The officiating magistrate noted the thunderclouds now rumbling overhead and waited no longer. He unfurled a scroll, signaling for quiet from the crowd, which jeered in response. His eyes flashed with anger at the disrespect. Clearing his throat, he bellowed for silence at the top of his lungs. Before the second syllable had ended, an arrow slammed between his teeth. He sank, gurgling blood. The crowd roared its approval.
Lightning flashed from the clouds and the storm broke, disorienting the crossbowmen scanning the crowd for the hidden archer. Arrows thudded into three of them, as more men in the crowd opened their cloaks to reveal longbows and let loose a deadly volley. James’ heart leapt. He had not expected rescue. Horsemen and foot soldiers were overwhelmed. Years of suppressed rage against injustice had exploded into bloodlust against all authority. Sir Giles was shocked, angry, but saw that he was outnumbered. His guards closed ranks about him and commenced a fighting retreat.
Two of the mercenaries wanted to intervene, but Cedric stayed them with a look. Their orders were to observe and it was clear that the three of them, strong soldiers though they were, could not affect the outcome against so many.
Rufus signaled his sons to hide below. Ben reached the steps first, just dodging an arrow. He missed his footing, and slammed into a post, falling dazed downstairs into the crawlspace. Rufus and Will rapidly followed, shedding their hoods. They grabbed headsman’s axes to defend themselves against the crowd now tearing through the lattice. Harriet cradled Ben in her arms. Rufus turned to yell at Alice: “Run, child! Run!”
Two of Sir Giles’ guards, cut off from escape, used their halberds to chop through the lattice into the crawlspace. An arrow felled one at Alice’s feet. Picking up the fallen halberd, Alice moved to protect her mother. Too late. A townsman clubbed Harriet unconscious, while others advanced on Alice. She swung the halberd. They backed away. Then the invading crowd’s attention was diverted by the sudden overpowering of the executioner and his other son. Alice heard a villager’s voice cut through the din: “String ’em up!”
As her family were dragged up the steps to the platform, Alice and her father shared one last agonized glimpse. She knew now that she must run or share their fate. Using the halberd as a battering ram, she smashed through the lattice. Torrential rain pelted down. Thunder and lightning split the air as Alice dashed from the rear of the scaffold. She looked up, trying to learn the fate of her family, but cheering villagers obscured her view. James would save them, she hoped desperately, if he was still alive. She saw the young sheep stealers, released from their bonds, bolt free. Then someone tried to grab her. She ducked, and ran towards a group of townsfolk sheltering at the tree line. Her coif slipped from her head and her bright hair streamed behind her in the freshening wind. The villagers gaped through the downpour as her shape loomed, wild-eyed, howling like a banshee and swinging the halberd. The men scattered.
Alice’s escape into the trees had been observed by the mercenaries. Cedric decided that there was a little flexibility in their orders. “Some sport, mayhap?” he offered. Without hesitation, they headed along the tree line in pursuit. Unaware, Alice ran through the forest as nimbly as her bare feet allowed until she was a good distance away. She stopped under a gnarled oak, her panting giving way to miserable sobs. She looked back, but the storm and descending twilight obscured her pursuers till one burst through a bush a few yards away, a thin-faced pockmarked man with curly red hair, holding a short length of rope.
Alice immediately understood his intentions. She grabbed the halberd and turned to run. Another appeared on the path ahead of her, dagger drawn. Then a third closed in from her flank. Jabbing with the spear point of the halberd, she held them off, till they all rushed her at once. She swung the weapon in a wide arc. Her targets ducked. The axe head embedded in the trunk of the oak. They were on her before she could free it.
The mercenaries had often shared peasant prey like this throughout their travels, and fell into a familiar routine. Gareth grabbed her wrists and sought to bind her. Andrew used his dagger to cut the cord at her waist. Cedric ripped off the soaking woolen shift. Alice was now naked, but slippery. As they put their hands on her, she twisted out of their grasp. They lunged at her but she was too quick. She snatched up a fallen tree branch, parried a dagger thrust, and then swung the branch into Gareth’s groin, before backhanding it into Andrew’s temple. Both fell stunned. Cedric recoiled and slipped in the mud. Alice took off in the opposite direction. Before her attackers could collect themselves, she had vanished into the swirling rain.
As Alice hurtled through the forest, the storm reached a paroxysm of sheet lightning and explosive thunder. Disoriented, she slammed into a tree and fell. Her vision blurred, colours changed. Everything slowed. Echoing sounds assaulted her ears. A thick hedge appeared in front of her. She crawled through it, only to tumble down a steep grassy slope, rolling onto a hard, smooth, rain swept surface. Then a distant noise made her freeze. Moving lights pierced the rain ahead, dancing along the opposite hedge, approaching with extraordinary speed. Dizzy with exhaustion, Alice tried to get up. The lights became two eyes of a hulking roaring Beast approaching fast. Her strength gave out; she sank to her knees. The roaring became a screeching, like the caw of a monstrous crow. The Beast twisted a little in its path as it closed on her, stopping inches from her face.
Alice could feel the pulsing heat of its body, breathing on her from a narrow slit between the intense light of its glowing eyes. There was a clicking sound. What was this hellish creature? The flank of the beast swung away from its body like a wing. Feet descended, not as though a rider were slipping from its back; rather, they emerged from the very bowels of the creature.
The Beast was a car. A 2020 model Toyota Land Cruiser, to be precise.
Certain that Satan himself was standing above her, Alice lapsed into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER 2
Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory?
With a rasping intake of breath, Alice awoke and sat upright. Did the beast eat me up, she wondered, am I dead? A blur surrounded her till she blinked it away. Instinctively, she clutched at her body to find that she was clothed. In a gown of soft fabric such as the gentry wear, thought Alice, now convinced that she was alive. But how? And where? Her eyes darted about, taking in a small room, little bigger than the one her brothers shared at their cottage. This was a place the like she had never seen. Or had she? The padded bedframe on which she lay seemed to extend from the walls without support. There was a light in the ceiling, yet no sign of flickering flame from candle or rush light. Seeing a window at the bedside, she drew back the curtain. A pane of impossibly flawless glass revealed a manicured lawn lit by slanting mid-morning sunbeams. Could this be Heaven? She saw people, clothed like herself, playing a game with hoops, mallets and coloured balls; others were wandering the damp grounds wearing the faces of The Lost. Not Heaven, perhaps.
Fearful, Alice cautiously slid off the bed, and there before her was another wonder. Clean water half-filled a gleaming metal bowl, which, like the bed, jutted out from the wall. Alice swallowed reflexively and realized that her throat was parched. She knelt down to examine it more closely. She dipped her hand into the water, sniffed, licked her fingers. Satisfied, she bent into the bowl and drank deeply.
Ceiling cameras relayed high angle images of all ten cells in the isolation ward to a bank of monitors at the Nurses’ Station. The day shift Duty Nurse, June Daly, noted the unknown patient satisfying her thirst.
“5B thinks she’s a dog.”
“She’s awake?” asked Doctor Anthony Picton, Chief of Farnham Psychiatric Hospital, who had just come in to examine her file.
Although the water had none of the sweet tang of the Farnham River, Alice was relishing every gulp. Then a command issued from above: “Do not drink from the toilet bowl.” Alice recoiled. The authoritative voice continued: “Bacteria remain in the bowl. You might make yourself sick.” Alice dived under th
e bed. Was this the voice of God? Perhaps she really was dead after all. “I’m coming in to see you.”
Dr. Picton strode down the corridor. Why, he wondered, is she conscious? Tall and a distinguished forty-nine years old, Dr. Picton regarded himself a leader in the psychiatric field, and expected his staff to follow the procedures he laid down without question. He checked the file again to find the name of the doctor on duty at the time of the patient’s admission. Ah! The American.
Alice had pressed herself into the corner behind the bed, terrified. There was a whirring sound and the door slid open. All Alice could see was a man’s legs stepping inside. Crisp trouser pleats, polished black shoes. Uniformly tied laces. Had she ever seen such garments? Again the voice.
“I am Doctor Picton. I’m the chief psychiatrist here.” Alice blinked, her mind in turmoil. “Don’t be afraid...we’re here to help you...come out now...no one is going to harm you.” No response. “Do you know who I am?” The tone of his voice made the question sound important. Again, silence.
Alice wrestled with the question. “Are you … an Angel?”
Dr. Picton smiled. This would be easier than he had first thought. “I try to be.” Alice, becoming more frightened, intoned a prayer: “Gloria sit ad Patrum, et ad Filium, et ad Spiritum Sanctum…” Picton interrupted, finishing the prayer. “… per omnia saecula saeculorum.” Alice was encouraged, which was his intention. “Amen,” she whispered.
Picton made the antiphonal response, then probed some more. “Don’t hear much Latin these days. Certainly not from one as young as you...What is your name?”
“Alice.” Dr. Picton wrote it down.
“Am...am I in Heaven?” she stammered.
“You’re...in the best place you can be, Alice, so please come out, so that we can talk properly.”
Alice cautiously emerged, curiosity and fear fighting for dominance. She looked at the tall man, his hair silvering at the temples, his demeanour radiating authority. “Come on,” Dr. Picton said in a kindly tone, “sit on the bed.”
Alice sat down. The doctor sat beside her. “Gramercy, Sir, is my family here with me?”
Dr. Picton’s brow furrowed: “Family?” A jolt of recollection brought tears to Alice’s eyes. “I don’t know what’s become of my family, Sir...”
“What is your father’s name?” The intensity of the Angel’s gaze was beginning to frighten her. Had she not seen a face like his before?
“Craddock…”
“Full name.”
“Rufus Craddock, Headsman for the Farnham Assizes...”
Picton stared at her.
As the conversation in Room 5B continued, the Duty Nurse watched the monitor and listened fascinated on headphones. This was much more interesting than the latest panda bear birth on YouTube. Then a man’s hand tapped her lightly on the shoulder. June looked up, smiled, pleased to see Dr. Montgomery, the hot young visiting American who had just joined the hospital as an intern. Late twenties, lean muscular build. Black hair and green, green eyes. Umm, umm, umm. All the nurses liked him. He had brought the day shift boxes of chocolate twice this past week. And he seemed to be paying particular attention to herself. June took off the headphones and handed them to him. “This is amazing. You couldn’t make this stuff up.”
Dr. Paul Montgomery nodded thanks, applied the headphones and listened in for a few minutes. He had a feeling that he was going to be in trouble with Dr. Picton.
In Room 5B, a tearful Alice was recounting the events of the previous night. She ended with: “…then I fell a-swame, and the demon beast came, blinding me with its glowing eyes…and I can’t remember no more…”
Dr. Picton stood and spoke as if to a child: “Understandable. So this is what we are going to do. First you’ll be examined by a medical doctor. A woman, of course.”
Alice gaped. “A woman…is a doctor?”
“Dr. Unwin. You’ll like her. So come with me. She’s just down the hall.” Picton swiped his key card, and the door slid open.
Alice watched this magical act, agog. As he led her out by the hand, an embarrassing thought occurred to her. “Is she a midwife? ’Cos I’m not with child...that’s for sure…I’m a maid, Sir, I swear.”
“Of course you are. Now come along.” He led her up the corridor toward the Nurses’ Station, where he spotted the doctor named in the patient’s admission file. He called out. “Ah, Dr. Montgomery. Would you join us, please?” Paul Montgomery, the visiting American intern, left the Nurses’ Station, hastily summoning a confident attitude.
As the young man coming down the corridor reached a pool of light, Alice reacted, startled. Her heart raced. Her mouth slowly opened. She took three quick breaths. This went unnoticed by Dr. Picton.
“Why did you curtail this patient’s medication?” he demanded as Dr. Montgomery approached. When annoyed, Dr. Picton layered a glacial tone over his precise articulation. On these occasions, which rarely occurred because his staff were highly motivated not to annoy him, he exuded disdain.
This was Paul’s first week, but he had already heard stories of Picton’s Pique. Nonetheless, Paul was undeterred. He was going to test the boundaries. “She was a new admission. I don’t sedate patients heavily until I’ve examined them.”
Paul noticed that the girl was staring at him intently. What was it about this girl, marked for evaluation and transfer? She was pale, with an arresting ethereal beauty. How had she come to be in a small private mental hospital with no family in attendance, and without identification? Paul had taken special note of the “Transfer Patient” designation on her file. He had taken her pulse. Her heart rate was quite low. The standing directive to place indigent transfer patients in restraints upon admission and to medicate them heavily every four hours seemed unnecessary and potentially dangerous, and Paul had chosen to countermand the orders. Paul knew that there would be consequences, but perhaps that would serve his agenda.
Picton’s temperature was rising: “Why did you not follow the protocol? She could become violent.” Before Paul could answer with a prepared excuse, the girl, who had been staring at him wide eyed, cried out.
“JAMES?...JAMES! YOU’RE ALIVE!”
Alice could not believe what she saw. His black hair was short rather than long and he talked strange, but his nose, his mouth, his handsome face, were the same, and above all his green eyes were the eyes of James De Fries. Without a doubt.
Dr. Picton watched astonished as Alice flung her arms tightly round Paul, mixing kisses with breathless questions. “What came to pass? Oh, my love, how did you escape? Is my Da safe? Tell me, I pray you.”
Dr. Picton interrupted. “Do you know this patient?”
Paul sensed the girl’s emotional fragility. He took Alice gently by the cheeks, stopping her from kissing him. “Never seen her before in my…”
Alice interjected. “James! It is I, your Alice! You know me…”
Picton looked concerned. “Are you sure you do not know this person?”
“Yes, I’m sure!” Paul said with alacrity, then softened his tone to Alice: “Look, I’m sorry. You must be mistaking me for someone else...”
What does he mean? Who else could he be? thought Alice, her joy withering, panic growing. “James, please, why do you deny...?”
Dr. Picton called out to the Duty Nurse. “Nurse Daly! Dr. Unwin. Thorazine, please. 100 mgs.”
Paul continued to deal with Alice’s mounting distress.
“James, please!”
“Sorry, my name is Paul. Dr. Paul Montgomery…”
Alice was bereft. “James, do you care not for me? Why do you treat me so? Why?”
Their interchange continued in this vein till the Duty Nurse arrived, syringe in hand, followed by Dr. Rose Unwin. Alice saw the tiny spiked weapon in the hand of one of the strangely-dressed women. She turned to run but Picton grabbed her. Alice started sc
reaming and kicking.
“AAAGH! Unhand me!”
Paul held her by the shoulders. “Calm down, please” he urged. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
“This cannot be Heaven. I must be in Hell!” Alice wailed.
Two Male Nurses arrived. Together they held her as Dr. Unwin administered the injection. “Don’t be afraid, dear,” she soothed. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“NO! NO! James...I beseech you to help me!”
The girl’s eyes seemed to bore into him, accusing and imploring. It was clear to Paul that she was convinced they knew one another; and that he was one James De Fries, the local Robin Hood character about whom Paul had overheard her speak to Picton through the patient monitor headphones; apparently, that James was the love of her life. This was an unexpected wild card thrown into the game he was playing, one that could endanger his plans. But something made Paul want to soothe her. Quite normal in a doctor, although Paul was, in fact, no doctor.
“It will be alright, I promise,” he found himself saying.
Dr. Unwin extracted the needle. The Duty Nurse followed with a swab and a Band-Aid: “Charted at 11:10 a.m., February 6th, 2020.”
“Please, James...I love you, James. Please, my love...”
Alice’s eyes closed and she gradually lapsed into unconsciousness.
***
Her eyes opened to daylight filtering through leaves. She looked up to see a horse and rider rimmed by the sun. Three other horsemen stood nearby, unrecognizable in the back light. She was naked, splattered with dried mud, in the middle of a rutted track between hedgerows. The nearest rider threw a ragged cloak at her.
“Cover yourself,” said a deep Spanish-inflected voice.
Alice sat up, wrapping the cloak about herself, confused and disoriented. Two horsemen leapt down from their mounts. As they dragged her to her feet, she recognized them as two of the men who had attacked her the previous night. The third attacker, the tallest, remained mounted and observed her. The other two lashed her wrists together with a thong. Alice cried out to the rider looming over her, silhouetted against the sun.
Alice Through The Multiverse Page 2
