A young red-hair woman stood in front of a hairy, bare-chested guy in the middle of a dark forest. I watched this scene, trying to figure out what’s really happening while hearing a name from a fairy tale. In what type of twisted place am I? A brief urge inside me wanted to stand up and let loose like a maniac. However, that stopped when the man dropped his pants. I looked away to avoid the sight since I’m not into seeing another guy’s junk. The snap of a twig caught my attention, and I turned my head back. The woman is sprinting away from the man.
“Get back h’re!”
The guy tried to pull up his pants while stumbling forward. I would laugh, but I’m confused. The soft thumps of the girl’s footsteps grow louder as she comes my way. Her red cape flutters behind her. From her terrified expression, I suddenly root for her when I recognize her desperate escape. As she dodged the limbs in her way. I catch glimpses of both of them while I keep down in the undergrowth. With a growl, the man finally got his pants up enough to sprint after her.
As I crouched there, my thoughts fought each other for control. Coming close to getting killed earlier, I don’t want to get involved. Still, I’m damn sure the guy is a lowlife scum who deserves a lot of kick in his balls for this. Worse, he’s also built like one of those action stars from the 80s and my scrawny arms won’t do much good against him. In the end, I hesitated.
The red-hair woman followed the path I was on earlier. Louder footsteps came from the cursing man, and I noticed he’s quickly gaining on her. Nothing good is coming out of this encounter, but I can’t seem to lift myself to help. Then, an idea takes hold. At the last minute, I rushed through the brush to intercept them. After I stopped between the two trees with the sickle in my hand, I picked up a broken limb. After the woman passed by me, I planned to shove the limb out in front of him. He’ll hit the ground while I pull back into the thicket and she’ll disappear.
Now, that’s a plan!
However, fate screwed with me. Waiting next to the trail, the woman was about to pass me when she suddenly turned into my path. Her knee struck me square in the face and we tumbled away from each other. Turning over to my side, I hear the man’s footsteps, then glimpse a boot. A hand grabs me and lifts me from my spot. I can make out his crazy eyes as his spittle covers my face.
“A spy! I’ll killeth thee!”
He struck me with his backhand. The blow made my teeth rattle, and I fell into the dark underbrush. My back fell on top of the sickle I dropped. My attacker leaned over while I struggled to pull the weapon from behind my back. He suddenly jammed something into my chest. It burned like fire as I yelled out in pain. The bastard laughed, and I swung the sickle I held.
“Ahhggh…” His anguished cry came to me as I got to my knees.
His knife lay on the ground next to me. The man held his bleeding hand with the other. Amid the blood, I noticed he’s missing some fingers. As I stared in a strange trance, the hunter grabbed his knife with his good hand and came at me again. In defense, I held out the iron blade, and he ran into the tip of the sickle. With another cry, he fell back.
However, I was past the point of no return. I decided it’s him or me!
Swiping the blade at him, I missed. Still, I crawled forward as he backed against a tree. The man cried out for help. Frantically, I swung the deadly instrument again. This time I got him in the leg. His scream turned to agony as he grabbed his leg. Staggering to my knees, I slam the blade into his shoulder. He’s still yelling out in anger while I swung down the tool again and it lands in his chest. The gurgling noise confused me, and I backed away. The man’s body seemed to tremble, and I raised my weapon again. Just when I was about to strike, his head dropped, and I heard a drawn-out gasp.
Then, it’s quiet! Deathly quiet filled the area.
Crawling away with my weapon in one hand, I re-entered the thicket. My brain is past reason. Amid the pain filling my body, I can only think about getting away. Pushing through, deeper and deeper, darkness descended over me as I kept moving away from the scene. In the back of my mind is the fear of discovery. Someone will find the body. Even in self-defense, I’m a murderer without power during this time. Every bit of history I knew reminded me that laws are for nobles to control commoners. For some strange, inexplicable reason, I know I’m a commoner.
Looking up through the trees, I struggle to find the star I’m following. After finally seeing it, I cut a notch in the tree trunk next to me to guide me in the right direction as my energy fades. If I wake and realize this world is just a fake, made from my dreams, somehow I’d feel cheated. Only the soothing darkness of vines and bushes surrounds me next to the tree. As I lay there panting, I think I hear a voice calling out. Briefly, I wonder if it’s the girl, but I tell myself she’s stupid.
Run away, you fool!
There’s no way I’m yelling out to her. I can’t tell anyone I’m here, a murderer with my weapon. This dream world requires survival. I’ve seen that already. As grogginess filled my mind, I remember a story about a woman with a red hood somewhere, but only her name comes to mind.
My grandchild’s story!
A brief memory comes back of another time where I had to survive in the woods. Closing my eyes, I tried to capture the memory and hold it. It’s too difficult. My mind slowly blank as my heavy eyelids closed.
Maybe it’s all a dream!
~~~
A panicked voice and sounds woke me with a start. I grabbed the wood shaft in my hand and looked around in fear. The morning dawn is just arriving, filling the sky with beautiful colors amid the dark shadows around me. After a moment, I finally calmed down and my stomach started again. It’s getting pissed off with the lack of food.
The image that woke me comes back to my mind. It’s like a jumbled series of flashes. All of them show me I’ve fallen. People come to me, then I see the inside of an ambulance. The strange thing is I noticed my arm when the EMT is inserting an IV. I observe my arm, which is lacking muscle and has wrinkled, splotchy skin. I remember the last image is a small child running into a room. Her eyes are frightened and excited.
“Grandpa, read to me!”
Curious, I looked around for the voice. It’s a memory. When I stare at my grimy, bloodied hands and forearms, they reveal thin but muscular limbs with no signs of a wrinkle. I turned over my hand and saw the wound on one palm from the blade of the sickle. Dried blood crusts the jagged wound. It also covers my hand and some of my clothing.
“Damn, can I get tetanus here?” I mumbled.
My voice is still unrecognizable to my ears, but that’s the least of my problems. Looking over my clothing, I’m shocked.
Damn, I’m wearing leather pants like a rock band from the 80s.
The joke immediately disappeared from my thoughts when my body odor reached me. I looked over the equally filthy woolen cloak. I notice my shoulder still aches from where that man tried to knife me. Hurriedly, I pulled back the fabric and saw some blood on the outside of my leather shirt where there’s a slit from the blade going through. Frustrated, I lift off my cloak, then my shirt to see the gash in my shoulder. It’s several inches above my heart.
“That bastard tried to kill me. Well, fuck him!”
After looking over the dried blood covering the wound, I’m happy it’s not deep. I ran my fingers along my neck and felt a rough line running across my throat. Without a mirror I couldn’t tell much, but I’m just happy whoever went after me just missed. The strange part is I didn’t recall anyone attacking me in the village. All I remembered was getting up from the ground and the people who stared at me. That’s when someone screamed and all hell broke loose. I took off into the alley and they hunted for me. As I guessed my faulty memories were to blame, I tenderly felt the line across my throat again. I’m hoping it doesn’t go into a bacterial infection. Assuming my thoughts about the time frame of this world, I realize most people died from infections and disease.
“Yeah, I remember watching that program with my son!” My brain locked up at the information. “Wait, my son is Timothy. We watched a show about the medieval world together when he was young.”
Shaking my head, my son’s smile came back to me and for a moment, I teared up. More memories rolled across my brain like a freight train. My wife Betty held my hand on our first date, then I held hers as we cut the wedding cake. Tim’s wife, Amber, showed us our first grandchild, Tiffany. Tears fell across my cheeks as I sobbed. It took a while but, finally; I calmed down and a realization hit me. I’ve already lived a long, modern life with a loving wife and child.
I’ve lived a good life!
“So, what the hell am I doing here?” I yelled at the sky.
~~~
A dozen paces away from the strange man yelling into the sky, Blanchette woke with a start. She immediately held out the bloody dagger in her hand, only to relax when she realized no one threatened her. The woman scurried to her knees and lifted her head carefully to where she saw her rescuer.
The thin young man with brown hair stared into the sky with tears in his eyes. Blanchette stifled a gasp when she noticed the closed gash across his throat. Dried blood covered his neck and the front of his clothing.
How is he alive?
She was confident that the hunter didn’t cut the stranger’s throat, but the sight led her to other questions. As she observed him, Blanchette wondered at the reason behind the man’s breakdown. Then she stared down at the dagger that she had retrieved from the fight. The small stranger took on Larry the Huntsman. She watched the fight from a few paces away, wanting to help but too afraid to join in the fight unarmed. When Larry finally stopped moving, Blanchette finally felt a sense of freedom wash over her. She escaped from the horror of Emerald City. Nobody would be wiser. Her grandmother could take the backlash from failing to live up to the agreement.
The old hag deserved it! She was supposed to save me, not use me!
When the fight finished, for some odd reason, the strange man crawled away into the dense brush as she called out to him. Grabbing the dagger from the ground, she followed the man until she found him passed out. At first, Blanchette thought her savior had died. When she determined he remained alive, she found a place so she could observe his actions in the morning. The fact he could overcome the larger hunter intrigued and terrified her. She wondered if he had some type of dark magic.
Before she could gather the courage to call out to him, she dropped when she noticed the man looking over the area. Blanchette put on her red cape she used for a pillow while lifting her head occasionally to watch her rescuer working. After he took a piece of bark from a tree. She couldn’t view much of his work, but he used the wood pieces like a tool while observing the sky and sun. Still concerned about the strange man, the woman cautiously followed as he confidently stepped out of the undergrowth.
