5 Years Ago
Anya Fairchild snuggled against her father's leg. Any loving father would scoop his child up and snuggle her back. Instead, Raul Fairchild knocked her off his leg with his free hand while his other hand was busy scrawling notes in a notepad. Anya slumped on the floor, her dress sprawled all around her. Her eyes practically lit up when she heard the doorbell ring. What an excitement! Nobody ever rang the doorbell on the house with the green door!
Anya ran to the door, her long blonde hair flying behind her. Anya opened the door. Click. The door opened. Anya felt her jaw drop as she saw a boy. An unusually CUTE boy. He had an adorable mop of tousled hair on his head and the most GORGEOUS blue eyes EVER. The boy ran a hand through his tousled hair, making it a bit messy, which was EVEN CUTER. "Hi, I'm Keefe. What's your name?" Anya felt her cheeks turn red as she mumbled, "Hi, I'm Anya. I think my dad's coming. Are you here to give him that?" She pointed to the envelope with a little bit of pretty glitter on it. Keefe's only reply was a slow nod.
Anya heard footsteps behind her and a slow tongue-click, so she stepped aside. Her cheeks only got hotter and hotter as she watched the her father mutter some inaudible words to Keefe and snatch the glittery envelope away from him. Keefe glanced at Anya one last time before he walked out of sight. Anya sighed happily, knowing that her heart had been won over by Keefe, and that would never happen again with any other boy.
Present Day(At Everglen)
Sophie eyed Keefe with a wary eye. "Are you sure you're ready for us to search your mind for that broken memory again?"
"Are you serious? I'd do anything to watch you and the Fitzster stare into each other's eyes again!"
Sophie sighed as Keefe flashed his famous smirk at her. Sophie looked at Fitz with a determined glint in her eye. "Fitz, are you ready for this?"
"Who are you kidding? Let's do this!"
Sophie scooted her chair up to Fitz's chair and stared intensely into his eyes while holding Keefe's hand all at the same time. She felt her mind enter Keefe's mind. All the memories with a gold coating over them were memories that Keefe had marked as "STAY OUT." But they were so hard to ignore, and Sophie's consciousness was practically screaming "ENTER THEM! ENTER THEM!" It was like her own mind's version of Silveny's short run-on sentences.
Fitz, let's try calling out WASHER again.
Hm, should we try a different word this time? Washer might not work again.
Before we try something else, we should try Washer again.
Sure.
WASHER! WASHER! WASHER!
WASHER! WASHER! WASHER!
WASHER! WASHER! WASHER!
Sophie, nothing's happening. We're also wasting our mental energy at the same time. I think we should try another word.
Ok then. Maybe Keefe met someone at the house during the part of the memory that we didn't see. Let's try calling out things like Man, Woman, Boy, Girl, and stuff like that.
MAN! MAN! MAN!
Hm, that didn't work. Let's try Woman next.
WOMAN! WOMAN! WOMAN!
We could give Boy a try. After all, many humans have a lot of children.
BOY! BOY! BOY!
That sparked absolutely nothing. I'm starting to lose hope. If Girl doesn't work, then Keefe probably met no one on his "trip."
GIRL! GIRL! GIRL!
Wait….Fitz….did you feel that?
Yes, yes I did. I think if we keep calling it, we could trigger the rest of the memory, where Keefe meets a girl!
Sophie's mind almost lost its concentration on the word "Girl" when Keefe finally said his first snarky comment.
Do you really think someone as CUTE as me would fall for a human girl? Definitely….NOT.
Keefe, now's not the time to joke around. Let Fitz and I concentrate on calling out the word Girl.
Keefe's mental snickering finally went silent
Sophie pushed all of mental energy forward with the word "Girl" and eventually felt Fitz's mental energy combining with hers.
GIRL! GIRL! GIRL!
GIRL! GIRL! GIRL!
GIRL! GIRL! GIRL!
Sophie felt her mind enter into an unconscious memory. Sophie felt Fitz's hand on her right hand and felt Keefe's hand on her left hand. She blushed uncontrollably even though she was supposed to be concentrating on the memory.
As they entered the memory, Sophie noticed how this memory was as clear as day, unlike the first half of this memory. Sophie saw a slightly younger version of Keefe walking towards the green door they saw at the end of the first half of this memory. Younger Keefe walked up the three front steps and rang the little doorbell. The door opened. Instead of seeing a grownup open the door like Sophie expected, a little human girl was standing in front of Keefe.
Sophie was practically expecting the snarky comment that came out of his mouth.
Why would the Neverseen/my mom try to recruit a little girl? I always knew that my mom was crazy, but recruiting a sweet, innocent little girl to the Neverseen is a NEW level of insanity.
Wait, Keefe, look! There's a man approaching younger you! I think that's your mom's so-called recruit.
Sophie, are you sure? Maybe that's the girl's dad being overprotective and trying to get me away from his precious daughter.
Nope, I'm sure now. Look! The man is talking about elves and the Neverseen! He's definitely the recruit!
"Oh, you must be Gisela's son." The man snatched the envelope away from Keefe. "Tell your mom that I'll happily accept her offer….as long as she accepts some of MY conditions."
Sophie desperately leaned in [MENTALLY] to try to listen when the man bent down until his lips brushed against Keefe's ear. Younger Keefe flinched as the man started whispering inaudible words into Keefe's ear. Keefe nodded rapidly as the man said, "Gisela better accept my conditions or my name isn't Raul Fairchild!"
Keefe! Fitz! Did you hear that! We now know that the man's name is Raul Fairchild!
Sophie felt that Fitz was about to reply, but Keefe's consciousness suddenly pushed both of them out of his mind.
Sophie and Fitz both glared at Keefe when he regained his outside-world consciousness for an explanation. "I remember the girl's name now. Anya. Anya Fairchild. And I think I know where to find her and her father."