Fleeing through the darkened library while the black wall behind grew, Theodore and Lila didn't stop running until they're hoisted through the end of the latest aisle they fled through where they're greeted to the sight of a large area with a counter taller than the two of them stacked.
Behind, the black wall closed them inside the new area, preventing them from leaving, and forced them to survey the new area.
Looking up, they see something laying over the counter, not moving, and Theodore welded his Sonic Screwdriver as he tempted to create a light for them to see. The darkness' thick that it wouldn't cut through it alone, so he improvised with Lila.
Not much for them to use in the area they're cordoned in, but they managed to makeshift some lanterns with sheets of unused paper laying around on the ground. With some ingenuity on Theodore's part, the papers held together and he used the Sonic Screwdriver to create a reaction, sending the paper lanterns upright, creating light inside from the reaction.
There's enough light for them to see a dead alien slumped over with at least six long arms draping over the side of the counter, its pale skin blackened and its mouth of sharp black piny teeth gape. The large humanoid head slanted on the side, the eyes closed, but they were at least four quarter sized dots.
Lila remarked, "What alien's this one?"
Never seen one like this before, looked like something from "Pan's Labyrinth" without the eyes on the palms of its hands.
Studying the alien, Theodore's confused as she is, as he never seen or heard of an alien like this one before. The long arms, the elongated thin fiddle body, nothing sprang to mind as Theodore studied the corpse.
Judging the state of decay, Theodore thinks it died months ago, but due to the environment of the library, the body's decaying at a slower rate. It's preserved.
"What do you think killed it?" Lila continued as she looked at the corpse curiously, trying to understand what they're looking at.
Theodore looked at it closely, before concluding that there's no visible wounds on the body. Must've died from natural causes, but Theodore's not an ME, wouldn't know what to look for, if how.
"Whatever it is, it's tied to the library, the long arms, the narrow body, it must've shelved every book here," Theodore concluded.
Lila remarked that as she looked down to her feet to see the papers and pens, "I think it wrote every book!"
Trying to find books closest to them without going near the walled off areas, the two found that they're more biographies of random people, and Theodore found a pattern.
All the biographies written about humans, no aliens of any sort, and Theodore's able to prove it because he went through an entire shelf.
Only humans, no half-bloods like him and his siblings, no alien interaction, nothing.
"Why would an alien write about humans?" Lila asked Theodore why an alien took up the hobby of writing books about random humans it never encountered before. Doesn't make sense and more that Lila hadn't even heard anything about an alien doing something like it.
Chewing on his inner lip, Theodore replied that he doesn't know why it did, but it's done it for centuries, maybe longer, and must've wrote a biography of every human in existence.
"You think he wrote about your mom?" Lila wondered if it only wrote about humans, it wrote about Theodore's mother.
Crossing his arms as he ponders Lila's question, Theodore suspected it might've, and that raised questions on how such an alien's able to write biographies about humans extensively.
Without any lights in the library or a map, there isn't any way to know for sure, not to mention they're walled in with whatever's blocking them off, and they don't know what they're dealing with.
Like Lila guessed, not something they wanted to go near, and yet they must do something or else they're waiting for a long time.
Don't know what these things were, but Theodore's able to tell they're looking at hundreds of them, tiny things, coordinated, and plotting.
"Maybe they killed the alien?" Lila suggested whatever they're dealing with's the culprit, but Theodore showed doubt as he turned towards her.
Shoving his hand in one of his pockets, Theodore brought out a tightly wound bag of his favourite sweets.
Jelly babies.
He and his siblings ate them constantly in their youths. Their father ate them plenty and their mother always kept them from rotting out their teeth due to them eating so much.
Hammond won't admit it, but sometimes, he keeps a small bag hidden inside his coat, for when he's done with meetings.
Despite his penchant for forced politeness, even he's not above the deliciousness of jelly babies. They're one of his major kryptonite, always needs a bag somewhere for him to nosh on. In his office or inside his coats, he'll never give a chance to eat them.
He's particular with the brand, always eating the same ones as their father, never eating any other brands. Whenever someone accidentally buys him the wrong kinds, no matter how, he'll always know, and he doesn't shy away from his disdain towards anything that isn't this brand.
Theodore has no shame keeping bags of the sweets on his person and unlike Hammond who greedily keeps them to himself, he'll share them with others more than once, except for Ben.
He hasn't shared them with Ben and that's not because he's close with Theodore's baby sister and he's acting like a big brother.
Quite contrary.
Theodore likes Ben and conceded that perhaps his baby sister doesn't need him to give Ben the side eye every now again.
They had a disagreement over the mechanical aspects of hydraulics and despite Ben's insistence, Theodore refused to agree with his points. The causality of this' his ability to obtain a jelly baby from Theodore. Theodore does not, will not concede for something so simple as hydraulics.
His father worked on dams and he's seen them built up from the ground up, knows every atom, particle, whatever about hydraulics.
Not to mention, he's the Doctor, now, and that granted him knowledge that proves his point.
Of course, Odette doesn't see the humour in it and made it a point to force the two to concede and agree to disagree, even if one of them's right.
Theodore's still unwilling to share a jelly baby with Ben and that's likely to continue for a while.
There's somethings Theodore needed to take a stand on.
Unwrapping the bag of Jelly Babies, Theodore grabbed one, the grape flavoured one.
He hated the idea of wasting one, but desperation calls for desperate acts.
Gritting his teeth, Theodore tosses the jelly baby as far as he's able to the other side of the black wall keeping them back.
The jelly baby didn't drop on the ground.
"Mhm, gonna have to throw more," Lila noted that it's not conclusive on what they're dealing with.
Frowning, Theodore didn't want to throw away more jelly babies, unfortunately, he needed to test theories with Lila, and that means he has to do the unthinkable.
"Fine, if I must," Theodore sighed as he grabbed a couple of more jelly babies from the bag before throwing them closer to where he and Lila are able to see better.
One thrown closest to them disappeared instantly in the black wall and hadn't dropped to the ground.
"Okay, now what?" Lila wearily looked towards Theodore for guidance as he's thinking the same thing as her, scratching his head with his free hand before tying up his precious jelly babies, and tried something else.
Searching around the area, Theodore grabbed a pen before slowly walking towards the black wall, Lila cautiously remained in her spot while watching Theodore.
Holding the pen outstretched near the the cap, Theodore held it far from him as he's able, slowly nearing the black wall.
A gentle push through the black wall, Theodore felt a jolt and when he pulled back, part of the pen's completely gone!
He recoiled and returned to Lila's side, showing her the pen as it's halved.
Studying the pen, Theodore sees tiny incisions on the remaining part of the pen. He deduced that they're dealing with a type of insect.
"Ah, wonderful, I seen that in a movie once, or a couple," Lila winces as she's told that their culprit's of an insect variation.
However, if they're capable of eating anything, then it raised a question for Theodore.
"Why haven't they eaten the body?" Theodore asked Lila as she furrowed her brow at this question.
Shrugging her stout shoulders, Lila replied, "Wha-I dunno, maybe they think there's no meat on its bones?"
It's bothering Theodore like an itch he can't scratch.
Why haven't these insects touched the body, despite it being here for weeks, and why he and Lila haven't been eaten, yet.
"It doesn't make any sense," Theodore recoiled as his brow raised, unable to find an explanation.
These microscopic insects, capable of devouring anything that goes through their swarms in record time, like microscopic piranhas.
Strange, they haven't devoured the corpse of the alien, made no sense, until Lila wondered if they have preferences.
Theodore suspected differently.
If these insects wanted, they would've eaten Theodore and Lila instantly, but they didn't. Just let them wander around the library until now.
Odd, intriguing, and frightening.
Shaken from his train of thoughts, Theodore and Lila felt a jolt under their feet, as they heard a loud thudding noise coming from somewhere in another part of the library.
"So, what's our outlook?" Lila casually asked Theodore as they're thrown in the spanner, yet again.
Theodore chewed on his bottom lip, trying to think, and replied, "Strange, baffling, and concerning."