The corridor ahead of the Time Lord seemed to stretch on for an eternity. No ending was visible and darkness ebbed and flowed across the edges of the passageway. The walls were a dull grey, with long deep scratches running along their length. Every footstep the Doctor took echoed loudly, the whole corridor now filled with a repetitive ghostly rhythm, the sounds of footsteps blending into one another, volumes changing as new echoes began and old ones died away. Growing constantly more anxious, he took a deep sniff at the air. It was cold, almost empty, sitting awkwardly in his lungs and sending an unwelcome chill through his body.
"Strange…" he muttered quietly, before continuing to walk down the impossibly long passage. There was no way a corridor this extensive could fit inside the house they had seen. None of this made sense.
The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver, aiming it down the corridor. His finger hovered, almost uncertain for a moment, before coming to rest on the sonic's button.
As soon as he had pressed it, a reverberating mess of moaning and screeching bellowed out, filling the corridor, drowning out the sonic's familiar buzzing noise. The unnatural howling was bleeding out of the frozen air that filled the corridor, screaming in response to the Doctor's screwdriver. Grimacing, he quickly flicked the sonic back off, placing it back in his pocket.
"Amy? Rory?" No response. He was alone, lost in the dark. Unable to think of anything, or find any way of escaping this predicament, the Doctor chose to do the only thing he could right now. The oldest tradition that he had ever sought to embrace in the face of danger. He ran.
Amy was standing completely alone. Isolated. Confused. She didn't know where she was, or what she should do. The Doctor and Rory were gone; they could be anywhere. From what she had seen through the doorway, it was most likely they were in the same predicament as her, but she couldn't be sure. Would they have worked it out yet? Would they have gotten to safety? "Her boys" – would they have done it? Terror was scratching out at her, slithering deeper and deeper into her soul. She felt abandoned and so, so alone. All she could do was keep walking, hoping that this corridor would end. The doorway she had entered through was rapidly starting to vanish from sight, whenever she looked back. It seemed as though the passage went on for miles.
What if there was nothing at the other end? Why did she feel like she couldn't turn back? The corridor may have been impossibly long, but it had a low hanging stone ceiling and narrow walls. Claustrophobia was winding its way slowly, steadily, into Amy's mind. It was as though the whole room may collapse on her at any second. She could feel her breathing accelerating, feeling as though she was trapped, contained by impenetrable stone walls. The space around her suddenly felt so very small, like a long dark coffin. If she was trapped here, if there was no way out, she would die cold and alone, hidden from the world in this dark concrete tomb. Goosebumps crawled down her spine, and Amy made herself ignore her fears, her lip trembling, as she continued walking, running, down the long, long corridor.
Rory stood still, trembling, worried. He didn't know what had happened to Amy or the Doctor. He had just been made to stand, helpless, as the doorway fell out of view. Where were the other two? Were they okay? Had the butlers got them? He knocked, helplessly, at the wall, hoping beyond hope for a response. He turned his attention back to the corridor that lay ahead of him, not knowing whether he should proceed or not. What if he could get back to the other side? For all he knew, Amy and the Doctor could still be there. But then again, what if they had escaped? If they were safe, he would only be endangering himself by going back. The corridor ahead of him had an uneasy air of promise about it. Rory tried to ignore it, trying to focus. Why had he gone first? If Amy had gone through first at least he would know she was safe now. Or was he the one in danger? If Amy and the Doctor had escaped the butlers, then he would be the one that needed to be saved. His mind was becoming overcrowded with desperate, nervous thoughts. Rory forced himself to look calmly at the situation. What would Amy do? What would the Doctor do? He looked up, staring into the dark abyss of the corridor ahead and started walking down it, his pace constantly accelerating. He was becoming more and more afraid, every second, but this was all he could do.
The Doctor was nearing the end of the corridor. He could almost see the far wall. Its features were distorted by swirling dark clouds, blocking his vision, stopping him from finding what he was looking for. With his last few steps, the Doctor reached the wall at the end of the corridor. The consuming black mist was now swirling and warping its way around him, biting at his turned up trouser legs and the edges of his jacket. There was a certain tingling contained in the darkened air, like a horde of wasps or mosquitoes, stinging and biting at whatever they could find. The Doctor tried to ignore it, pushing himself against the wall. His ear pressed against the cold concrete, as he strained to hear anything on the other side. Nothing. Just cold, dead silence. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver, aiming it at the wall and bracing himself for the noise. He pushed the button.
Once again, the air was ripped apart with indistinguishable screams and wails, the sound splitting through the corridor, stabbing violently at the Doctor's ears. He forced himself to put up with the sound, keeping the sonic aimed steadily at the wall. The swarming black mist began to part, and a heavy stone door was revealed. The Doctor kept the sonic trained on the door, the screeching that filled the air almost unbearable. He was bent over, his face contorted with pain as the screams and blaring unearthly noises got louder and louder, scratching out at him. It wasn't just sound, it was like something had been released in the air, something that was attacking every one of the Doctor's nerve endings. His whole body was screaming out in pain, unable to take anymore, and yet he refused to give up. He kept the sonic aimed squarely on the lock of the door until – with a heavy clunk, the lock burst open, sending sparks flying from the keyhole. With a deep gasp of relief, the Doctor turned the sonic off and the corridor fell silent once more. He sank to the floor, his back propped up against the wall, as his thick fringe fell over his face. He sat for a moment, gathering his breath, regaining his strength. He looked down at the screwdriver in his hand.
"Why is that happening? Why does this place respond to the screwdriver like that?" He managed to ask himself the question between deep, desperate breaths, before allowing his head to fall back against the stone wall. Putting the sonic back into his pocket, he brushed his hair from his eyes and leapt back to his feet. A smile spread across his features as he turned to face the door.
"Never try and keep me in a trap!" he whispered to himself, before looking up, spotting a camera lens by the door. "Do you hear me? Whoever you are, whatever you want, you have gone too far! You've taken the worst possible prisoner you could, because now I will not stop until I have found you and put an end to this. You can give up peacefully or die fighting. Your choice! But by the end of this day, I will have stopped you! I will have defeated you! And there is nothing you can do to stop me! I am the oncoming storm! I am the Doctor!" he finished, smiling triumphantly. "Look me up." he added quietly, before walking towards the door and laying his hand on the oversized handle.
With another deep breath, he pulled it downwards and tugged hard, forcing the door to open. It was heavy, almost trying to force itself to stay closed, but the Doctor wasn't about to give up. With one final, struggling heave, the door locked into a half-open position. Slipping through the gap, he was hit by a frosty chill on the other side. He looked at his new surroundings, rubbing his hands together.
A small, metallic room, with walls formed by hefty panels, nailed into place. As with the rest of the derelict building, the room was largely featureless, apart from a small iron spiral staircase, in its centre. Turning on his heels, the Doctor saw another two doors in the wall, next to the one he had just entered through. He whipped out the sonic, pointing it at the first of the doors. He hesitated before pressing the button on the metallic device. That noise, that power that had been released before…
The Doctor smiled to himself. Since when had he let the threat of danger stop him? It was what kept him going. He pressed his finger firmly against the button. The screeching erupted from the air once more, within a second it had filled the room and then… nothing. Silence. Sparks fell from some of the room's top corners, but the noise had exploded into non-existence. It had met with its barriers at the end of corridor.
The other two doors swung open. The Doctor peered in, expectantly. A rush of black smoke unfurled itself from within both doors, flooding the small room, before dissipating into nothingness. In a tumble of red hair and short skirt, Amy fell through the first door, landing rather ungracefully on the floor. With a large grin, the Doctor ran over to her, helping her to her feet, just as Rory stumbled through the other door, looking rather confused at the room he now found himself in.
"Doctor?"
"Hello, Rory!" the Doctor bellowed happily, but Rory's attention was no longer resting on the Time Lord.
"Amy!"
"Rory!" she replied, joyous and breathless, as she ran over to her husband, throwing her arms around him.
The two embraced each other tightly, filled with relief at being reunited, whilst the Doctor, flashing the couple a smile, walked over to the spiral staircase. Examining it with a look of wonder and confusion on his face, he started to make his way up the stairs.
"Doctor? What are you doing?" Rory asked, looking up at the winding stairs.
"Oh, you know me… exploring!" he grinned, before adding, "Funny thing, though, that hug."
"That hug?" Amy repeated, slightly baffled.
"Yes. Great big very happy sort of hug you two just had." the Doctor said thoughtfully.
"We are married, Doctor. It's what couples do!" Rory tried to explain.
"Ah, but how long were you separated from each other? No longer than a few minutes, yet you seem overwhelmed to be seeing each other again."
"We were in danger!" Amy protested.
"Were you?" the Doctor asked. "Funny, the things a hug can show. That's not just relief at seeing each other, that's relief that you're both still alive. Like you were afraid. Very afraid."
"We were trapped in a dark corridor…" Amy began, before the Doctor cut her off.
"Exactly my point, Pond! Hardly the scariest thing we've faced. Those butlers were scarier than those corridors. Something about those corridors is creating fear, unnatural fear. Those corridors are making us scared."
"How do you know it's not just genuine fear?" Rory asked, still not quite believing the Doctor's argument.
The Doctor just gave a small smile, turning back to the staircase he was stood on. He began walking up the metal steps, before speaking quietly.
"Because a dark corridor has never scared me before."