The Curse of Time - Book 1 - Bloodstone

Chapter 1: The Invitation

Opportunity, An unexpected invite, Such a mystery, To explore and discover, A hidden cottage of light.

I found it to be a mystifying situation. An unnatural stillness seemed to linger after many days of storms. Today, the sky reminded me of a painting. It appeared too perfect, too bright, toostill, a picture landscape with no beginning or end. Instead, the vault of heaven spread out toward an endless grey forever, as if seeping around the edges of an untamed watercolour bleeding into the rest of the day. Even so, the sight filled my heart with promise, a ray ofhope in an otherwise dull morning.

The quietness of my contemplation came to an abrupt end. I heard the sound of an envelope crashing through the mailbox. I jumped at the clatter. The letter landed on the floor as the sound of a thousand crystal chandeliers echoed throughout the house. I rushed to retrieve the envelope and turned it this way and that. I couldn't find an address label and wondered if the note had been hand-delivered. Who could this message be for?

I stood puzzling over this peculiar circumstance when out of nowhere my name: Amelina Scott appeared in bold writing. I watched wide-eyed as the final character of my surname was spelledout in a delicate font. I tore the dispatch open and inside I discovered a card printed on the finest paper with gilt edges and embossed calligraphy. 

There were few details, just an instruction to visit:

Crystal Cottage, River Walk, Cambridge, and the following added at the bottom as an afterthought: R.S.V.P—Not required. We promise to be welcoming when you arrive. When you're ready, you'll discover us.

I shook my head in disbelief. Nothing good ever happened to the Scotts, so this invitation might have looked magical, but surely it must have been nonsense. Weird messages from unknown sources counted as dubious junk mail, the way I looked at it.

I grabbed the envelope and attempted to rip it into pieces, but it wouldn't tear. With a mind of its own the envelope curled its edges in protest. I searched in a drawer until I found scissors and tried to cut the invite. That didn't work either. My hand ached, but the invitation endured intact as if mocking me.

Frustrated, I tried to cut the invitation again. A sputtered cursing sound filled the room even though I was alone. On my third attempt, I tore into the card with success. (I think it let me.) Andonce again, I perceived a noise, an angry murmur, and then nothing. Quiet descended in the room, so I threw the torn parts into the bin.

Finally satisfied that the annoying issue with the strange invite would no longer plague me, I brushed my hands together and picked an apple out of the bowl on the kitchen counter, polished it on my jumper and then took a bite. In no time my hunger had abated, and as I chucked the core towards the bin, I registered a chuckle. I stopped, my feet rooted to the ground as a feeling of certainty filled my soul. I knew what to expect. I have no idea how Idid, but I could see the image in my mind, the invitation had reformed. The invitation was playing games with me! I peered in the rubbish, and there I saw the envelope, connected in one perfect, unblemished piece.

'What the heck?'

I picked up the frustrating item. This time I took no chances.  cut it into tiny postage stamp-sized bits and left it on the counter. I didn't have to eat another morsel of fruit to observe what happened next. The invite laughed. It knitted itself in quick succession in front of my eyes. My heart hammered a staccato beat in my chest. Even though I lived with weirdness every day of my life, this strange envelope and its contents had begun to faze me.