𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐈 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 + sokeefe and horror

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟏: midnight

N𝐨𝐰, 𝐢 𝐛𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐤𝐚, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬? 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐦𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬: 𝐢 𝐚𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞. 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰, 𝐢 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐍𝐎 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭. 𝐢 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭. 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠!

---

Keefe's stomach was churning, and he was almost positive something was going to come up again.

Thankfully, nothing did. His stomach slowly settled as he sipped a bottle of Youth and pondered his current dilema.

Moexii was currently captivating 90% of his brain, but he tried to push that aside to think about the problem at hand. What was he going to do tonight?

He could lead all of his friends to Copper Square - but it was most likely a death trap. What if they killed Sophie either way? But if he didn't come, she'd be dead for sure. However, if he did, the rest of his friends might die.

Keefe's train of thoughts when around like that for a while. 

Finally, it boiled down to two questions: Save Sophie, or save the rest of his friends?

He was extremely guilty to know, in his heart, that the answer was Save Sophie.

Keefe pulled out his imparter and texted to all of his friends: I have epic prank idea!!! Copper Square, tonight at midnight!!!

Biana and Dex's immediate reaction was Sounds good.

Fitz asked a lot of questions, but Keefe was evasive enough to make him finally agree.

Linh seemed a little more hesitant, but the second Tam said that it was dangerous, she agreed. That made Tam agree, and so the entire group was in.

Keefe clicked off his imparter and sighed. 

---

That night, dressed in all black, Keefe crept into the square. He checked his watch - 11:30.

Where were they?

He was about to pull out his imparter to text them, but then a voice behind him made him jump.

Biana had materialized a few feet from him, while Tam and Linh appeared in the shadows in the corner. A couple seconds later, Fitz and Dex appeared next to Biana.

"Hey, guys." Keefe said weakly.

His stomach was still tossing from what he'd done. In order to make sure he'd be able to sneak out with no hitches, he'd drugged Ro's dinner. As far as he knew, she was still snoozing in his room. 

"Hey!" Biana squealed. "It's been so long since we've done anything fun! I can't wait!"

The joy was obviously forced, and Keefe could still tell she wasn't sleeping, but anything was better than nothing.

"What even is this prank?" Fitz asked, noticably less excited than Biana. 

Apparently, the crazy-powerful mood enhancers had worn off. Now he seemed pretty normal - although, like Biana, deep shadows under his eyes hinted a lack of sleep. 

"It's... special." Keefe said cautiously. "I'll tell you at midnight."

"Midnight?" Tam asked, raising his eyebrows. "Why then?"

"Because." Keefe replied, trying to keep his voice from shaking.

His thoughts hummed with Sophie, Sophie, Sophie. All he could think about was her gorgeous eyes and shiny hair, and he knew he'd hear her voice soon. Soon. Soon.

Keefe checked his watch again. 11:58.

Wow, how time flies when you're deathly terrified and extremely guilty. 

"Hey, how'd you lose Grizel?" Keefe asked, suddenly noticing the graceful goblin's absence. 

"Sandor had come over. Biana and I snuck out while they were, uh, distracted." Fitz explained. The flushed look on his face made Keefe glad that Fitz hadn't elaborated.

Suddenly, his watch let out a loud beep. 12:00.

Tendrils of shadows began to peek out from the corners. Keefe gasped.

"Okay, guys, I have a confession." Keefe said, beginning to speak in a rapid fire manner to get all the words out of his mouth. "I've been being blackmailed - well, not blackmailed - but someone told me that they had Sophie. They had pictures of her. They ordered me to gather you all here on midnight tonight if we wanted to allow her to survive."

"WHAT?!" Biana shrieked.

A horrible thought struck him. What if it was just a Sophie look-alike, and they'd used things to make it look like her? What if they didn't have Sophie at all? What if this was a trap?

Suddenly, in a quick burst, the shadows launched out of their dark perches and rapped all of them up. Thick, smokey lines that shouldn't be real but felt startlingly solid. They were strangling him... strangling him...

"KEEFE!" Tam screamed as the dark shadows clogged his vision. "YOU SUCK!"

Keefe didn't have a reply to that. He figured the others were shouting at him, but he couldn't hear. Instead, it was silent.

Until a gleeful, slightly insane voice shrieked in his mind, "I'VE GOT YOU! I'VE FINALLY GOT YOU!"

And then everything went black.