Here's chapter two
Owen groaned as he pulled himself up. The bright light seemed to have knocked them all to the floor, but it didn't seem to have injured them in any way. He looked over his shoulder and guessed that he shouldn't be surprised that the way they had come in, still wasn't offering them a way out.
Tosh was laying on the floor beside him and so was Gwen as well as Ianto, although Gwen seemed to be the only other out of them that was awake as she was pulling herself up into a sitting position.
"Gwen are you alright?" He asked. She replied, although Owen thought that there may be a problem with his ears as he couldn't hear her, but he had definitely seen her mouth move, "Sorry Gwen can you repeat that please?" A second time and he still couldn't hear her.
"Gwen I believe you're saying something, but I can't hear you." He thought that Gwen had sighed dramatically as she pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and started to type something before showing it to Owen. It read:
I'm alright, but I can't speak.
Owen was about to reply when he heard a groan coming from Ianto's direction and – in knowledge that Gwen was pretty much, well almost alright – he moved over to the youngest member of the Torchwood team.
"Ianto are you alright?" He asked the routine question that usually ran off of his tongue, so easily when Torchwood was involved.
"Yeah," He replied while looking around him in a slightly dazed fashion, blinking a few times, "Owen am I actually awake or am I dreaming?" Ianto asked, confusing the doctor slightly for the second time in less than ten minutes.
"I do believe that you're awake. Why do ask, Ianto?"
"Because I can't see anything except for darkness, but I can hear you and speak to you, so I'm sure that I'm awake," Ianto replied, "And I can feel the floor beneath me."
Ianto's sight going could be explained by the bright light, but Gwen's voice? He decided to move onto see how Tosh was before he made any form of conclusion as to what had just happened, finding that he didn't seem to be affected.
"Okay Ianto stay where you are." Ianto nodded his head and stayed put as instructed while Owen made his way over to Tosh and lightly shook her awake before helping her sit up.
"How are you feeling Tosh?" He questioned the technology genius. Tosh just looked at him strangely for a second before she spoke.
"What did you say Owen?" She asked, "I'm sorry I couldn't hear you." Owen sighed before asking again, ever so slightly louder this time.
"I asked if you were alright." Tosh still looked confused.
"Still can't hear you." She told him with a slight shake of her head. Now Owen was becoming irritated, even though he knew it wasn't Tosh's fault, or Gwen and Ianto's, but he was becoming quickly agitated.
He pulled out his phone and typed the question, copying the method that Gwen had used to communicate with him. He showed the message to Tosh who read it before replying.
"Yes I'm alright, any idea on what happened?" Owen didn't reply.
It was then that he noticed the small carpet burn on Tosh's hand that was bleeding slightly. That's when Owen had an idea that he needed to try out to see if his current theory on what had happened to them all was right.
Owen took her hand and lifted it to his face and sniffed the cut. As a doctor and a member of Torchwood he was well aware of the smell of blood, which he now found that he couldn't smell even up close.
He turned to Ianto and Gwen and asked them a question.
"What's the room smell like to you?"
"Dusty and old." Ianto replied. Gwen was typing on her phone before turning it around and showing it to Owen.
Damp and stale.
Owen smelt the air and found that he still couldn't smell anything. He lost his smell and then piecing it all together it became obvious.
That beam of light had taken something from each of them. The four main senses. For Owen his sense of smell, Tosh's hearing, Gwen's ability to speak and Ianto's sight.
Jack had run back into the bigger room after hearing the screaming which had only lasted for a few seconds before the dripping of the water had returned and debris fell from the ceiling and off of the walls.
On the window sill were some candles that seemed to have only just been blown out about two minutes ago, but surely Jack would have seen them. He made his way over towards them and picked one of them up. He was more interested in the piece of paper that was underneath it.
He flipped the note over and read the words that were written in an old black ink pen from what Jack could see. The third note read:
Puzzles you'll find, with every step that you take. You better solve them quick, before it's too late.
Jack sighed becoming annoyed with all of the cryptic notes and was quickly beginning to wonder it Ianto was right about this being a set up thing. He looked out of the window and almost cursed his own stupidity as he turned to run down the stairs as carefully as he could, while being quick.
He was now desperate to get outside. He was just rounding the stairs to where the wooden chip boards were when something suddenly reached out and tripped him up, making him slip on the stairs, trip over the wooden boards and roll down the rest.
A snapping was heard as he hit the ground floor, his neck was the source of the snapping which eventually killed him in seconds. And although he would come back, it was a case of her long it would take him to revive himself and whether he actually had that long to waste.
"So I'm blind?" Ianto asked as Tosh placed a hand over his. Owen didn't really know what to say in reply to that and nor did Tosh as she couldn't hear the conversation. Gwen typed something on her phone and handed the mobile phone to Owen.
"We'll sort it out Ianto." Owen told him after reading the screen before handing the phone back to Gwen, "Gwen said that by the way."
Owen had explained what he thought to all of them and they had nodded in agreement. Ianto was now leaning against Tosh, who was trying to help comfort him.
"We need to find a way out of here." Owen said before showing his mobile phone with the exact same message on it to Tosh, who read it and nodded before handing Owen back the phone.
"Well what if we tried opening the door in the wall again?" Toshiko asked wondering as to whether that may help them. Owen shook his head, "But maybe if we saw the light again it would reverse the effects?" Owen once again, shook his head.
"Maybe we should," Ianto added, "We've nothing to lose and people always say the only way out is up, so maybe for us the only way out is forwards."
Gwen handed Owen her mobile again.
I think that they are right Owen. We should try it.
Owen handed her the phone before moving over to the wall and pressing the symbol and watched as it moved into the wall and the door once again opened. The same bright light appeared, however this time, it had no effect on any of them.
Once the door had moved back it revealed a pathway that was a tunnel made of stone. Owen walked forward and noticed a very thin stone beam with a very long drop below it. He turned back around and faced the group and grabbed Ianto from Tosh and sat him down in one of the chairs.
"Ianto, stay here, it's too dangerous for us to take you in there with us since you can't see alright." He explained, although Ianto didn't seem to like that idea.
"But you can't leave me hear on my own."
"You'll be alright, we'll come back and get you."
"What if you can't!"
"Ianto," Owen started grabbing the youngers shoulders and looking him in the eye – not that Ianto could see that action of course, "I promise you we will find a way back to you alright?"
Gwen and Tosh were watching the interaction between the two of them. Tosh wanted to say something, but had no clue as to what the topic of conversation was and Gwen wanted desperately to stop Owen from leaving Ianto here on his own, however she couldn't speak.
Owen pulled his gun out and placed it on the side table that was beside Ianto.
"My gun's on the table if you need it," He informed him, moving Ianto's hand to show him the distance and location of it, "If we get out of here, we will find Jack and come back for you."
Owen stood up and walked to where Gwen and Tosh were stood. He walked through the gap in the wall, Gwen and Tosh following before the stone slab moved across, shutting the pathway off and the only vision that they had of Ianto.
Jack breathed in deeply as he revived himself once again. He found himself exactly where he had been when he had died and quickly remembered what he had seen and jumped up onto his feet. Dashing over to the door he tried to push it open, only to find it locked, so he tried other methods, but even kicking it failed.
He side stepped and looked out of the window that was by the door and as he had seen from the upstairs window, the spot where the SUV had been parked was now empty.
The vehicle had only just been driving off when he had noticed it, but his fall down the stairs and time to revive himself must have given them the amount of time that they needed to drive off.
Jack was now mentally cursing his own stupidity and the fact that he hadn't listened to Ianto, who now - along with Owen, Tosh and Gwen - could be in major danger.
The Captain was unsure of where to go for a moment until he heard a clock going off. He followed the sound and walked into a room that looked like it may have been some kind of patient gathering room or a staff room. The clock was continuing to ring out until it stopped.
Jack was looking at the hands of the clocks that were placing the time now at one o clock. They had actually been in the building for a relatively short time, even though it felt to Jack like a lot longer, although maybe that was because he was working alone.
He tilted his head slightly and frowned as he looked at one of the hands that seemed to have something stuffed behind it. Jack reached forward and undid the small gold catch to open the glass that was over the clock face. Then he carefully removed the scrunched up thing from behind the stark black clock hand.
Jack Harkness was already sure that he knew what it was.
Owen took charge of the group and told Gwen to go over first. He had then written up a message on his mobile and shown it to Tosh. The message was telling the Japanese genius to watch Gwen, so that she could do the same thing in a minute.
Gwen managed to cross without a problem – which Owen believed to be quite strange, but still he insisted that Tosh went across next. Gwen helped from one side and Owen from the other and with that Tosh too managed to cross the beam safely.
Owen looked over his shoulder at the closed door in the wall and wondered if there was a way they could open it from this side or get Ianto to open it from his side as he was now thinking it a mistake to leave Ianto there on his own.
He shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind and stepped onto the beam crossing to the other side, where Gwen and Tosh were waiting.
Jack unfolded the sheet of old, crinkled paper and read the note, that wasn't exactly a note. It read it very neat old writing:
Find the hidden notes somewhere near and stay together, don't lose friends to fear.
You need them and they need you, if you're ever going to leave here as a group.
To know the truth you must seek John Lewis.
For only he can tell you where the next clue I keep.
By now Jack was even more confused and wished that Ianto was here as he would probably be able to figure this out. Jack decided in the end to start going through drawers, after all the only John Lewis that he knew of was the John Lewis shops.
But there was one thing that Jack was sure of. This note wasn't written by the same person or people who had written the other ones. This note was written in older paper that was ripped in some places.
As well as that, the handwriting was different and this one had been hidden away. The others had been in the dead light of day, in obvious places. This one had been intended to remain hidden until now.
Ianto sat on the chair nervously. He couldn't hear anything. Owen, Gwen and Tosh had abandoned him and he was now feeling extremely nervous, mostly due to being on his own with no sight.
He felt slightly relaxed by having Owen's gun on the table, but he still couldn't see which didn't make it any easier to shoot someone.
I mean he would be able to not shoot himself as he knew the feel of a gun in his hand almost of by heart, however he wouldn't be able to see his target, so would most likely end up missing.
Ianto was just starting to calm himself down when he heard voices from the other side of the wall. Not the wall that Tosh, Gwen and Owen had entered, but the one that lead from the cellar to here.
He tensed as the voices got so close that he could hear them. Now Ianto knew what people meant when they said that if you lost a sense that a sense that another became stronger.
"It will be fine. They'll have suffered the effects and we'll walk straight through."
"But what about what's inside the tunnels."
"Mr Manger told us a few things though, we'll be alright."
"Yeah, but how do we know that he's right and all? He's never been down there has he?"
Ianto heard four different voices and quickly reached out his hand for Owen's gun, gripping his hand around it until his knuckles were going white. He stood up and tried to make his way over the wall that the passage doorway was on.
He was trying to visualise the whole room from where the chair had been. He tripped a few times and managed to knock what he believed to be a lamp off of a small desk before he reached the wall and felt around for he symbol's outline.
The youngest member of Torchwood had just found the symbol when then other door opened. He disappeared through the stone doorway as they entered and luckily they didn't see him or at least he thought that they hadn't.
Ianto couldn't see ahead of him and had no clue where he was going. He followed along the side of the wall, but didn't get too far before he almost slipped right down in what he believed to be a long dropped, where the path had just ended.
Then he did the only other thing that he could think of.
"Owen, Gwen!" He bellowed, his voice echoing off of the tunnel walls as he walked back a few steps.
Owen turned at hearing his name and Gwen did the same a second later. The voice sounded like Ianto's. Owen typed up a text on his mobile phone, gave it to Tosh and then ran off in the other direction.
He only had a corner to round before he saw Ianto, but it seemed like a long distance.
"Ianto what the hell are you doing?" He asked as he stepped back onto the beam and made his way back over.
"There were people out there in the cellar. I heard four different voices Owen and they were talking about coming in here and they mentioned us-" Owen cut Ianto off.
"Yeah tell me this a little later, did you see them?" Gwen sighed and started typing something on her phone as Owen grabbed a hold of Ianto and lead him to the beam.
"Right we're walking across a thin beam, trust me and let me guide you." Owen told Ianto as he led the younger over to the other side where Gwen showed him her phone which read:
Of course he didn't see them, he's blind Owen.
Owen had remembered that bit after he had answered the question, but didn't say anything as he led the pair back to where he left Tosh. He grabbed Tosh before pushing her over towards Gwen as he led Ianto.
"We need to keep moving, if they're coming in here, they'll find us."
"They knew who we were Owen. They said that they would walk straight through since we suffered the effects."
Gwen looked shocked and added in a melodramatic gasp and Owen realised that they needed a way to contact Jack and fast.
Jack Harkness had gone through every left over draw that he could find only to find no helpful paper work. He was now at the back of the building and let out a sigh as he pulled the curtains across and looked out of the back window at a small little chapel building.
He smiled before heading to the very back of the building to see if there was a back door. He now knew exactly where he was going.
Okay I hope to update this when I update Look Right Through Me. Thanks for reading, favouriting, alerting and reviewing.