Through Time and Impossible

Chapter 10

Sophia put her hands on her hips to take a breather. This ball was everything that she could have ever imagined. It was so beautiful and lively. "What time is it?" Sophia asked Elizabeth who was right beside her as they stood by the way hall and drank some water.

She looked down the hall at the clock. "It's 9 o'clock." Elizabeth said and then looked around herself. She hadn't seen Elijah all night and she was starting to worry a little bit. She knew he didn't like these things, but she practically forced him to come. She liked him to come to all of these events with her because to her, he was family. "Have you seen Elijah? It seems he's been missing almost the whole night."

Sophia didn't pay attention to the last two sentences that Elizabeth said, instead she paid attention to the time. She didn't know it was that late. She couldn't be gone this long. She needed to get back or her parents would ask too many questions, questions she couldn't answer. "Wait, it's nine?!" Sophia said and put the glass of water on the table. "I have to go." she said and started to walk briskly down the hallway to the library.

Elizabeth didn't follow her, instead just stood her ground. She knew that Sophia was going somewhere that Elizabeth couldn't follow. At the end of the day, Elizabeth needed to stay where she was. "You'll come back soon though, right?" Elizabeth said calling after her.

Sophia stopped right before the library and turned on her heels to face Elizabeth again. She was positive that she would be back. This time period had such a feeling of adventure and she didn't want to miss out on it. "Yeah. I'll be back." Sophia said and with that walked into the library. She walked over to the book but stopped when she heard voices from behind a shelf of books.

"He's here? How? In this city?" a man's voice said in a hushed voice.

"Yes, sir. I'm not sure how he made it this far but he knows the whereabouts about the book. My shield can only do so much against him." Another man's voice said.

Sophia froze in place to hear what was being said. Call it being noisy but she wanted to know who this person was and why the people behind the books seemed so concerned about it. "Should I tell the family?"

"Let's not do anything hasty. Let's wait to see what he does next."

There was a second of silence as if the other man was mulling over the words that were just spoken. "But my family has a right to know." A man with a cape and a royal blue pants and a white button-down shirt said as walked out from behind the shelf in the library. He looked like he was someone important. He must have been Elizabeth's father, they both had the same eye color.

Panic filled Sophia as she looked at him. She knew she had been caught listening and there was no excuse for her. She couldn't hide the fact that she was eavesdropping.

The man looked at her with a frown. He had never seen this girl before and was worried that she was working for the other side. "Now what do we have here?" He said looking at Sophia.

"I,I,I..." she stuttered and took a couple steps back and bumped into a table in shock as she tried to think of an excuse to cover her.

"She's Elizabeth's friend I do believe. Don't worry about her. I think she meant no harm." Abraham said as he emerged from the other side of the shelf.

Sophia couldn't believe her ears, Abraham was defending her. A little bit ago he said he didn't even know her.

"Ah, very well then. But why are you here?" Elizabeth's dad said as he walked up to Sophia to get a better look at her.

"I had to get away from the crowd, it was too much for me." Sophia lied easily to him, calmness and composer returning to her face.

He eyed her carefully, making sure she was telling the truth. "Naturally. Abraham, I think I will retire for tonight" He said and walked out of the room.

"I have to go too. Goodbye." She said and started to walk out of the room, trying to avoid being with Abraham alone. She didn't know how she really got here or how Abraham got here but she had a feeling that Abraham wasn't someone to trust.

Maybe he was supposed to be in this time all along but she had a feeling that she wasn't supposed to be here. She was trying her hardest to blend in and she had a feeling Abraham would call her out.

"Wait a minute miss. I would like a word." Abraham said calmly to Sophia.

Sophia stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turned around to face him, fearing what he would do. She was more afraid that he would make her stay here forever as punishment. "Yes?" She said while she tried to composure her face as slowly as she turned to face Abraham.

"What are you doing here?" he said strictly.

"I.... well, what are you doing here? You're from our time." she said confidently as if she deserved an answer to her question first.

He shook his head at her. "Wrong. I'm from here but I go to your time often."

She didn't understand why he went to her time. "Why?" Sophia asked innocently, taking a step closer to Abraham, wondering how he does it and if anyone else could do the same from his time.

"Your grandmother didn't want you to get into this." He whispered inaudibly for Sophia to hear. He remembered the talk he once had with Victoria, she was very strict in not letting Sophia travel until the time was right. She was convinced that Sophia wasn't ready just yet. She asked him to watch over her, keep her safe and if the time was right he would then show her this. "Why are you here?"

Sophia was taken back by his bluntness, to her, it sounded like he didn't want her here, like she was breaking a big rule. "I found a ring and, and you know what? It doesn't matter. I'm going home." Sophia said, frustrated at him. She thought that he had no right talking to her like that. She gave one last look at him and then opened the old leather-bound book on the table and in a second, found herself once again back in her time.

She smiled at herself as she found herself in her time with the lights in the library up and the smell of dinner cooking wafting down the halls. She put her hands on her hips and felt the silky fabric beneath her hands, she realized that she was still wearing the dress from the 1890's. "Oh great. I'm still dressed like a BBC film." she said to herself and ran down the back halls so no one would see her get to her room.

After she got changed, she walked downstairs again to see her brothers play video games in the family room. All the boxes were gone from the room and it looked like it was almost completely unpacked. Her family was really settling in here. She frowned, her true fear was that she was going to be the only one that never really settled in.

"Hey, mum was looking for you." Alessandro said not even taking his eyes off the TV screen.

She was convinced that her brother had some kind of ninja powers to know that she was behind him. "Ok." Sophia said and walked into the kitchen to find her mum making cookies. "Did you want me?" Sophia asked when she saw her mum.

"I was going to ask you if you wanted to help me make these but I'm almost done now. Where were you?" Lucy said and turned to face her daughter with oven mitts still on her hands.

"I was reading, in the library."

"My daughter was reading? In that old library? The one that smells musty? Are you ok?" she said and smiled. Lucy found it odd that she was reading, in the states, Sophia never wanted to read in her free time. Maybe she starting to change her hobbies for the better and stop spending so much time on her phone.

"Those books are really, really interesting. It's magical." Sophia said and smiled back at her. If only her mum really knew what Sophia was doing, maybe then she would have a different opinion.

"This whole place is full of magic." She said and turned back to tend to her cookies.

Sophia nodded then walked back to upstairs. Her head was spinning with what went on at the party, it felt like a dream. She remembered the spin of dresses, the smell of food, the clinking of glasses, it seemed so real but a part of her wondered if it really was. She wanted to tell everyone about what happened, what she saw and who she met but she knew no one would believe her. For the time being and maybe forever, this was going to be her secret. When she got into her room she found Abraham sitting on her bed, waiting.

She felt her stomach drop as she saw him. There was no escape from him here. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what he wanted from her, but she wanted him to leave her alone. "What are you doing here?" Sophia spat.

"I wasn't done talking to you." He said kindly as if they were the best of friends. He didn't want to be on a bad foot with Sophia. He wanted to be friends, just like he was friends with her grandmother. It was his job to watch after them and he wanted to do that as friends.

"I was." Sophia said and turned to walk out of her room when she did that though, the door closed on its own preventing her from leaving. She tried to open it but it was locked. Panic filled her as she turned slowly on her heels to face back to Abraham who was now standing up looking at her with the same kind look to his face. She was convinced that he was going to scold her and punish her right here and now. "Did you just do that?" she managed to choke out.

"Yes I did, in fact." He said pleasantly.

Sophia looked at him from head to toe and reassessed that he probably wasn't a threat right now and plus it was not like she could leave this room right now anyhow. "Ok, you have my attention," Sophia said and sat on her bed. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I want to know how you go into my time." Abraham knew that her grandmother didn't want her traveling so soon. He felt like he failed as a watcher when he looked at Sophia. If she was going to time travel the least he could do was tell her some information.

"I would like to know how you get into my time." She said calmly but impatiently back to him who was now messing with her little trinkets on her wooden dresser. She wanted to know who did he think he was? Forcing her to talk, playing with her things?

"Now is not the time for games Sophia Romano. How did you get into that time?" He asked and turned to face her again, the pleasant look gone from his face. He was starting to loose patience with this girl. Her grandmother wasn't this firery, why couldn't she be more like her? That would make his job much easier.

Sophia didn't feel so big and mighty anymore. She was scared of Abraham. She didn't know what he wanted and that frightened her. "I, I found a ring." She said nervously as she messed with it on her hand.

"Is that the ring?" He asked and walked up to her. He stood over her and eyed the ring. He couldn't believe that he was seeing it face to face. He had heard rumors of this ring but he had never seen it in person before. That was why she could travel about in time without any help.

"Yes."

"May I see it?" he asked the kindness returning to his face again.

"Yeah, sure." She said and took it off and gave it to him.

"This can't be." He said in awe as he looked at the ring he held in his hands. It was the ring, he was sure of it. He hard heard stories about how the ring chooses the wearer throughout history and now it must have been her. This ring had been lost for hundreds of years and it gave off so much power, he could feel the power run off of it into his hands. He wondered if Sophia could feel it just as much as he could. "Is it true?"

"What's true?" Sophia said and got up from the bed. He was being so cryptic with her and it frightened her even more.

He sighed. He didn't have any other choice anymore. The most he could do was prepare her for what was going to happen next. "Your Gran didn't want me to do this so soon if not at all, but it looks like I have no choice anymore." He said and gave her back the ring.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your family is a magic bloodline."

"Like Harry Potter? Are you going to tell me I get to go to Hogwarts?" Sophia asked sarcastically and rolled her eyes at him. She was not the one to believe in magic and this just sounded farfetched. All her life her parents told her about how untrue that stuff was, now she was told it was real? She was sure he was messing with her.

"What is that?" He paused and looked at her, not understanding who this Harry Potter person was. "Well, no. Your family is a long line of blood from the druids."

"Like the people that made the Stone Henge?" She asked, the gears in her head turning as she thought about all the British history she knew about.

"Exactly." He said and smiled, happy that she was getting it. Her grandmother told him that she was a bright girl and he was starting to see it.

"So can I move stuff with my mind then or something else that is cool?" Sophia asked hopefully.

"No, each family is set to do something different. Like me, I'm what you would call a watchentager or watcher for sort." He said and took a seat on her bed again. This was going to be a long talk. She didn't know anything. He was amazed that she didn't even believe in magic. What did her mother and Victoria teach her? It was their duty to teach the girl about magic.

"Ok but what is my family?" Sophia said getting excited. This was all so new to her, she wanted to know everything about this new magic right now.

"Your family line is one of a kind, called the guardians."

"What can we do? What do we guard?" She asked, wanting to learn everything he had to tell her.

He debated for a second if he should really tell her what she did. Finally he made the choice to say something but when he opened his mouth, in his mind's eye he saw Elizabeth calling his name. She looked upset and he knew he had to go to her. "I have to go." He said quickly and with that in a flash and a gust of wind, he was gone.

"Wait!" Sophia said and tried to grab him but it was too late, he was nowhere to be seen. She was alone in her room with a million questions and no one to answer them.