Chapter 1

We ran into an alcove in the side of the room, and the Doctor swung the iron prison door shut. He locked it and we both retreated back against the wall. Panting, I looked at the Doctor's face, his sharp features alight with stress.

"Are we going to die Doctor?" I asked, sliding down the wall to sit on the cold stone floor, my voice calm. The creatures from Hell franticly shook the rusty iron gridlock that stood between them and their prey; us and our death. How long until it gave out? He looked down at me, and then slowly sat down next to me.

"Most likely, Ariel. I'm sorry that you have to die on your first adventure with me. I shall miss the ones we will never get to go on together. I was looking forward to them."

I smiled a sad smile. "I'll miss them too, Doctor." I said sincerely. "But at least we'll die together, right?"

"Together." He repeated. And he reached down and took my hand in his, and gripped it tight. I squeezed his hand back. It was warm, and holding it gave me a strange sense of peace, along with an overwhelming sense of power. I stood up, dragging him with me.

"Well then, I refuse to die sitting down, or at least not without putting up a decent fight. Are you with me Doctor?" I looked up at his face.

"Until the end of time." He declared. All of a sudden, there was a colossal explosion. We were flung to the ground as the door flew off of its hinges, taking out half of the hell-demons. The rest screamed a scream that tore through my body like a thousand red-hot swords as the abandoned prison collapsed on top of them. And on us.

I covered my head with my arms and cowered on the floor, hoping that I would not be crushed alive. I heard someone shouting my name, but I couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. I looked around, and through all of the falling debris and dust that filled the air, I saw a figure moving, beckoning me. I crawled over to the Doctor who was holding open a small trapdoor, which had been cleverly concealed as stone. As he indicated, I lowered myself down into the hole as fast as I could. I heard the Doctor jump down next to me, and shut the trap door.

"Now we're safe." He said, breathing hard. I coughed, my lungs filled with ancient dust.

"How did you know about this?" I asked breathlessly.

"Well, first off, I figured the prison would have one, seeming how most dungeons in the medieval ages did. And when we first ran in here, I thought that one of the stones sounded hollow. And I guessed it was a trapdoor." He stated simply.

"Well why the hell wouldn't you have mentioned it in the first place?" I yelled at him. "We were this close to dying," I held up my thumb and forefinger, holding them about half-an-inch apart. "And you didn't think to mention this to me?"

"Well, I didn't think it was worth mentioning." He shrugged.

"Didn't think it was..!" I stopped, so infuriated that I couldn't speak.

It was dark, and the space was just barely big enough for the two of us. There were only few inches between his chest and mine. I could feel his soft breath on my face. I felt something touch my hand, and I jumped, inhaling a sharp breath.

"It's just me, Ariel. Calm down." He said, grasping my hand with his, and pulling me closer. My heart started to beat faster, and I felt a blush stain my cheeks. Even though I could still hear the building crumbling above us, it seemed quiet in our little sanctuary.

"We still might suffocate if we can't get out." I whispered, to break the silence that had gotten rather loud. He scoffed.

"Way to be optimistic, Ariel." He quipped sarcastically, squeezing my hand, his breath caressing my face as he quietly laughed. I closed my eyes, though it made no difference in the darkness, and took a deep breath. The silence had grown louder when I realized that no more sound came from above our heads. I tried to push up on the trapdoor, but it wouldn't budge. Then the Doctor tried, and it still didn't move. The sonic didn't even do anything.

That's it. I thought. We're buried under a thousand pounds of stone. We're going to suffocate down here. No one knows where we are, and anyone who saw the wreckage wouldn't think that anyone could survive that. But then again, I paused, confused. Why would anyone want to blow up an ancient prison unless they knew about the hell-demons? I voiced my question to the Doctor, and he thought it over.

"I honestly don't know, Ariel. It could have been anyone. But we owe them our lives."

"Not really," I muttered, "We're still going to die; just from suffocation." I leaned up against the wall behind me. It was already getting harder to breath. With the two of us down here, the oxygen was being used up quickly.

"Well, if we're going to die, then you will have no chance to ever tell anyone about this." The Doctor murmured. His free hand brushed my cheek while his other squeezed my hand harder as he stepped forward.

And the Doctor was kissing me. And I was kissing the Doctor. It started out soft and gentle, but grew in intensity until we were gasping for breath, one of his hands knotting in my hair, the other at the small of my back, pulling me towards him. My arms were around his neck, and I was kissing him for all I was worth. He tasted good; so good that I couldn't get enough of his lips and tongue, nor him of mine. But it was getting steadily harder and harder to breathe, and I was growing groggy and weary. With my last vestiges of strength, I kissed the Doctor even harder, forcing him back up against the wall.

Suddenly, yet almost passively, due to the extreme lack of oxygen, I felt the both of us falling as the wall gave way, and I blacked out.