She was wet and chilled to the bone, that's the first thing Celina noticed upon coming to her senses. She tried to huddle into herself in attempt to trap any warmth she could find but instead had a fluffy cold cushion pushed harder against herself. She opened her eyes, not able to understand with them closed what exactly was going on.
White- that's what she saw from where she laid in the snow, shivering. Snow? It was the middle of July, that was the last thing that should be covering the ground. Why she was laying on the ground? She hadn't the slightest idea.
Celina forced herself to her feet, coming to stand at her full height of 5' 2" and wrapped her arms around her torso as her teeth chartered violently. Taking in her surroundings made her blink twice, not quite trusting the sight before her.
From where she was standing, Celina found herself surrounded by rickety log cabins. They looked old, abandoned, whoever owned the land hadn't been there in a while to say the least. Where she was, she didn't have a clue and felt stupid to even think her surroundings looked like the cabins the Van Der Linde gang stayed at in the beginning of Red Dead Redemption 2.
She shook her head, either she was dreaming or her friends had done something else completely ridiculous and for no reason. She scanned her surroundings for them but seeing no footprints in the snow, sighed and headed into the nearest cabin.
She was dreaming, mustive fallen asleep before RDR2 got through the opening scene. She smiled with excitement as she sat on the bed and pulled am abandoned blanket over her to try to fight the chilling cold. What a dream this was going to be, quite possibly the best one yet.
Celina snuggled down in the blanket, perhaps before she woke up she could experience some sexy times with Dutch... or Arthur, though both of them would be nice. She laughed, this was a dream she wouldn't ever want to wake up from. With her luck however, she just knew she would wake up at the best part.
That's when the door opened and a cold gust of wind bust through, the cabin was illuminated by a lanterns light. The light of a lantern held by none other than Hosea.
The older man gave a sigh of relief when upon first glance the room seemed to be empty, and then it happened, his light landed on her and his eyes widen in surprise as he watched her slowly sit up in bed, "I'm very sorry miss." His tone was polite and sincere, "I certainly didn't intend to disturb you. My friends and I, well..." he shifted his weight, "We're in a rather bad predicament."
Celina smiled gently at Hosea, she always liked the older man and she felt as if she would forever be devastated by his fate. Her teeth continued to chatter even as she attempted to speak, "I think I've gotten myself into quite the predicament as well."
His brow furrowed as he took a step forward, "Are you alone dear?"
She nodded slowly, thinking the dream was seeking all the more surreal by the moment, "I believe so."
"You believe so? Have you been taken against your will? How don't you-"
Both of their attention turned to Bill Williamson as he entered the cabin followed by Dutch. Based on her memory of the scene, Celina concluded the rest of the gang was right outside.
"The area is deserted, how does it look in here?" It was Bill's voice which made Hosea turn around.
"Not completely empty." Hosea gestured to Celina who forced herself from the slight warmth of the bed, "Seems this poor girl was out here alone before we came along."
Bill studied her with narrowed suspicious eyes, "How do we know this isn't another set up?"
"How could it be another set up, Bill? There's no way in Hell anyone has followed us through this storm. Let alone predicted we'd arrive here." Dutch moved into the cabin, holding his hand up to keep the rest of the gang from entering just yet. He made his way over to Celina slowly, a gentle look upon his face and held his hands up showing he meant no harm before getting too close to her, "Miss, I've got to say, you're shaking like a leaf, my friends will bring in some blankets and we'll get you nice and warmed up, alright? I'm Dutch by the way, Dutch Van Der Linde."
Celina bit her lip almost nervously, thinking her situation really didn't seem like too much of a dream. Discretely, she pinched her back as hard as she could while pretending to scratch it. When she did not wake, she looked around frantically, panic beginning to sink in, something was wrong, very wrong. "I'm-" she continued to survey her surroundings, not quite knowing what to say with the situation she found at hand.
"Well Hosea, look at her clothes." Dutch's brows knit together in confusion and Hosea stepped forwards, both of their mouths downturned in thought.
Hosea spoke first, looking at the almost terrified seeming woman, "Miss, where did you get those clothes? They're not like anything we've seen and... we've seen a lot of people."
Celina looked down at her attire, a lump in her throat to see what shirt she was wearing which was none other than her RDR2 shirt along with converse shoes and a pair of ripped jeans. She met Dutch's and Hosea's gazes, her heart feeling if it may stop from the look Bill Williamson was sending her from across the room. She scratched at her left arm nervously, the gang was much more intimidating in real life than she would have imagined, "I- you would think I'm crazy." Of course she had to be wearing the shirt with Arthur on the front.
"Considering your shirt has our friends face on it... without 'wanted', I don't believe this could get much weirder." Dutch's words were guarded as he assessed the woman, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
Celina closed her eyes tightly, if she could just wake up. She pinched her arm again less discretely, "What're you doing?"
She opened her blue orbs once more you study Dutch, the only thing separating the two of them being her bed. Dutch was tall, she realized, taller than she had thought he would be, "What year is it?"
The leaders dark eyes widened, "What year is it? My dear, what have you been through? Who don't know the years 1899? We're living at the end of the wild west era."
"No." The simple word came out in almost a whisper and the three men in the room looked at one another in further confusion.
"Ok." Dutch nodded, trying to be as accepting as possible, "I'm going to have my friends come in here, they're all cold, just like you." He took a slow step backwards, "We're bad men, miss...?"
"Celina, Celina Knoll."
"We're bad men miss Knoll, but no one here will hurt you." He turned his attention to Hosea, "See that she's comfortable with the gang and try to get her to talk. Arthur and I are going to join Micah and John in scouting here in a minute."
Hosea nodded and approached Celina, guiding her gently to a chair in the corner of the room and handing her a blanket as she sat. "Don't be letting anyone see your shirt just yet dear, not until we figure some things out."
Celina nodded as she pulled the blanket up to her chest, the last thing she wanted was a gang of outlaws being suspicious of her. She figured that it was bad enough Dutch had seen it although at this point, he was still pretty sane. Bill Williamson though, could very well be the true problem at the moment. Also of course, there was the fact that if she was really in 1899... She would think herself lucky to survive five days... expecially with the drama of the Van Der Linde gang.
It was just her luck, to be stuck with a gang of outlaws without recalling even how she got there, that was assuming of course that she truly wasn't dreaming. The last thing she remembered before arriving was turning on her game. How things change.
"Common in, we're safe here..
Arthur, help out with Davey's body." He glanced back at Celina before moving away from the door and allowing the gang to file inside, everyone's eyes immediately gravitating to her. Dutch wasted no time in addressing this, "Leave her alone for now, I don't believe her to be a threat. Poor soul seems to have been through a lot."
A woman spoke up who Celina was all too good at forgetting the name of, "Let's get that fire started, blankets brought in and Pearson, start getting the food in order." It was too weird, seeing the historical events as told in the game based on Arthur's journals unfolding before her eyes. She stayed silent although was taking in everything without missing a single detail, realizing by the second that her predicament was seeming less and less like a dream. But how could it not be?
Everyone was quiet as the dead body of the man called Davey was brought into the room and laid gently on the bed, quarters placed lovingly over his closed eyes. Dutch took a deep breath as he looked around at the glum faces of his gang, "I loved Davey, Jenny, Sean, Mac... and maybe some of them could be ok, we don't know." He gestured to the dead body on the bed, shaking his head sadly, "Nothing more we could have done... it's truly been a rough couple of days." A spark of hope gleamed in his eyes, "We can come back from this, everything will be ok." His voice was sure, athoritive, "Arthur, let's head out and help Micah and John scout the area, look for supplies."
Arthur nodded after tearing his gaze away from the woman who sat away from the gang in the corner of the room before turning on his heel and following Dutch out the door, "Who was that in there?"
Dutch shook his head and mounted his horse, Arthur doing the same, "I do not know, Arthur. I do not know." He urged his horse forward as did Arthur and the two of them trotted away from the cabins, "She seems spooked, asked me what year it was."
"What year it was?" He glanced over at Dutch, "What happened to her? Was she held against her will?"
Dutch shook his head again, "Like I said Arthur, I don't know. There's something weird going on though, I can tell you that much... I have Hosea back there with her trying to get her to talk. We won't push her but we do need to know what's going on... why you're on her shirt."
Arthur's eyes widened, "I'm on her shirt?!"
"Yes," The slightly older man nodded, "And it's not advertising a bounty either."
"How could I be on her shirt? That makes no sense."
"None of this makes since, son. We'll figure it out."
...
"One moment I was sitting in front of my tv and the next-"
"Hold on dear," Hosea cut her off gently, sitting beside her on the bed in an empty cabin they had moved to to talk privately for the time-being. "What's a tv?"
Celina laughed, "I'm sorry, of course you wouldn't know what it is... tv's are things that let you watch shows from home, they're a source of entertainment."
"How times have changed," the older man muttered, staring at the strange marks on her hands and arms. "And those?"
Celina smiled, looking down at her tattoos, "Just tattoos... a form of self-expression."
He huffed, "I've never seen that many marks on someone that they recieved willingly."
Celina took a deep breath and stared into his eyes intently, "Hosea, I'm not dreaming, am I?"
He took a deep breath, as if trying to collect himself, "No my dear, I'm afraid you're not."
...
A/N: There's chapter 2, let me know what you think if you would and what you expect/want to see in the story?
Hope you guys enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own RDR or anything associated with it.