A Sorceress From the Future

Chapter One

“D-do you think s-she has knowledge of h-her whereabouts?”

A voice. It was not quite clear though and frankly my ear waves were immensely struggling to capture the words for my numb braincells to discern them. My body felt foreign and even as I strived to snap my eyes open, they chose to remain bolted shut. How else was I supposed to know if I was in purgatory? Wait, was the voice’s owner the hell keeper? You see my father had made it his life mission to explain my destination if I ever decided to meet my demise. Funny how I believed that I actually had a choice when it came to meeting this said demise.

“I highly doubt that. I am pretty certain that she would have been less…exposed?”

Did I just hear the term exposed? Well the human race, according to my biology classes, entered the world in the nude. So there was really no need to panic.

“W-well at least I covered her with m-my flannel, though there is s-still a lot o-of her to s-see.”

He was a stutterer, no doubt about that. Wait flannel? Why would the master of purgatory want to cover me with a flannel? Something was definitely amiss. Blood pumped life into my veins as a new profound zeal filled my limbs.

With one fluid movement, I snapped my eyes open while sitting up in order to get a sense of my surroundings.  My eyes immediately landed on two men in front of me who appeared to be rooted to the spot seemingly as dumbfounded as I was. I c****d my head to the side and they both mirrored my movements without skipping a beat.

Oh no, had they been wrong about hell having a furnace? Was it actually a place where you get to live through your worst nightmares? My voice box demanded to receive recognition and I let it. A banshee scream escaped from my mouth causing the two men to sprint to either of my side, both their palms automatically reaching to cover my open mouth.

“A-are you b-bloody insane? S-shut up for if he finds you here, h-he will undoubtedly execute you along with us!”

I turned my head swiftly towards the source of this bizarre information. Execute? Was I not already dead? And why were these men dressed in medieval attires? What was going on? One minute I was drowning and now I was in a small wooden room with an awful stench and two funny looking men? Did I mention my torso was the only part of my body that was covered? My breathing heightened as I struggled to free myself from the two palms that were overlapping each other on my mouth.

“Calm down miss, we will not harm you. We are just trying to help you.”

Help? A sudden wave of sadness swept over me forcing me to have momentary amnesia about my current predicament. It is funny how you can live two decades in this world and never come across a single person to offer you some sort of assistance. My eyes trailed to the man who had turquoise eyes and ashy blond hair. His lips formed a kind smile before he began to carefully draw his palm away from my mouth. I held his eyes, not wanting to blink lest his hand found a new destination around my neck. His taut muscles left no doubt in my mind that he was very capable of snapping my neck into two within seconds.

“Remove your sweaty palm from her mouth Barry she can barely breathe.”

I shifted my attention to the one named Barry whose eyes were fixated at the wooden door. He briefly averted his dark eyes to scrutinize me before shaking his head vigorously.

“D-did you see the rage he possessed early this morning? If he catches wind of a l-lady appearing in m-my washing area mysteriously while I was running a b-bath, he will not hesitate to think that she is a sorceress Lawrence, h-he will execute all of us w-without batting an eyelash…and with this war that is g-going on we simply c-cannot aggravate h-him further!”

Even though this was the third time I was hearing about this execution, my mind seemed to linger on the fact that stuttering Barry over here had mentioned my appearance in some sort of bath tub. Wait, sorceress?

“Look at her, she is calm now. Your palm is swiftly toning her face with a disturbing hue of purple.”

Barry bit his nails in contemplation then ran a hand through his tangled hair. Unlike the one referred to as Lawrence, Barry had a scrawny figure. His fidgeting movements depicted utter fear for whoever ‘he’ was. I made a mental note to suppress all urges of screaming once he retrieved his palm from my mouth. Barry let out a strained breath before slowly drawing his palm away. A few seconds passed with his hand still raised midway in the air as if waiting for me to initiate bouts of screams.

The idea, I admit, was rather tempting but even if I did decide to do so, what guarantee did I have that whoever came bursting through that door was a better version of these two? So far, they were the nicest people I had ever come across. 

But they didn’t need to know that, now did they Nina?

“My name is Lawrence Denali and this is my best friend Prince Baric Tenaci, at your service milady.” 

A bubble of laughter stirred within me as Lawrence gave a short bow following his latter statement. It was either I had somehow winded up in some bizarre costume party or I was having a very weird dream. I had ruled out death after two very live and clammy palms covered my mouth.

How was I even alive?

“Do you know how I got here?”

It was the first time I had spoken since I sat up. My voice was raspy, my throat dry and my mind? It was struggling to grasp straws of reality.

“W-well we were hoping you w-would shed s-some light on that? M-maybe how y-you got inside my room which I had p-purposely locked in order to take a b-bath? I m-mean how d-did you even g-get past my g-guards naked without them d-devouring you alive- “

“Quiet Barry!”

Barry gave Lawrence a pointed look before shifting his attention back to me.

“I am deeply s-sorry if I have offended you m-miss. Also, f-forgive my best friend, h-he has a tendency of interrupting people- “

“I am not messing around Barry, listen.”

All went deathly silent as we strained to listen to whatever it was Lawrence’s supersonic senses had captured.

“I c-cannot hear a s-single- “

“Shut up!”

 This time the whispered command was unanimous making Barry pout. Echoes of loud footsteps could be heard approaching the room in quick succession. Barry and Lawrence shared a fretted look before scurrying me off the bed and repositioning me directly under it in one swift motion. Lawrence joined me seconds later while placing a forefinger on his lips to indicate that I should remain silent during whatever encounter that was about to unfold in Barry’s room. I heard a door creak open, the loud footsteps making their way inside. From the shadows, I could tell that the third party in the room oozed authority.

“Baric, father is asking for you. His health is immensely deteriorating and the physician claims to have run out of remedies to whip up for him.”

I had fully expected the man to bellow at Barry for something he had done and for him to fetch a gun from his waistband and “execute” him. In contrast, the man spoke with a lot of weight in his chest, a weight I felt instantly inclined to.

“He does not have much time little brother. Whatever sorcery was conjured to take his life is quite strong and the tension surrounding a potential war is deteriorating his health even further. I am afraid for the worst Baric.”

The man began pacing within the room while heaving strenuous breaths with each stride he made. A tickling sensation emanated from beneath my bare foot sending goose bumps all over my body. I froze on the spot as I felt something move upwards on the back of my leg towards my hips. Lawrence seemed to be aware of my situation, he nudged me on my side as some sort of warning.

No one can take away what is yours unless you want them to.

A rat was currently dimming my chances of survival. It skillfully made its way within my borrowed flannel halting near my bosom. 

Surely it would not bite, would it? 

I bolted from underneath the bed while shaking vigorously in an attempt of detaching myself from the rodent. There was a loud squeak and the sound of a rat scurrying off to the shadows. I gasped in relief completely oblivious of the fourth party within the room. It was when Barry let out a string of stammered profanities that the memory of my current predicament made its way to the surface of my brain.

Uh-oh.