Sophie sat up, gasping for breath. Her hair was sticky with sweat. The figure lying next to her sat up too. "What is it?" Keefe asked, rubbing his eyes. Sophie glanced at him.
"Nothing. Just a nightmare," Sophie murmured, looking away. Keefe raised an eyebrow.
"If it has anything to do with you, Foster, then it is not 'just a nightmare'".
"Fine," Sophie sighed, "It was about this little girl who was being taken away from her parents by figures in black."
"It's not funny!" Sophie snapped.
"I never said it was," Keefe retorted, "I just think that it's interesting that years after we kicked the Neverseen's butt, you can still have nightmares about figures in black."
"They didn't have the patch but that's not the point," Sophie countered.
"Then what is?" Keefe teased, tugging on her hair.
"The point is that it felt real. Too real," Sophie said, pulling away. When she looked over at Keefe, he seemed deep in thought.
"Keefe?" Sophie inquired. Keefe looked at her for a moment and then replied,
"I think you should look for any suspicious things and tell me if you see anything."
"Um, okay. You won't do anything stupid, right? I can see you thinking about something," Sophie said. Keefe smirked and then looked at the clock. "I'm thinking that since it's 1:00 in the morning, we should try to get some sleep," Keefe yawned.
Sophie sighed. "That's going to be impossible,"
"I know," Keefe replied," But at least you don't know for sure that it happened ."
"I guess that's true," Sophie mused. Keefe yawned and then slipped under the covers again. Within minutes, he was asleep. Listening to his light breathing, Sophie wondered how far this would go. After some tossing and turning, Sophie finally fell asleep.
"Wake up, Mommy, wake up! It's breakfast time!" Sophie opened her eyes to see her 6-year-old son bouncing on the bed beside her.
"Do you know where Daddy is?" Sophie inquired.
"Daddy went to work already so we get to have fun!" Kenric exclaimed.
"So, you think Daddy isn't fun?" Sophie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well," Kenric said, "Daddy snapped at me when I asked what was in his old room." Sophie gave him a reassuring smile.
"Your father has some bad memories and some specific things in his room so he doesn't want you in there touching things," Sophie said, "He doesn't even let me in anymore. It had nothing to do with you," Kenric considered that for a moment then nodded. "That makes sense. Should I go get Uncle Sandor and Aunt Grizel for breakfast?"
Sophie shook her head. "I'm sure they've already had breakfast. I'm surprised you didn't have breakfast with Daddy," Sophie said.
"Daddy went to work early and he looked pretty busy," Kenric explained. Hmm, Sophie mused, maybe Keefe's more worried than I thought.
"Mommy?" Kenric asked. "Hmm… what?" Sophie replied, deep in thought.
"Since you're tired, could we have that leftover Mallowmelt for breakfast?" Kenric said with a mischievous glint in his eye.
"I think that can be arranged," Sophie said, "On one condition."
"What?" Kenric asked, curiously.
"You have to do the dishes tonight," Sophie responded.
"Seriously?!" Kenric looked very annoyed.
"OK. Then I guess we'll have the tubers," Sophie declared.
"No, it's fine," Kenric huffed, "I'll do the dishes."
"Well then," Sophie said, slipping out of bed, "let's eat some Mallowmelt."
"Yay!" Kenric ran to the kitchen, completely forgetting about the dishes in his 6-year-old glee. While Kenric doled out Mallowmelt, Sophie thought about her discussion with Keefe last night. He had seemed completely relaxed. Maybe he was better at hiding his feelings than she thought. I'll talk to him when he gets home, she decided, This isn't over yet.
After dinner, Sophie made Kenric get ready for bed. Then she sat by the fireplace and started reading a scroll, just like she always did. When Kenric returned, she led him to his room and tucked him in. She left the night light on like always. Sophie settled back on the couch and waited for Keefe to come home. Hours went by until finally, Sophie looked at the clock. It was 11:30 p.m. What's taking him so long? Sophie wondered, He's always home by at least 10:00. Sophie's brain wouldn't stop thinking about scenarios. What if the figures in black got him? What if he got hurt? What if… No. Sophie told her brain, Keefe probably has a good reason for being late and scaring me. Definitely.
Sophie couldn't take it anymore. She stood up, pacing the room. She pKenricd for so long that you could see a rut in the carpet. Sophie stopped and looked at the time. 12:05. Sophie pulled out her Imparter and called Keefe. When he didn't answer, she called Dex.
"What is it?" Dex grumbled rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Keefe hasn't gotten home yet and I'm worried," Sophie forced the words out.
Dex's eyes widened and he seemed more awake now. "One moment," Dex said. He leaned over and shook someone's shoulder. "Biana, wake up! Sophie has a Keefmergency!"
Biana rolled over and muttered, "Ten more minutes… Wait, what!" Biana sat up and looked at Dex. "What happened?!" Biana demanded.
"Well," Dex said, "Keefe hasn't come home yet."
"Seriously?! Why didn't you call us sooner?" Biana said looking exasperated.
"Shhhh!" Dex admonished, "You're going to wake up Diana."
"Oh. Sorry," Biana said sheepishly. "But you know you can count on us, right?" When Sophie nodded, Biana continued. "Anyway, have you tried calling his Imparter yet?"
"Yeah," Sophie sighed, "I can try again if you want."
"Okay, okay…" She pulled out the Council Issue Imparter and called Keefe. It rang for a few moments and then picked up.
"Hello," Keefe said. He looked quite stressed but Sophie didn't care.
"Where are you?!" she demanded.
"I, uh, went on an errand," Keefe mumbled, looking at the ground.
"At midnight?" Sophie asked. Sophie could hear Dex and Biana sniggering in the background.
"I uh… never mind. I'll tell you when I get home. Alone." Keefe says, glancing at the Dizznees.
"Sophie?!" Biana exclaimed.
Sophie sighed. "Keefe only asks to talk privately like this when it's something serious. I'll tell you later, okay?"
"Okay," Dex agreed, looking at Biana, "We trust you."
"Thanks. Talk to you later."
"Bye." The Imparter screen went blank.
"Okay Keefe, what did you want to talk about?" Sophie asked, turning her attention back to the other Imparter.
"One second. I'm gonna come home so that you can strangle me," Keefe said, looking surprisingly serious. The fact that Keefe could say something like that and not mean it as a joke worried Sophie.
"Okay." The Imparter screen went blank and Sophie put both Imparters away. A few seconds later, Sophie saw Keefe outside the house and rushed to open the door.
"Oh my gosh, I was so worried!" Sophie cried, hugging him fiercely, "I thought, I thought… Just don't do that ever again, okay?"
"Okay," Keefe agreed. He looked away. "Do you want to take a walk on the beach?" he asks, looking at the sea.
"Sure? Why?" Sophie was quite confused.
"You're probably going to want to scream at me and stuff, so doing that out here won't wake up Kenric," Keefe looked resigned but there was a small gleam of… something in his eyes that Sophie couldn't make sense of. Keefe took her hand and pulled her toward the beach. Once they were a considerable distance from the house, Sophie decided to start the conversation.
"What was the 'errand' for?" Sophie asked.
"Well," Keefe said, fidgeting, "I stole the crystal for the Neverseen hideouts."
"You WHAT!?" Sophie said, whirling to fKenric him, "Why!?" Keefe sighed and turned away.
"Oh no you don't," Sophie said pulling Keefe back, "You will answer every single one of my questions, starting with, what the heck did you do that for!?" Sophie knew that she was being harsh but Sophie didn't care.
"Well, Mr. Forkle contacted me and told me they had gotten news of a suspected elven girl who was kidnapped. This girl just appeared on the streets when she was 3 and it sounded like she was babbling. Mr. Forkle thinks that she may have been speaking the Enlightened Language."
"I looked up the parents of the girl and they matched your description. You said the kidnappers were wearing black cloaks?" Sophie nodded and Keefe continued, "The kidnappers must be former Neverseen or something because normal kidnappers wouldn't make such a show. So, I thought that maybe they might be using the old Neverseen hideouts. That's why I stole the crystal back. The funny thing is, there was little to no security surrounding the crystal and a thick layer of dust on it. It hasn't been used or taken care of in a long time" Sophie just stared at him, trying to comprehend everything Keefe had just said. Then, she shook her head and asked, "Do you have the crystal?"
"Of course, I do, Foster. I'm not stupid," Keefe rolled his eyes as he pulled a pearlescent crystal out of his pocket. Sophie took it from him and cast a beam of light on the ground.
"For some reason," Sophie said, staring at the light, "I feel like jumping to one of the bases."
Keefe shook his head and looked at the house. "I think that we should wait until morning so that we can get Kenric a sitter and so we can get some sleep.
" This is so weird, you making rational decisions," Sophie said, handing the crystal back to him, "Yeah, we both need sleep. Come on." Sophie took his hand and led him to the house. Keefe slipped into the bathroom to change. When he came back, they both lay in bed, awake.
"Goodnight Keefe. I love you"
Keefe just smirked and shook his head. When he fell asleep, Sophie found comfort in his light breathing. Even as she fell asleep, though, her thoughts were plagued with the figures in black.
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Not me being too impatient to wait to post. I literally posted this, like, an hour after the prologue went up. I might need a bit of help. lol. What do y'all think so far??? Updating will be slower because I haven't written anything else, really. Again, comment if thereis something that needs editing!!!! Thank you fro reading!!!
