Chapter 25
After some cajoling from Negan the night before, Sophia decided to take the day to herself, it was time to do her chores anyway. So after breakfast, Sophia started with her morning meditation which then turned into a long session of playing around with Rapey's mind. Something that was quickly becoming less and less useful, as the man's mind was hardly a challenge now, but at least she felt that he was starting to fare better with her mental invasion. It was either he was adapting or she was getting better.
I can't believe that the old bastard could read my mind as he did. He was casting it without incantation and I never even felt him. She thought bitterly, she had been working on legilimency for a time now, but the progress was slow. As she was, it was hardly useful if she couldn't do it without others knowing.
The old master must have been incredibly good at mind arts. She thought with a shudder.
After that she dedicated the rest of the morning and into the afternoon working on restoring the little greenhouse that she had accidentally burned before, she mostly kept it in preparation for the eventual time her stock of ingredients started to run out. They had thankfully looted a few apothecaries as well as other shops they found along the way to DC a couple of years back, magical dwellings where hard to find beyond the important centers, wizards transportation system and other magical benefits had that effect on their population distribution. They were not that many to begin with.
Now she had been engrossed for hours with her charming projects, little things she sometimes tried to bewitch by the use of long-lasting charms. If there was something that she could say was her hobby, it was that. She had bewitched many objects just like she had done to her mask. It was never that simple even if the idea was, the execution always implied a lot more work and complexities.
She often started with a simple concept, like that day, she was set on creating a self-filling tic tac box. Duplicating tic tacs was a simple matter, but for the little box to be useful and safe it had to have a limit, it had to retain freshness, it had to have a set limit of uses that would ensure a standard quality of mints was maintained. The geminio charm had to react to the specific command or stimulus and at the specific time.
All of it was a long string of trials and experimentation, sparsed with some investigation of her books. Suffice to say it was enough to keep her mind occupied for long hours, and that was the case that day when she suddenly found the afternoon sun to be waning already, the day almost over.
The night of the next day would be a full moon night, the one night in the month when her curse returned at full force and called on to her any and all walkers and undead things, turning them into frenzied monsters that could somehow run, jump and were relentless in their pursuit. If she stayed at the Sanctuary, people would die, they attacked anything on their way. So every month Sophia would go to her refuge in the bay to spend the night there.
The Chesapeake Bay had a great many little islands distributed in it and many were basically abandoned, surrounded by water and at a comfortable distance from the mainland. Some of them didn't even have a proper means of docking a vessel.
Her little island in the bay wasn't that little in fact, but it was uninhabited even before the old world died, except for the remains of what seemed to be a big terraforming operation led by the US army engineers corps. For what she could discern, they had been working to better define the edges of the little island, or that was what it looked like to her. There was just one little wharf for a boat but the rest of the coast was closed and surrounded by stones they had purposely placed there.
Most of the island was just wild nature now and the signs of old dirt roads almost consumed by overgrowth, the terrain had a lot of peculiar modifications done to it that were beyond her understanding. But they seemed to have been moving earth, creating water pools and canals and Sophia had realized that a lot of material that must have been once dredged was carefully placed in specific areas near the water.
She never gave it much thought about what they were doing, but their work had probably taken out most of the flora of the land or there was never much of it to begin with because most of what there was today were new plants. Nothing that said to her it had been growing from before the fall of the old world. Everything was a mystery to her about the no-maj military work, but she thanked them because now it was perfect for her and they had left a lot of material to build her little crooked tower in the bay.
The tower was somewhere near fifty feet tall and created out of dark stones and mortar, it didn't have any door and just a single window at the top, where she spent the nights. It looked creepy, badly put together, and unstable, it was cold and not at all comfortable to sleep at. But she had her magic to compensate and she never spent much there, just the nights of the full moon, after and before that if she was there she would spend near the shore enjoying the water and the sound of it crashing against the rocks.
She sometimes did go earlier or returned back later, taking a few days just away from everything, practicing magic that allowed her to let go without care. Some of her most dangerous fire spells and curses. She fished with her wand and broom, it made it so easy though, so she sometimes brought back fish for her people.
It's crazy to think of how different things were the last time I came back from the bay. She thought, the last full moon she had returned and found out Dwight had been captured and Tina was dead.
After the last full moon, events started that ended in me reuniting with my mother. She thought, how time went by her.
Thinking about her mother, Sophia decided that she should go back to her and make sure they were fine after their last discussion. Negan was right, as much as she was hurt by her mother's disapproval, she was her one and only mother. Besides, it was her job to worry.
Her mind made, Sophia grabbed her broom and floated up to the roof of her little place on the Sanctuary and stood there, watching the sun still full nearing the horizon with her mask off. The high air was so fresh compared to the ground air and it felt wonderful in tandem with the sun against the scarred skin of her burned face.
With a deep content sigh, Sophia placed the mask of the Harpy on her face and the witch hat on her head.
Never going out without you. She thought giving it a loving pat, she sprints to the edge and jumped off the building, hopping on the broom mid-air and racing off into the horizon at a vertiginous speed. A wide grin on her face.
"That was the fucking Harpy!" Said Sasha watching her fly off at immense speed through the scope of her rifle. "I think she lives on that thing on the roof."
Rosita put down her own binoculars giving her an angry glare. "Why didn't you shoot!? It was perfect, she didn't even have her mask on you could have put her down in one shot!" She reproached her, taking the rifle from her and trying to see if she could still see her flying off.
"She's gone, that thing is so fucking fast." Rosita complained, throwing the rifle back at Sasha in frustration.
"Calm your ass, for all you know she has protection just for that kind of thing. No, we have to assume that she has. If I shot and she didn't die we would be done for." Sasha explained to her volatile friend. "We came here for Negan."
Rosita spat, something that Sasha knew was her way of acknowledging she was right. "Her face looks nasty." Commented Rosita with a smile, she was clearly enjoying the image of the girl suffering.
"I guess that's why she wears the mask." Said Sasha thoughtfully. The two of them sat back on the floor under the window of their abandoned building. "That was Carol's daughter...she looked really young."
"Don't get confused, she's a crazy bitch. After we kill Negan I'm going after her." Rosita vowed.
"If we are lucky, Jesus will take care of that before we have to." Sasha said, her somber comment made the other regard her with a shocked glare, then a smile.
"Don't smile yet, you know well what could happen if we fail. Even if we don't, and we manage to kill Negan, as soon as the Harpy finds out she is going to take it out on everyone else." Sasha warned her, the reality was that the two of them were acting despite the risk to the others, despite the agreement they made with the communities.
Sasha felt very bad about it, it tore at her heart. But it was just that either way she could not live with it another day.
By the time she dropped in front of her mother's house, the sun was already setting, which made it's light a warm orangey tone. There was no light that she could see inside the house, but since there was the light of day still, she thought maybe her mother wanted to save on candles.
Shit, that reminds me, I forgot to bring her supplies. She thought as she walked up to the door and to her surprise, she found it ajar.
"Mom?" She asked out, but nobody answered.
Maybe she is around gathering something or checking the area for walkers. She thought.
She decided to wait to see if she came back, so she sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace in silence and kept her ears open. But after a few minutes of nothing, she started to get nervous.
Maybe she is sick. She said to herself worrying a little.
Her room's door was closed but probably not locked. Sophia tried to move as quietly as she could until she reached the door and slowly began pushing it open, the door felt a little stiff. Like something straining from the movement, so she peeked inside before opening it entirely. The room was dark but Sophia could already tell that her mother wasn't there, then her eyes adjusted better and she saw something that left her a little lost.
There in front of her on the opposite wall, there were two black circles like eyes pushed tight together, a little glint could be seen on it from the light filtering through the half-opened door.
There was definitely something there and Sophia wanted to check what it was. She pushed open the door entirely and stepped in. Then she heard it, it came at the same time she identified what she was looking at.
Click. Sounded first from over her head near the door.
Then a consecutive, Click. And a deafening
BOOM!
UUHF! Something incredibly strong struck her on he chest and the air was pulled from her lungs
The loud sound came with a flash of light, and Sophia's chest exploded in pain. By the time she could register the alarm, she had flown back and crashed into the wall behind her, the force of the impact crashing tiles and breaking something hard like stone.
AAH! She silently gasped with the little air he had left, it was all she managed to do in response, her whole body was in shock and she had to struggle hard not to pass out, but the shotgun blast she had just taken had left her lungs paralyzed and she couldn't even draw breath.
Sophia scrambled on the floor trying to regain control of her body, all her limbs except her metallic arm felt numb and weak due to the shock. Breathing was intensive labor that awarded her insufficient breath and she was starting to panic.
I can't breathe! She thought lamely.
"I can't lie, I love watching you writhing on the floor like the snake you are." A male voice sounded, she thought she recognized it.
"It reminds me of Gregory." Finished Jesus looking at her with disdain from above.
The look in his eyes was enough to light a fire in Sophia's determination, her blood was already starting to rage. "But unlike you, I don't play with my prey." Jesus said finally and aimed a gun at her.
Sophia groaned and grunted with all the little air in her lungs, raging despite the desperation of asphyxiation. With her wand out and both hands pushing with all her might for her power to react out of sheer rage, she made a sweeping motion from one side to the other.
GRAAA! She screamed, losing all the air in her lungs she had managed to breathe.
And suddenly it was like a giant invisible hand was tearing everything in front of her asunder. Walls, floor, doors roof, window, everything was torn and pushed aside with a deafening roar of wood snapping, leaving a gaping hole on the side of her mother's house when once was the room.
The sudden chaos managed to make the man miss his shot as he rushed out the way of the destruction, and Sophia desperately crawled behind the small cover of what she now recognized as a broken porcelain tub, then with all her might and against her body's will she fought and strained to get air in her lungs again.
It was like something inside her was not willing to move to let her breathe and no matter how much effort she made, it wouldn't budge, but each effort allowed at least a little air that permitted her to try again and again. Sophia thought that she had never felt closer to death and in a way so out of her control like she felt at that moment.
The sound of her strained breathing screamed of weakness and vulnerability and it made her rage against her weakness. It pushed her to keep struggling even though it felt like she was losing the fight.
Eventually, in what felt like an hour but couldn't have been more than a minute, she finally recovered an acceptable amount of control over her body and lungs and Sophia tried to stand. Her chest hurt a lot and was terribly tender, it burned her every time she breathed. Jesus seemed to have avoided the chaos and had retreated somewhere, surely to attack her again.
"JESUS!" She cried out in anger as she started to tumble out towards the hole, pushing the rubble aside with her boots. "YOU FUCKING MORON! THIS IS IT FOR YOU!" She shouted. To her dismay, the shotgun shot she took to the chest destroyed her familiar long wand, so she took her sword in hand.
She stepped out of the house and as soon as she did she heard.
"It's Paul for you!" And as she managed to turn towards it but only caught the fast movement of the man as he expertly turned on the spot. Then a kick came fast at her and struck directly on her right hand, her saber sword flying off to the side.
"You piece of shit!" she groaned and reared to bash the man's face with her hard metal arm, but Jesus was faster and followed with another kick. This time straight at her sore chest and with enough force to push her back what seemed like ten feet to the side of the house and left her reeling from pain, kneeling, bent over on the grass.
BANG!
Came the first loud shot of a gun, smashing on the metal mask and pushing her back violently. But Sophia reacted fast now, she quickly sat up and turned sideways, protecting her one fleshy arm with her body and covering her neck with her silver, metallic right arm.
The second shot came as soon as the other was fired and she barely had managed to get ready for it, hitting the metallic arm just as she protected her neck, the pain just as real but she knew it would take no damage.
Then another shot.
BANG!
The third shot hit her on the ribs and shook her entire core, threatening to take the air from her lungs again and bend her over from the pain. But Sophia tried to hold strong. It was over already, after all.
Just as the third shot hit her ribs again, she used the pause to pull the wand from her back, her first wand the one that had been with her since coming into her powers.
"Expelliarmus!" She roared, her chest and ribs screaming in pain as well but she tried to ignore it, satisfied when the gun in the man's hand flew away towards her and landed somewhere behind her.
"Expulso!" She continued, not intending to stop the barrage until the man was down.
The spell flew past the man and hit a wooden column behind him and made it explode in a shower of splinters, as Paul jumped sideways, landing with a roll and setting off on a sprint without a wasted movement.
"Expulso!" She tried again, he was running fast towards the iron fence in front of the house. The spell exploded on the ground where his feet had just been, and only managed to destabilize him a little.
"Bombarda!" Sophia continued each time angrier at the man. He was fast and agile, jumping to the side to avoid the blast. Paul reached the fence and effortlessly jumped it, Sophia had never seen him move like that.
It's over. She thought.
A lot more calmly now that the danger was over and she felt in control. She stood up, her ribs and chest were killing her but after a hasty check, she saw no blood, thanks to the dragonhide armor. Then turning to the man again, she focused on the spot just beyond the fence and apparated there in a second, with a resounding
Crack!
She saw Paul running on the street towards an old car that was waiting on the other side near the house. She saw the fear in his eye as he looked back over his shoulder and saw her right there behind him.
"Depulso!" She shouted wickedly, an angry smile on her face that turned into a loud cackle when the spell hit the man on the back and flung him violently towards the car and smashed him against it, face first. A fine spray of blood and saliva bursting out and onto the car's paint and dirt.
"Ha ha ha ha!" She laughed loudly, victorious, the pain worth it. She was high on adrenaline now and feeling like she could go for hours.
"Now you did it, Paul. After this, you, Simon, Maggie and I are going to have a great time together!" She spat angrily, walking over to the man slumped against the car. He had crashed face-first against the door and his nose was broken and bleeding, his left arm bent in an unnatural way.
She walked up to him, holding her side from the pain and turned him on his back to get a good look at him. He was still recovering from head trauma.
"Why would you be so stupid! Don't you care at all for the people that look up to you!?" She raged on his face, his bloody, tired, almost unrecognizable face. "You thought that you could take me down? WHO GAVE YOU THE GUNS!?" She finished screaming in his face and shaking him, bringing his eyes back into focus.
"I fucking hate you. I hope you suffer for everything you've done." He managed to say through broken teeth and spat blood on her face, luckily only getting the mask.
"Don't worry, I don't really need to ask questions anymore." She said and saw the worry in the man's face at her threat. "I'll enjoy this. Legilimens!" She snarled with all the hate and desire to invade and take it all, that she could muster.
It was like her consciousness drained into the eyes of the man and everything around her became dark. It would only take a few seconds in real life but it would feel longer for her, so she didn't have to worry about being vulnerable for much time.
Then from the dark, a scene began to come into the light, it's fringes fighting to remain and not disintegrate into the darkness. A homely living room came into view and Sophia realized she was inside a memory, but it felt different. Sitting huddled on a couch was a young man she recognized as a younger Paul, he was focused on a small old smartphone screen and seemingly ignoring anything around him.
"Not this, show me what you don't want me to know." She commanded with authority and the memory shook violently, making everything shift in tones for a second then returned to normal, it was like the memory was fighting her influence. The young man on the couch focusing even harder on the small black screen, he had heard her, judging by his reaction.
I can't believe it, this is some kind of unconscious defense mechanism? She thought curiously, Rapey had never done anything like it. But it was all nothing more than an interesting reaction for Sophia, she knew well what she could do within the mind of a man.
Giving the room a detailed look, she found her target. A family portrait, the typical perfect upper-middle-class family unit she hated to see even as her old self. A beautiful blond mother, a dopey looking father with a big smile, and a gorgeous little sister hugging her big brother tightly. Such a perfect little family.
Sophia's smile grew deviously.
"Whatcha doing Pauly?" She said, following her experience and instincts. It was not her voice that she heard when she spoke, it was the younger voice of a girl that came out almost as if in dreams.
The man finally looked away from the screen on his phone and stared at her in confusion, she was smiling wide and like a predator, but all he saw was his little sister.
"Ally? What are you doing here?" He asked worriedly and looked around, probably searching for the Harpy.
"Do I bother you, big bro?" She asked, changing the subject and using her best pout along with innocent eyes.
Paul watched with sadness in his eyes. "No, you will never annoy me." He said but held the phone closer to his chest.
"Will you show me, Pauly?" She asked sweetly, coming closer to him from the back and hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder. She could smell the soap and hair conditioner on the man's hair and feel his warm neck pulsating with each heartbeat. So livid.
"I don't know." He said, suddenly a little bashfully.
"Pleeease, I promise I won't judge." She said trying to sound earnest, tightening the hug and planting a sweet kiss on his cheek. Sophia pushed herself to feel love for the man and transmit it, this was her dear older brother who loved her and protected her ever since she was a little girl. She really was a lucky girl.
The man seemed to think about it for a second, She got the impression that he had forgotten what he was supposed to be doing now. It was like they were skirting on real memories and they were mixing now with what she was doing, her actions were a little surprising as well, it was almost like she knew what she was supposed to do or feel and did it.
"Ok, but please don't tell mom and dad." He said worriedly, looking around him as if looking for his parents.
"Promise." She answered happily this was it, she knew it.
Jesus...Paul, relaxed a little and showed her the phone screen then pressed a side button and the screen turned on. He had been watching some pictures taken with the phone, they were selfies, lovingly taken between him and another young man his age. They were really close and happy.
"Aw, that's so sweet! You two look so happy!" She said hugging the man closer. "Show me more!" She urged excitedly, she could tell this was it.
Paul started swiping the screen and she could see them hugging, kissing, one of them was of the other man riding a bike and laughing heartily. Then came one that looked to be a dark video but he skipped it as soon as it was shown on screen.
"What was that?" She asked, trying to sound innocent. "Show me pleeease!" She begged.
"I can't, I have to keep it from her." Paul said, seemingly confused about his own words.
"It's just the two of us here, don't you trust me, big bro?" She asked him with a pout, slightly letting go of the hug. But the man grabbed her arm, suddenly scared.
"No, don't go! Don't leave me, Ally." He begged her with tears in his eyes.
"I just wanted to see it, before I have to leave again." Sophia said sadly, looking away to hide the smile threatening to ruin her performance.
"Please don't leave me again, I'll show you but you have to tell no one. If she ever found out." He warned her and reluctantly went back to the video.
Sophia couldn't hold back the triumphant laughter at that point.
HA HA HA HA!
Her whole body shook as she laughed loudly. The man turned towards her again in confusion and then she saw it in his eyes, the fear and realization of what had just happened, who he was really talking to but it was too late now.
Reaching out, she gently touched the play button on the screen and she was sucked into the memory, leaving behind the room with the younger Paul screaming.
She found herself suddenly in what she recognized was the office that once belonged to Gregory, within the Hilltop mansion, everything was dark and only a faint orange light from some candles provided the barest of illumination within. Then the door opened and in came Paul and a woman she almost forgot about, her name was Sasha, she remembered she was one of Rick's group that moved to the Hilltop after the night they were introduced.
Jesus locked the door and shut every window and curtain before blowing off all but one candle, then faced Sasha.
"The Harpy reunited with her mother, I saw Carol walk into the Sanctuary and then the two of them went out in a vehicle." He told her almost in a whisper.
"You are going to get caught if you keep snooping so close to their HQ" Sasha warned him, her arms crossed on her chest in a guarded stance.
"It's fine, besides I have something that I know you will want to see." Paul countered, then he reached to his jacket and pulled a neatly folded paper.
Sasha took it from his hand quickly without asking and unfolded it. Sophia moved behind the woman and saw that it was a detailed map of the area near the Sanctuary, as well as a decent map of the layout inside the factory, and even details on which doors to look out for and from where. Sophia went pale when she realized what it meant.
"How did you get this!?" Sasha asked, barely controlling her excitement.
"Snooping around." Paul said with a smile.
"How accurate do you think it is?" She asked him.
"It doesn't have his specific quarters, but you shouldn't need it, you just have to watch the first-floor exits and it will give you a clear line of sight. I marked you the ones I've seen him come out of the most." He explained to her, Sasha looked like she wanted to jump on him and hug the man for his assistance.
Then the dark edges of the memories started to tremble violently and she knew it was about time to get out before the man went insane from fighting her influence.
As soon as she thought about it, the reaction was instantaneous, her body was pulled from the dark lit memory and into the light of the waning evening.
She was standing over the man who was slumped on the ground against the car and trembling violently, her wand on his temple.
"SOPHIA!" Came the furious voice of her mother from somewhere nearby, she turned her head to the left and saw that her mother was coming from down the road. Her face was pale and furious.
"ROT IN HELL!" Suddenly Paul raged with pure vile in his tone, and when Sophia looked at the man again his face was so deformed by the intensity of the hate in his eyes it shook her, then the motion of his right arm called her attention and she saw that he had a thin metal wire in his hand which he pulled to some unknown effect.
Everything happened as in slow motion, her eyes followed the wire from his hand and over his shoulder, past his head and into the car through the door.
What she saw inside left her confused for a fraction of a second. All the seats were loaded with crates of what looked like big jugs and electrical wires, some of one color, some of another, and all arching from one jug to the other.
No. Was all she managed to think.
She took a step back and went to cast a shield but it was too late, in a flash of white and searing light, everything turned into shock and fire.
The wave hit her like the blast of dragon breath and the force of a truck, burning her whole being, then the shield came in place and the sudden barrier acted like a catapult. Hurling her backward all the way to the iron fence that surrounded her mother's house on the other side of the street, and smashing her hard enough to bend it all the way back.
She was out of it so fast that she didn't even feel pain until she woke up again not long after.
"Sophia, dear good, Wake up!" Called her mother, from somewhere.
She realized her eyes were closed, so she opened them and all she could see was the extremely saturated image of her mother's face right over her, her movement leaving tracks all around. Sophia's ears started ringing painfully.
"Mom-" She tried to speak, something in her throat made her choke and all she could do was cough blood, which dribbled down the underside of her mask and brought alive the pain all over her body.
"Aau…" She cried, holding her side. "I gotta tell Negan…" She started.
"Don't move! You must be in shock." Her mother said, her voice sounded almost like distant, she was trying to keep calm and Sophia could tell she was having trouble with it.
"I'm fine, mom." She said, hoping not to sound too loud but her hearing was fucked. "Give me my radio." She asked tiredly.
"It's all in pieces… most of your clothes too, except for the hat and that thing you have on your chest." Her mother informed her. Sophia tiredly patted her hurting chest, the dragon hide corset had saved her life but the pain was almost unbearable.
With some effort, she tried to sit up and realized that she was laying over the bent and twisted irons of her mother's fence. Like her mother had said, her dark tight jeans were in rags and the only traces of her red sleeveless were little rags hanging from the leather straps where she held her wands and sword. The straps themselves looked blackened and singed but held on strongly.
"Help me up, mom. I have to go to the Sanctuary." She asked, holding her arms to her.
"You are not going anywhere, I saw you fly twenty feet and crash on a fence hard enough to bend it completely backward. You are in no shape to fly." Her mother warned her but Sophia had no choice, for all she knew they could assassinate Negan at any moment.
"I gotta get my broom." She said and with what seemed like a massive effort, she sat up, but as soon as she did, her back exploded in pain and froze her legs.
"Aahh!" The scream escaped her mouth before she could hold it.
"Cut it out! Can't you see you are in very bad shape? Just stop it." Her mother insisted, trying to hold her in place but Sophia didn't stop there, she needed to go and fast.
"My back is fucked." She complained and gingerly began trying to stand up again, the pain was terrible and every wave made her legs go weak.
"Sophia, please. You almost died, can't you just take a minute?" Her mother insisted sadly. She could hear the pain in her mother's voice.
"This is-" She tried to say, but each movement worsened the pain and each wave of pain threatened to take the air from her. "I can't, mom. I'll be fine" She tried to reassure her.
Her wand was right next to her on the floor and she knew the other one had been in pieces inside the house but her broom was somewhere in there. She painfully reached for her wand on the floor, hating herself for not having picked up before she stood up.
"Sophia!.." Screamed Carol, fear, and frustration clear in her voice. "If you leave right now...I...I won't be here when you come back." She heard her mother say. Sophia sighed tiredly, trying to remember the talk she had with Negan about her mother.
"Mom." She started turning towards her. "This is really not the time for this, people might die"
"People already died! Sophia, that man blew himself up just to try to kill you! Does that not make you feel anything?" Her mother asked her, her mood starting to get more agitated.
"What am I supposed to feel!? He was fucking crazy, he was nothing like he used to be." She couldn't help holding her side as she talked. Everything about her body was stiff and in pain by just standing there.
"You pushed him to that!" her mother accused. "This is what happens when you push someone to the extreme! Honestly baby, does that not ring a bell? You should know very well what it means to be pushed to that point!" Carol was shouting, her anger and frustration at her reaching a limit.
Sophia recoiled at the comparison, offended that her mother was blaming her for the man's stupidity.
"First of all, Mother! It's nothing like what I lived through! Jesu-, Paul was a fucking moron for what he did. Honestly, this is exactly why these people deserve to be ruled. Completely irrational!" She screamed back, ignoring the terrible waves of pain that ran through her body because of her outburst. "Don't you fucking put this on me! Someone gave him the guns and the explosives. Someone knew what he was up to and allowed it to happen, knowing full well the consequences!"
"So you're saying that this has nothing to do with what you did at Hilltop that night?" Carol said finally, the words catching her by surprise.
"With the way you tortured and decapitated a man in front of him!? When are you going to stop bullshitting yourself and face the shit that you've done!? You always blame it on others, but the one who's always in control is you! After all, God forbid you are not on top of everything!" Her mother returned, equally pissed and not giving in an inch.
"A man was so desperate to kill you that he was willing to blow himself up, you almost just fucking died. Look at you, you are a fucking mess. What the fuck are you doing Sophia!?" The woman continued.
Sophia huffed in annoyance and started summoning her stuff, starting with the hat. "I saw you, you got in his mind, didn't you? How could you do that!? You of all people, after what we both lived through!" Her mother continued, angrier and angrier now that she was ignoring her.
"What are you even talking about, mother?" She asked annoyed, but then her mother grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, then slapped her so hard she fell on the floor, wincing from the pain bursting through her body.
"What you did is no different than what Ed did. That moment, you were no better than your father, or your old master." Said her mother, looking down on her on the floor. Her tone was filled with anger and disappointment.
All Sophia managed to do was shake her head in denial. "No, you are wrong." She said weakly, her chest felt tight and her breathing labored. She had to make an effort to focus on the image of her mother, her vision was threatening to blur now.
I have to get out of here… The thought flared in her mind.
"Am I? Did you or did you not somehow manipulate Richard to have him banished from the Kingdom?" She asked her, her eyes looking at her like she was some unwanted dog, the pain in Sophia's heart was shattering.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Sophia answered, trying her best to sound cold as a stone and ignoring the terrible wrenching feeling in her heart and mind. Something that she had mastered long ago.
Carol looked at her with equally cold eyes. "I used to be able to tell when you lied, but I can't anymore... I guess you are not the same girl I used to know." Her mother concluded, her tone and her face were like a hammer in Sophia's mind. Her breathing became more and more labored, she had to get away from there now.
"Good!" Sophia shouted, she tried to sound strong and hoped that she did because inside she felt like a child.
"Because I was pathetic back then!, a weak little victim! just a thing for that monster to handle! Back then I was a walking dead! AND IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!" She finished but all her mother did in response was lightly shake her head, tears streaming from her eyes then turned her back on Sophia, walking away from her.
"This is who I am!" Sophia shouted desperately from the ground. "Whatever I am, I'll never be what you want me to be!"
Her mother walked away from her and left as the last rays of the setting sun disappeared, never looking back.
Sophia watched her mother's figure disappear into the darkness, and cursed her luck, she had no time to be moping around. She stood up with considerable effort and a lot of pain, and summoned her broom to her instead of walking to it as well as her sword.
She had been considering going to the bay that night, but sadly things had changed now. Her mother had left the house in the night and she didn't think she would come back, so fixing up the place was useless now.
Thank the gods for the cushioning charms on the broom. She thought because she basically laid on it and did not have the strength to hold herself any better. Before leaving the place, she looked back at the car that was still on fire, the figure of Paul visible among the flames. Nothing more than a charred corpse was left of him.
With that, Sophia left the place that now held such bitterness in her heart and flew to her own home that was one of the most important things in her life.
She flew as fast as she could, worrying all the way that it was too late, she hadn't gotten a date or time for the attack but it made sense if they both attacked at the same time.
It was already dark when she arrived at the Sanctuary, she looked around desperately, searching for anything out of place from the air. There were more than the usual guards outside and that was a little alarming. Then she saw some of the guards gathered near the fence, a body lying on the ground and her heart almost stopped.
She awkwardly descended towards them and gingerly hopped off her broom, her ribs screaming in pain with each movement.
"Miss Harpy! What happened!?" One of the enforcers asked when she saw her state, she knew she looked a sight, all ragged, bloody and burned.
"Don't worry, What happened here?" She asked, looking at the body on the ground, it was a veteran enforcer she knew by name and face. He had been shot neatly in the forehead.
"It was a bitch, one of them Alexandrians I think." Said one of the men and vaguely pointed at the door leading to the inside. Sophia was almost about to unload on the man for not answering what she wanted to know, but someone else did.
"Worry not, the toll is three dead but she didn't get to the boss level." Eugene said, walking out and towards her from the door behind her.
"Oh, thank the gods." She said, letting out a breath she had been unconsciously holding.
"Come, they just caught her alive. They were questioning her in the meeting room." Eugene said, behind the unfeeling tone, Sophia identified a deep sadness in the man.
"Let's go." She said and started walking, but her legs gave out under her for a second and she had to hold on to the man to remain upright.
"With all due respect, you look like a cowpie." He said and held his arm out so she could hold on, she was too short for her to hold on to his shoulder. Sophia was immensely thankful for the man's consideration, the first hand she was offered since the explosion.
"I feel like a cowpie, someone tried to blow me up." She explained, everything hurt and now that the adrenaline was starting to pass, she was finding it harder and harder to walk. Her left leg was in pain and she couldn't move it much without her hip hurting like hell and then giving out, anything she did with her arms or torso translated to pain in the ribs, even her metallic arm hurt from the shot she had received.
"I would venture they succeeded in their attempt." Eugene commented, and Sophia laughed but laughing just made the pain worse.
They walked slowly towards the meeting room on the first floor, the stairs were eternal and inside they found Negan, Arat, Laura, and Simon, who was staring intensely at Sasha, who was tied and kneeling on the floor. They were all shocked when they saw Eugene walk in with her barely holding on and in visible pain.
"Sophia! What happened!?" Asked Negan suddenly more seriously than she had seen him in a while, the others too came up to her worried, except for Simon who regarded her with reserved concern from his position near Sasha.
"Fucking Paul from the Hilltop. Crazy asshole blew himself up trying to kill me." She explained.
Sasha broke into tears at the news, defeated on the floor.
"Eugene, go get Carson now" Ordered Negan, who tenderly picked her up in his arms and carefully moved her to the chairs. She didn't even find it in herself to complain about being picked up like that.
"I got inside his mind...and found out she was planning to kill you, but then he exploded and my radio broke. I'm sorry, I came as fast as I could" She tried to explain.
Negan sat her down, but her back hurt too much to sit, so he had to lay her on the table. He didn't look pissed at what she was saying, but there was worry in his eyes.
"Your arm is all burnt." Arat mentioned, coming up to her with Laura. The latter placed a hand on her shoulder carefully. Sophia looked at her left arm and she was right, all the length of it from the back of the palm to the shoulder were badly burnt, there was no trace of the bandage she had before.
"Oh, I didn't notice." She said mildly surprised. The two women were looking at her with shock.
It started stinging and hurting as soon as she noticed it though, but she ignored it and placed her hand on the mask to finally release it, as well as the hat. Both charmed to be hard to remove by other than her command.
"Oh shit, you have no eyelashes!" Arat said and broke into nervous laughter. Laura joined too, giving her a good look.
"You look like you went skiing with a balaclava!" She joked laughing, Sophia laughed too but it was a mistake.
"Ow!, don't make me laugh. My ribs are fucked." She said. "Help me take off the armor, it's too tight." She asked, the pain and tiredness surpassing her shame.
Arat and Laura carefully unzipped the dragonhide armored corset and took it off, revealing her naked torso.
Negan removed his leather jacket and covered her with it, then with a handkerchief he began to clean her bloodsoaked face from coughing blood with the mask on. She really was a mess.
"You should start wearing a bra, fucking hippy." He said with a smile. "You looked like you got shot too. Badly. He had guns?" He asked her.
"Yeah, a shotgun and a .45, I don't know where he got them though, or the explosives. I only managed to get a memory of him talking with Sasha, he had been scouting the Sanctuary for a while and gave her a map." She explained, the information bringing out surprised faces from the lieutenants.
Negan produced said map from his pocket and showed it to her. "This would be it, right?"
She nodded.
"That's some useful new skill. It's good you used it on him, well done Sweetpea" Negan said to her. She felt proud, but only for a second, until she was suddenly forced to remember her mother's words before she left.
What you did was no different than what Ed did. -
You were no better than your father.
She heard the words in her mind and her chest tightened again, her heart racing.
"Oh lord, what happened?" Came the voice of the doctor and he rushed from the door to her side. She tried to say something but he cut her.
"Don't answer." He said after peeking under the jacket.
"Help me get her on the stretcher." He ordered the two women by her side, while he placed a stretcher right next to her.
"I'm not that bad." She said, trying to sit up and giving the stretcher a nasty look. It suddenly made things a lot more real, especially the orthopedic collar the man was holding in his hands.
"Don't move, who knows what kind of injury you have!" The man complained.
"I'm telling you." She said, her chest was starting to feel heavier and she was having trouble breathing. "I'm fine." She tried to say, but it wasn't stopping. There was a growing dread inside her that made her feel incredibly uncomfortable.
"We witches are-" She tried to continue, but her breathing became more and more hard and sluggish, it was like there was not enough air getting in her lungs even though she wasn't paralyzed like before. "We-" She tried to continue, but then her eyes filled with tears and her heart started racing scarily fast, so fast she feared she could have a heart attack.
Everybody was looking at her in concern now. She looked around and their eyes were everywhere.
"I can't-" She tried to say between hard inhalations. "My heart, I-".
"Sophia." The doctor said and knelt in front of her, looking at her straight in the eyes. "Look at me, do what I do." He said and visibly breathed through his nose. "In through the nose." He said, then breathed out through the mouth. "Out through the mouth. "
She tried to follow, but it wasn't helping. She was running out of air and everything around her was trembling now, she heard the light bulbs over her head explode.
Everyone except for the doctor and Negan was looking at her with fear now.
I have to get out, I have to go.
"I have to-" She tried to say between the breaths.
I have to getaway.
She stood up, pushing the doctor out of her way, but right then her legs gave out under her weight and she collapsed on the floor.
That was all she managed before passing out.