Fleeing through the darkened hallway from the shadowy dogs as they silently howled, only their pattering signaled their encroaching while Theodore and Lila kept their distance from the shadowy beasts as they followed them.
Using the torch is the only way for them to know where the dogs were, but it's not good for figuring out how to stop them, much less stun them, like Al said, they weren't too fond of the light shining on them.
Doubted throwing something at the shadows did anything and going by the fact he touched a shadowy child, that the shadowy dogs can harm them, as insane as it may sound to people.
How there's shadowy dogs in the mix, well, Theodore's pondering that himself, but it's a sign, that much he knows, and he'll work out the details once he and Lila reach a safe room, when that'll be, it's too soon to say.
Struggling, the two lucked out finding one of the few, if not only, lit rooms in the entire building, bright enough that shadows couldn't touch them, and it warded off the pursuing shadowy dogs that gave up once they saw the bright light, turning away, before disappearing into the darkness behind.
Likely, in wait for the two to step out of the lit room, at any point to pursue them once more.
Her hands on her knees as she's coughing while catching her breath, Lila remarked that of all things she expected to happen to her since she ended up pushed into the job, chased by shadow dogs wouldn't come up in her list, at all.
Inevitably, that changed.
Surveying the room, they barely ran into and shut the door behind them because of course, they're not risking opening themselves up to attacks, Theodore sees they're in a room that weren't like the others.
Not an office, cell, research lab, but rather, a lit room with nothing inside it.
There's a ceiling light, with bulbs in a circular pattern, keeping everything enveloped by light.
No corner or crevice escaped the light, not intensely bright as a sun, but enough to ward off the shadows.
It's questionable how this room had full-power, while the rest of the building's either shrouded by darkness or barely lit, at all.
With little they knew about Johnathan Bradley, Theodore suspected producing his own electricity wouldn't be out of the question in the disavowed researcher's attempts at keeping his efforts a secret.
Shadowy dogs led Theodore in believing that Johnathan Bradley knew what he was getting into with his bizarre research that this room's presumably a way for him to keep his research subjects from reaching him.
Though, it made Theodore wonder what happened that led much of the building left in the darkness and the rest in a dimly lit matter, which Lila suggested that his subjects gotten fed up with his work, and sought to ruin him, if not kill him outright.
Given they haven't found Johnathan Bradley or what remained of him, the latter's looking possible.
Don't think he could've escaped from his shadowy subjects if he tried in the state the building's in.
"Very true, my dear Watson," Theodore noted that Johnathan Bradley would've accounted for a chance that his pursuit in the research for shadow people (and dogs, apparently) resulted in a rebellion, well, in theory.
Not every scientist or researcher's smart in some aspects.
Some great at nuclear physics, some terrible at closing the cabinet doors.
The problem came when Theodore wondered what else Johnathan Bradley did to avoid the wraith of his creations.
Remembering the camera, Lila wondered if it had anything to do with it, but since it was destroyed, they'd never know for sure, unless Johnathan Bradley played it smart and made more.
If he did, they didn't know where he could've kept it, if the cameras are even intact.
Although, a camera of all things didn't come to mind when it came to shadows, maybe to scare them away, sure, but as a type of weapon?
Sounds like something out of a video game or one of those horror movies.
Al couldn't help much because Johnathan Bradley made sure no one knew what he was doing when he left Cambridge, that even something like a camera from a thrift store wouldn't raise much suspicion.
Stuck in the lit room, still powered by luck, Theodore and Lila went around, hoping to find something of use while they planned their escape from any more shadows.
Theodore wanted to spare the dramatics, have Al come for them, figuring that they'll have better luck with the protection of the TARDIS.
He reached out to Al, but as he did, something didn't quite feel right as Al talked to him.
"Al, we need you here. I believe we have an idea as to what to do, but I'll need your help," Theodore spoke to Al via his telepathy, expecting Al's usual antics, but when Al responded, there's something off about his voice.
Al stiltedly responded with, "I'm coming to find you."
Theodore's brow raised as he asked what was wrong with Al, the way he said it, it's almost unbecoming of him, and then he heard Al respond again with, "I'm coming to find you."
The stilted voice had an underlying emotion underneath it, one that sent chills down Theodore's spine, before he felt Al "leave" his mind, leaving him alone, before he promptly went to Lila, warning her that something's wrong.
"That couldn't be Al," Theodore's sure that who he spoke with in his head wasn't the TARDIS, prompting Lila to question how this person broached Theodore's mind.
If it was a person, at all.
It took Theodore days, weeks, before he confidently entered her mind without fear of harming her.
This person, just showed up in his head, like that, and it baffled Theodore, too.
He didn't want to attempt reaching out to Al again, in case the voice came back.
The only way he'd reliably contact Al's if they gone back to the TARDIS, though he doesn't see that happening, not with the risk of running into the shadowy dogs, again.
"What about opening a rift?" Lila suggested that Theodore open one in the room, since he's aware of where the TARDIS ended up and the distance, it shouldn't be too hard.
Sure, as hell beats trying to escape through the hallways and Theodore agreed with her, but he stopped when he felt the energy in the area, looking for the ingredients to make a rift back to the TARDIS.
Something about the energy, it should've been everything Theodore needed, but the more he felt it, a sense of dread came over him, instead.
The energy, don't ask how Theodore knows it, but it felt like the energy knew what he was doing, what he planned, and took offense at his attempt at manipulating it.
Silently, it negatively reacted to him, and Theodore felt the repercussions of his attempt, the nauseating feeling overtaking him, while Lila hurried to his side.
Helping him sit down, Lila held him as he felt the nausea, lightheaded, his mind in a fog he couldn't escape from.
Holding him, Lila comforted him as the nausea slowly passed him, as he sat on the ground with Lila rubbing his shoulder with her free hand as she held him in the other.
Slowly coming out of it, Theodore slowly blinked his icy blue eyes, turning his head to see Lila staring at him with worry in her chestnut eyes.
Showing her his pearly whites, he comforted her, as she sighed in relief.
"What the hell happened to you?" Lila asks him what brought on the attack and Theodore warned her that Johnathan Bradley did more than whatever he set out to do, at least what Theodore got out of the experience.
"It felt like, it was alive!" Theodore hesitated as the feeling stuck with him while he sat with Lila under the lights above.
Without risking his head, Theodore couldn't produce a rift for them to travel through, and with what happened with his attempted conversation with Al, he doesn't know what they'll do.
They're effectively trapped in this room until the lights above go out or they starve, whichever comes first.
"You don't think it was that shadow, do you, masquerading as Al?" Lila wearily asked Theodore on the chances that the shadow she saw happened to be the one that got into Theodore's head, subtly threatening him while masquerading as Al.
Pondering this, Theodore frowned as he says he wouldn't be surprised if that's the case, but it wouldn't explain why the energy around them's sentient.
Worse, they don't know how the energy's capable of manipulating the area on its own.
"And Al didn't catch it?" Lila's baffled how Al could've missed something like that, considering he should've picked up on even the sound of a penny dropping from the other side of the world.
As he slowly recovered in the warmth of Lila's arms, Theodore pondered this before saying that it's possible that Al didn't pick it up, because it shows up as normal on the scanner.
They're always looking for anomalies, anything unusual, never thought about looking for something like this, energy acting on its own accord.
Which, energy does whatever it wants within reason, yes, but never sentient like this.
Looking at their optics, they've encountered shadow people and dogs, something masquerading as Al, and now, sentient energy.
It's looking less like Johnathan Bradley bit off more he could chew and something else entirely.
Stuck in their position, the two didn't know where to go from here, unable to find their way back to the TARDIS, unable to escape through a rift, their hands tied, it looked grim.
'Till Theodore heard Morse code in the form of knocking at the door.
He instantly recognized it came from a child, due to the height, as he listened, he heard the rhythmic knocking.
It's a question.
The child's asking if he's inside the room and with Lila's help, he stood up from the laminated ground, her helping him towards the door, with him knocking on their side the answer.
He answered that he's in the room, but he can't leave, the dogs are still around, and the child knocked that they saw them, too.
"Do you know where Johnathan Bradley went?" Theodore asks the child where the researcher went as he knocked on the door.
He heard the knocks afterwards.
The child doesn't know.
Theodore then knocked another question, "How did you get here?"
In haphazard knocks, the child replied that they can't remember, one moment they were elsewhere, next, they were here.
"How many others are there?" Theodore inquired how many more shadows there were here and the child answered that they're not sure.
Theodore then asked where the shadows came from, but the child didn't know.
They just want to go home, that's all they wanted.
"We can help you, but we aren't sure if we can leave this room safely," Theodore tells the child that they want to help, but with the threat of the shadowy dogs and whatever else lays in wait, they're effectively trapped in the only fully lit room of the entire building.
For a moment, there's silence, but then there's knocking on the door, again, and Theodore translated it as, "I'll help! Hold on, I'll try to ward them off!"