Unlocked

7

    The following morning Sophie woke up to hacking, coughing and Bullhorn's screams. She blinked a couple times to focus her vision. 

    Keefe was thrashing around in his cot, shaking. Bullhorn was going ballistic. Sophie felt her eyes widen. She was panicking on the inside, but she didn't have time to be scared. 

     "ELWIN!" She heard a scuffling in his office as Elwin poked his head out. "Something's happening to Keefe!" Elwin's eye's widened as he saw what was going on. He wheeled around and back into his office. Sophie could hear him searching for the correct elixirs to give Keefe. 

    She turned back to Keefe. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears. There was the faintest trace of red on his lips and soon Sophie realized that he'd started to cough up blood. 

   "ELWIN!" She called again. 

    "I'M COMING!" He yelled back. 

    Sophie looked down at Keefe and made a split decision to enter his mind. She had so much adrenaline coursing through her that she didn't even need to press her fingers to his temples to concentrate. 

    Keefe's mind was glitching. Like literally, it looked like a piece of machinery that was failing. It kept stopping and starting. It was like a hurricane. It was swirling around in his mind, occasionally freezing like a zoom meeting without connection. Sophie was so unnerved that she almost got pulled into the fray, but she managed to keep her hold on things. 

   She caught flashes of broken conversations and emotions. Colors mixed and blended in all the wrong ways. She heard words, out of place, "Legacy," and, "Hey Keefe!" and his own beautiful voice calling, "Foster!"  

    She felt tears escape her eyes. Sophie struggled to find that familiar trail of warmth. She followed it up, down, under and over. She pushed through the storm of disconnected memories to the pulsing emotional center. It was the only thing that made sense. The eye of the storm.

    She felt his panic, she felt his fear, she felt his bravery, and she felt his love. She felt the change inside of her, inside of him. She knew, and that was all that mattered. 

    In that moment there was nothing but the two of them.

    They were one connection. 

    One being.

    One life. 

    I'm here, she transmitted. 

    I'm here.

    I'm here.  

    I'm here.

   She was vaguely aware of Elwin rushing into the room and flashing dozens of different colored lights around Keefe's body. Bullhorn had stopped screaming and curled up on Keefe's chest. 

    I'm here. 

    I'm here. 

    Elwin tipped three-- or maybe it was four, vials down his throat. He then flashed a red light over his forehead. 

    I'm here, Keefe.

    I'm here. 

    Bullhorn sniffed at Keefe's hair. He let out a little whimper. Keefe had stopped thrashing and now lay still. That was almost worse than the shaking. Now she didn't know if he was better or worse. He just lay there. 

    She sent another transmission into his mind, I'm here for you Keefe.

    She watched as the crease between his brows relaxed and his breathing calmed.