Double post!
Chapter Four:
Here's what I know about my parents. My father was invited to a law enforcement conference in England. He met my mom at the hotel bar and realized she was in trouble. He harbored her in his hotel room for the night and apparently did more than talk. She left before he woke up the next day. My father ended up dead the next night in a London alleyway.
Six months later, my mom shows at the BAU very pregnant with me. Her parents were international arms dealers and she joined the business. When she tried to opt out after seeing what the weapons she was selling illegally were doing, that's when the threats came.
She owed people money. The BAU agreed to keep her safe. They tried to get her into witness protection, but it didn't work out. After she delivered me, she left a note in the hospital for my mom and dad to care of me and that she'd be in touch when it was safe. The only name she gave was Jane Smith.
I never really bought the story. My BAU family shared it in bits and pieces. I would try to read their minds, but I think they practiced mindfulness before talking to me about it, which clouds my abilities. I can sense they're scared, of what I don't know.
I told Uncle Dave and Matt I was going to bed early. Rose texted me a few times, and I texted back I wasn't up for talking. She got it, as Uncle Matt had been abducted during one of his last cases and that scared her good.
I logged on to my computer and Googled: "Time Lady," like what was printed on the onesie. There were mostly posts about home makers saving time, and tips for how to do makeup quickly.
Then I saw an article called: "The Last Time Lady: Whatever happened to Doctor Who."
I had heard of the show but never really paid attention. I guess it was a big TV show years ago, but not recently.
There was a picture of a woman with short blond hair with dark roots like mine. She was holding a metal rod with a yellow light on the top like the one I found in the safe.
Skimming the article, I found out it was about an alien who traveled through time and space in a ship that looked like a police box, but was bigger on the inside. She had thirteen other faces (different actors), all male, as she could changer her body when facing immanent death. She often traveled with "companions" from Earth, England to be exact, as that was where the show was produced.
There weren't many details about why the show stopped after the episode "Spyfall." The BBC cited budgetary concerns and fans were generally dissatisfied with the last two seasons of the show. The actors moved on and didn't speak of what happened, though none had landed high-profile roles since then.
I picked up on the word Gallifrey. Googling it shocked me. It was all circles, like my doodles. There was a code for how to write in Gallifreyan. I dug up my notebooks and started translating.
I was writing the alphabet. I also kept writing a word that was indecipherable. It was gibberish in English. It must be a name.
There was a knock on my door. I cleared my browsing history, turned off the computer, and dashed in to bed.
"You okay, Astra?" Uncle Matt asked as he quietly opened the door.
I pretended to sleep.
He closed the door.
None of this made sense. Why did my doodles resemble something out of a TV show that had been off the air for thirteen years? Why did the Doctor look vaguely like me? Could I really be something far stranger than even I could have imagined?
I thought about my two hearts. I was confused in first grade when asked to place my hand over my heart for the pledge of allegiance. This I had Googled extensively. There were only three other cases like mine in the world. My doctor was a heart specialist who got famous off an article he wrote about me when I was a baby. I was never named, but some weird people did show up, my brothers told me. We moved a couple years later.
Looking at the gray cylinder I took, it looked ordinary but I somehow felt it had a presence. It was hard to explain. Holding it in my hand, it didn't weigh much. The metal surface felt cool to the touch. I hid it under my pillow. It was another mystery.
Sleeping proved difficult. I was worried about my dad. I was in the middle of this investigation. My doodles also happened to resemble something out of an old sci-fi TV show whose lead character I look something like. Eventually, I rolled into sleep.
…
I woke up to the sound of my phone beeping at close to six in the morning. Rose sent me a video file. I opened it and it sent chills down my spine.
My dad was wearing a bomb vest with a digital counter. It had eight hours on it.
He was speaking mostly in gibberish except one word was clear. He repeated the gibberish line. The only word discernable was my name.
My pillow lit up. The cylinder had turned blue and for some reason the video changed.
"In eight hours, you will give us Astralina, or her adoptive father will be the first of many casualties in the war for the Doctor's child."
I quickly deleted the conversation from my phone, and hid the cylinder deeper in my bed.
Minutes later, there was a knock on my door. Uncle Matt came in.
"Give me your phone," he said.
"Why?" I asked.
"I'll explain later," he said. "Give it to me."
"Okay," I said and handed it to him.
He then took my computer. I knew better than to play too stupid.
"Uncle Matt, what don't you want me to see?"
"We don't want you to see it until we have more answers," he said. "Go back to sleep."
Today was technically a school day, so my internal clock was already awake, even before I saw the video.
I pulled out the cylinder and stared at it. It was gray again.
"What is going on?" I asked it.
It lit up red, followed by white, and then red again. It then reverted to gray.
"That wasn't helpful," I said and stared at my ceiling of stars.
The answer was up there.