Zoe sighed. This little man in front of them was not letting them pass.

They had just reached the tall, triangular building at the end of the Watts Court's cul-de-sac when the door swung open to reveal a short man, curiously sunburned despite the earlier fog and still somewhat chilly weather. He was blinking at only about half the rate of a normal human being, which Zoe thought was strange. He said nothing to them, instead preferring to stare incredulously at the three travellers and moved only to block the Doctor's repeated attempts to maneuver past.

Another person ran up behind the man- a stocky young woman wearing a uniform. She bent down and whispered something in the man's ear. After a moment, he nodded and stood aside, gesturing for the TARDIS team to enter. The Doctor nodded his thanks, though seemed to regret it as soon as he crossed the threshold since the woman pointed a previously hidden weapon at him.

"Follow," she directed.

The Doctor, Zoe, and Bill were marched down a short hallway. Zoe noted that someone needed to come by and clean- there were cobwebs in every corner. At the end of the corridor, they were herded into an office with a single occupant, most likely Mayor Monroe, judging from the lavish decorations and the plaque that read, "MAYOR WILBUR MONROE" standing in the front of the mahogany desk. He did not look pleased.

"More," he sneered. "Come after your little friends?"

"They're here? The Doctor and J-Jamie?" Bill blurted, checking to make sure with Zoe that she got the Highlander's name right.

"Yes. Perhaps it's fortunate you came around. I was just about to question them, but you'll do. Who are you and what are you doing in my town?" Monroe demanded.

"I am the Doctor, and this is Zoe, and that is Bill."

"I thought the other man was the Doctor?"

"Hm, well, yes, that is confusing, isn't it? We're here by accident. Our transports were forced down onto your planet and we are trying to figure out what happened."

"Are there more of you?"

"No, just the five of us."

"And how long have you been here?"

"Oh, a few hours at the most."

The mayor clearly found that hard to believe. "You are strangers to a town that doesn't get strangers. You immediately find our tunnels, where disturbances have been haunting us for months. Do you understand how suspicious you are?" He sighed. "Your friends came to report something to me. I didn't get the chance to ask. What was it?"

"We found a body," Bill answered. "A young woman, brown eyes, long black hair. She was like stone."

Monroe slumped in his chair and covered his face with his hands. "Maerwynn Ashglade. Her family was in here earlier. They were worried when she didn't come home when the fog drove everybody inside."

"What do you mean, 'when the fog drove everybody inside?'" Zoe asked.

Without looking up, Monroe replied, "It first arrived with the frost, three months ago. Middle of summer. Weird things happen when it arrives. Bad things." He looked up and fixed the Doctor with an almost accusing glare. The Doctor pretended to be ignorant of it.

"Well, maybe we can help you?" the Doctor suggested. Monroe shook his head fiercely.

"You can do that by leaving," he snapped. Zoe was not sure why he was so upset with them, they were obviously telling the truth.

"We can do that once we've got our friends back," Bill said. She was much shorter than the mayor, but she matched him in intensity to a degree where he seemed the shorter of the two. Zoe was almost impressed when the man did not shrink back from her. She was suddenly quite jealous of the other Doctor for being able to interact with Bill often- she was, in the most literal definition of the word, awesome. The mayor nodded curtly and pressed a button on his desk. With a flourish, a guard that Zoe had not previously noticed left the room. The guard who had brought them in no longer had her gun pointed at them, though she remained at attention.

The occupants of the room stood in silence for an awkward minute. Zoe noticed that much of the decoration seemed to resemble French classicism quite a bit. She also noticed that despite its opulence, it was just as dirty as the outside corridors. The man who had let them into Watts Court noticed her inspecting the windows and cocked his head inquisitively.

"You might want to clean a bit in here, there are a lot of cobwebs," she explained.

"They're supposed to be there. It's almost Halloween," the man responded. She was not sure if she believed him and turned to get the Doctor's opinion, but he was just as distracted by the decoration as she had been moments earlier. Bill just shrugged, apparently also not buying it. Monroe declined to participate in the discussion, just staring straight forward.

There was some commotion outside and the office door opened, revealing both a complaining Jamie and a complaining Doctor. The guards looked relieved to be dismissed. Jamie immediately beelined to Zoe and their Doctor.

"You wouldn't believe it! They wouldn't listen to us at all!"

"Well, what did you say to him?" Zoe asked, acutely aware that Bill was in earshot and heard her very prissy tone and mentally beat herself up.

"Nothing!" Jamie then noticed that the mayor was still at his desk and looked as if he was about to take the man's ear off before Two grabbed his arm and started dragging him out of the building. Bill noticed and did the same with her Doctor. Monroe was pleased to see the party leave.

"So, now what?" Bill asked once they were a safe distance from the mayor's office. The sun, Zoe noticed, was starting to get very close to the horizon. "We've got to figure out what we're doing for the night, yeah?"

"Oh, I can help with that!" a bright voice behind the group said. Zoe whipped around and saw the librarian, Miss Sims, standing there outside a squat building with a stone staircase leading to a green door. "I couldn't help but overhear you," she apologized. "I've just finished feeding one of my friend's cats. He's been missing for a few weeks, so I like to check up on them and make sure they're okay. Anyway, there's an inn a few streets down."

"Oh, thank you," Two said.

"My pleasure! I'm sorry for being so weird with you all earlier, I haven't had too much people interaction lately. The library will be open again tomorrow, and you're always free to come by then!"

The TARDIS teams thanked her profusely and she gave them the directions and told them to tell the desk that she would pay for them. Jamie leaned over to Zoe.

"Who was that, then?" he whispered.

"Miss Sims, the librarian. She caught us snooping around," Zoe whispered back.

"Ah. And if I ask why you were snooping…?"

"Only if I can ask why you and the Doctor got arrested. Again."

"..."

Zoe just raised her eyebrows at him and sped up to walk at the front of the group. With her memory of Sims' directions, she got them to the inn in less than five minutes.

It was a small, two story building that had certainly seen better times. The paint was peeling and the lobby was a room hardly bigger than Zoe's on board the TARDIS. There was an unlit fireplace and worn leather chairs. A curly-haired young man behind the desk leaned on the wall, looking very bored. Seeing them, life immediately jumped into him and his face broke into one of the biggest smiles Zoe had ever seen.

"Hello!" he said. "I'm Umar. Welcome to the 'Diville Inn!' How can I help you?"

"We're looking for a place to stay the night," Zoe said. Somehow, Umar's grin got even wider.

"You've picked a good spot! Now- two rooms, I suppose?"

"Er, yes," Zoe blushed slightly. She hadn't thought of that. I suppose Jamie would stay with the Doctors and I would stay with Bill… stay focused, Zoe!

"Um, Umar?" Bill asked

"Yes?"

"The mayor said that this is a town that doesn't get strangers. Why is there an inn, then?"

Umar considered. "Well, we've been under quarantine ever since that weird fog came to town and the mayor's son disappeared. He's forbidden anyone from coming in or leaving until it gets fixed. Before then we had some people pass through on their way out into the galaxy. So I suppose if you're here, Mr Mayor thinks that the situation is going to be over soon!"

"I wouldn't get my hopes up," Bill murmured. The young man's smile did not falter, so Zoe did not think that he heard her.

"The librarian said she'd take care of our payments," Zoe said.

"Good ol' Cassie! You'll be in rooms 11 and 12. Follow me!" Umar practically skipped down one of the short hallways to a staircase and began to leap up two stairs at a time.

The room was big, considering the size of the inn, and Zoe supposed that Umar was so excited to finally have guests again he gave them one of the better rooms. That was quite nice of him. There was one bed (two beds pushed together, thank goodness!), a window overlooking the street, and a small fridge near the door. As soon as she entered, Bill winced and began to rub her ears.

"Could I have the side of the bed away from the fridge?" she asked Zoe. She was confused, but said, "Of course!" Bill flashed her a smile and Zoe took a moment to remind herself to breathe.

The two young women relaxed, and Zoe thought back over the day. Well, not the whole day. She tried, but her mind kept going back to the library. Before she had called Bill over and they talked about rocks and astrophysics, she had found a curious little book. She had not made much of it at the time, but now she could not stop thinking about it. It had a dark blue leather cover, covered in runes she could not read in flaking silver leaf. There was absolutely nothing special about it. So why was she remembering it? Because you remember everything, she told herself. But that still did not seem right. She had seen other books just as ordinary as that one, but she was not obsessing over any of them. Maybe if she went to sleep, she would stop thinking about it…

"Zoe?" Bill asked.

"Yes?" Zoe said, startled.

"Would you mind if I asked the Doctor to lend me his sonic screwdriver? The fridge is driving me crazy and it would be some good white noise."

"Go ahead."

Bill disappeared through the door connecting their room to the Doctors' and Jamie's for a few moments for a few moments before reappearing, muttering furiously and turning over a rod-like device that glowed blue on one end. A warbling filled the air and Bill returned to bed, clutching it to her chest. A few moments later- or at least, it seemed like a few moments- she was asleep.

Zoe was sleeping too. Maybe. She felt more awake than ever. Her dreams were strange- puppets dancing and getting tangled in their broken strings before wrapping themselves into a cocoon, spiders singing along to the revelries and playing violins and bagpipes much louder than Jamie's, laughing echoing from the trapped puppets' mouths that was deep and loud and everywhere. And in the middle of it all, a door. A red door. An ordinary wooden red door. It filled Zoe with so much dread. She had to get away, had to leave, she did not want to be there, but then it creaked and opened and she saw what was behind it-

The clock beside the bed read 04:00 in bright green numbers. Bill was snoring beside her, the screwdriver still humming but now on the floor. She looked calm, and Zoe hated to disturb her. So much was already happening- the TARDISes getting stuck here, the weird mayor and equally weird librarian- her nightmares were of no concern. Zoe forced her head back to the pillow and closed her eyes again.