Author's Note:
This is my first time submitting a story, so any feedback is welcome! It's completely clean, and I try to write it like it's a novel, so it has some sort of structure to it. I hope you enjoy this fan fiction! :)
THERE ISN'T MUCH to see in the night sky in Los Angeles. I discovered that tonight, after my science project sent me looking for the Little Dipper. I can barely see it, but I'm lucky, because it rained yesterday, which means that it's clear. But even in the Hollywood Hills, tucked away in a little neighborhood far from the clogged atmosphere of downtown LA, the sky is drearily blurred and clouded with greenhouse gas and car fumes. It makes me feel far away from the rest of the world, somehow, and that makes me sad. I don't know why, though. It's a strange thing, because being far away from the sky shouldn't make me feel lonely. If anything, a normal person might feel closer to home, realizing that there isn't any way that they will ever be sucked away into space or anything weird like that.
I sigh and look back down at my notebook. One of my legs swings down from the branch I'm sitting on, high up in our large mulberry tree. The yard isn't huge or even very big, but it's nice, with a couple yards of flat ground before a green hill slopes up in the back. We look out over the rest of the city, on the edge of a big drop, but the hill is fenced in with our yard, making it a lot less dangerous. At night, it's pretty spectacular, but not great for looking at stars.
We're the only ones on this funny little precipice. Of course, there are neighbors who live on the sidelines, who have one side with a drop, but our family is the only one on the very edge. This street is sort of a long triangle, like a needle that broadens quickly a few houses down. I've lived here all of my seventeen years, and I love it here. I hope that we never move.
I've strayed from my work again. I add some notes to the open page – Little Dipper located in the upper right when facing Downtown Los Angeles (south). Then I shut my booklet. That's enough for tonight. This project is a small one, anyways. It's just to observe one thing about the night sky every possible night at 8:45 PM from February 25th to April 9th, which is when spring break starts.
I sit there for a while longer, leaning back against the curved tree limb. It's Friday, March 25th. That means that I have freedom, finally!
It's not that I don't like school. School is fine. I just need some time to do more exciting things than do homework and tests and boring things all day, everyday. I need something to do!
Staring forlornly at the sky, I try to pinpoint the feeling that is always present in my gut these days. The sky seems so huge, so far away, so lonely and enticing and wonderful at the same time. My heart tugs inside of my chest, and I know. I am feeling longing.
But what am I longing for? I think it might be for travel, or adventure. But I don't want to be an astronaut or anything. Just a new place, someplace where I don't have to follow rules, or be safe, or be boring. Someplace where I can be free, and exhilarated. I would do anything for something like that.
When I climb down the trunk and walk back inside of our house, I look briefly out of the window again. It spans the entire side of the house that faces the drop, which is basically the living room and kitchen space. Something dark blocks out a spot to the right, a small piece of the sky, and moves haphazardly down towards the hiking trail a little ways past out house. I strain my eyes, but I can't see it anymore. Weird.
I try to tell my mother about the feeling I've been having, but she just tells me that I've been reading too many fantasy novels. That isn't funny. Fantasy and fiction are what make me up. Escapism, in a way, is my way of survival. Nobody really understands this, but I get along.
I go upstairs to my room. It, too, has a window occupying the entire wall, but this one has curtains. However, I keep them open. It's not as if anyone can look in from the outside. I like to seclude myself in here. It's quite peaceful, especially with my door locked and movie soundtracks playing from my laptop on my wooden desk.
My bed used to be a bunk bed, but my older sister moved out a long time ago. She's five years older than me, and she just finished college, and is working as a journalist in New York, so I took out old bed and took out the bottom frame to make it so that I could scoot a desk underneath it. The desk is shoved up against the window lengthwise. I roll it backwards and then plunk my beanbag chair in front of it, squished comfortably between its back and the window. Then I position myself with my back in the corner so I can see both the entire room and out of the window, and grab my laptop from my desk.
After scrolling through my music for a while, I decide on Daft Punk's TRON Legacy movie album, and close my eyes and listen for a while, my headphones stuck deep in my ears. The pulsating and yet calming sounds relax me into a sort of trance, and I almost don't feel the strange turn in my gut.
My eyes flash open. The music dies out, and the laptop goes black as my finger presses the power button. My drowsiness is gone, and I'm alert. Something is different.
My parents are asleep. It's 10:00 at night. I leave them a note saying I've gone on a walk. I do this a lot, and tomorrow is a Saturday, so they won't mind. They'll probably find it in the morning, anyhow, so they won't think it was late at night.
I'm in combat boots, olive green pants, and a leather jacket within five minutes. The leaves of the mulberry tree rustle above the hill, and my senses sharpen. This happens sometimes, and I never know why, but I don't mind the sudden awareness, because it makes me feel closer to the fantastical worlds I love.
My instinct takes me up the hill and to the fence. It isn't a cliff, but more of a 70-degree angle, pocked with little hills, boulders, bushes, and stunted trees. There is a rarely used little hiking park there, with no houses or properties until the very foot of the hill, where a road winds around the base until it reaches the city. If I'm looking for an object, it may take a while.
I flick on my flashlight. There isn't anything interesting within the first few yards, so I climb over the fence. This area is where two other, huge hills come together, so I hike over to one of the little crevices, where it's easier to climb.
A figure stands on a ledge overlooking both the hills and the city. I look, wide-eyed. He – I'm fairly sure, by the shape, that it is a man - stands alone, leaning against a square object, about a foot taller than he is, and around the same dimensions of a refrigerator. When my eyes begin to adjust (my flashlight is turned off, now), I see that it is a darkish, dusty sort of blue. For the first time, I see that the moon is almost full, and shines brightly against the ledge, making the two objects upon the slab of rock seem like black outlines, except for the sliver of painted wood that is angled so that I can see.
I walk closer, scaling the edge of a rock face until I reach the stone ledge. The man doesn't notice me, and I look at his face for a moment, seeing it for the first time. He would seem young, but his eyes are dark and lonely, solemn. He wears a dark brown pinstriped suit, and a long brown coat, halfway down to his calves, of a different shade, and off-white Converse high tops. Brown hair sticks out in a sort of mop over his forehead, unruly, as if it has a life of its own. Freckles spatter his face, but not closely collected or dark. He has dark brown eyes, wistful and somehow ancient. His lips form a sad line, but not thin, like they are always in that position.
Touched by his emotion, and curious of this strange sight, my legs carry me forward, until I am almost next to him, to his right. Then he sees me, and turns in surprise. His face does look surprised, but not in anger.
"Who are you?" His accent is British. I smile.
"Emma Mason. And you are you?"
"I'm the Doctor."
"Nice to meet you, Doctor. Now how did you end up here? Must have been hard to drag that blue police box all the way up here." I frown at it for a moment. That's what it is. A 1960s London police phone box. The Doctor glances at me again, with surprise still in his eyes.
"You're not going to ask me, 'Doctor Who?'"
"No. People tend to be sensitive about names. For instance, if I were named something burdensome like Seraphinia, I might call myself Fin, and wouldn't want to be questioned. See my point? Now how and why are you standing on a secluded rock ledge at," I look at my watch, "10:42 PM on a Friday night?"
The Doctor laughs. "I like you. Well, you see, I haven't been here long. It is, however, quite a long story, and you won't be here long enough to see it."
"And why not?" I grin.
He stares at me. "You would really stay here and talk to a complete stranger at night?"
"I think I can trust you. You feel… right."
"And how's that, then?"
I shrug. "I have intuitions about these things. I trust my gut; that's how I found you here."
"You've got quite a talent there, Emma. It takes skill to find someone like me."
"Someone like you?"
The Doctor's brown eyes darken, and his crooked smile fades. "Yes, someone like me. You don't really want to find someone like me, anyhow. You should go, before I'm found by someone less friendly than you."
"What? Why should I leave? Who's following you?"
"I don't know."
I roll my eyes exasperatedly. "Well that helps!"
"Well, they're dangerous, and I don't want anyone getting hurt!"
"That means that you'll be in danger."
"That doesn't matter."
"It's your own life!"
"And it's the entire human race! I think that my danger matters a lot less than an entire race, don't you?"
He is getting worked up, and I don't like it. But what's this about an entire human race? "What do you mean?"
"You really should go now."
"No. I want answers. I saw something tonight, and now I'm thinking that you might know more about it."
The Doctor whirls around, his coat swishing behind him. "What!"
"A shape fell across the sky, close to here. It landed around that area." I pointed to the top of the hill to our right."
"I've got to go." The Doctor jumps from the ledge, a seven-foot drop, and touches the ground, already running.
"Wait!"
I run after him, half walking, half sliding, down the slope, and dashing at his heels.
End note: Yes, there is more, and I have it written already, but I won't post it yet because I want to see if anyone thinks there should be some change to the plot so I can make edits before submitting. If not, I will post ASAP! :)