In all honesty, Sophia had no idea where to go next. She remembered the general direction that Mr. Ham had dragged Timothy, but that wasn’t saying much. With the structure of the Ring there were only two directions you could go, left or right- or perhaps you could say up or down if you wanted to be a stickler about it. Thankfully this flaw in her planning was also her greatest asset, if she just walked forward long enough then surely she would loop back around if she failed to find her friend. So that’s what she did.

The girl was smart enough to stick to the sidelines, where the dim lights that lined the streets would barely be able to cast a glow on her. From her dark shadowy path, Sophia saw some things she wished she hadn’t. A door to one of the buildings swung open giving her just enough time to catch a glimpse of a wall full of large, impractical-looking guns hanging from hooks. Another place had a window, peeking inside she saw that it was a clothing shop which at first gave her a strange sense of relief- the thought of such a casual place brought back memories of the simpler days when she could shop at a store like a regular person. But on closer inspection, she saw that the ‘clothing’ in the store was more akin to armor than fashion with spikes and sawblades lining the fabric at strategic locations. The armor sat placed on mannequins of various alien shapes and sizes and a bright red sign on the wall advertised ‘deluxe hidden blades!’ However, the thing that really caught her eye came later when she spotted Mr. Ham walking up the street.

Unlike the girl, Mr. Ham walked in the dead center of the lane, unafraid to make his presence known. The hulking behemoth seemed strangely out of touch as if he didn’t know where he was going. Sophia could relate to that, and she figured he was the one who could fix it. Departing from the shadows, the girl in green made her way over to the pig man who regarded her like she was a cat that had just left a ‘present’ on the mat. “What did you do with Tim?” She asked, almost demanding.

Mr. Ham had no use for secrets. “Holding cell.” He grunted.

Sophia nodded- it was nice to get a clear answer for once. “Where’s that?”

The man’s piggish eyes narrowed. “Escaping?”

“No, I’m not trying to break him out.” Said the girl, although the thought had been in the back of her mind. “Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t know how.”

With the delicacy of a tank, Mr. Ham raised a hand and pointed to a hut with a metal door. Sophia didn’t say thanks, instead, she gave him a distant look as she made her way over to her destination. Her hands reached out and gripped the door, it was heavier than it looked. With some effort she was able to slide it open, the metal scraping against the street and leaving an ugly mark- not that it would be noticed from the rest of the dirt and grime.

Stepping inside Sophia took in her surroundings, immediately seeing Timothy in his holding cell. However, something was slightly off, and the girl’s eyebrows raised. “Timbo?” She asked, confused.

Timothy was standing in the back of his holding cell with his head buried into one of the corners. His hands were outstretched and gripping onto either wall, his nails almost burying into whatever strange material they were constructed out of. Sophia couldn’t see his face, only the dirty and matted blond hair that covered the back of his head, but she could tell that his jaw was moving. Was he speaking? She listened in closer, barely able to make out a rhythmic sound being repeated over and over like some sort of chant. “Timothy?” She spoke up louder.

The boy jumped as he turned around, “oh, Sophia! I didn’t notice you come in, so sorry!” He smiled as he walked over to the edge of his cage, nearly forgetting that there was a invisible wall keeping him inside. “You came to see me?”

“Yeah, couldn’t let you get lonely.” Sophia joked, although her face was nothing but serious.

“Oh dear, I hope I didn’t put you out!” The boy said looking down at his feet. “I’m so sorry I got myself into this mess, I know how much I must be worrying you all.”

Sophia walked over to him, eyeing him up and down. “Tim, what were you doing just now?” She gestured over to the corner where he had been standing.

Timothy blinked, “oh, that? I’m… not sure really.” His voice fell as he hugged himself. “I was kind of just… listening.”

“Listening to what?” Sophia suddenly felt uneasy, like she wasn’t alone with her friend right now. The hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention as she looked around the room, but no one was there.

The boy bit his lip, he seemed unsure of himself. “Nothing really, I just thought I heard something is all.” Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and he stared closely at her. “Sophia is something wrong?”

The girl laughed. “What isn’t?” Slowly she reached out a hand and touched the barrier in front of her. As she did, she felt a pressure pushing back and blue light rippled all around her like a stone tossed in a pond. “How are you holding up?”

With a comforting smile, Timothy copied his friend and placed a hand over the barrier as well, side by side it was clear that Sophia’s hand was slightly bigger. “Don’t worry about me, I’m doing fine! It’s you I’m worried about!” He frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay, I don’t mean to pry but it looks like you’ve been crying?”

Instinctively Sophia turned away and hid her face. “It must be the dust here; I swear to god this place is practically made of sludge.”

Timothy chuckled. “Don’t check the bottoms of your shoes, it’s a travesty down there!”

Sophia returned the laugh. “I’ll take your word for it.” It was strange, Sophia had only known Timothy for a matter of days and yet it felt like she knew him for her whole life. She wished this wasn’t the case, maybe then it wouldn’t feel so terrible to know that he could be dead in a couple of hours. The girl took a deep breath in, composing herself. “Alex wanted me to ask you some questions about what happened, is that alright?”

“Of course, ask me anything!” Timothy declared.

“So, we’re confused about what exactly went down. From our perspective, it looked like when the lights went out you grabbed Corpus’s gun and shot him dead!”

The boy practically gawked. “I would never!”

“I know you wouldn’t, I’m just saying how it looked.” Why did it feel like she was lying? “What happened on your side of things, why were you even there?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Timothy sat down on the floor cross-legged, his face full of concentration as he tried to remember the specifics. “Well, I was making that drink I owed WaldAcker at the bar. You see, Pollum gave me the bottles to do it myself, I think he may have been busy. To be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention to what was happening, making a drink that’s both purple and shiny is rather difficult when you try it. But after a while, I finished the drink and started walking over to where he was, and then everything went dark! For a second I thought that I may be unconscious again, but then I saw a bright flash of light and heard a bang- I guess that must have been the gunshot. The next thing I know I’m tripping over something, and I felt the glass slip from my hand! I apologized to whoever I fell over and as quickly as I could I tried to find the cup before anyone had a chance to step on it. I thought I found the handle when the lights turned back on, you can imagine my surprise when I saw what I was really holding!” The boy shivered.

“Is there anything else? Did you see who fired the shot?” Sophia inquired, hoping for anything else.

Timothy looked ashamed as he shook his head. “I’m sorry.” He put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes, Sophia noticed how tired he looked. “I’m afraid about tomorrow.”

Crossing her arms, Sophia joined her friend on the floor. She felt like there was a massive weight that was suddenly being pressed against her chest, though she did her best to not show it. “Listen, Tim, don’t worry about tomorrow alright? We’re going to solve this… somehow.” The girl hated how unsure she sounded. The words of Jenny McClain echoed inside of her head, you’re setting yourself up for failure, little dog.

“I’m not worried about dying,” Timothy spoke, his voice soft and precise. “I’m worried about you guys! I know I’m the only one who can fly the Lavender, if I can’t make it back then you may be stuck here forever! Oh, I know Neil would absolutely hate that! You guys deserve to get back to your homes, you deserve to be safe!”

“How can you not be worried about dying? You act like you don’t have a home to go back to.”

“I don’t.”

Sophia looked surprised. “Not even the orphanage?”

Timothy’s hair frazzled as he shook his head. “No, I think my time there was over. But I’m sure I can find a place, maybe an apartment or something?”

“Hey, if we all make it back alive you can stay at my place.” Sophia chuckled. “Though I’d doubt you’d want to. It’s the smallest little hut I could afford on a waiter’s salary!”

“You were a waiter?” Timothy’s eyes beamed. “That’s so cool! I bet you met a lot of nice people!”

“You’ve clearly never been a waiter before.” The girl could help but recall all her many horror stories. “Most people were nice, but the others were total douchebags! Once I had a guy come in and order everything off the menu and he didn’t leave a single cent behind for a tip!”

“How rude.” Timothy’s nose curled as if he smelt something rotten. “I was a sort of waiter once, back at the orphanage.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Mr. Graham had me on dinner duty and I had to pass everyone their plates and stuff. I’m afraid I wasn’t very good at it and I kept spilling the food everywhere, I guess I’ve got a terrible sense of balance!”

“Oh, you think that’s bad?” Sophia chimed. “Once I spilt a cup of hot chocolate right on top of a kid’s head!”

“No!”

“Yes!” She couldn’t help but chuckle. “If he wasn’t wearing a hat I would’ve been fired, hell I probably would’ve been sued!”

The two both let out little giggles that echoed through the room. It felt good to laugh, it had been ages since either of them had done so. Timothy looked over at his friend, he was amazed that she had gone through all the trouble to see him. He couldn’t understand why she would bother to do that; no one had ever done something so sweet for him before. It felt strange but oddly nice. But as he sat watching his friend, he saw her smile slip and her eyes drift. “Sophia, are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”

The girl let out a little chuckle, but it was an anxious one. Her hands squeezed together tightly as if she were holding something back. “No, I’m fine.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but it’s just that…” He hesitated. “You seem a bit sad.”

Sophia wanted to protest, cry out and say how wrong he was, but she was done with lying. “You remind me of someone.” She couldn’t believe she was actually saying it.

“Who?” The boy inquired gently.

The room was still as Sophia worked herself up to speak. She hated talking about herself in this way, but she hated keeping it in even more. “My little brother.”

“Really?” Timothy said with a smile. “That’s neat! If we do make it back to Earth I would love to meet him!”

The girl shook her head. “I’m afraid you can’t.” Her voice wavered. “He’s gone now.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Sophia said quickly. “His name was William… we were close.”

“That’s a lovely name!” The boy leaned in; his eyes couldn’t help but be filled with curiosity. “What was he like? If you don’t mind me asking, of course!”

“No, it’s alright.” The girl’s fingers tugged at the end of her green sweater, the memories rushing back. “He was a handful, I’ll say that. Kid had energy, he’d rum up and down the hall until he was out of breath. I wanted to stick my leg out and trip him for fun most days, but then I would just have to look into his stupid little face and see his grubby eyes staring back at me and I couldn’t do it. You can’t imagine how much he annoyed me, trust me you can’t. He’d practically beg me to play catch with him, most days I told him to go away and leave me alone… I wish I’d said yes more.” Sophia’s eyes flickered. “I wish I did a lot of things.”

Timothy opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself, realizing that his next question would have been rude.

But Sophia didn’t need to hear him ask it. “After mom died, we got split up.” She spoke, her voice sounded monotone and listless, as if she had disconnected herself from it. “They said it would be easier for him on his own, and I believed them. Every day I wondered how he was, where he was, and what he was doing but I had no way of knowing. But I knew I wasn’t there with him, and that hurt… It hurt really, really bad.” Timothy had seen Sophia dangle over the edge of a mountain, he’d seen her take a cut from a sword and a slap from a pirate, and he knew that none of that had ever made her cry. But she was now, though she quickly shielded her face from view as she stood and faced the other wall. “When they told me he was sick I didn’t really get it, I thought that it would be like the flu. Jesus, we’d always get the flu when it came around, we used to pack ourselves into the couch and watch movies until we got better. When they said he died I didn’t believe it, thought it was a bad joke and any minute someone was gonna shout ‘gotcha’ and it would all be over. But obviously, no one ever did.”

Standing up, Timothy crossed his arms, unsure how to respond. He reached out his arms and went in for a hug, forgetting that the barrier was there. He collided with a thunk against the invisible wall- Sophia spun around and laughed when she realized what happened. Timothy laughed too, “I hope William wasn’t as clumsy as me!”

Sophia gave her friend a sideways look, “Tim, no one is as clumsy as you.”

The two friends exchanged soft looks; the room suddenly felt a whole lot lighter than it was before. The happy moment was brief however as the metal door swung open as the towering figure of Mr. Ham ducked in. Sophia put her hands on her hips in an attempt to hold her ground, but she felt cornered in such a tiny space.

The pig man slowly looked the two up and down then scanned the entire building. Satisfied that there were no new escape routes or traps he grunted, “out.”

Sophia knew she couldn’t argue with the behemoth, no matter how much she wanted to. She turned to Timothy, placing her hand up on the barrier again. “Tim, we’re going to get you out of there, I promise!”

Timothy nodded. “Thanks.” He said softly, but then added, “but Sophia, if you guys don’t solve it, please don’t be sad over me.”

The girl shook her head, “why would you say that?”

“Because I would never want you to be sad, not over little old me.”

There wasn’t time to process this as Mr. Ham walked over to his desk. As he did, he bumped into the girl rocking her back on her heels. “Hey, watch it!” She cried, straightening her sweater.

With a silent nod, Sophia walked back out the door. She knew she needed to meet back up with Alex and Neil, hopefully, they had found something more useful than her. As the girl walked down the street, she didn’t notice that her pocket was lighter than before. As Mr. Ham sat down at his desk, Timothy spotted out of the corner of his eye a credit chip lying on the floor. His first thought was to return it to his friend, his second was to remember he was in prison.