It was late at night when Marie decided to walk home instead of taking her daily bus trip. She thought that her stress could go away by doing so. Well, she was living in the neighborhood beside the bay—the lights were all reflected atop the water and the wind blew with a unique chill.
While Marie looked at her right side—the one with view of the bay, an unexpected hand covered her nose and mouth. She felt defenseless as the person blindfolded her. The man pushed her into the black car as they drove away.
All Marie could feel was the fear of what lies ahead of her in this unconsented ride. She was scared that she might be raped or be placed as a prostitute like what happened in the movie, Taken. She then thought how that movie was amazingly written and she remembered about her writing—the one she was stressing about. All she could think of was how to finish that damn task Ms. Martin gave her.
It was never my genre-- she thought. Now, how stupid of her to think of that writing while she had been abducted by unknown men. No. She was using that damn writing in order to divert herself from the relentless fear she was facing right now. Marie could never escape it anyway.
The car stopped and someone pulled her out of it. Two men wearing black assisted her as they walked inside a strange building.
“W-where are you taking me?” She did not plan on screaming and acting frantically like all hostages do in the television. She was smart and she figured it was of no use. Well, not unless she was a great martial artist, but she was not.
“Back to your home, madam” One of the men spoke. Marie reckoned that they have a very thick accent. More like Russian. But why would they call her madam?
She found everything to be weird.
“Madam you have to take this capsules in order to avoid vertigo. We are going somewhere turbulent.”
Marie reluctantly swallowed the capsule the man gave her. However, she cried afterwards, thinking that after this moment she could no longer see tomorrow.
The two men escorted her inside a wide-looking elevator, only that this was not an elevator.
The place shook wildly like a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. Marie grabbed on the bars as she placed herself in between the corners of the elevator-looking machine. On the other hand, the two men looked as if they had been into this ride more than once.
The shaking stopped gradually as the two men guided her out of the machine which now looked something ancient from the outside—golden, circular design on the gate of it.
The two men took off Marie’s blindfold and she was shocked to see the faces of these foreign people, who appeared like they were attending some cultural festival of a country she was not aware of.
“O, moy naslednik prestola!” One of the women, who was wearing a white veil like a nun’s and a weird, blue gown, exclaimed at Marie.
Something in her felt amused and shocked. Amused that she was able to understand that different language that woman spoke of. Shocked that she called her, Heir to the throne.
The two men, who were wearing black, approached the woman. Now, Marie noticed that these two men have strong features—both of them had dark brown hair with pale blue eyes. They looked Russian.
That’s when she thought that her guess about them was right and she really was in Russia.
“I’m in Russia!” Marie exclaimed in utter shock as the two men looked and her and nodded.
After several shocking revelations and unbelievable explanations, Marie surrendered in fatigue of everything that happened tonight. Well, those unfamiliar Russian plates were all delicious. However, the over flowing information kept on coming in her head.
The Russian men informed her that they were part of the council and that she was the heir to the throne after Tsar Vasili IV died. It was a misfortune that the deceased and former Tsar’s son was still illegitimate, because of his age.
I am just a completely ordinary high school student! I am not Russian too, how come? She kept telling herself in disbelief of what the two council men told her. Marie was in another dimension. The men informed her that she was in 1547 Russian Empire.
1547? Crazy! Yes, she was said to be the missing daughter of Tsar Vasili’s annulled wife, Solomonia Saburova.
It was in 1525, when Vasili announced their annulment. The couple separated ways, for she could not bear him a child. After that, Solomonia was forcibly sent into convent and it was rumored that she had given birth into a girl—Vasili’s daughter.
Unfortunately, she was prohibited from telling about her daughter for she was coerced to be a nun. Issues will emerge that may cause them to be killed in the process. That was why she approached the magister about the best thing to do.
The Chamber of the Future—the elevator-like machine, which she had been to recently. The magister made that specific machine as a result from his secret experiment. The machine had the capability to transmute the people inside of it to the future. Exactly, 470 years in advance.
The magister told Marie that her real mother, Solomonia pass forward to the future, which was in 1997. She handed her into a couple, who were in desperate need of a child and must be named, Marishka. Solomonia presented herself as Sophia in order to be unsearchable into the present society.
It was hard to believe, but maybe it was the answer for her real parents. Yes, Marie was adopted. Well, that was what her dad told her—that Marie was given to her by his close friend, Sophia and given her name, Marie.
It was uncanny, she thought--how they were so accurate about her.
“Your highness, Marishka. The people are ready for you.” Yes, she can already understand them—the more she was believing this whole fantasy to be true.
The women clothed her with a very wide blue skirt with a specific cultural pattern and a red robe akin to the width of the said skirt, which they called sarafana.
Atop of her head, they placed a fan-like head dress, kokoshniks. Marie was bemused by the gems of the head dress. She felt like a real queen. There was something about it that she felt different.
She snuck a glimpse of herself at the beautifully decorated mirror and noticed that her hair turned from bLack to brown. Marie blinked twice, but there it was, the color that made her Russian. This was what they said that as she travelled through time, her appearance would revert back to its original.
“Hold on a second.” She told the women as her eyes widened with her ability to speak Russian.
She approached her school bag and checked her phone. Sadly, it was drained out of battery. The two women called her as she approached them. Marie got very nervous—thinking how foolish could this situation be.
The gates opened before her eyes and there she saw tons of people welcoming her with unexplainable joy. They were wearing the same attire she was, but theirs were very simple compared to hers.
She swallowed the moment hard—never believing what she saw. Until a 15 year old boy approached her,
“My sister, my tsarina, there is a subtle line between your dreams and reality—you are now facing it.” Marie looked at her right where her brother stood and was smiling at her presence. It must be Ivan IV-- the supposed to be king.
She looked at him thankfully as tears rolled down her cheeks. Marie was never praised—in her home neither in her school. Although she fared very well in her subjects, her classmates had always been so indifferent to her. Then now, the people of Russia were warmly accepting her presence, fully entrusting with her their present and their future.
“Vot nositelem trona, Tsaritsa Marishka!”The spokesperson announced to the crowd as they cheered loudly.
Behold the bearer of the throne, Tsaritsa Marishka.
There were several performances held inside the court as they dine with grace and glee. Marie was overwhelmed with everything, but she had her said half-brother beside her to explain the duties of a tsaritsa.
After the celebration, she talked with the two men to make arrangements. Marie wanted to go back and forth her usual life and with this new one. They agreed that she may return to the Russian Empire every other day to fulfill her duties as the new leader.
She dressed up again as a common high school girl as they lead her to the chamber. Marie now saw what it looked like—an elevator. As she entered, she first swallowed the capsule like what happened before. She was now prepared to hold the bar in case of severe turbulence and the two men accompanied her again.
The doors closed and the chamber began to shake gradually. She felt the dizziness started kicking in, until she could no longer hold herself anymore—her vision went blank.
Marie opened her eyes and she roamed them around, noticing that she was at her favorite coffee shop. She focused her gaze on her laptop in front of her looking for the time. It was 4:30 am. She realized that she had to back home immediately.
Her routine started to became consistent for three straight months—traveling from time after time, every other day. Marie might be neglected at school and at home, but she was enjoying the life of a monarch at night. She never felt such joy and acceptance in her life. The Russian Empire almost made her think of not returning back to 2016, but her responsibility as a student writer was heavier than being a tsaritsa. That she couldn’t tell to the Russian people.
Precipitously, one dawn when she came home from the Russian Empire, her father waited for her at their living room. Marie’s father was a night-shift call center agent and her mom—an overseas worker, leaving her to be left alone at home.
“Marie? It’s so late right now? Where have you been? I’ve noticed that you are coming home very late recently.” Her dad told her with a very confused reaction on his face, “Marie, you have changed a lot. Your hair is very different than it was before. Look at you, you looked so spent.”
Marie kept quiet as she couldn’t tell her father about the unbelievable time travel she was doing every other night. More so, about her being a tsarina of the 1547 Russian Empire.
“Marie? Please answer me. Is this still all about the project Ms. Martin asked of you, is this all about that novel? That novel you keep on conceptualizing for 6 months now? I don’t ask of you to be an over-the-top writer. All I need is for you to be safe. Marie, you don’t have to write that-“
“I know, dad. It was never my genre.” Marie answered without looking at his father’s eyes. She suddenly came back to her senses as she remembered that project she kept on escaping away from.
“Marie, please promise me. I’ll try to change my shift in order to be with you here at home. I know that you felt neglected all this year, especially that you have no parents guiding you. But all I want you to know, is that I love you and I am risking my time without you just to give you a bright future ahead. I am just hoping you’ll understand me and your mother."
She was feeling very sad of her father. A kick of guilt seemed to hit her inner-soul, realizing she could not stomach what was happening. This was the day she was preventing from happening—choosing from the life of being a plain high school student or being a respectable and loved monarch.
Again, it was another night to spend with the Russian Empire. Marie was given another capsule and as she stared at it atop her palm, a crystal clear tears fell on it. She reminisced how her father begged her to be home, to be where she was supposed to be. Nonetheless, Marie took the capsule half-heartedly.
The moment she placed the golden kokoshniks over her head, she decided that this would be the last time.
Ivan happily approached her, but she halted him from delivering the news that he was about to disseminate to her. However, she whispered something to his ear that made his eyes widen. Her half-brother looked at her with heavy wonder in his eyes, “There’s a subtle line, right?” With that word she uttered, it was clear that Ivan had a complete understanding of her choice.
Later on, Marie was running inside the chamber wearing her usual clothes, but she forgot to remove the kokoshniks above her head. She took the capsule for the last time, tossed the head dress above her on the ground and she gripped on the side bars firmly. The chamber’s gate began closing and with it started a fire, which will cause the magnificent technology to be burnt into ashes and remained as a myth. It was for sure that Ivan IV would be proclaimed as the Tsar of the Russian Empire.
As she expected, she woke up again in the same coffee shop with her laptop in front of her—wondering why was the scenario always like this every time she was from the past. Never mind, she shrugged the thought of the Russian Empire away and smiled at the dramatically planned separation she made with Ivan. Feeling a lot greater, for she knew, she made the right decision.
Several months had come her way and Marie realized that she had just the right life. She walked to brush her teeth as she noticed a line of black pigment along her scalp. Her eyes showed questions that she tried to push away. She was running late for school, however.
“Marie… I hope you’ll accept this project this time. I know you have the capacity to fulfill the writing task” Ms. Martin asked of her as she was seated in her office.
It was never my genre—Marie, again, told herself. She just gave her teacher a smile and replied, “I’ll think about it, Miss.”
Anyway, Marie had changed a lot. She regretted feeling neglected all along and now she knew it was all in her head—all those rejections she had placed on herself. She never had to be a queen and she was now proud of being a normal high school student.
After school, she was surprised to see her father to be home early and cooking dinner for her.
“Dad?”
“Marie, would you like to sit first or-or-“Her dad asked as she smiled, “No, dad. No need to panic. What’s with you anyway?” Marie said as she gave a little laugh.
“I-I wanted you to know the truth about yourself.” He said with an anxious reaction.
“What about it?” The remembrance of Marie’s past was the last thing she needed at this moment. Not with the Russian background, again. I’m done and over it-- she told herself.
“Remember, when I told you that you were just given to us by our close friend, Sophia?” Marie just gulped heavily at that question,
“It- it was not true.” Marie’s breathing became faster, her eyes opened up in wonder.
“You are my real daughter, Marie. Flesh and blood. Sophia is your real mother. It just so happened that she died when she gave birth to you. Then I married your mom afterwards. We want to tell you the truth, but we also wanted you to feel that we wanted you. I-I am very sorry.”
Marie cried with the revelation. Well, not because she was hurt. She was smart and she would not definitely imitate those dramatic scenes seen on the telenovelas. She cried, because there was a heavy beating of fear drumming inside her and those beats never missed to churn her stomach.
Her hands tremble by hearing the truth. She stood, shaking as she gave her father a tight smile.
“Marie?” Her dad asked with unwavering concern.
“I’m fine, dad. I-I just have to do something upstairs.” She halted him and hurriedly went into her room.
Marie looked at herself at the mirror and shook her head with great worry. She opened her laptop and pulled her drawer underneath the table revealing that she managed to keep a capsule. Her hands grabbed it firmly as she opened the MS Word file of the project she was very afraid of.
There was a horrible truth about it, for she knew that it was never her genre—Science Fiction. Upon reading the file, her mouth dropped open and she hurriedly covered it with her shaking hands as her astounded eyes filled with tears.
She was mortified.
Then there was that frightening voice that whispered in her head:
There is a subtle line between your dreams and reality.
Disclaimer:
All the historical bits and pieces this work of fiction contains is obtained from Wikipedia.org. As this is a work of art, some names and events are just products of the author's imagination.
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