The Runaway and the Timehopper

Chapter 3

"Geez, it is cold here!"

Jack was prepared to expect some horrible, unexpected machination but he never expected it to have such an eccentric demeanour.

The first thing he noticed was a blue box. It looked about double his standing height, but it was hard to judge as he was prone. It was also absurdly vibrant—the blue was a jarringly bright shade of cerulean that he hadn't seen since he was six years old, and it had all these weird patterns printed and glued onto it.

Marked on that box was a semicircular doorway with a ray of light flooding a select portion of the fog. Inside that beam you could see particles of rain being pelted into the ground and detached bubbles of mist floating in the air.

And behind all of that water was a silhouette of a woman with a huge bun on either side of her head and long strands of hair coming out of them.

"Man, I'm shaking just standing in the doorway!" she said, shivering. "Kinda depressing too, not gonna lie..."

She looked like she was going to say something else but then she just stopped.

Why did she stop talking?

Why was she looking right at him?

"Oh, hi there!" She stepped out of the light and waved, revealing an hourglass figure with dark blue hair and so much exposed skin that Jack averted his eyes—literally only her body and the upper half of her thighs were covered by her dress. "Didn't see ya just now, I was so distracted..."

Drat, she noticed him.

Now what?

"Hey, don't run! I'm not gonna hurtcha or anything!"

Jack hadn't even noticed that he was trying to back away in fear. Not that it would be much use anyway.

"What, you mute or somethin', kid?"

"H-hello, m-ma'am," Jack stuttered.

"So you can speak! Hooray!" She sounded so... overjoyed, especially with that silly smile... for no good reason...

"W-who are you, m-ma'am? H-how are you here, ma'am?"

"I could be asking the same about you," she said with a playful wink. "Shouldn't you be home asleep or somethin'?"

Jack couldn't say anything back.

"Oh..." The woman sighed. "So you're... oh, I'm so sorry, kid..."

"O-oh, no, it's, it's fine ma'am, I just—"

"No need to be so polite, buster!" That mood swing was quick. "You can just call me by name!"

"A-and..." Now he was confused. "What is that, ma'am?"

"My name? You see, I'm..." the strange lady paused for a moment before doing a twirl and a funny pose with two of her fingers on her right hand held up. "Sadrina. Sadrina Everlocke! That's my name, don't wear it out!"

Don't wear it out? What did that even mean?

"S-so do you want be referred to with your first name...? Or..."

"Yeah, just the first one."

"Umm..." Jack couldn't help but wonder what an odd name that was. "P-pleasure to meet you, Miss Sadrina..."

"Dude, just Sadrina's fine."

After hearing that statement, Jack stopped moving. He was no longer as petrified as before, but more intrigued in this strange character and their strange words.