Another Sokeefe Oneshot Book

One shot 8: She'd Imagined it Perfectly

Tears welling, Sophie stumbled away from her spectral mirror and collapsed by her bed, breaking into sobs.

She knew it would ruin the makeup she'd put on for this day, but at the moment, little problems like that felt meaningless in the wake of her forever changed world.

He was gone.

"Sophie?" A gentle voice called from her door. "Honey it starts in a few minutes. We have to be there for the ceremony early, remember?"

"Coming!" Sophie choked out to her adoptive mother, voice stuffy and high pitched. Barely her.

She took a deep breath.

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Sophie stood.

One step at a time, she thought to herself. You can't let this break you. For him.

Wiping her eyes, she walked to her bathroom and looked in the mirror. And as her reflection stared back at her, it looked. . . terrible.

Her makeup was smudged and wiping away, revealing sunken eyes, pale skin, and little cuts and scars still remaining from that day. Her hair was up, and her dress was green, frilly, sparkly, and basically everything she hated in clothing.

Earlier it had seemed fitting. A horrible dress for a horrible day.

But it wasn't her. And what had he said to her once? That day that now felt like so long ago, even though it had only been mere months?

A gentle smile. "The only job you have is to be Sophie Foster. And you get to decide who Sophie Foster is."

Another sob slipped out at the memory, at his voice, the once touching moment now tinted with sorrow.

But now she knew what she had to do.

Sophie changed into a simpler, non-fitted, though admittedly slightly sparkly, forest green dress. Then she pulled her hair down, wiped her makeup off, and changed into a comfortable pair of brown boots.

This was her.

Stealing her nerves, she walked out of her bedroom door, almost able to imagine the proud smirk he might've given her.

He parents waited for her at the leapmaster, silent as they took her hands and called out, "The wanderling woods!"

But this time, they had to pull her into the light.

                                            __________________________________

Standing at the front of the reception line on a neighboring hill to her and Dex's trees, Sophie tried not to look at the stone that marked the place and name of the boy they mourned today. She tried not to look at her friends' devastated faces as they stood near her, towards the front of the crowd, that had to be just as big as Alden's if not bigger. Tried not to look at the man standing beside her and her adoptive parents, looking, for once in his life, dishevelled, his hair tousled instead of slicked, expression twisted, showing true, unguarded emotion like she'd never seen on his face before. It made him look more like his son, and Sophie couldn't bear to see it.

But she did glance at the things he held. A shovel, and a small seed, with a single, wavy gold hair strand wrapped around it.

She tightened her hold on Grady and Edaline's hands, using them as her rock, letting them keep her from getting swept away with her emotions.