Amy and Rory had found safety from the hordes of Vashta Nerada in a small room that lay hidden deep within the winding walls of the second floor. They were standing still, looking about the musty, old furniture that lay in the windowless room and trying to recover their nerves. It had been a narrow escape and now they were unsure as to whether or not any of the endless shadows within the house were safe. And they were trapped. As soon as they had closed the door of the room, the thick cloud of darkness had consumed the hallway.
"Any ideas on how we're going to get out of here?" Rory asked, hoping in vain that Amy would have a solution.
"I don't know. But the Doctor will find something. He'll get us out of here."
Rory was silent, considering it. He didn't want to wait for the Doctor, but he couldn't find a way out. Yet, there was another worry weighing on his mind.
"Amy… what if he doesn't come? What if he can't get to us?"
"What do you mean?"
"We don't know what we're up against in here. Even the Doctor looked confused. What if something's happened to him?"
Amy remained still, thinking about it. The Doctor would be fine – he had to be. But Rory did have a point.
"Okay," she announced, putting on a confident voice, "we need to find a way to get out of here safely. There's a load of flesh-eating shadows outside the door, so unless you find a torch, that's off-limits. This whole floor is like a maze, yeah?"
"Yeah… so?"
"So there has to be more than one way around, right? There's got to be secret passages and things. Start searching the room, see if you can find any hidden doors or something!"
"Amy," Rory began, his tone a little doubtful, "are you sure about this?"
"No." she admitted flatly. "But it's all we've got. We need to find a way out, and we don't have another option."
Rory nodded and set to looking about the dusty room, running his fingers over ancient wallpaper and going through decaying wooden drawers, Amy doing the same on the other side of the room. Her fingertips pressed against what may have once been a brightly coloured section of wallpaper, but was now pale, colourless and lifeless remains, half torn from the concrete wall. As she moved her fingers down, Amy felt something – an imperfection in the wall. Feeling further along the section of paper, she traced it, making out an odd shape carved into the stone surface.
"Can't be…"
Standing back and swallowing her fear, she grabbed a loose end of the wallpaper and tore the sheet away, exposing the cold hard wall beneath. No sooner had she done so than her hand was clasped to her mouth, concealing a quiet scream of shock.
"Amy? What is it?"
Rory's eyes fell on the wall and instantly he understood what was troubling her. Embedded into the concrete was a long, crooked smile shaped crack.
"The crack from my bedroom wall… the cracks in the universe… but the Doctor got rid of them! They never existed!"
"So how can it be here?" Rory asked, confused.
They both watched as in a few, slow seconds, a familiar piercing white light began to shine through the crack, pouring out into the room.
"Don't let the light touch you!" Amy yelled. "If it touches you, you'll never have existed!"
"Yeah, I know!" Rory replied, both agitated and worried. "Already happened to me, remember?"
They both got back, as far as they could, the light becoming evermore intense, creeping out into the room in twisting, shifting tendrils.
"We need a way out. We need to get out, now!" Amy insisted, pressing her back harder against the wall.
"Well, I'm open to suggestions!"
The light was increasing, starting to edge its way across the room to erase Amy and Rory from reality…
The Supreme Dalek, encased in its immaculate white Dalekanium shell, stood in front of the Doctor, red Dalek Drones flanking it. Two stood either side of the Supreme and three were now surrounding the Doctor.
"So, Daleks. Daleks in a big scary house, with Vashta Nerada, a big wormy thing, living butler statues and manufacturing fear." the Doctor babbled, giving himself time to think, keeping his enemies talking. "Not really your style, is it?"
"This facility is not of our design." the Supreme boomed in its deep, grating voice. "The Daleks have merely inhabited this area! Its energy resources will become ours!"
"But there were no traces of Daleks when I arrived. And if you're just draining energy from this house – which isn't actually a house, but I'll get to that later – I would have expected more of a brute force approach…"
"You will be silent!" barked one of the Drones.
"You are our prisoner!" added another.
"Fellers, please… if the gathered masses of the shadow confederates and the forces of Genghis Khan couldn't shut me up, what chance have you got? Really?"
"We are the Daleks! Daleks are supreme! You will obey! Obey!"
"No." the Doctor said calmly. "No, I won't. I mean, I wouldn't obey the Daleks anyway, but even if I would… you're not Daleks."
"We are the Daleks!" insisted the Supreme. "You will obey us, Doctor! You will help us gain access to this facility's energy resources!"
"You don't need access – you are a creation of this facility's energy resources! Manufacturing fear – you're just part of that process, a creation of this house, a copy of the Daleks!"
With an echoing, whirring sound, the gun arm of every Dalek was suddenly pointing at the Doctor.
"You will be exterminated, Doctor!"
"Mind you, you may well be a creation that can kill…"
"Exterminate! Exterminate!" the Daleks chanted, as bright blue beams of lethal energy burst from their weapons.
The Doctor was quick. There was a small opening, a gap, between two of the Drones. He darted through it and ducked into another corridor, just missing a flash of blue light, which tore through the corner of the wall.
"Locate the Doctor and exterminate him!" the Supreme ordered, the Drones already gliding in the direction he had gone.
The Doctor was trying to work it out – what could be powerful enough to create real, deadly versions of things he feared? Why try to increase the fear people felt? What was the meaning of this house?
His thoughts were interrupted as he rounded a corner, and found another of the house's creations waiting for him. Three Cybermen stood at the end of the corridor, their arms outstretched and bearing slim metallic guns.
"Okay… Cybermen copies. And Dalek copies. And goodness-knows-what-else-copies. Not good."
As crimson lasers streamed out of the Cybermen's weapons, the Doctor turned, feeling heat from the attack graze the back of his neck. He forced a door open and ran into the room behind it. Quickly, he slammed the door shut and locked it with the sonic screwdriver.
Collapsing against the wall, he gave a sigh of relief and took in his surroundings. An empty concrete room, with a door at the other end.
Thud!
The sound was of a heavy, cyber-fist coming into contact with the door, trying to punch its way through. The Doctor leapt back, examining the door, which was threatening to shatter.
"Cybermen are struggling to break through – so either these copies aren't as strong as the real thing, or that door's a lot tougher than it looks…"
With a sickening crack, the door splintered, a thick metal arm emerging through it.
"But now might not be the best time to look into it."
The Doctor turned on his heel, running fast from his advancing enemy. In a few steps he had crossed the room and his hand was gripping the handle of the other door. Locked. He tugged hard on it, trying to force it open, but it refused to move.
"Come on!" he demanded, in a desperate groan.
A loud crash, from the far end of the room. The door was being broken apart, Cybermen now visible. The Doctor pulled out the sonic, aiming it at the lock on the door in front of him.
"Work, work, come on! Now is a very not good time to not work!"
Nothing – it was deadlocked. And the Cybermen copies were starting to make short work of that door. Another crash, louder – concrete. The walls were being blown apart. A Dalek laser had followed the chunk of discarded wall into the room, their crimson casing just visible through the dusty hole.
"Okay… this is extremely, very, really not good!" the Doctor yelled to himself. "Come on, Doctor, think!"
"EXTERMINATE!" The metal shriek came from beyond the hole in the wall and was followed by another barrage of piercing blue lasers, sending chunks of wall flying across the room. The Doctor had to duck into an awkward position to avoid being knocked down by the broken concrete.
"Think, think, think…! Breaking down the door, slowly, more tension, more fear… so maybe they are capable of destroying the door more quickly…" the Doctor looked up in a moment's realisation. A larger section of the door was broken away by the Cybermen, making their torsos and emotionless metal faces visible, through the dust of damaged concrete and rows of Dalek lasers.
"Oi! Cybermen! Over here! What are you waiting for? Delete me! I'm not going to get scared of you smashing doors down!"
The Cyberman that was stood at the front of the group looked up and raised its arm, displaying its mounted metal gun.
"Come on then – I am incompatible! Delete, delete, delete, that's the normal procedure, isn't it?" The Doctor was yelling his apparent death wish at the cyborg replicas, a desperation hidden behind his confident tone. The concrete wall was falling to shreds. The Daleks were too close, their aim would be too accurate – it had to be the Cybermen.
The metal giant with its arm raised spoke a single word, its mouth illuminating a dull blue.
"Delete."
A red laser bolt tore from the gun, soaring through the air towards the Doctor. It was inches from his chest, before he threw himself aside, hitting the wooden floorboards heavily. The blast collided with the door, sending it flying from its hinges.
"Thanks!" the Doctor called back, as he jumped to his feet. Hunched over to avoid the oncoming Dalek and Cyber fire, he ran through the door and around the corner, into the corridor.
He ducked down another of the darkened corridors, the sonic screwdriver in his hand, scanning the area. He had to find Amy and Rory. They had been chased by the Vashta Nerada and he hadn't seen what had happened. He didn't know if they had been caught, if they were okay, where they were…
The sonic's whirring increased in pitch. It had picked something up. Life signs – human. Two of them. The Doctor grinned, following it and coming to a thick concrete wall. The signal seemed to be strongest here, and just around the corner he could see the familiar dark mass of Vashta Nerada.
"AMY? RORY?"
"DOCTOR!" The shout was slightly muffled, but audible and definitely there. It had come from the other side of the wall.
"Where are you?" the Doctor asked, pressing himself up against the wall.
"We're trapped in here!" Amy's voice shouted back.
"Here being?"
"How should I know? Some old room!"
"Those Vashta things are still outside the door, aren't they, Doctor?" Rory asked.
"Yeah, they're still there. What's happening in the room? Something's wrong, you sound worried."
"Doctor, it's the crack. The crack from my bedroom wall, it's here!"
"What?" the Doctor stopped, scared, not understanding. That was impossible. But so were the Cybermen and the Daleks. "Amy, Rory, listen to me – it's not the crack, it's a copy taken from your minds. A copy of something you fear!"
"So, it won't erase us from time?" Rory asked, both worried and hopeful.
"No. The worst it can do is kill you!" the Doctor explained.
"Not helping!" Amy screamed.
"Okay, yeah, sorry. Killer crack, sinister shadows – oh! I am brilliant!"
"What is it?" Amy demanded.
"The light from the crack – it can't erase you from time, it's not the real thing, but it's still light!"
"So?"
"Amy, think about it! You can't have darkness if there's…"
"Light!" She finished.
"Open the door! Quickly!"
"Are you sure this will work, Doctor?" Rory asked.
"Of course I'm not sure, but I don't hear you coming up with any better suggestions!"
Inside the small room, being flooded by blinding white light, Amy ran madly for the door, its edges being attacked by what looked like luminous vines. The door handle was still just accessible and she quickly took hold of it. As soon as she had placed her hand on it, she felt Rory's hand on top of hers.
"What are you doing?"
"What? You think I'm just going to let you risk your life? Alone?"
She smiled at him, and he returned the expression, though not as confidently.
"You two! Open that door – now!" called the Doctor through the wall.
They both pushed down on the handle and pulled the door back on its hinges. With a little resistance, it swung open in their hands, just as the light from the crack swarmed over where the handle had been. It flooded out into the corridor, scattering the shadows, consuming the Vashta Nerada.
"Get out of there!" the Doctor shouted. "If that light fills the whole doorway, that's your exit gone! I can't stop the light or close the crack. Hurry up!"
The light was streaming through one side of the doorway, but there was still a narrow gap that was just about safe. Amy pressed her back into the doorframe and elegantly slipped through, out into the corridor.
"Come on," she said to Rory, "it's easy!"
Gulping slightly, Rory stepped into the doorway, forcing himself to squeeze back against it. The light was only a few inches from him and spreading fast. With a deep breath, he leapt out into the corridor, landing in an uncomfortable heap on the ground.
Helped up by Amy, he got back to his feet and brushed himself down. He looked up at the sound of his wife's laughter.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"You just fell flat on your face, stupid!"
"Yeah, well when I'm fleeing from a deadly light, elegance isn't exactly my top priority."
"Oh, shut up."
Amy flung her arms around Rory's neck and pulled him towards her, so that their lips met. As they stood there, together, the sound of footsteps echoed out from around the corner. They broke apart, turning around to see the source of the noise. The Doctor.
"Ah, there you two are! Come on, keep moving, that light's still spreading around the place!" he said casually, as he approached them. "Oh, and there are a few Daleks and Cybermen running around." he added.
"What?" Amy asked sharply.
"Well, technically they're not Daleks and technically they're not Cybermen. And technically, they're not running. Like I said, this place is creating projections of things we fear. Copies, though very good ones. For you it chose the crack, for me it was the Daleks and the Cybermen."
"What about the Vashta Nerada?" Rory asked.
"Oh, no, they were real. They're everywhere, on every planet. Just a very low concentration on most planets, like Earth. This house, or whatever it is, has been absorbing Vashta Nerada from local areas and forcing them all closer together in a big thick concentration. Probably to play on the common fear of the dark." the Doctor explained.
"Why are they so intent on making us scared? Whoever they are…"
"Good question." the Doctor said. "That's what I intend to find out! Come on, I think I've found a staircase – onwards and upwards!"
"Hang on, Doctor, this has been getting worse on every level!" Rory pointed out as they followed him.
"Yes it has!"
"Well, what's up there?"
They rounded a corner finding a narrow wooden staircase, leading up into pitch black darkness. The Doctor turned to away from it to face his companions. He drew in a sharp breath of air, before responding to Rory's question.
"Ground floor, we were attacked by the creepy living butler statues in an abandoned house. Basic way to make us scared. Then we went into those corridors. Fear of isolation and some sort of device amplifying fear. First floor, great big impossible creature, designed to be terrifying attacking us from the dark. Creates fear from a threat. Second floor, we're separated again; fear of isolation. The Vashta Nerada; fear of the dark. The copies of our fears; fear from a threat and something we're already scared of. Next floor, the top floor, judging by the exterior – even if this whole place has been a bit bigger on the inside – it's going to be even worse. The highest possible level of fear. Your deepest and darkest fears turned against you. Prepare to be scared."
With a small smile touching his lips, the Doctor turned and slowly started heading up the stairs, towards the darkened doorway at the top. Heading into the unknown. Striding towards fear.
