Chapter Three

By the next afternoon, the eerie feeling had mostly passed. It was a beautiful and bright day at St. Luke's University, a rare occurrence this early in the year. The Doctor wore a faint smile as he went class to class, a physics textbook hugged underneath his arm.

As he strolled across the campus greens to head back to his office, his eye caught Bill's.

"Hey Doctor," she called with a smile. "How're you doing?"

The Doctor let himself grin. "Good. Very good."

"No more signs of aliens, then?" She asked in a hushed tone.

The Doctor glanced around. "Not so far."

Bill clapped him on the arm. "I better get back to the canteen. Later!"

They shared one last smile as they went off in different directions. The Doctor looked around at the students conversing along the path, joking and laughing and gossiping. A good portion of them were his own students, many whom he knew by name and handwriting.

One boy broke away from a few of his classmates and approached the Doctor.

"Hey, Doctor," the boy started excitedly. "I was wondering if I could discuss our last lecture with you. The one about biochemistry? I had a few questions."

The Doctor nodded to the boy. "I'm heading to my office now if you want to chat. I'm free until six."

The boy smiled. "Great. I'll be there in a few minutes."

The Doctor watched him run back to get his books and say goodbye to his friends. A burst of professorly pride danced in his two hearts. He loved it when the students actually seemed to like being here, learning. It was what drew him to Bill when they first met.

Ten minutes later, as the Doctor sat fiddling with a watch on his desk, a knock came to his door. "Come in."

The boy entered, the bag on his shoulder weighing him down. He slunk to the chair opposite the Doctor with a nervous laugh.

"Sorry I took so long," the boy explained, taking out a messy notebook.

The Doctor shook his head. "Not at all. I'm not expecting anyone else today."

The boy's eyes glinted yellow, just for a millisecond. The Doctor blinked and they were back to normal.

"Good," the boy said. His voice sounded almost like velvet.

The Doctor sat up straighter and folded his hands together.

"Now, you wanted to talk biochemistry."

"Yes," the boy continued, sounding almost normal again. "Especially that portion on neurobiology. The chemicals involved in that."

"Ah, serotonin, melatonin...those?"

The boy nodded silently.

The Doctor leaned back and looked the boy over with a quick eye. "Your name is Timothy, correct?"

The boy tilted his head, standing up again. "Yes and no."

He strolled around the space, looking at the various nick nacks that had assembled over the years. The Doctor watched him without blinking.

"Oh, do you go by Tim? Sorry, so many students, so little time."

Timothy smirked, turning the lock on the door. "I have had many names, Doctor. Many looks."

The Doctor got to his feet slowly, a careful eye fixed on 'Timothy'.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked, forcing his voice to sound tougher than he was.

Timothy looked back at him with those glowing, yellow eyes.

"I, Doctor, am a Secrafura."

Within a fraction of a second, the human boy shifted in a whirl of colors and transformed. In front of the Doctor now stood a tall, almost translucent humanoid alien, with the same yellow eyes.

"What about Timothy? The real Timothy?" The Doctor asked, unconsciously backing up a few paces.

The Secrafura took two steps forward. "Oh, Timothy is fine. Up in the lake district with his family for the weekend. I merely borrowed his likeness from your memory."

The Secrafura's voice sounded like whispers, or hisses. The same sound that had called the Doctor's name last night.

The Doctor's eyes darkened. "How does that work? You're telepathic?"

The alien nodded. "The Secrafura feed on secrets. Hidden thoughts. As long as you give willingly, I will not harm you. We feast on mere copies of information. Your memory will not be compromised."

The Doctor felt his back hit the edge of the bookshelf. He took a breath to calm his rising nerves. The Secrafura still approached, slowly. It was at least a head above the Doctor.

"Oh, Doctor," the Secrafura purred. The Doctor felt its telepathic presence in his mind and built up his walls. "How many secrets you keep. And how good they will taste. Big secrets. Important secrets."

The Doctor glanced to his side. "Yes. Sorry, but those secrets will be staying with me."

The Doctor jumped to the side, but the Secrafura was too fast for him. It caught him around the waist in its slender arms. He tried to push away from it, but the alien was too strong. It pulled him to the floor and held him down by the shoulders.

"Confess and you will not be harmed."

"Not a chance," the Doctor grunted. "You have no idea how dangerous my secrets are."

The Furasecra cocked its head. "No? Then tell me." It pushed him harder into the floor. "Last chance, Doctor. Tell me your secrets. I will find them myself anyway. Nobody is coming to your rescue."

The Doctor smirked. "I liked you a lot better when I thought you were Tim."

The Secrafura grinned and raised its hand. Before the Doctor could react, a heavy force hit his forehead, just above his eye, and his skull was thrown back against the floor. His eyes shut soon after.

. . .

A moment after he lost consciousness, the Doctor felt a pain enter his sleeping mind. It was the Secrafura, breaking down his walls.

The Doctor rebuilt them; tried to reinforce them. But it was useless. The Secrafura easily tore at the scaffoldings, sending waves of headaches and lightning-bolt flashes into his mind as it devoured his secrets.

"Doctor...so alone. So lost."

The Doctor shook his head back and forth, trying to kick the alien out of his head, but the pressure only grew. It broke down another one of his walls and he groaned despite himself.

"You can make this easier for yourself," the Secrafura purred. "Just let me in and you will feel no pain."

The Doctor grunted his negative response. A crash hit his head again. This time he cried out.

"Very well," the creature said simply. "You force my hand, Doctor."

The Doctor grit his teeth as the alien continued to steal his secrets, breaking through his barriers with reckless abandon. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the Doctor heard knocking. He couldn't open his eyes, but he turned his attention to the new sound, trying to ignore the Secrafura for a moment.

"Doctor? I got off work early."

Bill.

The Doctor tried to push through the cotton and find his consciousness again. But the Secrafura had other plans. It smashed down another wall, sending an earthquake through the Doctor's mind. He couldn't help but cry out.

The knocking on the door became a pounding.

"Doctor?!"

Bill's voice was laced with fear. As much as the Doctor wanted to, however, he couldn't quite find his voice. Only incoherent mutterings surfaced.

"This. Bloody. Door."

Each word was enunciated with a rough pound against the door. Finally, on her third try, Bill crashed through the threshold with a hand on her aching shoulder.

Her jaw dropped and she backed against the wall, letting the door shut behind her.

A...something knelt over the Doctor, both of its hands on his head. It was tall and slender, too much so to be human. And the Doctor…

He grunted as his body shuddered on the floor, teeth chattering. Every so often, a sharp jolt would go through him, making him groan and, to Bill's horror, scream.

Bill felt a lump in her throat. But she pushed through her fear and stumbled forward.

"Leave him alone," she said, in a voice that was not quite her own.

The Secrafura raised its head for a second, but turned back almost immediately. It sent another shock, harsher this time, and the Doctor was suddenly left gasping for air, squeezing his eyes shut.

Bill stormed forward.

"Stop! I'll give you what you want. Just stop hurting him."

The Secrafura finally stood, rising to its height three feet above Bill. She swallowed her nerves but felt a small surge of relief. At least the Doctor was safe for now.

The Secrafura peered down at her.

"He would not have been harmed if he had simply relented. He made me use force."

Bill clenched her teeth to keep from responding. She shut her eyes and shook her head.

"Look, what do you want?"

The Secrafura took a step toward her. "Secrets."

Bill shrugged. "I'm an open book. Go ahead. Take my secrets."

"Are you sure?" It asked, cocking its head.

Bill simply nodded in response, her voice lost.

The Secrafura entered her mind and, instead of a labyrinth or a maze, it found a garden. Signs pointed it in the right direction.

Bill's loves; her hopes; her secret music tastes...all were freely available to the Secrafura. It drank and ate as if at a feast.

A few moments later, the alien left Bill's mind. Satisfied, it gave the terrified young woman a genuine smile.

"Thank you, Bill Potts," it hissed.

"Don't mention it," Bill said with a grimace. The creature slunk out of the office and was gone before Bill could blink.