The suit of armour loomed over them, battle axe touching the ceiling of the room. Then, as Emma screamed and the Doctor shouted her name, the suit brought the axe down on Emma. Before it hit Emma, the battleaxe froze, inches from her face. Cross-eyed, she stared at it as her scream faded away. The suit of armour had stopped in its tracks. The knight sent her a relieved smile. A jolty buzz echoed through the room. The peculiar sound seemed to originate from the knight's hand. A device with a green, lit-up bulb of some sorts. The man sighed loudly and retracted the laser pointer.
"That was a close one."
He grabbed hold of the battle axe and swiftly pulled it out of the suit's gauntlet fingers. Using the battle axe, he poked the suit's helmet, which rolled off and fell to the floor with a clunk.
"I reset the timing on this one. Harmless 'n beheaded. See?"
The knight threw the battle axe to the floor and slid his sonic device back into his pocket.
"Thing is, though… I can only revert the timing of the anomalies once every, well, let's say, ten hours. One object. So the entire house is active right now."
"What do you mean? Who even are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," the man grinned, his voice deep and raspy but his eyes twinkling with excitement.
"Alright, doctor Lancelot. Are you planning on making sense in the upcoming five minutes, or should I go find a window to climb out of? 'Cause I'm not planning on staying if this entire mansion is set on murdering me with an axe."
"I'll try to explain."
They had left the side room, moving alertly through the greater hall into a narrow hallway. According to the Doctor, it led to a safe room. She would know when she would see it, he said. On the way to this room , Emma asked and the Doctor answered. He told her of his three days in Merville Manor, of being charged at by suits of armour in the halls and having books flung to him in the library. The Doctor had set up camp somewhere in the attic, which, according to him, saw the least amount of 'anomalies'.
The anomalies consisted of objects inside the manor turning bad or hostile. The Doctor told about doors slamming him in the face and chairs shooting back whenever he tried to sit down. It had seemed like a practical joke to him. After an incident in the kitchen, where the cutlery is still embedded in one of the walls, he started taking these anomalies more serious.
"Judging from the intervals in which the anomalies take place, this doesn't seem to be a natural occurrence. Someone or something is messing around with these objects," the Doctor mused, his eyes on the device he told her was named a 'sonic screwdriver'. His stare almost pierced through it, as if he could learn the secrets of the universe by examining it closely.
"The sonic readings say the suit of armour flared up as soon as it noticed you step into the mansion. Question is, why would a timed anomaly disregard his schedule to pay attention to you?" While talking, the Doctor had a habit of twirling around, walking in front of Emma, but backwards. He swung around his arms and bumped against cabinets and doors enough to make him qualify as 'clumsy' in Emma's mind. She smiled. The knight was a mystery to her. What was his name? What brought him to Merville Manor? And what caused these anomalies? They really just sounded like—
"—Ghosts, right?"
"Hm?"
She nodded towards the way they came from.
"Sounds like these 'anomalies' are just a fancy word to make me believe this mansion is haunted. Who put you up to this, hm?"
"Emma, a suit of armour almost split you into two smaller, more terrified Emma's less than ten minutes ago, and you really think I'm pranking you?"
"… Fair enough. Is the safe room far?"
"At the end of the next hall, we'll move up two flights of stairs. After that it's just past the sitting room, through a hallway and up a ladder."
The mansion turned out to be gigantic. Emma now understood the entire thing had to be demolished for an entire district to be built. The Doctor was still thinking out loud, but Emma didn't pay any attention anymore. She glared at every object they walked past, prepared for anything.
"Alrighty. The next wave of anomalies, according to my data, will start in about an hour. We'll have made it to the TARDIS by then."
"The TARDIS?"
"My safe room. Safest room on Earth, actually." The Doctor swiftly moved up the stairs, pushing his hands against every painting on the wall beside them, probably to avoid getting one flung at his face, just in case. Emma smiled.
"So, Doctor, why are you here?"
"Same reason as what brought you here, I presume."
"A photoshoot?" Emma snorted.
"Curiosity," the Doctor corrected her, handing her a second-long stare of disapproval. He had an analysing aura about him. That was for sure. His stare could probably serve as x-ray vision during a hospital power outage, Emma thought.
"The sitting room. Send the nice fireplace and velvet armchair a nice look before we move on, 'cause I want to move on. This space gives me the shivers," the Doctor commented as his hands pointed at several once lovely sights. With time, the wood of the armchair seemed rotten and the fireplace a ghost of what it once was. On the walls hung hunting trophies, withered through time. The Doctor held up his wrist and sent his goose bumps a grumpy look. He then full-body shivered and quickly moved through the room. Emma followed, a single foot behind him—and clashed up against him. The Doctor had stopped in the middle of the sitting room. He jumped up and down twice, the floor creaking loudly.
"You feel that beneath your feet?"
"The floor?"
"Exactly. The floor. I remember this feeling differently."
"Is that important now, Doctor?"
"Important? No. Peculiar? Yes."
He resumed his pace and moved to the door on the other side of the sitting room. As his hand reached for the doorknob, his eyes traced over marks that were left on the door. Claw marks. The Doctor let go of the knob and turned around without a warning. His expression now beamed distress as he looked down upon the empty floor in the middle of the room.
"It's important. It's very, very important. Emma, stay close to me. There was s'posed to be a bear rug right there."
Behind the door, a giant, beastly roar was heard, echoing through Merville Manor.