Sophie Foster at Malory Towers

Chapter 1- Oblivion

SOPHIE

"Hey Keefe," Sophie said, opening the door to Havenfield to his expectant face. "What are you doing here again?"

"Is this any way to greet the one... the only... Lord Hunkyhair?" Keefe asked with an easy grin, pulling Sophie into a quick kiss. 

Sophie rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, shut up," she said, giving him a gentle shove on the chest. "Hello and all that. But seriously- why are you here? It has to be the third time this morning."

Keefe's face turned solemn, an unusual sight. "I'm worried about you. Ever since the last kidnapping, I keep thinking about you, and working myself up into a panic." He glanced at Sophie, something like desperation in his ice blue eyes. "I'm so scared that I'm going to come back and find you gone. Or worse, see you as you looked in the infirmary after that second kidnapping. It took Elwin a week to get you back to health, Sophie. A week. That's how bad the burns from Fintan and Brant were. And you might not have seen them, but I did. I will never forget how you looked, Sophie. I was terrified you would die. I love you, and I would do anything to keep you safe. Anything. Even if it meant you hated me afterwards. Please, Sophie. Just hide. Just for a while."

Sophie stared at Keefe, surprise and wariness warring inside her. She chose to laugh off what Keefe had said and instead replied, "I already told you, Keefe. I won't hide." At the crestfallen look on his face, she added, "I won't cower while you guys risk your lives. Please, can we just forget this conversation?" Sophie kissed Keefe again lightly and motioned inside. "Come in! Biana and Linh are coming in a minute." 

Keefe smiled at her, but Sophie still saw regret in his eyes still. "Yeah, thanks."

They were barely up the stairs to Sophie's bedroom when there came the sound of loud voices outside, even before the dainty knock on the door. Sophie smiled and started back down the plush, white carpeted stairs. "That'll be the others. I'll get the door." Keefe nodded and followed her to the door.

"Hey, you two." Sophie said as she opened the door to see Biana and Linh.

They were both looking gorgeous, as always. Elves were all naturally beautiful, and incredibly attractive. 

"Hey." Biana said. Her lush, thick brown hair was looking amazing, as per the norm, tumbling in loose waves down her back, and her teal eyes, the trademark of the Vacker family,  were sparkling in the soft sunlight outside. "How are you? And by the way, I just got hailed by Mr Forkle on my Imparter. He wants us to meet him in the caves." 

Linh nodded, her long black hair, tipped with silver, sparkling in the sun. "He did."

"Um... okay." Sophie said, taken aback. "Why didn't he just come here?"

"Dunno." Linh said. "Maybe he has something he wants to show you? Either way, we better go meet him."

Sophie nodded, and called out to her adoptive parents, Grady and Edaline. "Mom, Dad! I'm just heading out to meet Mr Forkle!" 

Edaline hurried out of the kitchen, closely followed by Grady. She wrapped Sophie in a tight hug. "Okay, no problem," she said in her deceptively soft voice. In reality, she could wrestle a full-grown T-Rex without breaking a sweat. "I love you, sweetheart, okay? No matter what." 

Grady enveloped her in a hug too. "Be brave, okay? Love you, kiddo." 

Sophie, taken aback, hugged them back. "I'll be back soon, all right? I love you too." 

They both nodded, though they both looked sad. Sophie wondered why.

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They soon arrived at the cave, where Mr Forkle was waiting. "Hi, Mr Fo-" Sophie began, but was cut off by the cloth he shoved onto her mouth. Sophie barely had the time to process her shock an betrayal before Keefe, Biana and Linh were on her, pinning her down. 

Sophie stared at them all in shock and dismay as her eyelids began to droop, courtesy of the sedative soaked cloth Mr Forkle held firmly over her nose and mouth. 

"I'm so sorry, Sophie," Keefe whispered, shame and sadness etched across the lines of his face. "But you wouldn't hide. You wouldn't listen. I told you I'd do anything to make sure you were safe- even if you hated me after."

Biana began to cry, but nodded. "It's for your own good, Sophie."

Linh's silver-blue eyes met Sophie's own, brown, gold flecked ones, steadily, but Sophie could see true sadness beneath Linh's forced, calm exterior. "It's because we love you."

As Sophie drifted into unconsciousness, she faintly heard Mr Forkle say, as if underwater, "And now its off to Malory Towers she goes..."