The Doctor and I both held onto the TARDIS console as she dematerialized, and then rematerialized—inside the house, I presumed. The Doctor, rather than looking pleased, seemed annoyed with the results.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"We've gone back in time!" he exclaimed. "We were in 1980, and now we're in 1920! Do you know what that means, Jamie?"
"Aye; we cannae get a drink," I sighed. "Ye said they outlawed drinks during the 1920s here…"
"Jamie! How could that lost child possibly be here in 1920 when we were in 1980?" the Doctor pointed out.
I opened my mouth to reply, but couldn't come up with an answer.
"Exactly," the Doctor said, looking down at the TARDIS console in disapproval. "Why have you brought us here!?"
The TARDIS whirred; it always struck me as interesting that the TARDIS was alive and could communicate with the Doctor. …I often suspected that she was the one really in charge of everything, though she liked to let the Doctor think he was.
At any rate, the Doctor certainly didn't appreciate what the TARDIS was trying to tell him.
"We're in the right year? No, no, no, no, no! You've sent us six decades in the past—the boy's mother isn't even alive at this point in time!"
The TARDIS whirred again.
"You tracked down DNA that was similar to that of his mother and brother? And a temporal disruption centered around here? …Oh, I see…"
"Ye see what?" I asked, puzzled.
"Something is wrong with the space-time continuum, Jamie," the Doctor explained. "And the… focal point of this disturbance is, apparently, right beneath this house!"
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"Well, to tell you the truth, Jamie, I'm not at all sure what it could mean, but it could very well be that the missing boy didn't disappear into thin air, but through time!"
"Like we just did?"
"Well, yes, but the TARDIS traveled through the Time Vortex to get us here," the Doctor explained. "That child wouldn't have had any say in where—or rather, when—he ended up. He must be horribly frightened, poor child."
"Then we should find him," I said. "Right away."
"And so we shall," the Doctor said. "But we need to take some necessary precautions first…" He walked over to me, and placed his fingertips on my temples. "I don't want those ghosts probing through your memories like they tried to last time; after what Goth and the others did to you, your memories are very sensitive to mind probes."
"Aye, I know."
"However, I can put up a temporary mental barrier in your mind that will prevent creatures with limited telepathic abilities from probing your mind; these ghosts will fall into that category, as I am assuming that they are human. However, I want your permission before I proceed."
"Go ahead."
I didn't feel any different, but the Doctor concentrated for a moment, and then removed his hands, pleased with his handiwork.
"That ought to last the night—and, hopefully, it won't take that long." He paused, putting his fingertips to his temples for a moment, putting up the barrier in his own mind. "Now, Jamie, this will protect us from the mind probes, but it won't help us see through those illusions."
"So if they cannae probe our minds, they'll resort to all kinds of trickery to keep us trapped?" I asked.
"Exactly so," the Doctor said. "So we must be very, very careful. Mind your steps, and please… don't wander off. If there is some sort of temporal disturbance causing people to spontaneously travel through time, I don't want you to be next."
"The TARDIS can find me like she found where the child is, aye?" I asked.
"There's no guarantee…" the Doctor admitted. "It was a perfect storm of the TARDIS tracking down similar DNA and finding a time where the temporal disturbance was particularly strong."
He didn't elaborate, and he didn't have to; he didn't like to remind me of what had happened to my family, either.
The Doctor placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"Right, then. Shall we?"
I nodded, and the Doctor opened the TARDIS doors; the two of us stepped into the old, dusty drawing room of the Home by the Sea as the doors closed behind us.
The air was cold, and whispers surrounded us. And then, they appeared—the wispy ghost lights started pouring in—from the ground and the ceiling, and through the walls. I clung to the Doctor's arm as they swirled around the both of us, shuddering at the cold sensation as they tried to touch us. Moments later, though, the wisps backed away, uttering angry whispers as their access to our memories were denied.
"It's alright," the Doctor said. "There's nothing wrong with being scared."
"I'm nae scared of a few wisps of light," I lied.
"…Oh? Then is there some other reason why you're cutting off the circulation in my arm?"
Embarrassed, I let go of him, but then proceeded to throw my arms around him again as a shriek emerged from the wall, courtesy of a rather large ghost that was somehow stuck within the walls of the demon house.
"Don' do that!" I chided at the screaming face, which made no effort to stop.
"Oh, let's move on; I'm sure he'll get bored and stop soon enough," the Doctor huffed. "We must find that child!"
I sighed, still holding onto the Doctor's arm as he led the way, carefully stepping forward in case of holes in the floor that the ghosts had hidden from our view with their illusionary powers.
There was a cold sensation persisting around my head, and as I looked up, I saw that one of the wisps was hovering around and just above my head.
"Go away!" I hissed. "Begone!"
It had no effect; the ghost light kept hovering up and down, as though trying to grab my attention.
"Ye're trying to distract me, aren't ye?" I accused. "Well, it won' work!"
"Jamie!" the Doctor suddenly exclaimed.
I forgot about the ghost light pestering me as the Doctor indicated a small set of footprints that led towards the hall—and proceeded to follow the staircase.
"They look like they could be the right size," the Doctor said.
"Aye," I said. "Well, that's better than the cellar, isn't it?"
"I don't know about that, Jamie; we've been to the cellar before. We don't know what is waiting for us up there."
Slowly, we crept into the hall; the Doctor took out a torch from his pocket and attempted to shine it upstairs.
"Well, it seems alright," he murmured, able to see better than I could. "Of course, that could all be a trick…"
My thoughts were diverted as the ghost light that had been pestering me now smacked into my face.
"What!?" I hissed, glaring at it.
The wee ghost light now pulled away, hovering in front of a large statue and illuminating the head. I used my own torch to cast some light on it, and it turned out to be the statue of an angel, its face buried in its hands.
There was something about it that seemed familiar, and I realized that this must have been the "stone woman with wings" that Lotte's older son had seen just before his brother had vanished.
"Doctor!" I whispered. "Doctor, look!"
"Not now, Jamie," the Doctor said. "I have to make sure that the staircase is safe for us to walk on…"
"But Doctor, look!"
He didn't respond, and, frustrated, I turned back to him and clamped a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. Startled, he jumped, and then looked back at me with an annoyed glare.
"Don't do that!"
"Sorry. But look!"
I turned the torch beam back towards the spot where the angel statue had been… but there was nothing there now, except for the solitary ghost light.
"Oh, Jamie, it's just one of the many ghosts—they can't hurt you now that I've put the barrier in your mind."
"But… but… It's gone!"
"What's gone?" the Doctor asked.
"The statue! The statue that Lotte's boys saw! It was right there, just a moment ago, and now it's gone!" I insisted.
"Are you certain?"
"Aye! That wee ghost light right there pointed it out to me…" I trailed off, realizing just how stupid that sounded.
"Jamie…" the Doctor said, kindly. "I do believe you have been tricked."
My face was probably burning from embarrassment, and the Doctor gently placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Those ghosts are going to do everything in their power to make you see things," he reminded me. "I have no doubt that I'll fall victim to an illusion or two before the night is over. …Now that I think about it, we have to wonder whether these footprints are part of the illusion. Maybe the ghosts want us to go upstairs—"
A small boy's frightened shout echoed from the upper floor, causing us both to jump again.
"Is that an illusion, too?"
"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "But we can't take a chance in case it isn't. Follow right behind me, Jamie—and be careful!"
"Aye."
We began to work our way up the stairs. As I looked back, I saw the same angel statue back in the place where I had seen it before, with the solitary ghost light hovering in front of the statue's head. I shook an angry fist at the ghost light and that statue before leaving that thing behind.