The Neverseen's Last Resort

69

"How'd it go?" 

Sophie lifted her head, giving a groggy glare in the direction of the spectral mirror. As her eyes adjusted, she saw Vertina's smug smile. 

Sophie groaned. "I ruined the lives of everyone I love and made them all hate me." 

"They weren't pretending to like you before? Huh." 

"If I had my memories I'd probably be insulted, but at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they had been," Sophie grumbled into her pillow. 

"Woah, it's really that bad?" The sarcastic grin and snarky attitude faded from Vertina completely. "What happened?" 

"Weren't you listening?" Sophie sighed. "I've started a war and turned my friends against each other. Not to mention, these are the same people who were supposed to guide me through the chaos of going back to school. People are scared of me and I don't know why, some are saying I'm a murderer while others are 'insisting' I'm not, and I've got this feeling that's tearing me apart I don't know who to trust because my gut can't decide whether I hate or love certain people, like despite  being told that I've known Mr. Forkle for more than a decade I still feel like I'm supposed to hate him and I can't tell who's lying to me and who's not and everything hurts and I feel like the guilt is tearing me apart--"

She was crying now, her rambling slurred into something unintelligible as she buried her face in her pillow. Her fingers dug into the soft silk, squeezing the pillow until the sound of a small tear sounded. She couldn't breathe, leaving her gasping for air. It hurt. It hurt so bad to know there was something wrong with her, and she wasn't allowed to know. People she was supposed to trust were lying to her, hiding things from her. Secrets, lies, and a nagging feeling in her gut, though quieter now, told her she wasn't one of them. She was someone else. Someone who was supposed to hate them. 

"Are you... okay?" The voice was gentle. Careful. Vertina seemed almost hesitant to speak, and Sophie couldn't blame her. She wouldn't want to talk to herself either. She was too much of a mess. The silence was unbearable, but at the same time, Sophie's throat hurt too much to speak. Everything hurt, from her throat to her heart and to the throbbing headache she now had. 

"I'm gonna go to sleep," she mumbled into her pillow, the earlier pain, now an empty hole. That was good. Emotions were too much for her in that moment. Hollow was nice. And while she doubted Vertina had understood her answer, she didn't bother repeating herself and drifted off into the black, empty void of sleep. That was also good. In her dreams, nothing could hurt her. She was safe.

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She was wrong. Nothing could've been worse than sleep, where anything could happen. It didn't help that Sophie's mind had recorded every little detail, following her into her dream. 

Fire surrounded her, smoke plagued her lungs. No longer was she looking through Mr. Forkle's eyes, but what was maybe her own. The energy that had longed to be free, pulsing within her, no longer hurt. Instead, it poured from her easily. She felt truly alive in that moment, as though she could do anything. She was without restrictions, no burdens or expectations weighing her down. She was free. 

No. That wasn't right. She wasn't supposed to find joy in that. She was hurting her friends, her family. She was destroying her home, her world. Sophie had to stop. Her friends, they were hurting. Because of her. They watched with fear in their eyes as she grinned at the chaos. They were scared. Because of her. Sophie tried to stop, to no avail. She was trapped in her own mind, forced to watch as she hurt her friends all over again. She watched as their fear turned to hurt. She watched as they tried, and failed, to catch her attention. Helplessly calling her name. Purple and gold flashes danced across her vision, powerful waves of electricity. 

Tears burned as she tried again, and again to call out to them. Tell them she couldn't control it. Tell them she was sorry. So, so sorry. No one could hear her over the mess, and she found herself lost in the madness. Utterly, and completely alone. 

The nightmares shifted, dark shadows daring her to let her guard down. Taunting her with blurred images of the past, all dark. She remembered a voice, manipulative and threatening. She found herself in a room, details strangely splotchy and fragmented. A single chair, chains, and a large, heavy door. Someone entered, something happened. Fighting, shouting, an awful taste, and black. 

With that, the dream shifted again. She was in a sea of monsters, circling her. Watching. Waiting. The sky was dark with storm clouds, thunder sounded in the distance, before a flash of lightning stuck waters nearby. Ships could be seen in the distance, getting smaller by the second. Meanwhile, the monsters snuck closer. They were growing impatient.

Waves crashed, thunder clapped, a salty taste stung her throat. Then, she was drowning. The surface was now above her, she couldn't breathe, barely see as she sunk deeper and deeper into the blackness that was the ocean. Nothing made sense, everything was chaos. The monsters lurked nearby, hiding in the shadows of the sea for cover. And a storm now poured above her, so, so distant. 

As she sunk deeper into the ocean, where everything was the blackest of black, she found a soft blue glow, loosely taking the shape of a flower. 

And the dream ended. 

A/N- sorry for the long wait on this chapter, I'm on vacation so I haven't had a lot of time to write. I wrote this at three in the morning and I'm too lazy to really do much editing so forgive the writing, it isn't as great as it can be. thank you!!!