Chapter 1

My name is Sophie. I am 18 years old. Last year I met the Doctor, a man I thought could only exist in my dreams and stories. He turned out to be my brother. I turned out to be a half Timelord. Then one day, my DNA merged, and I died.

Only to wake up.

My eyes flutter open, gently like the wings of a moth. I'm all alone in a vast empty room. A thin white sheet covers me. I sit up stiffly and notice that I've grown about three inches. I'm slightly skinnier than I was before and my hair has grown down to the bottom of my rib cage and it has turned dark blue. I'm so confused but suddenly I sit up properly.

"I'm alive!" I say to myself and the whole thing sounds and feels so ridiculous... I burst out laughing. I get off the table and notice there is a mirror. I cross over to it and gasp. The girl that stares back at me... is not me. She is new, a stranger. Her green eyes shine brightly against the darkness of her hair, haunted with a vacant expression. Oh, of course. The regeneration that seemingly failed. Come to think of it, where am I? This doesn't look like the Tardis. I rush over to the door and throw it open. I seem to be in an underground vault and suddenly, from the right side of crazy, I start to think I have been buried alive. I walk through the vast room and open another door. Suddenly, I am met with a sight that makes me sigh with relief. I'm under the Tardis console room.

I grin and rush up the spiral steps. The Doctor is slowly walking around the main console.

"Doctor" I say. He looks up and smiles. I'm so happy right now. I grin back.

"There you are" he says. I nod and step forward but suddenly, Rose rushes past me. His gaze turns to her and she swiftly hugs him but he holds on. I frown until I hear a voice next to me. A whisper.

"They can't hear or see you. You don't exist"

I jerk my head to the left and I see... me. A pale, ghostly version of me before I regenerated.

"What do you mean they can't hear or see me? Am I dead?" I ask.

"Maybe"

"But if I'm not dead then... I'm dreaming?"

"Maybe" I frown.

"Will you stop saying that and give me a proper answer!" I shout. I laugh.

"But I am you and you are me. We're the same person, just a little different. If you want to know the answer, ask yourself. Are you dead or are you asleep?"

"But I don't want to die. I'm a Timelord, I can't technically die!" I say.

"There's your answer then"

"But how do I wake up?"

"Well, you have to want it. Look at them now"

I look over to the Doctor and Rose. He is holding something in his hand. My jacket. He's slumped in the chair and Rose is next to him, comforting him. In a trance, I walk over to them. I place my hand over his but he doesn't move.

"However, if you wake up, they may not be with you. He thought you died. You could be somewhere totally different"

"Am I?" I say, suddenly panicking that I am buried alive.

"Wake up and find out"

"I don't think I want to" I say.

"Well, ask yourself what's better. Staying asleep and being with them but them not knowing you're here or waking up and taking the chance of them not being there but you being alive"

"Well, if I'm alive, I can find him, can't I?" I say, turning to look at old me. I nod and I smile.

"Well, can you wake me up please?"

"Close your eyes and think of your house. Your old house, the one you shared with your mum"

"Why there?" I ask, puzzled. As far as I'm concerned, that wasn't my house anymore.

"Just do it. Trust me. Or yourself"

I take a deep breath and close my eyes... and I wake up again.