wow is it just me or has it been a while

anyways props to me for such a creative title

~anna

right after the last

Sophie POV:

Sophie! rang through my head like an alarm. I knelt in the middle of Havenfield, watching the wreckage in disbelief. I killed Edaline? This was my fault?

More importantly, where had the fire come from? It didn't come from me, that wasn't possible. Right?

Unless...

No. It wasn't possible, and I wasn't going to think about any of this anymore. It wasn't actually me. It was me from an alternate universe. None of this had happened yet and none of this would happen. I could fix it.

I would fix it. I had to.

Sophie! grew louder in my head until it was all I could think about.

My eyes snapped open. I sat up with a start.

"Sophie!" yelled Keefe, and I realized belatedly that it had been his voice echoing in my head. He was being held back by both Jolie and Brant and looked none too happy at the fact. "Sophie!" he shouted again, struggling against their hold in an effort to get closer to me.

"Keefe?" I wondered, still a bit in shock from the memory.

"Sophie!" he yelled again, because apparently that was the only word in his vocabulary now.

Jolie and Brant frowned simultaneously, as if they were sharing one mind. It was a bit creepy, to be honest, but then again, when had Brant not been creepy?

"I'm okay," I rasped, my voice hoarse. "Keefe," I said again when he wouldn't stop struggling. "I'm fine."

I felt light-headed, as if I was floating on air. The room seemed too bright, the lights all blurred and fluorescent. My face felt wet, but it wasn't as if I had been crying. I wiped my nose and it came away crimson, my fingertips stained red. My nose was bleeding...?

All of a sudden, I remembered what my purpose was. "Grady?" I whispered from where I sat on the floor. "Grady?" I repeated more urgently when no one responded, trying to pull myself up using the edge of the bed.

Keefe rushed to my side and helped me up, having broken free from Jolie and Brant. I clutched his arm and wobbled on my feet, feeling unsteady.

Grady didn't look so pale anymore. It wasn't as if I had fixed him, but almost as though something within him had righted itself.

"He'll be fine," Jolie reassured me, answering my unspoken question out loud. "I don't know how, but... he's okay."

"I don't think it was me," I answered honestly, still holding Keefe's arm in a death grip. "I think... I think it was him. Grady, I mean. I don't think I fixed anything; it was all him."

Keefe grabbed my hand and squeezed reassuringly. I smiled at him, trying not to seem too shaken. "See?" he said. "You don't have to save everyone, Foster. Sometimes they can save themselves."

"Foster?" wondered Brant quietly from the corner, but no one payed him any mind. It barely caught my attention, and I had been keeping one eye trained on him ever since he entered the room.

I shivered violently, nearly falling over despite Keefe holding me up. "Foster?" he asked, taking into account my bloody nose and clammy skin. "Jolie, hail Elwin," he said, sounding remarkable calm.

I saw straight through his facade, of course. He was nervous. Terrified, even. If you knew Keefe well enough, you could see through his masks, around his walls. Jolie didn't seem to notice his terror, but she heard the urgency in his tone well enough to hail Elwin straightaway.

The second that Elwin materialized in the center of Grady's room, my vision started to go spotty. I had just registered Keefe's alarmed cry when the world went black.

hours later

Keefe's POV:

All I could think about was Sophie's face after she dropped like a stone. How her tunic was covered in blood. How her fingernails left crescent-shaped marks in my skin. How pale she looked...

Elwin snapped a purple orb of light into existence around Sophie's face, examining her and frowning.

"What is it?" I asked frantically, trying not to seem totally freaked out (and failing miserably). "What's wrong?"

"No, no, nothing's wrong, per se," said Elwin slowly, obviously trying to calm me down. "I mean, on the grand scale of Sophie Foster injuries, this is probably like a 1 or 2. She's just dehydrated and over-stressed. I'd recommend a few days of bed rest."

I scoffed. "I think we all know how well Sophie will react to being put on bed rest."

"I'm sure that you could convince her," Elwin said, waggling his eyebrows at me. I glared at the ground, trying my hardest to burn a hole in the floor.

"Elwin!" Jolie gasped, scandalized. "Not in front of the children!"

"Hey!" I protested, lifting my glare from the floor to Jolie. "I'm not a child," I said petulantly, probably not helping my case.

"Who are you kidding, you're like a literal five-year-old," said Brant with a smirk. I shivered, and not in the good way. It was honestly terrifying. This was the man who killed Jolie, who joined the Neverseen. He wasn't allowed to just joke around with people. Not after everything he did.

"That's not true," said Elwin, not even looking up from where he was flashing orbs of light around Sophie's head.

"Thank you, Elwin, finally someone taking my si-"

"Try a three-year-old," Elwin interrupted, sending Jolie into a fit of giggles. (She looked a bit like Sophie when she laughed. The way the corners of their eyes crinkled up gave them a startling resemblance.)

Elwin, who looked rather pleased with himself (the traitor), pulled out a neon purple elixir. "This will wake Sophie up, but she'll need to take a tablespoon every day for three weeks in order to heal completely. It's a rejuvenation elixir, it'll help with the stress."

He didn't look up as he threw three bottles of the elixir straight at me, leaving me scrambling around to catch them.

(Which I did.)

(I'm very athletic.)

(Stop laughing at me!)

Sophie groaned slightly, her eyelids fluttering. Her voice was hoarse, as if she hadn't spoken in days when she mumbled, "What happened?"

"Dude, you passed out," I said sarcastically before I could stop myself. She rolled her eyes at me, then winced as if the action had hurt her.

"Are you okay?" worried Jolie, rushing to Sophie's side to push her hair back from her face. "You're all clammy."

"I'm fine," Sophie said stubbornly, to which we all looked at her as if to say, Really? Again? "Okay," she relented, "I feel like crap. What was in that disgusting elixir? My mouth tastes like mastodon poop."

"How do you know what that tastes like?" I teased, because I have no brain-to-mouth filter.

"Well, you see, your sense of smell is connected to your sense of taste-" Sophie began, actually seeming genuinely interested in the topic.

"I'm just kidding, I don't care," I interrupted swiftly, not wanting to listen to another Sophie Foster Lecture, capital L.

"Are we heading back to Havenfield?" asked Sophie tiredly, changing the subject masterfully. "I'm so tired."

"Never would've guessed," I said again, because I have no self-control. Literally.

"Of course," said Jolie with a smile, sounding highly passive-aggressive. "You're on bed rest for a week."

"A week?!" protested Sophie. "But what if something happens?"

"Then the Councillors will take care of it," Brant reassured. I wanted to sock him in the face and then kick him where the sun doesn't shine. But I didn't.

(I have incredible self-control.)

(I can hear you laughing. Please stop.)

"I don't think you're in the right condition to light leap by yourself, Sophie," said Elwin, trying to diffuse the argument.

"I could teleport-" offered Sophie before I interrupted her.

"Absolutely not. Jolie, would you mind leaping with us? I just want to be sure that my concentration won't break," I said, looking at Sophie as if daring her to argue with me.

"Wait," said Brant, and Sophie and I both spun around at the exact same time.

(Exactly like Brant and Jolie were doing earlier. Huh. That was a freaky coincidence.)

"Okay, that was a bit strange," he said with a chuckle. "Look, Sophie, I know you don't like to talk about it, but just remember that I'm always willing to be your Mentor. I know that Fintan's a bit creepy, but I really think it's time you stopped repressing your ability."

"What ability?" asked Sophie, looking totally lost.

"And I know that after Edaline, you don't ever want to use your ability ever again, which is why you repressed it, but it will only get worse if you don't receive proper training."

"What ability?" Sophie repeating, still looking utterly confused.

Brant ignored her and kept forging on. "Especially since you started repressing it just after you manifested, it's only going to keep hurting you if you continue to repress it. It's difficult to learn to control it, and I understand if you don't want to train with me. But I think it's important that you learn. I'm always here if you ever want help."

Sophie flinched almost imperceptibly. "...I'm a Pyrokinetic?"

and... finish! don't you just love cliffhangers?

stay tuned for the next chapter, and remember to comment and vote!

~anna

WORD COUNT: 1618