The Doctor, Amy, River and Rory followed Aderyn, slamming the door behind them. But the room was already occupied. Madame Korvarian sat on the edge of the bed. She smiled when they turned and saw her.
"Aderyn?" Amy said, spinning Aderyn around so she too was facing the bed.
"She's not real." Aderyn said, before turning back to the door and looking through the peephole.
"What do you mean she's not real?" Amy hissed. Aderyn took a piece of paper from her pocket, balled it up and threw it at Madame Korvarian. It passed straight through her.
"Like I told you, this place gets inside your head. This is my room so it contains my fears. But we need to get out of here before she starts talking."
The Doctor was kneeling at the door, peering through the keyhole. "You're scared of Madame Korvarian?" He whispered.
"Her? No. But this place is clever. We need to move," Aderyn whispered back. She heard the small laugh behind her and sighed "Too late."
"Two years," Madame Korvarian said "Two years. And you still hold on to the hope that he cares."
Aderyn ignored her. She had heard all of this so many times before. She always hid in her room. She knew what was in there. She had once, accidentally, stumbled into someone else's and had felt instantly awkward.
"You still hang on to the belief that they all care. But ask yourself this: Do they really?" Madame Korvarian laughed again.
"What is she on about?" River asked, not able to turn away from the laughing woman.
"It doesn't matter. Now unless you're going to be helpful, please shut up. I'm thinking." Aderyn whispered. But she soon regretted asking for quiet. In the silence she could hear Madame Korvarian's amused whisper.
"Tick, tock goes the clock, your future isn't bright. Tick, tock goes the clock, though you'll try with all your might."
Thudding footsteps passed the door and the Doctor stared out with awe. "Oh that is just beautiful." he breathed.
"Only you Doctor." Aderyn muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" The Doctor asked, not taking his eye away from the keyhole.
"Never mind."
The creature stopped walking and Aderyn held her breath. It had never attempted to come after her, but there was the chance that it would go after one of the others. It walked passed the room again.
"It's going after Joe," She said "We're safe. For now." She turned away from the door, resting her back against it. She heard Joe shouting "Praise him." She knew what was coming next. The silence was somehow worse then screaming. She opened the door and peered into the corridor. It was gone.
She opened the door fully and happily left her room. River, Amy, Rory and the Doctor stumbled out behind her. "Come on," she said "I have to see if the others are ok." She walked away from them. It had been so much easier when she had been by herself. She was always safe when she was by herself. It was easier to hide, easier to run. She pulled her mask over her face as she walked. The startling image of Aderyn with the mask put the Doctor in mind of the plague doctor's who would visit patients during the plague. The beak of their mask held herbs with the belief that the plague was spread by bad smells. Aderyn seemed most unaffected by the goings on in the hotel, as though her fears were insignificant.
"Doctor," Amy said quietly "Why is she scared of Madame Korvarian?"
"I don't think she is. I think Madame Korvarian is some kind of symbol for her fears."
"Tick, tock goes the clock, you thought you were their friend," Madame Korvarian's voice rang out through the corridor "But tick, tock goes the clock, until they fly away again."
"How are we hearing that?" River said, looking back down the corridor, expecting to see Madame Korvarian behind them.
"I don't know. But she always says the same things." Aderyn said, her voice stifled by the mask.
"Why are you wearing that mask?" Rory asked. Aderyn stopped walking and turned to face him. She took off the mask and held it out to him "Try it." She said.
Rory slipped the mask over his face. He was alarmed and took it off again. "That's cool." The mask was passed around, the Doctor the last to look at it. He put it on, looking this way and that. "Heat sensors."
"But how does that even work, there are no lenses or anything?" Amy poked her finger through the mask's eye hole, narrowly avoiding the Doctor's eye.
"Clever tech," Aderyn removed the mask from the Doctor, slipping it back over her own face "It's how I find them afterwards. How I find any living thing before it finds me. This will be much quicker if I go by myself, I know where their rooms are. Go back downstairs and wait." Before anyone could protest she took off at high speed down the hall.