The Strange House of Ian Doherty
Featuring the Eleventh Doctor
Ian Doherty got up and found that his servant, Marie Walters, had made breakfast for him. All of his favourites were laid out on the tray in front of him: eggs, bacon, hash browns, kippers, toast and hot sweet tea. She had also placed a copy of the morning's paper as she knew he liked to read the paper and do the crosswords every morning. Smiling happily in his pinstripe pyjamas, he ate one of the hash browns and smiled.
"Thank you Marie. I look forward to this marvellous banquet." Ian said, reading the front page of the paper happily in bed.
"You're welcome Mr Doherty. Enjoy your breakfast." Marie replied, heading out of the room and heading down the stairs. However, she stopped only a few steps down and tried to keep on walking. She then noticed that one of the steps was eating her leg and making her leg like the marble step. Slowly and certainly, the rest of her body turned to marble, freezing her in position as she headed back down the stairs. She then suddenly vanished and reappeared on a ceremonial stand with a metal plaque, as if history had rearranged itself completely.
At the very front of the house, there was only a hatstand and a door. That remained the same for a few moments until a tall blue police box materialised into position and a tallish young man wearing a long purple tweed jacket, a greyish shirt and a purple bowtie and with brownish hair stepped out, with a curious look on his face.
"So, old Earth history is it?" he asked himself, tapping the blue box happily, "Nice one, old girl."
"Who the devil are you, sir?" came a baffled voice: it belonged to a smartly dressed old man who had suddenly appeared behind the Doctor.
"I'm the Doctor and I want to know about this house." the Doctor replied, glancing around the entrance hall and noticing a marble statue of a maid which was on a small raised platform at the top of a staircase. He rushed up to it and read the plaque at the bottom of the statue.
"That is Ms Marie Walters, one of the bravest women this house has ever seen." the stranger explained, "She died for the honour of this house and she shall be remembered forever."
"This statue seems too realistic. I don't understand why you needed to model a ring on her finger which was partially dirty." the Doctor wondered, pointing at a ring on the statue's left hand which was at an awkward angle.
"It was to honour her sacrifice."
"And what sacrifice was that?"
The stranger thought about this for a moment, but was stopped from replying by the entrance of Ms Delilah Doherty, an old woman wearing a large black dress.
"Morning Edmund." she called, walking down the stairs and smiling at the statue happily, "Did you invite someone round?"
"No, I'm the Doctor and I'm investigating why on Earth you can't remember the reason why you made this statue." the Doctor said with a smile, making Delilah think for a moment.
"Shall we invite the Doctor to breakfast? That way we can discuss his investigation properly over tea and food." Delilah suggested.
"Oh, I'd love that. I feel like a cup of tea after what I've been through recently." the Doctor replied, following Delilah and Edmund and knowing that something odd was going on.
Cameron Doherty, Delilah's son, joined the Doctor, Edmund and Delilah for breakfast. He explained to the Doctor that the house belonged to Ian Doherty, Cameron's father, but that Ian preferred to have breakfast in bed. The Doctor had argued that Edmund should join them for breakfast because he felt that Edmund was rather nice and may give proper answers to any questions he had and Delilah agreed, ordering another of her servants to make a pot of tea and a full english breakfast for the four of them.
"So, Doctor, you said that you had been through a lot recently, did you not?" Delilah suddenly asked him.
"Yes. Do you want to know what I meant?" the Doctor replied, suspicious of why Delilah wanted to know so much about him.
"Yes please. You seem like a traveller and I do wish to hear some of your tales." Delilah suggested.
"I'd rather not. My life is my life and I'm only here for a holiday." he answered, as breakfast arrived. The breakfast which had been cooked arrived on several large wooden trays and consisted of bacon, sausages, hash browns, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, baked beans, toast and a large pot of tea. The four diners selected a variety of items from the trays and began to eat, happily nibbling away.
"Can any of you tell me what the sacrifice Marie made was? I just want to learn more about this house and it seems that there's some sort of history here." the Doctor said, inbetween mouthfuls of egg. He avoided the baked beans at all costs, remembering what had happened when he ate them before.
"That's odd." Edmund suddenly said, "I don't seem to remember her sacrifice. Perhaps my memory is on the blink."
"Now Edmund, you must remember what Marie did for this house. She gave everything for us and you have to understand why." Cameron corrected, sharing an embarrassed look with his mother.
"Yes but that's not answering my question. What happened to her?" the Doctor asked again, knowing that none of them would answer it.
"She used to be one of the maids here." Edmund remembered, "She brought Mr Doherty his breakfast this morning. I remember it happening clearly."
Edmund then ate a chunk of sausage and began to choke violently. He then noticed that something was happening to his fingers and thumbs: there were becoming pork sausages, falling to the floor when they had fully transformed. The rest of his body transformed into dozens of pork sausages and his clothes fell to the floor, before being swallowed up by the carpet. The Doctor looked on in horror as the transformation occurred and instantly knew that there was evil in the house.
"Should I get one of the servants to clear up the sausages spilled on the floor?" Cameron asked his mother, oblivious to the strange event that had just happened.
"Yes. That might be a good idea Cameron." Delilah replied, "I think I might take the Doctor to meet my husband."
"History's been altered." the Doctor deduced, "Edmund died and you don't bat an eyelid, probably because someone is telling you not to."
"What do you mean, Doctor?" Cameron wondered, just as Edmund rose up from the floor, his skin looking identical to the grey carpet on the floor. The Doctor knew, however, that this wasn't Edmund any more. Edmund walked towards Cameron and placed his hand on Cameron's head, making Cameron scream in agony. Edmund released his grasp and Cameron ran towards a nearby painting, walking straight into it and becoming one of the figures in the foreground.
"Let's skip the argument and go straight to who are you." the Doctor said, scanning Edmund with his sonic screwdriver.
"I am this house." Edmund replied, in a sinisterly deep voice, "I wish to invade the Earth and this house will act as my glance into human life. I can control the people in this house and kill those who suspect the truth."
The Doctor then realised what Edmund meant: the house was sentient and had generated fake humans in order to see how humans behaved. This enabled him to have a theory, which made him run to a nearby window and open the curtains to reveal the blackness of space.
"But that's impossible." Delilah said, amazed, "We're on Earth. There's a painting from Earth and that statue of Marie is from Earth."
"No, Marie. That statue is the actual Marie, frozen in marble. That painting contains your son Cameron and those sausages on the floor are the remnants of your butler Edmund." the Doctor explained, glancing up at the ceiling and rushing to the stairs, heading up to Ian's room.
Ian was still sat in his bed, finishing off the breakfast that he had been delivered only a few hours ago. He wondered why the strange man in the purple jacket and the bowtie had entered the room but ignored him over a puzzling headline in the newspaper which read 'THE INVASION SHALL BEGIN SOON'.
"Who are you?" Ian wondered, nibbling on a kipper.
"I'm the Doctor and you're a fake human. Don't worry though because I'm going to stop the thing controlling this house." the Doctor explained, as Edmund emerged from the wall, his skin resembling the lumpy brown walls surrounding Ian's room.
"Mr Doherty, I am your master. I wish for you to begin my invasion of Earth." Edmund commanded, placing a hand over Ian's mouth and vanishing inside Ian, taking his body over with a grin.
"And now, I shall leave this place. Goodbye, Doctor." Ian said, allowing the Doctor to have an idea: he placed his fingers on Ian's temples and brown energy flowed out of Ian's eyes and straight into the Doctor's eyes. Ian collapsed to the floor with a thud whilst the Doctor smiled with glee, placing his hand on a nearby painting and allowing the brown energy to flow into it, creating a figure of Edmund in the foreground of the painting.
"I don't think you'll be going anywhere soon, Edmund." the Doctor said with a smile, taking the painting and heading off, back to his TARDIS.
THE END