In a sleepy town, there's a mansion on the tallest hill, having been there since it's first inception some centuries ago, going through redesigns since then, to what it is, now.
Owned by some of the most powerful families over the years, it's not surprising there's a myriad of stories that came out of the mansion.
Ghost stories, political intrigue, name it, at some point in time there's stories about something that happened in the mansion, but like all stories, no one's ever sure if they happened, at all.
Years of changing hands, the mansion now belonged to Harold Thornton the Third.
Lived alone in his mansion, hardly had any guests, an intrigue unto itself, that he became a subject of stories himself, but these days Harold worked as a curator of the arts, presenting people art that he collected over the years.
He claimed that most came from his family, though many offered, he refused to sell them, claiming that he'd feel wrong selling them, despite the offers ranging almost twenty million.
Through intrigue, Harold became talk of the town, before he started hosting parties with select people, showing his art collection, curators of different museums among them, begging for him to loan the works out to their respected museums, and though Harold let them say their piece, he would always decline.
Didn't stop them from trying, however.
These days, the sleepy town saw tourism through the local delicacies sold in different stores, using the legends of the mansion for their sales, and tourists admire the mansion from afar, as Harold wasn't fond of them coming up the winding bricked path, closing the path off from wanderers majority of the time.
Thick shrubbery and the intwining trees kept the bold from sneaking up there, as they're prone to trying despite Harold's insistence.
Today, marked the anniversary of the Thornton heritage, Harold invited his closest colleagues to partake in the celebration, chief among them, the one and only… the Doctor.
Having gotten a letter from an anonymous man proclaiming that something isn't right in the mansion, led Theodore and Lila coming to the sleepy town, hoping to see what comes of it.
"Sure, beats the spore nightmare we were in last week," Lila sighed as she stepped out of the TARDIS, adjusting the messenger bag she brought with her, with Theodore behind her, pulling on his tweed long coat, as he closed the door behind him with his free hand.
Agreeing with her, Theodore joined her side, surveying their new surrounding, seeing a quant English town in the distance, nothing surprising about it.
Their arms interlocked, the two departed, walking on the brownstone cobbled path into the town, the smell of freshly baked bread wafted through the air, as they passed a bakery, people inside waiting for their orders.
Everything fixed up, Lila already sees the inklings of a tourist trap, doing everything possible to generate revenue, as there's nothing much going on in the town.
She sees a handful of tourists roaming around, capturing every detail with a camera, from their mannerisms, Lila deduced them from Germany.
His icy blue eyes moving around, Theodore sees the town catering to tourists looking for a place with some sort of history background.
Something caught his eye in the window of a bookstore, bringing Lila along as they stepped inside, snapping up the book, Theodore sees it's about the tales and ghost stories collected around the area.
On the cover, the mansion on the tallest hill.
"I think I saw that movie," Lila saw comparisons as Theodore perused the book with interest, following the index as he reached the pages describing the unusual ghost stories of the mansion.
Standard apparitions appearing late at night, phantom voices, things moving on their own, very prominent things that's been covered before.
Flipping through the pages, Theodore's brow raised as he looked through the passages describing the disturbances in the mansion.
He found a page describing the history of the mansion, it's early beginnings throughout the years, until now.
Gently closing the book, Theodore conversed with Lila as she had her own copy, reading it, before saying, "Yep, totally saw that movie."
Closing her copy, she sees cogs turning in Theodore's head as he turned around, locating the bookstore owner, inquiring more about the mansion, the woman gushed as she talked about it.
Seemed like the mansion was the best thing to happen the sleepy town, without it, it'd just be that, a sleepy town that's easily forgettable since there's ten more nearby with better amenities.
"So, uh, what's the skinny on this 'Thornton' ghost I keep seeing?" Lila inquired more about the titular ghost that she sees popping up in the passages while reading the book.
The bookstore owner tells her that legends go, tragedy struck the Thornton family that lived in the manor that came before the mansion, since then, the land became haunted by a ghost of one of the Thorntons, unable to move on.
She didn't say much more, hustling for a purchase by the way of the look in her eyes.
Pointing to the book in Lila's hand, the bookstore owner cheerfully says, "That'll be thirteen quid, love."
Their brows raised, Theodore reached into his pocket, grabbed the amount, and gave it to the bookstore owner, taking it in her hands, as she thanked him, before asking if he liked a receipt, which he declined, while Lila held the copy of "The Ghost Stories of Thornton Manor" in her hands.
Leaving the bookstore, Lila continued looking through the book that they're hustled into buying, didn't seem like any different than the books that come through the library more than once.
However, it'll make for a good souvenir, so Lila shoved it in her messenger bag.
"Sounds like every place has their own Amityville," Lila described how many places in the world have a haunted dwelling, always with the same set of stories, just a different cast to go with them, only a handful received the status deserving of a movie franchise that overstayed its welcome after the first movie.
Shrugging his wide shoulders, Theodore says, "Hm, but that's the fun of it, isn't it?"
Makes it more interesting, even if the average person didn't put stock in the ghost stories.
"Yeah, but you think after it came out that they made up the whole thing to get out of debt, it'd nix interest in sequels," Lila shrugged as she pointed out that when the truth came out, normally, public interest would wane as people see through the veil, but here they are, sequels that get progressively worse.
Blinking, Theodore reminded her that it shouldn't surprise her, considering how many "true story" movies turn out to be embellished or made-up completely to draw out the audience.
"And that includes 'The Exorcist,' my dear Watson," Theodore reminds her about the horror movie allegedly based on a true story, spawning sequels long after the original.
Sighing, Lila says, "I remember watching it at my grandparents after unscrambling the movie channel and scaring Nana so bad she nailed a cross in every room."
Ah, the shenanigans wrought by a young Lila, stealthy using a de-scrambler to obtain a premium channel that'd normally be impossible to view without phoning the company and upgrading the package, watching the movies on it while she stayed with her grandparents for the year.
It was around October, Lila remembered because it was a marathon of horror movies, perfect for the time, and in the rotation, 'The Exorcist.'
Lila had to watch it late at night when her grandparents went to bed, so she'd use the de-scrambler without detection, something she did routinely, always undoing it before morning, so no one the wiser.
Well, during the scene where Reggie twisted her head 180 to look at the priests, that was the moment her Nana foolishly wandered in to check on her.
Until she moved to the UK full-time with her dad, Nana carried a small cross with her, in case she chanced walking in on it, again.
These days, de-scrambling signals to obtain premium channels carried far greater risks than they did in the '90s, that Lila no longer had the chance doing similar with satellite TV.
Though, it wasn't like she had any time to watch anything, between working in the library and adventuring with Theodore, usually by the time she gets to something, it's already passed the expiration date unless it hit enough notes to resonate with current and future audiences.
"Stealing cable, my word!" Theodore shook his head at the egregious use of the de-scrambler.
Snorting, Lila goes, "Don't act like you haven't used your Sonic Screwdriver to get them, I know what's on that set box."
Firing back, Lila hints that she knows Theodore used his Sonic Screwdriver to obtain premium channels without paying the devil his due, causing Theodore to say, "And I know for a fact, you've been watching them."
Didn't expect Theodore to quick fire a response like that, did she?
"Yeah, with beer, pizza, and a Teddi," Lila didn't deny this, though pointed out that it didn't mean Theodore isn't as guilty as her for participating in watching premium channels.
Oh, also foreign channels, can't forget those.
The handy Sonic Screwdriver did more than give Theodore premium channels in the UK, it included channels from all over the world, including channels from Japan.
Which led to them watching broadcasts real-time.
Time differences aside, when they had the time, they'd watch some of the game shows coming out of Japan.
'Ninja Warrior' being one of them, seeing the feats performed by the participants on that show, looks like child's play compared to what Theodore and Lila go through on a daily.
The fear of someone in a black two-piece suit and black shades coming around looking for them's nil because of the Sonic Screwdriver, so they're free to watch whatever channel the set box managed to pick up.
Not the most insidious crime committed.
"Man, I wish I had it when I had to fiddle with that damn thing," Lila grew jealous that all Theodore needed to do was pulse the Sonic Screwdriver against the set box, that's that, meanwhile, it took her several tries to de-scramble the signals, managing to make out barely a scene before getting it right, right before she left for the UK.
Couldn't replicate the feat if she tried, not that she could, different laws and whatnot.
"So would I," Theodore sighed as he walked with her, arms interlocked, as they made their rounds around the sleepy town, seeing what's there, before making their way to the blocked off gate leading up the mansion.
It'd seem that Harold wasn't fond of obtrusive guests, given how the town's using the history of the mansion for business, not surprising.
The only way they're going up the winding path's something Lila doesn't see very often unless she traveled in the past with Theodore.
A horse-drawn carriage, pulled by a pair of black stallions.
Given the town's aesthetics and trying to draw tourists with ghost stories, not out of place.
Wasn't so, the carriage driver says that Harold Thornton hired him as a personal carriage driver for guests.
The winding path up to the mansion's a difficult prospect for newer vehicles, especially larger ones such as lorries, that Harold thought it'd be safer if his guests took a carriage driver up, instead.
And, keep unwanted people from coming up whenever they wanted.
"Hail, traveler, what's your business?" The carriage driver called down to them as he sat on the wooden seat.
Theodore showed him the invitation from Harold Thornton, the carriage driver looked the invitation over, before allowing Theodore and Lila into the carriage behind him.
Entering the carriage, Theodore stepping inside first, helping Lila afterwards, they sat across from each other, closing the door, they felt the carriage move as the carriage driver commanded the black stallions to move in tandem, and they did.
"Fancy," Lila noted that she never thought she'd take a carriage ride up to a mansion, yet here she was, and Theodore replied with, "Quite."
The hooves clopped against the brownstone path, horses snorting, as the carriage driver controlled the speed the horses walked, allowing them ample time to adjust as they turned through the winding path.
"Okay, so, guy in the letter says that something's going on in the mansion, what are we looking at, weird alien experiments, random fluctuations with the universe, the mansion built over a burial ground?" Lila went over what they're looking for in the mansion, the letter's sparse on the details, so they don't know what they're looking for, and Al, well, he didn't find anything out of the ordinary.
Maybe he's just too keen trading electrical charges with Bumble tonight that he tried to cut corners, hard to say, not the first time it's happened.
Swear, he's becoming more like the real deal every day since taking that form.
Sighing as he felt the light movement of the carriage as the horses clopped, Theodore replied that it's hard to say, since Al hadn't detected anomalies, it's hard to say, but since they've been in the business long enough, that it shouldn't take long for them to figure out why they're there.
The trip up to the mansion only took fifteen minutes due to the carriage driver's mindfulness of the brownstone path, up arriving at the bottom steps, he stopped his carriage, calling out to the two as Theodore opened the door.
Stepping down first, Theodore helped Lila down, as he closed the door, Theodore called up to the driver, asking how they'll reach him when they're ready to head back to the village, leading to the carriage driver telling him that they'll have to phone for him.
Number's inside the mansion.
Well, that's something.
Thanking him, Theodore and Lila watched the carriage driver gently raise and lower the reigns, sending the horses away from the steps, leaving Theodore and Lila alone, as they began walking up the steps to the large French-style doors.
His large hand reaching out, Theodore grabbed the door knocker, the mount in the shape of a wolf's head, slamming the brass knocker against the pearly white door a couple of times, retracting his hand as he stepped back.
Standing beside Lila, Theodore waited with her, until the French-style doors opened inward, a tall lanky man stood in the doorway, his appearance reminded Lila of Jeremy Irons, obviously there's small differences between the two, but the likeness's there.
"Oh my, how did you two find your way up, here?" Theodore heard the man asking them, his accent posh, but sounded like he lived aboard at some point.
Showing him his pearly whites, Theodore showed him the invitation to the party, the man overlooked it with intrigue, looking up at Theodore with his brow raised.
Well, Theodore would've worn something more formal, but he reserved those for whenever Hammond forced his attendance to whatever strikes his interest that he knows would drive Theodore mad.
Lowering his brow, the man hands back the invitation, miffed, as he goes, "You don't look like any doctor that I'm familiar with."
A light shrug, Theodore says, "I aim to subvert expectations."
Turning his attention to her, the man asks about Lila, which Theodore says that he invited her, and hoped it's okay.
Bemused, the man responded, "Most peculiar, this, but as they say, the more the merrier, you may come in."
He allowed them to step through the threshold, greeting them in the center of the main area's a statue of a woman, behind her, there's two staircases opposite of each other leading up to the first floor.
Following the man, he led them around the statue, towards a hallway, where they see paintings on the walls, from different points in time.
Theodore's able to identify what painting came from which era.
He says the ones that were made post-Bikini Bottom smelled like flat seltzer when the painting's old, but recent paintings smelled heavily of seltzer to him.
Don't ask him why, that's how he knows.
Lila trusted him and their arms interlocked, they continued following him until they arrived at the parlor where there's others already there.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the Doctor and his companion," the man allowed the two through the threshold.
There's an old married couple, a man around Theodore's age, and a slightly older man pouring himself a glass of whisky.
"Please make yourselves comfortable," the man smiled at the two before telling them all that he needed to finish some things, he'll retrieve them afterwards.
Otherwise, he encouraged them to mingle with the others, make drinks, parley with words, before closing the door behind.
Turning towards the other guests, Theodore and Lila relied heavily on their experiences, both adventuring and working in the library, as they did just that.
The old couple helped locate some legitimate Thornton art over the years, Harold Thornton inviting them as thanks for their help, Lila called them Mr. and Mrs. Howell.
Douglas Adams, yes, that's his name, the man around Theodore's age, an aspiring writer, of sorts, got his start writing for the local paper, and managed to publish his own fictional stories based on the mansion. Harold Thornton liked them so much, he helped Douglas Adams break through the barrier and has a decent following.
Professor Plum, okay, Professor Richard May, he's a curator for London Museum. Over the years, he helped Harold Thornton find and locate some of his family's valuables stolen during WW2.
He also informs Harold Thornton when the museum grows antsy for one of his paintings to be loaned to them, which Harold declined multiple times.
Still, they try their best enticing him to reconsider.
The guests mingled until the man retrieved them, before introducing himself as Harold Thornton the Third.
He apologized for the wait, but things happen, before he took the group with him on a small tour around the mansion, discussing its history and the like, how long it took for him to feel "whole" again having taken years to locate and restore his family's collection.
Since Theodore obviously didn't have any connections to Harold Thornton, he simply smiled, the easiest thing someone in his situation could, while Lila played the psychic paper if needed.
Wished the anonymous sender in the letter gave them context to blend better, because they're at a celebration, and here they are, clearly standing out like sore thumbs.
The fact that Harold Thornton let them through without questioning them, already giving a good indication what type of adventure, this will be, and hopefully not another poisoned liver soup scheme.
Of course, Theodore took it in stride, going with the flow, and eventually, resulted in dinner, something both were experts in, and thankfully there wasn't poisoned liver soup in the mix, normal food, like stuck pig with an apple.
Theodore, as he's known doing, filled his plate to the brim, ate until there's no crumbs, filled it up again, and once again, ate until his plate's near spotless.
Lila wasn't better, but the fact there's food that's above her food budget, she's allowed to dine on it, and the fact she didn't eat breakfast that morning, it's worth gaining a pound or two.
During the dinner, the guests conversed with Harold Thornton, Theodore and Lila covertly learning from him while playing their parts.
Butlers and maids coming to and from the kitchen, bringing filled pitchers of drinks, pouring them to the awaiting guests and Harold as they talked to each other in between eating and drinking.
Should've saw it coming, but a storm rolled in during the dinner, a loud thunderous burst of thunder announcing its arrival, and the rain hitting the stained-glass window behind Harold.
He's unfazed by the storm, it's a common occurrence that he doesn't seem perplexed by it, though he warned that because of it, the guests won't be able to leave the mansion until morning when the rain stops.
Due to the path up to the mansion, when it's wet, it becomes a stream leading down to the road below, because of it, the carriage driver can't bring the carriage to or fro from the mansion.
Meaning, they're stuck in the mansion for the night, but Harold assures them that he'll make sure they're tended to during their stay.
The lighting flashed through the glass windows while the guests were led to their rooms for the night.
In their guest room, Theodore pulled off his tweed long coat, putting it on the coat hanger, undoing his tie, slinging it on the hook, reaching down, he unbuckled his belt, snaking it through one way, resting it on another hook.
Walking over, he sat down on the end of the bed, undoing his loafers, pulling them off, socks and all.
Running a hand through his wild hair of brown, Theodore heard the rain outside the stained-glass window as the wind howled.
"How convenient, a storm that strands us," Lila rested on one side of the bed as she glimpsed to the stained-glass window, seeing the lighting flashing brightly, bleeding through.
Shrugging as he cracked his toes, Theodore says, "Hm, Al did say this area tended to get storms this time of year."
How convenient!
Glimpsing over to her as she leaned against the plump pillow, Theodore asked Lila a question, "How long ago was it?"
Lila raised her brow before Theodore elaborate and she ah'd as she pondered.
Muttering to herself, Lila reached far back in her brain before saying, "When Dave called and collected that favor from you."
David used his favor card on Theodore, asking the former's help regarding a troubling situation between two alien species warring with each other.
Theodore ended up linking the bombs that the alien species brought to destroy the other, effectively making it too much of a gamble for them to use, without fear it'll blow themselves up.
"That long ago?" Theodore raised his brow.
Shrugging, Lila pulled on her jersey fabric shirt as it bunched up near her right shoulder, "Time flies when you're running for your life."
Agreeing with her as he stretched out his legs, popping his joints, Theodore sighs, "It's our lot in life."
There's a quiet conversation between the two, before Theodore mischievously grinned at Lila.