The Team Of Two

Chapter 11: Deafening

   "Fitz?!" Sophie nearly choked on her own tears streaming down her face as the familiar teal eyed friend had tackled hugged her. "The one and only!" He said proud beaming his face. Sophie just stared at him, then the flashbacks came back. Fitz's blank eyes thanking her for killing him. Linhs terrified screams and curled up body with cuts all over her. Everything turned black. Then the darkness started squeezing her. Feeling like she would pop, Sophie tried to struggle out of the vice like grip in her mind, but it squeezed tighter and tighter, reaching for her windpipe. Sophie thought of the only thing she could do,  she started screaming for help until she couldn't scream at all. Suddenly, the impossible grip loosened, and that was just enough time for her to scramble out of the grasp, she imagined herself shooting out of the darkness and out of her mind, but Sophie ended up back to the shallow, endless ocean she'd seen months ago. 

     Sophie scanned her surroundings, seeing black swans circling the sky like before. Sophie checked for the terrifying clone but it was nowhere in sight. Sophie tried calling for a swan, but everything seemed off. The swans couldn't hear her, or see her it seemed. Then she realized there was no sound, when Sophie made a noise it was swallowed by a silent, small wave crashing gently against her knees. Sophie tried to do the same thing as before, so she made herself levitate in her mind and as she reached the 'ceiling', it looked like pain would awake her. So Sophie charged upward, hoping for a jolt awake. Only to smack into the stone hard ceiling. Sophie let out a yelp, feeling her head for any trace of blood, but there was no trace and nothing happened. Sophie felt the 'ceiling' and noticed she'd made a dent. Sophie heard a distant scream, making her drop her concentration and fall into the water, but before she hit, she bounced upward. Hitting the ceiling in the exact same spot. Feeling dizzy of the endless ping pong, the last jump shot her through the ceiling. Sophie then landed in a pool of blinding white light. Sophie cried out, yelling for any sign of help. Sophie laid down thinking, then falling asleep in her own mind. Sophie woke up in a dark, and dimly lit place. Exactly like the place in Rome. Sophie wandered aimlessly, hearing ear piercing screams and endless blank, dull, teal eyes flashing around every corner. Sophie followed a scream, seeing Linh screaming, Sophie backed away. Sophie's eyes couldn't take the scene, she ended up falling upwards in a chair. Sophie started screaming because of searing pains in her wrist. She tried to attack her opponent with her powers, but she had no abilities to help her escape. Then it happened again, she flew upwards into another scene. She stood at a small sapling sprouting. A ston at the base of the sapling said, Alden Vacker, Beloved Father & Husband. Sophie looked around tears threatening to flow. She was alone. She walked around, wishing for a sign or something. Sophie tried to remember her past, but everything was fuzzy. She only knew of Alden right now. The only person she knew. A memory tickled and fuzzed at the back of her mind. She tried tugging at it, but all she could get out of it was a messy blond haired person, whose features were blurred.  Sophie left the thought behind. As she continued to walk through the trees, she saw trees with unfamiliar names on them. Sophie's mind grew less and less aware of what the Wanderling Woods looked like. Sophie's mind flew again, upward into another memory, slowly forgetting everything that had happened, Sophie was in her room. She saw a fuzzy orange bat-like animal in a cage. Sophie heard a knock at the door, Sophie turned around to see an unfamiliar messy blond haired guy. Then everything came like a surge, every memory, every heartbreaking detail. Then she woke up with a major headache. Cradling her head, she slowly looked up and around the now familiar room. It was empty of people, Sophie cradled her head still, wishing for the pain to stop. As it subsided, she slowly got up, wobbling on her feet, she slowly, walked out of her room. Grady and Edaline sat on a couch sniffling, then Edaline broke out into sobs. "Why did her mind need to break?!" Edaline shouted. Grady just rubbed her back in small circles, nodding and whispering in Edaline's ear. Sophie stared at them on the couch, as she walked down onto the second floor, she looked down at them, Am I alive? Sophie thought to herself. Edaline turned around, seeing Sophie, she screamed out of joy, startling Sophie. Edaline ran up and squeezed the living daylights out of her. Grady just yelled and joined in on the ferocious hugging. Sophie's knees threatened to give out, then Edaline and Grady realized and let her sit on the couch. Grady started hailing everyone in the process. "You must be starving!" Edaline said. Sophie nodded, being handed a blue, mushy, citrusy smelling muffin. Sophie gobbled it up, it tasted like an orange with an extra zing to it. "How long was I out?" Sophie said through a mouthful. Sophie swallowed the muffin. Waiting for Edaline's response she twirled her tunic threads in a circle around her finger, the seconds felt like days when Edaline finally said sniffiling, "Quite a few months." Edaline said it like a whisper. "How many?" Sophie dared to ask. "Six." Edaline seemed to say even quieter. "You are now a level five by the way. The council thought if you ever did wake up, you might as well join your friends instead of being held back." Grady chimed in, sadness loomed over the words. "What happened to me?" Sophie said quietly. Grady seemed like he was going to break as he said, "Your mind broke, that's what Mr. Forkle said anyway. As he entered your mind everything was black and suffocating. But he said as he trekked on, he heard your screams but couldn't go any further without being dragged down with you."Grady said. Then with a pounding knock on the door, everyone came flooding in. Alden, Della, Keefe, Biana, Oralie, Bronte, Terik, Emery, and the rest of the council, Dex, Tam, Mr. Forkle, and as she started beleiving that was all of them, she saw a figure step out slowly. "Fitz?" Sophie started dry heaving and trying to stop tears. As the teal eyed boy stepped out behind everyone.