Day Six!

Another burst of light. Beth shivered as the temperature plummeted and she found herself in the strangely familiar room once more. This time she was standing and had clearly not fallen asleep; she gingerly took a step forward. This was real. It was her gran's living room although with the exception of the small mahogany table she didn't recognise anything. Unlike her Christmas tree the one in this room was cold and sinister. It was dark outside and the room lit only by candles. Walking over to one of the windows she pulled back a curtain. It was snowing outside and on the broad white lawn beneath the oak tree she could see a strange blue wooden box. The oak tree was much smaller, it looked, younger...

'How is that possible?' The door to the hallway suddenly swung open and a tall willow of a woman entered the room. She was pale and unsmiling with dark hair tied tightly and neatly in a bun. She wore a pristine white pinafore over a long black dress that just touched the floor.

'Hello,' stammered Beth, her shaky voice echoing round the room. She ignored her completely and bent down next to the log fire. 'Excuse me...' said Beth but the stranger seemed oblivious to her. 'Can you hear me?' Then something else struck the terrified Beth.

Not only was the woman ignoring her, but there was no noise at all. The flames of the fire which should have been crackling were silent as they moved in their merry dance. While the woman could have had extremely light footsteps Beth should have been able to hear her stoke the fire but there was no noise at all. It was like Beth was watching the television with the sound turned down.

'Are you a maid?' enquired Beth as the woman stood up. Without the slightest hint of recognition, the servant glanced round the room, puffed up some cushions on the sofa right in front of Beth and left as silently as she had arrived, closing the door behind her.

'Where am I?' Beth was shaking as she looked down at her trembling hands which still clutched the advent calendar. In the newly revealed picture was a young man, probably in his mid-thirties wearing a crumpled pin-striped suit. His brown hair was rather unruly even by modern standards and Beth intuitively warmed to him. But there was something else. While all of the other photographs were clearly posed, this one offered a snapshot - a moment of life quickly captured. The figure in the photograph looked unprepared and utterly surprised.

Beth made her way to the door and it opened quietly. Her footsteps on the cold tiled hall floor and her breathing were all she could hear in the large, silent house. She jumped as another maid, almost identical to the first, glided silently across the hallway carrying a large tray with a tea pot and china cups and saucers. The maid knocked twice on the door to the library, before opening it and disappearing inside. Beth narrowed her eyes as she glimpsed what appeared to be her long dead relatives, vaguely familiar from the photographs. She saw one of the ladies holding a baby - a baby in a pretty white dress. They appeared to be laughing and joking but Beth could hear nothing. She had watched the maid knocking on the door, so why hadn't she heard it?

Deciding to explore she crept upstairs, turned the corner of the landing and walked straight into a tall figure who towered over her in the candlelight. She screamed. Loudly.

'Hello!' boomed the man in a warm friendly tone. Looking up she saw the tousled hair from the photograph. It was him. 'Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you,' he said. 'Are you alright?'

'Who are you?' she asked not unreasonably.

'I'm the Doctor!' he replied smiling broadly, as though that answered everything. He took her hand, shaking it vigorously. 'And you look quite lost...' his voice trailed off as he waited for Beth to introduce herself.

'I'm Beth, Beth Summers and I'm not lost exactly. This is my gran's house, well I think it is. It all looks so different and there are maids here and ...' before she had a chance to continue the tall stranger - the Doctor - interrupted her.

'And you suddenly found yourself here, alone in the dark, not knowing who or what brought you here.'

Beth nodded slowly. 'Do you know, Doctor?'