The Nowhere Hotel

The Doctor wakes up fresh from a new regeneration struggling to find out who he is. Then after arriving in a strange hotel he meets a girl who doesn't remember who she is... or who the other two people inside her head are.

PART 2

The Doctor took his first step outside the TARDIS, he looked around in the darkness. A thick musty smell greeted his nose and dust assaulted his eyes.

"What…? Is this—" rubbing the dust from his eyes he took another step forward. Suddenly he felt whatever he'd stepped onto rolling out from underneath him causing him to slip forward and land in a pile of coats.

"Am I…?" He looked back up to the TARDIS. "Yep, I'm in a cupboard."

He rubbed his eyes again and reached out, feeling the walls either side of him and the door in front of him. He felt the ground around him for whatever it was that he tripped on. It was small and round, he held it up in the light from the TARDIS and turned it over in his hand.

"A yo-yo?" He said, looking around, "Where am I… the nineties?"

The Doctor added another item to his list as he chuckled to himself; definitely funny. He dropped the toy back on the floor and picked himself up. After closing the doors to the TARDIS, he reached forward and felt around for the doorknob, then slowly crept out of the coat room.

The TARDIS had landed him in some sort of hotel, it had an off-putting vibe with the striking geometric carpet and the yellowed walls. He could hear music drifting down the windowless hallway, as he followed the generic sounding jazz he realised he could hear people talking. He couldn't quite make out what any of them were saying, but he could definitely hear people idly chatting amongst the music.

He arrived at a large double door and placed his hand against it.

"Oak…" He said to himself, "But something's not quite right."

As he gently pushed the door open he was greeted by a busy lounge, still fitting the Overlook vibe, a long bar against one wall with tables dotted around, facing a stage with a jazz band performing.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes as he moved along the edge of the tables to get to the bar. He took a seat and noted the amount of people in the bar. A single bartender, wiping down a glass, a few couples sat at tables, and of course the band. Everyone was wearing a smart tuxedo or ball gown and he suddenly felt under-dressed.

'Nineteen thirties…' He thought to himself, 'Earth. It's definitely Earth. There's something very human about all of this. Except—'

His thoughts were interrupted by the bartender.

"A drink, sir." He said, "From the lady across the bar, in the red dress."

"Who?" The Doctor turned, but the bartender had gone. He looked around to see he was once again polishing glasses. "Okay…" he said, looking down at the drink he'd been presented with. Bourbon, on the rocks. He frowned, was that the kind of man he was? This woman… who he hadn't even seen in the bar earlier had made the assumption, he picked up the glass and took a sip, the correct assumption that he was the kind of man to enjoy a bourbon on the rocks. How could she have known that? He didn't even know that! Deciding that he was in fact the kind of man to enjoy such a thing, and the kind of man who would accept a drink bought by a strange woman in a strange bar from a disappearing bartender, he turned to show her some sort of gratitude. He looked over to the other end of the bar, the woman was sat up and turned to face him. There was no one else sat at the bar between them.

The Doctor raised his glass to her and smiled, but as he met her gaze he realised she wasn't smiling back. There was something very different about her. Not just that she was the only one not chatting to someone or watching the band, but about her herself. It was as if the world around her was just a blur and she was the only thing in focus. She had curled red hair and a swooping fringe that covered one side of her face, a small pointy nose covered in freckles that spread across her cheeks and bright green eyes, wide and staring at him as if something was very wrong. As he locked eyes with the woman he noticed her gaze quickly flick to a red napkin in her hand then back up to him. He frowned back, then looked down at the bar in front of him to see a similar red napkin with a note written on it.

up the stairs

room 104

come alone

After reading the note he looked back up to see that the woman had gone, the large double doors behind where she'd sat were just closing.

The Doctor smiled to himself and downed the rest of his drink, inhaling sharply at the burn in his throat. A damsel in distress perhaps? Or he could be walking into some kind of trap. He grabbed the napkin message and folded it before putting it in his pocket and heading for the door.

Outside the lounge was a long corridor that seemed to go on for miles either side of him, and a large staircase in front of him. He climbed the stairs to the next floor up and counted the doors either side of the corridor till he reached 104. It was slightly ajar. He pushed the door open with his foot and poked his head inside.

"Hello?" He asked to no response.

Continuing into the room The Doctor eyed his surroundings. It was a large room, somehow impossibly fitted into the space of the building. It was extravagantly decorated with a large four poster bed in the middle. It was as if he'd been transported to sixteenth century France.

"Not exactly how I would have decorated—"

Before he could finish his sentence he felt someone tackle him from behind causing him to fall forward onto the bed. He looked up from the bed to a large ornate mirror, he could see it was the woman from the bar.

She held his arms behind him and planted her knee firmly on his lower back, keeping him from moving.

"Who are you? How did you get here?" She asked, her voice low and controlled as if she was trying to keep back her emotions.

"Ah, Napkin Girl I presume? I have to say, this isn't what I expected at all." He said jovially.

Napkin Girl pushed her knee further into his back.

"Who are you, and how did you get here?" She said again, more sternly this time.

"I'm The Doctor. And apparently I'm quite cheeky—" he felt her knee dig deeper into his back, "Ah, I don't know how I got here!"

"How can you not know?" She took her knee off of him, "Wait, do you even know where you are?"

"Not even slightly," he smiled, attempting to catch her eyes in the mirror in front of them. "Would you mind telling me? My ship tends to just drop me off places."

She abruptly let go of him and disappeared from the mirror view. The Doctor rolled over and sat up on the bed, rubbing his sore back. He watched as Napkin Girl nervously peeked out of the room, checking either way down the corridor.

"I'll tell you where we are, but you have to get me out of here first. Your ship, where is it?" She looked over at him eagerly, her eyes wide and her fingers drumming against the door.

The Doctor stood up from the bed and folded his arms, "Hang on a minute, how am I supposed to trust you? You could be anyone."

Napkin girl sighed and closed the door. She leant against it and looked up at the ceiling.

"Fine, I'll explain a little… but we don't have much time. If they hear us, I'm blaming you."

"By all means." The Doctor shrugged.

"Nothing here is real… this place doesn't exist, okay? It's all mixed up and doesn't fit together!" She moved closer to him, "Those people, the ones in the bar? They're the same people who have been there for years, every single day. They're nobody! But you… I've never seen you before… so you must be real, right?" She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. He felt a rush of electricity prickle up his arm, suddenly very aware of his hearts beating faster. He felt her fear, looking down at her hand in his, then back up to her face, he could see the look of desperation in her eyes.

She seemed to loosen her grip on his hand, "I've lost count of how long I've been here." Her head dropped down and The Doctor noticed behind her; all over the walls, scratched into the wood were little pentagons. Five little lines making up the shape, over and over again, covering the walls around them. The Doctor's eyes grew wide as he counted up the marks.

"However many days… and those are just the ones I counted. Those nobodies have been there forever. But then you turn up just," she paused, "Out of the blue."

"Technically yes," said The Doctor, looking back down at her, "But how did you know that?"

Napkin Girl pulled away from him and turned back to the door, placing her hand on the handle.

"I had to know if there was a chance you could get me out of here. I don't care who you are, but you're definitely somebody. I clearly can't force you… but I can ask nicely." She turned back at him and offered a weak smile, "You're right. You don't know who I am and have no reason to trust me. I don't know who I am either, I don't remember anything! But I know I must be somebody and I know I don't belong here." She opened the door and looked him in the eyes, "So… Please?"

The Doctor met her gaze, her eyes pleading with him to help her. He looked down at her outstretched hand; waiting for him to answer.

This girl, whoever she was, did indeed look like a somebody and she obviously didn't belong here. Was he a trusting sort of man? There was surely a reason a girl like her would end up in a place like this, perhaps taking her along with him would eventually prove that reason. But then again. He didn't know what kind of girl she was. Then it hit him. She didn't know that either.

He saw some of himself in her, lost and searching for meaning. He thought about the years she must have spent here alone… how his face was probably the first real face she'd seen in all that time. How she was the first person he'd seen with his brand new eyes. They had both spent a considerable amount of time alone, to then suddenly meet in such strange circumstances? He knew he wasn't the kind of man to pass up an opportunity like that.

"Was that so hard?" The Doctor grinned and grabbed hold of her hand, squeezing it tight as she had done to him; that same feeling of electricity rushing through from her hand to his, "This way Napkin Girl!"

She gasped as he pulled her out of the room. He ran along the corridor, excitement bubbling up inside him. He felt so connected to her in this moment, the tension rising around them as they ran. Two somebodies in a nowhere hotel full of nobodies. It didn't matter that they didn't know who they were or what they were doing, they had each other and somewhere to run to. He turned quickly to see her frantically running behind him, a huge smile on her face. He started to laugh seeing that she was holding her skirt with her other hand as she ran and he couldn't help noticing the chunky black boots she was wearing.

They came to the door to the lounge and he felt a tug at his arm, stopping him from opening the door.

"When did the band stop playing?" Napkin Girl asked.

"Does it matter?" The Doctor replied, placing his free hand on the doorknob.

She tugged at his arm again, tightening her grip on his hand with the other.

"They never stop playing." She said, gravely.

The Doctor nodded to her and cautiously opened the door, peeking around it to the now empty lounge. The generic sounding jazz had ceased and the was no one around, no patrons, no band, no bartender. The nobodies had just gone.

"Keep your head down, move slowly." Napkin Girl whispered to him.

The Doctor frowned, thinking that he had been about to say that. He pulled Napkin Girl close to his side and crept across the empty lounge to the door opposite. The cupboard he had materialised in was just a little further down, but the corridor seemed to lengthen with every step.

Then in the back of his mind, he heard the distinct hiss of a sealed metal door opening.

"They're here!" Napkin Girl shouted.

"This way!" The Doctor shouted back, picking up the pace again and running the rest of the way to the coat room. He swung the door open and pushed Napkin Girl inside, shutting the door behind him.

"Hey! What are we doing in—"

The Doctor shushed her and gently pressed his ear to the cupboard door. He could hear heavy footsteps making their way through the corridor and two voices outside the coat room.

"You really saw it? A spike in her vitals?"

"I saw it all right."

"And it wasn't anything she could have created?"

"Impossible."

"What about the others?"

"No way, this thing can't create people, there was someone else in here."