LOVE BEYOND TIME

CHAPTER 2

EMILY FOSTER

I groan, turning my head and regaining my consciousness once again. I furrow my brow before opening my eyes and looking around.

Cold. It’s very cold.

My muscles ache from the hard impact, and I can still feel the rapid beating of my heart.

I blink my eyes several times, trying to understand what happened here.

I’m not dead.

I keep repeating that to myself, but my body continues to tremble from the shock I experienced.

I’m still inside the car; there’s a lot of smoke in front of me, and I see that there’s a tree in front of the car.

I realize that the hard impact was caused by the car crashing forcefully against the tree.

I groan, trying to push the door beside me to get out. I unbuckle my seatbelt before I can free my body and open the car door.

But when I finally put my feet on the wet road, the image of the creature comes back into my mind. I blink my eyes, remembering the golden eyes, and I mentally wonder if that could be a person.

It’s Friday night, and I’m sure many crazy people are trying to scare others with ridiculous costumes.

“I’m not dead; I’ll be fine; I’m not dead...”, I whisper in fear as I get out of the car and fall onto the wet ground.

I blink my eyes, feeling my heart beating very strongly in my chest.

I’m shaking from the shock of what happened, and when I lift my head, I widen my eyes as I see the shadow of a man on the road. He turns his head, and I see golden eyes.

The man remains still, looking at me, and I feel dizzy; I must have hit my head in the accident. I must be going crazy, but I keep watching the golden eyes staring at me as if he knows me.

It’s too dark, but with the reflection of the car light, I can see when he tries to approach me, reaching out his hand toward me as if he needs to touch me.

Panic returns, and I tightly shut my eyes, feeling a strong pain against my head.

When I open my eyes, there’s no longer any man on the road, just me and the wrecked car.

I sigh, touching my forehead and feeling something wet against my skin.

I must have hit my head too hard in the accident, and now I must be imagining things that don't exist.

I try to move, but I bite my lips hard to avoid screaming in pain when I look at my leg, seeing that I was hit by a shard of glass. I groan, trembling as the raindrops soak me while I continue sitting on the ground.

I scream as I pull the glass out of my leg, seeing blood.

Oh no.

"You can do this, Emily. It's just blood, and you've seen a lot of blood before...", I murmur to myself, feeling my hands trembling as I see blood flowing out of my leg.

I'm injured, and I need help, but I'm alone in this strange, unknown place.

I groan before pressing my leg wound and looking around. It's still raining heavily, and I look at the road where my accident happened.

I blink my eyes, seeing that there is no shadow, strange animal, or person here.

What was that?

I feel very confused, and I remember that I need help quickly. I'm losing blood, so I tear a piece of my clothing and tie it around my leg.

I groan, sighing, before looking around and remembering my phone. I need it to call for help.

I'm sitting on the wet ground next to the car, still feeling the wet raindrops falling on my body. I stretch out my hands, trying to find my phone inside the car.

I can't find it and try to stand up, but I scream when I feel the intense pain against my leg again.

"Come on, Emily. You can do it...”, I shouted in frustration.

But I don't give up. I keep crawling on the forest floor, trying to find my phone, and I sigh in relief when I finally find it.

I quickly turn on the screen, seeing that it's still working despite the cracked screen. I'm ready to call for help, but I widen my eyes when I see that there's no cell signal here now.

Oh my God.

“Please, please...”, I whisper to myself, raising my hand and trying to find a connection to call for help, but there is none.

I try to call emergency services, but I can't do that either.

I turn on the phone's flashlight and illuminate everything around me, feeling my hands tremble. I bite my lips, feeling the cold surrounding my body at this moment.

I look ahead, seeing my car wrecked against the tree due to the strong impact of the accident.

I touch my forehead, feeling my headache, as I blink my eyes, remembering how it all happened.

Crawling on the wet ground, my hand touches something in the dirt.

Something hard and cold.

My fingers close around the object, and my heart races as I realize what it is.

I can feel my heart beating faster in my chest at this moment.

I'm scared and alone in this place I've never been before. I'm trembling with cold and fear as the rain continues to fall on me, soaking me completely.

With the faint light of my phone's flashlight, I pull the object from the wet ground, and my eyes widen in horror as I recognize a human skull in my hand.

A wave of panic hits me, my stomach churns with nausea as my brain struggles to comprehend what I'm holding in my trembling hands.

How could this happen? What the hell is going on here?

I bite my lips to avoid another scream, quickly dropping the skull on the ground. My breathing is very fast, and I try to calm myself.

I take a deep breath, looking at the skull in front of me, realizing that it doesn't look like something common, like a bone from a human body.

Jesus.

This night is not like any other night of my life.

“Who were you?”, I whisper, controlling my fear and picking up the skull in my hands again.

With the phone's light on, I frown as I notice that the bone features are completely different from human features.

What is this?

I've seen many bones and parts of human bodies in my work, but in all these years, I've never seen anything like this.

Still holding the cold skull in my trembling hands, my eyes fixed on something shining in the wet earth in front of me.

A blue light radiates from the wet ground, catching my attention in a strange way.

I look at the skull again before blinking my eyes and starting to dig into the earth, and seconds later, I uncover a different, very bright necklace with a stone.

A blue, shimmering, translucent stone. I'm surprised to find something like this in this place, and for a few moments, I forget about the situation and what happened to me tonight.

I clean the stone with my fingers, observing in surprise as it shines even more intensely under the dim light of my phone's flashlight.

How could this necklace, so beautiful and unique, be buried along with a skull?

The necklace is unlike anything I've ever seen in my entire life. The blue stone continues to shine in my hands, and I look back at the skull, trying to find some connection between them.

I started to imagine the person who wore this necklace and what happened to them. And why was this precious stone here?

My hands tremble as I hold the necklace, my mind spinning with unanswered questions.

I feel that this belonged to someone, someone who is no longer in this world.

I blink my eyes, trying to ignore the pain in my body as I continue to look at the necklace in more detail. It seems to shine more and more, and I'm very confused about it.

Before I can examine it further, I widen my eyes in fear when I hear the sound of my phone alerting me to a call.

Jesus.

I take a deep breath, controlling the beating of my racing heart. I answer the call quickly, recognizing Paul's worried voice on the other end.

“Paul!”, I say his name with relief.

"Emily? Emily, are you there? What happened? Are you okay?", Paul's words echo in my ears, mixing with the distant sound of rain.

“I'm here. There was an accident, and I'm hurt.”, I reply with a trembling voice, struggling to stay calm as I describe the situation I'm in right now.

“My God, tell me where you are. I'm sending help. Don't move. Stay there, Emily.”

“Thank you...”, I whisper, and there's a long pause on the call, and I know what he's thinking.

“I'm so sorry. I should never have asked you to drive alone at night in the rain. I'm so sorry. I feel so guilty right now.”

“Paul, don't say that. I'll be fine...”

“I've already called an ambulance, and they're on their way. I'll meet you at the hospital.”

I open my mouth to respond, but I feel a shiver run down my spine when I turn my head, hearing a distant, unfamiliar voice calling me.

“Help me...”

Fear returns, and I fall silent, looking around and realizing that I'm still alone.

Jesus Christ.

I blink my eyes, looking at the dark forest around me, but I can't see anyone nearby.

“Emily? Are you there? Please answer me. I'm getting worried.”

“Yes, yes, I'm still here...”

I think I'm going crazy.

Two hours later, I'm in the hospital, and I turn my head, seeing Paul running towards me as the doctors finish examining my head.

I smile when I see the worried expression in my best friend's eyes.

“Emily!”

“Don't worry, I'm still alive...”, I murmured with humor, feeling his hand touch mine.

“My God, don't joke about something like that. I was so scared.”, he says, hugging me, and I nod, closing my eyes.

“Me too...”, I whisper, opening my eyes and seeing the blue pupils of his eyes analyze me closely.

“Are you okay?”

“Just a leg injury and a cut on my forehead. There is nothing to worry about. I'll be fine. It could have been much worse than this.”

He sits in the chair next to my bed as I watch the nurse take a blood sample from me. I sigh, still feeling my headache, and my eyes fix on my bag next to Paul.

Golden eyes.

I blink my eyes, unable to stop thinking about the creature's eyes I saw and the voice that seemed to be calling me.

“Paul, can you grab my bag?”, I ask, and he nods. I sit up in bed before opening it and showing him what I found.

“Jesus! What the hell is this? Have you gone crazy, Emily?”, he says, widening his eyes and looking at me in shock after seeing the skull inside the bag.

“Keep your voice down. No one can know I have this.”

“But what is this? You get into a car accident and think bringing someone's remains to a hospital is safe?”

He looks at me seriously, and I sigh, shaking my head before closing my bag and looking around, seeing that no one saw this.

“The skull doesn't look entirely human. That's why I brought it with me. I found it in the forest, and I need more answers.”

Paul continues to look at me as if I'm completely crazy, but he calms down as I begin to tell him everything that happened, including the strange, unknown shadow I saw.

“It could have been an animal. There's a large forest in that area, Emily.”

“That wasn't an animal. It was something else that I still can't explain, but it seemed to be calling me, and I'm not going crazy, Paul.

“What are you going to do with it?”, he points to my bag, and I sigh.

“I need more answers. I saw something, and all of this seems to be connected. I don't know how, but I feel it.”, I reply, touching the back of my neck and looking down at the cut on my leg.

“I need more answers. I saw something, and all of this seems to be connected. I don't know how, but I feel it.”, I reply, touching the back of my neck and looking down at the cut on my leg.

“Car accidents happen all the time, Emily.”

I think of my mother again, and I close my eyes before nodding my head.

“Yes, but it wasn't just a car accident this time; it was something different, something with me...”

I spent several hours in the hospital still under observation because of the accident, and then I was released to go home, but that won't be my destination now.

“Paul, I need you to take me to the lab.”

“Now? My God, you need to rest, Emily. And I still need to get back to work.”

“I know, I'm sorry, but I really need to do this.”

He sighs before agreeing and driving to the place where I work. When we arrive, he helps me out of the car, and we enter together.

There are many people working, and some of them greet us, but we head straight to my office.

“Are you sure you'll be okay here alone?”

“Yes, I won't take long; I'll get a taxi home afterward. Thank you, Paul.”, I smile, kissing his cheek and feeling his arms around my neck.

Paul leaves, and I close the doors to my office before opening my bag and placing the skull on the table in front of me.

“Who were you?”, I whisper, looking intently at the skull.

Sitting in front of the work table in my lab, I carefully put on my lab coat. I am still feeling the throbbing pain in my head, but I need to do this right now.

I focus all my attention on just one thing: analyzing the mysterious skull I found in the forest.

I take a deep breath before starting to examine every detail of the skull. I need answers, and with each passing minute, I can feel my curiosity taking over more and more.

With the help of a microscope, I observe the bones closely, searching for clues that might reveal the truth behind this new discovery.