Mrs Sophie Foster-Sencen (Sokeefe Tale of Two Times) - KOTLC

Escape

~ Thank you all for 9k! 💕 ~

~ Present Sophie's POV ~

"Keefe..."
I wailed, sinking onto my ankles in defeat.
It was as if the once smooth stone grown had become rocky and bumpy, sending shoots of pain springing up my scraped kneecaps.
He pounded on the door, desperation heavy in his expression.
He was stuck.
Stuck outside the blindingly radiant golden forcefield, tinted with a warm yellow glow from my perspective.
I wanted to sink into the floor and hope that Keefe would just be let back in.
But that's not who I am.
I can't just sit here.
I need to get up.
To do something.
To move.
But most importantly, I need a plan.
The pounding on the door stopped.
I lifted my head, viewing him worn out from the endeavor, but still offering me a sad and somewhat hopeless looking smile.
He had realized the pounding was useless.
Now the only pounding that existed was in my war-raging heart.
And he was mouthing something.
At first I thought it was the blurriness in my eyes playing tricks on me.
But as I blinked away the tears, I noticed that he actually was mouthing something.
It took me a few repetitions to understand what he was saying.
"I love you."
It was almost a hopeless feeling.
I tried the solid barrier again, half-heartedly knocking my knuckles against a solid wall of searing pain, which left my knuckles raw and burnt red.
But I wasn't done.
I wasn't going to let him go.
Keep your wits.
Fear is a game.
You've faced worse.
But something about whatever this eerie place was made this felt worse.
I could hardly place the feeling.
It was new.
We had never faced it before.
Unsettling.
My hands shook and my heart pounded a drum in my ears, my pulse rocketing with alarm and panic.
Stand up. Dust yourself off. Don't let it get to you. You're stronger than that.
A mantra I had been telling myself for years to calm my constant anxiety.
Grimacing, I began to get up to my feet, wincing when the action caused me to feel lightheaded.
Think, think, think.
I met Keefe's eyes once more and watched his gaze latch onto me, curious about what I was going to do but still looking lost.
My eyes softened when our eyes met.
I showed him my sadness before I blinked and let my eyes harden again, the determination showing through.
I steeled myself.
Noting this, he offered me a small, weak smile.
Start moving.
I commanded myself.
Move.
Ok you need to move.
Pushing myself forward in a pace, it felt as though I were walking through tar as time seemed to crawl to a slow and speed up all at the same time.
I forced my feet to pull me in the direction in the back of the cavern.
What can I use?
Nothing.
I was stuck in a dark, dingy and useless room with nothing but a flat stone wall and a few stupid flowers.
The breaths in my chest had unintentionally and subconsciously began to quicken.
My hands shook with a tremor that passed through them.
I gulped, forcing the relinquishment of the lump in my throat.
My windpipe felt as though it would burst with the seemingly infinite panic that arose up from my lungs.
Clamping my eyes shut, I scuffed out my panic to the best of my ability, focusing on my breathing and the fact that Keefe was safe.
Thinking about it now, technically Keefe is the one outside and I'm the one trapped in, but that thought doesn't really ease my nerves, so I push it out of my mind.
What can I use?
I repeated the question in my mind over and over, as if it were a plea to the universe to help me.
All that was present in the room was walls, vines, flowers, stone.
Walls, vines, flowers, stone.
Walls, vines, flowers, stone, walls, vines, flowers, stone, walls, vines, flowers, atone, walls, vine, flowers-
Flowers.
The Emerinda Priscium.
It doesn't appear to be a normal flower, does it?
Someone went through the hassle of hiding it here.
It returned.
The flower had a glint, a white gleam that sparked briefly, ever so quickly.
But in that fleeting moment, I seemed to realize something.
I could try-
No. It was dangerous.
My mind was at war, two sides fighting in their current state of equilibrium for one to usurp the other in order to achieve full power in my brain.
Who knows what might happen?
Exactly, who knows. It might-
But what if something bad happens?
You'll never know if you don't try.
One decision had won, brutally dragging the other one out, lacerating it until it was only mere smithereens that remained.
Numbly, I reached for a flower, not actually realizing what I was doing until after I had done it.
Gingerly, I plucked it off a vine that's as snaking up the smooth cave wall.
I pulled my arm back once I had retrieved it, keeping it pinched between my thumb and index finger.
It was almost like I was not myself, not present.
My body was physically there, but my spirit was not.
I felt distant, like a specter above Earth.
Unlike myself.
Without actually thinking about it, I carefully plucked off the petals with my free left hand and cupped my palm so I could hold them in the same hand.
When I had finished, all that remained was the chemical green colored core which, defying gravity, stood stick upright upon the impossibly green colored stem.
The wilted looking, blackened petals lay in my left palm.
Unwittingly, I scrunched my hand closed, crushing the petals so firmly that I felt my fingernails dig into my palm.
It was as if I was being mind controlled to do all of this.
I would never have done this by myself.
The flower had drawn me in, the glint in it offering protection.
It was controlling me, the Emerinda Priscium.
I laid my right hand flat and flipped the core upon the stem over in my palm so it was on the back.
Meticulously, I pinched the back, cone-like, pointed structure of the core that was the same impossibly vibrant green as the stem with my thumb and index finger.
I secreted the nectar and opened my scrunched hand with petals, placing the crushed flowers underneath the slow oozing, emerald nectar.
It moved like molasses or honey as it dripped onto the petals.
But as it did, there seemed to be some sort of change.
As the chemical looking green of the core fell upon the blackened petals that lay spread out along my palm, they began to singe and burn.
But instead of being a darker, ashier black, they instead began to glow a warm yellow tint.
The same as the solid light screen.
The light ensnared me, snagging me back into my present body.
I blinked, my eyes clearing out.
I wasn't even aware that they had been glazed, glassy, dull, and empty.
The emerald core had so much liquid in it despite its walnut size.
It must've been deep.
I was cautious to make sure none of the nectar touched me, cause god knows what would happen if that were to occur.
The warm yellow glow began to change the petals.
The once ashy black began to transform, as a pearlescent color crept up from the inwards outwards.
I wad pinching the nectar out in a swirling motion, form the inward most point of my palm to the outside, so it must have been going in order of the petals being affected by the nectar.
But it didn't make sense.
How was this happening now?
How, when the petals touched the core, did they not become like this on the actual structure of the flower?
This wasn't right.
Then, I felt it again.
The glint first, and then a faint sensation of my being getting dragged away from body.
A pearlescent color had now encapsulated the petals, showing a beautiful, swirly white touched and pressed into the petals.
There was a lenticular trace of a chroma color laced throughout the white that gleamed with a refractive aura.
There was no trace of ashy black at all.
Under my compulsion, my feet were dragged from beneath me towards the wall.
I didn't resist.
I let my body to what it needed.
It was going to help.
Whatever it was.
My steps were slow but certain, doubtless and unwavering, still and fearless.
When I had finally reached the light barrier, my palm went up and I placed the now pearlescent Emerinda Priscium against the barrier.
Keefe watched with a curious notch in his eyebrow and a head-tilted gaze.
The light shield instantly turned pearlescent and swirly again.
Suddenly, spirit rocketed down to the ground and thrusted into my body to reconnect to my physical presence.
I gasped for air, taken aback by my sudden return.
Without a second hesitation, I jumped through the pearlescent barrier.
———————————————————————
The searing light stung like hell, scorching my skin until it burned a raw red.
Cool relief hit quickly once I had been fully pushed through the barrier.
I pried my heavily shut eyes open to see Keefe, a cold sweat based around his forehead and his eyes pulled wide, lips parted with shock.
Not taking second thoughts, I threw myself at him and locked him in a tight embrace, squeezing him hard enough to ensure that it was truly him.
He hugged me back just as tight.
"What was- how did you-"
He spluttered, still shell-shocked.
"Doesn't matter."
I said, my chin digging into his shoulder.
I pulled away and grabbed his hand.
"We have to get back and figure out who did this. And how to get back."
His once shocked face returned back to normal as he concentrated.
"Let's go."
And together we ran as quick as our legs would carry, through the tunnels and thick brush, through the misty forest.
Navigating was difficult, it took an hour between getting lost and circling back.
Finally, we managed to find the clearing and the tree with the sparks around it.
We launched ourselves through the portal.
We were back to the normal world we began in.

~ Hey guys! Rushed ending, I'm sorry I've been super busy. I didn't forget, I finished yesterday I just never managed to write this little blurb and publish it. This coming week may also have a weird writing schedule as I am traveling for the long weekend. Kinda badly written chapter I'm sorry! I hope you all enjoy though and thanks for reading!
Love you all,
- Your Author 💕 ~