Rory was getting flashbacks from Venice. Walking down dark, stone stairs into a place that could actually be the home to some vampires. At least, this time, Amy was the one he was following and not the Doctor. But, at the same time, he missed being at home and just spending his days going to work.

There was a large wooden door at the end of the stairs down, and it took them a couple of tries to open it. However, unlike the front door, it did open. Rory also wasn't sure if he was happy that it did, because it just gave Amy a reason to go in head first into a creepy, most likely haunted, house after her raggedy man and his girlfriend.

He grabbed her arm before she stepped over the threshold. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked and she shot him a look before rolling her eyes.

"If we don't save them, no one will," she pointed out. "And if we don't save him then how do you expect to get home?"

He hated that she had a good point, but he let her arm go and followed her inside. The basement room they were met with followed the same theme as the staircase, and was stone from ceiling to floor. There was no light source of any kind and the shelves that lined the walls were bare and covered in cobwebs.

"Can't be used for much," Amy suggested hopefully. "I wonder if there is a way up…"

As she said that, the door behind them slammed shut and the room was suddenly filled with a dim light. Candles on all the walls had lit themselves, as if by magic, and the sudden change gave them both a bit of a fright. She immediately tightened her grip around the chair leg she still was carrying. Nothing seem to happen, though, except from her being able to locate some more stairs leading out of the room.

"That must be the way to the house," she declared. There was something rather self-assuring about working things out in a crisis, Amy had come to realise over the recent years. She knew Rory would follow, so with her makeshift bat out in front of her she took the stairs slowly. She stood a couple of stairs down from the door above them, bat at the ready, as she opened it. She was rather glad that it opened away from her. She pushed it fully open as she prepared to smack whatever was on the other side. Luckily, the kitchen seemed rather calm and after a moment she lowered her bat again.

"It's just the kitchen," she told her husband. "We should be safe in here."

"Of course," he muttered. "Except for the knives, the ovens, blenders, freezers…"

Amy shushed him. "The lights are on," she said. "Maybe there's someone around who can help us."

"Or eat us."

She didn't dignify his response with a reply and, instead, decided to take a look through the kitchen for any signs of what they were dealing with. The kitchen did look in better condition than the basement they'd just left, but it still didn't seem like it was often used. The first few cupboards were bare of anything except a couple of spiders that didn't bother her.

The fridge, on the other hand, was a different story. It was rather old fashioned and went with the rest of the house. It had to be one of the oldest refrigerators she had ever seen. Inside were rows upon rows of bottles, all with a red liquid inside that was definitely red wine, and nothing else.

"Find anything?" Rory asked after he noticed her pause, staring inside at the contents.

She quickly shut the door, shaking her head. "Nothing," she told him, knowing it was probably best to keep what she'd found to herself. Zombies, skeletons and swamp monsters were quite enough. She didn't want to bring vampires into the mix at all.

"You are not supposed to be in here."

Both of them jumped, bats at the ready, at the sound of the old voice at the door out of the room. An old man was stood there, in a suit with a rather grumpy look on his face. A butler, probably. Amy lowered her bat just slightly, stepping towards him.

"No, sorry, we're just looking for our friends," she explained. "The Doctor and Danni, have you seen them?"

"The master will not be pleased," the butler declared in a drawl. "This way." He stepped back into the hallway, but did not move, indicating he was not going anywhere without them. Amy and Rory shared a look, weighing up their options, before deciding together that following him was their best shot.

~0~0~0~

The cat didn't seem to be leading them anywhere. Or, rather, the cat did seem to be leading them, but as the Doctor and Danni continued down the hallway, past all of the portraits, they didn't seem to be going anywhere at all.

"Maybe he doesn't know where he's going, either?" Danni offered in a whisper to the Doctor. The cat, in reply, looked back at them and hissed, but continued on its way.

"Apparently he does," the Doctor replied as the cat had obviously been slighted by her comment. "Do you think there's a good chance of our feline friend leading us to the exit?" Danni shook her head. "No, I didn't think so."

"Do you think there's a set number of these?" she asked him. "Like, a number of challenges we have to pass to get to the other side?"

"Like an escape room?" the Doctor replied and his eyes lit up in excitement. "I've always wanted to do an escape room, but the tasks always seemed like they'd take seconds to complete."

"You mean too easy for your big Time Lord brain?" she retorted. "Or for your attention span?"

He almost protested, but then thought about it for a moment. "If it wasn't so easy, then I wouldn't lose focus," he decided, as if it was that and not the fact that he was a little bit of a giant kid.

Not that Danni minded. In fact, she loved his childish nature, and she felt herself relax a little bit. He always knew how to make her feel better when she was scared, and she nudged into him gently and playfully.

"That's just because you're too clever for the rest of the universe, Spaceman," she told him. "No one could make a proper escape room that could live up to your standards."

His smug look was short-lived as they reached the end of the corridor. The cat sat down in front of the wall that ended the hallway and stared at them silently. "Doctor," Danni started slowly. "There's no door here."

"You know, I had noticed that," he replied, looking around. The portraits had ended as well. In fact, except for the low lighting coming from the candles hanging from the ceiling, there wasn't much decoration at all. "I think we might have to go back."

"What, to the giggling, murderous, shadow kids?" she countered.

He clicked his fingers, pointing at her. "Good point, as always. However, I can't help but notice we've been led somewhere dark and blocked off and I don't think we should stay."

There was a clicking noise from beneath them, the sound of something mechanical starting up and the floor disappeared underneath them. Danni screamed in surprise as they landed on a metal surface that quickly sent them flying downwards. Her hand got pulled away from the Doctor's and she didn't stop screaming as she slid down the surprise slide. She couldn't make out anything around her as everything was pitch black, but she could feel the speed she was travelling and she hated every moment of it.

She hit the floor with a hard thud, her tail bone taking most of the force. She groaned in pain but was quick to move out of the way before the Doctor smacked into her and caused any more damage to her back.

She frowned, looking up the slide. "Doctor?" she called, but the Time Lord didn't answer. It also didn't sound like anyone was following her down either. Where had he gone?

"Don't worry, my dear, I'm sure he is quite safe."

She jumped, spinning around. She'd landed in a sitting room that had a fire burning in an ornate fireplace against one wall. It had two high backed chairs in front of it, and sat in one was the master of the house. He looked very comfortable, not at all surprised, and was nursing a glass of wine.

She scrambled off the floor, keeping her back against the wall as if it was going to help her. "I might believe you if we'd not almost been eaten by shadow kids," she replied.

He chuckled. "Ah, yes, Rebecca is quite feisty. Not many people make it past her or that charming doll of hers."

"Is… Is that how Maximus died?" she asked.

"No, that was the dancers," he replied. "He and his beau, Mary Anne, did love to dance. Now they'll never stop."

He took a sip of his wine and Danni felt very unsafe without the Doctor by her side when she was talking to man who seemed rather unaffected by the talk of death. "I thought they were cats?"

"Can't people be two things?" he counted. "Isn't your Doctor many men at the same time?" He motioned to the chair beside him. "Won't you join me?"

Actually, what she wanted to do was throw his invitation into his face and run out of the room as fast as possible, but she knew the best thing for her to do was sit tight until the Doctor found her. If she went running around the house who knew what she'd encounter, or whether she would survive it. So, she sat down next to him, perched on the edge of the rather large chair.

"So, you know the Doctor?"

"I can sense the many minds that are floating around his head," the man offered, which sounded like he'd not heard of the Doctor at all. Inwardly she sighed in relief. It was never a good sign when people knew who the Doctor was.

"Eleven to be exact," she replied. "All of them are rather fond of me."

"Let me guess; if I harm a hair on your head then he will stop me hurting anyone else ever again?"

He sounded amused, but Danni wasn't. "He's going to stop you either way," she said. "It'll just be much worse if you hurt me."

"Don't worry, my dear, I'm not looking to hurt you," he promised. "I'm looking to keep you."

~0~0~0~

Amy and Rory stayed close together as both of them held their makeshift weapons closer still as they followed the butler through the dark halls. They had learnt from too much experience that just because he looked like a harmless, if not rather stuck-up, old man it didn't mean that he didn't have some hidden terror hidden below.

"So, the Doctor and Danni," Amy spoke up, itching to get their friends and head out and to the beach she had been promised. "Where are they, exactly?"

"The master graciously offered them a bedroom for the evening," the butler drawled.

"Oh that's, that's nice," she replied, glancing at her husband, who could only shrug at his reply. It didn't really offer much in the way of answers, so she pushed on. "And they took him up on the offer, I guess?"

"At first," the bulter replied. "Then they decided to wander the house. I believe the master is dealing with them as we speak."

"Dealing with them?" she repeated, speeding up slightly to his side. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"They proved to be far too inquisitive to be mere night guests," he explained. "Mores the pity. However, you two will do as adequate replacements. It has been too long since the master has dined so well."

"Dined? You mean, with guests, right?" Rory asked with a nervous chuckle. "We are fantastic company, aren't we Amy?"

"Oh, the best, the very best," she agreed, falling back slightly. "You know the fridge?"

"The fridge?" he repeated and she nodded.

"The fridge in the kitchen before? You asked what was in it, and I said nothing."

He looked at her. "Yes, why?" he asked, suspicious.

"There wasn't nothing in it."

He shook his head. "Don't say it," he begged. "Please don't say it."

"There were a lot of bottles," she told him. "Clear bottles. With red liquid inside."

He almost threw his hands up in the air. "Of course," he hissed. "Let me guess, it wasn't wine, right?"

"I think it was blood," she confirmed. "Your master," she asked the butler loudly. "What does he eat, exactly?"

"For too long we've been living of our backup supply. However, two young, fresh humans like yourself will satisfy him for quite some time."

"Yeah, he's a vampire," she whispered to Rory. "We need to find the Doctor and Danni. Right now."

"How?" he whispered in reply. "We don't even know where they are."

As they approached what they both assumed was the dining room, Amy spotted a small door off to the side.

"That looks like a good place to start," she said. "Quickly, before he notices."

~0~0~0~

The Doctor landed on the floor with a thud, but he was off the floor before he had a chance to feel any pain. Danni should have been out first, as she was the first one to fall down the hole, but she didn't appear to be in the room so he braced himself to catch her when she came down the slide.

Which she didn't do. He frowned and looked up the hole trying to see her in the dark, but he couldn't even hear her coming. He used his screwdriver to shine a light and saw that the slide went off in two different directions. Unfortunately he couldn't see where the other path went and he quickly pulled himself out.

The room, unsurprisingly, was very dark. He wasn't sure how many floors he'd fallen down, but then again he wasn't sure if a proper floored layout was something the house even offered. From the outside it had looked to have about three stories, but who knew what the inside held. It could have been one, it could have been twenty.

Bigger on the inside. Where had he heard that before?

"Doctor!" Danni emerged from the dark, looking no worse for wear but very relieved to see him. "Thank god! I thought we'd been split up!"

He was very happy to let her chuck herself at him and he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly for a moment before pulling away. "Where did you come down?" he asked.

"Over there somewhere," she offered, pointing back behind her. "I thought that you were going to come down after me, but you didn't. It wasn't until I heard you use the screwdriver that I knew you were close by." She looked around, unable to see in the dark. "Where are we?"

"That is a good question, Danni-Girl," he replied. "Don't still happen to have that little torch of mine, do you?"

There was a pause as she patted herself down, then she shot him a sheepish grin. "I can get you a new one?" she offered as an apology.

"You lost it?" he exclaimed and she shrugged.

"I didn't mean to," she replied. "I'm sorry. I promise I'll replace it."

He opened his mouth again, ready to continue to rant about his favourite torch, but the guilty look she now had on her face caused him to just smile fondly at her. He knew she wouldn't have meant it, and it wasn't as if they had much control over the situation. It was only a torch, after all. She was his favourite of anyone and everything, so her being safe was the most important thing.

He turned back to face into the darkness in front of them. "Let's see if we can get some light on this situation," he stated, setting his screwdriver off. He hoped that, with the technology to change the inner workings of the house, then maybe he could trigger some emergency lighting. Instead, a mass of candles all seemed to flare into life at once.

"Oh god," Danni breathed, horrified.

The Doctor agreed with the statement entirely, although all it did was cause him to straighten and frown at the sudden seriousness it brought down on them. The room was cold stone, with different platforms placed about the room. Some were stained with old blood, some still had skeletons hanging from them in various degrees of completeness, while others were facing away so he wasn't sure what he would find. While it looked like it hadn't been used for a while, the room had been in used, and for nothing good.

He grabbed Danni's hand, pulling her a little closer to him. The implications of their presence in the room didn't bode well for either of them and his protective instincts over her kicked in. He wasn't about to let anyone hurt her, let alone put her on any of the torture devices he could see around them.

"Don't worry, Danni-Girl," he told her. "Everything will be fine."

She nodded, but sniffed, showing that she didn't quite believe it. "Look, over there," she whispered softly. "There's-There's another door."

She was right. Across the room was another door, probably the exit. "Why would they just show us it?" he asked.

"Maybe they're not worried about people escaping this one?"

He gave her hand a squeeze. "I'm sure it's nothing like that," he promised. "Hopefully this is just the last room, so we can exit and get back to Amy and Rory."

She nodded to herself. "I like the sound of that," she admitted. "Come on then, Time Boy. Let's try it and see what happens next."

She stepped forward, but he didn't follow. He didn't let go of her hand and she only stopped when she couldn't go any further. She turned to look at him, confused. "What's wrong?"

He looked her up and down. She looked right, with bright red hair and expressive eyes. "You're not Danni," he commented. His voice was calm, which was not how he was feeling inside.

"What?" she asked. "Of course I…"

"Stop it," he cut in, voice hard and firm. He let go of her hand. "You're playing a very dangerous game, trying to imitate Danni. You got further than I would expect, granted, but it didn't work for long and it won't work now."

She blinked, opening her mouth to protest, before a sickening grin spread on it instead. "You're right, I'm not," she purred back. "I didn't think you were going to cotton on. Shame. I had hoped to leave this room today."

"Where is she?" he demanded. "What have you done to her?"

"Do you really want to know?" she asked in return. "Because I don't think you do. I think you want to run away, Doctor. You won't like the answer."

He took a step closer. "If you have hurt her…"

"Oh, dear, I think we're a little beyond threats, aren't we?" the doppelganger replied. She skipped across the room. "If you're sure you want to know…"

"Tell me!" he shouted and she stopped and sighed heavily.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," she said in a sing-song voice before grabbing one of the platforms that was facing away from him. With a flourish she spun it around, displaying Danni strapped to the other side.