The Gift

Chapter 4- SOPHIE Part 2

Recap: "Ok, go see Cecy," he released her, and gave her a final kiss on the forehead, "I'll catch up with you later then." Rafe smiled reassuringly. Elle climbed into her Buggy, and drove off, leaving him standing in the parking lot. Her throat tightened with mixed emotions of anxiety and elation, soon it would all be ok...

She drove straight to Sophie's, calling Cecy on the way. That way at least she wasn't lying to Rafe entirely, and Cecy felt loved. Elle stormed into the malt-shop, expecting Sophie to be waiting for her, after all, this was important. But it was empty, the door unlocked and no Sophie. Elle got a sense that there was something wrong. Sophie would not leave this place open like this, the shop was her prized possession. Elle called for her but there was not answer, 'Maybe she is in her apartment.' She went around the back and found her apartment door open as well. Quietly, slowly Elle walked in hallway. She could sense some energy but couldn't place it from any direction in particular. The apartment was dark, only the usual soft light beamed from the living room, but it was empty. Elle stood in the middle of the room. 'This is not right.' She thought. 'Where is Sophie?' Suddenly she heard a small clinking sound coming from the kitchen, she expected to see Sophie walking through the door with a tray of tea in her hand. Nothing, just the noise. Elle stood as quiet as possible, hoping to interpret the sounds and finding answers to this strangeness. She held her breath, and crept to the sofa so she could duck behind it if she needed to. The door opened slowly and she starred at Ms. Repleh. Elle didn't know why she was so surprised, she was Sophie's sister after all, but something still didn't feel right.

"Where is Sophie?" She asked the teacher. Ms. Repleh's eyes were tired looking, and red. She looked like she'd been crying, a lot.

"She's not here." She answered in a hoarse voice.

"Something is wrong, what happened?" Elle's senses were completely on alert. Everything felt different in this room.

"I think, they took her," her teacher whispered.

"Who? Why?" Elle realized that there was a sense of urgency to her teacher's answer, whatever happened was to effect her greatly. Elle scanned the room, there was nothing out of the ordinary, everything was still in its place. She couldn't picture someone taking Sophie, and there were no sign of struggle. Sophie did not seem like the type of person to just go, willingly, without a fight. Whoever took her had something powerful over her. Either that or they etherized her so that she had no choice.

"Who, Ms. Repleh? Who took her?" her teacher shook loose from a blank stare, and looked at Elle. "Corinne."

"Excuse me?" Elle's eyes twitched with impatience. She wanted to know what was going on, this was too important to her.

"Call me Corinne, I don't think we have time for formalities."

"Ok, Corinne, who took your sister?" Elle pushed the question again.

"The Carau." Elle searched her brain for a second to find a connection to the name. The Carau. They must be the people Sophie talked about, the ones who were after people like her, people with gifts, like Sophie and her sister.

"Why would they take her?"

"I think they are cleaning up town. There are too many of us right now, it makes them mobilize into action."

"What will they do to Sophie?" The possibilities of answers to that question hung heavy in the air.

"I honestly don't know." Corinne's voice was as heavy as the air.

"Who are they?" Elle needed to get more information, she felt helpless and confused. Information would give her some sense of control.

"The Carau are sort of a part of the Sulis. They started together as a group of mystics in ancient Europe, before the Romans conquered the area. They are from the Celtic regions and spread all over the land. In the 1500s, this group, the Sucellos were persecuted, like so many other groups and they fled to South America. They found refuge among some natives in northern Argentina. The Guarani, they had a rich and strong culture, they did not fear the Sucellos' gifts. After some generations of living in hiding among those people, the bloodlines began to intermingle, people married other people and so forth. With the mixing however, unfortunately, some of the Sucellos lost their abilities and they were, well, sort of banished from the rest. The split among them created two new groups, the Carau, the banished ones, still looking for redemption, and us, the Sulis trying to live as normal lives as possible in this new world. The Carau have turned the table and they are of the mind that if they can't have the gift, well, then, no one should. Now, they are after us, if we become too obvious, they find a way to quiet us. I haven't experienced a cleansing like this before, so I don't know what to expect. You and I are in the same boat on this one."