Lily lay in disbelief under the domed ceiling, on the cold stone floor of what should have been her bedroom, attempting to pull her hands free of the cuffs that still remained securely attached to her waist belt behind her back.
Even the slightest change of events in the past will inevitably have a catastrophic effect on the future and out of respect for Sam, Madeline didn't want to jeopardise his existence, mainly because she hoped to visit him again one day. As advised, Madeline and the blacksmith had gone into hiding, up north, preparing themselves to become landowners when King James began selling the land off.
Their actions upon returning to Hexcross in 1611 inadvertently disrupted the chain of events in Lily's mother's ancestry, leading to her nonexistence in present day society.
Her father came from the city and hadn't been affected by the change in the small village's history but the lack of Lily's mum's existence meant that he'd never found a reason to do anything other than simply pass by the place.
Due to his Scandinavian roots, Madeline and the blacksmith becoming Lord and Lady of the land of Hexcross, had no effect on Sam's family timeline either. As a young boy his parents had migrated to the north of England where he grew up unaffected.
Unaware of her misfortune, and in the cold darkness, Lily worked up the shorts from around her ankles to get dressed again after her time traveling back to present day, due to having sex with the blacksmith.
The poor fitting gaps around the wooden door of the room proved it to be daylight outside, as she twisted her metal waist belt and brought her cuffed hands to one side, to feel her way into fastening up her clothes.
Understanding why, but nevertheless pissed off at the shackles still around her wrists, she ran towards the door and turned her back on it to grab the handle.
Lily found that she could rattle the catch as much as she wanted but the door to the witch's chamber wouldn't open.
She knew that the deadbolt on the outside would be unopen-able from within, even with her hands free, and the viewing hatch open, she still wouldn't have been able to reach the lock from the inside of her prison.
"FUCK!"
Lily repeatedly kicked the door with the heal and sole of the only boot she wore, trying to do damage to the ancient wooden structure, stopping when her eyesight became accustomed to the light and she could see the huge, modern-day difference inside.
It didn't take long to realise that the room which had once made up part of her apartment, had become a mausoleum for Madeline and her husband.
Two stone built crypts were ageing side by side, each telling the date of their occupant's death as being 1638 for her husband, and 1644 for Madeline.
As well as their epitaph's, a base stone of the arched entrance to the coffin of Madeline, had the inscribed the words,
'The riches of Lily's lay within your heart.'
Before beginning to unravel the encrypted message, she realised that the sideways love heart on the step next to it, had to be directed towards her or her boyfriend, Sam.
The sight of the blacksmiths tomb seemed difficult to comprehend, as she'd been with him only seconds ago, yet it seemed he'd died over 400 years ago. This distracted her mind from the frustration of it being his doing that had hammered her wrists closed into the manacles, attached to her waist belt, behind her back.
Self-preservation told her to get out of there, but the bolted door kept her locked up in what Madeline and her husband had cleverly claimed forever to themselves, by turning the domed ceilinged chamber, into a crypt.
Calling for help did Lily no good. The frequency of her shouting decreased over time, leading to her slumping for hours in the silence of tomb, listening to nothing but the occasional bird chirping outside the tunnelled corridor leading off to the left of the wooden door.
Wondering what had happened to her other boot, the excited yap of a dog's bark, brought back hope.
She jumped up onto the uneven height of her feet again and began yelling at the top of her voice.
"HELP! HELP!"
Quietening down to listen, she awaited eagerly for another bark, to see if the dog's position had moved closer or further away.
Hearing nothing, she yelled out repeatedly in frustration, kicking the door with her heel again and again.
The wine and three barks of a black Labrador trying to get through the barred gate at the end of the corridor, attracted the attention of its owner, who Lily heard whistling for the dog's return.
Another frenzied moment of kicking and screaming finally payed off.
"Who's in there?" A well-educated man's voice responded.
"HELP ME!" She shouted. "I NEED HELP!"
"Who are you?" He asked.
"MY NAME IS LILY, AND I'VE JUST TRAVELLED THROUGH TIME!"
The agonising silence that followed whilst the man comprehended the madness of the situation, needed breaking. "ARE YOU STILL THERE?"
"Yes I'm still here." He replied, rattling the padlock on the chain holding the gate closed. "How did you get in there?"
"It's a long story." She now spoke loudly rather than feeling the need for shouting. "Can you let me out?"
"I'll have to get the keys." He reassured her. "Who locked you in there?"
"Nobody."
"Then how did you get in?" He asked.
"Just get me out of here and I'll explain."
"I'll need to get the keys first."
"Ok. Go get them?"
"Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be back." He pre-warned her. "Who are you again?"
"Lily."
"I'm Marcus. Marcus the third. I live here." He bragged, boasting of his father's wealthy estate that he assumed everybody, including Lily knew about. "I'll be back shortly."
The twenty-one-year-old, ran with his dog back to the manor house to fetch the key for the padlock securing the chain, that held the gate closed at the end of the tunnel, leading to the ancient wooden entrance door of Lily's prison.
Alone and breaking into a sweat, he ran back down the grassy embankment to the crypt without letting a sole know of his discovery.
"Are you still there?" He called into the arched tunnel through the bars of the gate.
