The Doctor And I

The Hungry Earth - The Holes In The Ground

Amy's POV -

I give the ring over to Rory, who puts the ring back in its box and safely on the console.

"Let's go." I tug on his sleeve, and we exit the TARDIS, only to be greeted by a woman holding the hand of a child. The minute the child sees us, he shakes off the woman's hand, to appear 'older' and 'cooler.' It doesn't work.

"Well, that was quick." The woman smiles happily at us. I look at Rory in confusion.

"Was it?"

"It's great that you came." The woman continues, but is interrupted by the child.

"Bit retro. What is it, portable crime lab?" He tries to peer around Rory and I, so I close the door just incase.

"Oh, er, sort of." Rory replies. The woman leans into us, holding out her hand, which we both shake as politely as we can.

"Ambrose Northover. I was the one who called. I run the meals on wheels for the whole valley. This is my son, Elliot." She introduces herself.

"Where's your uniforms?" Elliot asks us suspiciously, glaring at our obviously out of place clothes, but his mother just smiles at him and ruffles his hair.

"Don't be cheeky, Elliot. They're plain clothes. CID, is it? Anyway, it's over here." She starts walking off, leaving Rory and I little choice but to follow.

"Er, okay." Rory says.

We are lead down to a grave, open, clearly having been dug up.

"It's a family plot, see. My aunt Gladys died six years ago. Her husband, Alun, died a few weeks back. He lived in the house two doors down. There's not many of us left up here now." Ambrose starts rambling, and Rory and I exchange looks, which Elliot sees.

"Mum, he doesn't care about that. He wants to know about the dead bodies."

"Yes. Sorry. Well, they always wanted to be buried in the same plot, together. But when we went to bury Uncle Alun, Gladys wasn't there. Gone. Body, coffin, everything."

"What?" I ask, more out of confusion of the situation than anything she'd actually said.

"The mad thing is, on the surface, the grave was untouched. No signs of it having been messed with." She explains. Rory looks at her and puts on his polite voice that he only uses for people he thinks are slightly... lost upstairs.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"Nobody has touched the grave since my aunt was buried. But when they dug it open, the body was gone. How is that possible?" Ambrose turns to us as if we have all the answers.

Rory has been pretending to look around in the grave for a while, jumping and stomping to appear as if he's doing something, whilst I watch. Elliot comes up to us.

"Do you want sugar?" He looks at us both expectantly.

"Sorry?" I ask nicely, not knowing what he's on about.

"In your tea. Mum's asking." He grumbles, evidently disgruntled at being asked to play messenger.

"No. Just white, thanks, for both of us." I reply. There's a half minute pause before Elliot suddenly speaks up, saying what he clearly had been itching to say.

"There's only one explanation, as far as I can see."

"What's that, then?" Rory asks vaguely.

"The graves eat people. Devour them whole, leaving no trace." Elliot explains in what he appears to think is an intelligent manner.