Some of the Travels of Sophie

Travelling Alone

"Sophie?" Louise's voice caused her to look up from her spot on the path. "Sophie, what's wrong? What are you doing here?"

She couldn't tell her. She didn't think it was even possible to speak. Sophie opened her mouth and began to make incoherent sounds, choking on non-existent words.

"Sophie!" Louise was worried now. She stared down at Sophie, fear and empathy in her eyes as she sat forward in her wheelchair. "Sophie, are you okay? Just nod or shake your head, yes or no?"

Sophie shook her head, causing Louise to enter hysterics. After a brief moment of Louise trying to get her to speak, Sophie looked up with cold eyes and said the words she'd never wanted to say.

"Aldred is dead."

Suddenly Sophie found the world shifting around her, and she was back on Shalron, watching the monster kill Aldred all over again. It ripped him apart as she screamed....

Sophie woke abruptly, covered in sweat and shaking violently. It had happened again. Another nightmare, how was this fair? She stood up from the couch where she slept and crossed to the bathroom, turned on the tap and started splashing water on her face. Then back to the couch she went and sat down, her face in her hands.

Why did she have to dream?

It had been a month since it happened. Sophie had been on Earth for a whole month. Ever since, she kept reliving the event, and the traumatic experience that followed. Nightmares weren't something that she normally experienced. She remembered having nightmares when she was about nine, but those ones were different. When she woke up all she had to do was remind herself the nightmare wasn't real, whereas now..... well she couldn't do that.

Deciding not to dwell on her nightmare, Sophie lay back down on the couch, closed her eyes and allowed sleep to overcome her again.

When she woke up the next morning, it was to the sound of birds chirping cheerfully outside of her window. Oh, how cliché.

Louise had made her way into the kitchen next to the lounge room, and Sophie could hear her cluttering around in there, probably heating up breakfast.

When Sophie joined Louise in the kitchen, her elder watched the young girl sadly. Louise had been devastated to hear the news of Aldred's death, and to see Sophie so cut up about it was heartbreaking. Over the past month, Louise had seen Sophie cry, blame herself for her companions death, wallow in her own misery and try, in vain, to pull herself back together.

Louise knew that Ronan Schofer, the head of Aldred's department, the one who oversaw all the work with the teleport watch, was becoming impatient with Sophie.

"We need to get Sophie back out there, Louise!" he had complained to the old lady the previous day at work. "The information that she and Aldred brought to us has been vital to putting together the puzzle that is the Eridanus' disappearance, let alone all the scientific information they've researched while in the field, and if she doesn't start again soon, I'm going to have to consider replacing her."

"You can't do that Ronan." Louise had warned him. "Sophie sees it as her duty to find the expedition, so you can't ask her to part with that teleport watch. The poor thing is just traumatized from seeing Aldred die, and to be honest I can't blame her! For a girl of her age to have been through something like that is just horrible, in fact you're lucky she's still sane. Just give her a couple more weeks to recover, please, and I assure you she'll be back to normal."

Ronan Schofer had scowled at this, but eventually gave in. "Alright, she has one week, but after that I'll have no choice but to take action." Then he had walked away, leaving Louise to try to think of a way to fix the poor broken girl who lived in her home.