what happened after unlocked

chapter twenty-seven ~ watching at heath

"Please...?" Sophie begged to Mr Forkle. "I need to make sure that my human family is okay...and plus...what if Keefe is injured by a fire? Seriously, aren't you concerned?"

She was probably the only one who was concerned.

Edaline was set more on getting the spyball back from Oralie, Grady was still helping extinguish more Everblaze, her friends were helping to open the caches, and the Black Swan...well, no-one knew what they were doing - but Sophie was the only one desperate enough to ensure her family's safety. She'd only remembered that Keefe had fled to the Forbidden Cities a few minutes ago, because she had so many other thoughts.

She'd been so busy with schoolwork and Neverseen stuff and random events that just kept getting weirder that she had absolutely no time to even think about her personal life.

She had barely even thought about Keefe, or Aurora, the Level Eight girl who she felt was a little familiar. So, since everyone else was taking charge over something, she decided the best thing for her to do was watch the millions of feeds in Mr Forkle's office, trying to sight any sign of San Diego being burnt.

A heavy sigh came from Mr Forkle. "Yes, you can, but only if you stay in here alone so I don't have to chaperone you."

Sophie tried to hide her glee behind what she hoped was a confused frown. "Um...sure?"

Mybe lying wasn't one of her strong suits.

Especially now that she was an Empath.

"Good..." Mr Forkle said, and his uncertainty made Sophie wonder if he could see behind her façade. "I have other things to attend to...so I suppose all I really have to say is, please don't break my office, burn it down, steal things, or attempt to penetrate the Black Swan's security."

He said it all like Sophie was a small child in a glass house full of stones.

"Sounds good," Sophie agreed, "I'll come here every day once the Foxfire term is over."

Mr Forkle squinted at her. "Are you absolutely sure you want to spend all your time doing this?"

"Not all my time," Sophie said, disgruntled. "There are other things I need to do as well."

"Okay," Mr Forkle agreed, rubbing his eyes. There were dark rings under them, so Sophie guessed he hadn't slept very well the night before. "Well, I'd better head off then."

Sophie turned to look at the wall, which had an image of Los Angeles projected across it. She's been taught how to work the feeds a few minutes ago - all she had to do was type in the place or press on a spot on the map on the table to get the live footage. She scrolled up a little on the tiny map, tracing her finger over the surface, and clicked on San Diego. Soon the whole city was showing, but instead of just a street view, she had a bird's eye view over it.

The sound of the door closing announced Mr Forkle's departure.

About an hour ago, Sophie was at school, finishing her final project for Multispecial Studies. As soon as the bell rang for the end of the day, she'd rushed to Mr Forkle's office, and he didn't arrive for a whole hour after that so Sophie just sat on the top of the grassy hill and looked over at the fields below.

Sandor groaned from his post at the door, knowing that it was going to be a long few hours. Flori glared at him.

"This is important to her," she hissed to him.

"It's fine," Sophie said, turning to them. There was absolutely no sign of smoke in the city of San Diego, so she didn't mind leaving the footage. "I understand."