Chapter 1
The sound of the last bell had reached two blocks by now but Lizzie was already up four ; “WAAIT UP !!! ” Natalie came running behind, not having the lean figure of Lizzie’s, catching up was quite hard but she finally made it . After almost loosing her life she came to stop, breathing heavily as she caught up to Lizzie who was bent down across the red light tying up her shoelace.
“Honestly Lizzie , can’t you hear me screeching like a dead goat !???! ” Natalie stated her grievance as Lizzie got back straight.
“sorry never heard a dead goat screeching , now that I know I wont miss it next time ..” even though Liz’s jokes were not as funny she anticipated, she somehow always would amuse herself with the sound of her own voice. A little too much self confidence never hurt anybody.
“That’s not funny” Nat commented
“I know “she glanced Nat a grin” it is bloody dam hilarious” and off she was again
Natalie sighed but followed her friend nevertheless , she was a friend who was always there no matter what , the type that exist only in books and movies.A complete opposite to Liz - who preferred to care at heart than in action. A trait that ran in the family : The Charles had a reputation to be cold and isolated, absorbed in their own little world.They were kind people but it took anyone a substantial amount of effort to get to that revelation.
After being drenched in a fifteen minute drizzle they finally made it to the book store. And just like the last eight times Nat walked across the street to the cafe and Liz ran in to get the new book.
Coming out elated by the book pressed to her chest , Liz went to the cafe and took a seat across Nat.
“You got something for me ??” she began to rip open the cover.
“no ..!!” Nat replied as she put her head down
“OMG what a bad friend!!! ” Liz stated casually, the entirety of her attention on the book . Nat had been around long enough to be used to this-If there is a book , Liz wont realize even if a zombie apocalypse came.Since she were little, books were Liz’s one true love, her escape from her not soo exciting life. Her family was nice and she loved them dearly but the Charles household can get a little boring from time to time.
“Soo..“Nat sipped on her iced chai latte “What’s the plan ??”
“hmm?” Liz looked up from the pages
“which colleges are you applying to??”
“I don’t know ” she pulled the drink to herself and took a sip “wherever mum wants me to-- I don’t even want to go to college !” she placed her book on the table and sighed , turning to the rain-drop adorned glass “like dude seriously what the fuck -- study, work, die there is nothing nice to live for. And school ! -- just cramming shit into your head ” she took another sip and pushed back the chai to Nat “Like school can actually be nice , if they thought us things instead of saying ‘stuff page 104 into your head by Monday’ “Nat let out a giggle “If I had the choice, I’d not go to college”
“you do, just go tell your mum college is not for you “Nat suggested but Liz just gave her a ‘no way’ look and shook her head. She wouldn’t do that. Sure she took after her father, someone extremely passionate, who valued the joy of doing and experiencing things over dollar bills but she knew how hard her mom had worked over last eighteen years to provide for the family and she wanted to give back.
“sure go to college , I bet you’ll drop out even before the semester begins” Nat gave a smug smile “you are just like you dad , you won’t be able to do things just because you need to-- your need’ fire - passion’ ” Liz only smiled at Nat’s animation “and speaking of your dad, is he leaving that garage soon ?? ”
“well he said he’s on the verge of a breakthrough but I doubt it -- time travel ? Seriously?” she leaned over and got all in ” I mean according to general relativity you need to be moving at the speed to light to travel through time-- first of no one’s done that and even he did figure out a way, how is going to generate so much power and where is going to run this machine that gives him enough space to accelerate to such a speed and then there is the traveler who knows what the vitals of the person will be moving soo fast-- there soo many unpredictable variables- ”
“ok got it ” Nat cut her putting up her thumb and giving a fake amused expression “time travel - not happening!” Liz also gave her a fake smile, not so amused by being cut off . she picked up her book and sunk into the chair and story.
“Man I wished I had your brain” Nat gulped down the last of her drink
“everyone does!“Liz said her eyes still on the book
“but I don’t soo i got to sit through tutoring hell!“Nat picked up her bag “so bye bitch!”
“bye !” Liz said as Nat left, she sat there getting so submerged into the story that she barely realized how the golden color of the sky had faded to a black. It was almost half past nine when a worker at the café told her that it was closing time .
~
“Lizzie is that you !?!?” her mom yelled from the kitchen, hearing the door open
“yeah ..” Liz replied removing her dirty red converse and leaving them at the door before heading to the Kitchen , Where Mrs. Charles was putting down the plates for dinner; The kitchen cutlery and house furniture were her closest of friends having a workaholic husband and what she called a ‘spoilt’ daughter; But she didn’t complain that very often, only every other hour or so.
Liz jumped onto the kitchen counter grabbing a packet of chips
“you know how late it is Lizzie ?!?! ” her mom asked, her back still facing Liz
“Ma I lost track of time reading the new book , sorry.. won’t happen again” Liz replied her mouth filled up with chips
" Lizzie, you are a big girl-- you should try and understand - ” laying down the last plate, she turned around “Your father sits in the garage all day long and you’ve never seemed to care about your mother ” and there she went again “you are finishing high school , what are you planning to do ? I cant support our family for very long on this job -- George is a lunatic obsessed with all the things you shouldn’t be with, he’s never helped me out in running the family . I’m getting old; I need you to help me out and you keep running around the streets all day long --you need to get some seriousness in life young lady ” and all this while Liz kept nodding still munching on to her chips, this was a daily routine, her mother declaring her disastrous life and Liz letting her go on, barely paying any attention , so much so that even after mom finished her speech she would still keep nodding
“Elizabeth !!” her mom screamed , catching her lost attention “are you even listening to me?? ”
“yeah ..yeah totally I should come home more early ..done !!!” she replied showing a thumbs up as if she were agreeing with everything her mom just said . Her mom just sighed looking down
“fine .. just go call your father for dinner”
“yes ma’am !!” she gave her mom a salute and jumped off of the counter walking outside to the garage.
“Hey Pops !! is the noble prize coming home this year !?!?” Lizzie joked as she walked into the yellow lit garage, her father’s back facing her as she sat on a small table in the right corner of the room .
“well were getting there Liz and you can’t mock me then --so enjoy while you can ” he glanced over his shoulder to find Liz siting there flashing him huge grin whilst playing with a wrench
" anyways mama’s calling you for dinner ”
“oh!!” he gets up in a hurry and turns to Liz with a scared expression “we better go then or we are gonna get eaten by your mother !! ”
“I don’t think she’s that hungry -- she just had some appetizer” Liz said getting of the table with an exhausted expression on her face
“oh my I’m gonna be desert then !!”
~
“George.. you are the one spoiling this kid you know!!!!” the dinner conversation was much a monologue today, after holding in her distress for an entire twenty minutes Liz’s mom was making sure everyone heard her pain
“Have you seen your friend Natalie , what a good girl she is , I wish was my daughter rather than you”
“ma you know my grades are higher than hers right ..!”
“It’s not all about grades Lizzie , your personality and attitude is what matters , have you looked at your clothes ,what’s with all those cuts and rips all over..”
“oh come on mom I wasn’t born in 1955 like you !!”
“I was not born in 1955 , and even if I was no one would realize ,I’ve been using Olay’s anti aging and regenerative cream nowadays” following a brief silence Lizzie and George start laughing at Linda’s advertisement
“Ma regenerative cream ?!? ..”
“Honey i think you should sue them because trust me it’s not working a tad bit ! if anything it’s made it worse” he amplified his laughter
“ugh George !!” Linda threw a table cloth which George caught without even looking. Lizzie was dying laughing and Linda decided to just sit down ignoring the two, which is of course the traditional way of women saying ‘I’m pissed,come apologize’. The father and daughter were too preoccupied laughing until Lizzie finally noticed and topped laughing , signalling to her father
George looked over at Linda who was eating her dinner in a hurry, staring out the window
“Honey ..” George said in a slow voice trying to hold her hand but she removes it
“don’t even say sorry.. I’m sick of you and Lizzie always making jokes on me”
“oh no .. I was about to say if you eat too much I won’t even have the little space left on the bed ” Linda looked at George in disbelief who was already laughing and Lizzie like always didn’t even try to hold in her laugh.
“that’s it I’m done !! ” She got off the table “clean up before going to bed !!” and with that she stormed out.Lizzie and George went silent for a second before laughing out loud again as soon as Linda left the room.
After dinner George went up to his wife and gave her that warm snuggle that always made her forget everything and Liz to her room with her love.It was well into the next morning by the time she had finished the book and as consequence she slept in late into the afternoon; But no problem as it was a Sunday and her mom was out at her friend’s.She made herself a coffee and come up to her room.Safely putting away the book, she took a seat on the ground looking up at the wall filled with books of all sorts but mostly historical fiction.Liz had a nag for History and culture :the social norms, hierarchies , the way they spoke ; She loved the sophistication that was engraved in the past.Smiling at her collection she picked up her cooled down coffee and sat at the window taking a sip.Stared out at her lonely neighborhood and the dull and cloudy weather above, enjoying the delightful flavor of every sip. shifting her gaze ,her eyes fixed on their garage. She quickly gulped down little left coffee and went down to offer her father a visit.
“Dad ?!?” she called out entering but there was no reply. “hmm ” she walked around confused accounting to the fact that her father doesn’t usually get out at this time of day. she looked around at the magnitude of paper that scrambled all over, investigating a few. even if she was her father’s pampered little girl , his work was the one thing in which she was not allowed to stick her nose into . She didn’t understand a word she was reading ,even though she was the science genius of her school her father was another level . She looked up from the papers and her eyes landed on a very strange looking contraption in one corner . It was a weird big ball kind of thing only with a lot of controls .It was like a big ring almost as thick as a table with a small seat embedded on one side.
As the curious cat would she climbed in and sat in the seat , gazing at the buttons that ran from top to bottom , she ran her fingers over them being careful enough not to break anything when her her father’s sudden voice startled her , she jumped scared hitting a random button and suddenly small lights turned on and two metal sheet moved around and covered up the sides making the contraption turn into a ball like structure.
“Daddy!!” Lizzie got panic-stricken and tried pressing the same buttons as before ,hoping the metal sheets would slide back but instead the buttons started to rotate, the small lights moving so fast that they looked like beams that wrapped around her , the noise kept getting louder and louder until -- it suddenly everything seemed to stop.
Lizzie’s heart was beating faster how fast the contraption had just moved,sweat glistened on her forehead and her breath was uneven , she looked around not knowing what was happening. Suddenly the two metal sheets slid back but this time she hoped that they hadn’t.
She got of the contraption and looked around to find trees.Wherever she looked all she saw was trees.
“dad ?” her mind was blank and she was utterly scared and confused.She took a deep breath and turned to look at the contraption , it had a stream of smoke coming out from in between the two parallel metal sheets.She let out a little chuckle “Great he finally made it work” she said sarcastically , having no idea where or when she was let alone how to operate the machine and get out of here. But she had to do something so she walked over and observed all the buttons , she had a feeling that the start button would be red, well it usually is in all Hollywood movies. While she was still contemplating she there was a movement from the branches on her right , she looked over to see a stag with big majestic horns standing at a distance , looking right at her.
She gave it a weak scared smile and said “see mister stag , I’m in quite a problem now ,so just go away for now. I won’t hurt you , If you do-” before she could finish her sentence the stag rushed towards her and she ran--obviously.
“God I’m soo sorry that I’ve been a bad daughter, I promise I’ll be a good girl from now ” the almighty had been summoned “I won’t do sneak out of the house, drink illegally ,or make out with Nat’s boyfriends but damn he was cute!” But seemed like the Lord was not quite listening , the stag just wouldn’t take the name of stopping . A few minutes in and her legs were already giving up on her and much to her dismay there was a loud noise of a horn being blown, distracted by which she tripped over a stone and fell at the base of a big, old tree. She wasn’t much hurt and was about to get back up when she saw the stag’s foot , she looked up to find the burning eyes of the stag , God should know why the stag was so angry at her.
She moved back hitting the tree’s trunk. she was terribly scared and pretty convinced that she might just die.The stag bent it’s head ,pointing it’s anchors straight at Lizzie.It took off towards her and Liz shut her eyes tight pulling in her hands-- there was the sound of something flying very fast approach and an impact , she opened her eyes to see a arrow completely covered in blood sticking through the neck of the stag , it’s sharp end right front of her eyes , the stag was on it’s knees still groaning in pain , suddenly another arrow came in from her right and hit the stag near it’s shoulder .
The stag didn’t make another sound but fell slowly to it’s side , Lizzie’s eyes silently followed it, as she shivered at the gory scene. She was sat on the ground looking like a lost kid, her hands sticking to her chest
“Your Majesty are you alright ??” She looked over see the owner of the voice on a horse to the right a distance and twenty other men all on horses behind him.
“I’m alright” another man dressed in blue, sitting on a beautiful white horse straight across Liz replied.Liz was still in shock to understand anything and she just stared at them blankly. The man in blue jumped off of his horse and walked towards Liz ,whose gaze was still stuck on the men to the right
" Are you alright Miss??” she turned her sight to find a man dressed in a Navy blue suit , it was different from the others’, very detailed with many intricate designs and embroideries, and the bearer of the costume far more beautiful - fair , with hair that was deep shiny black. His dark brown eyes filled with concern looked down at her as he repeated himself
“Miss ?? ”
“huh ??” she finally let out a sound , at least now he knew she could hear .
“are you alright ? let me help you up ..” he put forth his hand and Lizzie just stared at it still shivering . As her senses slowly returned , she put forward her hand . He helped her up , she looked blankly at him for a moment before loosing her consciousness and falling into his arms.
“what has happened ?!?! why are you all gathered here ??” another man came in ridding “Jimin , who is this lady? -- what is she doing so very deep in the forest ?? -- oh seems like you’ve found the stag !” but Jimin didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to Jungkook; He was lost looking at Lizzie in his arms , he bought up his palm to her head and placed it on her forehead
“appears to me like she might develop a fever” he looked at his commander and continued “go hence forth and call in a doctor and tell the maids to prepare something for her , she shall be our guest until she recovers” Taehyung nods and orders a few of the soldiers to go , who make away immediately .
He bends down and lifts her up in his arms and immediately one of soldier’s jumps off of his horse and runs to Jimin to assist him but Jimin ignores him, he walks over and puts her on his horse and then turns to the vacant horse to climb onto it.
“I’ll take her with me , the rest of you continue on with the hunt ” and with that he and a few soldiers took off .
“Jimin ridding a soldier’s horse ! “Jungkook smiled to himself shaking his head amused
