THEY'RE ALL AWKWARDLY PRESSED TOGETHER, FACING THE CLOSET. Aurora is in front, the Doctor right behind her, brandishing his sonic. Alex is behind him, George peering out from behind his Dad as Aurora approaches the cupboard. They're all pretty on board — for once, regarding the Doctor — that Aurora is protecting them. It may be the Mom energy radiating off of her.
The lift starts up and makes them jump. Aurora mutters under her breath, reaching blindly behind her. The Doctor interlaces their fingers together, and she takes a deep, deep breath. If they're dying, she'd like for the last thing she felt to be him.
Slowly, she creeps closer to the closet. Her hand rests on the key for a sec, before she twists, and opens the closet. The Doctor instinctively makes her leap backwards.
There are clothes on hangers and toys at the bottom including a lovely dolls' house that gives Aurora the creeps, but nothing. No monsters.
"I don't understand it," the Doctor lets out, frustrated. "It has to be the cupboard. The readings from the sonic screwdriver, they were..." Aurora is about to pat him on the back, out of breath from the fear she had. He runs out the room, Alex and Aurora awkwardly staring at each other. He comes back with the photo album, opened. "How old is George, Alex?"
Aurora frowns at him. "Doctor?"
He nods. "Staring at us right in the face."
"What?" Alex breathes out, confused. "How old?"
"Yes. How old is George?" he asks again.
Alex isn't following. "Well, I told you. Just turned eight."
"So you remember when he was born, then?" he presses.
"Of course," he chuckles, shocked that he would even ask.
"'Course you do. How could you not?" the Doctor suddenly shows him the album, almost shoving it under his nose. "You and Claire. Christmas Eve, 2002, right?"
"What?" He looks at it. "Er yeah."
"Couple of weeks before George was born," the Doctor clarifies, making sure that Aurora follows. She isn't. "Tell me about the day he arrived. Must have been wonderful."
Aurora is about to cut in, demanding some explanations and asking the Doctor to stop tormenting a more than confused Alex, when Alex speaks up. "Well, it was the best day of my..." He makes a big pause, and Aurora knows that something's up. "...life."
"Sure?" the Doctor pushes.
He scoffs a bit, half-heartedly. "Yes."
Aurora slowly gets closer, peering behind the Doctor. "You don't sound sure."
"What are you trying to say?" he snaps. "Look, I don't like this." He walks away, to the door. "I've told you before, I want you to go."
The Doctor slowly turns to him. "What's the matter, Alex?"
"I can't...!" He stops. "Oh, no. Oh, this is scary."
The Doctor silently points to a picture, showing it to Aurora. She frowns at it, not understanding. Then she does, and her eyes widen. "Oh." The dates don't match. Christmas Eve, Claire was nowhere near pregnant. A few weeks later, and she gives birth.
"Yes, oh." He shoves the album in Alex's face. "Claire with baby George. Newborn, yes?"
"Yes," he has to agree.
"Less than a month after Christmas."
"So?"
"So look." Aurora flips the pages, to Christmas time. "Look. Claire's not pregnant."
Alex blinks. "What?"
"Not pregnant," she repeats.
"Well, of course not. Claire can't have kids!"
They all stare at each other for a second of silence.
"Come again?" Aurora asks.
Everything comes back to Alex. "We tried everything. She was desperate. As much IVF as we could afford, but... Claire can't have kids. How? How can I have forgotten that?"
Two realizations dawn on them. First, George isn't human. Second, he's still in the room, watching them. "Who are you, George?" the Doctor asks him.
"It's not possible," Alex rambles. "This isn't..."
"George?" He just stares at them, with big eyes. Aurora tries to step forward.
The lift makes his toys shake, stopping her. The bedside lamp glows brightly all of a sudden. Aurora discreetly grabs the Doctor's sleeve.
Then the cupboard door flies open. A white light floods out and grabs Alex, Aurora and the Doctor. "George! George, what's going on? Are you doing it?" No matter how hard Aurora tries to anchor herself on the ground, she keeps getting pulled backwards. "George calm down!"
"What's happening?!" Alex cries out.
"Please save me from the monsters. Please save me from the monsters," George cries out, bringing his legs to his chest. "Please save me from the monsters. Please save me from the monsters."
Aurora hates being the shortest one. She's the first to feel her back collide with a side of the closet. "Yeah, we're trying!"
"George, no!"
"Please save me from the monsters. Please save me from the monsters. Please save me from the monsters."
Her legs are lifted from the ground and she has to hold onto the door. "Help me, Doctor!" Alex cries out, reaching the closet.
"Please save me from the monsters."
"George, no!" Aurora feels her grip loosen at the same time as her eyes meet the Doctor's. "Doctor!"
He watches with wide, panicked eyes Aurora getting dragged into the closet.
Alex is dragged soon after.
The Doctor could have stayed behind — he was taller than the two, and was about to succeed in staying out. But Aurora had been sucked in. So he let go too.
IT'S COLD, AND THE FLOOR IS HARD. Aurora sits up, breathing heavily.
The first thing the Doctor does as he stands up, is go and bang against the door. "George! George, don't do this. We want to help you, George."
Aurora helps Alex up. "We went, we went into the cupboard. We went into the cupboard. How can it be bigger in here?"
"Yeah, it happens a lot, actually." She pats his back. "You're okay."
"Where are we?" he asks.
"Obvious, isn't it?" the Doctor lets out.
When is it? Ever? "No."
"Dolls' house," he says. "We're inside the dolls' house."
Aurora feels a chill run down her back. "The dolls' house?"
"Yeah, in the cupboard, in the flat," he clarifies. "The dolls' house."
"My God this is so creepy," she breathes out. Aurora never liked dolls all that much, but this? This is a whole new level.
"No, no, just slow down, would you?" Alex panics a bit.
"Look. Wooden chicken." He throws it to Alex. "Cups, saucers, plates, knives, forks, fruit, chickens. Wood. So, we're either inside the dolls' house or this a refuge for dirty posh people who eat wooden food. Or termites. Giant termites trying to get on the property ladder. No. That's possible." He looks at Aurora. "Is that possible?"
She really doesn't want to answer. They run down a corridor, Alex struggling to keep up with the Time Lords. "Look, will you stop?" He stops both of them. "What is he? What is George? And how could I forget that Claire can't have kids? How?"
"Perception filter," the Doctor softly explains. "Some kind of hugely powerful perception filter. Convinced you and Claire, everyone. Made you change your memories."
Aurora purses her lips. "Now, what could do that?" None of them really know. They get into an entrance hall. "So, Claire can't have kids but wanted them so badly, and something responded to that need," Aurora rambles, feeling a wave of déjà-vu. "What could do that?"
"I thought you were the experts, fighting monsters all day long," Alex ironises. "You tell me."
"Oi!" the Doctor scoffs. "Listen, mush. Old eyes, remember? I've been around the block a few times. More than a few. They've knocked down the blocks I've been round and re-built them as bigger blocks. Super blocks. And I've been 'round them as well. I can't remember everything."
"You lost the point there," Aurora tells him softly.
There's a rattle sound. "Doctor..." Alex breathes out, but they don't pay attention.
"It's like trying to remember the name of someone you met at a party when you were two," he admonishes.
"Doctor, the lift."
"And I can't just plump for Brian like I normally do."
Aurora puts her hands on his shoulders. "Breathe Doctor."
"Doctor, listen!" Alex suddenly cries out.
"Shush," the Doctor snaps. "What's that?"
"It's the lift. It's the sound that the lift makes," Alex tells them. "George is scared stiff of it." Aurora rolls her lips inside of her mouth. The electric lights in the bulbs on the candelabra go out one by one. Before lighting up and going out again. "Five times," Alex lets out.
The Doctor frowns. "What?"
"The lights," he clarifies. "It's happening five times. It's like one of George's habits. We have to switch the lights on and off five times."
The Doctor smiles. "Now you're getting it."
"What do you mean?"
"What do you tell George to do, Alex, with everything that scares him?"
"Well, put it in the... cupboard." And that's right where they are. This is cool. Aurora hates it.
"Exactly. And George isn't just an ordinary little boy, we know that now, so anything scary he puts in here. Scary toys, like the dolls' house. Scary noises, like, like the lift. Even his little rituals have become part of it. A psychic repository for all his fears, but what is he?" Aurora opens her mouth to tell him that she doesn't know, when she hears a laugh behind them.
A huge peg doll enters the room. She looks away, not registering it, looking back into the Doctor's eyes. And then both of them realize what they saw.
They look back at the peg doll. Her blood runs cold, and she feels her stomach sink. This is so, so very creepy.
She stands up, the Doctor and Alex following. She immediately grips the Doctor's hand. "Oh, my God," Alex lets out. The Doctor tries to sonic the doll. "A gun? You've got a gun?"
"It's not a gun!"
Nothing works. Aurora gets why immediately, tightening her grip around the Doctor's hand. "Doctor, it's wood!"
He groans. "I've got to invent a setting for wood. It's embarrassing." They start to run the other way, opening a door.
Instead, they find a pair of giant pinking shears. Aurora takes it and prods the doll back to make their escape, yelling. "Come on!"
They start to run again. "Don't run away," the doll goes. "We just want to play."
Aurora looks above her shoulders with big scared eyes. "Hard pass!"