The Great Queen

Chapter one

The small village of irchester was usually quiet, but the cold night had stopped even the most active people from going outside. It was strange. It was mid august, mid heatwave actually but the temperature of the little village was entering freezing zones. "Somethings amiss," a little old man whispered to his wife as they glazed out the window.

Katerina Lahey drew her coat in closer, luckily she still had her coat in her locker at the local co-op. Her shift had finished 20 minutes ago but like always she avoided going home too quickly. Glancing down at her phone the heartstopper background glared back at her as the clock read 21.31.

It was only a short walk back to the home she shared with her aunt viki, a home she technically owned but could not control until her 18th birthday. Then she would be free of the alcoholic drug addict she called an aunt. "I'm home!" she called as she unlocked the front door.

The whole house stank of beer and sweat.

Viki laid across the threadbare sofa, drawl smear across her face and white powder at her nostrils. Kat grimaced and carefully moved around her aunt. She'd have time to clean up before her aunt awoke in the morning and right now she didn't want to deal with it.

She ran up the stairs to her bedroom, the cleanest room of the house, and set down her bag by the door. The room was small, with bright blue walls, a small wardrobe, a chest of draws that had a tv and a ps3 on it, and a small desk with a dinosaur computer on top.

Kat laid down on her bed, coat still on and fell into a dreamless sleep.

As Katerina slept the sky lit with shooting stars, "I told you Doreen. It's aliens!", the world shifted in her sleep and she was blissfully unaware.

The sun shone through the large bay windows causing Kat's brow to furrow as she shifted away from the light. Curiously, she couldn't smell any smoke that morning. Which was weird as the house always smelt of smoke. Kat burrowed in deeper to the warm silken sheets when she realised she could not be at home. She was still using her mothers care bear bed sheets from 40 years ago. She peeked open one eye very slightly, hoping whoever kidnapped her wouldn't notice, but the only thing she could tell was how huge the room was. She controlled her breathing as she peeked her eyes open properly. That's when she realised she was in the family manor, 10 miles away from London and about 60 miles away from Irchester.

How the hell had she gotten here without noticing it. The room was gorgeous but the manor, more like a castle, was usually locked up so tight that not even the Queen would be able to enter. As she began to sit up she noticed she had been changed. She no longer wore her co-op uniform instead she wore a gorgeous white nightgown.

Suddenly the large wooden doors opened and a small young maid entered, barely looking up as she set down the tray she was holding in front of Kat. Kat stared at her with wide concerned eyes. She noticed the woman was wearing full historical regalia and wondered if someone was attempting to recreate the past. Kat would be the perfect victim to this, considering she was identical to her ancestor Katerina Lahey the first. "What the hell is going on?" Kat asked fear laced in her voice.

The woman regarded her for a moment as if she was looking into her soul. "What year is it?" She asked with a guarded face.

"2022." Kat replied. She wondered if this woman had also been kidnapped and that's why she was asking. She wondered how long the woman had to have been there before she lost track of time.

"Oh my god, You're finally here Milady!" The woman looked so happy she could cry but Katerina still had no idea what the hell was going on. "My name's Bethany, I'm a prophet. For the last 200 years a woman from the future has been promised to us. To help cure the world of its sickness'"

Kat's head spun with information, as if the words triggered some sort of repressed memories. She remembered growing up in this house, with a father and a brother. A father who doted upon her and a brother that only cared for power. She remembered her mother falling to the sweating sickness and remembered contracting it herself and surviving.

She grabbed her head in pain as if willing the pain to stop but it wouldn't. She remembered begging her fathers personal guard to teach her to use a sword, and then besting him a few years later. She remembers her tutors and other ladies of her station that would pretend to be her friend to curry favour with her brother. She could remember it as though she had lived it.

"I don't understand what's happening," Kat groaned as the memories stopped but were now firmly placed inside her head.

Bethany wiped a cloth against her brow, which actually felt really nice, and softly spoke " the world was dying. In your time it's only a matter of years, but you can change that."

"Yeah the world is dying, that makes sense." Kat's mind flashed to covid and the backward thinking of the world. "How am I to change that? I'm just a normal girl."

"The prophecy has been heard for hundreds of years but few know what it truly means, The king that breaks from religion and the woman from the future love so pure and think so kind they can take this dying rock and make it a home for all."

"The king that breaks from the church? What like Henry the eighth?" Katerina snorted at the thought. How could he truly love anyone, he'd gone through hundreds of mistresses and wives.

"Aye! Our great king is married to Catherine of Aragon, but he is fighting for a divorce. He is ready to break from the church to marry Anne Boleyn. If nothing changes, the world will die but if you are able to get the king to love you the world is saved."

"Henry has no knowledge of love and views women merely as vessels of pleasure. I don't understand how the hell I'm here. But the king has nothing to do with it. And anyway, I don't believe I will ever have to meet him."