(no subject)

[summer_sparrow]

Title: Curse the Darkness 1/?
Pairing: Artie/Claudia
Word Count: 774
Rating: PG-13 for now.
Summary: 

“You know,” Claudia called out, “it would help if you'd tell me what we're looking for.” She dragged her fingers along the edge of the shelves, mentally cataloging some of the more interesting items, like a rather explicit statue. She could guess what that did.

 

“What I'm looking for. You're just, you're... tagging along. And stop touching things. I can hear you touching things.” Artie's voice rang out over the shelves from some distant location.

 

“Shh, right,” she muttered, pulling her hand away. “Ass. Old, arrogant, insufferable ass.” Which didn't sound right at all. That was a problem when it came to Artie. Her usual insults didn't apply and everything else... just didn't fit. Even if it was true.

 

“Fine... you can at least look. It's oval, about the size of a, a loaf of bread maybe... and don't touch it.”

 

“Sure. I'm not an idiot, Artie.” At least she had something to do now. She strode forward, looking about with new purpose.

 

The lights flickered out.

 

Adrenaline spiked through her, making her fingers tingle and her heart race. The warehouse was not a place she wanted to face in the dark.

 

“Claudia!” Artie's voice was laced with irritation and-- maybe she was imagining it-- a little worry. Claudia stood still, trying to gauge where his voice had come from.

 

“Chill! I didn't do it!” Now that her eyes had had time to adjust, she could see that it wasn't entirely dark. Faint glows of varying sized pockmarked the blackness. If she'd been a little less worried about finding Artie and getting the lights back on, she might have been curious about that.

 

“Where are you? Wherever you are, stay there. Right exactly there. Do not move an inch. I'll come to you.” He was back and to her left, she decided, her assumption confirmed when a beam of light cut through the darkness from that direction.

 

“Again, chill. I have seen horror movies, Nielsen.” She slid a lighter out of her pocket-- she didn't smoke, ew, but you never knew when fire might come in handy. A single flick expanded her world by a three foot diameter. What she could see of the shelves wasn't terribly helpful, dark ruined bits of metal like something from a torture chamber. Gross. And she couldn't hear Artie at all. They hadn't been that far apart, had they?

 

The light flickered ominously.

 

“Oh, no. You have got to be kidding me.” She let go of the striker and shook the lighter close to her ear. There was only the faintest of sloshing sounds. Shit.

 

Well, it wasn't like she was afraid of the dark. Not really. Not a lot. It would just be really nice if she could see or hear Artie-- or if she could even see the beam of the flashlight.

 

Shit again. Feeling a faint surge of panic, Claudia flicked the lighter on again, casting around for something that might help.

 

Her eyes landed on a faint gray shape sticking out from under the shelves. Reaching down, she found it was a candle. Now the problem was-- light it? It might be an artifact. Then again, this place had been built in like the middle ages, so...

 

Anyway. It was just a candle. What was the worst it could do?

 

***

 

“Claudia? Claudia!” Artie bolted through the stacks, skidding to a stop where the light was emanating. A candle about the width of his forearm lay on its side, burning strongly-- not guttering at all in the faint breeze that always flowed through the warehouse. A green Bic lighter lay just a few feet away.

 

There was no sign of Claudia.

 

“Oh, no, no no no no.” He knelt carefully by the candle, almost afraid to pick it up. The thick cylinder was covered in decades' worth of dust. The smoke was faint but nauseating-- tallow, said what was functioning of his analytical capabilities, and probably myrrh.

 

The rest of his mind was most definitely not gibbering with fear and worry.

 

He pocketed Claudia's lighter before picking up the candle. The flame burned strongly, but Artie still tried to hold his breath as he gently carried it back to the office.