Sofia did her best to avoid Paul Serene as much as possible. As soon as she saw him talking to a colleague, or if she saw him walking down the aisle, she would immediately turn the other way and disappear from his sight. More than once, Sofia could swear Paul had tried approaching her to talk to her, but she had never given him the chance to do so, and she started walking around with other people, especially Karin, because she knew Paul wouldn't dare to start a conversation about his private life around other employees.
The last day of work before the usual Christmas holidays, he had even tried to call her on her phone, but she had ignored his call and chuckled at Karin's horrified expression.
He had also sent her a text message, asking her if she was planning to come to the annual Christmas party so they could speak privately about some urgent matters.
"Sofia, I really don't think you should be treating your boss like that" Karin told her severely.
"I can when it comes to my private life. He has no rights to ask me these questions, and I am not obliged to answer" replied Sofia coolly "But I will tell him I am not planning on attending his stupid Christmas party, this year. I am leaving this evening to go back home".
Karin didn't answer, but gave her a stern look before shrugging her shoulders and going back to work.
And so, when her last shift ended, she wished everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year and quickly left to grab her suitcase at home before proceeding to the airport.
Once again, Sofia had to muster a forced smile and a relaxed expression during her entire Christmas holidays at her parents'. She was of course happy to be back home and visit her mother and father, who was still doing well after the recovery, but she couldn't stop thinking about Paul. Seeing her father on the wheelchair and her mother much more tired than Sofia had ever remembered her being didn't help her mood either.
One evening, while sitting on the sofa alone sipping some hot cocoa, her mother approached her and sat beside her. Sofia could see how old she had become, the signs of time visible on her face. But what hit her even more was the infinite sadness in her mother's eyes.
"What's wrong, Sofia?" she suddenly asked, placing one hand on her daughter's.
"What do you mean?" Sofia tried to laugh it off.
"You are my daughter, Sofia. I know exactly how you feel just by taking a look at you. I know you're not happy."
Sofia lowered her head, and she knew she couldn't fool her mother.
"It's just… I don't like seeing dad like that, and leaving you alone" Sofia explained.
"And?" her mother insisted.
"And… there is this person… He's actually my boss…"
Her mother gave her a weak smile "It's always because of boys."
Sofia smiled back.
She suddenly found herself explaining everything to her mother, making sure to omit the fact her boss had superpowers, and that they were actually trying to fix a fracture in time which would occur in 2021 and that would be caused by a younger version of Paul himself and his best friend. Sofia had a feeling that her mother's tolerance and understanding wouldn't be enough to believe her daughter.
She did tell her, however, about how their relationship had quickly developed, about how he had once saved her life, about their business trip to London alone, and then how they had suddenly taken separate ways to meet again nearly two years after, with Paul visiting her but holding back when Sofia had tried a closer approach.
Her mother listened carefully without interrupting her.
"I think I got it all wrong" Sofia ended her tale with a feeble voice.
"I don't think you did" her mother replied with a smile "he always comes back to you. Men with no interest don't do that if they know a woman is in love with them. If it was just a 'hunt' as you call it, and he knows you like him, he wouldn't be after you anymore. Unless he needed something from you, but what could a man like that ever want from you?"
Sofia thought about her mother's words, which had always been wise and helpful, but still thought she had been an idiot to think Paul could like her back.
Her mother patted her on her hand before going to bed, and Sofia was left alone in the living-room. As she always did when she was bored or stressed, she grabbed her laptop and checked her e-mails.
She almost felt like her heart was being stabbed when she saw a mail addressed to her and her only from Paul Serene.
From: Paul Serene
To: Sofia Amaral
Meeting 7th of January
Sofia,
We will be holding a meeting the 7th of January at 9:15 AM at Monarch Tower, meeting room 03C. Please confirm availability.
Best regards,
Paul Serene, CEO
Sofia read the e-mail twice. She was wondering if Paul had arranged a private meeting with her as an excuse to talk to her or if he actually wanted to talk about work. Or maybe he was planning on firing her because she had been avoiding her boss? She stood there and pondered, until she decided she had no other choice but to confirm she would be attending: it was, after all, an official meeting with the CEO, and she definitely couldn't refuse.
She therefore replied with a brief and formal e-mail and then shut her laptop. A part of her felt oddly triumphant because she would see Paul again in private, but another part of her dreaded the day because she actually feared he could sack her.
"But he can't!" she firmly told herself "he still needs me for the Lifeboat!"
'Does he, now?!' rang an evil voice in her head.
Sofia grunted, tosses the laptop on the sofa and went to bed.
Sofia came back to work the 4th of January, where Karin was enthusiastically waiting for her as usual to update her about all the presents she had received and all the places she had visited with her family and friends. Dr. Kim too welcomed her with a huge smile, and seemed to be in a very good mood as he always was after the holidays. Sofia actually suspected he inwardly dreaded being away from the job he loved so much, maybe even more than his own family.
Sofia smiled broadly to all of her colleagues, but was extremely agitated because of the meeting she would be having with Paul in three days. She had told only Karin, of course, who had immediately begun listing a series of scenarios that might happen.
"…Maybe he will propose to you, you will go on a luxurious honeymoon to Dubai and have three children, two of them being twins, two boys and a girl, whom you will obviously name Karin, after her godmother."
Sofia was listening to her friend resting her chin on the palm of her hand and smiling patiently while waiting for her to finish daydreaming.
But Karin's absurd scenarios had made Sofia's brain start imagining too: what did Paul want to talk about so urgently? And why with her, privately? The formal tone he had used in the e-mail didn't bode well at all.
It seemed that time was making fun of her by passing by fast when she dreaded the day of the meeting. And yet, she woke up the 7th morning much before her alarm, her heart pounding a little faster than normal. She tried to go back to sleep, but the thought of having to face Paul in only a few hours made her more and more nervous, so she eventually decided to get up and make some breakfast.
In a blink of an eye, the clock was 8.30 and she left her apartment to start the car. She gave one more look at her apartment before driving and thought to herself that, whatever would happen, she would come back home that evening. Everything had a beginning and an ending, and that day would end too, just like the others.
She arrived at Monarch Tower at 9:05, and immediately walked to the elevator to reach the designated meeting room.
The whole floor was empty, and the only sound Sofia could hear came from a bird outside the nearest window, chirping merrily.
The lack of any human presence, added to the fact that all was quiet, unnerved Sofia even more. She began pacing back and forth and checking her watch every 10 seconds.
At 9:12 Sofia couldn't take it anymore: her heart was beating so fast she thought her chest would burst, and she tried her best to remain calm.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps approaching, and she froze there, waiting…
Paul Serene emerged holding a cup of coffee and carrying a folder under his arm. He was wearing a navy blue rigging coat, a dark blue shirt with a black sweater on and matching jeans. It didn't seem like he was going to come back to work after the meeting judging by his more casual apparel.
He stopped for a moment when he came face to face with Sofia, and both just stared at each other without speaking. He then mustered a polite smile and opened the door to the meeting room 03C and held it for Sofia.
She stepped inside the dark room seconds before Paul punched the switch, and a bright light now illuminated the long table placed in the middle of the room.
Paul gestured for her to take any seat she liked, and she did as she was instructed, while he sat in front of her.
Sofia was sitting politely, her hands folded on her lap and was trying her best to look calm and relaxed. Paul had extended his arms on the table and intertwined the fingers of both his hands and was staring intently at Sofia. She couldn't hold his gaze for too long, however, and resolved to stare at the ceiling.
She returned to look at him when she heard him sigh.
"Listen, Sofia. I won't lie to you. You have been one of the most dedicated and faithful employees I have ever had. You have done things no one else before has managed to do, and in such a short period of time. You have given me another chance, you saved my life! I will never forget that…" he started. Sofia was listening intently now, her heart beating fast.
"Even before leaving for London, I started noticing something strange. One of my employees here was looking for the same time machine I have been looking for the past years too. Martin and Henry helped me with the research, and we discovered it is one of your friends, Julia Logan" he explained, pausing after revealing Sofia her former friend's name. Sofia widened her eyes in surprise and confusion.
"Julia?" she asked. Paul simply looked at her without saying anything for a while.
"Your friend apparently wants to become a time-traveler for some unknown reasons, but definitely nothing good can come out of this" continued Paul in a dangerous voice. Sofia didn't like the way he kept saying 'your friend'.
"Martin and I are trying to track her down, but she seems to have mysteriously disappeared. We don't think, of course, that she is working alone. She must be getting some help" Paul spoke slowly, his voice soft and yet dangerous. Sofia was registering every word and every small movement, like a pray studying its predator to find an escape.
"Why did you want to see me today, Paul?" Sofia asked, incapable of controlling her shaky voice.
Paul leaned back in his chair and studied her face before replying "I think you know why, Sofia."
"I have nothing to do with Julia! We used to be friends, and then she suddenly became strange and asked to be moved to another department and never spoke to me or Karin ever again" Sofia retorted.
"I know you have nothing to do with her. As I told you many times, I trust you. But I don't know if I can trust your other friend, Karin…" he said.
"Karin? She would never do something like that! She hasn't spoken to Julia in ages!" Sofia tried to explain.
At this point, Paul simply smirked and opened the folder he had put on the table. Inside there were pictures of Karin and Julia together.
"These must be old ones. Where did you get them from?" Sofia asked.
"This" Paul replied taking one particular picture showing Karin and Julia standing alone outside Sofia's office "this was taken a few months ago, after Miss Logan had been moved to another department. She had no rights to be there, and neither did your friend Karin. Martin himself took the picture, and he said it was past the normal working hours".
"Hold on a second" interrupted Sofia, her eyes widening in realization. She had seen that scene before, but it was different. In her memories, Julia was standing outside her office, while Sofia was hiding behind a desk, but she was talking to someone else. Suddenly, her memories seemed hazy, and she couldn't picture anymore the person she was originally talking to, nor could she remember their name.
"What is it?" Paul frowned.
"I…This is not right…" stuttered Sofia, while desperately trying to remember.
"Sofia, what is it?" Paul repeated, now more urgently.
"I have seen this before, I was in my office working overtime. And I remember Julia standing outside, but she was not talking to Karin. This has been manipulated so you would mistrust Karin. But I can't seem to remember who Julia was talking to…" Sofia explained, pressing both her hands against her temples.
"That's not much to go on, Sofia" Paul said shaking his head "Martin took this picture himself."
"Maybe he modified it! There are programs, you know. Like Photoshop" retorted Sofia, angry at the fact Paul seemed to trust Martin more than he trusted her.
"I trust Martin, he has been loyal since the beginning and I know he wouldn't do something like that. And yet, I have already had the pictures analyzed by Charlie Wincott, and they have not been manipulated" replied Paul.
Sofia gave him an exasperated look. She had never liked Hatch, but she knew she had no way to prove Paul that his most trusted coworker might be a traitor. But Sofia had to admit she had no idea why he would be doing something like that. It was in his interest too to make Paul's plan work in order to save his life. Neither could she understand why Julia was after a time machine. But she was confident enough that Karin had nothing to do with the whole thing.
"Sofia, I know it's difficult for you, but I must ask you a special favor: you need to keep a close watch on Karin. If you notice anything weird or suspicious, even the smallest thing, you must report to me and me only immediately. Can you do this for me?" Paul asked.
"I know Karin has nothing to do with this…" Sofia tried to defend her friend until the very end, but she didn't know what to think anymore.
"Just keep an eye on her, will you?" repeated Paul, and Sofia nodded.
Before leaving the room, Paul called her name. "Sofia, thank you" he said while stroking her cheek with his hand. Sofia felt butterflies in her stomach, but immediately heated herself: would she betray her friend just because Paul Serene had used his seductive moves on her? No, she had to find out what was really going on. And so, she smiled at Paul and left the room without another word, only to walk straight to her office, where she knew she would find Karin.
Once there, however, she didn't find any trace of the girl. It didn't seem like her friend had been there at all. Sofia then walked to Dr. Kim's lab, and asked him if he had seen Karin anywhere. He seemed confused, but shook his head and told her he hadn't seen the researcher since the Christmas party.
Sofia began to get worried, and tried calling her friend on her phone, but she didn't answer.
She had a feeling something bad was happening: it was not like her to skip work and not pick up her phone. Tons of questions started to cross her mind: why did Julia want a time machine? Who was she really talking to outside Sofia's office? Why couldn't she suddenly remember? Were the pictures Paul had shown her real? Why wasn't Karin answering her, when she had seen her the day before and she had looked perfectly normal?
Sofia found herself running to the parking lot, where she quickly located her car and drove to Karin's apartment. She rang the bell and knocked the door multiple times, but didn't receive an answer. One of Karin's neighbors, bothered by all the noise Sofia was making, came out and asked her, quite rudely, what she wanted.
"I am looking for my friend, Karin! Have you seen her?" Sofia asked panting.
The middle-aged man stared at Sofia suspiciously before answering he had last seen her earlier that day, when he was walking his dog. Karin had apparently looked like she was in a trance, and didn't say hi back to him.
"Ok, where did you see her last time?" Sofia continued.
"I always take Marshmallow to the woods, not too far from Riverport University. That girl was wandering around there all alone and, I tell ya, that was creepy as f-"
"Thank you, gotta go!" interrupted Sofia, who ran to the exit.
She decided to ignore her pride for the sake of her best friend and quickly sent a text message to Paul to inform him where she was going, in case something would happen, before driving as fast as possible to the woods outside the University.
She parked the car at the students' parking lot, and entered the woods. She started following the narrow path between the trees, taking careful steps in order to avoid the fat roots and the large branches on the ground. She walked for a while, with no sound at all other than her own footsteps and the chirping of some birds. The woods started to become thicker and darker while Sofia proceeded towards the heart of the place. The sunrays weakly penetrated through the thick foliage, projecting light green shades on her face and everything around her.
"Sofia?" said a voice behind her, and Sofia quickly turned around, her heart beating fast.
It was Karin, who had a horrible look: her hair was a mess, as if she had woken up and left without brushing it first, she had no make-up with dark bags under her eyes and her white shirt and jeans had some bloody cuts where the sharp branches had scratched her. She looked in a confused state, and was staggering towards Sofia.
"Karin! What happened to you?" Sofia asked while running to support her friend, both relieved to see her alive and worried for her state.
"I- I don't know… I don't remember how I got here… But Sofia, you must leave immediately!" her friend told her with a shaky voice.
"What are you talking about? Karin, what's going on?" Sofia tried to press her friend, but Karin looked suddenly horrified, her gaze fixed somewhere behind Sofia. She also turned to see what had shocked Karin so much, and saw Julia standing a few feet away from them, a malicious smirk on her face.
"Hello there, Sofia" Julia said "long time no see."
Sofia knew immediately that something was wrong: Karin was too terrified by Julia, and the other girl looked somehow different, and yet there was something familiar in her demeanor. She reminded her of Paul when he had lost control in Dr. Mason's lab.
"Julia, what have you done?" Sofia asked in shock.
"I'm happy you asked. You see, when you told us you were working on a cure, the same one we all were supposed to find as a team, before leaving with Paul Serene for London where you actually found one –what a coincidence! -, I immediately realized the cure was for Serene himself, because he was turning into a Shifter" Julia started to speak with a horrible smile on her face.
"I must admit, I was utterly annoyed by the fact you got a promotion after working for Monarch for only one year, while people like me have dedicated all their life to the cause without even having to exchange a single word with Serene" Julia spat the words with fierce and anger, which created a red distortion around her hands. Sofia noticed but stood there, unable to think what to do to save both her own life and Karin's. She had to think quickly.
"But I have been a good student, yes. I have been researching, asking questions to the right people, played the part of the interested employee who wanted to learn more so Dr. Kim could give me just the information I needed and, in the end, I found what I was looking for" continued Julia.
"The time machine!" Sofia exclaimed "the one Paul is looking for!"
"No, not that crap!" Julia retorted shaking her head "Freaking William Joyce hid it too well, I must admit. But I found something much better than a mere machine! I found a natural one, a portal in time which brought me to the day a much younger and more inexperienced Paul Serene, with the help of his former best friend, activated the time machine at Riverport University creating the fracture. Of course, I made sure it happened…" and Julia giggled.
"What do you mean… You made sure the fracture happened?" asked Sofia as she widened her eyes.
"Oh yes! I spent a long time into the past, hiding in the shadows and striking as soon as I had the opportunity. William Joyce was already reluctant to take part to the experiment, but his calculations were correct: the time machine was supposed to work perfectly. I, however, made sure to erase the original calculations made by Joyce and add some of my own. Joyce realized, of course, and tried to warn Paul. But you should have seen his younger counterpart, Sofia. You would have found him adorable! So determined and stubborn, so very afraid to fail, he called William's brother, Jack, who took the first plane to come to his friend's rescue like a lost puppy, and here we are!" Julia finished with a theatrical gesture "I was there when the fracture occurred. I made it happen. I witnessed Paul and Jack obtain their power, and got a souvenir myself!"
At this point, Julia opened one arm and a large branch, which was lying on the ground just behind Sofia, returned to its original position on top of a majestic tree. It reattached itself to the trunk for a few instants before snapping again and falling right on top of Karin's head with a sickening crack. Sofia screamed her lungs out and rushed to help her friend, who was laying motionless on the ground. Julia laughed and Sofia felt warm tears run down her cheeks, anger boiling inside her.
"WHY? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" Sofia screamed.
"Why, because we are the chosen ones! We are the ones who will survive the fracture and take over the world to create a new one. And you're not part of it, Sofia" Julia continued with a dangerous edge in her voice "and nor are you, Paul."
Sofia widened her eyes in surprise when she heard Julia say his name, and turned around just in time to see something dark spring past her. Paul materialized in front of Julia to hit her, but she teleported behind Sofia and grabbed her neck. Sofia was sure she would die when she felt Julia's hands tighten around her jaw and neck as if to snap it, but Paul immediately radiated a blast of energy which hit Julia square in the face, sending her flying to the ground. Paul then teleported by Sofia and grabbed her arm, when Julia stood up, her defying look darkening even more until suddenly time accelerated until it was completely dark around them, the only source of light coming from the moon above them, palely shining through the thickness of the woods.
"How did she do that?" Paul asked. Sofia couldn't see his face clearly, but she could swear there was an edge of panic in his normally controlled voice.
Suddenly, something hit Paul in the back, and he was launched forward and collapsed onto the ground.
"You see, Sofia" Julia continued as if they had never been interrupted, walking slowly towards her "I needed Paul to believe Karin was helping me. We couldn't risk you running to Paul and blurting out who really was behind all this. This person's identity shall be kept a secret until the moment arrives, and you have unfortunately seen them. If it wasn't for your nosiness, maybe Karin would still be alive. And so, we had to change your perception of time and reality, so to modify your memory. We then replaced the person you saw with your dear friend Karin. Of course, it was never her but then again, this will perhaps teach you how to mind your own business, next time. Oh wait… there will be no next time!"
Julia then materialized by her side and hit her hard in her ribs. Sofia felt them crack upon impact, unable to breathe as raw pain took over her senses. A scream, this time not hers, could be heard in the darkness and Julia was thrown backwards once again. Sofia fell to the damp ground and, before losing consciousness, she saw Paul surrounded by a red distortion and repeatedly hitting Julia so hard the girl eventually stopped laughing and began coughing up blood.
Then everything went black.