-The Lab-

The man hurried into the elevator. He pressed the button for sub-level 6,  where the lab was located, and clasped his hands in front of himself. 

The doors closed painfully slow before the elevator descended even slower. He kept his eyes on the display above him, showing which floor he was passing. He watched it in silence as the metal box took him underground.

He had been sent to check the status of subject twenty-four, and he was in a hurry. His superiors had heard of the mistake the workers had made with her contraceptives and were immensely displeased. Especially since he had praised her, and her potential to the operation, so much. They had taken the news very badly and demanded a status report the very second their afternoon meeting had ended a couple of minutes ago. 

A couple of days had passed since they had brought her home and then back to the village again. There hadn't been any news sent his way since then, which he took as something positive, but now he had to make sure that things were indeed going well.

His pulse was racing and he wouldn't feel calm or composed until he had made sure that subject twenty-four was doing nothing but good. 

.  .  .

The second the doors to the elevator opened, he rushed to the worker who was responsible for subject twenty-four. The one with the French accent.

The worker was sitting with his glasses high up on the bridge of his nose, staring at the screen in front of him as his fingers flew over the keyboard. It took him about three seconds to notice that someone was heading straight his way. 

"Sir!" He exclaimed and got out of his chair immediately.

"How is she doing?" The man asked and snatched the girl's chart off his desk. His eyes skimmed through the chart but found nothing of interest on it. He put it down. "Any news from the scouts?" He asked impatiently. It was really hard to maintain a calm exterior when he had his superiors breathing down his neck. He could still hear their loud and agitated shouts in his head.

The lab rat nodded affirmatively, giving him a fraction of a chance to relax, but he needed more.

He had been on edge ever since they had sent her back. What if she had become so weakened, like the worker had warned him she could have, and died in the process? His superiors would have his head if something happened to her. They would not care of how good results he had made in the past if this particular girl died. 

Subject twenty-four was vital.

"Subject twenty-four is doing good, sir. Very good, actually." He replied.

Thank God, something I can report back without getting sacked or killed.

"According to our scouts, a family took her in and are caring for her." The worker added.

"Really?" The man asked a bit surprised. "Someone took her in?" 

He was genuinely surprised, most of the subjects before her, had been murdered, died from illness or starvation since no on helped them. All of them had been refused help or care since the people in that particular era didn't look to kindly on outsiders or strangers. He had also gotten reports of two subjects that died before even meeting someone. So the fact that subject twenty-four had been taken in was fantastic news. 

"Before or after?" He asked, referring to when they had brought her back. 

"Both." The worker replied and sounded a bit surprised as well. "Apparently, two men from this family found her after we sent her back. They were also the ones that found her the first time we sent her, along with a girl." 

"What about the scouts? Are they staying out of her way?" He grunted strictly. "They cannot be seen... by her or her caregivers. They might spook them away from her." 

"They have not entered the village since they were sent to find her last time." The worker stated clearly. "No one have seen them or any trace of them in the village." The worker assured him. "There wasn't even a search party for her when they collected her. Only one or two people looked for her." 

Someone actually looked for her? Perhaps it was the family? 

"Very good." He muttered. "This is very good news. Good work." 

"Thank you, sir. There is another thing, sir." The worker began. He looked him straight into his eyes, there was hope in them. He felt his own narrow slightly as he waited. "She is learning their language."

That is amazing... she might just be the key to all of this. 

"What?" He breathed. "How?" 

"We do not know yet... but I have reports from the scouts, informing that she has been seen communicating with them." 

"Give them to me. All of them." The man breathed in excitement he couldn't contain. He would get his superiors off his back if he could show them this. 

This was the biggest progress they had ever made, and he was going to get all the credit since he had handpicked this girl. 

Subject twenty-four was irreplaceable.

-Cara-

Miriam handed Cara a bucket of newly harvested potatoes. She was standing on her knees, with her hands deep into the soil where she had planted different plants to keep her family well-fed. There were carrots, potatoes, what looked like delicious and large suger peas and much more. 

"Here, love." Miriam grunted and looked at her. "Take them to the stream and wash them will you. I need them for tonight's dinner." Miriam said before she continued out with raking some weed from her impressive garden. 

Even if Cara was out of her element, she felt so at ease with this woman. Miriam exuded, just like her eldest son, a protective essence and it spread to Cara like a warmth. 

"Yes, Miriam." She said softly and smiled as her eyes dropped to the dirty spuds in the bucket she had been handed. 

What a simple but yet so fulfilling life they lived here she thought to herself. The only thing that seemed to matter to Miriam was one thing; her family and their well being. She was not the least concerned with material things as Cara strangely remembered that people were from where she came from. 

"Go, on girl. We do not have all day." Miriam said when she noticed that Cara hadn't moved. 

"Sorry." She laughed quietly and walked towards the stream. 

.  .  .

Cara placed the wooden bucket next to her and got down on her knees at the edge. Water coursed in front of her. The sound of the stream soothed her immensely, it mixed with distant singing of birds in the birches around her. 

It is so beautiful here... She thought as her eyes caught a glimpse of some low hanging branches swaying in the breeze. 

She picked up a potato, covered in dirt and started cleaning it in the stream. The same soft breeze that caressed the birches branches swept by her. It brushed her cheeks, making loose strands of her hair to tickle her face. 

After a couple of minutes, Keegan sat down next to her. He didn't say anything. He just looked at her with that black eye of his and his swollen lip. His presence awakened something deep inside her instantly. 

The emerald eyes studied her for a long quiet second. She became a little uneasy but not in an unpleasant way... she just wanted him to say something. Why was he not saying anything? 

"Hi?" She breathed and felt her cheeks blush as his eyes found hers the second she spoke to him. 

"Hello." Keegan answered her quietly and a warm look appeared in his whole face. Even though his was looked absolutely broken in so many ways. 

"How are you?" She asked and nodded at his face. He smirked, best he could, and licked the inside of his cheek slowly. 

"It is really uncomfortable, but I have had worse..." He chuckled and pumped his eyebrows once, but it apparently hurt his black eye, because he flinched. 

"What are you doing here?" She asked and kept washing the potatoes. His presence made her a bit nervous. She was fighting the urge to laugh nervously with all she got. 

"Mother asked me to  see if you needed help." He chuckled. 

"Help with washing potatoes..." Cara huffed quietly in English. She laughed to herself and looked at him, he wasn't laughing. She had forgotten that he didn't understand English. "Sorry." She sighed. "I forgot." 

His green eyes studied her closely, it made her a bit uneasy again, so she turned her gaze back to what she was doing. The current potato in her hand had been washed too much and she had almost started to peel it. Quickly, she put it down in the bucket and started on the next one before Keegan would notice how much he distracted her. 

"Where are you from, Cara?" He suddenly asked her. His voice was low and dark. He was genuinely wondering, but it brought her so much anxiety.  

"I don't know." She mumbled. She truly did not know. All she knew was that this place, wherever this was, was nothing like where she came from. "I cannot remember." She added when she could feel that he wasn't satisfied with her first answer. 

"Is there nothing you remember?" He wondered gently. She glanced at him. He was looking straight ahead, giving her some time to think of her answer. 

"No..." She shook her head. 

"What is your language called?" He asked her and her chest began feeling very tight. 

Why was he asking all of these questions? She didn't have the answers to them, she was still trying to figure things out. 

"English." She answered. Afterwards, she pressed her lips together and clenched her jaws. 

"English." He mimicked the word. "Is there anything you can tell me about yourself?" 

"Like what?" She asked him, blushing a bit more. Why did he ask this? What did he want to know? 

"I have many questions..." He chuckled and met her gaze.

 "Start with one." She chuckled in return and started washing a new potato after she had almost started to peel the latest one as well. She threw it towards the bucket but missed. The potato bounced on the edge. She went to grab it, but was too slow, Keegan had already caught it and held it for her to grab. It was first then she noticed that she had thrown herself to catch it and was now quite close to him. She was standing on her knees with her left hand as support in the grass. Her face was a couple inches away from his. 

A warm discreet smile rested on his lips. She barely reciprocated it, but grabbed the potato out of his hand and mumbled out a 'thank you'. 

"It is very hard to ask questions, when I have already asked most of them. Especially when you do not have the answer to them... which I guess you still don't have." He sighed and sounded a little confused and concerned. Cara didn't catch all of what he had said. "It must be hard." 

Cara felt how a cold sweat came creeping inside as she remembered the questions Keegan and his family had asked some time ago; what is your name? where are you from and so on?

Her heart ran off as she thought about asking Keegan what she had been wondering since the day he had found her; where was she? Why did everyone dress so simply and what was up with the lack of utilities? Had she truly ended up in a different era or did someone play the meanest joke on her in the history of time?

"I have a question for you." She breathed and tried to keep her breathing calm and collected. 

"Just ask." He told her kindly. 

"Where are we?" 

"In Tranmere." He replied. "Our village is called Tranmere." A warm smile appeared on his lips. 

"Where is Tranmere?" She asked after she had placed the words in the correct order. She wanted to know where the village was located, but she didn't have the complete vocabulary for that yet. The thought of going back to that grumpy old man was not exactly something that brought her any excitement. 

"In the Western Kingdom of Gallendale." Keegan answered her. Thankfully, he had understood what she wanted to know despite her lack of words.

Okay, something is definitely wrong here. Gallendale? What the hell? Where the fuck is that? Cara screamed internally and experienced how panic started to surge through her body. Her grip around the potato she was currently washing loosened as her mind kept spiraling. 

"What year is it?" She breathed barely audible. Her chest felt like it was going to implode. This was the questions she was most afraid of asking. 

If this was some sick game, they would still be in the 21st century. Or... she was somewhere else, which was impossible, wasn't it? If the first alternative wasn't the case, then she would have been sent back in time, which was ridiculous. But she still needed to know.

"I do not know the exact year..." Keegan started as he scratched his neck. "But I do know that it is the 1300th century. I think it might be around the middle of the century, but we do not keep track of the years here, not like they do in the cities. Why?" He asked confused. 

1300th century? Cara thought. Suddenly, she could hear her blood rushing in her ears. A sensation of being dizzy hit her hard. She could no longer feel the breeze around her. Nothing caressed her face any longer, the sound of the stream disappeared and the only thing she could focus on was Keegan's words echoing in her mind. The 1300th century. 1300th? I am stuck, in medieval times... with no memories or any idea of what I am doing here... Oh my God, what am I going to do? 

A part inside of her started laughing hysterically, while the other one experienced nothing. A complete nothingness. She felt nothing. Then it came. Like an enormous wave crashing into her. Like a whole building coming down on her. She was alone. Abandoned. Someone had placed her here without the intention of bringing her back, for all she knew. 

She dropped the potato. She heard it fall into the stream and in her peripheral she saw it float off with the current. But her eyes were staring straight down into the water and at the small rocks at the bottom of the stream. 

"Cara?" Keegan asked worried after a couple of seconds. His voice felt like it was above water, and like she was under it.

-Keegan- 

He noticed how Cara had dropped the potato, but he didn't watch it as it floated away. His eyes were on her. She did not answer him. She just stared straight down into the stream. From what he could tell, she had disappeared into herself for a moment. 

Had he said something that upset her? He only answered her question, a strange question at that. Why did she care which year it was?

"Cara?" He asked again and prepared to catch her if she was going to faint, like she had done when his family had asked for her name. That very second he saw how the color had drained from her face. "Cara." 

"What the fuck am I going to do?" She whispered to herself in her own language. He flinched a little, shocked of how quickly she spoke.  

Out of the blue she looked up and into the woods on the other side of the stream. He noticed how her chest started moving fast and soon he could hear her shallow and short breathes. 

"Cara? Are you alright?" He asked carefully. 

"I can't stay here." She whispered words he couldn't understand. "What am I going to do?!" Her voice turned louder, and he sensed panic in her voice. "I have to find a way back. I can't stay here!"

Keegan watched her in silence. Afraid to say something that would upset her even more.

In the blink of an eye she was gone. Keegan jerked around and saw her running towards the house.

Her dark hair and dark blue skirt moved rapidly as her feet forced her forwards.

"CARA!" He shouted, shot up from where he was sitting and went after her.

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Hope you liked it!

Love Jenny