The Devouring: A Doctor Who Story

 This story is set in no particular continuity, neither my own, some book, or the tv show.

Jeremy was walking down the street. He was bored of the interior of the Call Centre in which he worked,

so he made a promise to himself to go outside more when he got time off. However, he was also slowly

getting bored of the areas in which he walked, same street every time, so today he decided he’d change

it up. Instead of turning left and continuing down the street, he turned right, heading into a park area

which led into the woods. 

Tall pillars of oak reached longingly to the sun, hiding it from the eyes of Jeremy as he trod along the

dirt. The path ahead was refreshingly clear of any form of building. He knew where he was going and he

knew which areas to stay away from, or so he thought. 

On an incline, a man was face down in the dirt. His clothes were ragged, a lime green waistcoat that

adorned his upper half. His hair was loose and wavy, dishevelled but not very. Jeremy stopped, gazing

at the prone man for a few seconds, shocked and trying desperately to think of what he should be doing

instead of standing around shocked. Eventually, he decided to crouch down to poke at the body. He

noticed it was still breathing as the body turned around and got up. The man’s face was happy and

round and covered in dirt. He spoke.

“Oh my, how long have I been like this?”, the man asked, rapidly patting his body, taking odd interest in

his hair. Now it was clear that the clothes he wore, despite clearly being custom-made for him (at least

Jeremy hoped it was custom as opposed to someone mass producing these), it also was loose around

him. 

“I… don’t know sir, I just found you.” Jeremy replied, he was both confused and stunned.

“Very helpful of you… and don’t call me sir, call me… good lord, I don’t know who I am!”.

As he patted down his body as if doing an inspection of himself, he suddenly dug into his pocket, pulling

out a piece of paper. From the sun shining through the paper, Jeremy could see that it definitely said

something, but the handwriting was too atrocious for his eyes to read it, at least backwards. 

“Find companion, find TARDIS… that’s what the note says. It’s coming back to me now, this sounds like

something the Doctor would do, yes, I’m… the Doctor, call me the Doctor, what’s your name?”

“Uhh, Jeremy… like, are you a medical Doctor?” Jeremy was now very confused and what type of

Doctor this man was was the thing he cared the least about knowing, what’s a TARDIS, what type of

man goes into the woods to look for Companions, is this a romantic thing? Seriously what’s a TARDIS?

“No, what medical Doctor would wear this? I go around and I fix things, I can show you if you want.”  the

Doctor offered his hand to Jeremy despite the fact he didn’t need help getting up, he was just crouching.

Jeremy stood up, he intended to take this man to the Hospital, maybe call the Police and see if this was

a missing person. But as he got up, he noticed something in the distance that he could’ve sworn wasn’t

there before… a Mansion. It was so clearly there, yet it very definitely wasn’t there a second ago,

however, the Mansion stood there defiantly as if it had been there for a long long time, wearing its age

like a medal.

“Are you alright Jeremy?” the Doctor asked, clearly concerned. Jeremy was overwhelmed with

questions at this point and he could barely function in this conversation if he intended to ask all of them.

The mansion was the most pressing question however…

“I’m fine… where did that mansion come from?”

“What mansion?” the Doctor turned around to see it. 

“That’s weird,” he continued, “, surely I would’ve seen it on the way down.”  he said as if it was a

completely normal occurrence.

“On the way down? Were you skydiving or something?” the more Jeremy talked to this man, the more

he baffled him. 

“Oh no not skydiving, don’t like heights, I just fell.” 

“HOW?”

Suddenly, the Doctor began to walk deeper into the woods, toward the Mansion. Jeremy ran after him.
“Wait Doctor, you should go to the Hospital or something-”
“Why would I want to do that, I’ve already seen one, and surely that Mansion is way more interesting, is

it not?” 

“Yes... But, going to the Hospital doesn’t mean we can’t go to the Mansion later.” Jeremy had no

intention to actually go to the Mansion after the Hospital, he just needed to discourage this fool from

endangering himself. 

The Doctor paused.

“Therefore, Jeremy, going to the Mansion doesn’t mean I won’t go to the Hospital later!” he said,

continuing down this path. Jeremy could tell he was determined to continue down this path… he had

nothing else to do today… may as well stay with him and make sure he doesn’t get tetanus or

something from poking around an abandoned building right? Jeremy followed him.

***

They were at the mansion, the walls were worn and grey. The Mansion wasn’t fenced off. Plant life close

to it was withered and crunchy, blades of grass snapped beneath their feet as they walked to the door.

Jeremy had walked with him for so long that he had almost forgotten that he didn’t actually want him to

go through the door at all until he tried to open it.

“Right, this is probably private property Doctor, we shouldn’t be going in.”
“Property of who? Casper? If it’s so private, they would’ve fenced it off. They would’ve locked it!”
“That’s not how it works Doctor-”

The Doctor walked in. Jeremy hesitated before following. 

The inside was unexpectedly warm, the air was fresh, and the insides were well preserved. The hallway

led to a large area with a big boxed off room in the middle. The Box was surrounded by a hallway with

many doors adorning the outside of it. The Box however only had 1 door. 

“Weird layout for a mansion don’t you think?” the Doctor asked. 

“I guess…” Jeremy replied, feigning disinterest.

“Come on Jeremy, let’s look around.” the Doctor took his hand and led him around, oblivious to any

reason why this would make Jeremy uncomfortable. Jeremy wanted this to be over more than he could

express.

The Doctor started clockwise through the hallway, the first door he opened led to a library of sorts,

strange skulls adorned the shelves, a silver syringe was laid on a desk underneath some scientific

apparatus that didn’t seem to be clearly related to it. As Jeremy picked it up, he realised the tip of it was

blunt… was it some sort of probe? Thermometer?

“I recommend not touching anything here Jeremy.” the Doctor said, causing Jeremy to jump before

placing the syringe back. The Doctor went off into the room and picked up an open book left on a chair.

“Hey, you’re touching things!”
“I go against my recommendation, it happens a lot, doesn’t mean you should.” The Doctor snapped the

book shut and tucked it into a pocket, staring forward at nothing in particular.

“Doctor?”, the Doctor, for some reason, didn’t respond immediately.
“... Oh! Sorry, just thinking, let’s see if we can find a key to the room in the centre, the big box.”

“We don’t know if it’s locked-” said Jeremy, stopping before realising he still didn’t intend on going as

thorough as the Doctor did in this place.

“It is. I, uh, this book says it’s locked. The key isn’t here, there should be a key box… according to the

book.” 

***

The Doctor walked around, Jeremy not too far behind him. Suddenly, Jeremy heard a voice, not the

Doctor’s or his own… yet it was his own. But he didn’t say the words, but it was his voice.

“Help… HELP!!!” his disembodied voice screeched, straining it’s vocal chords if it had any.

“Wha-” Jeremy responded, not quite processing that it was his own voice.

“Are you alright Jeremy?” asked the Doctor, his concern more performative than real. 

“I- that was my voice.”
“Yes, you hear your voice when you talk, Jeremy.” 

“No, I heard it, it was crying for help.”

“If you want to leave, you can just let me know.”
“No, I’m fine.” 

The Doctor continued looking over doors, meanwhile Jeremy chastised himself in his own head for his

inability to just get this man out of the Mansion and into a Hospital, at every opportunity he had failed,

but then he thought about how much about this day had confused him, where did the Mansion come

from, did this man really fall out of the sky or was he just lying, his clothes seemed very battered but the

man himself was fine, does he have a real name, what is a TARDIS, why could he hear his voice when

he’s not speaking, what did it need help from, did this man even care about him, he found that he cared

for this man on some level, one of a concerned onlooker. 

The Doctor opened one door and went through it.

“Is this where we’re meant to be Doctor?”

“... Oh! No, this is where I’m meant to be.” the Doctor closed the door, leaving Jeremy alone. While he

was there, he heard screams… screams coming from him, he was moments away from running out of

this Mansion when suddenly the Doctor stepped out, dressed in a rather bland grey suit.

“What do you think Jeremy?”
“I- I think we should get out of here Doctor… I heard screaming… look at this place it’s… unnerving.”,

the Doctor grabbed Jeremy by the shoulders, staring him in the eyes.

“Jeremy. I am a capable man. If anything untoward were to happen to you, I would stop it.”, the Doctor

released him as he continued surveying the doors. Usually Jeremy would find this bare bones argument

would not convince him, but something about his eyes, his cadence, his confidence, something made

him feel safe with this stranger. The Doctor went along the hallway, looking through the useless

keyholes to see what was behind them. Eventually, he stopped at one.

“This has to be the one.” 

He pushed it open, revealing a room bathed in a greenish yellowish light and cluttered with scientific

equipment, none of which a scientist could tell you the purpose so Jeremy definitely couldn’t. However,

the Doctor knew what everything was for. He avoided the various coloured pipes and tubes carrying

weirdly coloured liquid, instead going for an ornate wooden box with some keys and taking one and

joining Jeremy in the hallway.

“I’m sure you’ve been internally asking yourself what a TARDIS is, Jeremy.” The Doctor said. Any joy

that had been in his voice before then had gone.

“Uh, yes, but also-”

“Good…” the Doctor told him to be silent before twisting the key in the door to the boxed off room in the

middle. As he did, the walls descended, revealing something Jeremy couldn’t quite grasp. In the centre

of the room was this machine, it started as a hexagonal prism, stopping at around the middle of the

stomach. In the centre of this hexagon was a green glass pillar, this pillar was surrounded by buttons

Jeremy couldn’t see the purpose of. Was it for the house?
“This, Jeremy, is the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Not a mansion, it had quite

masterfully disguised itself as one. In actuality, it is my time machine.”

Jeremy gazed at the man, understandably confused.

“W… why does it look like a Mansion then?”

“Oh it’s disguised as one, must’ve done when I fell out of it, probably took them a few minutes to do it

automatically.”

“So… it can travel through time Doctor?”

“Yes! Would you like to see?” 

“Uh, sure, I’ve got a few questions though…”
“Ask away!”

A glass pillar rose up from the floor, it was big enough to fit in Jeremy, as it would soon demonstrate.

***

When he had picked up the book, he noticed that a page had been torn out. He took the torn page out of

his pocket and compared it with what had been torn out of the book and, sure enough, it was from the

book. The page before the torn page read:

“There you are, me. Glad to see you’ve found the rest of the instructions. I knew I had to make this an

easy puzzle for myself, falling out of the sky would probably erase my memories temporarily, might forget

that this place is even a TARDIS. I know you don’t usually do this, but it would be nice if you also did find

yourself a companion, otherwise the next part will be rather tedious.”

The page after the torn page revealed the next set of instructions.

Console room key in the lab, open it to get to the console room.

Press the red button and feed the ship the Companion. This should rejuvenate the ship, should give it

that Potential Time Energy that it needs to get back into the time stream. You can cause some real

chaos after that!

Good luck future me, hope you succeed at what I died failing to do. Good luck Master/Mistress.

***

When Jeremy had finally finished asking the questions, the man in grey pushed a button on the control

panel. A glass pillar rose up from the floor, it was big enough to fit in Jeremy, as it would soon

demonstrate.

“So, now that everything is clear, just step in… it’s uh, cryo-stasis. Yes.” the Man said, unconvincingly,

butJeremy just assumed it was either a lie or a heavy simplification of some science stuff he didn’t

understand. He trusted him enough now.

As he stepped in, thoughts flashed through his mind, what if it was true? So much to see, and he could

just go back right? If it’s a time machine, how much time he has doesn’t matter. And if it was a lie, then it

was a rather amazing lie, so much effort it would take to do all of this, it was easier to believe it was

true… and he sounded so convincing, his words had him in awe, he was going to do this, go adventuring

with this man, this Doctor, and maybe there was some risk in it all, but in the end it will be worth it, all the

wonders of time and space, he could see the future, the past, distant alien planets, was this man an

Alien? He demonstrated high endurance when he allegedly fell out of the sky, maybe he was. Thanks to

his hypnosis, Jeremy had trusted him completely.

“By the way Jeremy…”, Jeremy stopped.

“Yes Docto-”
“About that… I got my name wrong. Embarrassing I know, I can’t wait to tell the Doctor about this one

day, I’m sure they’ll find it funny. No, no, call me the Master.”

“Ok… Master…” Jeremy continued walking in, suddenly a bit uneasy. Something about the name gave

him the impression that the equal footing he had with him when he went by the Doctor had eroded. 

As the Glass pillar descended with him inside, Jeremy felt odd, like every particle inside of his body had

started rapidly moving around. His thoughts of the events that had occurred extended to thoughts of

everywhere else, and those thoughts extended to the days ahead and the days behind, flooding his

brain, he felt lightheaded as if parts of his brain were floating apart. He looked at his hand as it began

disintegrate from the fingertips.

“Help… HELP!!!” he screamed, unable to escape, unable to do anything.

The Master stood above it all in silence, hearing the screams from below. Suddenly, the screaming

stopped. The lights of his TARDIS got brighter, the pillar in the centre rose and descended, and it began

to make the usually ringing sounds a TARDIS should make.

“Humans have so much potential Time Energy... “ the Master said aloud. No-one responded.