Told you I'd have the second chapter up soon! I was too excited about this story to really do anything else today besides planning it out. So yeah enjoy chapter 2! (chapter has been re-edited and altered.)
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The morality of reality is frightening
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As Sophie was unbuckling and helping a groaning Gwen out of the car, grimacing at the smell of puke in the back seat, the front door burst open and a frantic Millie appeared.
"MY BABY!" she screeched rushing towards the car and shoving Sophie out of the way to get to her child. Sophie fell to the ground with an "Oomph!" and glared at Millie.
"My poor SWEETIE! Mommy heard from the police what happened! Are you all right?!" Millie fussed clutching Gwen to her as tight as she could. Gwen smirked at Sophie from over Millie's shoulder before making a face and bawling. "Sophie MADE me eat a bunch of candy before we went on this scary rollercoaster! I told her I didn't want to but she made me mommy! And then she left me ALL ALONE and didn't come back for me! I was SO SCARED!"
Millie furiously spun around and grabbed Sophie's jacket collar dragging her across the stone pathway and up the steps into the house. "HOW DARE YOU!" she screeched, her face turning a nice shade of puce.
Sophie backed up holding out her hands in a defensive position. "She's lying! She ran off from me and she did not spend the money you gave her while she was with me! Ask the cops! I went to them and told them everything!" Sophie said slowly, knowing that nothing she said was going to make a difference in the outcome of this situation.
It always ended the same.
"JUST WAIT TILL YOUR FATHER COMES HOME! (Sniffles then pauses dramatically*) Why doesn't he just ship you off to military school with all the other misfits! But NooOoo! He leaves you here with me! Your attitude is disrupting my baby's precious learning cycle and I won't stand for it any longer!" Millie cried as she unwrapped Gwen from her jacket and walked away to take Gwen to her room.
Sophie continued to stand there after Millie had left the room, shutting her eyes and taking deep breaths. it helped... sometimes
"Why are you marrying THAT lady!? She's mean and doesn't care for Ben or me! She's just obsessed with herself!" Sophie shouted angrily at her father. James Turner frowned down at her. "Now Sophie, daddy has to work a lot and can't always be around to watch you. Millie is a sweet young woman who only wants to help us be a family again." He assured her.
Sophie shook her head angrily. "You're Wrong!" she cried. A second later a hand slapped her across the face. Sophie flew back and hit the hall wall with a thud. The hit left a small dent in the vine wallpaper that covered the hallway.
"No" her father said slowly. He walked over and helped her up. Sophie was shivering with pure hate and hurt feelings, her hands clenched by her sides as her knuckles turned white. "Your Wrong." He said, pausing a bit to let his words sink in. "Give Millie a chance. She's the only woman I've met besides your mother than can put up with you."
An arm draped itself over her shoulders causing Sophie to open her eyes."Don't listen to her; she's just oblivious to the satanic monster she gave birth to." Ben said reassuringly. He'd come out of his lab at the shouting.
Sophie nodded. "Doesn't make it any less hurtful" she muttered taking off her coat and hanging on a hook.
Ben smiled one of his rare true smiles. "Well then I have something that might cheer you up!" he whispered excitedly. Sophie didn't think she'd seen Ben this excited since before their mom had died. Ben took her hand leading Sophie down the hall to the back door and down the steps to the sunroom. Looking around to make sure no one else could hear or see them he grabbed Sophie's hands. "I did it Soph! I figured a way to bring back mom!" he whispered giddily, eyes akin to that of a child with early extra Christmas presents.
Sophie stared at him hard. "What are you talking about!?" she hissed quietly, her eyes starting to narrow with disbelief.
"I can bring mom back! You and me, we can go off and live with mom again! Just like before only with out dad! This past year I haven't told you what I've been working on for a reason. it's a special design! I know you're mad but-."
Sophie was indeed mad and cut him off. "You can't Ben! You can't bring people back from the dead! Why would you do this to me, to us! Mom died because she was sick! Bringing her back; assuming you even could, would make her still sick and she'd only die all over again! I couldn't go through that numbness again." she continued to hiss at him.
Ben shook his head. "I have a cure for the cancer." He said slowly, awaiting her reaction.
Sophie's eyes widened till Ben thought they would pop out of her sockets. "You have a cure? And you haven't told anyone?!" she gasped in disbelief, before her eyes slanted back to an angry look.
"I do. The Government knows. They just don't want word to get out because it's still in the final testing stage" He argued.
Sophie couldn't believe this. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and grit her teeth. "You can't do this Ben. It's just not morally right" she said.
Ben frowned, and let go of her hands."You're still young. You don't understand." he finally said after gazing at her awhile. "I am going to bring mom back, whether you like it or not. You'll see, it'll be for the best. I'm almost done with the machine too." he declared as he turned and walked back into the hallway and down into his lab.
Sophie felt like she'd been hit with a wrecking ball. "Why? Why? Why is this happening to Me?"
Heading back into the house she grabbed an ice pack for her sore bottom and bolted for the security of her room. She threw her clothes on the floor in defiance to Millie's orders to keep her room clean, Sophie pulled on her footy pajamas and grabbed the nearest book.
"Dracula"
It was one of her favorite classic tales and even better that this one was her miniature version, all the pages in a palm sized book. Sophie snuggled into her pillows and blankets giving herself up to the story, forgetting about Ben and her mother.
45 minutes later Sophie was more than half way through the story when she was startled by several loud sounding scratches at her window. She calmed down when she noticed it was just the wind rattling the tree branches outside her window against the window pane. Rain had begun to fall turning snow to slush outside and was starting to sound heavier against the roof overhead.
As she gazed outside, the wind began to pick up speed and began to rattle her windows. She took her eyes away from the rain to stare at the box on her desk, from where she'd thrown it in her frustration earlier.
She crawled out from under the covers and crawled to the edge of her bed, grabbing it off her desk.
She studied the dark brown case and noticed a corner with a weird looking dark red pentagram. "HEllS GATE ARRESTED. GOTT MIT UNS. AND SHINE HEAVEN NOW." The wording made no sense and she couldn't make out the symbols anyways deciding she didn't really care.
Opening the box up she lifted out the dagger and gazed at its' design.
"It really is a beautiful blade. Shame I'll have to keep it hidden." Turning it carefully so as not to cut herself with it, she decided she had taken a good deal. The blade was sharp enough to slice through a single piece of falling paper, and it felt secure. Sophie placed the dagger in the brown sheath it had come with and was about to put it away when she heard a rather loud BUMP come from downstairs.
Grabbing and pulling on her sweats, she clutched her dagger, book, and a flash light and as silently as she could, crept downstairs towards the kitchen.
Trying to avoid stepping on the creaky parts of the floor, Sophie felt like a ninja. Well as ninja as one could get in batman print footy pajamas and sweats anyways, but still she could feel herself in one of her stories. Sophie was the ninja assassin, about to kill her target. Tip-toeing down the hall, hiding behind plants and keeping herself pressed against the she made it to the kitchen and peeked around the corner, and raised her dagger...
"Sophie? What are you doing up?" demanded a startled Gwen.
Sophie pocketed her dagger quickly before Gwen could see it and walked over. Gwen had one hand in the cookie jar and the other holding onto the chair she was standing on. "I heard a bump. And what are you doing in the cookie jar? You're sick!" Sophie said, grabbing one of the cookies Gwen had placed on the counter. She took a bite and smiled happily.
Gwen's face went blank before erupting into a huge smirk. "I'm feeling much better, thanks for asking." she paused. "Is it good?" she asked, that false sweet tone dripping from her mouth.
Sophie slowed her munching and stopped eating the cookie all together. She glanced at the cookie and then at Gwen. She spat the cookie into the trash besides the island counter. "What did you do?" she asked trying to brush the cookie crumbs off of her tongue.
"It's not what I did. It's what you did! Those cookies were for mommy's book club tomorrow!" Gwen giggled, delighted about the look of horror that had made itself present on Sophie's face.
Sophie had not thought her day could have gotten any worse until now. Millie would kill her!
"I won't tell though" Gwen said suddenly, a thoughtful look upon her face. Sophie could already hear the funeral bells tolling and mad a list of the few people that would attend her ceremony.
"Play a game with me right now and I'll keep it a secret between us." promised Gwen. Sophie knew better than to trust this evil child, but at the moment had no other choice. "Fine. What do you want to play?"
The little girl's face grinned. "Hide and Seek."
Sophie grimaced. It was a two story house, not including basement and attic. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a half bath, a living room, sunroom, and kitchen. Out of all these none were good hiding spots. She did not want to spend her night playing with Gwen. "You'll hide and I'll find you first!" Gwen said turning around and covering her eyes. "I'll count to 50, and then if I find you, I get to tell on you! If I don't find you after an hour than you win and I'll take the blame."
Sophie didn't stick around as Gwen began to count. She bolted down the hallway trying to decide on the best place to hide. Her brother's lab was always a good choice since Gwen was afraid of all his machines. Heading down the stairs into the basement, Sophie turned on her flashlight and pointed it to the counter where Webo was asleep. She flashed the light around trying to decide on the perfect spot.
There! A tall tarp covered object caught her attention, so Sophie headed towards it. Underneath was a huge Grandfather clock easily about 8 feet tall. The tall clock stood proud amongst its metal surroundings with its glossy rosewood paneling.
Sophie opened the clock's door to the hollowed out inside and shut it behind her. To her dismay Sophie had not noticed all the buttons and screens in the clock, taking up most of the room inside. One of the screens flashed showing a 4 digit number, 1892. Curious, Sophie tapped the space bar on the keyboard under the screen. The screen lit back up with a box that read ENTER LOCATION.
"What in the world is this? A GPS? Or is it more like Google earth?" Sophie wondered.
Deciding that she had no other good way to pass the time unless she wanted to read Dracula again, she could at least explore the world via computer; and speaking of Dracula… Sophie paused before typing in Carpathian Mountains and hit enter.
She was startled when the screen went black and lit up again as the big clock shook.
"Finding time fixture point. Please remain still. Loading… Loading… Loading... Point found. Prepare for teleportation in 2…1" the clock said in a monotone voice.
Sophie didn't have a chance to scream as she felt herself lurch back and forth; her heart feeling like it was about to be ripped from her chest as her sight went dark. Her head pounded as if being hit by hammers. After what felt like hours the lurching stopped and Sophie was breathing heavily, sobbing lightly as her heart fell back into place. She cried a few more minutes before sniffling and fumbling for a wall.
All she felt were leaves and sticks and rocks and a lot of snow.
Sophie's head jerked up, eyes wide with fear as her sight came back. "I don't think I'm home anymore…" she whispered to herself glancing around at her new surroundings.
From what she could tell, she was outside what she would call a village, made of dark wood and grey stones. Snow fell past candle lit posts that were the only light illuminating the one street that passed through the village. No telephones poles, cars, hydrants, sidewalks or buildings of concrete could be seen. No sign of anything she was familiar with at all...
No one else was out so Sophie scrambled to get off her knees and to the nearest house. She knocked on the door loudly. "Please help me!" she shouted.
No one came to the door.
Sophie's head turned as the house next to her had its doors nearly broke off as a man stumbled outside. Wrapped in tattered clothes and thick black beard he lurched drunkenly down the steps and onto the dirt empty bottle swinging in his hand and the unsteady walk he had clearly said this man was not going to be helpful.
As she stared at him, hand paused by the door, the man's head swung in her direction and he started over towards her.
"Hello? um.. could you possibly give me directions to the nearest phone? I'm sorta lost" she tried to explain as the man grinned and stumbled towards her. He grunted something in an unfamiliar accent and language, but it didn't sound nice. Sophie panicked and ran away, her feet leaving small dirt clouds behind her.
Sadly there was nowhere to hide but the woods, but at that moment anywhere else was better than being a drunkards target here. Sophie fumbled for her flash light in her pocket as she ran, thankful for her days on the track team in high school. The tree line was thick and there were a lot of bushes that scratched her and pulled at her hair and clothes as she ran, trying to put distance between herself and the man. She leapt over fallen trees and over smaller bushes, smacking aside the branches that were getting in her face. The lightly falling snow didn't help her vision either.
After about an hour of running, she thought she had lost him. Sophie slowed to a walk and stopped by a small stream. Silver rocks covered the bank and the grass was dark and wet with snow, small silver fished flashed beneath the streams surface.
She paused to listen and was ready to run if she heard anything. The only sounds that came to her ears was the wind blowing snow through the thick tree branches, crickets and the occasional wolf howl out in the distance.
"Just great! I'm lost!"
Sophie plopped down onto the pebbled shore and pulled out her phone."Oh please don't do this to me!" she cried when the cellphone would not turn on. No amount of button mashing would turn it on.
Giving up hope, Sophie was now positive her life was over. Here she was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a forest that seemed to go on for miles, only to rise into mountain peaks in the distance. Sophie stilled for a moment trying to recall how she'd gotten here.
That clock had said something about teleportation right? Sophie didn't want to believe. It was impossible, only existing in stories, movies and television shows.
"I'm in the Carpathian Mountains!" she breathed, her heart beat filling her head as she fought the wave of nausea rising up in her throat. "God damn it! Ben invented a teleporter!" Sophie roared in outrage.
Her anger however was short lived as a wolf's howl filled the air near her. Sophie didn't think twice. She booked it away from there.
She could hear the wolf's pants behind her and they were soon joined by more. Quickly glancing over her shoulder Sophie regretted her hiding spot. The wolves silver fur rustled against the bushed as the gave chase easily keeping right at her heels. The hot pants of air clouding around their muzzles as sharp teeth snarled at her. Their eyes were wicked golden, filled with hunger.
"I'm not gonna survive this!" she wailed mentally, trying to keep ahead of the frightening creatures. Wolves were like dogs. Just way bigger, and much more frightening.
Just when she thought she was doomed, Sophie ran out of the woods and across a path in front of a tall wrought iron gate. She wasted no time in squeezing through the bars.
Her right foot however was not through fast enough and a loud crunch was heard as one of the wolves bit harshly into her foot shaking it's head as if trying to tear it from her. Sophie screamed and pulled out her dagger, slicing at the wolf's head.
The dagger sliced into its' muzzle and Sophie stared in shock, and pain as the wolf let go and backed away whimpering as it collapsed on the ground, blood furiously seeping from its cut.
She scooted back and dropped the dagger in fright as the wolf's blood did not stop but continued to flow out of the cut to form a growing puddle around the beast. The crimson liquid stopped moving forward for just a second before changing course and heading to the dagger, surrounding it in a puddle of blood.
Sophie watched the puddle become smaller and smaller until the ground was dry and looked as if a drop had never spilled.
The other wolves whined behind the gate at their lost dinner and at the fall of the pack member. One stood to the side, it's glossy black fur covered with snow flakes. That's not what drew Sophie's attention. The creatures eyes were red...
"Leave me alone!" Sophie screamed at it, throwing a snowball at the creature. It dodged and gave a low menacing growl before snarling at her, snapping at the shut gate.
Sophie watched them as the rest of the pack turned and ran back into the woods. The obsidian wolf gave one more snarl towards her and turned to trot off in a separate direction from the pack. Thanking her lucky stars and promising to no one in particular that she would never complain about track again Sophie grabbed her dagger and stared at it. " Nothing but my imagination."
The pain in her foot however could not be ignored and she knew it was either fractured or broken.
Crying silently, Sophie tried to stand and managed to grab hold of a nearby tree.
She used the trees that were lining the path to hop towards the door of what looked like an old crumbling castle, and that she hoped to have an owner that would help her. She gave the wolf's corpse one last glare before leaving it behind.
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So yeah Time Travel! I know it's a touchy subject especially to those who watch BBC's Doctor Who, but I tried my best. All the loopholes and time paradoxes that I wanted to do would have driven some people crazy so I had to ask my Whovian BF for help. Sorry to those who were hoping for Alucard in this chapter but I promise he'll be in the next one! Thanks to catsvrsdogscatswin for my first review, and the next chapter is already in the works.
