The Darkness surrounded Smith. It dug its claws into his flesh and seeped under his skin. He could hear it whispering his name, trying to get into his head. “Let me out of here!” Smith screamed as he clamped his hands over his ears. The Darkness tightened around him before it slowly ebbed away. Smith felt like he could breathe again. Jolted forward, Smith’s eyes flew open and he was blinded by a bright light as he tumbled into it. He heard a scream as he landed on a hard surface. There was shuffling and talking, but everything seemed muffled around him. As he began to lose consciousness, a sharp prodding brought him back. Slowly he opened his eyes. When his vision became clear, he saw a girl, covered in dirt, looking at him, a pointy stick in her hand.
“Are you all right?” she asked. Smith opened his mouth, but only a gurgling sound came out. The girl stood up and looked around, but no one was in sight. Sighing, she grabbed Smith by the arms and pulled him along the stone floor to a pile of hay that was pushed in the corner, then left the room. Smith began to fall out of consciousness again, but in a few minutes the girl was back with a pale of water, which she proceeded to throw on him. Smith jolted up.
“What’d you do that for?” he asked when he caught his breath.
“First, you tell me what you were doing in that closet,” the girl said.
“I wasn’t in a closet.”
“And where did you get such funny clothes? The master is not going to like this.”
“What?” Comparing her outfit to his, Smith could see what she was talking about. Her clothes looked foreign to when he was wearing. “Wait, where am I? What year is it?”
“You’re in the servants wing of Sir Harold’s castle, of course,” the girl explained. “It is the year 1326.” Smith looked around the room and realized he had been in this room before. Five hundred years in the future.