UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 57

Sophie thought she was prepared.

She'd been in so many minds: Ogre minds, trollish minds, broken minds, shattered minds, lost minds, blocked minds, human minds, you name it. But she'd never been in the mind of someone who was dead... in fact, she didn't even know elves that were dead even had their memories in tact.

Probably because it had never been done before.

"Keefe?" she asked. She figured it was better to say it out loud- at least, aloud in his mind -then to transmit. 

"Keefe?" Sophie repeated. She knew that saying his name wasn't going to bring him back... but there was something special about Keefe Sencen that Sophie loved, and she knew that using that, using that little bit of energy, something could happen...

"Keefe, it's Sophie!" she shouted, flinching as the words bounced around his empty mind, crashing back into her own ears. "Keefe! Hello! Do you recognize me?"

Still silence. Sophie sighed.

She dived into his memories, searching through them and sending them scattering away, trying to pick up anything that she could find to bring him back. She saw Lord Cassius fuming at him after he... wait. That was after Sophie had helped him uncover some of his memories....

She saw him and her sitting on their his porch swing, Keefe's hand clasped in her own, gripping her like she was the only thing keeping him from breaking down. Sophie remembered her own memories of that, adding some of her emotions to the mix.

She saw him running away to the Neverseen, thinking, please, please Sophie forgive me. I have to do this.  She remembered herself crying herself to sleep imagining what he was going through for them. For her.

"Keefe?" she said quietly, feeling herself shrinking.  "Keefe, please. Come back. I can't do this without you."

Sophie dived deeper, picking up every single heartbreaking detail. She saw the way that Keefe had looked at her when he was still alive...

And there was guilt there too. Her own guilt. And Sophie knew how dangerous guilt was, knew how dangerous it was to keep dwelling on the fact that... if she hadn't... that-

"Keefe please," Sophie begged, trying to close her eyes so she could stop seeing all those heartbreaking moments. "Please. Come back, for me."

Still silence.

"Team Foster-Keefe, remember?" Sophe said, her voice cracking as she remembered his own voice speaking those same words to her. "Please?"

And she thought of her love for Keefe.

And her anger for Lady Gisela.

And every single other emotion that was boiling and gurgling inside her, projecting it outwards because she loved Keefe, she loved him so much, more than he would ever know....

"Keefe," Sophie told him, through the panic, through the pain.  "Keefe... I- I love you."

And then the burst of warm energy that went with those perfectly right words blasted the shadows away and his voice... that beautiful voice that Sophe thought she'd never get to hear again, spoke in her mind, fitting so perfectly there...

Love you too.

Awwwwww... finally Sophie! And... now I'm just realizing that all of my fanfics have totally different stories about how they find out they like each other... but hey! I excel at confusing, it's the sad truth of life. Thank you guys for your support!