The last day of school is a very important day. It's the day before the final exams and most importantly, the start of summer vacations.

Cheers echoed through The Highgate School when the electronic bell rang for the last time and announced the time for study vacations. Every student rushed out of the classrooms to talk to their friends about the freedom that they were finally going to experience.

But that wasn't the case for a particular brunette, who walked directly to her locker to get out the duffle bag that she carried with her everywhere. The light gray and teal bag may have seemed ordinary to any passer-by, but for Sophie, it was everything. Every connection that she had to her life was inside that bag in the form of her belongings. All that she had and all that she could have would fit inside this bag where all the torns were stitched with any thread that its owner could find.

Sophie Adams was clearing out her locker when she heard a loud thud that caught her attention.

"Whatcha gonna do? Cry?"

Sophie rolled her eyes, recognising the voice. Jonathan Briggs - the biggest bully and facade of the school. Who else could it be? He was the definition of a spoiled brat, always in his own world which made him think that the world revolved around him. 

Well, he was going to be sorry for that very soon.

When she saw who he was bullying, Sophie stepped in. "Hey!" She shouted at the top of her voice when she saw him bullying a ninth-grader named Kenji. The policy of her school prevented her from ever confronting the bullies because apparently, only physical violence was considered bullying to the management. No one cared about the emotional trauma that the students underwent, which is why nobody came to her rescue when she most needed a shoulder to rely on.

Sophie may have been a freak of the school, but she wasn't an ignorant freak.

Jonathan turned around just as the hallway seemed to clear and leave only the two of them facing each other. The poster girl for bullying had stepped in without him having to wish for it. "Little Miss Adams." 

"Let him go."

Jonathan let Kenji's shirt collar loose, who fell to the ground with a soft thud. The little boy looked up at Sophie after adjusting his glasses and nodded once to convey that he was alright. Sophie gave him a polite smile and then looked at the door, which he understood immediately to be the direction for him to escape.

She turned around after seeing Kenji safely exit the school and was about to walk away, but Jonathan made the big mistake of taunting her more. "Little Miss Adams always wants to be the hero because hey, no one will be one for her."

Sophie stopped in her steps. She shouldn't have let mere words be the reason that her blood went cold. Her breathing slowed down and the mere act of inhaling became difficult. Her jaw clenched together, her fingers sinking into her palm, and all the pain she had been tolerating the past eighteen years of her life came out in the one punch she threw, which also happened to break Johnny's nose.

Jonathan fell to the ground, blood flowing in between his fingers as he held his face. The girl that had been the one he had always taunted broke all his pride by striking back for once. He shouted to his friends, making Sophie's eyes widen as she realised what they were planning to do. She walked back a few steps, getting a control over her breathing once again, grabbed her bags from the floor and ran out of the school premises.

The orphan girl was the most gossiped about in the school with the usage of many words like freak, loser and weirdo. Everyone in school knew that she was 'The Girl in Trouble' due to the unsteady life she faced. It was true that she never knew her parents and did not posses any belonging that wasn't what foster services hadn't given her.

Moving from one family to another only made her realise that nobody want to raise a teenager who had nothing. What would anyone get by adopting her apart from the trouble that came with being a support? Even then, one person had come very close to actually becoming her family, but the foster services refused to give him custody - a friend named Chad.

But that's a story for another time because now, Sophie pushed past the students in the football field and entered the safety that came with the cover of trees of the forest behind the school.

Sophie's only friend had been Cassie Rajput, until she had to leave town due to her father's promotion. Cassie was all she had and this particular departure made her isolate herself even more. It was better to not get attached at all then getting hurt in return.

The woods behind the school was the one place that people speculated it to be haunted or have supernatural beings living there, but Sophie and Cassie would go there often and sit before the broken bridge - their spot. Sometimes, they would be the ones to imitate wolves to scare people away which would play perfectly in for them to spend as much time as they needed without being disturbed.

Jonathan's friends were chasing her relentlessly, and hoping that they would stop when she reached the extreme interiors of the woods, Sophie stopped to catch her breath. Nobody would have staggered that far but she heard them shout her name. They were nearing her and would reach her at any moment.

She looked in front of her and saw the broken bridge that she saw every time she came to this place. Directly ahead, there was only the emptiness of safety on the other side. Taking more time to catch her breath would only result in the boys catching up to her. Besides, bridge was in a very bad condition and no one would have dared to cross it. 

Would she dare?

"Oi! Adams!" Came the shout of the boys climbing down the small hill trying to get to her, and she knew that it was getting beaten up by them or taking a leap of faith.

She closed her eyes and ran as fast as she could to the other side, choosing the latter with utmost faith in herself. Only when she had run a distance, she gasped for air while using a tree as a support. No one could be chasing her any more as she only heard silence, her only company the tiny insects and the birds at their nests.

There were two choices in front of her.

One, she could wait her time before heading back. Going to the house she was living in with a black eye would only cause her foster parents to call child services and inquire more about her past when there was absolutely nothing they would find out.

Two, she could walk forward and explore the place. 

Sophie was in a part of the woods that was unfamiliar to her, which only made her curious to look around. Sunlight came through the canopy of trees and created a symmetric effect on the undergrowth. But something felt different. Were the trees denser than usual or was it just her imagination? The forest soil, the beginning roots of the place, felt different for some reason. 

A fallen tree's bark, hollow in the middle creating a tunnel, was the only place she could sit down at. Only when she dropped her backpack and duffel bag to the ground did she realise that her right hand - her dominant hand - was hurting. Her knuckles had bruised from the punch and it hurt to touch the peeling skin. The heat of the moment hadn't allowed her to comprehend it, but it was hard not to ignore now.

She opened her bags and checked whether she had everything inside - her clothes, books, art supplies and sketchbooks, water bottles and essential food supplies. She kept checking them off as she saw them. Most importantly, she opened the small navy blue velvet pouch and checked for something even more important than the others. She gave a sigh of relief when she saw the necklace inside.

Her latest foster home was with a traditional Columbian family, and Sophie wasn't having the best of time staying with them. The two boys of the family did not like having an elder girl living with them, which made them misplace things on purpose. It was known much earlier in life that Sophie would only ever have herself to protect her. There was no point wallowing over an absence she never knew in the first place. It was time for her to look forward to being her own person and taking responsibility for herself.

Sophie shut her eyes tightly as the pain got to her. Tears threatened to leave her eyes but she knew that she was going to have to be a brave person. It was what Chad always told her. She had done the right thing by stepping in before Kenji could have gotten hurt. She took the step that she never would have in a million years, and that made her smile. She had stood up to the biggest bully in school, managed to run away in time to cross the broken bridge.

She had to be proud of herself.

She was proud of herself.

Right as she was about to head back, Sophie once again stopped in her step, almost tripping against the detritus. The sound of running water. That's strange, she thought. The only water body that was in the forest was the one that she had crossed.

Sophie grabbed her bags once again and started to walk towards the sound. Her legs crunched the leaves lying on the ground as she walked but the mystery of what lay ahead took over her thoughts.

"Saints!" 

The clearing she had come out to was the most beautiful place that she had ever set her eyes upon, fascinating with every little detail. The river that was flowing was of a very beautiful blue and looked as though diamonds were dropped in it. It was long and wide, almost 15 feet of distance between both the sides. The wooden bridge that connected to the other side was made with tree logs, and it was certainly a construction of beauty. Evergreen trees stood on either side that glistened in the sun, contrasting the ivory-coloured sand on the ground. 

The next sound that Sophie heard was a thud from her bags falling down from her slumped shoulders. It was if she had walked right into a fairytale book. Her feet took her forward but her eyes refused to leave the beauty in front of her. She managed to compose herself and rest her bags against the pole of the bridge so that the sand didn't get inside. Cleaning it would pose a headache for sure. 

Sophie crouched down and balanced herself on her toes as she started to wash her hands in the river. The water was cold and hurt her hand at first, but it was necessary if she would have to prevent a sudden infection. 

But the minute that the water touched her skin, the pain receded from her hand. She looked at her hand, her eyes widening. 

The bruise was gone. 

"What?" 

She turned her hand back and forth to make sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

Sophie had been so busy comprehending her situation that she hadn't noticed two other living beings that had reached the river. They had noticed her right away and wondered how the intruder had reached there before making their plan. 

Right then, she felt a sharp object around her neck as one of the travellers held a knife to her throat. "Who are you and how did you get here?"

*****
Cast

Introducing....

Adelaide Kane
and Katrina Kaif as Sophie Adams

A/N on 23rd May, 2021:

I post edits on caspianstuart on instagram!

As you can see, I'm writing the series again and I'm seeing this from a totally different perspective, which is strange but exciting. I'm scared but hopeful that I will receive the same support that I have so far. Hope you like this book! Thank you so much for everything!

Please don't spoil anything in the comments for the new readers. And please comment your thoughts because they are the only motivation for writers to continue what they do! They are the only thing that can give any writer motivation to continue doing what they do