Lily lay in disbelief under the domed ceiling, on the cold stone floor of what should have been her bedroom, attempting to pull her hands free of the cuffs that still remained securely attached to her waist belt behind her back.
Even the slightest change of events in the past will inevitably have a catastrophic effect on the future and out of respect for Sam, Madeline didn't want to jeopardise his existence, mainly because she hoped to visit him again one day. As advised, Madeline and the blacksmith had gone into hiding, up north, preparing themselves to become landowners when King James began selling the land off.
Their actions upon returning to Hexcross in 1611 inadvertently disrupted the chain of events in Lily's mother's ancestry, leading to her nonexistence in present day society.
Her father came from the city and hadn't been affected by the change in the small village's history but the lack of Lily's mum's existence meant that he'd never found a reason to do anything other than simply pass by the place.
Due to his Scandinavian roots, Madeline and the blacksmith becoming Lord and Lady of the land of Hexcross, had no effect on Sam's family timeline either. As a young boy his parents had migrated to the north of England where he grew up unaffected.
Unaware of her misfortune, and in the cold darkness, Lily worked up the shorts from around her ankles to get dressed again after her time traveling back to present day, due to having sex with the blacksmith.
The poor fitting gaps around the wooden door of the room proved it to be daylight outside, as she twisted her metal waist belt and brought her cuffed hands to one side, to feel her way into fastening up her clothes.
Understanding why, but nevertheless pissed off at the shackles still around her wrists, she ran towards the door and turned her back on it to grab the handle.
Lily found that she could rattle the catch as much as she wanted but the door to the witch's chamber wouldn't open.
She knew that the deadbolt on the outside would be unopen-able from within, even with her hands free, and the viewing hatch open, she still wouldn't have been able to reach the lock from the inside of her prison.
"FUCK!"
Lily repeatedly kicked the door with the heal and sole of the only boot she wore, trying to do damage to the ancient wooden structure, stopping when her eyesight became accustomed to the light and she could see the huge, modern-day difference inside.
It didn't take long to realise that the room which had once made up part of her apartment, had become a mausoleum for Madeline and her husband.
Two stone built crypts were ageing side by side, each telling the date of their occupant's death as being 1638 for her husband, and 1644 for Madeline.
As well as their epitaph's, a base stone of the arched entrance to the coffin of Madeline, had the inscribed the words,
'The riches of Lily's lay within your heart.'
Before beginning to unravel the encrypted message, she realised that the sideways love heart on the step next to it, had to be directed towards her or her boyfriend, Sam.
The sight of the blacksmiths tomb seemed difficult to comprehend, as she'd been with him only seconds ago, yet it seemed he'd died over 400 years ago. This distracted her mind from the frustration of it being his doing that had hammered her wrists closed into the manacles, attached to her waist belt, behind her back.
Self-preservation told her to get out of there, but the bolted door kept her locked up in what Madeline and her husband had cleverly claimed forever to themselves, by turning the domed ceilinged chamber, into a crypt.
Calling for help did Lily no good. The frequency of her shouting decreased over time, leading to her slumping for hours in the silence of tomb, listening to nothing but the occasional bird chirping outside the tunnelled corridor leading off to the left of the wooden door.
Wondering what had happened to her other boot, the excited yap of a dog's bark, brought back hope.
She jumped up onto the uneven height of her feet again and began yelling at the top of her voice.
"HELP! HELP!"
Quietening down to listen, she awaited eagerly for another bark, to see if the dog's position had moved closer or further away.
Hearing nothing, she yelled out repeatedly in frustration, kicking the door with her heel again and again.
The wine and three barks of a black Labrador trying to get through the barred gate at the end of the corridor, attracted the attention of its owner, who Lily heard whistling for the dog's return.
Another frenzied moment of kicking and screaming finally payed off.
"Who's in there?" A well-educated man's voice responded.
"HELP ME!" She shouted. "I NEED HELP!"
"Who are you?" He asked.
"MY NAME IS LILY, AND I'VE JUST TRAVELLED THROUGH TIME!"
The agonising silence that followed whilst the man comprehended the madness of the situation, needed breaking. "ARE YOU STILL THERE?"
"Yes I'm still here." He replied, rattling the padlock on the chain holding the gate closed. "How did you get in there?"
"It's a long story." She now spoke loudly rather than feeling the need for shouting. "Can you let me out?"
"I'll have to get the keys." He reassured her. "Who locked you in there?"
"Nobody."
"Then how did you get in?" He asked.
"Just get me out of here and I'll explain."
"I'll need to get the keys first."
"Ok. Go get them?"
"Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be back." He pre-warned her. "Who are you again?"
"Lily."
"I'm Marcus. Marcus the third. I live here." He bragged, boasting of his father's wealthy estate that he assumed everybody, including Lily knew about. "I'll be back shortly."
The twenty-one-year-old, ran with his dog back to the manor house to fetch the key for the padlock securing the chain, that held the gate closed at the end of the tunnel, leading to the ancient wooden entrance door of Lily's prison.
Alone and breaking into a sweat, he ran back down the grassy embankment to the crypt without letting a sole know of his discovery.
"Are you still there?" He called into the arched tunnel through the bars of the gate.
"Yes I'm still here."
He clunked open the padlock and rattled the chain links from around the gate, enabling him gain access to the five-meter stretch of corridor leading to the entrance of the burial chamber.
The sound of freedom getting closer came as a massive relief to Lily, who blew the hair from her face in preparation of her introduction to the man she knew only as Marcus.
What she assumed to be the bolt of the wooden door made a loud thud before the brightness of the light silhouetting the man, caused Lily to quiver with blindness until her eyes had time to adjust to the change.
"What the hell is going on?" The posh man asked. His initial thoughts of seeing the pretty girl dressed with only one boot, tight shorts and a bust lifting knotted shirt, made him think this must be some kind of prank. "What the hell are you doing in here dressed like that?"
All his life he'd had fake girls chasing him for his future wealthy fortune, so he couldn't rule out this being another one of life's scams to be tackled. Although ok in the city, this sort of attire in the traditional village of Hexcross, had been known to tarnish a girl's reputation more towards the slutty side.
Lily's introduction to Marcus, struck her as him being of a judgmental character, and clearly not happy about seeing her in his property. However, his well-dressed and well kempt stature, came as a somewhat relief from the medieval Neanderthals she'd recently had to contend with.
"Can you help me?" She asked, turning slightly to show him the cuffs attached to the metal waist belt behind her back.
"What on earth?" He said, standing and inadvertently blocking the doorway. "Who did this to you?"
"If that's the blacksmith's body in there then I've a feeling it was him." She replied, not considering how ridiculous she may have sounded.
The only explanation for her presence in the crypt could be that of criminal intent. Breaching the locked gate to place herself in such a compromising situation seemed an extreme way of setting him up, but with her lack of panicking and no other evidence or anybody else around, his suspicions were strong.
"I'm calling the police." Marcus took the phone from his pocket and unlocked the screen. "How did you get in here?"
"Wait!" She snapped. "Don't call the police, just let me out of here."
He lowered his phone to question the situation. "What is this?"
"This. Is a relief that you found me, that's what this is." She began, "Although, it seems something has gone slightly wrong with the timeline and I might have to go back and correct it."
"Who are you?" He asked, "More to the point, what are you?"
"Ha." Lily laughed. "Would you believe me if I told you that I'm a time traveller and this is supposed to be my bedroom, and that the easiest way to put things right, would be to have sex in here, right now?"
"All I know is that the news of my father's illness has spread far enough to bring out all the gold digging women in the area, so I'm calling the police because you wearing those things on your wrists tells me that this approach is way over my head."
"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but it's true."
"Are you a prostitute?" He asked.
The word prostitute seemed a bit harsh but it had been said and couldn't now be retracted. "I'm beginning to feel that way." She replied.
"Who are you then?" He said, pressing the screen of his phone in anticipation of her response.
Lily told him her name and address, which didn't exist, as it happened to be the very spot they were standing but in a different time dimension. A search for her parents came back with nothing, other than her father being a man living his life in the city. Lily's mum didn't exist as generations ago, her ancestors had never met, due to changes in the evolution of the village of Hexcross.
"Enough bullshit!" He told her, noticing the blank look of emptiness on her face. "Who are you, why are you lying, and why are you avoiding the police?"
