The Stolen Blade- Neverseen AU

Prologue - Sophie

 (TW: blood)

Sophie leaned back on her bed, staring at the fan whirring rhythmically on the ceiling. The San Diego heat trickled in through the window, forming humid patches on the window. 

Sophie flipped over grabbed her birthday card from her parents labeled with a glittery 'Six' on the front. Birthdays were fun, she was disappointed that she had to wait for next year for another. Sophie grabbed her new dictionary from her desk, the one that said 5th edition in light blue letters.

She trotted down the stairs, passing the kitchen where her mum was muttering angrily at a cookbook. "I'm going outside!" Sophie called, walking out of the door, not waiting for a answer. Sophie's mother was too busy to answer anyway. She sat down on the hot concrete step at the front of her house, and began to read. 

Suddenly, she heard a loud noise next to her. Sophie's head snapped up, eyes darting toward the origin of the noise. Her eyes landed on a boy, perhaps twelve, wearing some sort of jersey. What was odder that was her eyes couldn't focus on his face, which was a blurred smear of flesh. He lurched forward, looking like one of the zombies in the scary movies her Dad watched.

Sophie scrambled back in a panic; but her foot gave way underneath her in the process. She fell forward landing on the side of her face, a meaty crack echoing through her skull. She touched her chin, hands trembling. Thick red blood trickled down her face, filling her nose with the stench of metal. The last thing she saw before she was forcing into the dark was her neighbours Mr Forkle's face, murmuring silently, "I knew this couldn't last."

(4 years later)

Sophie sat on the floor of the house drawing her family, but all the faces were coming out wrong. She could barely remember her little sister and how she smiled. Did her sister smile? She was so young back then. If only Mr Forkle hadn't taken her away from everyone she ever loved. She refused to think of Mr Forkle as anything other than the Kidnapper. She didn't want to be here with a wrinkled old man on top of a mountain with too many steps to count and cold lonely halls. The Kidnapper always tried to talk to her, but she didn't talk back. He wasn't worth the words. He told her she was an Elf, othered her from her family. He took her back once, showing her how he had erased their minds. Sophie tried to bring their memories back, do what the black swan wanted her to do, but it didn't work. Maybe they didn't want to remember the weird kid that asked for books instead of toys. 

She was ten now. 

She heard a knocking sound from the door, and perked up. Sophie stretched out her consciousness and found four angry minds, buzzing with excitement, ambition and tension. It didn't  sound like any of the minds she had felt before. They were usually mellow, boring old people but these... they were coiling balls of excitement ready to explode.

Sophie crawled down the hallway and hid behind a couch. The thudding on the door got louder and turned into a resounding crack that echoes through the walls. The door smashed open like a birds egg and a flock of black cloaked people swarmed into the room.  The Kidnapper rushed into the room,  brandishing a glinting melder. The cloaked people threw a knife with deadly precision into The Kidnapper's shirt, pinning him to the wall.

 A pounding headache flooded through Sophie's mental blocking. The smallest figure in the room, flipped back her hood revealing a blonde haired woman with a pinched face and a white stone hairpin. The Kidnapper's face twisted in shock. "Gisela. Don't do this." The kidnapper said, his normally infuriating voice infused with a dark shot of panic. A part of Sophie reveled in that panic and she didn't push it down. 

"Come out child. We know you are there." Gisela purred, ignoring The Kidnapper's pleas. Sophie froze, slowly got to her feet and cautiously stepped out from the behind of the couch. "Sophie no!" The kidnapper yelled angrily. "Sophie... what a pretty name." Gisela crooned. "Let me ask you something. Do you hate him? For taking you away from you family and then hiding them?" Gisela asked. Sophie's jaw dropped open. "H-how do you know about that?" She squeaked out. "We know everything about you Sophie. Now answer me, do you hate him?" 

Sophie took a shallow breath. "Yes. He stole me away from them and I hate him. I hate him for what he did." Sophie choked out, tears following.

She swiped the tears away with the edge of her tunic harshly. She hated crying. She was older now, crying was for babies.

"Would you like to stop the people who do the same as Mr Forkle?" Gisela questioned. "Yes." Sophie whispered, not looking the kidnapper in the eye. "Then take the blade and end him." Gisela purred, opening her outstretched hand to reveal a throwing blade.

 Sophie stared at it. Did she? She knew one thing she hated the kidnapper and everything he stood for. One day he would regret taking her. But he wouldn't be alive to see it. Too bad. She wanted him to see her burn the black swan to the ground.

She grabbed the blade and threw it directly between his eyes.

She tried to ignore the tang of metal spreading through the room, and her blood splattered boots.

"Welcome to the Neverseen little Moonlark."

(Don't forget to vote!)