With the shadow people on the mind, Theodore's baffled at what Johnathan Bradley saw in the phenomenon that he willingly departed from his prestigious line of work to chase after it, with Lila reminding him that the people they've met over the course of their adventures weren't the brightest bulbs, that it shouldn't surprise him that someone backed the wrong horse.
Theodore couldn't disagree with that, though with the photograph he still carried with him, he suspected there's a lot more to this than a man's obsession over a phenomenon.
Their search for answers resulted in them finding the cells like the one in the picture, rows of claustrophobic cells, no windows, no cots, no signs of even a crumb, it's insulting to look at the row of cells, seeing the bars so tightly together that they can't even look in them closely.
As he glanced inside the closed cells, Theodore caught sight of something in the corner of one of the cells, huddled.
He stopped Lila as he lowered his torch, and even turned it off, looking at the cell, going up to it, and peaking inside.
It wouldn't been obvious if someone wasn't looking intently like he did, but he sees an outline of a person in the corner, their back turned from him.
Turning his head, he sees the cell locked.
Chewing on his inner lip, Theodore softly called out to the person in the corner.
They initially didn't turn towards him, but he kept trying, while he sent Lila off to look for the keys with the torch, he didn't want to frighten the person in the corner with the whirl of his Sonic Screwdriver.
"It's okay, I'm here to help you. I'm the Doctor," Theodore tells the person hunched in the corner.
Still wouldn't turn their back, but Theodore sees subtle movement, and when Lila came back, after finding the keys, he ordered her to stay away from the cell while he went in.
Lila eyed him, but Theodore assured her that he'll be fine.
Nodding, Lila waited off to the side in the darkness as Theodore unlocked the cell, slowly opening the cell door, he sees the cell, his icy blue eyes on the person in the corner.
Seeing it closely, it looked like a child, but he couldn't get too close to see, and he didn't want to frighten them.
Holding out his long arm, his palm outstretched, Theodore softly talked to the person, telling them that he's not there to hurt them, he wants to help, and stop whatever's going on, he gave them his word.
Slowly, the dark head turned towards him, and Theodore couldn't see their face, but he could feel their eyes, their judgmental eyes, before turning their whole body towards Theodore.
Gesturing, Theodore continued talking to them softly, his arm still outstretched, and those unseen eyes no longer held judgement in them, they've become cautiously relieved.
Cautiously, there's a shadowy arm reaching up to Theodore's hand, he sees their hand, and they took his.
Its hand felt solid in his as he helped the shadowy child up from the ground, went up to his waist, and he sees the head looking up at him with curiosity in those unseen eyes.
Showing them his pearly whites, Theodore asks for their name, but the shadowy child didn't respond.
Pondering, Theodore then asks the shadowy child another question, if they're hurt.
To his amazement, Theodore sees the shadowy figure move their head, shaking it, as they silently tell him that they're not hurt.
"What happened here, do you know?" Theodore asks the shadowy child what happened, hoping they'd tell him everything that happened, but there's a change in the air, something fierce, and the shadowy child unexpectedly starting making inaudible sounds, and even without any features, Theodore sees them becoming increasingly nervous.
Retracting his hand, Theodore sees the nervousness conveyed in the shadowy form, as he tried to ask the shadowy child what's happening, but he couldn't get an answer, still.
Instead, he sees the shadowy child quivering in their spot, and as Theodore attempted to comfort them, he felt an intense presence behind him.
Immediately, Theodore turned around to face the doorway, his icy blue eyes filled with alarm, but there's no one there, when he attempted to turn back towards the shadowy child, he found they disappeared.
In the cell, there's only him, no way for the shadowy child to hide, and he immediately left the cell, searching for Lila.
He found her coming towards him, the torch shining at her feet, asking if he saw the person standing in the doorway, too.
Having thought it might've been Johnathan Bradley, Lila tried to spot him in the darkness, but her torch did nothing, and she only saw darkness.
In fact, light couldn't breach it, even if she tried, and she tried to call out to Theodore, but it was though he couldn't hear her through it, either.
Enough to send her on edge, Lila attempted in walking towards the cell Theodore went into, but she couldn't find it in the darkness.
The figure she thought was Johnathan Bradley moved on by then, but the thing that got her, she didn't hear any footfall coming from the figure, at all.
Aimlessly moved, like the breeze.
It's a good thing Theodore came out of the cell when he did, because Lila didn't know what else to do, and she didn't want to get lost in the darkness that now became permitting to the torch.
"You didn't see the child?" Theodore asks her and she responded that she only saw the shape in the doorway and him, she didn't see anything looking like a small child.
Slowly nodding his head, his wild hair bobbing, Theodore sighs as he tells Lila what he experienced, and Lila remarked that if the shadowy child left the cell, she didn't hear their footsteps.
Keeping her close to him, Theodore led Lila through the darkened hallway while holding his torch, light flashing every crevice he could shine on.
Reaching out to Al, telling him what happened, Theodore heard the AI respond that he finds it impossible, that what Theodore and Lila experienced happened.
Insisting on Al looking into it deeper, Theodore swore what occurred, and the AI relented, before saying that he'll come up with something.
Meanwhile, he did find a missing person file on Johnathan Bradley, guess someone cared enough to notice him falling off the face of the earth that they put in a missing person on him.
It was filed at least a few years ago, since nothing came of it, the case's colder than leftover turkey.
Though it gave Al a framework, so that's something.
From when Johnathan Bradley leaving Cambridge to the missing person report, it's a six-year span.
The disavowed researcher did well, covering his tracks, so it seemed, with his withdrawals under a certain amount that prevented suspicion, at intervals that wouldn't cause alarm, he disappeared.
What he did with that money, that's hard to say, but given the building, he managed to do everything he wanted with the money he carefully withdrew.
Still, someone should've made mistakes.
No one is that trustful they wouldn't throw Johnathan Bradley under the bus if they felt like it.
None of added up and Al's looking into the old and tried government conspiracy, but it doesn't seem like anyone cared about the disavowed researcher's switch.
If he'd told anyone, that is.
Seems like Johnathan Bradley went on his own march and knew that nobody believed him at his word, given the reaction at Cambridge, that he did things on his own, without anyone's aid, adding to the idea that he simply paid everything with the cash he withdrew.
Or, as Al remarked, he didn't want anyone knowing what he was doing because he didn't want the risks of them intervening or asking for a share.
It's the cynic in him, he knows.
"Well, what about the shadow, Al, I felt its hand, I saw the fear," Theodore perplexedly asked Al about what he experienced and Al mustered that he didn't find any disturbances on his scanners, nothing suggesting that Johnathan Bradley's a mad scientist with a machine.
How Theodore encountered a corporal shadow, Al can't find any reason of its existence, nothing points to a conclusive answer.
"Unless… Al… what if you're wrong, what if there are shadow people?" Theodore broached an idea with Al, suggesting that perhaps, while there are the echoes and the hallucinations, perhaps there are shadow people, right under their noses that slipped away because people don't know any better.
Al found it hard to believe, proclaiming he would know the moment a Silurian unburied themselves from a hibernation.
"Surely, there's something," Theodore wracked his brain for ideas, while walking with Lila through the silent hallway, passing by the opened doorway.
Al said he'll look for more details, saying that if Johnathan Bradley's still alive, then he's their best chance at figuring out what's going on, unless a miracle happens.
Which, Al says not to ask for maps, because the man clearly didn't put any on the internet, or anyone, really.
"I'll keep working my magic, you two, keep doing what you do best, and I'll get back to you. On the off-chance you're right, kid, I'd keep the flashlight close to you," Al gave his advice before disappearing from Theodore's head, continuing his work while Theodore wracked his mind over the situation.
If they find Johnathan Bradley, it's easy as getting him to talk, but if he's dead as Al says, they don't have much to go on, unless he can get the shadows to talk to him, and help him figure out what they are and how Johnathan Bradley trapped them.
Unless they're incapable of speech, then, maybe charades, Theodore's good at those.
Her chestnut eyes glistening from the light of the flashlight, Lila tried to come up with an idea on how there's shadow people, actual shadow people, and the more she's thinking, the more she's coming up with blanks in her mind.
For some reason, there's things that aren't coming to mind, and normally Lila didn't have the issue, but suddenly, some things just become blanks in her mind.
It's the small things, too, Lila noticed.
She knows her family's medical history, she isn't at risk for dementia or whatever, for some reason, there are just blanks.
Hard to explain, Lila knows, but it's akin to feeling like she should've had an answer for this, but nothing came to mind.
While searching for Johnathan Bradley without a map of the building, the idea's he wouldn't need a map of a place he knew intimately.
The laminated flooring didn't help, muffling their footsteps as they're walking, the deafening silence around them, and as she's walking, Lila started hearing pattering footsteps coming from behind them.
It's subtle because of the floor, but she heard familiar tapping noises following the pattering footsteps.
She alerted Theodore by their connection through telepathy and Theodore instructed her as he readied his flashlight.
When the moment came, he sharply turned around, flashed the light where they thought they heard the pattering, and there wasn't anything in front of them.
… Rather, it was on the wall adjacent to them.
A pair of shadowy dogs.
They instantly took offense to the presence of the light on them, becoming aggressive.
"Run!" Theodore grabbed Lila's hand before they fled from the attacking dogs as they silently chased after.