A/N: Wow...so, my first story on FictionPress. This goes back to an idea I had in January, with lots of reworking and a failed attempt to do it as a graphic novel in tandem with a friend. It turned out that the story I had in my head wanted to be a very long one indeed-right now, it's looking to be about four volumes, so I have a very large mountain to climb ahead of me, but I have no doubt that the journey will be exhilarating. So, fasten your seat-belts, readers, and enjoy the ride!

Shadows and Steam: Book One

Rise of Night

Prologue

Stephen pulled his knees up to his chest, fixed his eyes on the clock that hung on the otherwise barren wall, and waited.

Shay had told him that the sun was setting around seven o’clock now. If that was true, she and Julien would arrive within three minutes. But the hands of the clock seemed to be moving at a particularly sluggish pace, just to spite him, and…it was impossible for him to have any real sense of time anymore. How many hours were in the day? Twelve? Twenty-Four? Seventy-Five? How many years had he been kept here? Two? Ten? Fifty?

Two minutes left, now. Maybe it wasn’t going to work. Maybe she was coming to tell him that they had been discovered and that not even she would be allowed to go outside anymore. Maybe she wouldn’t be coming at all…

One minute left…

Stephen heard a clicking at the lock of his cell.

Instantly, he dove at the lock, not feeling the bang his knee received as it hit the cold floor. “Shay?! Shay, is that you?!”

“Yes, yes it’s me…” Even muffled by the thick door that separated them, Shay’s voice felt like cool water running over Stephen’s lips after one of those endless desert marches from another life. He pressed himself up against the door, hoping for another taste…

The lock clicked again, and Stephen felt a sudden pressure. He backed away from the door just in time for Shay to hurry inside and close it behind her, Julien in tow. For all her slumped shoulders and damp, pallid skin, she appeared to him as an angel. Stephen tried to move closer, but Shay silenced him with a baleful look-telling him she was in too much pain to be touched. Julien did not look much better-he remained pressed against the door, trembling fingers working the crack between it and the wall. He was muttering something to himself, judging from the movement of his thin, pale lips. Stephen thought he heard ‘mea culpa’.

“Do you have it?” Asked Stephen, whispering even though he knew the doctors were much too far away to hear them. His hands tingled with the desire to be wrapped around Shay’s waist. The look in Shay’s eyes told him this, and thus he felt no need to hide it.

“I do.” Said Shay softly, reaching into the folds of her coat and procuring the item: a screwdriver. “I’m…I’m just so sorry it couldn’t happen sooner.”

“You needed time to make them trust you enough to let you outside.”

“And then time to make them think I was worthy of their trust, and then time to gather up the courage to steal this.” Limply she held up her hand, indicating the screwdriver. “And...”

In response, Stephen gave Shay a warm look, as if he were telling her that neither of them had anything to worry about. A look of shock appeared on Shay's face. “It...didn't really matter, after it had been done once...”

“Please don’t say that. It does.” Shay’s tone was still soft and smooth, but it was clear that inside she was pressed, and from more than just Stephen’s words-he could see the outlines of blue veins begin to appear on her neck, as they always did when the pain started to get worse. “It’ll all be over after tonight…” With that, she bent down next to Stephen’s cot, slipping the screwdriver into one of the four tight, bolt-like screws that held the ventilation duct in place. It covered a gap just wide enough for a man to squeeze through. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would get them out alive. At this point, Stephen didn’t care about anything else.

He wasn’t so sure he could say the same thing for Julien.

“Julien?” He asked. The shorter man now had his white, trembling hands held to his mouth, and was ripping off the jagged white rims with his teeth. He was still whispering his panicked monologue. Stephen could tell it was Latin, but didn’t know enough to be able to discern the words. “Julien?” He prompted a little louder, placing a hand on Julien’s shoulder.

Julien looked up. His muttering stopped, but his eyes remained frenzied, his grey pupils nearly obscured by the vast expanse of the whites.

“We need you to go find Aurora, remember?” Said Stephen, his voice slow and measured. “Find Aurora. Can you remember that?”

“It hasn’t gone as far in you…” Julien whispered. “You still have a little time left…”

“I don’t want you to think about that, alright? Think about Aurora for me. Just close your eyes and try to imagine her face.”

“No...no…it I close my eyes, it’ll start again…”

“It won’t start again. If you find Aurora, it’ll stop.”

“Each time it happens, it gets harder to go back.”

The ventilation duct fell into Shay’s waiting hands with a sharp, metallic sound. She flinched at the noise, laying it carefully on the cot. “Alright…Julien, do you have it?”

Julien nodded. One of his hands wandered to his breast pocket.

“Remember, you have to give that to Aurora.” Said Stephen. “Nobody’s going to believe us unless you give that to Aurora.”

“He remembers, Stephen…”

“It’d be easier with three.”

Shay paused. Were it not for the faint murmur of Julien’s resumed Latin, the small cell would have been completely silent. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you should come with us, Shay.”

Shay shook her head, even as she moved closer to Stephen and allowed him to wrap his arms around her, holding her to his chest. The movement looked like the two opposing sides of the magnet. “I’d run out of medicine too fast…” She said softly, her voice muffled by Stephen’s chest. “We wouldn’t be able to get someone to believe us in time…”

Stephen wilted. On his way down, he pressed a soft kiss against her lips. She held the back of his head for a few, lengthened seconds, telling him not to let go.

Then, abruptly, it was she who broke the kiss. “You should go. They’ll be coming to check on one of us soon.”

Stephen obeyed, bending down to the ventilation duct and wriggling his torso inside. He could hear Shay guiding Julien into position behind him.

Inside the duct, it was darkness all around.

Stephen ventured his arm forward, using the security of the hard, metal walls to guide himself forward. He felt his legs touch cold metal, then his feet, until at last the light completely disappeared. He gritted his teeth, focusing on the feeling of the metal. He was surrounded by metal, not darkness. If he thought that way, it would be less of a risk.

So you admit there is a risk. Good, Stephen. You’re beginning to understand.

“Shut up,” Stephen whispered. He heard Julien scrabbling into the duct behind them, and tried to force his mind completely to that sound. That sound, and the metal. He was surrounded by metal, not darkness.

How far do you think you’ll get before you become like him?

“We’re two different men…”

Of course. He was a lovesick young fool when they found him. You were a murderer.

“I wasn’t...I wasn’t…I was following orders.”

Of course you were. Every man on earth takes orders, except for me. Would you like to know how to do it?

Stephen refused to give the dignity of an answer. He continued crawling through the metal, hoping if he closed his eyes tight enough, he wouldn’t be able to see the dark.