Sophie looked around in the usual places for her spare key but couldn't find it. Maybe her parents had taken it into the house because they had forgotten theirs. So Sophie knocked on her front door and waited for one of her family to open the door. Breathing deeply Sophie breathed in the smell of sweet pea's growing up the trellis as she waited. The door opened in front of her and there was her mum standing on the porch with a shocked expression on her face.

"Hey mum in back."

"Sophie is it really you?" Her mum gasped out in shock as tears started running down her face.

"Yes mum it's me." Sophie responded tears now running down her face. Sophie's mum pulled her into a hug which was more like a death grip than a normal hug.

"Where have you been we almost gave up hope of ever finding you, the police stopped searching 6 months ago?"

"6 months!" Sophie shouted. "How long have I been missing for exactly?"

"You've been gone for over a year."

Sophie looked like a ghost, all of the blood slowly drained from her face so that she now could do a remarkably great impression of a ghost. Her legs also gave out and she slowly sank to her knees in front of her parents.

"It can't be a year, It just can't I have only been away for a few days."

Sophie's mother sank to her knees and hugged her daughter as if her life depended on it.

"Honey where have you been? Did anyone hurt you or hold you against you will?"

Sophie looked decidedly blank her brain had gone into overdrive; there must have been a mistake.

"This isn't right I must have come through the wrong portal. Maybe this is the future and there is another portal which will take me home to the past." Sophie was talking to herself trying to make sense of the situation she was now in.

"Sweet pea, what are you talking about?" her father asked while giving very worried looks at his wife.

"I need to find Howl." Sophie cried out jumping up and nearing knocking her mother to the ground.

"Who is Howl, did he take you from us?" Her father quickly grabbed hold of her upper arms to stop her running off into the night and leaving them again. He had an angry look on his face at the thought of his daughter being kidnapped.

"No, Howl helped me get back; I need to find him he can probably fix this."

"Please Sophie, just come into the house, we can have a cup of tea and you can tell us all about it." Her mother begged as she grabbed hold of one of her hands and led her to the kitchen.

"But what about Howl?"

"We will find him later, now sit down and let me get you a nice cuppa."

Sophie sat down in one of the kitchen chairs and just stared around her. Everything she once knew had changed, there was now different wallpaper and furniture, it was as it the house was no longer her own. Her mother busied herself with making the tea, while her dad went to the medicine cabinet and got some extra strength sleeping tablets and put them in one of the cups so that Sophie wouldn't notice.

"She's home, I can't believe she's here. I don't want her out of my sight for a while. I need to know she's safe, I need to know what happened to her." Sophie's mum whispered to her husband.

"I know it's a miracle. I have added some sleeping pills to her tea. It looks like she could do with some rest and this way she won't leave tonight."

"Sophie dear I need you to tell me what happened to you. Where have you been?"

Sophie told her parents exactly what had happened to her from the time she entered the forest to when she finally returned.

"Where is this Howl now?" Her dad asked trying to keep her calm so that the pills had some time to kick in.

"I told him to leave me alone, he's very annoying."

"Sophie that was very rude of you, if this man has done all you have said he has done for you then your behaviour is unacceptable."

"I know I just wanted to get home, I'm sorry." Sophie yawned as her eyes started to droop."

"Honey why don't you go to bed?" Your room is still exactly as you left it."

Sophie got up from the table unsure why she was suddenly so tired but bed seemed like the best solution at the moment.

"Her story can't be real. What's wrong with her? Do you think its drugs?" Sophie's mother asked.

"I have no idea but I intend to find out tomorrow. We will take her to the hospital in the morning. I want to get her checked out she's come back to us though and that's all I care about at the moment."

Howl was wandering the streets just staring at all the objects around him. He had finally got some of his powers to work, it seemed that this world had magic slightly different from his own world and all he needed to do was to get on the right wavelength (so to speak) to allow him access.

The shops and gadgets in them left Howl very wide eyed, he had never seen such technology before. There were screens with tiny people in them, and small boxes which seemed to be playing music. There was also so many smells, Howl's mouth was watering. He was walking past a pizza shop and he got a smell of the delights inside. He was drawn to the shop like a moth to a flame. Howl managed to change the money he had for the currency in this world with a little bit of magic. The Pizza was so different from anything that he had ever tasted in his world.

"Why haven't we invented something like this in our world? It's so simple." He muttered to himself.

Howl carried on down the streets for a few more minutes and then decided it was time to catch up with Sophie. Maybe she could make sense of all the amazing things he had seen today. Her world didn't use the magic it had but boy did they know how to create things.

Thank you for the feedback I have been getting, it has inspired me to write some more. I'm not sure how good this is as I am going to have to get back into this story. So please bear with me.

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