𝓟𝐫𝗼𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝓢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐞

Chapter #20 - Keefe

Chapter #20 - Keefe

No.

No no no no no no no.

This couldn't be his legacy.

But... it made so much sense.

What if— for some reason— certain humans had hidden abilities, while others didn't, and Keefe's ability was the only thing that could figure out which humans had them and trigger them? Just like Amy had been saying.

Maybe that's what Gisela wanted to do with him.

Trigger abilities in as many humans as she could, make sure they were on her side, and then BOOM! An army of humans with abilities— far more ruthless than any elves could be.

And then there was his numbing...

"Earth to Keefe!" Amy shouted, shaking his shoulder, "We should get further away. The fire's spreading." That snapped Keefe back to reality. There was no time for theorizing his legacy. Behind them, Alice and Elijah seemed to finally be getting a grip that Alice was the one causing the fire, and Elijah had begun frantically spraying his wife with a fire extinguisher.

That's when all four of them stopped.

A couple meters away, there was a man laying on the ground. Vanishing in and out of sight— but not voluntarily. In fact, he looked... dead.

It took Keefe a moment to register who it was.

"Alvar?" He leaned in to take the traitorous Vacker's pulse, and sure enough, he was dead. Keefe also couldn't feel any of Alvar's emotions. He wondered how he had gotten there— and how crazy the odds must've been to run into him.

The Swedish couple looked like they had just seen a ghost. Which was honestly reasonable. "Do you know this man?" Alice asked.

"Er... yeah."

Elijah sighed, "Okay, something's going on with you two that you're not telling us." He turned to his wife, the white spray from the extinguisher making her look like mallowmelt filling. "You know why fire keeps forming on her, don't you?" Amy and Keefe shared a look. It took Keefe a moment to process that they were going to have to tell them, and another to realize he had to be the one to do it.

"Get comfortable," he said, "and I know it'll be hard, but try to control the fire, Alice. We've got a long story to tell you. First, do you know the cookies E.L. Fudges?"

***

"So you're saying elves are real... and that's what you and the dead man are? And you somehow triggered... an ability, it's called, in me? I'm a Pyrotechnic?"

"Pyrokinetic," Keefe corrected, "But... yeah. I know it's hard to believe—"

"Good. Because I don't believe it." Keefe didn't blame her. He doubted Sophie believed Fitz when he originally told the truth about their world. And Fitz had the advantage of being cute and convincing.

Keefe doubted he could've done as well...

No. Now was not the time.

Quietly, Elijah said, "I know what he's saying is pretty crazy but... maybe we should believe him. What else would explain the fire, and the fact that these kids clearly don't actually have parents going camping?" It made Keefe wonder how long Elijah had been onto them.

Alice hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"...I guess you're right. But there's also a chance that they really are kids messing with us. If we're gonna believe you, we need proof. Take us to the Lost Cities, as you call it." Keefe gulped. Amy tilted her head, not knowing what was going on, as she couldn't speak Swedish. He gave her an I'll explain in a minute look.

"I... can't."

"Why not?" Even Elijah looked like he didn't believe Keefe anymore.

"I can't go back there."

"Well then... we'll have to call the police," Alice muttered. "I'm sorry. But we just don't have proof you two aren't some kid runaways."

"This isn't enough proof for you?" Keefe pointed to Alvar, who was still blinking in and out of sight, though the flickering had slowed significantly. "Or how about the fact that I know what you're feeling right now?" He closed his eyes for a moment, getting a sense of how Alice and Elijah were feeling. "I can tell you're confused, scared, and... is that excited?"

"Well, our lives have been pretty mundane since before the fire," said Elijah, then turned to his wife, "There's no way someone would normally be able to guess that. I think... I think we should believe him." Alice nodded, a few sparks flying off her face— which was still covered in the foam from the extinguisher.

"You're right. It's just... my parents used to always tell me stories about elves. And so did my dad's parents when he was a kid. It's been a family tradition. But," she blushed like she was kind of embarrassed, "the elves in the story would always be, well, the villains. There was one where they even did creepy experiments." Keefe's eyes went wider than Dame Alina's after the Great Gulon Incident. Boy, how awesome that had been.

"Do you happen to know the name of the main evil elf in the story?" he asked, admittedly struggling to keep a straight face.

"I believe her name is Vespera."