I woke up on my couch, and Mark was poking my face.
"Hey, idiot, you fell asleep. I'm going out with Cameron."
"Okay, okay."
"See ya, fatso."
"SHUT UP!"
After Mark was gone I served myself up a slice of pie and tried to remeber what had happened. But, like last night, I had more road blocks. Funny dreams I'd been having lately, I guessed. I checked my schedule. Sunday. Starbucks was closed. And then I heard a familiar noise. Everything flooded back. John Smith, the cosmomuse, that weird police box. I ran outside, not bothering to put on my sandals. John Smith was making his way out of the box.
"Hey, you!" I yelled.
"Oh, hello, I saw you yesterday," he said cheerfully.
"What is that weird police thing? I saw it disappear yesterday, and the cosmomuse, and the weird mail stealing, what is this?" I said, my worlds jumbling up in my over-exerted out of breath voice.
"Oh. You saw. Okay, okay. I've got big problems right now. I could show you the TARDIS, but then I might miss the shadows."
He started pacing and talking to himself. And then he perked up.
"YES! Okay, okay. Come on."
He grabbed my hand and unlocked the police box. He pulled me inside.
I gasped. "It's, it's.... it's impossible!" I said.
"Oi! You're supposed to say 'it's bigger on the inside.' First Clara, now you," he said.
I ran out of it and ran my hand along the exterior. Definitely small here, but on the inside, it was a large room with a weird tube-like thing on top of a console in the middle of it. I walked back inside and looked around. There was a large thing on top of the tube, constantly circling around the top of it with little circular carvings on it. The console was emitting a small blue light, and it had numerous buttons and levers and pulleys and things I'd never even dreamed of on it.
"It's called the TARDIS," he began, "it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions in Space. It's a spaceship, it's a time machine, it's everything you want and more. Downstairs, we've got a swimming pool- oh yeah, I got rid of that. Well, I know I've got a hot tub and an all you can eat buffet, which I'm sure you'll enjoy, and then upstairs- right, I've not got an upstairs anymore. Not since Amy and Ror- nevermind! Do you love it?"
His excitement was infectious.
"It's impossible. Am I dreaming? Do I have high cholestorol again? Oh, my doctor told me to-"
"That's, right! I'm The Doctor. Not John Smith, that was simple psycic paper trickery. Pyscic paper just gets into your head, reads your mind and projects what you're thinking onto the paper. I can be the King of Barcelona if I want," he said, grinning.
"I- I don't think Barcelona has a king," I said sheepishly.
"I know!" He yelled, hopping into the air, smiling from ear to ear.
Exciteable guy, I said to myself.
"Someone's a bit nervous," he filled the sudden silence with the topic I think we'd both been avoiding.
"Yeah.... I just.... wow," I said.
"Now, if you're curious, I've been here because I was searching for the shadows. They're called the Vashta Nerada, and I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, but you're neighbor is dead. He had two shadows."
"What? The Vashta Nirvana?"
"No, the Vashta Nerada. Not the band. Definitely not the band. The Vashta Nerada are microscopic flesh-eating alien beings commonly found in forests that hide in shadows. And before you ask, no, not every shadow..... but any shadow," he said darkly.
