In Time and Space
Chapter 1 - There Was a Girl
Disclaimer: To the lawyers: I don't own anything. To my sister: Thanks for editing. To the readers: Enjoy!
Bright, white light pierced through her closed eyelids as she regained consciousness. The girl rolled onto her side and moaned as a hammer pounded painfully in her head. Her blue eyes opened to regard their surroundings; white ceilings, white walls, white curtains, and white light. She didn't know where she was, nor where she had been. She winced as the pounding increased. Slowly she raised herself into an upright position; she noted she was in a bed. Looking down, she saw she was wearing baby blue pyjamas. A lock of brown hair fell in her view and she pushed it back behind her ears. Reaching back, she ran her fingers through the tresses; they were thick and tangled, falling down just past her shoulders. She massaged her temples a little to relieve the pain. She fell back down on the bed, grimacing as her head protested fiercely, and scolded herself for forgetting her physical state. Her attention was caught by the soft sound of fluttering, and she cautiously turned her head to the side to see what had made the noise. The curtains had blown a piece of parchment off a desk and onto the floor.
Moving slowly, but with purpose, she got up and shuffled over to pick it up. She felt a little dizzy as she stood back up, but she ignored the sensation. She instinctively realised she got headaches a lot. She placed the parchment on the desk and pulled back the curtains. It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the light, but she looked out the window regardless.
A stunning view met her eyes. She was up in some sort of tower, overlooking an old-fashioned courtyard with a large belfry opposite her. The clock struck four, and she frowned as she realised how ridiculously long she had slept in, although she could not remember when she had fallen asleep. Perhaps she had just napped. But she didn't feel like she had just napped, she didn't feel like anything at all. Testing this notion, she slowly clenched her fist and pressed her fingernails into her palm. She pushed until her whole fist was shaking but she still did not feel a thing. Opening her hand up she looked at her palm. Four small crescents were slowly fading from her skin.
"Weird," she said aloud. She swore as she accidentally knocked an inkwell off the desk, startled by the sound of her own high and feminine voice. Black ink splattered on the floor, fortunately missing her pyjamas.
"Is someone there?" a voice asked from behind. She turned in fright to face the speaker.
"Hello?" the girl replied, as a woman appeared from a side door she had not noticed before. The woman was old, with white hair and many wrinkles, but she had a certain youthful quality in her eyes and strength in her posture. The woman was dressed in a formal nurse's uniform and the young girl deduced she was in some sort of medical facility. The woman looked around, her eyes skimming the room and passing right over the girl.
"Peeves! I'm not in the mood for another one of your pranks!" she announced in exasperation as she spotted the mess of ink almost blocked by the girl's body.
"Who's Peeves? Am I Peeves?" the young girl asked with a frown, this was all very strange and she was sure that the old woman had yet to actually notice she was here. The woman ignored the girl's question and marched over to the mess on the floor. The girl side-stepped out of her way just in time as the nurse passed her. Stopping in front of the stain the woman produced a long wooden stick from the voluminous robes she was wearing. She pointed it at the spot, and with a word and a wave, the mess was gone. The girl cocked her head in fascination, what a unique talent, but not unusual. This was getting very strange indeed.
"Sorry about that, I was just—" But the woman had already turned sharply around and was heading back to her office. "Wait! I—" she continued, shifting in front of the woman to try and stop her. Amazingly, the nurse just continued on her way, and stepped through the girl. Suddenly, thoughts, memories, and scenes that were not hers overtook the girl.
A young mousy-looking girl wearing black robes with a blue and silver badge on the left breast peered around a bookshelf at a boy with black hair and green eyes, engrossed in a book…
The girl, a little older now, smiled as the boy pushed a lock of blonde hair behind her ear and kissed her on the forehead with care…
The girl, dressed in summer clothes, poured over a long letter and clutched it close to her chest, falling back on her bed; she stared at the ceiling with a goofy grin on her face…
Tears poured down her face as she ran down a deserted corridor. She stopped as she spotted the boy who had broken her heart. He was standing at the end of a staircase and looking up at a party of people who were carrying a stretcher, obviously holding a body. They worked their way down the stairs and around the corner to where the girl was standing. The girl stared at the stretcher and whispered: "He'll pay Murtle, even if Dippet won't believe me, I'll tell the world what he did to you…"
And with a flash of white light it was over. The girl dropped to the floor and clutched at her head. She fought off the nausea that overcame her and put the side of her face against the floor, trying to gain some bearing. She felt dizzy and with a moan she collapsed completely and passed out.