Sophie woke up when Fitz started screaming.

"Fitz!!" She jostled him.

He woke up a minute later with sweat and tears streaming down his face. He pulled Sophie in a shook and shook. Probably shaking from the dream.

"It's okay," Sophie whispered wrapping his arms around him. "I am right here."

She oddly felt like a mother in this situation, but quickly discarded the thought.

"Can you show me what happened?"  Sophie asked.

Fitz sat back, looking down. 

He nodded.

Cloaked figures surrounded Sophie. She was sitting in a chair; her hands and feet bound, her mouth gagged.

Fitz was across from her in the same situation.

One of the figures untied him, but kept a sharp object to his neck.

"Cut her," one of them said. With this," they placed a different, scary looking object in Fitz's hand. 

"And," a different cloaked person added, "if you even think about trying to escape or harm us with that, she will die."

Fitz looked scared. "I am not hurting Sophie," he said steadily.

The third figure moved to Sophie and removed the gag. Sophie couldn't talk though — her voice was probably to sore from the sedatives.

Then a whip came down a smacked Sophie in the chest. Fitz could see Sophie struggle and tears poured down her face. Her vocal chords were so sore, that she couldn't scream.

"Cut her," the voice said again. "Or both she and you will be whipped."

Fitz shook his head and an unbelievable amount of pain went through his body. He sunk to his knees  and  screamed in pain. The whip had hit him in the shoulder.

And to think, now Sophie had been whipped twice because of him.

Maybe it was easier just to cut her once so she didn't have to be whipped over and over again.

He got up from his knees and slowly walked over to Sophie.

"Good," the second figure said. "Now, I want you to cut from her shoulder to her wrist."

Fitz gasped and stumbled back. "No... that's a lot... that's too much!"

A heavy whip struck Fitz on the cheek and an unbelievable sting followed. Fitz looked into Sophie's eyes and she nodded and weakly transmitted, 'do it. I can't stand another whip.'

"She's transmitting!" A figure screamed. Another whip hit Sophie. Sophie had now been whipped four times. She was now unconscious. 

Tears pooled from Fitz's face as he held the sharp object inches away from Sophie's shoulder. 

It was summer and Fitz remembered when Sophie had come out that morning wearing a spaghetti strapped, multicolor sun dress. Now, Fitz hated it. It left Sophie's entire arm exposed as if begging for him to cut it. 

He took the final breath and lightly dig into her skin and dragged the sharp blade to Sophie's wrist.

He tried to make the injury as light as possible, but blood still poured out.

Suddenly, Fitz's vision dimmed and when he opened his eyes again, everyone around him was unconscious.

Fitz had inflicted. But.... that's a power that Sophie had. 

And the only way for someone to get a gift from someone else is if the person who had died passed a gift to the person their heart trusted the most.

But..... then, is Sophie dead?

Oh no.

Tears poured down Fitz's face as he looked at a pale, lifeless, bloody body.

Sophie.

... and the terrible dream was over. Fitz was crying again and Sophie sat there stunned. Is Fitz the one that her heart trusted the most? Probably. Would she have given him the gift on inflicting? Is that the gift she would chose to give? In that situation, inflicting saved him. But.. inflicting could also break someone. 

When Fitz's had stopped bawling, he whispered, "I am so sorry Sophie. I would never do that to you. I promise. Never, ever. I am so sorry...."

"Fitz," Sophie interruptied. "I KNOW you would never do that. I KNOW that. Stop blaming yourself. It was just a nightmare. It is all okay."

Fitz nodded, but not before adding, "I am sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

Fitz laid back down, still clinging to Sophie like she was something special.

Sophie layed down in the bed, too, and tried to go back to sleep. Within twenty minutes, she could hear slow, soft  breathing, telling her Fitz was asleep. Sophie tossed and turned, but after an hour, decided it was best to grab some water. Heading to Fitz's bathroom, she got a cup from under the sink and quietly filled it with water. She sat on the stool in the corner of the gigantic bathroom. 

Sophie sat there, finally relaxed. 

"Sophie?" a soft voice questioned. "Sophie wake up."

Wait, wake up? She had fallen asleep?

Her eyes fluttered open to a gorgeous sight — Fitz. 

She could get used to seeing Fitz every time she woke up.

"What time is it?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.

"It is almost time for breakfast."

"Really?"

"Yep. Now, come on, Sophie, get dressed."

"Okay."

Fitz closed the bathroom door as he left to get dressed himself. Sophie stood up and stretched. She looked in her bag to see what torture outfit Edaline had packed for her final day.

Sophie sighed as she put in the extravagant dress. Oh, Edaline.

After they had both changed and had breakfast with everyone else, the whole group decided to play Do It Or Dare It.  

Linh wanted to go first. "Tam," She said, "you need to..... change your hair color to blonde!"

Tam groaned. "But then I will look like Keefe!"

"Hey," Keefe said. "That is a real upgrade."

They all laughed — including Tam. Although, he did give some friendly glares to Keefe.

Dex grabbed a bottle for Tam to drink and in a few minutes, Tam's black and silver hair was blonde.

"Biana," Tam said, "you need to pick Sophie next."

Sophie was confused. That wasn't a good dare. But... then she saw the look in Biana and Tam's eyes — clearly they had planned this. 

"Sophie," Biana said with a smirk.

Uh oh.

"Keefe, go grab string. Fitz, come here," she ordered.

After Keefe had gotten some sort of string, Biana finally announced what she was doing. 

"You two are going to be tied together!!!" She said with WAY to much enthusiasm.

She took the string and tied it around Sophie's wrist. Then she let six feet of it go before tying Fitz's other hand. 

So, now they had only six feet of space from each other. Great. Like this wasn't going to be awkward.

"Hey, Bi?" Fitz asked. "What about, um, showers and stuff? You know, BECAUSE WE NEED TO TAKE A SHOWER TONIGHT?!?!

Oh gosh. Sophie hasn't even THOUGHT about that.

"Aww," Biana said. "I guess you will just have to figure that out. Oh, and it is permanent until lunch tomorrow."

Both Fitz and Sophie groaned.

Sophie and Fitz transmitted to each other for a few minutes talking about plans and giving each other apologies. 

After they were done with their conversation, Sophie needed to pick someone to keep the game going.

"Dex," she finally decided on. "Hmm... you have to... use gel to smooth Keefe's hair!!"

Everyone cracked up — except Keefe. He looked mortified. 

"My hair!!!" He said, "the Hair!"

Dex, without hesitation, grabbed some gel and put a large quantity of it on Keefe's head. He even got creative and made Keefe have a Mohawk. Keefe, of course, was whining and complaining the whole time.

Finally, when Dex was satisfied with his work. It was Keefe's turn to pick someone.

"Fitz," he said. "Kiss Foster."

Fitz looked surprised but quickly answered, "no. I don't think Sophie is ready for it and I am going to respect that."

Keefe smirked. "Good. Now we all get to dare him!"

Clearly he had planned this... and Fitz fell right into his trap.

Dex went first. "I dare you to show a hot picture of you to a girl!"

And... everyone cracked up all over again. 

"How about Biana picks the picture?" Fitz offered.

Clearly he didn't want to pick the "hot" picture.

Biana smiles evilly. 

"That was a mistake, wasn't it?" Fitz realized.

But Biana was already out the door looking for a picture. A few minutes later, she marched in and showed Sophie a picture of Fitz at the beach.

He was wearing nothing but a pair of short shorts. 

Even Sophie couldn't deny that Fitz looked hot. 

But this was weird. The whole thing was weird. And Sophie tried to shake the image out of her mind, but she couldn't. Sometimes photographic memories can be a curse.

"You showed Sophie?!?" Fitz asked.

"I assumed that was so you were going to show Sophie anyway," Biana answered.

"Well, yes, but only because I trust her the most."

Linh decided to give Fitz the next dare. "I dare you to wash your hair with shaving cream in the shower!"

Fitz groaned, but agreed.

Keefe wanted to jump in on the action, so he dared Fitz to let him draw a tattoo with sharpie on the back of Fitz's hand.

Keefe got a black Sharpie and wrote in huge, block letters: Wonderboy.

Which Fitz hates of course. But even Sophie giggled. What? It was funny!

Then it was time for Tam's dare. "Poor Fitz. You have had a rough day. So, I will give you an easy one. Do 30 pushups with Sophie on your back."

Sophie hardly counted that as "easy" considering she couldn't even do one, but this was Fitz she was talking about.

Sophie climbed on Fitz's back and it only took Fitz one minute to do all thirty pushups. Fitz's face was red and he was breathing heavily when he was finished.

Biana eagerly jumped in to give Fitz a dare. "You have to come up with a love poem for Sophie!"

"I am terrible at rhyming," he complained. Biana didn't budge.

"Fine," Fitz said. Then he made up a poem.

"I am a lucky elf 

And I am a lucky self,

To know someone as amazing as Sophie.

She is like a light in the dark

And she is my little moonlark."

Instead of laughing, everyone started clapping and fitz and Sophie start blushing immediately. 

Soon, all eyes turned to Sophie,  waiting for her to give him the last dare. "I dare you to.... help me clean Verdi the next time I get in trouble."

"Yikes. You better stay out of trouble," he said, "cause' Verdi is a beast."

They all laughed.

They then headed to lunch where they talked and laughed and joked.

Della and Alden were entertained when they told them all about their game of Do It or Dare It. 

After lunch they played Base Quest and other games.

Finally, exhausted, Sophie was ready to go to bed. Fitz and Sophie were in Fitz's room.

Normally, they had each taken showers quickly and gone to bed, no problem. But now, they had a problem: their hands were tied together.

"Do you want to take a shower first?" Sophie asked.

Fitz agreed and they worked something out.

Fitz took off his clothes while Sophie closed her eyes. Then he got in the huge bathtub (honestly, it was more like a pool) and cleaned up by the edge of the tub while the string hung over the tub and Sophie remained dry the whole time. 

Fitz washed his hair with shaving cream — like he was dared to.

When he was finished, he dried off and changed into his clothes. Sophie opened her eyes and then they switched rolls so Sophie could bathe and Fitz had to close his eyes.

They successfully completed bathing and dressing without an incident. They crawled into bed and closed their eyes and fell asleep almost instantly — totally forgetting about their nightly trust exercise.

However, the whole bathing thing while the other closed their eyes was enough trust for one day, in Sophie's opinion.

They were both so tired, they slept through the whole night together in peace, each snuggled up together.

What did you think? Do you think that was a boring chapter? I hope not.

I won't update until Saturday,  March 15th. 

Thanks a ton to my supporters; you guys are awesome!!