"That's enough," Band Wolf remarked, touching his forehead and Arthur soon fell asleep.

The next time he awakens, he's landing is dark, small, and somehow has so much metal equipment that keeps making noises everywhere he goes.

Oh, and there's also the Doctor (the Scottish one), holding his sonic screwdriver with intensity, while clutching his chest. "Sunny!" He huffed.

Then suddenly, a light appears behind Arthur. The boy turns back and sees a boy and three girls, looking at them in absolute confusion. "Hello?" He offered a greeting as he hit something, making a clattering noise.

"I thought," an asian looking girl said.

"He'd gone home. Me, too," a black woman admitted. "And why are you bringing a boy in here?"

"I just jumped in," Arthur replied as he stepped outside the room. "Not sure about the Doctor. I'm Arthur."

"Bill. This is Felicity, Shireen, Paul, and Harry."

"Central heating," the Doctor explained, following Arthur. "I've been looking around, inside and out. Very interesting. Lots of wood."

"Er, why are you still here?" Bill asked.

"Do you know what that is?" He holds up a smaller version of a heater. " That's an oil-burning heater. You might need it. There's no washing machine either. The hob is from the Thirties."

Bill passes the heater to Harry, who says, "Thanks very much."

"The power sockets will not take your devices."

"Oh, I thought it was just my room," Shirleen commented.

"No, no, no. They're out of date." He stops for a moment. "What's that…smell? Is that Chinese food? I love Chinese. Are you hungry, Sunny?"

"Doctor," Bill called and dragged him and Arthur away from her friends. "There might be a few old things, but it just needs updating. It's not like there's some massive mystery going on."

"Did you hear the trees creaking outside when we arrived?"

"There's a what?" Arthur repeated.

"It was the wind," Bill assured them.

"There wasn't any wind. This house is old, you can always hear the wind."

"You should find another house," the Doctor addressed to the rest.

"Mmm, I don't think so," Shirleen disagreed.

"The rooms are really big," Harry added.

"Exactly. And it's still the best place for the money," Paul pointed out. "I'll just call the landlord, sort it out."

"You can't. No reception," Shirleen informed.

"Have any of you ever watched horror movies?" Arthur wondered, finding that they can't call for help is very troublesome. That's the first thing that always happens in any horror movie. Communication is always down.

"We're not inside a horror movie," Paul rolls his eyes. "Okay, so I'll go down the hill…Oh, hi."

"What?" Arthur asked as he followed him. Inside the living room, stood an elderly man that wore a three piece suit. Weirdly, Arthur notices the suit has the same shade of brown as the wood panelling surrounding this house.

"Didn't hear you come in," Felicity remarked.

"For a man such as myself, discretion is second nature," he explained, which makes Arthur hide behind the Doctor. Arthur can't stop thinking of this older man as a psycho killer from Don't Breathe. A movie he secretly watched and he regretted it. "So, a gathering. You're all here." He frowns. "No, except one."

"Pavel's upstairs," Shirleen stated.

"And two in addition."

"They're the Doctor and Arthur," Harry added as they both helped themself to a prawn cracker.

"Doctor?"

"Yeah, er, he's, he's my grandfather," Bill explained 'Arthur is…."

"My distant relative," the Doctor added.

"You're assisting with the relocation?" The older man asked.

"That's right, yeah."

"It's a heart-breaking experience, to leave one's charge behind, all alone in the big wide world," he lamented and caressed the wood panelling nearby. Yup. Adding the creepy factor.

"Indeed, yes," the Doctor nods. "You got children?"

"I, yes, a daughter. But I'm most fortunate, she's still under my protection. So long as that's the case, I'm most content. So, I was calling to see if everything's satisfactory?"

"Actually, there are a few things," Felicity says.

"Yes, I see. Go on."

"No central heating?"

"The power sockets are wrong," Shireen added.

"And a landline," Paul remarked.

"Some new furniture," Harry exclaimed.

"I need some curtains, carpets," Felicity listed.

"Have you got a cat?" Bill inquired.

The Doctor and Arthur eat their own prawn crackers. The sound they make isn't helping the conversation.

Ignoring them, the landlord repeats, "A cat?"

"Er, er, yeah. Er, Harry said that he heard some…some noise upstairs, like walking around?"

"No cats. No pets. You understand I won't be able to do any of this tonight. But as soon as possible, yes." He knocks the wood and it creaks. But for a moment, Arthur can hear fainting voices. "Knock on wood. Do what I can."

"That's another thing," Shirleen denoted. "This house is really creaky. Everything you touch, it's like uuuurrr!"

"It's unavoidable, my dear."

"How do you get into the tower?" Harry asked.

"You don't," he suddenly replied, losing his demeanour before calming down. "The tower is specifically excluded from the terms of our agreement."

"Oh, right, well, thank you. No tower. Got it."

"Right." He walks out and then turns back to the "Oh, are you two staying here tonight?"

"Yeah," the Doctor replied.

"Er no, they're not," Bill declined.

"Well, I'm not sure."

"There's no reason to."

"We probably will."

"There isn't a bed, so…"

The old man laughs. "All right."

"Sorry, excuse me. Sorry, sorry, sorry," the Doctor called him as he walked closer. "Who, um, who's the Prime Minister?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Margaret Thatcher? Harriet Jones? Wilson? Eden?"

"I think it's better to leave your granddaughter here with her friends. They seem respectable, and I'll keep an eye, of course," he suggested and tapped a tuning fork against a wood panel. "I'll attend to your requirements in the morning. In the meantime, sleep well." He puts the tuning fork against the panel…

"Stop it," Arthur suddenly barked, his face looking stern and disturbed. Hearing those tunes annoys Arthur more than usual. It's not the noise it makes. It's the way he directs those voices too…and it irks him inside.

The Doctor quickly rushes to his side, patting his head while looking equally stern at this weird landlord. The fact that Arthur reacts that way with the tune of the fork just increases the oddness of this place.

"Oh, apologise, my dear," the older man smiles and leaves.

"I take it back. You're fine. He's weird," Felicity confessed.

"Oh! The washing machine!" Shireen remembers, quickly walks to the door before returning with a frown. "He's not there."

Arthur yelps a little as he hears the sound of something like fingernails on wood in the ceiling.

"That's it," Harry denoted. "That's the noise I heard."

"Fascinating," the Doctor admitted and they followed the sound across the room. It stops when the Doctor puts his hand on a panel that it seems to be coming from.

"It's just pipes," Paul realised. "I'm going to bed."

"Yeah. Might go up, as well," Bill agreed.

"Me, too. Locking my door though," Felicity said, getting both the Doctor and Arthur's attention on her.

"Er, Grandfather? Hello. Yeah. Perhaps you should leave now? Take Arthur back?"

"No, no, I'm fine. Arthur's fine too."

"Or at least then, go and er, sleep outside, in the car."

"Er, are you two tired?" The Doctor gestures at Harry and Felicity.

Harry opens his mouth. "Well, I was…"

"Good. No, I'm going to hang about with Simon."

"Harry," Arthur clarified.

"And Florence."

"Felicity."

Bill folds her arms. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, we're gonna, we're gonna chill. Isn't that great, Sunny?"

"Yeah!" The boy smiles. "Play some music!"

"Give me your phone," the Doctor held out his hand to Bill.

"But why?" Bill frowns. "There's no reception."

"Phone."

Bill hands it over and he starts playing a random song. Arthur quickly notices the song he chooses is Black Magic by Little Mix. One of Claudia's favourite songs.

"I like that one," Arthur admitted.

"Do you know who this is?" Felicity asked.

"Do I know who this is? Yes, I know who this is. My…friend. She used to play this song with her girlfriend."

"Your friend likes Little Mix?" Paul wondered.

"Oh, she does," he recalled, but looked confused as well.

Shireen takes the phone. "What else have you got on it?"

"Can I have a word, please?" Bill gestures to the Doctor to follow her, leaving Arthur with Felicity and Harry.

"Is there any good music?" The boy asked them. "Life Goes On?"

"Who?" Harry repeated.

"Ed Sheeran."

"He didn't have that song."

Upsie. Spoiler. "Okay, how about Lewis Capaldi's Wish You The Best?"

"Lewis hasn't made that song," Felicity pointed out.

"I give up," the boy grumbled and sat on the couch. He takes a book from his backpack (that's already dry out), ignoring everyone's voices as he focuses on reading. Then suddenly, he hears a banging voice nearby, flinching. His blue eyes bewildered when the shutters in the living room closed by themself. "Doctor?"

"Sunny!" He called back as he entered the room, followed by Felicity and Harry.

"The shutters closed suddenly," he explained as the Doctor touched it.

"Closed by themselves. Sealed."

"So, we're trapped?" Felicity concluded.

"Maybe that's the idea."

"What do you mean?" Harry frowns, followed by a scratching noise above them.

"What's that?" Felicity asked as the wood creaked loudly and some dust fell to the room. "No. No, no, no! There's something in here. I can't be trapped! I can't!"

"Wait!" Arthur shouted as she ran into the kitchen. He, alongside Harry and the Doctor, finds herself stopping the shutters from closing.

"Don't go out there!" The Doctor warned.

"I can't be trapped!" She insists and uses the window to open and leap out, before the shutters close and seal.

"Great. Now we're stuck here," Harry grumbled. "Why'd you try and stop her?"

"Listen," the Doctor gestures to the shutters. Both Harry and Arthur listen quietly at the creaking and scritching…and then Felicity's scream. They try to open the shutters, but to no avail.

"What's happened to her? What's going on? Do you think it's like she said? A thing?"

"Maybe," Arthur guessed, sensing more oddness in this house that he's not sure what it is.

"And so is it out there now? Or in here?" Harry implied.

"Or both," the Doctor suggested.

"I'm scared."

"Don't be."

"Why not?"

"It doesn't help. Be like Sunny, try to be calm despite being afraid."

"Why did you call him that?" Harry wonders as the Doctor taps the shutter, and gets a creak in reply.

"It's his grandmother's nickname for him. I used to call him that," he replied with a shrug before whispering to the woods, "Who's there?"

"Why are you asking about those woods?"

"Well, what if something's got into the wood?" Arthur probed a question. "Into the lathes, behind the plaster, into the very fabric of the house?"

"Wood nymphs, tree spirits, dryads. Anything's possible," the Doctor added as he knocked again before pressing on the cupboard.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Harry protested. "We need to get out and call the police!

"Who's there?"

"Doctor, you're provoking it. It's getting louder!"

"Wake up! Wake up! Out you come!" He called, making the wood grain parts. Arthur can only gaped his mouth as he looks at large beetles he ever met as they scuttle along the worktop. "Oh! I was expecting something quite different, you know, like a gaseous creature, or microscopic! Did you see it move through the wood, Sunny? Interacting at a cellular level. This must be alien! Got to be alien!"

"Then why are they here?" Arthur pointed out, taking out a medium size matchbox from his backpack and giving it to the Doctor. "Don't ask how I got it," he told Harry before the tennager could ask. But the teenager stares behind Arthur. The boy curiously looks behind and gulps as more of those aliens streaming into the kitchen from the door surround. "Uhm, Doctor? We have company."

"Ah. Now, this starts to make sense," he realised. "Yes. Dryads indeed. We need to get out."

"We can't!" Harry reminded him.

"He means here!" Arthur gestures to the pantry door before hops in.

"What's the point of hiding in a cupboard?"

"It's not a cupboard!" The Doctor corrected him and turned a handle to Down and pulled the lift gates across. The door closes. Once again, he uses the sonic screwdriver as a torch, and opens the lift gate.

"What are they? They look like insects but you're saying they can shut doors, trap us?" Harry remarked.

"They're not just in the wood, they're becoming the wood itself. Total infestation. Infestation of the Dryads!"

"You're talking like you've seen things like this before."

"I met a talking, evil snowman who wants to rule the world," Arthur shared as they're moving around. "Aliens are always around us. But I have never met this one."

"Neither could I, Sunny."

"That's what they're called? Dryads?" Harry looks around.

"Well, that's what I'm calling them, yes," the Doctor said.

"You've gone crazy."

"Well, I can't just call them lice, can I?"

Arthur shushes them, pointing at a dryad crawling over a portrait of a woman propped against the wall. After it was gone, they found a light in a storeroom and turned it on to reveal boxes of items.

"Maybe it belonged to a family that used to live here?" Harry guessed.

"6 boxes," Arthur argued, looking inside the boxes.

Harry picks a paper nearby a box. "Tenancy agreement. Same as ours. 6 signatures. Jake Christie, Annie Wren, Jonathan Frost."

"What's the date?" The Doctor asked.

"Er, 1997. Sarah Tiller, Mark Hopethorne, Carl Richards."

Arthur keeps checking the box while the Doctor picks and looks at a set of polaroid photographs. "They move in, relax, go to their rooms, then panic. Infestation."

"There's more," Arthur pointed at the boxes in front of him.

Harry picks up a David Bowie single and another tenancy agreement. "1977."

"1957," the Doctor reveals another picture from another box beside Arthur.

"So, every 20 years, 6 people live here…and the house eats them?" the blonde-haired boy concluded.

They hear a door open, and footsteps on a wooden staircase.

"There's something coming," Harry whispered.

"Good," he responded, holding Arthur as they went back past the most recent boxes to face the older man, the landlord. "Christie, Wren, Frost, Tiller, Hopethorne, Richards."

"Fine young men and women," he denoted.

"As were all the others. Where are they?"

"In the house."

"You mean, the house eats them and makes them part of the woods," Arthur added harshly, hiding behind the Doctor.

"Don't think I haven't considered the consequences, my dear."

"So why do it?" the Doctor asked.

"My daughter was dying."

"What are you talking about?" Harry demanded.

"Nothing could be done, until these creatures saved her." He looks at a pair of dryads scuttle across the portrait. "We'd do anything to protect them."

"Your daughter, she's here, she's in the house, isn't she?" the Doctor guessed.

"Indeed. And she must survive."

"We have to get out!" Harry insists, runs for the lift, then dodges back past the Doctor and Arthur to the stairs.

"Harry, come back! They will eat you!" Arthur yelled.

But his shout can't stop Harry, who runs up the stairs, and two wooden treads trap his foot. "Aaah! Doctor! Arthur!" He screamed.

"Get him out!" The Doctor demanded the older man.

Instead of helping, the older man uses his tuning fork, and dryads swarm all over the screaming Harry. Arthur looks away, trembling as the shouting slowly goes away, leaving nothing.

"God rest his soul," the Landlord muttered.

"Bill! Is Bill all right?" the Doctor asked while gesturing to Arthur to move away from the creatures.

"I'd be more concerned for yourself and your boy, Doctor. Your advanced age means you have less energy, less matter, but they'll take what they can get."

"The insects are keeping your daughter alive. How does that work? Come on, call these off! Maybe I could help? I'm a doctor!"

"He can help!" Arthur added, trying to be away from these creatures.

The older man sighs. "This way."

▪︎▪︎▪︎

As they enter a room, Arthur finds Bill standing near a wood lady. He shudders at the sight of the older man's daughter, too shocked and too scared to speak and can only mumble something like, "uuuuu…"

"Eliza, do not fear this man. He says he might be able to make you well," the older man explained.

The Doctor helps the startled Arthur to walk. "Bill, how are you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Bill assured them. "Shireen."

"The lice?"

"Yeah."

"Harry, too. Um, in brief, he's her dad. He's been keeping her alive with the bugs for about 70 years. Your friends are the food. I said that I could…help." He lets go of Arthur as the boy hides behind Bill and he moves closer to the wood lady. "Now, you must be Eliza. How are you feeling? Rotten?"

"I am quite well," she responded.

"Administer your treatment, Doctor," the older man insisted.

"Well, what's the medical history here? What happened? Eliza, you were very ill?"

"Yes."

"Yes? The doctors had, er, given up on you, but then one day your father brings you a present. Where did you find them? What, on the roof? In the garden?" The Doctor repeated and the older man nodded. "You find the insects. You bring them into the house because you want to show them to her, presumably just to…just to amuse her. You couldn't have known what they were."

A young boy finding something, putting them in the box, placing it on Eliza's bedside cabinet before opening the music box, saying goodnight to her.

What was that scene?

"Can you help her or not?" the older man asked.

"I am helping. This is me helping. How did you find out their unique abilities? Did you bring them in here? You brought them in here, right, but what activated them? You use a tuning fork now, but…"

"Pavel had that record on," Bill recalled. "A violin?"

"You mean, like this one?" Arthur takes his ukulele and plays a bit. The Dryads soon come out of the floor and he stops playing.

"Or music box," the Doctor gestures to a music box near a table and opens it. "Soothes her to sleep. High-pitched sound. You leave your daughter alone for the night, or so you believe. The music wakes them. They set to work, and in the morning, you find her revitalised, just slightly wooden."

Bill takes Arthur as they're climbing onto a blanket box, trying to get away from the current Dryads.

"You realise there's a way she can survive," he added.

"Enough!" the older man snapped.

"No, wait. Doctor, that doesn't make sense," Bill argued as the Dryads disappeared back into the wooden floor after the Doctor shut the music box and approached them.

"Can you not interrupt? I'm doing my thing here," the Doctor remarked.

"But why would he pick up insects from the garden and bring them in to see his ill daughter?"

"Everyone loves insects."

"I don't!"

"They're fascinating."

"Actually, Bill brings a good point," Arthur says as he jumps from the blanket box, recalling the vision he had. "When I bring a snail into the orphanage, everyone screams in panic. I got scolded from bringing it inside, and said that snails are super gross and no adults will pet them unless they're barmy." He looks at the older man curiously.

Bill nods. "So, if he's her father, and she was preserved 70 years ago…"

The Doctor scans the older man with the sonic screwdriver, reading the results. "You. Oh, no flies on you, Bill. And no bugs in you."

"I do not understand," Eliza said.

"I forget, you see, your human lifespan, it's, it's not long, is it."

"Do not let them trouble you," the older man told her.

"What do you remember of the past, Eliza?" the Doctor asked her.

"My…father, he knows what's best."

"Yes, the lice preserve the appearance and the voice, but not so much the memories. He's not your father, am I right?"

"No! Stop talking!"

"No, you stop talking!" Arthur barked back, surprising everyone as tears suddenly came out. "This won't last forever, and you know it. You'll die eventually. Would you want your mother to live all by herself, not knowing the truth?"

"Your father would have had better things to do than playing with insects in the garden. But he isn't your father," the Doctor pointed out, despite his hearts shattering by this whole situation, knowing what it means and how it resembles his situation. "When you were ill, he was sent out of the house by the doctors who were failing to save his mother!"

Eliza stares at the older man. "His…mother?"

"Eliza, he's your son. Your loving son."

"My son?"

"Forgive me. Forgive me," he cried.

"When you saw what the creatures had done, you understood, didn't you?" The Doctor asked him. "The lice could keep your mother alive if you protected them, tamed them, fed them."

"If you could save the one who brought you into this world, wouldn't you?" He asked back.

"I don't know," Arthur replied quietly. "I never met my mother. I never know what kind of person she is. All I know is she hides me from danger…and she never takes the time to meet me. Does she truly deserve to be saved? I don't know myself, because I don't know her personally."

Bill shifts her eyes to the Doctor, who looks down in shame.

"I did what you told me because I thought you knew best," Eliza remarked, looking at her son. "But I…I am your mother?"

"Yes."

"And you.. all these children you've taken! You told me it was necessary, that we had no choice!"

"That's right, it was. It meant we could stay together. Don't you understand? We were happy! I kept our lives a secret, and a secret we must remain." He wipes his tears and turns to the Doctor in anger. "You have brought her nothing but misery and confusion! You will be taken, like the others!" He closes the bedroom door and uses the tuning fork to summon the dryads.

"Okay, now's the time for the plan," Bill pointed out.

Arthur looks at Eliza. "Please, Ma'am. Stop him. He won't stop and kill more," he begged.

"How can I stop it?" the woman asked him, truly hopeless.

"You're the parent. You're in charge!" the Doctor remarked.

"Please," Arthur pleaded.

Eliza nods, reaches out to the dryads and they split into two groups.

"That's it!" the Doctor nods.

"Do what I say! I control you!"

"No. It's me," Eliza revealed to her son. "I control them."

"Eliza, finish them now. Take them, or you'll die! They'll destroy you!"

"What's the point in surviving if you never see anyone, if you hide yourself away from the world?" the Doctor asked, shielding Bill and Arthur with his body. "When did you last open the shutters?"

Eliza turns and the shutters fly open to reveal a fireworks display.

"It's the freshers' party in the park," Bill remembered.

"Exactly. New friends, fireworks. That's what life should be," the Doctor agreed.

"I remember," Eliza realised, looking at her son. "My son, leave my side at last. Go and see the world."

"No, I don't want to!" he glares at them. "If you won't finish them, I will!"

"John!" she called and grasped his wrist. Soon, the Dryads run down her arms onto him. "My little boy, this has to end."

"No, we mustn't end. We have to destroy them."

"It's our time."

The Dryads climb over them. "No, I don't want to!" He begged as his mother pulls him into her arms. "No, no."

"Thank you," she looks at them, and gazes a little longer at Arthur, "I'm sorry," she apologised to the boy as the Dryads completely cover them both, taking them away.

The entire house rocks.

"We've got to get out of here," the Doctor warned.

"Is that?" Bill gestures at a hand sticking out of a pile of dryads.

"They haven't fully turned, so she returns them," Arthur realised.

"Come on," the Doctor said and they pulled Shireen to her feet.

Bill hugs her. "I thought you were gone."

"Are you okay?" Shireen asked Bill.

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. What about the others?"

"Come on!" The Doctor gestures them to run away

"Everyone out!" Arthur yelled as loud as he could as they ran outside the house.

"Wrong way! Wrong way! Wrong way!" The Doctor told Felicity before the house started to crumble in a cloud of wood dust, leaving everyone (except the Doctor) in shock.

Felicity groaned. "Bang goes our deposit."

"Oh man, that's our house," Shireen muttered.

"Gone," Harry remarked.

"Right, you lot, back to the estate agents. Better luck next time," the Doctor simply said before he and Arthur leave them and enter the Tardis.

▪︎▪︎▪︎

Around an hour later, the Doctor and Arthur are carrying plastic takeaway bags as the Doctor explains his current job as a professor in St. Luke while the young boy eats taco.

While they're entering a chamber, a voice speaks up. Nardole. "Oh, here he comes."

"Are you being cheerful? I'm against cheerful," the Doctor pointed out.

"Your boy is cheerful," Nardole commented, checking the door for…something. Arthur's not sure he knows.

"Sunny's an exception."

"He's always an exception to everything," he rolls his eyes before continuing. "Bill told me you and Arthur went on a little adventure. You see?"

"I see what?"

"Well, you don't have to go to outer space to find monsters. There's plenty of things that want to kill you right here on Earth."

"Result," the Doctor simply said and put the takeaway into a nearby desk. Arthur gives the one he carries while keeping eating his taco.

"Ooo. Actually, I'm not that hungry."

"Well, I am. So does Sunny."

"Obviously."

"Okay, you can take Sunny somewhere else. Maybe the place whatever it is you do. Actually, what do you do? No! Never tell me that. Just take him into his bedroom in the Tardis and put him to sleep."

"I just want to have a look at this. Our friend inside's been a little restive lately," Nardole denoted.

"Ah, I can sort that out."

"No, it's all right, I don't mind."

"Goodnight, Nardole," he insisted, trying to make a point.

Nardole slowly turns back. "Right. Goodnight, sir. See you in the morning. Come on, boy," Nardole gestures to Arthur to follow him, ready to leave, before Fur Elise by Beethoven plays.

"Is that a piano?" Arthur frowns after taking the last taco into his mouth.

"You've put a piano in there?" Nardole asked. "Why?"

"Goodnight," the Doctor simply repeated. "And Sunny?" The boy looked at him. "Your mother truly loves you, so does your father."

Arthur hums at that, not saying anything. The Doctor knows that consolation isn't enough, and it won't be the moment Arthur knows his true parents and identity.

"Oh, you don't learn, do you, sir," Nardole huffed and took Arthur with him. Seriously, why can he be honest?