what happened after unlocked

chapter eight ~ moonlark angst

"I can feel people's emotions! I can control people! I can inflict pain! I can read people's minds! I can teleport! I can speak any language! And I can enhance people's abilities! What next?!"

Mr Forkle dragged a hand down his face, straightening some of his wrinkles. "You're the moonlark, Sophie. You're destined to -"

"I DON'T CARE!" Sophie screamed. "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT BEING THE MOONLARK RIGHT NOW – I'M A PERSON AND I HAVE MY OWN LIFE!"

She caught her breathe, mentally berating herself for yelling so loud.

Mr Forkle jerked back, clearly taken aback. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't enough."

"Well, Sophie, we left you in the human world for twelve years, gave you five abilities, and now you have another one which enables you to do things hardly anyone has ever been able to do before. So why should we stop succeeding now? Once we've defeated the Neverseen, and gotten the Council on the same side as us, the world, and your life, will be normal again."

Sophie crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. ''I want to be normal now. Or at least have some aspects of normality in my life now."

Mr Forkle gave her a sympathetic smile and all Sophie wanted to do was to wipe it off his face. "You do already. Well, at least in some way...but for now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you. For now."

"So my actual life doesn't concern you? You don't care if I'm miserable, you just need me to keep working for you until you grant me the permission to stop?" Sophie argued.

Mr Forkle dragged another hand down his face, and Sophe guessed that he was signaling the end of the conversation.

But she wasn't done.

No, she was going to keep begging for him to do something, change his mind, until he listened to her.

"Mr Forkle," she commanded, and when he didn't look at her, she raised her voice. "Forkle!"

Mr Forkle scowled at her. "I can't just abandon Project Moonlark now. The fate of the world is depending on it."

"Did you expect me to take this kindly?" Sophie growled. "Because you should probably know by now that I never take things as kindly as you think I do."

The gray-haired elf sighed and moved closer to the door of his office. "Sophie, I'm sorry, but you can't leave your destiny now, you can't just yell at me and then expect me to tell you that we'll figure it out without you – this is the life you have now and you're going to have to accept it!"

Sophie's eyes widened. Whether it was from shock, or anger, or confusion, or just pure sadness she didn't know. But something about the way that Mr Forkle said that – it made her feel like everything was hopeless. Like she was...just a project. Not a person.

Her throat began to burn. She couldn't cry now! She couldn't.

"Miss Foster," Mr Forkle said curtly. "I have work to attend to."

Sophie looked at him and this time her expression was of shock.

Before she knew it, she was storming out of his office and scrubbing away tears as she stood on the hillside the egg-shaped building was built into.

No-one would ever really understand her.

No-one would ever know what it felt like.

And she would never really be treated like she could make her own decisions, like she was a person and not just a tool that people could use to manipulate fate.

She needed someone to talk to right now.

Not Silveny, not Fitz, not Biana, not Alden, not Dex...Keefe.

Keefe was the one she really needed right now, but that just reminded her of the fact that he was gone.

Not dead, but no-one was bringing him back.

She had to talk to him – even if it meant he hated her. But Sophie could never hate him back, no matter how broken he became.

So she stretched out her thoughts, diving through the million-mile span of peoples' consciousness and thoughts, and called Keefe's name.

Sorry for the extra short chapter guys, but I hope this next one and the one after it makes up for the lack of words! WC: 688 word