Forbidden ~ after unlocked

Chapter 29 - Sophie

This had to be the longest week of Sophie's life.

After her conversation with Keefe, Sophie lost what little progress she had made in trying to return to her normal self.

All of her newfound confidence had bled away to nothing more than a scar, reminding her of how she'd given up on everything so easily, simply from seeing Keefe for the first time in ages. It didn't help that her only thought that maybe he was somewhere in the United Kingdom had turned out to be a dead end. The only proof Sophie had was that all of the police at the airport had British accents, but that meant nothing.

Besides, Keefe told her he wasn't in the UK. She knew he was probably lying, but she couldn't find it in her to care anymore. Not like she'd have the energy to try and fail teleporting again anyways.

Cleary Keefe wanted nothing to do with her. He'd hung up on her, and refused to come back even after everything she'd told him.

Her throat itched with tears at the memory of him through the imparter screen. The long scratch on his cheek, the tired look on his face, his ice-blue eyes once bright now seemed to have lost their life, so much dimmer and filled with grief.

She remembered standing in her bedroom, shaking after Keefe had hung the imparter up on her. She had stared so long at the place where his face had been only moments before that she hadn't heard the knock at her door, or heard Elwin come in.

"Sophie?" He'd said, startling her into looking over to where he was standing, rummaging through his bag, his head bent. "I came to do a quick check-up after what happened in New York. Grady told me you were upstairs..."

His voice had trailed off when he'd spotted Sophie trembling, eyes wide with shock and sorrow. She'd still been shaken up from seeing Keefe, not fully registering what was happening.

Instantly Elwin dropped his bag of elixirs and rushed over to her. "Is everything okay?"

That was when Sophie had burst into tears.

Elwin had been stunned, to say the least, but he was quick to try and comfort her. He'd helped Sophie back into bed, keeping an awkward few feet away from her as she buried her face into the blankets.

"Do you want me to get your parents?" Elwin asked tentatively.

"No," Sophie choked out, voice quavering. "All they do is lie."

It hadn't taken Sophie long to figure out that Grady had been there when Keefe left. How else would Keefe have Grady's imparter?

Elwin sighed, sitting down next to her. "Sophie, I want to help, but can you tell me what's wrong?"

Sophie hesitated, dragging a rough hand across her face to wipe her tears. There were so many things going wrong in her life, she didn't even know where to start. But all she said was, "Keefe," and Elwin seemed to understand.

Elwin's brows furrowed with worry as he wrapped his arms around her, and although Sophie was thankful for it, all she wanted was to be hugged again by Keefe, not Elwin. She missed the feel of Keefe's embrace, missed his carefree jokes and easy-going nature. But he had seemed the exact opposite of that on their call. It made a volcano of worry and heartache erupt inside her chest.

"Sophie," Elwin had said quietly, pulling away. "I won't pretend to know what you're going through, because I don't. Especially because you and Keefe..." his sentence fell away. "What I'm trying to say is that you can talk to me okay? The healing center is always open if you ever want to drop by."

Sophie was starting to get sick of pep talks.

She knew everyone did mean what they said, but after hearing them so often and nothing ever changing for the better, she found it pointless. Sure, it lifted her mood for a few minutes, but then she realized that a pep talk was just words. Nothing more.