I Know Now━ 𝐊𝐎𝐓𝐋𝐂

Chapter Ten

  Sophie slowly woke up from the bleary haze. She opened her eyes, but something was covering them so she couldn't see. Her wrists and legs were bound to a hard metal chair. Sophie tried to pull away from the ropes, but they were too thick and she was too weak. Deja vu prickled at her mind, reminding her that this wasn't the first time this had happened.

Through the fog of her clouded mind, one word emerged: Keefe.

Keefe. Where was he? Is he okay? Is he still asleep, drugged and alone? Or did he escape without her?

"Hello, Sophie," a voice said, pulling her from her horrible thoughts. Recognition of the voice pricked across her mind, but she couldn't place where she had heard it before.

"Oh, you're confused. You don't know who I am, do you? Here, let me make it easy for you," the voice said. Suddenly, the blindfold over Sophie's eyes was lifted. She squinted in the sudden harsh light, waiting for her eyes to adjust. A single tear trickled down her cheek.

In front of her, she saw a lean, blond figure, holding what looked like a melder in their hand. As her eyes came it to focus, she saw none other than Keefe's own mother-Lady Gisela.

Sophie scanned the room, looking for an exit, but all she saw were blaringly white walls-everywhere. It hurt her eyes just looking at them. Sophie kept looking, however, searching for a door. She couldn't find one. There must of been a secret entry or something. She looked down, seeing her bound wrists tied to the chair. Her nexuses were missing.

"Tell me the secrets of the Black Swan," Lady Gisela instructed Sophie. She gripped the melder tight and pointed it at Sophie's head. "Or else I shoot you, and your indestructible mind is useless."

"You wouldn't shoot me," Sophie reasoned, confidently looking Lady Gisela right in the eye. "I have too many secrets in my brain. And I'm not telling you any of them."

"Well, then I'll have to go to plan B," Lady Gisela said, taking a small remote-like device out of her pocket and clicking a button on it. On her right side, the white panels of the wall moved, revealing clear glass. On the other side, she saw another person, bound around the wrists and ankles, gagged and laying on the floor. Keefe.

So he was still here. Still drugged. And still in danger.

What were they going to do to him?

"Ruy!" Lady Gisela called. "Get in there with the boy. Bring the melder!" A second later, the white panels in the second room shifted. Ruby stepped in, with an all-too-familiar silver melder.

Ruy tore the gag off of Keefe's face. Slowly, Keefe started to shift an blink hard in the harsh light. When he noticed Ruy, he quickly scrambled away, against the far wall.

"Keefe!" Sophie yelled, trying to get him to notice her. "Keefe! Keefe!"

"Oh, Sophie. He can't hear you," Lady Gisela said, false pity littering her voice. "There's soundproof walls. At least on his end. We can hear him and see him. He cannot. He just thinks there's white walls surrounding him. And you're not there with him. Smart, isn't it?"

"No," Sophie responded spitefully. "It's horrible. How could you capture and threaten to torture your own son?"

"Oh, I'm not torturing him," Lady Gisela answered, an evil grin creeping across her face. "Ruy is."

"Now, are you ready to spill the Black Swan's secrets? Because there's a lot more at stake."