THE MAN AT THE STAIRS
A Fourth Assignment Adaptation by GhostWriter73
Disclaimer- 'Sapphire and Steel' belongs to the wonderful imagination of Peter J. Hammond. God bless that man for giving me such memorable and inspiring childhood nightmares.
AN- This isn't really my story. Instead it's basically a retelling of the 'Fourth Assignment' of the television series which was one of my favourites. I must warn readers to be aware that most of this fanfic has material taken straight from what I remember from the TV show and so great big thumping SPOILERS abound. It's strongly advised that you watch the episodes first if you can.
Although I am staying relatively true to the original source, I'm mainly writing this from memory, so it's definitely not going to be exactly like the show. I also couldn't help but slip in a few 'embellishments' of my own, so there will be scenes that never actually happened included in this fanfic. It's basically me just having a bit of fun.
The era for this Adventure takes place in the early 1980s, around about the same time the show was aired.
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1 – Hide and Seek
It was a cold October night and hardly the best time to be playing games. However, Celia had been bored, bored, bored, so when Billy suggested Hide and Seek, she had jumped at the chance. It was no fun being stuck down in that basement with all the dust and silence and still people. But as she crouched behind a battered dustbin in the alleyway at the back of the old junk shop, she was beginning to change her mind. The ground was wet since it had rained recently and Celia's thick petticoat dress was getting very soggy. At least the boring basement was dry. She supposed Billy was used to getting all messy since he was a perfectly grubby little urchin to begin with. Which was another reason why this had not been such a good idea. The very thought of his grabby hands covering her pretty dress in dirty smudges made Celia wrinkle her nose in disgust. She really wished she could play with someone else. At least someone cleaner…
Like the Other.
But the Man had said no and to stay away.
Celia felt that wasn't fair. She liked watching the Other in the secret places where she couldn't see her. She did such strange and funny things. And she never seemed to stop moving! Her absolute favourite thing about the Other was her face. She loved how the Other's eyes swivelled around and around and her mouth opened and how she just…changed. For a long, long time Celia's face had never changed. It was such a novelty that Celia couldn't resist spending hours and hours practicing in front of a mirror opening and closing her mouth and scrunching up her eyes to be just like the Other. She had to be careful the Man didn't catch her doing it though. The Man didn't like mirrors.
The sound of approaching footsteps roused Celia from her musing and she cautiously peeked over the dustbin to peer into the pitch darkness. She was dismayed to see the shape of a figure walking towards her hiding place. It seemed Billy had found her already. The girl's knuckles grew white as she tightened her grip on the handle of the parasol she always carried. Well fine! If Billy and his awful grubby fingers were coming to get her, she wasn't going to make it easy for him. She was determined to give him a good poke before he touched her first! Slowly, the figure stopped and wavered near the dustbin and Celia tensed to strike.
Suddenly, there was a flicker and a flash and brightness flooded through the darkness as the old broken backdoor light spluttered into life. Blinking, Celia jerked in shock and gave a little squeak of surprise to find it was not Billy standing before her, but a lady dressed in blue with golden shoulder length hair. Momentarily stunned, Celia stared back into piercing sapphire eyes. With the gifts the Man had given her, the girl could sense that this stranger was nothing like the Other. Nothing like her at all! And she had to get away because the lady was reaching for her and that would be so much worse than even a hundred grubby fingered Billies! Before the blonde could touch her, Celia twisted around, ran straight into the wall behind her and disappeared into the bricks beyond.
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For a brief moment, the strange woman just stood there alone and silent and contemplating, then slowly she turned and moved towards the backdoor. She smiled, as it swung open.
"No problems getting in then?" she asked, her soft voice was warm and cultured.
A stern blonde-haired man in his early thirties dressed in a grey business suit stepped out. "No. None." He gazed out at the alleyway with eyes like chipped flint. "Did anything happen here, Sapphire?" It was a question that demanded an answer.
"Yes." the woman replied, "There was a child here. A young girl."
The grey man glanced at his partner. She was wearing a light blue flowery dress that he immediately disliked.
Even if it did suit her perfectly.
"Human?"
Sapphire shook her head. "No, not as such."
"A visual refraction then?"
"No. She may have acted in a similar fashion and her style of clothing was out of time, Late-Victorian, but she was not a ghost."
The man breathed a repressed sigh. He hated riddles.
"Where did you see this…girl?"
Sapphire gestured to where the dustbin was situated. "Over there." she said, walking towards it. "The girl was crouching behind it. Hiding."
The man looked puzzled. "Why?"
The blonde ran her fingertips over the lip of the bin. "She was playing a game of Hide and Seek with a friend."
"A friend? You mean there's more of them?" Her companion sounded less than pleased.
Sapphire quirked an eyebrow. "Well, I'd hardly think she'd have much fun playing Hide and Seek by herself, don't you?"
The man grimaced at the thought and stalked briskly into the alleyway.
"How many more?" He kicked at a pile of cardboard boxes as if they would suddenly reveal the troublesome wayward 'children'.
Sapphire leaned on the bin and shrugged. "I don't know. I never got the chance to ask her because the light came on and she ran away." She paused, watching as her partner crouched down on the wet ground and tried to see through a basement window. "You'll never find them, Steel. Not like that."
"Then where are they? Where's the girl?" the man known as Steel grunted, still glowering through the basement window.
"She went through the wall."
Steel blinked up at the blonde and frowned. Sapphire just looked mildly amused as he stood back up and pulled out a hanky.
"I thought you said she wasn't a ghost," he grumbled, vigorously drying his wet and gritty hands.
"And she isn't." Sapphire assured, " But she can act like one. Disappear, walk through walls… That kind of thing."
Steel stuffed the hanky back in his suit pocket. "How convenient."
He studied the alleyway one last time, giving it a final hard glare before he turned and walked back through the door. "Come with me, I want to show you something."
x
"It seems these shelves haven't been cleaned for quite some time." Sapphire observed, rubbing some dust between her sensitive fingers.
They were both standing in the middle of a very musty, almost filthy, dimly lit shop. Ironically, despite the thick cloying air, this actually seemed to make little difference to the place since its goods had hardly been in pristine condition to begin with. Through the poor light, a would be customer would only find rows upon rows of shelves filled with unwanted toys, yellowing photographs, paintings, pots, pans, chipped crockery, clothes and other various assortments of second hand oddities. They were antiques to some, junk to others.
"Triggers!" Steel exclaimed, lifting up a bent bicycle wheel. "It's a shop full of ready made triggers! Just waiting for the right person to bring out the wrong time…" He dropped the wheel in disgust. "And one of these pieces of junk is the reason why we're here."
"No." disagreed Sapphire, looking down at the dust on her fingers, concentrating. "No, Steel, they're not the reason."
Suddenly the point of a sword was thrust in front of her face. "What about this?" Steel demanded, "Isn't this a good enough reason?"
With a wry glance at her partner, Sapphire patiently gripped the blade. "This was made by Martin Watson in 1977 for a special project dealing with historical medieval re-enactments. The rust and markings are completely fabricated. No-one has died by this sword." She released the weapon and began to wander through the shop. "None of these objects are responsible for the image of the girl."
"But something is." Steel muttered, placing the sword back on the ground.
"Oh, yes. Something is." conceded Sapphire, studying a row of musty books with a slight smile. Poor Steel, he really shouldn't have expected it to be that easy. She picked up a thick encyclopaedia then froze. The pale face of the girl from the alleyway stared back at her from behind the shelf. Swiftly, Sapphire moved around to the other side but the child had already disappeared. Frowning, she turned to her partner who was investigating behind the counter in front of the only open exit.
'Steel.' Her soft voice whispered through his head. Immediately, Steel stopped what he was doing and started to walk towards her until Sapphire held up a hand. 'No, don't come near…'
'Why? What's wrong, Sapphire?' His voice echoed back in her mind.
'That girl. The one who ran through the wall? She's in here.' Sapphire paused as she heard the sound of nearby footsteps and quickly bent down to peer through a bottom shelf. She could see a familiar petticoat dress swishing away towards what looked like a large enclosure filled with used umbrellas. 'I see her. She's hiding in the umbrella racks by the far wall.'
Steel stepped forward.
'No. Stay where you are, Steel. She'll bolt if we overcrowd her. She's quite skittish.'
'Alright.' he replied and held his position.
Sapphire stood at the edge of the enclosure where she could just about make out the shape of the girl squeezed into a dark corner. 'I'm going to try and communicate with her.'
'Be careful, Sapphire,' Steel cautioned. 'We still don't know what this 'girl' is capable of.'
'Yes.' acknowledge Sapphire and ducked past the low hanging umbrellas lining the enclosure's entrance to venture closer.
"Hello again." she greeted softly, switching on a bright friendly smile. "I'm sorry if I scared you before. I meant you no harm."
The girl watched her with sullen dark eyes and said nothing.
As she drew nearer, Sapphire could see a curious pale tint of brownish yellow on the young figure's skin. It almost gave her a washed out and faded jaundiced appearance, which was unusual enough except the same colour also seemed to blend seamlessly into her hair and clothes, making the girl entirely sepia toned. The woman had to admit that certainly gave her ghost like qualities, but she could tell this girl, at least this particular image of the girl, had never lived, so therefore she had never died. No, they were dealing with something altogether very different…and very old. Although the girl looked to be about eleven, Sapphire could feel the true age of this 'child'. She was at least ninety-six years old.
"Do you have a name?" the blonde persisted pleasantly, inching deeper through the enclosure. "Mine is Sapphire, what's yours?"
The girl's tinted lips curled up into a small cold smile. "Celia."
Sapphire hesitated as she sensed a strong feeling of anticipation coming from her quarry. "That's a very pretty name." she replied, eyeing the girl suspiciously. "Can you tell me why you are here, Celia? Or perhaps who brought you?"
Celia grinned, showing yellow tinted teeth and gums. "I'm playing a game!" she announced and plucked her lemon parasol from the rack beside her. "Would you like to play?"
Before Sapphire could answer, the girl twisted and poked her hard on the chest with the parasol. "Tag! You're IT!" she squealed then jumped back to disappear right through the wall again.
Somewhat disappointed, Sapphire found she was once more standing alone.
"Well, that went well…" the blonde sighed to herself.
'What's happening, Sapphire?' Steel enquired in her mind. 'Is the girl still with you?'
The woman straightened and moved to leave. 'No, she-' something poked her in the back and rustled behind her. Surprised, she turned and widened her eyes. The umbrellas lining the walls were beginning to twitch and shudder from their resting places on the racks.
'Sapphire? What is it? What's wrong?'
'Something's…something's happening, Steel…' Hastily, Sapphire stepped towards the exit of the enclosure only to find it blocked with tightly folded long black city umbrellas criss-crossed together. When she approached closer they shook violently and hissed malevolently. Startled, Sapphire stepped back. 'I think you better get over here!'
Suddenly a red and black spotted brolly swiped at her face, cawing and shrieking. 'Hurry! I'm in danger!'
'Hold on! I'm coming!' Steel replied, vaulting over the counter. However, just as he began his leap, he was suddenly frozen in time.
Through the menacing, cawing umbrellas, Sapphire could see him stuck with both hands on the counter and not moving. 'Steel?' she called, but whatever had happened to him seemed to have paralysed his mind as well as his body.
The mass of umbrellas grew more aggressive and Sapphire jerked back as another lunged for her. She briefly thought about just forcing her way through the barricade, when a small open child's brolly dropped from above and attached itself to the back of her head. Its metal spokes scratched the nape of her skull and desperately she clutched at it as another longer brolly aimed for her eyes. With a cry of pain, Sapphire wrenched the wretched thing from her hair and battered it down against the other attacker. Then still gripping the twitching brolly, she swept it across and whacked three smaller ones nipping at her legs. The cawing grew louder and Sapphire was just in time to duck as a huge folded golf umbrella speared for her throat. It flew past, missing her by inches and struck the wall instead. There was a clatter as it fell lifelessly on the floor. She had little time to savour her victory as another poke in the back told Sapphire to turn and bat another away.
However, as Sapphire moved, she could feel herself slowing. Helplessly, she watched as her arms swept down with the umbrella and then simply stopped. She tried to wrench her head up but it was frozen in a downward position. Fleetingly, she wondered if this was how Steel felt, then a wave of cold darkness overpowered her senses and Sapphire knew no more.
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