The Keefe Sencen Protection Program ✧ kotlc¹ [DISCONTINUED]

18 keeping secrets

"How do you feel, Dad?"

Prentice groggily lifted his head. "W... Wylie?"

Wylie smiled sadly, kneeling beside his father's bed. "Yeah," he said softly. Suddenly Prentice jerked fully awake, sitting up with wide eyes.

"I remember! I remember it! All of it!" he exclaimed breathlessly.

Wylie's eyebrows knit together.

"What?"

Tiergan appeared in the doorway. "Is something wrong?"

Prentice shook his head a little too fast, flipping off the covers and scrambling out of bed. Wylie and Tiergan both rushed to his side, holding him back in case he hurt himself. "Sochlodine. It's called sochlodine." His eyes were wild. "And his name was Ethan Wright."

"Ethan... Ethan Wright." Tiergan looked like he was trying to make sense of the outburst. "Prentice, maybe you should sit back down."

"No, she's in danger, his daughter is in danger." His brow furrowed. "There's something else too, I can't remember..."

"I've heard that name before," Tiergan muttered to Wylie, who looked troubled. "We need to talk to Keefe Sencen."

❤︎

"Um, what are they doing here?" Linh asked tentatively, stepping into the living room with her hands stuffed in the pockets of her sweater. Aeyva, Lyra, and Ro all stood beside Keefe, who looked immensely unsure of himself.

Wylie glanced up, smiling widely when he saw her. "My dad recovered a memory!"

"That's great!" She hurried down the steps to sit next to him on one of the couches. Tiergan's gaze remained laser-focused on Keefe and no one else.

"So. What do you know of this man?"

Keefe shrugged, looking kind of nervous. "Just that he was in my memories. I delivered a letter to him."

"And what was in it?"

"Beats me. I know he and his daughter died in a suspicious accident that I'm pretty sure Mommy Dearest caused. According to news stories about it, of which there are very few, there's no guarantee Eleanor Wright is dead because officials never found her body."

"She's not dead!" Prentice spat, leaning forward with an almost crazed look in his eyes. Keefe leaned back a bit. "They wouldn't have killed her! Not when she knew!"

"Knew what?" Tiergan groaned. Prentice hadn't made sense once since he'd awoken from his coma.

"How to make the serum," he said, as if it was obvious. Aeyva narrowed her eyes, puzzle pieces slowly clicking into place.

"If the Neverseen is experimenting on humans..." she muttered to Lyra, who nodded her agreement.

"What's sochlodine?" Ro said, looking up from painting her nails electric blue. "I should have heard of it. But I haven't."

Prentice shifted on the couch. "Abilities are triggered by a chemical reaction in our brains," He explained. "But what if there was a formula that could unnaturally trigger it? It would almost definitely have unforeseen consequences, but it could give a person a whole lot of power..." He looked as if he'd just unlocked the secrets of the origins of the universe. "I was investigating sochlodine when I... well." He didn't bother to finish as everyone knew what his fate had been. Aeyva and Lyra shot each other uneasy glances.

"So... you think that Vespera and Gisela could have this 'serum'?" Aeyva asked.

Prentice blinked. "No, I know they have this serum. Otherwise Ethan Wright would be alive."