Diamond toppled towards the hole her senses battered and her defenses weakening, the old man continued to shamble nearer. She could see the colours that reached for her more clearly now, they were almost like droplets of red flowing through a yellow fluid. Moments before she plunged through the aperture a pair of hands clamped over her shoulders with a vice-like grip and dragged her away from the edge.
Steel released her once he considered them to be at a safe distance away from the hole. The old man slowly lost his coherence and dissipated into the mists as though he had never existed. Sapphire stared into the cavity, the air around her began to throb with a build up of energy as she stretched out her hands over the opening "Steel, Diamond was right. This isn't a real field, it doesn't have the fundamental basics. There's no air or soil, no oxygen, nitrogen or water content." She announced puzzled
"Then what is it?" Diamond inquired, Sapphire continued to concentrate and the throbbing sound increased as she reached out her senses further.
"Hemp, plant tissue, oils." She continued,
"All things used to make a painting." Steel concluded looking at her, she nodded silently.
"So what are you saying, that this field was a painting that has been incorporated into this time? Diamond flicked her attention between the two of them.
"Possibly, but I think there maybe more to it than that." Sapphire replied slowly
"I think we've learnt all we can from this building, we need to use another approach." Steel declared, "Sapphire, is that field, that painting dangerous?"
His partner gave him a bemused smile while she rested her hands on the banister "Hardly Steel, it's simply a collection of paints on a canvas."
"I mean, would it be dangerous if we try to enter it?" He explained without taking his eyes from the cleft as the mist beyond continued to swirl and undulate throwing up silhouettes of vague shapes.
"You mean if we were to pass through into it?" she asked raising her eyebrows.
"Yes, if we tried to use it as a form of transport?"
"I don't know, it would depend on whether there were any dangers in the painting to begin with or if he..." she began to explain but Steel interrupted her
"He?"
"Alright then, if IT has added anything in the meantime." Sapphire finished.
Steel suddenly turned on his heels "Something's not right" he declared and marched back into the living room leaving the two women gazing at each other in bewilderment.
"How long have you lived in this house?" Steel demanded as he saw Lisa curled up on a seat reading, she looked up at him quickly putting the book down on the coffee table.
"Pardon?" she replied blankly
"I said how long have you lived here, in this house?" He repeated, annoyance already showing on his face. Sapphire and Diamond stepped though the door and into the room watching Steel's lead.
"All my life." She answered turning to face Sapphire, finding her the easiest to talk to "You see, my mum, well, she didn't have a lot of money and she couldn't afford to move to anywhere else. She lived and died here." Lisa's eyes grew damp at the memories, Sapphire and Diamond stared impassively at her, then looked at Steel who was standing at the window..
"And how old did you say you were?" He asked as he stared out of the window, Lisa screwed up her face as though desperately trying to remember a long forgotten piece of information. Steel spun around and continued with another barrage of questions "You look like a teenager, why aren't you out with your friends enjoying yourself? I take you do leave this place and go somewhere? Into the village maybe? To get food and..." he reached out and plucked the book off the table, flicking to the inside cover "New books to read? How far is it to the village? What sort of shops do they have there?"
Lisa clutched her hands to her head "I CAN'T REMEMBER!" she cried out at him,
"CAN'T REMEMBER OR DON'T KNOW?" Steel responded, his voice thunderous again "You've never been out of this house, have you? You can't leave because you're as much a part of it as everything else around here."
"NO! I have been outside." She shouted back at him
"Really," Steel snatched her arm and dragged her over to the window as she struggled vainly to escape his grip, "Show me, where did you go? Where?"
Lisa gazed out of the window through watery eyes at the country landscape that stretched away as far as she could see, the young woman dropped to the floor in a sobbing heap "I have been outside." She kept repeating,
"But Steel" Sapphire began "She's as real as you or I. Everything in this building is real. I don't understand"
"Neither do I," Diamond put in "What is this place? It can't be a projected image or we'd know about it. So what else can it be?
"Diamond, if we go through into that picture can you get us out again?" he asked the pale woman,
< Sapphire, once before you brought the image of the painter back. Can you find him, is he somewhere in this house? > He thought.
< I'll do my best Steel > she replied as she explored the building psychically for the entity.
Diamond observed the obvious, yet unheard conversation between the pair of them and wondered, not for the first time, what she was being excluded from; she waited until Steel gave her his full attention once more before she replied "Maybe. As Sapphire said earlier it all depends on what tries to stop us leaving, and what they have to back themselves up with."
"We'll have to take that chance. There's nothing more we can do on this side of it." He stated calmly as he waited for Sapphire to complete her search
"He's here Steel, he's in Graham's room" she replied as her mind cautiously and tenderly eased closer to the spot of psychic darkness. Steel hurried out into the hallway closely followed by Diamond and Sapphire. He stood before the sewn-up door and glared at Diamond "Open it" he demanded
"But we don't..."
"Don't argue, just do it." he stated authoritatively. He stood back and observed her as she withdrew the diamond scalpel from a pocket in her trousers. Then she delicately slid the tool between the glittering trails of energy that held the door tightly closed, the opening appeared to snap back into it's natural rectangular position and the trio were once again confronted by the multitude of pictures and paintings. Steel was the first to notice the minute changes in some of the pictures, here and there extra factors had been added to some of the paintings.
< I don't want to alarm anyone > Diamond thought < but there's an picture of me sealing up this door over on that chair over there >
< We've all been incorporated into these scene > Steel thought back as they stood at the threshold of the room <Where is he, Sapphire? Where's our artist friend? >
< There > she mentally pointed to a spot in the centre of the room, as they each concentrated to view the figure they became aware of a black latticework stretching throughout the cramped confines of the apartment, every loose strand of the latticework was thrust into each of the paintings. In the middle of the shadowy web stood the old painter, he turned and scowled at them "Go away, can't you people see I'm busy?" he bellowed at them, "I have my painting to finish, I must finish it."
Steel turned to Sapphire "Is this some sort of echo replaying itself?" he asked, Sapphire stared at the artist as he turned his back to them.
"No, I don't think so. I think he's responding to our presence here." she replied
"Then why isn't he confused by the state of things around him? The modern times?" Steel pressed
"What is it you people want? Jabbering away like a group of monkeys, how can I work with these distractions" the old man whirled around on them, his brush leaving a trail of colour behind it as he did. The three elementals moved quickly to avoid contact with the paint
< Look! > Sapphire thought sharply as she saw the paint hanging in air, her companions glanced towards where the artist had gestured and saw the paint floating in space. Diamond's eyes widened in surprise as she stared at it
"That isn't defying gravity Steel," she remarked to him "That's defying reality, he has just painted that into the fabric of reality."
"Something else that doesn't belong." He muttered as he took a peek around the edge of the door, he was in time to see the old man pulling at a large ring of metal set into the floor and a trapdoor opened up. Darting through it the old artist disappeared into the gloom and pulled the trap shut behind him. The darkness in the room dispersed into the other paintings almost as soon as he had gone leaving an empty room behind it. There were no carpets, no furniture, no paintings and no trapdoor, nothing to indicate that the room had ever been inhabited.
"He's moving back in time, Steel. Back one hundred years." Sapphire remarked as she too looked into the room
"This building is some how important to him, we have to try and catch him." He proclaimed firmly.
"How...?" Diamond began to ask but gave up as Sapphire and Steel were already moving swiftly towards the opening she had made in the floor.
"This is the only way we can follow him." Steel declared gazing at the heaving fog as he spoke,
"We can't Steel, we don't know what could be waiting for us." Sapphire argued, shaking her head to emphasis her objection
"There is no other way, and it has to be now." He exclaimed vehemently, his partner fell silent as he looked at Diamond "Are you coming with us?"
"It seems that I have little choice, you'll probably need me to get you out of there one way or another." She replied sharply. For a moment Steel narrowed his eyes at her but she stood her ground and refused to back down from his cold gaze.
Stepping out over the hole he dropped through into and was swallowed up by the fog, the disruption he caused was quickly covered by the swirling grey mists. Diamond glanced across at Sapphire, who was gathering herself together before she entered the painting.
"How do you put up with his attitude like that all the time?" Diamond asked the other woman as she moved gracefully over the hole, Sapphire's response was lost as she vanished into the mists beneath her. "Steel, you and your damn ideas" Diamond cursed as she dropped through into the fog and vanished.