"Let go, you jerks! I didn't do anything!" Ella screamed, as security thugs grabbed her arms tightly and started dragging her out of the store.

Where were the mall cops today? Ella thought, because clearly, they must be on break whenever something really bad happens.

Ella was only trying to understand what the cashier was doing trying to ask her out, using her extremely useful and sadly, hard for people to except-- psychic powers.

She tried to get away from the thugs without using her powers, but it was no use. The thugs were pretty buff, and she was a scrawny 5'3", fourteen year old. There was no way she could get free without knocking them out with a psychic attack. And that was just not going to happen in the middle of the very crowded mall on a Saturday afternoon. Where, Ella was doing just fine drawing people's eyes to her. She didn't need her extreme beauty or very bright clothes.

Sometimes Ella believed she was an Alien from outer space. And other times she pondered if she was some half vampire that hadn't discovered that she could drink blood.

There were so many possibilities to think about.

Now, she felt like a fugitive, as she continued to scream, kick, and growl, as she could. Anything to keep her from actually harming the thugs, that were dragging her away from the comforting book store.

Another thing Ella enjoyed was pretending she was a normal crush infatuated young girl drooling over cute boys, and reading the latest popular books. But that was far, far, from what she was.

Ella saw a familiar face in the crowd staring at her with a surprised expression.

Crap, that's him! Ella thought, as she recognized the striking ice blue eyes, with the unforgettably gold band around his pupil.

The young man she saw was another like her, a psychic, you could say.

"Ella, how did you end up with those idiots?" His voice asked in her mind.

"Gabriel! Help! They saw me reading a cashiers mind, and they were suspicious of my expression and took me away all the sudden! Follow them or me, or whatever!" She answered back. She watched Gabriel move out of sight.

"I'll help, and follow." He replied.

Ella and Gabriel had met one day in the book store. Both putting up the facade of being normal human beings. But each of them were revealed to one another, because they read each other's minds at the same time. From that day on, they were a lot more careful to invade others minds.

The thugs pulled her along a cream tiled hallway to a security door.

One of the thugs said to the other; "We'll hold her here, until The Boss gets back with the other one."

The other one? Gabriel! She tried to reach out with her mind to find Gabriel's. She found him at the end of the hallway. Without looking his way, she pleaded to him, "Gabriel! Run! They might kill us, get out of here. One dead is better than two!" She practically shouted in his head. She felt him wince at her words, and heard a thought seep through, "I rather me than you."

All the sudden she heard Gabriel release a startled sound.

They'd got him, and her both. Ella panicked. But, before she could do anything there was a pop, and then a stinging in her upper thigh.

"OW!" She said, startled as her body went limp. Her vision went black.



Ella woke in a very dark place. She heard people coughing and a mouse squeaked as it skittered away from her. The smell of rancid food, sewage, and rotting hay was all around her. She felt around in the dark. The dirt floor was sprinkled with a little bit of fresh hay, and there were shackles on her wrists.

She bumped into some metal bars with her shoulder, leaned against them and sighed a deep breath that stung her lungs with the foul smelling air.

How did she get here? Who were those thugs? Why did they want her and Gabriel? Why did they put her here? Who did they work for? What did they want from her? That question was the worst.

There were so many questions unanswered. Some questions she didn't want to think about. She wondered if Gabriel was okay. She also wondered if she would ever see day light again. It was so dark.

She heard a rough voice, and a candle flickered by the bars revealing a unshaved pale face, and deep brown eyes, darker and plain; the complete opposite of Gabriel's. That reminded her of Gabriel, and a tear slid down her cheek.

The man's expression was frightening at first, as he opened the bars with a screech. Then, when he shown the light on her face, wonder blossomed in his eyes.

Ella noticed he was a young man, about seventeen or eighteen, hardly that much older than her.

"What ar' ya do'in en' 'ere, lassy?" The man said, in a soft and amazed voice. His eyes gave away the look a of a man who had lost his family, and just found it again, he seemed close to reaching out and brushing the tear from her now dirty cheek.

Ella gulped. "Sir, I uh, don't know." She stuttered out, her hands shaking. Who was this man? Where were the thugs who were harassing all the people, and why were they putting them here? More questions kept coming her way every time she saw something.

"Ya do'int know?" he said even more surprised, and his candle flickered as he moved farther into the dirty smelly cell. "If ya do'int know, then 'ome with me, lass, and tell me yer name." he said reaching for his belt. He pulled out a circle of dangling and clinking keys, took her hands and unlocked her shackles. "King Edwards' Knights law enforcement 'round here arn't held up very often, I wouldn't be surprised if someone had locked up a innocent lass like you."

Ella was too dumbstruck and confused to say something, read his mind, or protect herself.
She couldn't do anything but stare.

"Well? What's ya name, lassy?" The man asked, and pulled her out of the cell, watching her hazy eyes adjust to the light against the dark.

"My...my name... is Ella." She breathed. And when she took the breath she regretted it, the air was retched. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Ella, ya say? Pretty name. I'm Colby, Colby son of Rillious, of Lichtown, England. Where 'r ya from, because you do'int sound English, Ella."

"I'm not. I mean, I'm from America." She said. How did she get to England? The questions were building up one by one in her mind, making it hard to concentrate on anything.

"Em-where-ica?" He turned to her, as they walked up stairs lit by torches. His expression was like no other, priceless. He had no idea what she was talking about.

This place is old, where are the light bulbs? Ella thought. This was getting weirder and weirder.

"Don't you know what that is? Its across the sea from here. Over billions of people live there....Wait, if you don't know what America is, do you know what a car is, or a light-bulb, Colby?" She hoped he'd say he knew, she crossed her fingers behind her back, it worked in all the books when the girls waited for their crush to ask them out, it always worked.

Not this time.

"A cer, light-bup? What 're ya talk'in 'bout, Ella? 'R ya feel'in normal?" He asked. And her heart sank miles under her feet.

Where am I?! Her mind screamed, and then she noticed she'd screamed it out loud.

"Yer in the town jail house, in England!" Colby shouted back, and they were now on the second floor, almost as dark as the basement.

"Colby, what year is it, and who's the king of England?" She prayed he'd say 2010. She hoped, and crossed her finger's and her toes. She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed with all her might.

"It is 1347, and Edward the III is King." Colby answered and rolled his eyes like it was common knowledge, because it was for him.

Ella cussed. She was in the dark ages. And the black plague was out there. There was no cure, and the authorities aren't going to help. Ella remembered her history class, and all about the dark ages, how gross it was and how 3 out of 5 people would die from it.

Colby gasped. "You're no sailor! Stop yer talk'in, and 'et me ask ya a question this time!" Colby said. He looked at her sternly, until she returned his scowl then he continued. "Would you like to come with me or not?" He said abruptly.

"Come? Yeah, of course!" She asked. Then she thought about it.
If he asked her to come with him, in this time and age, that meant he wouldn't hurt her, right? She didn't have anyone but him to rely on now. There was no other, or better choice.

"Then its settled." He said. "I'll take you home and introduce ya to my mother and brother." He opened a wooden door, and kept tugging Ella a long, as she processed all her surroundings.

There were people sitting on the ground weeping over rotting bodies. A man was pulling a cart, that was stacked to the brim with limp pale bodies. Their empty, haunting eyes stared out at her. There wasn't a single police man or ambulance to help people. There was only a cart helping people get rid of the bodies.

Colby ignored the death, and the grotesque decay of the city, and kept on his way.

Ella saw a few dirty children smiling and holding hands as they danced around in a circle singing a very familiar song. "Ring around the Rosy! A pocket full of Posey! Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!" And then they all fell down, in the ashes of the fires. Their flowers tucked along their collars, pockets, hair, and sewn into their clothes.

Ella stared at the children. How awful that song was, how disgusting their games were. Yet, the only thing children were to do was play, with whatever was given to them, and they were given flowers, fire, ash, and disease. Too innocent and precious to do anything but what they could.

"'ome on, Ella!" Colby shouted at her. He wasn't tugging her along anymore, he had let go of her arm, and was now standing at the door step of small cottage, with the door ajar, as he held it for her.

She pulled her gaze way from the sad children, and ran towards Colby, and the cottage. And despite the sad look of the house, as it tipped slightly, and had a thatched roof, it was starting to look like the most welcoming place in the small miserable town.

Colby waved her into the door.

It was dark in the cottage, and smelled like farm animals.

"Colby? Oo's 'is ye brought wit ya?" A woman said, emerging from the dark and lighting candles as she went.

Colby stepped around Ella and hugged the woman.

Ella guessed she was his mother. Then she spotted a little boy at her feet, holding onto the woman's lower thigh and hiding in her skirts.

Colby bent down and ruffled the little boys hair. Then turned to me and smiled, "Ella, this is my mum; Esther, 'n my brother Fredrick." He motioned to them as he said their names.

"Well, 'ello, Ella." Esther smiled, revealing some crooked teeth.

Ella smiled back.

Then Esther turned to Colby, and looked at him sternly. "Y'is Ella...ya fiancé, Colby?" She chuckled as she took in our surprised expressions.

"Umm," Colby murmured. "I found Ella locked up in the jail 'ouse, 'n she diden't know 'ow she 'ot there. But, we 'aven't talked any, 'ould we 'ave, Mum?" Colby said uncomfortably, shuffling his feet.

"Well, we 'ave no priests 'round. They're a'll run'in 'ospitals." Esther muttered something else under her breath that sounded like: "Gud luck wit 'at."

"But anyways, there is a monk that lives in the abbey that could do it! What do ya say, Colby, Ella?" Esther said enthusiastically.

Ella read her mind and immediately understood exactly why she wanted to get her and Colby married.

Repopulation, because of the disease. And, she also needed someone to help her take care of her and her son Frederick. She wasn't as young as she was five years ago. Ella wasn't all that sure she would commit to Esther thoughts. But, then again, it would be to help others, in the lawless, and less healthy time.

Married at fourteen, to a nineteen year old boy, probability of surviving a year was low, committing herself to being a housewife --slave-- to a family, and never again being able to live in the shinny modern time of 2010. She would miss toilets and clean water, feather pillows and glass cups, iPod's and stereo's, CD's and TV's, sponges and sinks, showers and hair conditioning, washing machines and dryers, mops and Windex.....all the things in her world that were essential to a housewife, she wouldn't have.



Ella came back to herself and said, "Hey, Esther and Colby? Could we talk about this in the morning? I'm rather tired." She said and hoped somehow she could think of an excuse to not marry Colby, or find a reason to.

"Sure!" Esther said. Colby went into the second room of the house and drew a ragged cloth across the door frame.

Esther got Ella situated with a small bed at the foot of hers. And Fredrick scurried off into Colby's room.

Ella laid down on the scratchy blanket, and dust swirled around her. She coughed and pulled another uncomfortable sheet up over her face. This was going to be a long night. Surprisingly, she fell right a sleep.



"Ella!" A familiar voice called from a faraway place.

Ella was fast asleep on her desk. Her head lulled forward on the small table in front of her.

"Ella! Lunch time!" A hand shook her shoulder. Lunch? she thought. Wasn't she in the dark ages?

"Ella fine! I'll see you when you wake up!" The feet stomped away.

She opened her eyes to see a modernized high school class room. How'd she get here?

She thought back to where she was, and thought about how she had super powers, and went back in time, and met really cute boys.

It was a dream.

"Oh, come on!" She shouted. And flopped to her deck once more.