I run out into the hallway with my usual smile on my face. This was my favorite of year, when the stars were the clearest. What a beauty they were, I don't know why, but when I saw the stars I would always get a pleasant sense of hope. Something out there was always smiling, something that could never feel true regret or agony.
I sprinted down the stairs, I was carrying the box filled with the things I need, my star chart, in case I discover any new stars, my telescope, it was my uncles, he was my best friend, he would listen to my ideas, and finally an empty honey jar, in case a star falls, so I can catch it and keep forever. The click-clack of my things was echoing in the hallway. I quickly try to pass my kitchen, my mother doesn't like me going outside when it is dark, she thinks that it isn't safe, but it is only a walk up hill, she can see me through window anyways. If she does see me there is always the chance she won't let me outside
"Bethany? Is that you?" I hear my mothers voice say. I slouch down a bit to hide behind a counter. "Bethany I know you are there." I slowly stand up and give her a small smile. She gave me an unimpressed expression, I look down. "Beth you know I don't like you out there alone."
"But Mummy! Tonight is supposed to be very clear, I will never get to see as many stars as tonight! Please Mummy!" I begged her, giving her a sad look. She sighs quietly.
"Go ahead, but you better be careful young lady.I don't need the neighbors reporting that a seven year old running in there backyard" She said as she continues with what she was doing. I got my smile back, thanked her and I bolted out the door. I dashed up the hill until I get under my favorite tree, me, Robbie and Milly always played by. I start to assemble the telescope, it was a bit tiny and it was not very strong, but it is the best I got.
After I got the telescope parts all together, I quickly start gazing. I could already recognize Taurus after looking for a few minutes. According to my star chart not to far should be Auriga. Ah, found it! I love the thought of little pictures in the sky, it is like something more is out there, there is bound to be something out there! I put my chart down and I get my self out a plastic bag filled with blueberries. I stuff a few in my mouth, seconds later a shadowy figure appears right beside me. It's Leo, he is this kid my age that always hangs around, Mummy, Jane and Lewis never seem to mind when he comes inside with me, in fact they never even mention him. That must be bad for him, he must be very lonely. I always try to do stuff for him, open the door, give him a snack and other things, but he never speaks to me, he probably very bashful. I try to hand him a blueberry, but he just drops it. I let out a little sigh and stare back into the sky. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I see something flying through the sky. I get down from the tree as fast as I could and I grabbed my jar. I ran down the hill while trying to open the jar. As soon as I reached the bottom the shape in the night sky was gone. I slumped up the hill again, it was probably time to clean up.
I groaned as I smashed my hand against my alarm clock, 6:30 AM, as usual, would never want to be late. I have been going to Uni for two years already and it is still bothersome to wake up so early to get to my first class. Luckily it was Wednesday, I only have one class today, a Genetics course. I am majoring in Biological Sciences, not my favorite division of science, but rather this than Philosophy, that would be an all time low for me. I finally get out of my bed, I quickly go to my calender, oh God no. March 17th. I sigh to myself, today's my birthday, my 21st birthday. I have to go back to my childhood home in the country, I always dread the days I have with my family. They seem enthralled with everything, 'Oh Bethany! I am so proud that you got into a good college!' It wasn't that hard. "Beth, Jane is having a baby!' It is a natural part of the human life cycle. There is nothing worth getting that overly excited about, and if i try to ditch "Family Time" I will get an ear load from Mother. Trust me, I tried before. Well it doesn't matter now, there typical happiness is a burden that I will have to deal with for all time. I should just use the shower until my roommate, Emily gets to it first.
At exactly 7:21 I got out of the flat we shared. I walked the streets of Manchester many times, it sort of has became a routine with me. Wake up, get ready for class, leave the flat, walk the same route to the University, finish all the classes, go home, finish homework, make dinner, repeat. It was extremely bland. I just passed the Coleman's Bakery and the local pub, I would normally take the shortcut in between the two buildings instead of going around the whole block.
When going between the two buildings I see Leo once again. He never has aged, he still looked the same he did 14 years ago. Now he got two new people around, one I called Frizz, she was a tall, thin and tan woman, but her hair was very curly. She came around when I was maybe 13. And then there was Siren, he popped up not that long ago, maybe three years. I call him Siren because every time I look him directly in the eye, three is always a sharp ring in my ears and it seems as nobody else sees them. I know that they aren't there, but since they are to me I call them my Talismen.
Class just finished, now I was walking back to my flat. As walking down the shortcut, I suddenly crash, into a wooden shack? That has never been there before, it looked simply out of place here. In a second, I feel a pair of arms around me and a loud ringing in my ear. I screamed out and tried to resist the person holding me, I somehow turn to see it Leo, suddenly Frizz also ran up to me, the ringing getting louder and more irritating. Pounding and pounding in my ear, I keep trying to scream, but I do not even know if my scream even left my mouth. Siren came around to join the other ringing soon became unbearable, I collapsed to the ground. Suddenly I felt there grips release me, I start sweating profusely and breathing heavily. In my current minimal sense of sight, I can see a man coming towards me.
"Hello? Hellooooo? Miss? You still there with us?" He asked me, I tried to talk to him, but it just came out as muffled noises. "Oh, the Strideos were hanging around you for an awful long time miss." The last lines were sort of faded as I lapsed out of consciousness, after that everything was black.
I awoke in a deep blue sofa under a soft pillow and a light blanket. It was all fuzzy, I was in some sort of large room, with many, many lights. I heard the echo of three unrecognizable voices, one was yelling something that I cannot figure out what it was all about.
"Doctor, I agree with Amy. Maybe bringing in some random lady from a alley way was not your greatest ideas. Maybe we could drop her off at the bakery and just get away from this time and just not come back.." A male voice said much quieter than the yelling voice.
"Rory, now you know I don't work like that, we need to figure how to get how to get the Strideos off of Earth and back to whatever far off planet they are from. And plus that girl could be in a terrible mental state, certainly not one that humans will deal with." A familiar voice said. Oh I can remember it all now! I was behind the bakery and the Talismen attacked me, but if they were a danger to me, why did they wait for me this long? I tried my best to leave the sofa without making too much noise and I started walking towards the people having the conversation. I creep close to the wall and I get close enough to see them, but for them not to see me. There was three people indeed, there was a woman with bright red hair, who was the one that was yelling, I guess. Then there was a man, looking around the same age of the woman, but with brown hair and a few centimeters on her. And finally was a taller man hair, with darker brown hair and was wearing some bizarre hat.
"Excuse me?" I said quietly, sticking close to the wall I was hiding behind, they all turned towards me, the two towards the left looked surprised, but the man to the right was most likely expecting me to be there.
"Ah, hello! I am the Doctor" He said speedily walking towards me and shaking my hand. "And this is Amy and Rory Pond." He pointed at the couple standing by the blue light thing. Amy gave me a small smile, a forced smile and Rory waved a bit. "So, two questions, who are you and how much of that conversation did you hear?"
"Well hello, my name is Bethany Todd and that one said that there was something fishy about picking me up in an alleyway." I said while pointing Rory. "Also I have a few questions for you, where am I and what in your right mind thinks that it is alright to abduct me, yes thank you for helping me, but you could have called an Police Man or somebody."
"Well, yes I could have done that, but who else could heal your arm?" The 'Doctor' asked me. My arm? I looked down to my arm and flinch at the sight of my arm. It was blackened with some sort of symbols on it. "What you see there Miss Todd is something like an infection. And this infection will spread, causing all part of your body it reaches completely useless. It will continue to spread unless you do one of two things. You can either cut your whole left arm off or you could let me heal it." He stated.
"Um... well in that case, I guess it would be best if you... treat it." I mumbled well looking down, I guess I am going to have to trust the Doctor.
"Good choice! Right, Amy my sonic." He said as Amy passed him the a weird piece of metal. He flipped a switch and it started glowing green. He traced the imprints on my arm and they dissolved into my skin. I was muttering nonsense to myself, this isn't happening. It is logically possible, no possible thing could have result like this and this light up toy is making this smoggy mess disappear and I didn't feel a thing. "Alright, all better now Bethany. Now what we need to do is get rid of the Strideos, Rory, Amy, I need you two to get me a piece of metal with a diameter of at least sixteen centimeters, a clothes hanger and a hairdryer." I gave the Doctor a strange look, but the couple left without question. "And you Bethany, need to help me. Are you okay with that?" He put his 'sonic' in his pocket.
"Um... okay. But what will we need to do and what do I need to do" I asked him and he smiled at me.
"Well first of all we will need to find the place where the Strideos entered the planet, perhaps your home. Then after that we need to trigger there arrival and force them into a sort of cage. Later we can find a place to put them in the universe." He said this so calmly, it like he has dealt with this before. Wait in the universe, what is that supposed to mean, this man must be mad, he doesn't have some spaceship or something.
"How are we going to put them somewhere in the universe?" I asked, gosh this man is so confusing. How weird can this get? Maybe it is an act, it would be like something Lewis would do for some sort of birthday 'present'.
"With my TARDIS of course!" He exclaimed like it was fact. A TARDIS? What could that be? It kind of sounds like a species of bird to me.
"And what is this so called TARDIS?" I asked and his smiled.
"Well Bethany, we are in the TARDIS at this very moment. TARDIS stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space, it can do anything most humans can only dream of. It travels in not only space, but also time." Well that makes it a fact, this man is obviously insane.
"It travels in space?" I said with a bit of a snicker.
"Yes and time." He says this with such confidence... it can't actually do those things, can it? It just doesn't make sense.
"Can you prove it to me?" I said and he gets another huge grin on his face.
"Actually not at the moment we have some aliens to deal with, but maybe later." He said. "But I can show you something impossible real quick, do you want to see?" He asked, he got to be joking! Show me the impossible, you know what? I'd like to see this. I nodded and he grabbed my hand. He quickly dragged me out the door and turned me around and smiled. What... this can't be. We were in that tiny shed I crashed into! No, that place was huge! I quickly ran back into the room. No. How? I ran back out side holding onto the door to the TARDIS.
"No way." I quietly said.
"Way." He whispered in my ear, does that mean his talk of time travel was true? But how? Why me? "Okay before you start asking more questions we really must be going, now can you take me to the place where you first noticed those aliens?" He asked. I nodded and yelled for a taxi.
When we got to my house I could already tell that this wasn't going to end well. I can only imagine what they did for my birthday, probably some large banner saying something along the lines of 'Happy Birthday Bethy Honey!' or maybe they got that stupid clown again. We walked down the cobblestone path until we reached the door. I was a bit hesitant at first, but I rang the doorbell.
"Beth honey!" My mother said the minute she opened the door. She instantly dragged me into a hug, then she noticed the Doctor. "Oh sweetheart, you got yourself a boyfriend! He is quite the looker, lucky you and hope he stays that way~!" She said in a sing-song voice. My cheeks burned up a bit, god she was so... revolting sometimes!
"Hello Mum, one he isn't my boyfriend and two can you let me go? You are chocking me." I said as calmly as I could. The Doctor was kind of standing there observing the yard.
"Oh sorry honey! It's just that you almost never come around and I miss you so much! I am so sorry, I thought you were coming later, your cake is the oven, oh lord! I forgot to say it! Happy Birthday Bethy Honey!" And there it is. "Well come along you two, come inside!" We both walked in.
"You didn't tell me it was your birthday." He whispered as Mum started to sing along with the radio back in the kitchen.
"I didn't think it was relevant." I said calmly looking around. I really hope Lewis isn't here, god he was the worst of my family members. Mum is just irritating, Dad wasn't around to often, he was off being productive unlike most of the of the family, Jane, my older sister, was out east, she just had a baby, but Lewis was the worst, even at 17 he never bothered to mature, nope he been the same since he was five years old.
"Of course it is relevant! Happy Birthday Bethany!" He said. "Now that woman is your Mother, who is that" He said pointing to the other side of the room. I groaned, of course. It was Lewis.
"That's Lew-"
"Oi! Sissy! How's it going! You never call or anything, for all we know you could have been dead or something, hey I got you a present, with my own money this time, I swear, open it up!" He said eagerly. I sighed as I took the present and opened it up. Seconds later I feel something cold firing at my face. I could hear him laughing hysterically, even the Doctor was chuckling. God Lewis, grow up!
"Oh come on Beth! I played the same trick on you when you were nine, but back then you would have laughed too..." He trailed off, he obviously saw that I was annoyed. He looked upset as he walked away from me and the Doctor. I grabbed the Doctor's hand and I lead him upstairs to my bedroom.
"Okay I first saw one of those things in that corner, do whatever you need to do." I said while picking up an old blanket that was on my desk, I used it to dry myself off.
"So Bethany, why are you so stingy around your family, actually everyone. Lewis said that you used to be a lot more easy going when you were younger, what happened since then?" He asked as he was using his weird glow stick, inspecting the corner.
"Well I been growing up, I didn't find any of there jokes funny anymore. It was just bothersome and most people in that case weren't amusing either. It just got old to me."
"Now Bethany, that is no excuse for something like that. You should let go a little bit, your still young, live a little bit." I just sighed after he said this. "Ah, here we go, it seems like these came from one of Neptune's moons. Yes, from Larissa. Okay, that will be really simple to get them back there, now we just need to get them to show up need to get back to the TARDIS. Now before we go back Bethany w-"
"Call me Beth."
"Okay, Beth, when or how do these aliens come around. Like do you feel a certain emotion or is it always at 7 O' Clock or?"
"They usually come around when everything just seems average, maybe when I am bored?"
"Yes, okay, good, we need you to feel normal. Okay how about you take a walk or something, I don't know, do something that would be average to you." He said.
"Okay, I'll start right now." I say as I headed down the stairs and started to walk out the door. Being normal eh? That is going to be really easy.
I went back home to start my homework, I was at my desk, I had some Calculus to do. The doctor sat on my bed playing with something that he told me was his 'Sonic Screwdriver'. Weird isn't it? I started working on my problems. Minutes later Leo appeared, sitting on my window sill, shortly after Frizz showed up and started to admire herself in the mirror, finally Siren showed up, we was just standing by the door. When they all started to tip-toe towards me, I called for the Doctor, he was taken out of his trance, he bolted up and took a small cube out of his jacket's pocket.
"Here you go Strideos!" He said as he started to quickly pressing buttons on the cube, some beeping noises and what sounded like a vacuum came from behind me. "Don't look Beth, it will ruin it!" I resisted looking and all the noises stopped. "Alright! Good! We got them Beth, now all we need to bring them back to them back to Larissa!" He said.
"Okay, before we do that, why did you send the other two to get all those things?" I asked, while he was pressing buttons on the cube. I am not going to even question the cube at this point.
"Well, I thought four was a bit too much for this mission, all the Strideos would react terribly to the amount of people there, it would have been bad." He admitted as he put the cube back into his jacket. I smiled at this. "Well Beth, are you ready for space travel?" My face beamed, all that time looking at the stars from so far away, now I will be able to see them close up. This... brilliant, crazy man can take me there, but what about the other two? The girl didn't react in a good way when I got on the ship, ah whatever, I think she will get over it quickly. I turned back to the Doctor.
"Ready as I will be."
After Amy and the Doctor had a row about how they wasted all that time looking for that piece of metal took all day, then Rory trying calming the two down, we finally started to go. The Doctor was pulling levers and pushing all sorts of buttons, I couldn't wipe the smile of my face.
"Hey, you might want to hold onto something for this part." Amy told me, I quickly grabbed onto the panel thing when the TARDIS started to shake around and there was loud banging coming from the outside. This was extraordinary! I never felt so, so, alive! The Doctor smiled at my reaction, when the TARDIS finally stopped I went to instantly ran to the door and opened it up. Out the door was millions of stars, all scattered about, like I used to imagine they were. I just knew there was something out there. The Doctor came over by me and threw the cube by the moon.
"It will open when it hits the surface. Now Bethany." He said as he was entering something into the computer looking thing on his panel. "I promised to prove that this can travel through space and time. Now I am a man of my word, where in time would you like to go?" Where in time would I like to go? There is so many possibilities. like I can go to prehistoric times! Or Imperial China! Or I could solve Edgar Allan Poe's death! Or maybe I could go see Shakespeare! Oh the places I can go, in all of time, I do not think I can even make this decision. It will be a hard choice for one trip, maybe I should not even go, it could be dangerous, but today was dangerous and nothing to major happened to me, I think I will be fine. Wait, I have an idea.
"Doctor?" He turned his head towards me, I grinned to myself. "Surprise me." He got a goofy smile on his face and pulled a lever.