to the side, figuring that someone could trip over them if she just left them in a big pile. To be fair, the only other person with Beatrice was the Doctor, and he was probably a hallucination, but… well, she should be considerate, all the same.

The hospital really was deserted. It was quiet, all for the unsettling stomping noises from the floor above them. Who knows what would have happened if the building was full of regular patients.

Wait, but… this was Kansas, not the edge of the world. Where was everybody?

"Where did everyone else go?" Beatrice asked the Doctor, "The other patients and nurses, I mean. Where's the night shift?"

"Oh, they were evacuated a while ago, don't worry." The Doctor waved a hand in a blasé manner. The control panel he was working with lit up a light blue. Beatrice goggled at the twinkling lights, but the Doctor didn't seem that impressed by it (and why would he be? He had a time machine; a bunch of lights probably wasn't that big of a deal to him).

"What was your name, again?" He asked her from his position squatted by the tube.

"Beatrice." She responded, and cautiously edged closer.

"Aah, Beatrice from the cornfield." The Doctor hummed, "That's where they found you, wasn't it?" He soniced the tube, and something started to hum lightly. This seemed to please him.

"I mean—" Beatrice scratched the back of her head awkwardly, "No, they found me on the edge. By a road, I think? I woke up in the field, though."

"Strange place for a girl to be hanging out, don't you think? How'd you end up there?"

"Um." Beatrice shuffled uncomfortably, the cold floor seeping in through her feet, "I have no idea."

The Doctor turned to look at her, face serious, and Beatrice sucked in a breath with surprise. His eyes. They were old.

Like, alright, everyone always says that just like they say the TARDIS is bigger on the inside, but… The Doctor's eyes were old, and it made Beatrice feel helpless beyond measure. They were the oldest things she had ever seen, the Doctor's eyes.

A shiver ran down her spine. Beatrice didn't know what to say.

She just felt so. Tired.

"I— I need—" Beatrice looked away from him, then looked back, then looked away again.

Everything about this situation was awful and her arm was starting to hurt again. There was a monster above them. Beatrice was probably standing across from an alien. She felt horrible. She just wanted to go home. She needed a hug.

"C-Cavefish," Beatrice blurted out.

The Doctor frowned, "Cavefish?"

"Yeah!" She nodded fervently, "The thing the— the monster, it's a cavefish, it doesn't have any eyes but a mouth."

"Oh, a cavefish!" The Doctor's face lit up with realization, "I suppose it is, isn't it? This one's definitely sharper, though."

"And bigger." Beatrice added, "Unfortunately."

"Right." He frowned, looking back at the glowing tube before him, "It makes sense, saying where it might have come from. Who needs eyes in the dark? I certainly wouldn't."

A rumble from above, like something had fallen. The Doctor leaped to his feet and clasped his hands together with a flourish.

"Alright then! Here we go," He pointed at Beatrice, "Hide behind that desk over there and stay put. I mean it! Even I don't know what that thing is capable of, so we have to be careful."

Beatrice nodded, even though she was 99% sure that the Doctor had never been careful in his life.

But he seemed satisfied with that, answer because he ran off to look for trouble, and Beatrice went to the desk behind her.

It was definitely big enough, she noticed as she ducked down. It took up a majority of the reception area and was shaped like an L, with the crook facing outward towards the hallway. Thus: the perfect hospital hiding spot.

At least, Beatrice hoped it was. If it wasn't, then her day was probably about to get a lot worse.

The noises from above were getting more and more worrisome. The monster wasn't heavy enough to break through the floor, right? With all the stomping and clomping and jumping around it was doing, it sure was testing its luck.

Wait, did it even have feet? Beatrice didn't remember seeing any.

Then, very distinctly, something changed. The monster sounded like it was moving down the hall. There was the crash of a stairwell door opening, followed by the Doctor shouting, "Follow me I'm tasty!"

The Time Lord flew by the desk Beatrice was hiding behind, only to skid to a stop awhile past the ghostbusters tube.

A screech from the monster shook Beatrice to the bone.

There was a very audible click, an "Aha!" from the Doctor, then a low whirring noise that must have been from the tube.

Nothing happened.

Holy fuck, nothing happened.

Beatrice noiselessly turned her head to glance up over the top of the desk. She didn't know what she expected to see. She didn't know what made her turn, exactly. Probably the same thing that made people in horror movies investigate strange noises.

But Beatrice looked up and was faced with a living shadow.

It was made out of darkness. No, that wasn't right. It was like… like a smudged pencil drawing, just a giant blurry charcoal colored mass. It moved slowly, flickering back and forth, almost as if the monster was breathing. It smelled familiar, for some reason. Like something she'd forgotten. Something humans had forgotten as a whole.

The shadows moved, and the row of sharp teeth came into view— it was looking at her.

Beatrice didn't move. She couldn't.

Could it even see her properly, or did it just detect movement? Did it use echolocation, like a bat?

Why wasn't it attacking her? Why was it just standing there?

It wasn't doing anything, why wasn't it doing anything?

Then the tube let out a bright pulse made of pure energy, and the monster flinched and snarled. It tried to retreat, move backward, but it was pulled in by the light like hair being pulled down the drain of a bathtub. The monster got pulled into the machine, and a light on top flickered from blue to green.

Beatrice could, thankfully, breathe again. She stood on shaky feet and leaned heavily on the desk before her.

Not dead yet, at least.

(But why didn't the monster attack her? Both Beatrice, as well as the Time Lord standing in the room with her, was very, very worried indeed)