The words seemed to float off the letter Sohipe clutched in her hand, her grip on it so strong that her fists were white. Sophie kept reading it over and over again, looking at each word for longer than necessary. Each read, slowly looking over everything.
Each time hoping she would find some secret P.S Keefe left for her. One that would say: Haha! You fell for this Foster? You should know better than anyone that I wouldn't ditch you. Team Foster-Keefe forever remember? But there wasn't.
There wasn't.
There wasn't.
There wasn't.
She felt her world still, the feeling similar to when Keefe had made her go comatose, and perhaps she was going numb, unable to process the words that would send her world crashing once they finally sunk deep into Sohpie's brain.
She was on her bed, sitting there for God knows how long; the world around her went blank. Everything around her was nothing but static. The words echoing in her mind, jumping and ricocheting from all sides of her mind. She remained like a statue, trying her best to count her breaths, but she couldn't focus. Not like this.
Grady, Edaline, Sandor, and Flori all came into her room, she was aware of that much, but what they said, what they did, how long they stayed for, Sohpie couldn't bother to care. They tried talking to her, at least Sophie thinks they did. Edaline conjured some rufflepuff and butterblasts, but the smell felt faint to Sohpie even if it was right there.
Nothing they said was really getting through. For Sophie, it felt like muffled noises and garbles. Like she was underwater, drowning, unable to hear anything but her own muted sounds.
They left eventually, and Sophie was still stuck on the letter. How long had she clutched the thing? She was alone with her thoughts, but her thoughts weren't coherent; she couldn't keep up with all the feelings clashing in her head.
*Thump*
The sudden sound alerted Sophie; she wasn't alone. Iggy was there with her, ramming into the side of his cage, trying to get her attention. She had honestly forgotten the cage resting on her bed, and no one had moved it.
She felt herself move, her finger now tracing the front of the cage. Sophie looked at Iggy, forcing herself to focus on the imp.
Oh.
Was the first intelligible thought she understood for the first time in hours. Iggy's fur changed. Now the imp had splotches of different shades of green, blue, and purple. Black stripes covered his body, and Sophie felt her mouth dry. Keefe did that didn't he? It was Iggy's best look, he reminded Sophie of her mermaid phase as a kid, and the colours looked more stunning than funny.
But...
There was something about the colours and the stripes that dug into her. The thought that the last person that got to see Keefe was her pet imp and not her.
Sophie closes her eyes, empties her mind as Tergian taught her to, and takes a deep breath. Slowly inhaling and exhaling, flushing out all the chaos in her mind. Draining everything deep, deep, deep into her heart, leaving it there for later. She takes another deep breath and opens her eyes.
She stays on her bed, and maybe it was the dull throb in her head or the cold she felt against her arms, but she hugged herself, trying to keep herself together. Because Sophie Foster knew better than anyone that if she didn't hold herself, she would break.
Sophie shuddered, and turned her head, coincidently making eye contact with Iggy. Iggy looked nice, his fur really was lovely. Yeah, she could focus on the nice things, keep Keefe out of her thoughts, let herself calm down and recollect. The purples, blues, and greens were genuinely pretty. There were even little spots where the colours blended to make a nice shade of teal. Teal was a nice colour. Her favourite colour. It could calm her down. So Sophie stared a little longer. It wasn't working though, it's appeal perhaps fading after all that had happened between her Fitz. But teal was still a nice colour, it just didn't incite the same emotional response it once did.
But Iggy was helping. Maybe Sophie could take him out of the cage and cuddle? Biana could do it, right? She could too. Sophie slowly straightened herself out, this was fine. She was the girl who single handly burned a Neverseen hide-out. She'd get through one breath at a time, Sophie thought.
That was until she saw on Iggy, a colour that could only be described as ice blue.
All she felt was everything bubbling in her chest, refusing to stay put and hidden, her brain felt like a kettle. She sat there frozen and stewed until that metaphorical whistle blew.
Then the dam breaks loose. Her heart spitting out everything she tried to suppress.
Her drowning mind bursts with clarity, a single focus, only one word, only one action.
Run.
So she does, she runs out of her room, down the stairs, past her parents, out the door, past Sandor, past Flori, past Wynn and Luna, and she doesn't even stop to look at Calla's tree.
She hears shouts, people calling her name, but she doesn't care, she just keeps running, because really, all she can do is run.
She feels the thrumming energy build up as she quickens her pace, her lungs burned, and the shouts of Sandor seemed close but behind. She pushed, pushing every morsel of pulsing power she had at her disposal. A thundering sound of space and time cracking was heard and before Sophie was the biggest entry into the void she had ever seen, ever made.
Sandor's yelling gets closer, and Sophie doesn't even think as she slips into the void. She wasn't sure where she wanted to go, but her heart answered for her, and before Sophie could hold onto the word that rattled in her heart, she found herself slipping out of the void into a familiar hallway.
She felt her heart clench.
This was the place she had met Keefe.
She walked to that oh-so-familiar bench, her knees giving out right before it. She stayed there, on the floor, as it all sank in. He left her again.
He left.
He left.
He left.
She felt that accursed letter in her hand, it being mostly crushed in her fist. With shaky hands, she smoothed it out, carefully reading it one more time.
To the Mysterious Miss F!
Ugh—I'm already regretting starting this letter that way. But I don't have any extra paper, and crossing it out would look worse, so… I guess we'll just have to add it to my list of mistakes.
And I know you're going to think that everything I'm about to say should also be on that long list of Keefe Fails. But I swear— that's NOT what this is. I'm not trying to fix everything or save everyone this time. I'm just trying to make sure I don't hurt anyone.
I can't tell you more than that without putting you in danger, so just… trust me when I say that the powers my mom gave me are super bad. There seriously aren't strong enough words to explain how horrible they are. And I CAN'T control them—just like I can't stop my mom from forcing me to use them.
So… this is the only way. I don't want to do it. But I have to.
And I'm not going to ask you not to hate me. In fact, it might be better if you do, because I need you to PROMISE that you won't try to find me. My mom will be waiting for you to track me down—and since I know how stubborn you are, I want to make sure you understand who you'd be putting in danger.
I'm going to be hiding the same way the Black Swan hid you.
That's why you have to stay away. Well, there are lots of reasons. So again, please, just… trust me, okay?
And since this is the last time I'll ever talk to you, I just… I want to say that I'm really going to miss you. You mean a lot to me, Foster. More than you'll ever know.
Please be careful. Please be happy. And PLEASE forget all about me.
It'll be better for everyone that way. You'll see.
Love, Keefe
He didn't give her a chance to say bye. He left this stupid letter behind instead, and all the air that was supposed to go to her lungs choked her as she tried to push it down. But the words in the letter seemed to scream to her. It might as well have been written with the torn pieces of her heart. All she felt was a dull ache, and her shrapnel heart seemed to squeeze.
Amidst her pain, fragmented sentences stuck in her head, replaying over and over and over again.
Last time I'll ever talk to you.
This is the only way.
PROMISE that you won't try to find me.
PLEASE forget all about me.
He wanted her to…. erase his presence from her life?
He wanted her to forget about him?
He wanted to never talk to her again?
And suddenly her mind was pulled from the water, the numbness was gone, and all Sophie felt was an overwhelming sense of pain; every negative emotion associated with grief and anger struck her at once.
This was worse than him leaving for the Neverseen, worse than him challenging the ogre king because this was him leaving her for good.
He wouldn't be back. He wouldn't return home. He was abandoning her.
Her eyes turned glassy, and she let out a strangled sob.
He was gone.
Gone.
Gone.
Gone.
The words made sense. She could finally comprehend them, the reality set in and the fact that Keefe had left her, left her for good sunk in.
So she cried.
Cried before the bench she first saw him resting on. She lost track of time, her world collapsing, the foundation being torn from its roots.
Then there was anger—lots of it.
Because he kept doing this to her.
Did he not care about how much he was putting her through?
Or did he really not understand that he was her pillar?
Who was Keefe to decide that she wouldn't see him again? He was just going to severed ties? Cut off their bond? One-sidely leave their friendship just because?
Chaos stuck her mind again, and this time. Sophie embraced all her conflicting feelings, taking in all she felt, allowing herself to be swept up the current of her emotions.
She took it all in and used it as fuel, as power.
He would not leave her without saying something.
Anything.
She gathered all her mental strength and channelled all her feelings as she telepathically screamed.
"KEEFE!"
She could feel him, so she screamed even harder, putting her entire soul into it. She cursed, she begged, she sobbed, and she demanded that he return home, back to her, back to their friends. But all she heard was silence. She felt his mind connected to her, but he wouldn't speak.
She tried for what felt like hours, but the emotional exhaustion was catching up to her, and her eyes struggled to stay open.
"Keefe." She slowly transmitted to him as she tried to keep her drowsiness at bay.
"I miss you, please, come back."
As she fell asleep, Sophie could hear him gently think back,
"I'm sorry Foster, you deserve so much better."
Sophie sleepily thought back,
"You are my better Keefe."
And their link was severed before she could hear his response as her mind slipped into a state of unconsciousness.
I'm a huge KeeFoster Fan, could you tell XD?
Anyway, the cliffhanger for Unlocked wasn't the worst one Shannon has put me through, but damn did it hurt me right in the heart. Now I'm left here, making fanfiction to compensate until next year.