Time Twins - Monkswalk (best thriller novels of all time TXT) 📗

Chapter 1
The Hospital
Sam
Sam here; I think. Wherever ‘here’ is. This abandoned, white place of nothingness is rarely what I would call ‘here’.
Beep beep. Beep beep. The sound of the hospital echoing in my head.
Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. Typical of me really; always forgetting. So, I’m half of a twin, the other half being my sister: Amy Braitesworth. She’s clever, intelligent, outgoing and happy. A complete contrast to myself. I’m 15, along with Amy of course.
This curious room, this hospital, which I am mysteriously found in, is as empty as a desert. The beds are filled with nothing and the walls are similar - bare white. The smell of a typical hospital wasn’t present in the room. There was nothing that my nose detected. You could hear a pin drop in this neglected building. The duvet is as soft as silk. The pillow cradled my head, comforting me. I see cream-coloured curtains (which are the size of a giraffe) as I glance across the deserted room. My eyes turn their attention to my oak-wood bedside table. It contained nothing apart from a Tudor book. I questioned to myself whether anything here had a purpose. It seems strangely familiar, she seems strangely familiar. The unknown nurse.
“She is creepy” exclaimed Amy. I couldn’t agree more. As soon as my eyes lay upon her, she was directly in front of me. Fear flooding throughout my body. I don’t even know who she is! She has long brown hair, just like Amy’s. She must be so lonely being in charge of this so called hospital. She was dressed in blue uniform from head to toe with shiny black shoes. She whispered in my ear,
“Read the book. The Tudor book.” How boring! Grudgingly, I took the book as there was nothing better to do.
When I opened the hardback book that’s spine was fragile, I saw a picture of some sort of queen. She had a massive dress and decorative jewellery. I soon fell to sleep through pure boredom.
Everything went black.


Chapter 2
Historic worlds
Amy
The world above me was silent, the air around me was cold. Where was I? I could hear someone else’s slow breathing next to me. Had I fainted? I was lying face down on the cold, hard ground. Is this what death feels like? All I remember was the hospital and then the blackness that swallowed me. I stretched my fingers, my hand touched something warm, possibly a body. Egh! A body. I suddenly opened my eyes. I was in a wood, next to me stood Sam. Why were we in the woods?
I curled up into a ball, I was obviously dreaming, how would we have got from the hospital to the woods? It was best if I just ignored the fact that this dream seemed very realistic. I would wake up in a few minutes.
“ Amy are you awake?”, Sam asked gently shaking me.
“Did we die in the hospital?”, I questioned him still slightly confused.
“ No, the thing is I think that I might have bought us here.”, I waited for a further explanation from Sam, “I… well … I looked at this book.. and then fell asleep.. and here we are.”.
“ Sam, How could this possibly your fault that we’re here? It’s obviously that creepy nurse. Maybe .. Maybe she drugged us into falling asleep and then dumped us here.” I explained thinking more about the possibilities.
“No, Amy that’s not what I meant.” Sam muttered.
Why did I always have to ask so many questions to finally get an answer from Sam?
“Well you see in hospital I read this book and there was this picture of a wood very similar to this and there were these men riding horses hunting. The book was about the Tudors.” He explained.
We both sat there for ages in silence. Why and more importantly how would a book bring us here? Was it enchanted? No, of course not. Sam suddenly stood up and ran behind a tree. I did the same. In the distance the quiet sound of hooves pounding the ground grew nearer.
Five men on horses and three dogs all flew past our hiding place at top speed. Sam went pale. I heard him mutter, “That was the exact picture in the book”.
It suddenly hit me, we were in the book, we were in Tudor times and it was the book that got us there. My natural instinct was to run, just run away from this mistake. We weren’t meant to be here. Sam was fast behind me. We ran for what seemed like a mile. The edge of the woods was visible. I slowed to a jog, in front of us stretched some green fields full of cattle. We were at the top of a hill behind the fields and down the hill was a huge town. There was something wrong with the town. I couldn’t tell what it was. All the buildings had thatched roofs, the streets were really dirty and…was that poo on the roads? All the people walking by were dressed in dirty rags and carried buckets and lead cattle. Then I suddenly looked down at my own clothes, they had changed from the hospital gown to a horrible dirty brown dress with smudges and a crisp white apron. We definitely fitted in with the people in this town.
As we neared the gates of the town we spotted a huge crowd gathered on a bridge. We walked to towards the crowd. What was going on? Would it help us get back to the hospital?


Chapter 3
The Execution
Sam
I and Amy slipped through the crowd nervously, receiving strange looks as I went. A filthy man who was as hairy as a dog approached us “What do you think you’re doin’, dressin’ like that.” he smelled terrible. We were hurrying away, wondering where on Earth we were when I glimpsed something that made my stomach do somersaults, “Amy look.” In front of us was a stage that held a basket, a chopping block, an executioner and a dark haired woman with her neck on the block. I could hear her sobs and pleads but the crowd just chanted “Off! Off! Off!” I also heard a name that made me understand what was happening. Anne Boleyn.
She looked straight at us and I gasped with disbelief. It was the nurse. She had tears streaming down her face and she was shaking with such a force that I could have swore the platform was moving. The executioner smiled whole-heartedly as he raised his sword, the crowd grew quite in anticipation. The sword was swung. I turned away as blood flew into the air, Amy was just standing there. The crowd cheered.
“C’mon, Amy! Run!” We turned and ran as fast as I could, no idea where we were headed. After a while I slowed down to collect my thoughts. I’d just seen the nurse or Anne Boleyn, whoever she was, executed. Now, even though I’m terrible at history, I knew I was in Tudor times. I needed to get somewhere to sleep, it getting dark, but we didn’t have any money. We’d have to sleep on the streets. We started to roam around looking for somewhere that provided at least a little shelter from the rain that had recently started pouring down, slapping the pavement with big thuds. I made sure that we didn’t sleep under any windows (I knew what these Tudors did with their waste) and, eventually, we fell asleep on the cold, hard pavement.
We were woken by a light shining in our faces. I was raising my hand to protect my eyes from the beams when a black silhouette of a man appeared in the doorway. “What do you think you’re doin’ sleeping outside my house,” he had a cockney accent”I should go get the police.”
“No! Please don’t! I have nowhere else to go,” Amy pleaded “Please, We’ll move!” I could make out that he had short, dark hair and a stern face which, as I watched, softened. “Do you want to come in? You can sleep on a proper bed.” he asked, without knowing it a smile had appeared on my face” Yeah! Thank you!” I stood up and walked into his house.
For a Tudor house it was fairly large. Inside it was table, cooking equipment a table and 2 chairs and a bed. You could actually see the beams holding the house up and the thatched roof. “What’s your name?” the man asked. “Sam,” I replied “and this is Amy. What’s yours?”
“Edward. Edward Braitheworth.”
We were too stunned to speak. Could this man possibly be my relative? No, no, that’s impossible, I told myself.”Is something wrong?” asked Edward. I hadn’t realized that I’d been staring at him.”No, of course not,” I didn’t know what to say “so, umm, Mr Braitheworth do you have any kids?”
“No, not yet but I plan to.” I suddenly felt something in my pocket. I moved my hand slowly to find out what it was. I felt the edge of a letter. “Umm, Mr Braitheworth, can we go to bed now please?” I asked.”Yes of course you can, let me show you to where you’ll be sleeping.” He showed us to a small bed in the corner of the house, we said thank you and he left the room.
I grabbed the letter out of my pocket, showed it to Amy and ripped it open. Inside was a picture of London. It had a date at the bottom of the picture: 2011.I was puzzled. Suddenly I felt weirdly tired. I lay down on the bed and instantly fell asleep, the memories of the day drifting away...


Chapter 4
Streets of London
Amy
Sam, it’s my turn now, pass the mic. Come on, give it.
Thank you. Amy here.
Something must have fallen from the thatched roof onto me while I was asleep, as I’d just woken with a start. But what woke me couldn’t have come from the roof. Firstly, it was flat, silver and something clearly modern, with what looked like the head of a woman embossed on it, and minute numbers and letters round the side. Secondly, the roof was gone.
Where just last night there had been dense forest, large, brick and cement buildings had grown, the soft grass being replaced by solid tarmac. The horizon had been filled with glass towers, climbing up towards the sky, which while she had no memory of them, seemed familiar. A combination of cigarette smoke and car exhaust produced a noxious smell, making my eyes water. The peaceful bird song and forest sounds had disappeared, their place taken by the sounds of traffic, honking their horns like a feuding family, and people speaking into mobile phones. The sound of bells could be heard over all this noise. Bells that, despite having no recollection of them at all, told me there was only one place I could be: London. Which of course, I’d never heard of either. I lifted my head from the stump which had morphed into what looked like a tall, metal lamp, and looked around for Sam.
“Amy?”
Slumped against a beige cement wall, Sam was looking drunkly up at me, rubbing the back of head with his hand. Obviously he hadn’t been as fortunate as me when his bed dissapeared. Between us, crowds of people clad in black suits and jeans, occasionally