So if there's actually someone out there still reading this, and you think this seems awfully familiar, that's cuz it is. I literally just posted this, but it was ridiculously short, so i deleted the chapter and added the last couple sections. Not a lot, but more, and that was the point. Again, this episode isn't really working very well with my muse, so I apologize if it seems really crappy...cuz it is.

"I can't believe you!" Josie yelled at his back as they hurried back out of the town towards where Billie and the Professor had disappeared.

She could actually hear him pout at her, "At least I got the century right."

"Oh, yeah, congratulations for coming within a hundred years of where you were trying to go." She rolled her eyes, "After this, you better let me drive, at least once."

He waved away her comment without turning around and she narrowed her eyes, deciding whether it would be worth his pouting if she smacked him one. She was just deciding against it – he really was the most epic pouter she'd ever seen, though the Professor still held all the awards in brooding – when he suddenly stopped, causing her to slam into his back. She grumbled quietly at him and peered around his shoulder to see why he had froze only to blink in confusion. She knew for a fact that they had been moving away from the center of town, and yet she found herself facing the center of town.

"How is that possible?" she whispered, distressed.

"I…I don't…"

"Doctor?" her voice wavered as she clutched his hand, fear piercing through her veins at an alarming rate.

"I don't know…" he whispered, staring wide eyed at the house they had just walked out of a few minutes ago.

The Professor sighed fondly as he felt Billie jump beside him when a small creature scurried through the underbrush nearby. The strange psychic residue lingering on the town had really shaken her up. So much so, that even completely out of sight from the town, she still refused to loosen her death grip on his leather jacket and startled at the slightest noise. It was simultaneously worrisome and adorable. He'd never seen her so jumpy before and he'd be lying if he said he didn't think it was a little cute, but the fact that she was reacting this strongly…

"Billie," he said soothingly, pressing a hand onto hers where she clutched at him. Her big brown eyes snapped to him immediately, questioning his soft tone. "It's alright. Nothing's goin' to happen."

She sighed and visibly pried herself off him, wrapping her arms around herself in a hug instead as she took a small step away. Well, he couldn't have that. Things may have felt a little tense between them since the incident with the Autons and his untimely lapse of judgment, but he still cared deeply for her. Far more deeply than she probably realized. He draped his arm over her shoulders casually, dragging her closer to his side. She gave a weak smile in reply and wound her arms around his waist.

"Sorry," her voice was muffled by the fabric of his jumper where she'd buried her face, making him practically melt into a puddle of emotional goo at her feet – and wasn't that more than a bit embarrassing. "I can't help it. This place is just…wrong. Like all the people got…sucked out, I guess. Like they're not here anymore, but they are. I don't know…"

He shushed her, chafing a hand up and down her arm in comfort, even as a chill ran up his spin. He was so used to people leaving a psychic imprint on things, usually hardly even enough for his telepathy to pick up, that he had never considered that it could be a clue as to where a missing person (or people) had vanished to. As he thought about vanishing people and the new possibilities Billie had just opened up (how many people had he failed because he never paid attention?), time seemed to catch up with him, alerting him to the date and location the Doctor had landed them in.

Apparently Josie was right. Worst. Driver. Ever. The Professor was never letting the younger Time Lord anywhere near the TARDIS controls ever again. His eyes shifted, glancing around at the suddenly quiet forest. When had that happened? Billie felt him tense in her arms and stiffened in response.

"Professor?" she whispered.

"It's alright," he answered just as quietly, not wanting to draw attention to them as he felt eyes land on them. He swiftly urged her forward, keeping a tight grip on her shoulders as he trudged through the fallen leaves, looping back the way they came. His free hand gripped his sonic tightly in his pocket, not wanting to draw attention to it. Of course, Billie immediately realized something was wrong and released him with one arm so that she had her right arm looped around his lower back while her left hand slipped her own, brand-new sonic out from beneath the long sleeve of her hoodie.

The forest was eerily quiet, the only sound their own breathing and the shuffle of their feet. The Professor's ears strained to pick up even the tiniest movement, but there was nothing. He could still feel eyes tracking his every step like a predator, making his hackles rise. His fingers tightened further on Billie's shoulder and he felt a corresponding pinch in his side as she caught his skin while fisting his wool jumper. Her previous jumpiness didn't seem so cute anymore.

It wasn't until a few minutes later, when he was sure they should have broken free of the trees and stepped into the town, that he appreciated just how bad their situation was. When they had first left Josie and the Doctor and entered the woods he had spotted a red ribbon a child must have tied around a tree branch next to a makeshift swing made out of a bit of rope and a plank of wood that looked in danger of collapsing. He had disregarded it as quickly as he's spotted it, not thinking it mattered all that much, but now that he was stumbling upon the same exact sight, yet with the town nowhere within his line of vision, dread began to fill every fiber of his being.

They really should have made it back by now.

The Doctor's eyes traced every inch of the interior of the house. The furniture had already been gone over multiple times by both Josie and himself, with no clue about what had happened here, or how they got trapped. Time had stopped, or looped, or anything else he could think of. Everything was as it should be, minus the villagers and the ability to leave town. So what happened?

Josie sighed and leaned against the wall beside the window, "There's nothing here Doctor."

"The lingering psychic energies are strongest here," he sighed in frustration, running a hand through his hair and tugging. "If there's any sign of what happened here, this is where we'd find it."

"Well there's nothing," she pushed away from the wall, voice rising in her panic. "What are we supposed to do? We can't leave! We can't even go find the Professor and Billie! What if something happened to them? What if they can't get back either?"

Without a word, the Doctor reached forward and yanked the crying human into his arms, allowing her to bury her face into his shoulder and sob out her worries. He couldn't deny his own fear rising up, but he couldn't let Josie see that. She trusted him to get them out of this situation, and he would. He just didn't exactly know how he was supposed to do that. Yet.

When Josie had calmed down again, she silently pushed him away, swiping at her cheeks as she took in shaky breaths. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, waiting until she nodded before he stepped away fully and turned back to his search. He didn't want to admit that she was probably right. There was nothing here. But he couldn't give up. Something had to eventually pop up, right? He just had to keep looking.

It wasn't until several minutes later that he froze. Josie was being far too quiet. Even her sniffles had stopped. He slowly stood, not wanting to turn and be proven right. All he wanted was for the ginger to still be there when he glanced back. But he knew, just like every other time something like this happened, he was alone in the house.

"Josie," he said calmly, still resolutely not looking behind him. "Josie."

When she continued to not answer, his eyes slid shut in horror. Of all the times for her to get kidnapped, now had to be the worst. He forced himself to turn around until he faced the empty air. The only sign that Josie had once been with him was the faint pink aura of her mind lingering in the air alongside all the others belonging to the missing villagers. His fists clenched as his determination grew. This just got personal.

Josie blinked into awareness, her head too heavy to lift as her temple throbbed painfully. She groaned quietly when she tried to recall what had happened only for her head to throb more harshly in retaliation.

"Josie," a soft, shaky, familiar voice whispered.

She tilted her head, wincing at the spike of pain that caused, to see Billie strapped to a metal table near her that was tilted up enough for her to see around the room. Twisting her wrists and ankles as she struggled weakly, Josie quickly discovered she was strapped down similarly.

"Wh–" she stopped as her dry throat scratched around her words, making her cough violently.

Billie whimpered lightly in what Josie prayed wasn't pain. The ginger breathed heavily as her coughs finally tapered off and pushed her head back up to look at her sister but Billie wasn't looking at her anymore. The big, brown, watery eyes were trained on something in front of them. Her blood froze in her veins as fear coursed through her. Not once, even after everything they had seen and been through together, had Josie seen her older sister look that terrified.

Forcing her eyes to follow Billie's sight, Josie gasped only to fall into another fit of coughs, now mixed with sobs. For the rest of her life, she would never be able to scrub the sight of the Professor strung up by his ankles, jagged cuts running along his entire, bare torso as blood slowly trickled down his skin.