Jacqueline flung her purse onto her bedside table and began pacing the room. She had been stalked thrice by masked strangers, yet when she had reported the matter to the police, their indifference left her fuming.
She paused, lost in thought. One of them caught up with her as she ran, pushed her into an alley and pinned her to the wall. He had striking icy-blue eyes but it was his question that set alarm bells ringing in her head.
“Where is the red gem?” He growled, his voice deep, raising the hairs on her neck and hands.
What red gem? She kneed him in the groin and ran away all the way to the police precinct. They were of no help.
Back home, she exhaled, sat on the bed and laid back with her eyes closed. The distant sound of church bells forced her eyes open, not the chime of her phone.
Jacqueline was no longer lying on her bed but beside a muddy road. She jumped to her feet, her eyes wide, taking in her environment in one glance.
Wooden houses leaned toward one another on either side, their upper floors hurting over narrow streets. Men in rough tunics hurried past with baskets while a woman shouted from the doorway of a bakery. A horse pulled a cart loaded with barrels.
She stared, her hand on her chest to calm her racing heart. This was impossible, she thought, yet the town felt strangely familiar as blurry images struggled to come to the fore of her mind.
It was a medieval town and at the centre stood an old stone well. She wrinkled her nose for this was a scene straight out of the fantasy books she loved to read. Was this a dream?
She winced as a sharp pain pierced through the left side of her head. She was rubbing her temple, glancing at the people moving about who did not pay her any attention when she remembered.
She was no stranger in this town. She was an outcast, many centuries ago when she had worked with her grandmother at an archaeological dig in the ruins of a settlement.
She had found a red stone and her grandmother strictly warned her to hide it. Her eyes strayed to the stone well.
Heart pounding, she slowly approached the well when voices of a crowd reached her. She turned and saw a group of about twenty people with bows and arrows, and swords coming at her.
Their leader, a tall man with glowing icy blue eyes, pointed his sword at her. She gasped, remembering the masked man who pinned her to the alley wall.
“There she is!”
[To be continued]
I hope you enjoyed reading this short piece. It's inspired by the Freewrite #dailyprompt phrase "medieval town”.
Thank you for visiting my blog.