Chapter 1

The apartment was still dusty. Furniture was exactly where she had left it before, forgotten and unused. So much had changed since she had last stood in the entryway of her apartment, staring at the ceiling. There were small cracks from the last encounter that she had with the Doctor, fighting aliens in order to save the world. Their final kiss still lingered on her lips, the delicate pink lip gloss smeared in the corner, a place no one would look unless they were obsessed.

And Providenzia Pescara was obsessed.

Ever since she had seen the mysterious blue TARDIS box, Providenzia had scoured the local library, looking for any sort of information on the Doctor, as he had called himself. To her dismay, all that she had found under his name was TIMELORD.

TIMELORD. What was it?

She had pondered this over long sleepless nights, staring at the night sky, hoping something would happen. Even though she was living in a cramped dormitory at a boarding school, she had always found ways to entertain herself. Dreaming of aliens was one of them.

Considering that she was basically alone in this interest, she had very few friends. Most of the other students in her classes were afraid of her, and her teachers worried about her. Although she was an exceptional student, she had never taken any sort of interest in her schooling. All that mattered was figuring out the mystery behind the aliens that she had seen floating in the sky. They appeared in her dreams, in her artwork, everywhere. And yet they were nowhere to be found.

All of that changed one dreary day in the dorm room while young Providenzia was studying for her mathematics test. Algebra had never been her favorite subject, yet it was by far her best. For whatever reason, she never seemed to care about it. The homework was put off until the last minute, the tests uncared for. This test, however, was the last test of the quarter and she wanted to make sure that she succeeded.

Busily studying her equations, Providenzia failed to notice the footsteps that became steadily louder outside her door.

Algebra was far more important. The following day's test would be impossible, and Providenzia had to be prepared.

A knock at the door startled her. Turning from her work, Providenzia called out timidly, "C-come in."

The door opened slowly. In the doorway stood a girl Providenzia's age with shoulder-length, auburn hair and smiling green eyes. "Hello Providenzia Pescara," she said. "We've been expecting you."

"What?"

The girl laughed merrily, extending her hand, on which there was a small, turquoise bracelet with a silver bead attached. "Forgive me," she said, "I'm Lorettia Myanmar, but everyone calls me Lori. I run a small organization of teenagers like us called the Willowcasters."

"Willowcasters?"

"Yes. We track down harmful aliens and, frankly, eliminate them. We've seen you around before. You're the girl who was in the library searching for the Doctor, right?"

Slowly, Providenzia nodded.

Lori beamed once more. "Good. I love hard workers. Would you care to see our headquarters?"

Providenzia hesitated. "Um…I've got a test tomorrow…"

"Oh, right then. Well, that's what this is for." Removing her bracelet, Lori whispered something into the bead. Suddenly, everything aside from the two girls stood still. The children who had been outside froze, and the clock magically stopped. "There. Now you can come, right? Time will resume whenever you're ready."

Providenzia was confused. "Aren't there consequences for that, though?"

"No. Listen, our time now is making up for lost time later."

This didn't lift her confusion. Somehow, she didn't quite believe Lori. "And why should I be following you, then?"

Lori looked solemnly into her eyes. "There are forces beyond our comprehension, Providenzia. The Doctor handles the wordly ones. But he doesn't have time for our local occurrences. That's why we're here. We need you, Providenzia. Believe it or not, you're cut out for this work. And we've got no time to waste."

Due to her intense concentration on Lori's mysterious words, Providenzia had failed to notice something once more, this time the something being far more important: the hand that had reached out to grab and restrain her screams….