Stellarlune - KotLC Book 9

Chapter 6 - Keefe

So sorry I've been out for so long: my parents surprised me with a trip to Disneyworld! 

I came back yesterday and didn't get a single second to update, so I'll try to update more frequently to make up for this week 

For now, here's a Keefe chappie for ya'll :D

  - Frenchie (please don't kill me)

"So this is your room. You're okay with a T.V. in here right?"

Keefe blinked.

"I will...take that as a yes. I guess." Alicia smiled, turning and opening the door to his room, which was as big as his own room back at Candleshade, which was saying something.

"So, listen. I know this isn't your house, your happy place, the place where you probably want to be right now."

Candleshade? Shores of Solace? Happy place? More like torture dungeon. Keefe thought.

Alicia must've felt his expression change (empath?) and softly touched the small of his back in a soothing manner, which reminded him of the breezes he used to send to-

Nope. We're not thinking about her. 

But it's impossible not to!

Shut up brain.

"Just...call me if you need me." she said, getting up to leave.

Then she paused, remembering his condition.

"Or...don't. But I'm just downstairs in the kitchen, and...um...that's kind of it!" She nodded to herself, and started to leave, but then stopped.

"Wait,"

Keefe looked up at her.

"Didn't you have a bag?"

Keefe's eyes widened as he remembered: Mrs. Stinkbottom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes.

That was Keefe middle-name-confidential Sencen's brain.

Stuffed animals before anything else.

Even before Soph-

Shut up brain.

He realized that Alicia was waiting for an answer, so he nodded in reply (he had a feeling he'd b doing a lot of that these days). 

"Okay, nice, um, I'll text Craig to get the bag from the hospital. It was a brown messenger bag, right?

Again, a nod (called it).

"Cool, cool." She nodded (was nodding as contagious as yawning?????)...and then looked at him with a somewhat miserable expression.

Keefe frowned at her, and instantly her face changed. She was back to happy-go-lucky Alicia. It happened so fast, he wasn't even sure if her face had actually looked miserable. 

He knew he had been hallucinating when she gave him an excited wave and walked out singing "Sunday Best".

And yet there was still a doubt lingering in the back of his mind.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+ (I don't mean it at all, I'm sorry.)

A little while later, he heard Alicia call him from downstairs.

He peered over from the top of the staircase.

She looked up at him. "Are you hungry? I know I am! I have some food prepared. Mac n Cheese. Do you like mac n cheese? You must like mac n cheese. It's a crime not to. Just come downstairs in the next five minutes, okay?" She clapped her hands.

"And I'm not taking a no, you hear me? As your official doctor, you need to eat. You looked like a muscly teenager-"

Keefe grinned.

"-and you have to eat up if you wanna stay buff. Hm?"

Keefe nodded, his smile twisting into a smirk. He knew it wasn't just him who thought he was a buff kid. He was even buffer than Fitzy, which he could say proudly for a fact without his ego talking!

And yes.

It was confirmed.

Be jelous.

Keefe pushed away those thoughts (not really) and headed downstairs.

And then he got blasted by a melder.

"Hah!" he heard a soft voice say. Straining his eyes upward, he saw Alicia.

You have to be kidding me.

But then he saw the worst part, and all of the air blew out of him (quite literally, because just then a dwarf popped out of the ground and slammed his chest, then popped back into the ground. Why? He had no clue).

Right there, in all of her brown-eyed, eyelash pulling-and-so-lacking-a-few-eyelashes glory, was Sophie Elizabeth Foster herself.

"Keefe," She sobbed. "Why did you leave?" 

Alicia cackled. "Your mother was right. You are imperative to catching the moonlark."

A new voice joined Alicia. "And gullible too." 

I bet it's mom.

And then his mom appeared.

Wow, I'm so good at guessing!

Gisela looked at him. "What, surprised? Or should I say...stunned?" 

Honestly, that pun hurt him more than the melder did.

"I trusted you." He managed to croak out.

"Who, me?" Mother Dearest asked, looking shocked. And then she realized who he was talking to. "Oh, Servela. Yes, well, you can't really trust the Forbidden Cities, can you?"

Keefe was hurt (oh, emotionally he meant. Not physically. But he was also physically hurt. He was both.).

"You even changed your name?"

"Yeah, and you said you'd never talk so here we are."

That was when Keefe realized that Oh yeah, I have super cool powers that I can use by talking! Also: I'm talking!

So he opened his mouth, where he finally acknowledged the burning command at the base of his throat. But before he could say anything, he was impaled with a goblin throwing star. Foster let out an anguished scream (her scream was good. She could probably audition for Eliza in Hamilton for when a/n HAMILTON SPOILERS AHEAD. SKIP TO NEXT LINE IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED HAMILTON AND DON'T WANT YOUR LIFE TO BE RUINED BECAUSE OF A SPOILER LIKE MY FRIEND DID TO ME Philip dies. 

Amazing scream.)

"No," she cried. "No!"

And then she got stabbed too.

Keefe died internally. (his external dying was soon to follow)

No! he wanted to scream. Instead, all that came out was a "Nunh..."

But then, he put all of his remaining life left into three life changing-words that he needed to tell her: "I love you."

Her face softned, and for a second, he saw something that made his heart beat faster (seemingly beat faster, obviously. No duh it was actually beating slower).

And then, they both died.

The next chappie has the epilogue. I, uh, recommend you read it. And remember to scroll all the way down when your done reading the first sentence.

~Frenchie