Elaine trudged up a particularly steep hill, her slim calves burning as she stretched out her strides. The wind picked up and with it came a strange bog-like smell that made her nose wrinkle. Dark green grass swayed back and forth, tickling the exposed skin of her legs, while the silence, which pervaded the night, was almost deafening in its stillness.
As she made it to the top, she huffed and put her hands on her hips. She didn't remember it being this tough before.
Just as the bog smell grew stronger, a great crack of thunder split the sky in a flash of white, and she could hear rumbles echo in the not-so-far off distance. It was strange, her ears popped, as if she was in a plane that had just jetted off into space. She looked up, her eyebrows drawn together.
"Oh, come on," she muttered in quiet indignation, just as the first drop of rain splashed her on the nose. She pulled out her iPhone and tapped the flashlight app.
Then she took off running.
It was raining, of course. Not a steady spitting patter, but a terrible storm. It plastered her hair down and made the ground beneath her feet wet and slippery. She felt silly and almost embarrassed to be running through the moor. But she was soaked. As if things couldn't get any worse, she stumbled—not a hard stumble, not like the drunk guy earlier. However, when paired with the pliant ground, it was enough to send her tumbling forwards.
Her insides froze. Everything after that happened so fast, too fast for her to keep up as she rolled down the sharp incline. As she fell, for a moment, the world seemingly slowed and like a haunting menace, Hadrian's Wall melted out of the abyss.
Elaine didn't even have the chance to scream before she slammed face first into stone.
-0-
Consciousness crept up slowly, painfully. Elaine groaned.
Oh, my God, she thought, blinking in agony. What happened?
Sprawled over a bed of damp grass, her head pillowed on a stone, she sucked in a sharp breath. Very, very carefully, she peeled her face of the rock and studied the red imprint … wait, is that blood? She touched her face and yelped. The sound came out dry and choked. It took a second, but the events of last night started becoming clear. Well, clear-ish.
Elaine remembered driving to the moor with Jackie. Then she slipped.
Oh, right, I fell, she thought.
She cradled her forehead, sat up, and pushed herself backwards until she was resting against the wall. There had to a bump as large as a wine cork on her forehead and it burned when she tried breathing through her nose. Her white dress was covered in mud and grass stains, she was missing a shoe, and there was dry blood caked on her knees.
She glanced around. The sun was shining with clouds overcast. Her eyes stared up at the sky for a moment. There was no way to tell how long she'd been out here. Then she bent her head and shut her eyes before abruptly snapping them back open.
It was impossible to accept that she had been unconscious all night long, out in the open moor. Jackie must have seen that their rental car was still sitting in the same place they'd left it, right? That should've raised at least some red flags.
Elaine's first instinct was to reach for her phone. Only, she had no idea where it was. She was filled with sudden panic, and trying to absorb the situation she had now found herself in, the panic was kind of overwhelming.
"Crap." She shifted into an uncomfortable squat-like position and twirled in a circle, furiously searching for the slim phone. "Shit."
She ignored her throbbing head and stood up. Then she started climbing back up the incline she had fallen down the night before. Her cellphone had to be here somewhere. It's not like it could just disappear! Or, did someone steal it?
Trying not get hysteric at the fact that her cellphone was missing, Elaine pulled her satchel forward and, flipping open the flap, searched for her car keys. She just about cried when she pulled them out.
All she could think of now was getting to the car. Everything would be fine once she was able to get back to the hostel. She would get all of her questions answered, like why Jackie didn't look for her. And afterwards, she would fix the mess the last twelve hours had turned into.
Getting to the car was going to make everything all right.
-0-
The car is gone.
Elaine turned over this new information in her head. The knowledge left a bitter, gag-worthy taste at the back of her throat. She held herself perfectly still, keeping her face expressionless.
As her mind clicked through different strategies, all of which involved a lot of walking and back tracking, she glanced over her shoulder at Hadrian's Wall.
There was a long stretch of nothingness as she struggled to organize her next thoughts, most that wouldn't quite resolve into words.
Instead of the dilapidated stretch of rock the wall had been yesterday, a breathtaking and intimidating structure loomed in its place. It was unlike anything Elaine had ever seen. But nonetheless, it stirred something inside of her, like a memory, as if the obvious answer shouldn't even have been questioned. As a matter of fact, everything looked familiar, but at the same time, unfamiliar.
In the distance she saw people—more like red dots—walking along the battlements, in between the turrets. Strange looking yellow and dark red flags flapped ominously in the wind.
Something inside Elaine was trembling. Taking a step back, her heart skipped a beat and her stomach sank.
Where am I?
She didn't want to frame the next question, but the words came into her mind anyway, blunt and inescapable and frankly ridiculous.
What year is it?
No. It wasn't possible. Part of her must have been kidding, because the question was insane. And the fact that she was even considering it … well, she chalked it up to hitting her head.
I have a concussion, Elaine reasoned. That is all this is.
Maybe she wasn't even awake yet?
She pinched herself. It hurt. And yet, she still didn't wake up. She turned slowly and only vaguely noticed when a galloping sound was growing louder. She couldn't focus on that. She was staring at a wagon being pulled by oxen and a stone hut with a billowing cloud of smoke gushing from its roof.
The trembling inside her was getting worse.
There was another sound, a rough shout. Elaine blinked and looked for the source.
-0-
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