Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Stephenie Meyer novel "The Host," but I do own Sophie. Oh yes.
Taken
Sophie O'Shea hurried through the cold, brisk wind that traditionally battered Seattle each winter. She was running so late on everything! Christmas was tomorrow, Kyle was driving in from Portland by noon, and Sophie still had to do her Christmas shopping.
Kyle and Ian were easy to buy for, she had gotten each of them polar-fleece sweaters designed especially for jogging in never-ending cold that came as part of the Life in the Northwest package deal. What with Kyle living in Portland and Ian going to the University of Washington here in Seattle, both of them would love the gifts.
But as for Mom and Dad, that was harder. And so Sophie had decided on a shamefully easy out--dinner reservations at their favorite seafood restaurant. The sort of mindless gift she would normally cringe to give. Damn procrastination, she thought, wrapping her coat a little tighter around her as she skirted a puddle on the sidewalk. Oh well, as a Junior at Bishop Blanchet High, she was a professional at procrastionation, and things always seemed to work out when it came to things such as last-minute presentations and papers...papers! She had one due on the day she got back from winter break.
Sophie pushed it from her mind, she fully intended to forget that school existed and enjoy Christmastime with the crazy O'Shea clan while she could. No one did crazy quite like the O'Sheas. Ian was coming over today to help mom throw her traditional Christmas Eve Party for the greater O'Shea and MacPherson family (complete with the traditional Irish open bar). This was an exciting christmas for Ian, it was the first year he could legally participate in the open bar, although he had been doing so at their mother's encouragement since the age of 19. And Kyle would get raging drunk, as usual, and lose money at poker to the MacPherson cousins while Ian avoided all the young, beautiful, single, and slobberingly intoxicated "family friends" Mom happened to invite to the party. Oh yes, Sophie loved Christmastime.
She glanced at her watch. She was running late to catch the bus she needed to catch to get to the waterfront! She rounded the corner and saw the bus waiting at the stop. She thoughtlessly ran into the street.
As she crossed the street, she suddenly heard a strange sound. Sophie turned in horror to see a car swerving towards her, hydroplaning across the wet road as it tried to stop. A smell of burnt rubber, a burning pain, a crunch as her head hit the ground, and then...nothing.
When Sophie awoke, she was on a bed in a strange, tiny room. Strange tubes and equipment hung everywhere. The room pitched to the side as the ambulance (for that is what Sophie's befuddled brain told her it must be) rounded a corner. Strange people in dark green outfits sat by her side.
"She's awake!" one yelled.
"Quick, put her under!"
Sophie tried to push away the hand that came towards her, holding a strange strip between its fingers. A face came towards her, the hand coaxing the strip into her mouth, the light from an overhead lamp reflecting in the person's eyes…like light off a mirror. Already Sophie felt sleep coming over her. She tried to focus, stay conscious…she couldn't stay…the last thing she saw were those eyes looking at her, those strange silver eyes…
The Healer looked at the sleeping girl. The host body had been healed to perfection after almost dying when a car hit her. Such an awful memory to wake to. The Healer's host had been saved from a car accident herself, so she could imagine what it would be like for the little soul, only on its second world. The soul had just come from the Mists Planet.
"It will be alright, though," the Healer, called Blooms Brightly, murmered to the sleeping soul. Such a pretty thing, dark hair and fair skin. Just then, the soul blinked, her shockingly blue eyes opening to this strange world for the first time.
"Am I really here?" she asked.
"Yes, you're here, Light Weaver. Welcome to Earth."