please don't ask questions about the piano scene near the end. I felt it was needed to lighten the mood a bit.

"Doctor?" Alice called, turning down what she thought would be the last hallway. Of course, it wasn't.

They were in an old abandoned warehouse, and had gotten separated. They were smarter than They looked, but what could you expect? They were creatures that lived off nightmares. Even if they had originated as just the nightmares of children, they were able to feed of whatever was near, and that didn't exclude two adults that had come to get rid of them.

So, of course they were smart. They would need to be to face these two people.

"Doctor!" she called again.

One of Them sprung up on her from behind, and would have gotten her with its razor sharp teeth had she not moved in time. It did manage to pin her though.

"Doctor!" she called louder and more frantically.

"I'M COMING!" he called back, running down a corridor somewhere that was elsewhere. After a moment, Alice felt the weight of the thing lifted from her body, and she jumped to her feet immediately.

"You know," she said, "we need to come up with a name for these guys. 'Them' doesn't stick to well."

The Doctor gave her a look. "Of all the things to think of at the moment!"

She shrugged. He sighed.

"Just call them Nightmares if it makes you feel better" he said. She grinned.

"Now come on, there are more lying around. We need to get them out of here."

Alice nodded, and then ran off down a corridor to face more of these Nightmares. But as soon as she turned the corner everything went dark.

She was starting to realize that these creatures didn't all look the same, or relatively the same. There were a few that looked a lot alike, and they all were just like shadows brought to life, no color to them at all. Well, that wasn't counting their red eyes.

But each of them had something different that set them apart. Some had wings, others had tails. There were ones with teeth and others with claws. Some had all of these or combinations of these traits.

The oddest thing though, was the fact that they were the Castle guards.

Okay, Alice thought, I must be dreaming.

'Of course you are child…' one of them said.

Its voice wasn't completely spoken, it had a mental nudge to it, but it wasn't completely telepathic either. These creatures were definitely odd.

Then she realized: oh crap! They're in my thoughts!

'How else do you think we created this dream?' Was that another one of them, or was it the same one? It was impossible to tell, they all sounded alike.

"Okay then," Alice said. "If I'm dreaming, shouldn't this be a nightmare?"

'She's good!' That was definitely a different one speaking now. 'Didn't know humans were this smart'

"I'm not human!" Alice spat

'Good point, you aren't. Now… let's see… What do we have here?'

The room instantly went black, but when vision came to her again she realized that it was the same room, only with all the Nightmares gone. Also, she was chained to a pole. She struggled against her bond for a moment, and the only sound in the room was the rattling chains, but then a cough broke through that. She looked up, to see the Doctor lying on the floor.

"Doctor!" she called, trying to run to him. The chains didn't let her get more than a few feet away from him. She sunk to her knees and reached her hand out to grab his, but even that wouldn't reach.

He groaned.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He rolled over revealing that a knife had been shoved in his side. Blood was slowly leaking out of the wound and onto the floor.

Alice reached out her hand again, but came short of reaching him.

"Doctor…" she whispered.

"I'm right here."

She blinked her eyes open wearily and was surprised to see the Doctor's face. Well, not surprised exactly, the surprising thing was that she was in his lap.

Alice took a moment to survey their surroundings. They were in the same old warehouse, but in a different room it seemed. The Doctor was sitting on the dusty ground and he was holding her.

Awkward? Oh definitely.

But Alice put that aside for the moment. He was alive! She knew all along that the entire thing had just been a nightmare, but it had felt so real. She threw her arms around him.

"You have a nightmare too?" he asked as she let go of him.

"Yeah" she said, and all awkwardness of the situation came back. She adjusted herself so that she was sitting next to the Doctor instead. He didn't seem to mind.

"I guess I just woke up sooner than you did" he said.

"I wonder why?" Alice asked. He shrugged.

"So what happened to the Nightmares?" she asked.

"I don't know" he replied, "but I think they might have left."

Alice looked around the room, now able to take in more of the surroundings that the awkward moment had passed. She noticed a piano over in the corner and raised her eyebrows. Of all things…

Slowly, Alice got to her feet and went over to the piano. It was a baby grand, and also covered in dust. The Doctor turned to watch her, a curious look on his face. When Alice sat down at the piano bench he pushed himself to his feet and headed over.

"I didn't know you could play" he said quietly.

"Not so sure if I can either" Alice admitted. Yeah sure, she had taken a year or two of piano, but she couldn't recall any songs that she had learned. Though even if she could, they were probably only beginner's songs, nothing interesting.

Sighing, she placed her hands on the keys. She played a few feeble notes. It was always hard to start at first. But within the next few seconds she had started playing. It wasn't exactly a song, she was just making it up as she went along.

Finally, she ended the song, and the Doctor clapped from behind her.

"What song was that?" he asked

"Wasn't a song" Alice admitted, "I was just kind of making it up as I went along."

"Do you think you could play it again?"

She shook her head.

"Pity, it was very beautiful."

Alice smiled, and did her best not to blush. "I'm glad you think so" she said.

The moment was ruined before either of them could blink. Out of nowhere, something that looked like a lightning bolt snapped out. Except it wasn't lightning, it was complete Darkness. The Darkness hit the unsuspecting Doctor square in the chest, and he was knocked backwards by the force.

"NO!" Alice screamed, and dove to his side.

"I'm alright" he said, "a bit shocked but-" He stopped mid-sentence, something he usually didn't do. His eyes widened in shock, and an expression that could only be described as pure terror was written on his face.

"It's eating me" he gasped. "Eating my soul!"