Thank you to everyone who commented on my other story, One in a Million, and thanks to SB-Potterhead Budgie Lover for being the first! The ships in this one are as follows: Sophitz, Foster-Keefe (don't ask until you read it) and kind of Diana (is that the ship name?), though that one doesn't really change anything about the plot. This story is set pretty much directly after Keefe breaks everyone's heart at the end of Neverseen. Btw, Shannon Messenger owns everything (well, except the plot to this.) Enjoy!
Nothing had changed. The silver hairbrush was still on the dresser, the bed was still unmade, and clothes were still scattered across the floor. Vertina was still on the far wall, and her head in the corner of the mirror was sleeping. With a sigh of sadness and fatigue, Sophie dropped her purple backpack and flopped onto her bed, squashing the flowers in the carpet in the process. Keefe was gone. And now, they were all in danger, being back in the Lost Cities. She wanted to take Fitz, Biana and Dex and rush back to Alluvetere, but she knew that wasn't safe anymore, either. No, not since Keefe had decided to become a traitor. But, even though she still believed he was living there because he was trying to save his mom, no matter how evil she was, it was showing to be difficult to make her family see that. Very difficult.
Though her mind was still spinning with broken fragments of hurt, worry, and sisterly love, Sophie slowly sank into a troubled sleep. First, she was being chased down the corridors of Alluvetere by the Neverseen, until she escaped into a room she didn't know the belonging of. Until she saw the notes tacked to the walls. Keefe's room. Which she had vowed never to think of again. But, suddenly, as she touched one of the notes, she was ripped away. Now she was at a Neverseen hideout, she presumed, with Keefe himself leaning against the wall. His blonde hair was matted, his eyes sunken like he hadn't eaten lately, and his face scraped and bleeding. He was pleading with someone, though Sophie didn't know whom. A storm was brewing in the distance, dark clouds low over churning water. It felt like cold hands were slapping her face. Wait—what?
"Sophie. Sophie." She awoke quickly, to Fitz's dishevelled face. "Augh! Um—hi—what are you doing here?" She hoped he didn't notice her creeping blush, but she doubted he did. His face was troubled.
"They're outside."
As he leaned back, she got a glimpse of the rest of her darkened room—Biana and Dex, each wearing a Balefire pendant that made their faces look ghostly in the light.
Sophie sat up, thankful that she had fallen asleep in her clothes, and caught a Balefire pendant that Dex tossed her. The sky was lit with tinges of orange and pink—it would be sunrise soon. Each of her friends looked like she presumed she did—lines of worry crossing their foreheads, dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep. Biana hadn't put any makeup on, and Dex's hair was more dishevelled then usual. Fitz sighed next to her. "We need to get out of here, now. Far away. Sophie, can you teleport?"
She nodded—she could, though she didn't want to—and led the way down the stairs, skipping the creaky ones. They only breathed freely once they were on the dewy grass. Biana gave a worried smile. "I guess they haven't caught up to us yet?"
And then she screamed.
People, people dressed in the dark cloaks of the Neverseen, were closing in from all sides, jumping up from the Cliffside gate, dropping from Calla's tree. Sophie scolded herself silently for being so insolent. Of course the Neverseen would be hiding, laying in wait for them. It had only taken a matter of time.
They were split up, each gagged and bound, eyes and nose covered by a dark cloth. But before Sophie was forced into darkness, the hood of her captor lifted, just a little, in the summer breeze. Scared blue eyes and a shock of blonde hair.
Before, it hadn't seemed real. Now, she knew the truth.
"Keefe?"
So, there you go! Please comment and favorite! I'll be (hopefully) posting every week at the latest.