Chapter One:

"Amelia! It's lovely to see you, dear. How've you been?" asked Mrs. Watkins as Amelia stepped into her welcoming home.

"Uh, good, thanks. Sorry but I just really need to see Scarlett," the young girl replied in her thick Scottish accent, getting straight down to business. She didn't have time to fool around.

"She's in her room, love. I'll bring you two up some drinks soon, yeah?" the tall brunette smiled politely. She had always liked Amelia Pond ever since she befriended her daughter at the young age of 5.

With a quick nod, Amelia ran up the stairs – almost knocking down Charlie; the eldest of the Watkins siblings – and burst into her best friend's bedroom.

"Amelia!" little Scarlett said, looking up from her book in surprise. "I didn't know you were coming over."

"Neither did I, but I have to tell you what happened yesterday," she replied without taking a breath, hopping up onto Scarlett's bed to face her.

"Why, what happened?" her friend frowned, concerned. She was worried that her Aunt may have gone out and left her again. Whenever that happened, Scarlett's mother usually invited her to stay the night.

"A man landed in my garden," said Amelia, her face remaining impassive.

"You what?"

"A man landed in my garden; a raggedy man. He called himself the Doctor."

"The Doctor?" Scarlett asked; abandoning all hopes of continuing with her book as her question was met with a nod.

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor," Amelia shrugged.

"Then where is he now?"

"He left," the redhead said, her voice dripping with disappointment. He had promised her five minutes yet hours passed and he still hadn't returned. "He said he would come back in five minutes but he never did."

"Are you sure you weren't… dreaming?"

Amelia let out a sigh, as if she knew how everyone would react to the news of this 'Doctor'.

"I wasn't dreaming, Scarlett! Come on, you have to believe me."

This caused Scarlett to pause. This was Amelia Pond she was talking to. Her best friend. She had to give her the benefit of the doubt, didn't she?

"Alright. Let's just say I believe you. What do we do now? Just wait for him to come back?"

"I don't know," she said honestly.

Then it was Scarlett's turn to sigh.

"Well until we figure it out, how about you tell me all about this Doctor?"

And that's exactly what she did.

Scarlett learned a lot about the Doctor that night.

She learned that he hated apples, yoghurt, bacon, beans, bread, butter… A lot of things, apparently. But he loved fish fingers and custard. Couldn't stop eating it, she heard. Scarlett made a mental note to have that put on her to-do list.

But ever since that night, little Amelia's friend became Scarlett's, too. She became invested in the story; invested in him. For years after that night, the pair would continue to talk about him; what they think he's doing, if he's okay, if he'll come back. They even made their dear friend Rory dress up as him when they played.

Nobody really believed the story of the raggedy man. Not Scarlett's mum or dad, and certainly not Amelia's aunt. Not even little Rory believed it. He just went along with everything to keep his best friends happy.

And that's where the big shocker comes in. Quite some time ago now, Amelia and Scarlett made an imaginary friend. And twelve years later… their imaginary friend came back.

It was 10am when Scarlett woke up to a bright beam of light streaming in through the window, causing her to bury her head further into her pillow and groan. She never was a big morning person, and she personally thought that anyone who was should be sent for psychiatric help.

She had just made mental plans to sleep for another hour or two when the phone rang suddenly, causing her to groan louder.

"Hello?" She mumbled into the device after fumbling around to pick it up.

"Watkins, get over here as soon as you can. And bring back-up," said the person on the other side.

"Amy? Why are you speaking like a Victorian?" Scarlett asked as she stood up clumsily and started chucking on some clothes that she deemed to be wearable without getting looks from the whole of Leadworth.

"No questions. Just get here. I've got him restrained," she replied.

"Okay, okay, whatever. I'll be right over."

And then she hung up, leaving Scarlett to wonder what the bloody hell her best friend was up to now.

"Oh Amy, what am I gonna do with you?" The brunette muttered to herself as she shoved her feet into her shoes and quickly ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to tame the beast.

She glanced in the mirror quickly before deciding she looked presentable and ran out the door to Amy's house. It wasn't that far, just a few streets away actually, yet she still managed to be out of breath by the time she got there.

God, I really need to get fit, Scarlett thought to herself.

As she burst into Amy's house and made her way upstairs with ease, she heard her best friend speak to whoever was in her company.

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time," she heard, causing a frown to form on Scarlett's face.

"How long?" asked a man.

There was a slight pause before Amy spoke again, as if she were contemplating answering truthfully.

"Six months."

That's when Scarlett decided to show her face.

"Finally, Watkins! What took you so long?"

"What are you doing?" The younger girl asked; glancing down at the floor to find a man handcuffed to the radiator. "Who is he? And why do you keep calling me Watkins?"

"I'm doing my job, he was breaking and entering, and because it's your name," she replied.

Scarlett shook her head slightly as she tried to comprehend everything that was happening. So my best friend calls and insists that I come over and when I do, she's pretending to be a policewoman with a man handcuffed to her radiator, Scarlett thought to herself. Just another typical day with Amy Pond, then.

Her eyes found the man on the ground again and she took a sharp intake of breath. "Wait a minute," Scarlett started, "Wait, you're the Doctor… Aren't you?"

He had to be. Scarlett recognised his disheveled hair and messy clothes from the drawings Amy did as a child. "Certainly raggedy," she added, before Amy slapped her arm to silence her.

"How many rooms?" he asked suddenly, although his eyes stayed on the slightly shorter girl for a moment longer.

"I'm sorry, what?" asked Amy.

"On this floor; how many rooms on this floor? Count them for me, now."

"Five," she said confidently before pointing at each of them with her index finger without a single glance back. "One, two, three, four, five."

Normally, Scarlett would have agreed with her. But after taking a quick look around the house, she realised that there aren't just five doors. There were…

"Six," said the Doctor and Scarlett simultaneously.

Amy laughed. "Six?"

"Look," said the Doctor. "Look exactly where you don't want to look, where you never wanna look; the corner of your eye. Look behind you."

Amy hesitated, as any normal person would, before turning slowly. "That's… that's not possible. How can that be possible?"

"There's a perception filter all-round the door. Sensed it last time I was here. Should've seen it," came the reply. He sounded almost angry with himself.

Scarlett considered his words. From what she could gather, there was some kind of force around the room that tricked people like her – humans with ordinary minds, that is – into being unable to see it.

"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed. Neither of us noticed," Amy said, mainly toward the other female in the house.

"The filter stops you noticing. Something came here, a while ago, to hide, and it's still hiding, and you need to uncuff me now!" he said, tugging hard on the handcuffs.

Scarlett cringed. If he tried any harder, the poor man would break his wrist.

Her eyes flickered back to Amy as she slowly stepped towards the door. "I don't have the key, I lost it."

"How can you have lost it?! And stay away from that door!"

Scarlett knelt down beside him then, pulling a hair grip out of her pocket – every girl should have a supply somewhere, she thought – and began to fiddle with the handcuffs in an attempt to unlock them.

"Do not touch that door!" he continued. "Listen to me, do not open that –"

He threw his hands up in the air then, both making it harder to set him free and giving Scarlett an indication that Amy had ignored his pleads.

"Why does no one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?" he asked before finally turning to look at his acquaintance. "Again?"

The young girl replied with a simple shrug. Actually, you have quite a nice face, if I do say so myself, Scarlett thought.

"What's your name?" he asked, his eyes scanning her face. Blue eyes, longish brown hair with subtle blonde highlights. Dyed? No, no, these are natural, the Doctor added as he took a quick glance at her roots. She looks young, but then again, so do I.

"Scarlett," she replied. "Scarlett Watkins."

He then smiled for the first time since she got there. "It's nice to meet you, Scarlett Watkins."

"There's nothing here," said Amy from the room the Doctor told her to avoid, successfully interrupting the pair's first meeting.

"Whatever's in there stopped you seeing the whole room. What makes you think you could see it? Now please, just get out!" The Doctor yelled. "And where's my screwdriver? Silver thing, blue at the end, where did it go?!"

"Silver, blue at the end?" replied Amy.

"My screwdriver, yeah," he nodded, despite the fact that the redhead couldn't see him.

"It's here."

"Must've rolled under the door."

"Yeah, must've," agreed Amy, before speaking again in a quieter voice. "And then it must've... jumped up on the table."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Get out of there. Get out of there! Get out! Get out of there!"

"What is it? What are you doing?" Scarlett asked, her voice rising slightly. She had to make sure her best friend was safe.

"There's nothing here, but..."

"Corner of your eye," said the Doctor slowly. "But don't try to see it; if it knows you've seen it, it will kill you! Don't look at it! Do not look."

There was a pause – just a brief one – before Amy screamed and ran back to the pair, holding something tightly in her hand. She never was one to go by the rules, after all.

The Doctor took the object – which Scarlett assumed to be his 'screwdriver' – out of her hand and aimed it at the door, successfully locking it shut. He then pointed the device at the cuffs, which she suddenly remembered she had stopped working on, and frowned.

"Oh, what's the bad alien done to you?" he muttered as she turned the pin to the right and the handcuffs snapped open.

He casted a grateful look Scarlett's way before removing the cuffs completely.

"Will that door hold it?" asked Amy in reference to whatever had been in her house for years. She was finding it harder to keep up her English accent with each passing minute.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, course. It's an interdimensional multiform from outer space, they're all terrified of wood."

Scarlett bit down on her lower lip. There's a potentially life-threatening monster in my presence, and I'm laughing? She sighed, scolding herself.

Amy gave him a scathing look, and the door suddenly flashed yellow from within. "What's that? What's it doing?"

"I don't know. Getting dressed? Run. Just go, your back-up's coming, I'll be fine."

Amy sighed, "There is no back-up."

"I heard you, you said she's bringing back-up," he said with a small gesture towards Scarlett.

"I was pretending; it's a pretend radio."

"But you're a police woman."

"I'm a kissogram!" she finally admitted, pulling off her hat and letting her red locks fall around her shoulders.

Well, at least that's finally out in the open, Scarlett reasoned.

That was when the door at the end of the hall burst opened, and an older man in a blue uniform stood with a dog on a chain, staring down at the three of them.

"But… it's just –" Scarlett started.

"No it isn't. Look at the faces," said the Doctor.

The dog started to growl, and then bark. But when they looked, the dog's face wasn't moving. But the man's was… The man was barking.

"What?" said Amy in disbelief, "I'm sorry but what?!"

"It's all one creature, one creature disguised as two. Clever, old multi-form. A bit of a rushed job, though, got the voices a bit muddled, did you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed, how'd you fix that?"

Scarlett's eyes widened. She highly doubted that taunting the man would get them very far.

The man barked again, causing the girls to jump slightly in surprise. Then he opened his mouth and showed them his teeth… His large, pointy teeth.

"Stay away!" yelled the Doctor. "We're safe, wanna know why?" He patted Amy's shoe. "She sent for back-up."

"I didn't send for back-up!" admitted Amy in an exasperated tone.

"I know, that was a clever lie to save our lives," sighed the Doctor. "Okay, yeah, no backup! And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had backup then you'd have to kill us."

"Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."

"What the bloody hell is that?" Scarlett asked.

"Well, that would be backup," he replied. "Okay, one more time. We do have backup, and that's definitely why we're safe."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated."

"Well, safe apart from, you know… incineration."

The announcement started again.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated."

The unknown man and his dog started to wonder into another room to look out of the window, and the girls felt the Doctor's hands slip into theirs.

"Run," he said before repeating it again with more urgency. "Run!"

Then he tugged on their hands, and dragged them outside.