Hi again :3

This story is something I started writing more than eight years ago by now. That makes me feel old qq
The story itself got lost many years ago, when my old laptop broke and the HDD turned out to be completely useless. So putting a few printed pages aside, a more than 500-pages long story had been completely and entirely lost.

That's partly the reason why I wasn't too fond of writing for quite a while.

Yesterday, I ended up telling a friend about this very story and realized, I still have every moment that happened, every important meeting, the red thread itself, it's still all there.

And while I will have to make some changes, the story itself has great Spashley potential :)

Be aware, though, that the first few (maybe even quite a lot of) chapters will be focusing on Ashley only. Spencer will eventually come into the picture and have her own, important impact, however, to make that role possible, Ashley will have to be alone for a while.

On a last note, this story is set in medieval times, originally in France but since I want to keep their names as they are, this will be set in a small town in the middle age in good ol' Britland.

Without further ado, this is it from my part and I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy remembering and rewriting it.

„She's over there!" angry shouts could be heard throughout the small town. "Catch her!" "Burn the
witch, don't let her escape!"

With the shouts getting closer as she kept running down the streets and alleyways, Ashley Davies
tried hard to shake off the angry mob that kept hunting her through the starlight night.

Oh, and it had been a beautiful night indeed. The full moon was illuminating the small British town
making it almost seem wonderfully romantic. So if you forgot about the angry mob with weapons of
all kinds chasing behind her, she might as well have really enjoyed it.

Chuckling bitterly, she tried picking up her pace. That, though, turned out to be quite the difficult
task, as a group of five men suddenly crossed her way, cutting of the alleyway she had been running
through.

"There she is," one of the men started shouting, "don't you dare let her escape again, she's a
murderer!"

A murderer, huh? Quickly turning to her left into another alleyway she tried to shake off the latest
addition to her group of followers.

Much to her advantage, she knew this little town better than anyone else. Growing up here, she had
found out about so many of its dirty little secrets, even caused some of them herself. She had been
forced to explore its darker sides, sneaking through dark, narrow streets and alleys. She was very
confident that she knew this place a whole lot better than any of the other people who had been on
her heels for the past hour or even more.

Her biggest problem was that they had successfully cut of any of the ways leading out of town. They
tried the best they could so she would be unable to escape the mess she had gotten herself into. And
oh, how much they had wanted her dead.

The usually small town was currently bustling with noises, angry screams, crying women and
children. All she could really hear right now, though, was her own pulse and ragged breathing. Her
heart was pumping so fast, she was scared her followers would be able to make out where she was
just from the sound of it.

Cutting another corner, she was fairly confident that she had shaken off the five men she had met
not too long ago. Pressing herself against the wall of one of the many houses lined neatly at one
another, she took a minute to catch her breath.

She had been running so much, her lungs were hurting. Adding in that it was a pretty cold winter day
didn't make her feel any better about herself. Taking in air literally burned. She had never been much
of a sports person, either. But she knew she had to keep going soon. If she didn't, they would catch
her.

If they caught her, they would sentence her.

If they sentenced her, she would be burnt at the stake.

They had declared her a murderer and a witch at that. Just because they didn't understand how
poisonous herbs were working, it didn't mean that she was using any kind of witchcraft to do what
she did.

She could not deny, however, that she had indeed taken the life of five people this very night. At
least, she was responsible for all of their deaths, even if she had not taken one of them personally.

It had been her fault, her very own fault that she had been killed by him.

She shouldn't have believed that he would end up changing for the better. She should not have
believed in him at all. She should never have fallen for his smiles, his words, his touches, his..
everything.

Shaking her head, she heard footsteps closing up on her. Almost got caught reminiscing here.
Pressing herself harder on the wall to be as invisible as possible, she tried figuring out where the
footsteps were coming from.

Listening intently, she tried to calm her breathing down further, as much as possible. She did not
make a sound. And there it was, the grumpy voices of another group of men searching for her very
person.

"I don't think she's here anymore, we should go back to the others and make sure all exits are
secured," a first voice spoke up.

"Don't be an idiot, we have enough people at the exits and from how she's been running about
the whole place, she's fully aware of that, too. We have to make sure she doesn't end up hiding
somewhere. We don't exactly know how she looks like, yet. It's just too dark and those petty torches
do very little in helping us out for that matter."

She listened intently. So they weren't exactly sure how she looked like, that would help her out for
sure.

A storm was coming up. She could hear the sounds of thunder coming from the distance. As if fitting
the situation, a couple of thin clouds passed the light of the moon, making the already dark streets
even darker. This beautiful night would soon turn into a storm, surely.

"Still, we know she is rather short. She couldn't be taller than maybe 160cm. We would be able to
easily tell her apart from other people trying to leave town, considering women don't try to get out
of town very often altogether," the first guy tried calming the other man down now. He didn't want
to be out, hunting some mad woman. She had killed five people. What if she really was a witch and
could just kill them in an instant? He didn't want to find out, he really didn't.

"Stan's group said they saw her not too long ago. It wasn't too far from here either, so shut up and
keep looking for her. The faster we find and capture her, the faster we will be out of this mess. And
the faster she will be paying for what she did."

A shiver ran down her spine as she heard those words. Filled with anger and hatred. Had that guy
known any of the people that had died tonight? It was not unlikely. This town was so small, everyone
pretty much knew everyone. Maybe he had known her father. Well stepfather. That guy went out
drinking with half of the town at times. So it wasn't very unlikely that he did indeed know him.

And considering that her old man liked using the little money they had – the money she had to go
out to make – to invite whoever he had been with, his anger was quite understandable.

At least from that guy's point of view. In her opinion all that guy had ever deserved was a life under
the ground. With the worms and rats and whatnot. And finally, finally that was what he would be
having.

"This place is a maze, though. And she seems to know where she's going. So where do we go next?"

"We came from down there," he said pointing down a small road, "so let's try the other direction.
From what Stan said, she went somewhere there." He was pointing in the direction of her current
little hideout.

She tried peeking around the corner to get an idea of where they would be heading. She took a few
steps closer to the small crossing in order to see them. It was still snowy so she had to be careful not
to make any sounds as she moved her feet. Even if they were still arguing, they seemed to be pretty
closeby. Especially right now she had to be more careful than ever. She knew she had to start running
again any minute but if she ended up running right into them, her little adventure tonight would be
over. And her life as well, you might add.

Holding her breath, she took one step after another and was finally at the corner of the house. She
bent her upper body to the right and placed her head against the cold cobblestone. She could feel
her cheek stinging the moment she touched the cold stone, but she had other things to worry about
right now.

She carefully looked down the small road, but she couldn't see anything. Letting out her breath for a
moment, she was back at the wall in an instant. She needed to breathe but she had to be careful.

Taking in some more air, she turned to the alleyway again, this time checking the other direction.

And then she saw it. Two small flickering lights, dancing in the darkness. They had to be torches. All
of her followers had them, they needed the light.

To her, the light of the moon was more than enough to find her way around, it had always been. But
seeing that the sky was getting more cloudy as time passed, she was unsure, of how long she could
keep up this hit and run she was currently facing.

She slowly crept back into the alleyway. There was no way she could make her way to the eastern
exit of the town with the group of men standing there.

A change of plans was needed and quickly at that. Wrecking her brain, she tried to think of the
safest and fastest way out of this small hellhole. As she slowly backed into the darkness as she felt
something make contact with her back.

Before she had time to react, the wooden barrel had made contact with her and was now quickly
approaching the ground. She saw the whole thing in slow motion as the goddamn thing hit the
ground and the voices in the distance went silent.

Only to be replaced by the sound of footsteps quickly coming her way.

Suddenly out of time to even think about where she should be heading, she found herself running
into the darkness again.

This was going to be a long, dangerous and stressful trip out of town, that much was for sure now.

And she absolutely had no idea how long she could keep up this rat race at all.

So, how did dear Ashley end up in a situation like that?
That's what the future chapters will be telling~