Dex stared at Sophie, then stared at Keefe, who was unconscious and draped awkwardly on his cot. Half his body lay on the rumpled covers, while the other half hung off and his head lolled on the side of it as well.
"What did you do?"
"I inflicted."
Dex's eyes grew huge. They looked incredibly striking against the red edges of his eyes, and they glittered with tears, despite his previous beaming smile from seeing his dad and brother.
Now his mouth was wide open and gaping.
That was probably her fault.
"Why?" He finally sputtered. "Aren't you guys like in love and all that?"
"Well, yeah," Sophie admitted, "but he's killing himself, Dex."
Dex's gaze grew somber. "I know."
Sophie bit the inside of her cheeks, then gestured at him. "So take it off. He needs to eat, to drink water, to breathe." Her voice rose and she took a moment to compose herself. "Please. You're one of his best friends."
"I can't."
She stared at him in disbelief. Her voice was loud and angry when she spoke again. "Why not?"
Dex winced and looked away, wringing his hands, very obviously agitated. He blew out a long breath and ran a hand through his hair. "I coded his DNA to it. If he wanted, he could take it off. But even if I wanted to take it off, which I do, I couldn't. Keefe controls it."
Sophie felt her stomach drop. "No," she said. "That's—you took mine off."
"His is different, Sophie," Dex said earnestly. "It has to control a different part of his body, and as much as I wanted to make another fake one, he watched me everyday as I made it. Every move, I had to explain it to him, had to have a reason to put it there."
"You couldn't have lied?" She asked disbelievingly.
Dex scoffed. "Keefe's not stupid. He'd know, and I'm a horrible liar. And he's an Empath. It's impossible to lie to him when he's serious and watching your every move."
He paused and Sophie glared at her hands, tears blurring her vision. She glanced at Keefe. Unconscious, betrayed, hurting. By her.
Maybe she needed to trust him.
But what if by the time he changed his mind, it was too late?
She wasn't willing to lose him.
But maybe, this time, she didn't have a choice.
***
Keefe ignored her when he woke up. He went about his business, plunging into the work of tracking down lost children's families, finding new lodging corners, cots, and blankets for the steadily increasing population in the cave.
Sophie did the same, but wherever he wasn't. She didn't try to avoid him. In fact, she tried to get his attention whenever she could. But he avoided her.
Every time.
In her 'free time' she would try to make plans with Forkle and the Collective, trying to figure out how to get back the invaded cities and homes.
How to end the Neverseen once and for all.
She usually left the meetings more exhausted and hopeless.
At night, she would go to their corner where often, her friends were already asleep. Keefe hadn't moved his cot, like Sophie had thought he would. In fact, it seemed closer, and he often held her hand or held her until she fell asleep. His bed was typically made neatly by the time she woke up the next morning.
It was a stupid dance, one of ignoring each other and the obvious problem, then of holding each other and still ignoring the problem. Every day, Sophie tried to convince him to take the circlet, to which he would respond with a curt shaking of head and walk off.
He never seemed to grow angry, just indifferent to her pleas. It was strange, being around him when he was completely silent and unresponsive to all her attempts at convincing him.
Sophie didn't fail to notice how each day he took longer to shake off his sluggishness or would grab onto anything nearby and squeeze his eyes shut so tightly when he stood too quickly or got out of breath too quickly or the circles under his eyes grew darker until he was so pale that the bags stood out even more.
She didn't fail to notice that Keefe Sencen was a shell of the boy he'd been.
She didn't fail to notice that Keefe Sencen was dying.
And she didn't fail to notice that everyone else noticed it too.
Updated: 8-9-2022
A/N: quick update for y'all since it was finished! I just finished writing another chapter (Chapter 82/83 I think, and I love it. Like, one of my favorites I've ever written!)
Question of the day: favorite pair of shoes you've ever owned?
Mine are my reebok club 85's for sure.