An old man sat before a burning fire chanting for several minutes, his voice tailed off as he completed the invocation. He stared into the dancing flames and in a nervous voice he asked "If you can hear me, please help me." The flames flickered and faltered for a moment as he spoke, the air around him grew colder. "I need more time, please I have to finish my painting, I must."
In the darkness that surrounded him something detached itself from the wall and slide silently down the wall and across the floor behind him. At the last moment the old man turned and screamed in terror as the darkness swept over him, the flames from the burning logs danced erratically throwing wild images onto the brick walls surrounding him.
*** *** ***
A man in a dark grey suit made his way carefully around the outside of the three storey house, his eyes taking in every detail of the structure and the surrounding ground. He made his way to the front door and gave the handle an experimental turn. When the door remained closed he gave a look of frustration and turned away to find another way into the building.
"There is only one other occupant in the building" A feminine voice with an English accent behind he made him stop and face the speaker. She was a blonde haired woman dressed in a striking blue silk blouse, blue silk trousers and a pair of blue knee-length boots completed her outfit. She watched the man with an amused smile as he strode past her into the building.
"What time is it?" he asked his tone demanding as he waited in the lobby. The woman in blue walked up to him. "The present, the 23rd of March to be exact."
"Who is this other person?" again his voice was demanding
"I don't know." The woman replied simply, "She's in a room on the second floor."
The man made his way across the lobby towards one of the doors in the opposite wall she paused remarking "Be careful Steel."
"I'm always careful." Steel replied without pausing in his stride. "What form has it taken this time? I mean why a house?"
The woman walked cautiously along the corridor, her senses began to tingle as she moved past a door and she paused "Steel, just here. There's something just here." Her partner came over to her and stood beside her.
"What is it?"
"It's a feeling more than anything. A feeling that something doesn't belong here." she replied
"We know that already" he answered walking away "That's why we're here, to send back whatever it is that doesn't belong."
"I know that, but this is something else. As though something has been taken out of Time and then put back in the wrong place." She fought to explain the impressions she was receiving.
Steel paused and turned over the consequences in his mind "In that case we can't do our job until we have located this thing out of time and return it."
"Graham, is that you down there?" another female voice called down from the second floor and a young woman appeared at the top of the stairs. She had dark brown hair and chestnut brown eyes, she wore a pair of faded blue jeans and a baggy beige pullover. "Oh, I'm sorry I thought you were somebody else." she replied as she saw the pair standing in the lobby.
Steel and his companion stood in silence staring at her, the young woman grew uncomfortable under their impassive gaze and slowly began to inch her way back up the stairs.
< Deal with her > Steel thought, his voice reverberating metallically in his companion's head.
The woman in blue nodded, stepping forward she smiled warmingly "Hello, my name's Sapphire. What's yours?"
The girl on the stairs look uncertainly at Sapphire then to Steel, who walked off down the corridor. She turned her attention back to Sapphire and gingerly made her way down the stairs "I'm Lisa." The woman answered. "I'm sorry I shouted out but I thought you were Graham, he's a friend of mine you see and he's not come out of his room for a couple of days."
"Could he have gone to stay with someone else perhaps?" Sapphire inquired.
"No, he doesn't have anyone else and he can't really go outside. He has a skin problem, I never really understood it but he can't be out in the sun too long."
"Which room is his?" Steel asked directly as he returned to the two women.
"Um, the one the right at the far end." Lisa told him.
"Sapphire I need you to do a spot analysis."
"Alright."
The trio made their way to Graham's door, once again Sapphire felt her senses buzzing "Steel, something has been through here... recently"
"How recently?" His voice not so much demanding this time as urgent
"Only a few moments." She replied as she held out her hands before her tentatively probing the atmosphere for any lingering traces.
"You," Steel turned to Lisa "Wait on the stairs."
"But..." she began, a sensation of anger growing in her stomach
"The stairs" he barked at her, there was something in his grey eyes that made her cower back from him and Lisa unwittingly hurried back to the stairs. Steel moved to Sapphire's side "Let's see it Sapphire, take time back and let's see what was here."
Sapphire gazed at the spot where she had detected the disturbance. Concentrating on the patch of floor she could sense her power gradually forcing the flow of Time to a halt, then as she increased her concentration her eyes started to glow with an intense blue light and Time began to slowly run backwards around her. Images of their conversation with Lisa appeared and disappeared until moving through the spot was an old man with greying hair and a thick grey beard wearing an paint splattered apron. The man walked up to the door and vanished. Sapphire slumped against the wall exhausted.
"That was it?" Steel asked incredulously "An old painter? What does he have to do with the time-break?"
"He's a sort of after-image." Sapphire related,
"So he was once alive?"
"No, more than that. He wasn't just alive once, he is still alive now."
Steel looked at her thoughtfully for a moment "Get the girl" he remarked.
Sapphire returned to the staircase where she found Lisa sitting with her chin resting on her knees "Lisa, could you come with me?". The young woman looked up apprehensively into Sapphire's rich blue eyes. "Please?" Sapphire added, her eyes were almost hypnotic to look at. Lisa rose from the stairs and followed her as they strode back to where Steel waited.
"Do you have a key for this door?" He asked as Lisa arrived, she shook her head mutely. Steel gave a snort of disdain.
"What's wrong?" Sapphire inquired
"The door is the only way into this room?" he questioned Lisa, who nodded again mutely. He turned to Sapphire "See what you can make of it."
The woman placed her hand slightly away from the door and probed at the structure of it with all of her senses. "It's definitely real. The door is oak about ten years old. but the doorframe is older, much older, almost a hundred years. There's something else, a force. A very powerful force was here." she gave the facts as they came to her.
"You say 'was here', how long ago?" his tone was insistent
"I can't Steel, there's something blocking me." Her voice was little more than a hoarse whisper, the strain was beginning to tell on her face as she battled with the unseen force.
"Yes you can Sapphire, how long?" he urged her
At the bottom of the door a dark shape moved and grew and elongated. Lisa gave a scream as the door swung open for an instant revealing the interior of the room, painting and twisted images decorated every available space of the walls and furniture. An arm shot out of the room and clutched at Sapphire's wrist dragging her inside, the door slammed shut behind her and a final receding cry of "STEEL!" echoed though his mind before their mental link was severed.
< SAPPHIRE! > his mind yelled out "SAPPHIRE!" Steel threw himself at the door and futilely hammered his fists against it, "SAPPHIRE!" he cried out again, but there was no response.