what happened after unlocked

chapter one ~ tragic tears

Tight creases stretched across the letter that Sophie held in her hands.

Numerous heavy teardrops fell from her eyes and weakened the paper, blotting some of the ink in which the letter had been written in. The only way for Sophie to understand what the letter's meaning was intended to be, was to read it over and over until its main focus came clear. And even then, it was hard for Sophie to make sense of what the sender of the letter was trying to convey through his meaningful words.

More tears fell as soon as they had come.

Sophie was not aware of the fact that she had been slumped against a pillow on her sprawling canopied bed for hours. Nor had she noticed her parents, or the occasional bodyguard dropping by to check that she was handling the situation all right.

But of course she wasn't. This predicament was far worse than Sophie could ever imagine. She was never going to see Keefe Sencen, the boy to whom she told all of her secrets and problems to before she even told anyone else, ever again.

The one she could rely on.

The one who she knew would always sacrifice himself for her, no matter how much it affected him.

And it was only until now that Sophie realized how much he meant to her.

A sudden burst of hunger and exhaustion and thirst and pain cascaded into Sophie's mind and body. Her stomach erupted, her eyelids grew heavy, her mouth went dry and her heart twisted itself inside out. And it was only until now that Sophie was aware of how much time she'd spent in her bed, re-reading the letter over and over and over, trying to tell herself that none of this was real.

But it was.

And Sophie was going to have to deal with it.

When she'd arrived home from Solreef three days ago, Sophie hardly noticed the envelope underneath her newly dyed imp, Iggy, and just dragged both over to her desk so that she could collapse into her bed and sleep. But before she could place Iggy's cage down, the envelope from underneath it, which she had been unconsciously supporting while carrying the cage, floated down to her carpet.

When Sophie bent down to pick it up, she had noticed the carpet's tousled and squished state, and didn't know why it was the way it was until she read the opened the envelope and read the letter.

And when she read the letter, Sophie could not fall asleep.

She thought she had. But really, all Sophie could think about was Keefe's handsome face and his artfully styled blonde hair and his cute smirk and everything about him...that she was never going to see or hear from again.

And now that Sophie had reminded herself of this again, she found herself holding her head in pain and nursing her temples and gritting her teeth as her heart threatened to beat out of her chest.

Even as Sophie tried to relieve her pain by downing Youth bottle after Youth bottle, it wouldn't subside.

Until she felt like she had drained an entire ocean, Sophie leaned back on her bed and neglected the pain immediately. But her shoulder started to ache again, from lack of exercise and movement, and it set of another round of agony.

Sophie couldn't stop the rattling scream from escaping her mouth, and up until then she didn't realize how rough her voice sounded and how sore her throat felt.

Her eyes fluttered shut. Maybe if she just blocked out the rest of the world, her pain would go away.

Sophie was almost in a subconscious delirium now. She felt like she was asleep, but she also knew that she was awake and every inch of her wanted to explode, burn, and be buried into a hole deep in the earth, further than the limits of Exile.