【𝐀 𝐕𝐞𝐢𝐥 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥】➛𝓑𝓵𝓪𝓬𝓴 𝓑𝓾𝓽𝓵𝓮𝓻

2

Clocking out, she waved goodbye to her coworkers and began the walk home.

It was winter, which meant darkness fell early—around four o'clock, in fact. Still, she took her usual route; there was nothing pressing waiting for her at home for her to rush. About five minutes into her walk, she started pondering dinner. Perhaps she could stop by a takeaway on the way or even treat herself to a meal at one of the restaurants she passed. But none appealed to her current appetite.

The route home was the same as ever, of course. The streets were busier than they had been that morning. Young adults queued outside clubs, and the first wave of drunkards stumbled about, even though it was barely past five.

She scanned for restaurants that might pique her interest, but most were full—this was London, after all. The thought crossed her mind to spare some of her savings and book a table at the Ritz for the evening.

She did value money, despite appearances.

Her upbringing in a small countryside cottage hadn't included any of the luxuries she now had access to. Even so, she had little desire for a sprawling mansion. She preferred to indulge occasionally—a fine meal here, an expensive outfit there. But those indulgences were rare.

Shaking her head, she dismissed the idea. By the time she got home, the thought of dressing up and going back out would feel like far too much effort for her to put in.

Deciding instead to cook something herself, she toyed with the idea of learning a new recipe or sticking with a tried-and-true favourite. Too many options made it hard to decide.

She reached the familiar gates of the park, where the noise of the streets began to fade. The park itself was quieter still. Although the streetlamps illuminated the pathways, it had appeared rarely a soul was seen, if not none at all.

She preferred it that way. The silence, free from meaningless chatter, was a welcome reprieve. This was still London, of course, so the occasional wail of sirens echoed in the distance. But even that was better than the bitter complaints of customers or even the horrible wails of whining spoilt children begging and grasping at their parents' clothing. 

A small smile graced her lips as she breathed in the cool night air, inviting it into her lungs. She made her way to the same bench she'd sat on earlier in the day, and was reminded of the dove once more. The lamp above cast a soft glow, shining light on a limited section of the park as the rest did, casting light onto the path and the bench she sat on.

Her eyes glanced into the distance, where the lights from lamps couldn't reach. Her vision, sharper than most, allowed her to make out more than the average person might in such lighting. Not night vision exactly, but something close to it.

A glimmer caught her eye in the periphery, making her do a double take back where her eye caught the mystery glimmer amidst the darkness. Leaving her bags and belongings on the bench, she stood and moved to investigate.

A few steps in she paused, listening carefully for any sound that might indicate someone nearby. But the park was still. Only the occasional rustle of leaves in the breeze or the flap of a bird's wings disturbed the quiet. She was alone. However, she must've failed to realise that in the absence of noise, the wails of the city sirens must've also disappeared.

As she was about to turn back to where she saw this mystery object, a loud caw made her head snap back. Her eyes scanned the environment as she adopted a protective stance. Her eyes paused on the bench where her belongings lay. There, on the backrest, just as the dove from earlier in the day had done, a crow was perched. It's beady eyes unlike the dove, shot threw her soul, yet looked at her with a familiar look, tilting its head.

Slowly disregarding the animal, she scolded herself for being so alert for a mere bird. Turning back and moving towards the source of the glimmer, she left the path and wandered onto the grass. Her footsteps were soft against the earth as she approached, crouching down to pick up the object—a silver teaspoon with an intricate handle fit for nobility.

"How curious..."

Still crouched, she noticed another glimmer not far away. Standing with the spoon still in hand, she took a few steps and found a matching knife to the previous spoon at her feet. Her curiosity deepened as she looked ahead. The silverware seemed to form a trail—spoons, knives, forks, and bits of fine china similar to the teacup she saw outside the steps of her home leading further into the park. Each piece was close enough to suggest an intentional path but still far enough apart for a passerby to ignore.

Who on earth would follow such a suspicious setup in a dark park, especially in a city as dangerous as London?

Following the winding line of objects deeper into the dark park, she was once again thankful for her enhanced sight as she made it deeper into an area mostly unnoticed by the public. Eventually, she made it to a thick, untended bushy area where she forced herself to crawl to continue following the line.

Dirtying her hands with earth she pushed herself under a hedge to fulfil her curiosity, the distance between the objects seemed to close slowly but surely as she ruined her hands and knees with the dirt beneath, staining her trousers and the cuffs of her shirt. Her hair was messed up from being caught on the branches whilst crawling under untrimmed bushes.
The line stopped, and at the base of her dirtied hands large tree roots were seen as she slowly moved her vision up to follow to roots, leading to a large oak tree. Very large- the bark seemed extremely thick and gnarly. Crawling forward slightly she halted in her position.

A cold sensation of metal was felt beneath her fingertips, she looked down, brushing the dirt away from where she had previously felt the metal to reveal a silver plaque.

It revealed that this was an almost two-hundred-year-old oak tree, planted unknowingly by someone in what they speculate to be around the late 1800s.

She looked around to see where she was, as she wasn't exactly paying attention while she was following the trail of objects.

Untrimmed, overgrown bushes surrounded the tree in what she can only describe as a cavern of greenery. The hedges seemed to be so tall that they were looming over her, encaving her in a wall of thorns and shrubbery. And she could no longer hear the wailing sirens nor the honks of cars as would've been expected of London, something she had failed to notice earlier.

Was she even in London anymore?

She questioned her own surroundings, looking up in the gaps between the branches she managed to see the starry night sky, which is something you wouldn't be able to do with the light pollution the major city provided.

Looking down at herself momentarily to assess the mess she made of herself, she almost jumped at the clothing that she was in. Still dirtied from sitting on the earth, the white dress she sat in was stained in some parts a light brown.  Her shoes seemed to be nonexistent as she was in matching white stockings, also dirty, as if she had done all the crawling about in the dress, but [Name] could've sworn she was in her own clothes when she did.

Once again her eye was caught on the glimmer of something, but this time it was bigger. Crawling around the base of the oak tree, she saw a utility trolley not too far away, the one where servants would place trays of food. However, this one was devoid of any cutlery or any sort of dishes on it. Crawling over to get a closer look she instantly paused when she heard cracking below her own figure.Looking down to find herself on a thin part of the roots, where the dirt wasn't there. Thinly weaved roots where she swore she saw light on the other side. Looking down to get a closer look if it really was light or just another glimmer of another object, the roots snapped below her before she could move out of the way.