Keefe... liked me? Sophie thought. She stared at Keefe's face. But he couldn't mean like like, right? We were just friends... right? Surely he means like... like friends!
"You-you mean like friends, right?" She stammered, looking at him hopefully.
He turned away. "No," he said, clenching his fists. "I... really like you, Sophie." He closed his eyes. "But you don't feel the same."
The worst thing was, she couldn't deny it.
The silence from her said enough.
As Sophie watched him, back turned to her, a feeling of suffocation rose in her chest. "I-I can't do this right now," she choked out, wrenching herself from Keefe's grasp and standing up. (a/n: Writing this is TORTURE. Noooooo, Sophie.)
Keefe turned back around. Panic was clearly written on his face. When he saw her stumbling away from him, a flash of pain crossed his face. "Foster..." He said softly, reaching for her hand. She stepped back, refusing to touch him, turned, and ran.
She ran. Ran away. As far away as she could. Away from all her problems in life. Images streaked past her. She ran, dodging around the animal pastures. She didn't know where she was going, what she was doing, and how long she had been running for. All she knew was that she had to get away. Finally, she stopped.
She looked at the scenery in front of her. Nausea and déjà vu engulfed her as she realized where she was.
She was right in front of the cliff when the caves were. The caves that the Neverseen found her in. Where they had tortured her.
Sophie looked around, and cautiously took a step back. Suddenly, she was afraid. What were you thinking? She mentally berated herself. She took another step back, but she knew she couldn't return back to Keefe. The humiliation and embarrassment and awkwardness alone would kill her. She shivered and looked towards the house.
But suddenly, there was pain. A horrible deluge of pain surrounded her. She couldn't think, couldn't move at all.
"Well well well. What do we have here?" A cold, snide, female voice said. Sophie heard footsteps walking around her. Lady Gisela's face suddenly appeared in front of her. There was a sneer on her face.
"Are you out here all by yourself?" Lady Gisela asked. When Sophie didn't answer, a cold smirk lit up her face.
"Well if you'd rather do this the hard way..." She said, raising her melder.
"No!" Sophie shouted quickly. "There's no one here. Just me," She said, looking Lady Gisela in the eye, careful not to betray any emotion while she thanked the stars that Gisela wasn't an Empath. She didn't want to expose Keefe.
"Why are you here anyway?" Sophie asked, pushing further. "Why take me again?"
"Let's just say that we're not done with you... yet." The leader of the Neverseen twirled her melder casually, then turned her piercing on Sophie.
"Now, enough chitchat," she said coldly, and before Sophie could react, a sweet-smelling cloth was pressed over her face, and the last thing she saw before she blacked out was Lady Gisela's malicious, smirking face.