Sophie watched her shaking hands reach for the vial filled with metallic liquid. Watched them snap the top off.

She felt herself tip the contents back into her throat. She choked n her last gulp of fresh air. . . and stopped breathing.

White light. Everything painful and hazy.

A memory.

Sophie jammed her finger into her panic ring, over and over and over again. her heart was pounding, and she could nearly choke on her desperation. Her wrists ached from the position she had to twist into to reach her ring, but it would be worth it if someone came.

A male's dark chuckle came from the other end of whatever room she was in. "That's not going to work, darling."

Sophie jumped and pressed it again. Harder. She hadn't heard him come in.

Suddenly, the figure was beside her. He yanked the ring off. . .

Wait.

All of this had already come back to Sophie.

After she took the limbium with the Black Swan.

She'd remembered all of this.

As in. . . these memories had been wiped.

Then they came back.

Why had they gone away again?

She remembered waking up. Burning up. Not being able to breathe.

Knowing the Neverseen had manipulated her. The Neverseen lied.

Then something stab her hand.

And all the memories she'd recovered lowly unravel.

Waking up.

Livvy and Mr. Forkle's disappointed faces when they found out it "didn't work."

But it had.

Just. . . when they tried to save her from the allergic reaction, whatever they did had undone the memories the limbium had brought back.

And now. . . she remembered everything.

She needed to get up. She was in danger.

Wake up, she pleaded with herself.

Wake up.

Her mind stayed under.

Everything felt thick. And was getting thicker. Like a blanket was smothering her face, cutting off her air.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

WAKE UP.

With one final push, her consciousness broke free and she opened her eyes.

Heat licked her face as soon as she started to register the things around her. Her skin felt feverish to the touch, like she was overheating. Or sick.

Which, now that she remembered, was exactly how she felt when she accidentally came to consciousness when she took the limbium with the Black Swan. Just what she felt now wasn't extreme.

She moved her blurry gaze to the table beside her. On it, she spotted an empty bottle. It looked exactly like. . .

Her fingers groped her neck, fumbling for the cord she usually hung her emergency allergy medicine on. It was empty.

She jerked her head back towards the bottle. It was the bottle that usually held her allergy medicine. The Neverseen must have given it to her after she was exposed to the limbium.

But the allergy medicine alone wasn't enough to stop the reaction.

That must be why she still felt minor effects of it. She wasn't fully cured.

And it would only get worse. She needed help. Fast.

Shakily, she stood up. Blood rushed to her head as soon as she was upright, and she had to brace herself against the bed, Her fingers dug into the sheets.

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

Some of her hair stuck to her face, and she lifted her arm to brush it away. In the dark, the white patch on it practically glowed, making it impossible to avoid.

She sucked in a breath, the reason why she had needed to wake up so badly rushing back to her.

The memories.

The limbium.

She remembered everything.

All the blank spots in her recent memories that started fading away. She remembered. She remembered going to Foxfire to get the mallowmelt for Ruy.

Keefe. His injury.

Her old friends. They hadn't lied.

Her brain felt like it was overloading. She couldn't think about everything right now.

She shook her head, clearing all her thoughts away except for the urgent matter at hand.

She needed help. She was still having an allergic reaction.

Sophie ripped the Neverseen symbol off her cloak and flipped it inside-out to hide the tear. She packed it with weapons—gadgets from Pixel, throwing stars, daggers—slipped her gloves on, strapped her boots, tied her hair back, and pulled her hood up.

She made a quick stop to the food area and stuffed her canvas bag before slipping down the hall, quieter than a shadow, and slowly opening a window. Freezing night air tufted in, but Sophie didn't shiver. She didn't flinch.

She had been manipulated.

She slipped out the window, only looking back once.

Sophie didn't even know what was real anymore.

{AN} I love all the comments you guys add so much! Thank you for so many reads. I can't believe my little story has gotten this far.

But something to keep in mind when commenting is never to tell me UPDATE NOW or UPDATE or update!!! anything along those lines. I love that you guys are so excited about my story, but comments telling me to update stress me out and actually make me take longer to publish. I am constantly brainstorming for this fanfic twenty-four seven, so even "reminding" me about it is useless. So while I love the comments you post (unless they're offensive), please refrain from telling me to update :/ PSA: no author likes that.

~<3