The sun beams split through the leaves and meekly shone through my window. I could still hear the scattered chirping of birds, albeit infrequently, as the day slowly began. A knocking disturbed me, it came from the door of my house. It was a small house—just a step better than a hut really. The walls were constructed with a mix of stone bricks and wood, held together by dried mud or mortar I would assume. The roof was made from wooden tiles which were then bound with straws for insulation. The window was just a hole in the wall that had a small wooden door to close it. The floor was just paved ground, nothing fancy; sometimes I covered it with straw in the winter to keep it warm. The place consisted of one cramped room, with the only furniture being a single straw bed, a chest with some of my belongings and a fireplace. There was also a carving in one of the walls that served as a cabinet for silverware… not silver, ceramicware? Cookware? I don’t know, just cooking utensils I suppose.

  It had been some time since I heard the knocks; I walked up to my front door and opened it. I was met with the view to the entrance of a forest. It wasn’t because I lived alone abandoned in the wilderness, it was simply that this house was designed to have its door opening away from the village. Well, technically it wasn’t designed in such a fashion; this was a revision added later specifically for poor old me. I looked down towards the ground, like always, there was a bucket placed there filled with water and a basket filled with food. The food consisted of some flour, chicken meat, eggs, spices, salt, and some vegetables—namely potatoes, lettuce and carrots. This should last me a few days, the food at least, the water naturally had to be delivered more frequently. The menu wasn’t always the same, sometimes I might get milk, butter or fruits and if I was lucky, I might even get honey, sugar or tea.

  The ingredients were always fresh since they were harvested in the village. They were delivered to me by some villager hired by my family. It was a pretty easy life I lived compared to most, I had to do no labour and had no obligations; I would be provided with adequate housing, clothing, food and money for free. The only caveat was that I was stripped of my family name and wasn’t allowed to leave this village. I wouldn’t lie and say that it wasn’t lonely, on the contrary, it was extremely lonely. But, even before all of this, it wasn’t as if I was a stranger to loneliness. Nor would I be if I tried to run away.

  No one was to blame for any of this though, at least not for the latter. It was just that my body had to be born weak to ailments and I guess I had to be at the wrong place at the wrong time; I contracted leprosy. Considering that, my situation was actually pretty good, since if I wasn’t a noble… hadn’t been a noble, I probably would’ve been outcast to some secluded leper community and become a beggar at best or would have starved to death at worst. At Least this way, while I was still practically in a cage, I was provided with all my essentials and could at least spend the rest of my days in dignity. This was getting depressing to think about much longer.

  I soaked in the view of the outside for a while longer, the forest was now silent and the sun had fully risen—even as day it was regrettably serene. I then headed back inside to make breakfast. I placed most of the food in the cellar—it was just a small hole dug in the ground to keep food cold with a trapdoor covering it—I kept the flour, spices, some eggs and the meat though. I was thinking of making bread and eggs for breakfast, while the meat I would smoke to preserve, it was too wasteful to use salt to preserve it as it wasn’t autumn yet. I first cut the chicken into thin slices then hung them into the hooks hammered into the fireplace. After which, I got to making breakfast, I picked up some spices from the appropriate jars in my little cabinet to use as seasoning. The meal prepping parts of my day were probably the most fun; they were the most eventful at least. However, sometimes even they got too hard to bear; my body was a torn down bridge—crumbling by the day.

  At the end of the day, like the rhythmic orbit of the sun and moon, it was night. Ha. I had vegetable and chicken stew for lunch and dinner. It was a comforting combo, it was what my mother frequently made me. …Anyways, I walked all the 4 steps required to get to the other side of the building where my chest was. It contained some clothes, jewelry, a compact mirror and a few books. The jewelry… the books were a gift my siblings sent me every year to stop me from getting bored; it was quite thoughtful. They sent them near the end of the year when the New Year’s holiday preparations were underway and my father was making rounds about the different settlements in his domain to get reports on how the year had been and see the situation. I picked one up, it was one I still hadn’t gotten around to reading called “The Mother Terra”.

  As soon as I brought the book with me to my bed, and sat adjusted with the lamplight falling on the pages.

  “AAAAAHHHHH”, the scream of a woman cried out.

  It was followed by the unintelligible sounds of many things at once. I picked up screaming, the sounds of heavy footsteps and I could’ve sworn I heard the crackling of flames. It was a startling cacophony, bringing me to my feet, the book having dropped to the ground. I rushed to my chest and grabbed a brown cloak, it was one of the requirements for when I left my house so as to prevent my disease from spreading. I had already wrapped it around myself and was at the door when it burst open.

  There stood a man with skin the colour of saffron, his hair was thicker than you’d think a human’s being and his eyes lacked pupils. He was clothed in light armour made of the scales of some creature; his arms exposed, were covered in black branching marks, like they were wood struck by lightning. He held in his right hand a sword dripping in the blood of presumably my neighbours. He was a demon. An archdemon.

  Why? Why is he… how is he here? Then, the other villages? The estate? As my heartbeat reverberated through the room and there was a ringing in my head, my body had subconsciously moved as far back as it could. My breathing grew more antic as a nausea welled up in my throat.

  “Help me!” I heard another scream.

  It was Eliza’s. She was a child in my village, turning 11 this year. Then it hit me, his sword was dripping with the blood of my neighbours. He had, no… they had massacred my village. Everyone. I backed up into the wall, he was slowly drawing closer to me. I looked around, I saw the lamp to my right hung from the wall. I reached out for it and threw it at him. He dodged it with ease, the lamp shattering behind him. He brought up his sword and swung it downwards.

  The next thing I knew, I was on the floor. There was a numbing hotness around my leg, like an itch that threatened to make me pass out. I looked towards it, my leg had been severed. The realization took all too long to hit and then this searing pain rushed to me fraught with horror.

  No, no, no, no, no. NO! Help me. Help me! No sound escaped my mouth and my lungs were out of breath. I wanted to scream, to cry but I couldn’t.

  He reached down to grab me, clasping the back of my gown to pick me up. I squirmed in his grasp writhing in pain, losing more blood every second—he still held on tightly. After a while, with that unbearable pain not having diminished, my senses finally fell upon my surroundings for a while. I saw there an entourage of corpses. No, they were fellow villagers in situations similar to mine, all thrown around in some geometric shape. My mind, half passed out at that point, connected the dots and recognized the gravity of that shape. A magic circle.

  I was thrown in between two people, completing the broken circle. I tried getting away, so did the other villagers, but we all had been amputated to some level that made us unable to break free. Then true despair befell me as I felt the act of me being drenched in a liquid, it was slimy and felt so familiar. Oil. Then I heard the sound of an explosion as a flame spread through this circle of corpses. It engulfed us. A million needles pierced my skin and I felt cold to an unholy degree. My eyes grew blurry, eventually losing sight as they melted away. I was screaming, there was nothing I knew or felt other than my screams and this hell I’d been thrown into. Yet all my screaming did was allow the fire a way inside me to scorch my insides. I continued screaming nonetheless.

  And then… silence.

  I wished it could’ve been different.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  There was a dull pain on my side as I opened my eyes. In front of me l saw there laying the wooden frame of a bed, no it was a bed. One made of wood with a roof like that of a carriage, there were translucent curtains hanging through the roof of the bed at each exposed “wall” of it. As I slowly sat up I could see a wool mattress inside of it.

  And then, “bwah”, I puked.

  I frantically looked at my severed leg, it was still attached. I touched different parts of my body and removed my sleeves to look at my arms, there were no burn marks. In fact, there were no marks at all, no skin lesions. I touched my face again, my skin was smooth save a few pimples, there were no deformities. What? I got up and looked around the room, the panic of being burned was still present making me unable to make any connections. The only concern I had at that moment was finding a mirror of any sort. My eyes fell on a dressing table and I rushed towards it.

  The person looking back at me was a 15 year old girl, with raven black hair. Her eyes were brown, and her skin had a darker tone, like a mix between white and brown—leaning into the brown side more. Her face was pretty, nothing extraordinary, but also better than mediocre; it had some slight acne, nothing that wouldn’t pass with age. The most important thing though was that there were no burn marks, no skin lesions, no deformities and no rot on any part of her body. The person looking back at me was a visage of my former self, one that was lost 5 years ago.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  As I stood confused I heard a knock.

  “My Lady, is everything okay?”, asked a voice I had an ever so faint recollection of.

  “Yes”, I replied.

  “May I come in?”, the voice continued.

  “You may”, I mouthed mindlessly, just loud enough to be heard by the voice.

  The one entering the room seemed to be a maid, perhaps a year or two older than me. I remembered her, she was one of the maids who worked in the estate when I still lived, she was the only one who was truly kind towards me. Selena.

  “What happened?”, I asked her.

  “That’s what I’m wondering miss, we heard a scream coming from your room.”, was her reply.

  What was happening? Was this a dream? Was I watching my life flash before my eyes? No, this was too slow. Was I in the afterlife and being judged for my sins? Yes, perhaps that’s it.

  I looked away from Selena.

  “My God, where are you? Where am I? Why am I seeing this?”, I called out to God.

  The one that answered me though, was Selena, “Um… My Lady, are you okay?”

  “Huh?”, was all I could say.

  “Are you still half-asleep? God’s in his kingdom, you’re in your room and you’re seeing this because you have eyes.” There was a slight hint of amusement in her voice.

  “I… what?… Yes sorry, I just had a nightmare.”, I played along with this situation for now. “Sela, say… what year is it again?”

  “Has my lady finally gone mad?”, Selena mocked me while wiping away fake tears with a handkerchief. “I knew it was bound to happen,… but this soon? Lord have mercy on her poor soul.”

  “Oh shut up.” I said.

  “Sela,… actually, I think I’m sick. I woke up very troubled today and I also ended up vomiting. Could you please call a maid to come clean it up. I’m going to bed again, also if anyone asks for me please tell them I’m unwell.” I added on.

  “My Lady,… yes, I’ll clean it up please rest, I’ll go inform the doctor right away.” She answered.

  “No, get someone else to clean. Also, tell them to wear gloves and wash their hands properly after cleaning it. I don’t want them to also get sick.” I ordered.

  “… Yes my Lady”, she replied.

  I stood there a moment for her to leave, when she had finally left I went to lay on the bed. It had been a while since I laid on it, 5 years to be exact, a long 5 years. I can’t believe I went back in time. I had died. I had been burned alive; I could still feel that prickling searing pain and I feared I would puke again if I thought about it any longer. But, I had been brought back to life and put in the body of my 15 year old self. How? Why? By who? Did God give me a second chance to live? Perhaps. This was,… what now?

  My pondering was interrupted by the opening of the door, it was Selena again who had brought back a rag and a bucket. She hadn’t listened to me. She quietly went to clean without talking to me, letting me rest. She was a kind girl, albeit stubborn.

  “Sela” I called out. “What is the date today?”

  “It’s the 7th year of reign of King Justin ll, the month is Trillis and the day is the 13th.” She answered.

  As I had thought, I was sent back to the exact day the estate’s doctor diagnosed me with leprosy. I would hence be isolated in my room for 3 days and then be sent away to live in the village. Again? I’d really be forced to live through that isolation, that humiliation again?

  “Ha ha ha ha”, I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “My Lady?” A concerned Selena called out.

  “It’s nothing, I apologize.” I answered.

  I drew my arm over my eyes, I wanted to cry. I didn’t want to go through that again. Wouldn’t it have been better if I had just died?

  “Is there anything I can do? Should I get you tea? I already told the doctor he should be coming here, I’ll go tell him to hurry up.” She must have heard me crying.

  “No, it’s really fine. I would just like to be left alone for a moment.” I said.

  “As you wish”, she replied.

  Before she could walk out the door I called out to her again, “Selena, thank you.”

  I guess she saw the tears on my face, she looked at me with the strangest expression. “… My Lady”, she stood there a moment and left.

  I looked up at the ceiling, the roof of the bed blocking my view. Will I have to go through all that again? My father won’t ever allow me to leave after he learns about my illness. I have already appeared at social gatherings, if word got out I was a leper it might hurt my family's standing and cause them to be negatively viewed by the temple. Then, I’ll have to run away somehow; it would also have to be soon as there were guards in the village monitoring me.

  There was no way I could run away on foot, I would have to steal a horse from the stable. However, I didn’t know how to ride a horse, and needless to say I wasn’t given one either so no horse in the stable was bonded with me either. Then there was also the issue of money, I could probably sell my jewelry and that shou… I didn’t want to do that. They were the last momento left by my mother, also I doubt it would be worth much as even a peasant woman could afford it. Perhaps if I asked one of my sisters they’d be willing to give some of theirs to me. Otherwise I’d just steal some, they had a lot so I doubt they would notice some missing. This should last me a while. Lastly, I probably needed some form of protection. As a lady, I had no formal training of any sort in any weapons or martial arts. Thus, I guess a sharp kitchen knife would have to suffice. Of course, a dagger would have been preferable but I didn’t own one and the ones my sisters owned were handed down to them by their mothers—I couldn’t steal something so precious. I could try looking around in my brother's rooms but I don’t know where they kept their stuff.

  As I was working on an escape plan I heard loud knocking on my door. Selena ignored my order again, I guess she thought this was better for me. And to be fair to her, had it been any other situation seeing a doctor in my condition would be the best.

  “Come in”, I answered.

  It was the doctor. He was a short middle aged man, about the same height as my current self. He had slightly rough wavy black hair that looked as if it had been lightly styled by oil—though I didn’t know if that was just his body’s natural oil or hair oil he put on. His face was just average in my opinion, and his skin was white due to him being from a wealthy family. He was an apathetic man, he didn’t seem to care enough about anyone to like or hate them; he put up appearances in front of my family, of course—it wouldn’t be easy to find another noble to serve as their family doctor if he was kicked out from here.

  “My lady”, he gave a small bow.

  He closed the door and then moved up to my bed, dragging along a stool from the room. After he was seated he put on a glove and began checking my temperature without so much as a word. He then continued on to my throat, ears and pulse. He pulled up my arm, moving the sleeve up and started checking my arm. I remember that was the one of the first place where symptoms of my leprosy began to show up.

  After he finished his preliminary test, he told me to sit up and turn around. He pulled up my dress and checked my back. Afterwards, he told me to sit with my legs leaning over the bed. He took out this wooden hammer and tapped it to my knees, watching my reaction. Then he backed up a bit and told me to walk around the room.

  “Alright, you can lay back down.” He said and I gladly obliged.

  “You don’t seem to have a cold or any other infections or illnesses. Your heart beat is high, you also seem very tense; it could be due to the nightmare you were said to have experienced but I have never heard of a person vomiting due to a nightmare. Well of course it could be related to the other topic.” He said to me.

  “Other topic?” I asked even though I knew he meant the onsetting leprosy.

  “I have reason to suspect you may be a leper. Leprosy is an incurable highly contagious disease spread through skin contact that causes disfigurement, skin lesions, increases proneness to disease and can cause failure of appendages. Its symptoms may be delayed in some people so I’m guessing you contracted it from somewhere while you were still living with your mother.” He gave me a breakdown of the disease.

  “I see,” was my reply.

  “You don’t seem too shocked or bothered,” he questioned.

  “Why must I waste my emotions on you?” I asked.

  “... Moving on, I will tell your father about this later today. With that, I request you grant me leave.” He asked that even though he had already started getting up. He took off the glove he used to touch me and threw it on the desk next to my bed. “Also please get one of the maids to discard this.”

  “Wait,” I called out, drawing his attention. “Give me a week.”

  “Pardon?” He asked.

  “My father will probably outcast me to some remote village once he learns of this. So please, let me have one final week.” I pleaded.

  He looked at me for a bit, pondering my request. After some seconds, he sighed, “This goes against my integrity as a doctor. But, since leprosy isn’t known to be readily contagious until symptoms become more pronounced it should be fine if I delay informing your father of this for a bit. Just have some human decency and don’t go around touching others. Other than that, I wish you all the best.”

  With that, he left my room. I looked outside, it was still early enough in the morning that dawn had not approached. I had already formulated a rough escape plan, I didn't know if it would work but it wasn’t as if I had any other options.

  “Oh Lord who created me, thank you for giving me this miracle, for giving me another chance at life. And I hope I’m not being ungrateful and please forgive me if I am. But I am very much concerned, I don’t know what to do and I’m not sure I won’t end up in that hell a second time. So help me, please let me find peace this time around.”