Hello, Xylia Neo here with a new story of mine, Payback's A Nightmare. You'll see why the title is so named. If you're smart enough, you can even figure it out in the first chapter.

Okay, so read this if you want the more detailed description. So, you have the main character, Evelina Sencen. As you can see, she's the daughter of Sophie and Keefe. So Evelina's mum is Sophie and her dad is Keefe. Okay. So Fitz was a Councillor before until he and Sophie fell in love but then for some unknown reason (for now) Fitz made Sophie heartbroken and they fell apart. Fitz went with some random girl and Sophie to Keefe. So as you can see, this story is Kophie, but there's a bit of Sofitz inside too as those two had a most interesting past. I won't say yet about other people, but you can find out later in the story. Soo Evelina finds out about some of their past and becomes intrigued with finding out more because people shut up when she mentions it to them. There's mystery, adventure, suspense, and romance, but mostly mystery and romance. 'Kay, last thing: Fitz's son is called Brennus Vacker (Don't complain about the name, I chose all the new characters' names in this story very carefully) Evelina, as you can tell, hates the Vackers (sound like someone? ;) because...yanno. She always wishes to get revenge on the Vackers and her chance's finally come. But while she's doing that and solving the mystery of Sophie's and Fitz's past, she can't help but fall for the charms of Brennus. Word Count for this chapter: 2,612 words.

Disclaimer: I don't own Keeper of the Lost Cities, and I've not written any other chapters except for the prologue and this chapter. So you can offer your ideas as long as they're valid.

Thanks for all the supportive words and hope you enjoy! :)

CHAPTER THE FIRST

A trickle of drool ran down Evelina Sencen's chin as she buried her head deeper into her soft fluffy pillow, which was already half wet with her own saliva. She lay unsettled on her canopy bed-which was really comfortable most times-but tonight wasn't a good night to remember, as the dreams kept haunting her. They never went away.

The nightmares Evelina had were the most frightening things she had ever experienced. She wished she didn't care about them so much. Then, maybe it would naturally stop happening at all. However, no matter how hard she tried to forget, the haunted dreams just came back every time to make her life most miserable.

Sometimes, she would even wake up in absolute terror, muscles tensed, sweating profusely, heart palpitating fiercely and gasping desperately for breath.

Evelina clenched her fists tightly in her sleep and groped around her bed half-consciously for something to hold on to, and caught hold of something small and square-ish. She had completely no idea what that was supposed to be but she didn't care. She just needed something to grip so that she could exert all her force into that tiny object, at the same time eliciting out her panicked feelings until the thing she had been holding for dear life crushed and shattered into a million pieces. That was when she could feel completely relaxed, and tranquility would flow into her body again, successfully calming her down.

But her mother didn't like it at all, and even Evelina admitted to herself that it was wasting things that were working perfectly well in the first place. But no matter how hard she tried to resist this habit, she just could not. It was a habit that she was so used to that it could not be resisted anymore. Evelina knew it was a really bad habit, but she just couldn't help it. Sometimes when she saw her mother's sad face when her bad habit didn't cease at all, Evelina would feel shame washing over her. She didn't like to see that look on her mother's face.

Evelina would always do this when the nightmares came to her. Her mother wasn't the least of pleased when one night, Evelina's scream and a sound of shattering of glass immediately woke her up from her precious power-sleep that she so needed. And when she found out what was it that Evelina broke, her annoyance turned to horror and fury as her daughter had broken her own picture frame that held an old picture of the young her, Evelina's dad, a girl with lustrous chocolate-brown hair that fell from her head like a shimmering waterfall, and blue eyes of the colour teal, a boy with neat strawberry-blonde hair and periwinkle-blue irises that had the cutest dimples ever, and lastly, a boy that bore a striking resemblance to the girl who had teal eyes.

She could still remember her mother and her talking wistfully about the picture when Evelina broke it.

"Evelina, how could you?" Mum exclaimed in horror, shooting a stern look at Evelina, who cringed and immediately started apologizing profusely.

"Mum, I'm really sorry! It was on accident!" Evelina apologized and protested at the same time, feeling a need to also defend herself while blaming herself for the incident.

Her mother ignored her and bent down to pick up the pieces of glass that had fell onto the marble floor. "There are scratches on the floor because of the darned glass. And this is a precious thing to me, Evelina. Be more careful next time-wait, no, be absolutely careful and don't break anything. Do you hear me?"

Evelina hung her head remorsefully. "Yes, Mum," she said guiltily. She stared at her shoes, ashamed of herself. This wasn't like her! Evelina was always the perfect girl-she did all her homework, she had not one, but two special abilities that were honed to be so strong that other people envied her, and she was always respectful to everyone. Everyone. Even Elmira Babblos, the bully at Foxfire Academy.

Well, that instantly changed when she heard what her mother said next.

Her mother nodded approvingly and forgave Evelina graciously, but Evelina thought her voice was a little stiff when she suddenly spoke up quietly, picking up the last shard of glass along with the photo of the five of them. She stared at the photo, a certain emotion in her eyes, which were becoming misty.

"Mum?" Evelina said softly, snaking a hand around her mother's arm. It felt so fragile, which made people underestimate her. But she was the most powerful Telepath in the world. Nothing could stop her.

Her mother snapped out of her trance and wiped her eyes on her intricately embroidered handkerchief. "Sorry...I was just thinking back to the past," she said vaguely. Evelina didn't think she was fully aware of what she was saying. Her mother never opened much about her past and her father always obeyed her mother by saying, "Yes, Foster". Why would he agree to tell Evelina if her mother didn't like anyone talking about her own story?

Her mother sniffed softly. "Fitz was a great guy, but he broke my heart. I'm not spending the rest of my life with that jerk. To think I even had a silly crush on him when I was younger..."

Evelina eyed the photo warily, her eyes scanning the five people for 'Fitz'. Her eyes landed on the boy with teal eyes and brown hair. "That's him?" she asked, pointing at his face.

Her mother turned away, clearly not wanting to look at him. Evelina sighed and her eyes narrowed in anger at the boy standing there with such an innocent look on his face. Well, appearances could be deceiving, and that expression on his face wouldn't fool Evelina one bit now that she knew what sin that jerk guy had committed. She knew he had once been a Councillor, but that didn't give him the excuse for Evelina to respect him.

If her mother said that he was a jerk, he was a jerk.

If her mother said that he broke her heart, he broke her heart.

And whether or not if he was a Councillor, Evelina really didn't care at all.

All her respect for the noble former Councillor instantly vanished and it was replaced with hatred.

Evelina knew she had a rule to respect everybody, but if this jerk here broke her mum's heart, well, the rule was changed.

She vowed she would hate Fitz Vacker with all her might, and whoever who was related to him.

They didn't deserve the fame and the fortune and more at all. Evelina's heart turned to stone for these Vackers, and she smiled a rather evil smile as she thought, It's payback time, Vackers.


The thing that Evelina had been grasping so tightly during her nightmare suddenly crushed under her huge force, breaking into a million sharp pieces that jabbed at her palm painfully. The pain woke Evelina up forcefully and she yelped in agony. Without thinking, she let go of the object on her own instinct and flung it onto the ground to tend to her injured hand.

Ow, that really hurts! OUCH!

There was a loud shattering noise that pierced Evelina's ears and a small gasp of horror escaped from her lips.

Oops...Mum isn't going to be happy, she thought, panicking. A mental image of her mother frowning sternly at her sent shivers and vibes of panic down her spine, and that made her panic, sweat beading down her forehead.

Could she do anything? No. Evelina knew her mother had ears like a bat and eyes like a hawk, so she would have heard the loud noise (admittedly, anyone would have heard it) and there was no way of tricking her as her sharp eyes would spot the spoiled thing as soon as she entered the room. Yeah, in the dark. Sometimes Evelina thought her mum had X-ray supersonic cat-like eyes that couldn't miss anything even in the darkest of nights.

Yes, in fact, she could hear her mother's footsteps nearing her mahogany door as she cowered behind her bed sheets, then decided against it. She needed to man up and face the consequences. Well, who asked the nightmares to come and disturb her in the first place? It was because of that horrible Fitz Vacker, but whatever.

Her mother opened the door, and Evelina was shaking inside. But she took a deep breath and snapped her fingers, filling the room with bright light. She winced as the light hit her pupils until she really thought she was going to be blind.

Her mother winced too, then asked, "What is going on here, Evelina?" Then her eyes darted to the ground, where a million plastic pieces and two sticks-one long and red, one short and black-lay hopelessly.

Evelina slapped her head on her forehead hard as she realised she had broken her alarm clock. Great. What time was it now? She had no way of telling time without her clock.

" Ummm...Sorry about that, Mum...But...What time is it?"

Her mother scowled at her, but answered swiftly without looking at her watch, "It's four in the morning. Which means two things. One: You should be asleep at this abnormal time. Two: Two more hours before you go to school, so you better get your beauty sleep before you get up again." With that, she spun on her heel and started walking out of the room.

"Wait!" Evelina called after her. She turned around, a questioning look on her face. "What about the alarm clock? And my injured hand?" Evelina gestured wildly at the mess on the ground, totally clueless about what she should do.

Her mother turned on her back again. "You can visit Elwin at the Healing Center when you go to school later in the morning. Just clean up the mess, I'll replace your broken one with a brand-new one." Then she walked away and closed the door, leaving nothing in her wake. Though it may be just Evelina's own imagination when she was tired, but she thought she heard her mother's weary sigh as she left the room.

Evelina sighed her own sigh too, then squatted on all fours and started picking up what was left of her dear alarm clock and hurling it into the wastepaper basket like she was practicing throwing. After she had threw less than half at the dustbin and failed terribly (did she mention she totally sucked at throwing?) Evelina let out a sound of exasperation and decided to use a different approach to get all the pieces into the basket that was about four to five meters away from her.

Evelina shut her eyes and concentrated on a few of the pieces from the broken alarm clock, and drew out some of her core energy to mentally carry them to the wastepaper basket and drop them in. She found this exercise oddly satisfying and used telekinesis to put all the other shards into the dustbin, then clambered into bed, desperate in need for sufficient sleep for the next day at Foxfire Academy.


"Ring, ring, ring, ring! Ring, ring, ring, ring!"

The sharp sound of bells ringing was most not pleasing to Evelina's ears as she was oh-so-rudely pulled out of Dreamland, aka La-La-Land, or the Dream Realm. At least the dreams there were not like the horrifying nightmares Evelina consistently experienced.

Evelina groaned and stretched her arms widely, sitting up in her bed. The morning sun shone brightly out of her window. Evelina scratched her head confusedly. The blinds were up, and she remembered they were down and covering the large glass windows completely. Whoever would do such an inconsiderate thing and pull up the curtains and blinds so stupid sunlight can awake her from her sleep?

"Good morning," chirped her father, coming over to Evelina's bed and rubbing the top of her head affectionately, successfully messing up even more of her bedhead hair.

Evelina groaned. "Please don't make my hair worse. I hate it," she complained to her father, eyeing his equally disheveled hair in disapproval. "I have no idea why you like it messy. Just because yours is, doesn't mean mine must be."

"You know the wise old saying, 'Like father, like daughter'. So why wouldn't you please Daddy for a day and wear the same cool style as me?"

"Never," Evelina told her father firmly, evidently horrified. "And since when was your style cool, Dad?"

"And that's what I don't understand about. Females and their crazy obsession with their own hair."

"You're obsessed with your hair too, Dad, don't forget that obvious fact," Evelina told her frowning father, finding immense pleasure in contradicting his opinions that had so many loopholes in it.

"Yeah, but look at me. Then look at Biana, with the all the makeup on her face and hair serums. And then I would think, no, I'm not that obsessed with my own hair. I'm still the best, don't you think so?" Her father desperately played his last card to defend his case.

"Yes," Evelina deadpanned, earning a satisfied grin from her father. But his smug smile quickly disappeared when she added, "But that's mainly because Biana is a Vacker, and I hate all Vackers."

"You're still not over that thing?" Her father asked her quietly, his fun mood suddenly turning serious.

Evelina became silent for a moment, then said with a cold, hard voice, "Well, that jerk of a guy broke Mum's heart and I'm never forgetting that."

Her dad shook his head. "Look at me, Lina," he said firmly, forcing Evelina to look at him. "Just because Fitz made Foster heartbroken, doesn't mean you must hate the rest of his family. What? They've done nothing wrong. Only Fitz did, and I forgive Fitz for that. Anyways, he's my best friend and I knew why he did it. Oh, and speaking of the Vackers, I think your mother has something with them today. And apparently she's bringing you along."

"What?" Evelina screeched loudly, disgusted. "An appointment? With the Vackers? And I will be there?" After she calmed down, she took a deep breath and continued, "But...won't Mum see Fitz? And what if her bitter feelings arise again and something happens to her? And won't it be all because of him? I don't like it, but I must go with her. There's no choice. What if my mum breaks down when she sees that guy? I must go and look after her."

Her father grinned at her proudly and flashed her a trademark smirk that Evelina loved so much. "That's my girl! Look after Foster for me, won't you? See you later, kiddo." With that, he set off to the Leapmaster to leap to his workplace to work.

Evelina stood stunned for a second, then shook her head and smiled. Not a pleased one, but a hard and devious one. This appointment with the Vackers could be her chance in once in a lifetime. And maybe, she could know better about them and spot their weaknesses. Then, they would be going down one by one.

And first on her list was Fitz Vacker.


Just in case you were wondering, Evelin's character is the sort of witty, sarcastic but strong and protective kind, so don't mistake her for Sophie's. The first chapter has nothing really happening, but I didn't want to make it too long and furthermore much more things are gonna happen in the next chapter. Bye!