Sophie fell into the water and instantly regretted it. The coldness of the water seeped into her bones, making it nearly impossible her for to focus.
Very slowly she reached into her back pocket and took out a pastel purple crystal and held it up.
A beam of sunlight cut through the water and Sophie thought it leaped her somewhere but all around her was more water.
She struggled to keep breathing and felt as the darkness around try to clutch onto her body, dragging it down further.
She seemed to float for a while until she felt as if a giant hand grabbed her and tossed her out of the water.
She landed on a leathery surface but the darkness still clouded her eyes, making it hard to see.
A familiar coldness fell over her and she shuddered.
Sophie, it's ok. You're ok. Tam shadow-whispered.
The darkness around her vision cleared and she saw Linh and Tam looking at her in relief.
She noticed that Tam was holding her in his arms but she didn't want to say anything about it.
"What happened?" Sophie rasped.
"The crystal brought you to the Forbidden city of San Francisco but it left you in the bay." Linh said.
"What time is it?"
"It's around evening."
"We better go find Keefe." Sophie tried to get out of Tam's arms but Tam tightened his grip.
"Tam..." Linh looked at him in concern.
"Sorry it's just that right now Sophie reminds me of you when you nearly drowned Atlantis and you were shot you of the water." Tam said.
Sophie looked at Tam's face and saw his eyes seemed to darken a little bit. His grip tightened even more around Sophie.
"People called her a freak, a monster who shouldn't be near others. I would have lost it if my parents didn't hold me back. I left Atlantis and found Linh laying on the rocky shore. She had a gash on her head and a puncture in her arm. I held her in my arms and...."
Linh had covered Tam's mouth and was looking into his eyes. "Stop. I'm fine now." She whispered.
The darkness in Tam's eyes left and his grip on Sophie lessened. Finally he released her and set her gently on the sand ground.
Sophie looked around and saw the Golden Gate Bridge looming over them with a gorgeous sunset surrounding it.
Sophie looked down at her hand which she still held the golden rose necklace in.
"Let's just get this over with." Sophie mumbled as she tracked Keefe's thoughts to a specific location and walked towards with Linh and Tam following her.
After walking about four miles, her mind lead for to a familiar house.
The home that Alden put her family in which was only a mile away from her original home.
It was bigger than her old home, still only two stories. It was painted little blue with white windows and had a small matching doghouse right next to it.
Sophie noticed the dog was just staring at them but didn't bark or run up to them and it seemed to be swaying a little bit.
"Must have been hit with a meddler. Meddlers don't work on animals the same way they work on elves." Tam smirked.
Sophie nodded and continued up the path to the doorway and slowly climbed all four stairs.
She stopped at the door and was about to open it but she just couldn't get her hand to turn the doorknob.
"Sophie...." Linh whispered.
"I'm fine. Just a little nervous." Sophie looked back at her and gasped.
"What is it?" Tam said, looking around and protectively putting Linh behind him.
"I forgot to give you guys human clothing so you could blend in. Ugh I'm so stupid."
"We already covered that." Tam smiled.
"Wait what?"
Sophie saw as Tam closed his eyes and watched as the elvin clothes on Tam and Linh seem to peel away, leaving them in regular clothing.
Linh wore a light blue sweater and white jean shorts and white flats while Tam wore a black sweater, black jeans and black boots.
"This isn't the first time we've been at the Forbidden Cities." Linh giggled.
"Ok back to serious business, open the door already" Tam said rudely.
Sophie blinked and turned to look at the door. She looked back at Linh and Tam but they were already gone.
She turned towards the door again and gulped as she turned the knob and the first thing she saw was...
Her family were tied up together in chairs and gagged with Keefe standing over them and maniacally laughing.
"Oh hello, Foster." Keefe said.
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Sophie clenched and unclenched her fists. Seeing her family like this horrified her but she couldn't let Keefe know.
"Nice try but I'm an Empath. I can feel every emotion you're trying to hid." Keefe grinned and walked around to Sophie.
"Let them go. I'm here. You said you would let them live if I come." Sophie said.
"I should but I want to have a little fun first."
He backed away towards Sophie's mother and carefully removed her gag.
"What is the meaning of this?! Why are you doing this?! We did nothing wron--!" She yelled but Keefe put his hand up to silent her.
"You can blame this girl right here." Keefe pointed to Sophie.
Sophie stared as her family stared back at her. They looked in disguist at the daughter they never had.
Keefe grinned as his hands touched the temples of Sophie's mother.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sophie said.
"Encouraging a little family reunion." Keefe smirked as he closed his eyes.
Seconds passed then Keefe took his hands off her mother and backed away.
Sophie's mother blinked a few times then looked at someone she hadn't seen in a long time.
"Sophie....you're alive." She whispered as tears ran down her cheeks.
As if she could almost hear her own heart break, she ran towards her mom and gave her a hug.
"I'm alive. And it's ok." Sophie patted her mom's back and felt as tears rolled onto her shoulder.
"How sweet." Something hard and cold pressed against Sophie's back and she turned around to see Keefe standing over her, pushing a meddler against her back.
"Let's move. I'm sick and tired of looking at these humans." Keefe glared at her.
"What do you means by humans? We're all human, right?" Sophie's mom spat at him and Keefe looked in disguist at her.
Sophie watched as her mom's eyes seem to fog over and the gag tied itself around her neck.
Just then Biana appeared right behind Sophie's mom with a grin on her face.
"Miss me, Sophie?" Biana said with a gleam in her eye.
Sophie would have replied but Keefe forcefully pulled her away from her mom and poked her in the back with the meddler.
"Let's go now." Keefe hissed.
"If I'm going to die, can I do one last thing?
"Sure. But make it fast." Keefe sneered.
Sophie felt as the meddler was taken away from her back and she walked up to Amy and bent down. She smiled as the same heated glare from Amy was still present on Natalie.
She pulled out the golden rose necklace from her pocket and put it around Amy's neck. Tears almost ran down Sophie's cheeks and she looked up at Amy and mouthed "I love you".
She lifted up the rose pendant and kissed it, watching as the gold rose started to turn into a midnight blue.
Moonshade, Sophie whispered and released the necklace, watching as the midnight blue rose turned into a lightning blue moonlark and erupted into a bright flame.
"What the--!" Sophie heard Keefe say as the flames enveloped her family and disappeared, taking them with it.
Sophie turned around and saw Keefe and Biana with a look of horror and rage on their faces.
"What did you just do?.." Biana squeaked.
"I burned them. They're gone." Sophie said with no remorse.
"That's insane. Absolutely insane." Keefe started to laugh.
"You are crazy!" Keefe yelled between laughs.
"No, just smart." Sophie smirked as Keefe receded from his laughs and looked back at Sophie.
"Ok. Ok. Let's get back to business." Keefe lifted up his hand but there was no meddler in it.
"Where is it? I just had it in my hand." Keefe looked over at Biana and she shook her head.
"Looking for this?" Tam said as he appeared behind Keefe with the meddler on his back.
Keefe looked around his shoulder and looked back to Sophie. The grin got wider on his face. "Well played."
"Thank you." Sophie looked over to Tam and nodded at him. Tam nodded back and the meddler melted in his hand, leaving a puddle of silver goo on the floor.
Keefe and Biana stared in shock at Tam and moved away from him a little bit only to be stopped by Linh, who appeared right in front of them.
"Hello." She said as Biana and Keefe looked at each other and back to everyone else.
"Looks like you're outnumbered." Sophie said as she walked up to Keefe and got right in his face even though she was a couple inches shorter than him.
Keefe's face went from shock to disguist and back to calm. His insane smile came back to his face and he started to chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Tam said as Keefe's chuckle turned into a crazed laughter.
"Nothing. It's just that you honestly think you can beat us? You honestly think you can beat me?" Keefe said.
Next thing Sophie knew, Keefe has a syringe filled with green substance in his hand.
Biana gasped. "That's only for last resorts! You don't know what it even does."
"Well we're about to find out." Keefe said as he plunged the syringe into his neck. Sophie watched as the green substance slowly went into Keefe's body and Keefe pulled it out.
He fell to the floor, the veins on the fight side as his neck were bright green and bulging. He fell to his side and retched.
Everyone backed away as he started to violently shake and claw the floorboards. Sophie noticed that his nails were slowly growing too.
Keefe let out a blood curdling scream then suddenly he stopped shaking and laid on the ground silently.
He started to chuckle and instantly sprang back up to his feet. Sophie backed away even more as his face came into view.
His eyes were completely forest green and his face had taken a paleish color. The roots of his hair was white and the rest of it stayed the same dirty blonde.
His neck and hands was covered with strange tattoos and somehow Sophie could recognize them.
"How do you like me now, Foster?" Keefe said in a deeper voice.
Sophie didn't say anything but noticed that Tam, Biana and Linh were all terrified.
"But how? That remedy was outlawed in the Lost Cities decades ago." Linh whimpered and Tam pulled her closer to him.
"The Neverseen kept a few bottles but it was only if your life was at stake in a mission." Biana commented.
"But that's just sick.."
"What's going on?" Sophie asked as Keefe seemed to looked at the tattoos on his hands.
"I'm part ogre now, Foster." Keefe smiled.
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I know, I know. This probably wasn't worth waiting almost two weeks for.
Sorry, but I just started school and it's been really hard for me to write because I have so much homework.
I'm going to extend my updates for maybe every two weeks so I'll be organized.
Here's the next sneak peak.
Enjoy 😀
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Sneak peek of Chapter 12 -
Sophie looked at her memory log and flipped through all the pages, trying not to see the painful memories trying to seep into her head.
She finally stopped at a blank page and projected the one thing she had to protect.
She looked at the faces of her human family and nearly teared up.
They looked so peaceful as if they were sleeping but Sophie knew what they were really doing.
And she was the one who had put them there to make sure no one else could harm them again."
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Try to guess what Sophie did to them. ☺
Next time on Forgetten..
Peace out. ✌
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