Today was a Saturday, which meant it was the perfect time to go to people's houses and pry into their lives. I looked down at the address Anji had given me and sighed again. I'd spent the entire morning figuring out a way to get to Sam's place. It was a couple miles away, which was technically within walking distance. I just didn't relish the thought of being out in the cold for hours. Y'know that thing I mentioned earlier, about technology not liking magic? Yeah, that applies to cars too.

Not that I have a car. Or the money to take a cab. Anji was out of town on some stock-business thing, which meant I couldn't hitch a ride from her either. Not that I wanted to. I was a detective now, damn it, and detectives didn't get rides from their tiny friends with their even tinier cars.

Anyway, the point was that I'd just walked for an hour and a half in terrible weather. It wasn't snowing yet, thank God, despite Anji's ominous predictions. I was standing on the street corner across from the place where Sam Jones and her parents lived. It was a nice enough house, small and cozy-looking. Reminded me a bit of one of the foster homes I'd stayed in as a kid.

Now all I had to do was muster up the courage to go over and knock on the door. I ran over some introductory sentences in my head: "Hi, my name's Fitz Kreiner, sorcerer-turned-detective who's investigating your daughter's disappearance on the behalf of a faerie." Yeah. That'd go down swell.

Argh. I swore under my breath, causing a passing old man to stare at me disapprovingly. I smiled at him weakly and finally kicked myself into motion, crossing the street. I could feel his eyes on me as I went, far more intense than they ought to be. Wait a minute. It wasn't…I turned around, but the old man had disappeared. I shook my head and told myself I was getting paranoid. Paranoid-er. Whatever.

I turned back to the house, took a deep breath, and rapped on the door. There was a long silence. I felt pretty awkward, just standing out there in full view of anyone on the street. They probably weren't home, stupid. I was debating between knocking again and slinking away when the door cracked open.

"Yes?" A nondescript-looking man –Mr. Jones, I supposed- stared out at me warily. I suddenly realized that I looked pretty shady, dressed in my leather jacket and ratty jeans. Had I even shaved this morning? Nope. Good job. Way to inspire trust. "If you're selling stuff, we don't want any." He started to close the door.

"I'm not!" I blurted out and he paused. "Um. I apologize for any intrusion, but I'm investigating the disappearance of your daughter." Oh, that was tactful. "I was wondering if we could talk."

"I don't have a daughter," the man said, brow furrowed with confusion and what looked like mild alarm. I blinked. Despite all the scenarios I'd run through in my head, I hadn't been expecting this. Maybe I'd got the wrong person?

"Are you Lucas Jones?" I asked cautiously.

"I am."

"Uh, well. Your daughter, Sam, went missing last week. About this tall?" I held my hand out helpfully. The man still looked blank. "Blonde? No?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He was starting to get upset. "Now kindly get off my property before I call the police."

"Okay, okay, I'm going." I raised my hands placating and backed away. "Sorry to bother you." The man sniffed and slammed the door shut, leaving me stunned on the sidewalk. Then the front window curtain twitched and he glared out at me, cellphone raised in a meaningful gesture. I gave him a weak smile and turned around quickly, walking away as fast as I could. I slowed as I reached the street intersection, stuffing my hands into my pockets and thinking. Hard.

What the hell had that been about? Not wanting to talk I'd be able to understand, but this? Unless that was some sort of desperate avoidance tactic, there was something seriously wrong here. I glanced back at the house and blinked again. I could've sworn I saw…something. A shadow, maybe, slipping away. The air felt different now. Greasier. I bit my lip, debating. It probably wasn't anything, just a figment of my imagination. But then again…

"Ah, to hell with it," I muttered, setting off towards where I'd seen the shadow. It had run past the Jones' house, into an empty, fenced-off lot. I peered over the fence but didn't see anything but a couple of straggly bushes. I ignored the more sensible part of me that was pointing out what a bad idea this was and slipped through the gap between two boards.

The lot looked even emptier now that I was inside. "Well, this was a bust," I said aloud to nobody, voice echoing stupidly in the deserted yard. I turned to leave and found myself staring right into the eyes of a nightmare.

"Holy hell!" I jumped back, bringing up a spell reflexively, staring at the thing in front of me. It was small and resembled an ape. Well. If apes had burning coals for eyes. Aw, damnit. It was a demon, wasn't it. I'd met one of them before and hadn't exactly enjoyed the experience. "Are you kidding me? Are you seriously- it's broad daylight!"

The demon didn't seem to care about my complaints. It chattered at me, a low, vicious sound, baring razor-sharp teeth. I swallowed, suddenly scared stiff. I had no idea how strong this thing was. If this came down to a fight – and it was looking awfully like it was – the odds of me ending up grievously injured were fairly high. "Ok, hey, maybe we can talk this out-"

It didn't want to talk it out. The demon leapt at me, going straight for my throat, and I screamed out a spell. "Überschallknall!"

Yeah, yeah, my spells are in German. Don't judge. I learned them from my dad.

There was a high-pitched whine and then the air just exploded. I hadn't expected the blast to be as powerful as it was and it sent both me and the demon flying backwards. My head smacked into something hard –probably the ground, the sensible part of me that really wished I had listened to it in the first place and just left whispered in my ear- and I collapsed, dazed. I could hear the demon screeching angrily and hoped I'd at least blown the little bastard's eardrums out.

No such luck. I levered myself up just in time to see it charging me, apparently unharmed. I didn't have time to get another spell out before it crashed into me, smashing my head into the ground again. Then the thing was on top of me, heavy and foul smelling, snapping at my neck and tearing at my arms and chest with sharp claws. I would've screamed if it hadn't been carving the air out of my lungs. I tried to push it away but it was too strong and I couldn't find the air to speak a spell to save myself and there was blood everywhere and hell it hurt.

I think I probably would've died then if the Doctor hadn't shown up. I didn't know where he came from or how he'd gotten here but I wasn't about to complain. The Doctor picked the demon up with one hand and threw it clear across the yard, almost effortlessly. His eyes were wild, more than I'd ever seen them before, and absolutely burning with fury.

I saw him stalk across the lot to where the demon lay in a crumpled heap, tensed, almost like a wild animal. My vision was starting to fade so I couldn't really make out the details of what was happening. I could've sworn I saw fire, although that might've just been the head damage talking.

There was a sudden sickening crunch and the demon howled in agony, cutting off with a wet gurgle. Gross, I thought to myself, feeling oddly disconnected from reality. There was a silence and then the Doctor appeared over me. I hadn't even heard his footsteps. Not fair. His face was concerned and his pupils were huge and black and then they grew until the only thing I could see was black and-