The Bizarre Adventures of Doctor Who

Library of the Damned Pt. 1

The TARDIS materializes in a dark library and Theodore sticks his head out as he surveyed their surroundings. Aisles of endless books, looking up, Theodore's icy blue eyes sees the bookcases astronomically tall. If he had to guess, at least more than what Gallifrey's library contained. A record breaker, for sure.

"Where did Ziggy send us?" Lila poked her head out as she sees Theodore looking around the dark library as her purveyed the books with his large hands.

Following his eyes, Lila stepped out of the TARDIS and closed the door behind her, her chestnut eyes glanced around, seeing all the books.

A library.

Now, that's something she's familiar with.

Out of curiosity, Lila reached out and grabbed the nearest book. She carefully flipped through it and sees it's a biography about an inquisitor who passed away from disease he incurred from his time in the Amazon.

Pulling on his grey stitched long coat, Theodore reached and grabbed a book closest to him. Looking through it, he sees it's a biography about a small boy who died from typhoid in the early 1800s.

Putting their respected books back in their spots, the two began walking together through the aisle that seemed endless, darkness still ahead.

As they're walking, Lila noticed something odd about the books, they weren't mass manufactured in a factory, no ISBN numbers, each one unique, looked like bound in the old-fashioned manners, and it's strange.

Not as strange as the endless aisle they're walking in, it kept going on, to the point they stopped for a moment. Lila checked to see if they made any progress and grabbed for another book.

She opened it and sees it's another biography, this one's about a merchant who traveled from Spain on a voyage in hopes of reaching India. Unfortunately, a storm formed in the night and capsized the ship he stayed on. He drowned in his sleep and there weren't any survivors from his ship.

"We must be in the biography section," Lila commented the oddities she's seeing from just a short period they're in the library.

Theodore grabbed one book from the tallest shelf he can reach and read through it, a French noblewoman had an affair with a commoner, and in a panic once she realized she's pregnant with his child, accused her lover of a treacherous crime. The courts stacked against him, he was sentenced to death, but it wasn't so cut and dry as she'd hoped. She herself faced accusations as it became known her husband as the book said, "barren," and couldn't father children. Then it revealed her dubious nature, resulting in her family disowning her, stripping her of everything she held dearly.

Resulted in her jumping to her death in a cold creek late January, in rags.

"What an odd biography section," Theodore mused as he put the book back.

He and Lila weren't strangers to biography sections, but they're comprised of figures in history, celebrities, etc. etc., the more they looked through the books here, it looked like someone wrote a book about every person conceivable.

Didn't matter who, either, someone like a baker dying in his bed from the Spanish flu, to someone like a councilman burnt at the stakes for treason. Someone put a lot of effort into these biographies, it's almost uncomfortable. Every detail written, like someone's watching their every move, it's bizarre.

"Jeez, if this is their biography section, I can't wait to see their other sections," Lila remarked as she resumed walking with Theodore through the aisle. It seemed so endless; they'd didn't think they'd see an intersection.

They finally did and they're split on which direction they're taking. Theodore made a point to mark the aisle they started in, so they're able to return to the TARDIS.

"I dunno, which way's the wind blowing?" Lila shrugged as she looked at the darkness in the distance, the inspection with three other aisles staring back at them, don't know where to go from here.

Blinking, Theodore stuck a finger in his mouth and held it up above his head.

He pointed in a direction and Lila followed him closely behind as they're going through the right aisle.

The aisle looked like something straight from a Kubrick movie, long, daunted, and endless.

It felt like they weren't moving and they eventually stopped again, catching their breath.

"How big is this place?" Lila exhaled as she leaned against the aisle, trying to catch her breath. The library they worked at wasn't this big, not even the basement, and even the basement had better lighting than this library.

Theodore frowns as he tried to assess the predicament he and Lila faced. Looking down the aisle they're walking, nothing but darkness, with almost no end, and Lila wondered where the counters were and where the workers. If it's as big as they're thinking, the library needed hundreds of workers on hand any time, maybe more.

"Maybe this will tell us," Theodore reached for his Sonic Screwdriver.

His brother found out about the modifications and nearly blew his lid, but simmered when Theodore reminded him that it needed the modifications. It wasn't reliable beforehand, the crystal used up, and Theodore wasn't going back to Gallifrey and asking for a crystal like he's asking for a cup of sugar.

Only when his brother finally saw his points did he concede that it needed the modifications, but he made it clear that Theodore couldn't change it completely. The body remains as is, topper and all.

Tall order since Theodore recently readjusted the topper, he replaced it with, but he worked to appease his brother, and now it looks like a modern version of their father's former Sonic Screwdriver.

Holding it up, Theodore hit the button and it warbled as there's light coming through the hole in the reattached topper.

It's guiding them and they walked through the long aisle.

The only light coming from the Sonic Screwdriver, the two huddled close to it as it led them through the aisle that ended with another intersection.

From Lila's guess, they walked almost twenty miles before they started seeing more than just darkness. There's an area with a large broken mirror in the center, looked like a study area. Tables, chairs, the works, and Lila sees nobody there.

"Stranger and stranger," Theodore noted the bizarre nature of the library, seeing the empty study area with the large antique mirror's enough to draw him inside with Lila following closely behind.

He couldn't help but go up to the broken mirror, he kept Lila away as he cautiously went over the broken glass, looking at the mirror as it shattered to near nothing. There's corner pieces that remained, but the centre's completely gone. Looked like someone smashed it with a sledgehammer and the impact did the rest.

"What happened?" Lila wondered as she studied the area, mindful of the broken glass, as it scattered across the ground. Her boots crunched underneath shards that reached far as the back area.

She noticed the furniture untouched, like nobody sat in the chairs for a long time, and as Lila searched around, she noticed something odd.

The way they came in, it's completely blackened. Can't even see through it, and they barely saw anything with the Sonic Screwdriver.

Lila furrowed her brow at this as she noticed the blackness in front of them, that she swore she saw it move.

Raising this concern with Theodore, he turned his head towards the wall of darkness, and he noticed it moving, slowly in place, like paper caught in the wind.

Stepping over the broken glass, he joined Lila's side looking at the black wall.

"I'm guessing don't go near there?" Lila summed what they're not going to do and Theodore nods as he added his own summarization.

"Run!" Theodore grabbed her hand and fled with her through the other side of the study area.