forget me || sokeefe

chapter 29

It was two days after the "The Great Foster Fire" as Keefe put it.

He had probably meant it in a teasing way, but  him, calling the fire her's, hurt a lot more than she wanted anyone to know.

The moment they got home that night, Grady and Edaline could tell just how tired Sophie was and let her sleep. They let her sleep in past noon, she wasn't too happy about it. And the minute they finished breakfast, Grady, Sandor, Bo, Tarina, and Flori gave her lengthy speeches about listening to her parents and how she had very nearly died. During their speeches, she hung her head, trying everything to avoid their disappointed looks. Grady's speech was the longest, about how worried he was and how he was going to make her bathe the verminion for the next three months. Flori's was the shortest, she simply told the story of how everyone had flipped when they found Sophie had teleported to Foxfire.

Flori had kicked the door down again and her bodyguards were fuming as they marched down the stairs.

Flori opened up the ground to transport them all to Foxfire and her other bodyguards had not enjoyed the experience.

For days following the incident she had been spending more time in her room, only leaving for meals, even though she skipped most of the time.

It was the middle of the day, as she crept downstairs for her breakfast.

"Well what do we tell her?" She froze in her tracks as she heard Grady's muffled voice coming from his office.

"We don't." Came Mr. Forkle's exasperated sigh. "She has already hurt enough as it is, imagine how she would react to finding out eight people died."

Sophie's breath hitched.

Eight. Eight people were now dead because of her. Eight families grieving because she wasn't strong enough to save them.

Tears started welling in her eyes.

"You're right." Grady sighed, they stopped talking for a while. "I'm really worried about her." He whispered.

"We all are." Forkle sighed.

"You know, she hasn't been eating. Or sleeping well. And she barely leaves her room anymore." Grady said.

"I know." Sophie risked peeping through a crack in the door. Forkle ran his hand through his hair. "I wish there were something we could do."

"Yeah." Grady breathed.

He stood at his desk, Forkle was looking aimlessly around the room.

Sophie found it hard to listen to anything else they said. Her appetite shot, she ran from the door and back up to her room.

"Miss Foster, I thought you were going to eat something." Sandor remarked as she came up the stairs.

Before he could notice her rapidly falling tears, she ran into her room. She accidentally slammed the door loudly in her haste.

Her guards thankfully left her alone.

Sophie stared blankly at the wall across from her bed, in the same positions she sat in for hours on end. Tears fell steadily down her face. She sat with her knees up, and her arms wrapped around herself weakly.

"Sophie?" Grady knocked at her door, opening it slightly. "Are you okay?"

Sophie was getting pretty annoyed by those three words, she heard them practically every day.

"Were any of them kids?" Sophie asked, her voice cracked.

"What are you talking about?" He asked her.