Board Thread:Short Stories and Fanfictions/@comment-75.25.52.26-20190727210155/@comment-43311054-20191102175944

Chapter 9

Sophie blinked, her eyelids flashing red when she closed her eyes again. She didn’t want to wake up. She wasn’t ready to wake up. She felt suddenly embarrassed for feeling and reacting the way she had. Her fingers twitched, reaching out involuntarily when she noticed a slight slant in the bed. Brushing her fingers across the sheets, she ran into something solid and warm. She froze when it flinched, her breath catching in her throat. She didn’t want to wake up, but she did want to know who was next to her.

She risked a glance over, and she noticed a small mass of messy blond hair. Her eyes glazed over as she studied the small smile forming on that ever-frowning face, the crease between the eyebrows gone, the way the lips were puckered open slightly. She marveled at just how soft and innocent that face looked when it wasn’t in control. It just looked so—happy. She frowned, wondering if that’s what she had looked like asleep. If that was how she’d feel if she just fell asleep and didn’t have to wake up in much too soon of a time. Just to stay in that dreamland—to escape reality, even if just for a small time—sounded appealing. Sophie’s eyes popped open as she realized how awful that sounded.

Shifting her head to the other side, she noticed that the sun was streaming in through the windows. There was no one else in the room. She didn’t know why—or how—Keefe had gotten her tucked into her blankets. She didn’t know why he was the only one still in the room. She didn’t know a lot of things. She was just so tired. She felt her eyes begin to flutter closed when a small motion jerked her wide awake. She whipped her head to the side and found Keefe’s face, once peaceful, scrunched up painfully as he instinctively grabbed her hand. Sophie felt her heart pound as she stared at him. He twitched, grimacing as a small whimper escaped his lips. Sophie didn’t want to know what he was dreaming about, but she had to wake him up from whatever torture he was living.

Gently, she squeezed his hand. This only coaxed another whine from his twitching lips. She shook his shoulder a bit. His face contorted more. Sighing, Sophie decided to transmit something.

''Keefe? It’s okay. I’m here. It’s not real'', she assured him. A shudder ran through his body as his grip on her hand tightened, although his face relaxed a bit.

Sophie groaned as his face winced even more. She had to find a way to stop his nightmare. So she decided to enter the dream itself and try to stop it.

Going into Keefe’s mind was…interesting. It was like seeing a blinding light after a pitch black night. It was disorienting and overwhelming, enough so that Sophie had to focus hard to see the dream. She first recognized her face and frowned, delving deeper into the dream. She was shouting at him, something about him being worthless and meaningless. And suddenly Fitz appeared. And he strode to Sophie and kissed her. Sophie’s heart shattered as she realized that this was his nightmare. It was her hating him and loving Fitz.

After a few more agonizing seconds of feeling Keefe convulse, she decided to transmit images. She sent him an image of them hugging, an image of him leaning close to her, and the feelings to go along with them. Somehow she could feel the tension leave her as his dream was replaced with hope and love. Slowly, the last shreds of her yelling at him slipped away and one image lingered in his mind. It was one that she hadn’t created. It was them sitting under Calla’s Panakes tree. Their fingers intertwined, Sophie’s head on his shoulder. They both wore small smiles on their faces. There was a distinct sense that nothing was wrong in the world, and that they were finally safe—and together—like they were meant to be.

Sophie pulled herself from his mind, slipping her fingers from his and turning away from him. If he woke up, she didn’t want him to see her crying again. She wanted that image to be real—so badly, so much more badly than she thought she’d ever want something. Her body shook slightly as she remembered the perfect detail his memory had captured her face with, the way her lips curved in a half-smile, the way the golden flecks shone in her chocolate eyes. But every flaw Sophie had ever seen in herself didn’t seem like a flaw in his eyes—they captured the flyaways with perfect intensity, like they created a sweet curtain around her face. They saw the crease between her eyebrows as endearing, and the odd way her nose curved seemed to fit perfectly with her personality.

She didn’t see herself like that. She didn’t think anyone did. She doubted that even Fitz had ever felt something like that. So she turned around again to study Keefe’s perfect face, hoping to capture it in the way he’d captured hers. But when she turned around again, she felt him waking up. So she closed her eyes, wondering what he would do.

“Foster? You awake,” he whispered gently, so as not to wake her up if she was up. For some reason, Sophie was compelled to keep her eyes closed and play along. So she did, and when his lips touched her forehead gently, her eyes immediately fluttered open. She could already feel the heat rising to her cheeks, her breath quickening, heart racing as his lips stayed there for a few moments. And when he pulled back to lay down, his eyes met hers. A sad smile crossed his face.

“Hey, Sophie. Are you feeling alright,” he queried, as if he hadn’t just been mentally tortured. And Sophie couldn’t help but launch herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck as she squeezed him into a hug and buried her face in his shirt. And slowly, tentatively, she felt his arms wrap around her waist. She could feel the way his heart quickened the longer he held on. And slowly but surely, it brought itself back to its normal pace.

Sophie could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “I take it you’re better now. I’m glad.” Sophie gave him one last squeeze before pulling back to take in his perfect face.

“Why were you the only one that stayed? Out of everyone here,” she asked.

Keefe ran a hand through his hair as he sat up and said, “When I sat next to you, you just grabbed me and wouldn’t let me leave. So I stayed.” His cheeks flushed slightly as a smirk played across his face. When Sophie sat up, she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder yet again. He wrapped an arm around her as Sophie realized that she didn’t really want to fall asleep and not wake up. She needed Keefe. And at that moment she knew it’d never really been Fitz that she loved. She’d just convinced herself that because he’d been the one to find her. But although he may have found her, Keefe would always be the one who was there to keep her from getting lost.

As her thoughts shifted, she could hear the smirk in Keefe’s voice as he spoke. “You alright there, Foster? Seems like you’re thinking about something else now.” When she looked up, he wiggled his eyebrows in a funny way and grinned, causing Sophie to blush fiercely when he continued, saying, “See something you like?” He nudged her shoulder playfully as his ice blue eyes glimmered. Sophie mumbled something unintelligible as she stared right back at him.

And suddenly he was moving closer to her. Sophie’s heart stopped as she watched his eyelashes flutter together quickly. She swallowed the lump in her throat, breath catching as warm air caressed her face. His eyes were hypnotizing as he leaned in a bit closer, red streaking across his face. Their faces were mere centimeters apart. Sophie remembered when she’d been in a similar position with Fitz. She’d been unsure, and even then something had stopped it from happening. But this time, she didn’t want anything to ruin this. Because this was Keefe, and he didn’t make her self-conscious. This was Keefe, who made her brave.

So she closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his.