Mirrored Conflicts (a Sokeefe story)

Chapter 18: Listening

Day two. Only one more night before Keefe would leap back to the Forbidden Cities and pretend to have learned his lesson.

He wasn't even sure what he was drawing, though Sophie had given him pretty good supplies for someone who didn't seem to know very much about visual art. "Stay in the closet," she'd said, "in case someone I know comes in here. And if you need something to do..." she'd tossed him a notebook and a few colorful pencils—probably a human thing. And he'd been very, very bored while Sophie was off following the leads he'd given her, so he'd already filled six pages of the book with pictures of random human cities he'd seen.

He wasn't sure why he'd done that. Maybe it was a tribute to the girl he'd be giving the notebook back to in just a few hours, and the life the Black Swan both forced her into and ripped her away from.

But he definitely wasn't drawing a city now.

He had the outline of two people already, one slightly shorter than the other, on autopilot, like he knew what he was doing but wasn't ready to put words to it in his head.

He colored both of their eyes' brown.

Well, he definitely knew what he was doing now.

He continued drawing as voices began to grow louder, emotional presences stronger, and the door to Sophie's room cracked open.

He stayed very still.

Except his colored pencils, which has now filled in one girl's blonde hair and the other's brown hair.

"Are you sure you don't want to let me take you shopping?" Biana Vacker pleaded.

"Trust me, Biana, I have plenty of sparkly, frilly dresses in the closet."

Now Keefe froze fully.

Sophie did remember that he was in her closet, right?

"But what if none of them are the one?"

"Biana. There will be one that works. I promise."

Biana sighed. "Fine. Let me see your selection." She walked closer to the closet.

Keefe felt the moment Sophie remembered who she was hiding. The spike in her emotions correlated perfectly with her sudden, "WAIT!"

Keefe could feel Biana's suspicion as she turned to face Sophie. "Sophie? Something you want to tell me?"

Keefe wished he was a vanisher.

"No!" Sophie said nervously.

"Really? Cause you're acting like you're hiding a boy in your closet," she joked.

"Why would you think that?" Sophie squeaked, very seriously.

Biana's teasing mood vanished, the suspicion dialed all the way up. "Sophie. Are you hiding a boy in your closet?!"

"Of course not!" Sophie rushed. "That's ridiculous. What boy would I even be hiding?" Gosh, she was such a bad liar.

"...Sophie."

"...What?"

"You have five seconds to tell me what's in there and that it isn't who I think it is, and then I'm opening the closet doors."

HIDE SOMEWHERE! Sophie shouted in his mind. PREFERABLY BEHIND A REALLY BORING DRESS BIANA WON'T CARE ABOUT!

Keefe didn't need to be told twice. He dove behind the least sparkly, most dull-colored dresses in the closet right before Biana's countdown finished and the doors opened.