Sentry of the Arcane: Engulfed

Chapter Seventeen: Sophie

Laurel's talking to me, but I'm not listening completely; I'm too busy staring at the scanner. Audrey's helping out with Donovan and Benen, and they're all bickering at each other. I honestly don't care about what's happening around me- Fitz being trapped inside the scanner is too important.

Suddenly, I see Fitz mouth, "Help me," before falling unconscious.

Before I know it, I'm screaming and dashing forward. "Fitz!" I shout, my voice breaking at the end. Mr. Wallace curses when he sees me banging against the door. Tears actually streaming down my face now, I don't realize that I've grabbed the laptop with my telekinesis until it smashes against the glass next to me, some of the stray metal cutting my cheek and arm. When all of the pieces of metal fall onto the ground, I see that I've cracked most of the glass, but not enough to actually shatter it.

Mr. Wallace pulls my sobbing self aside and touches the glass. Through my teary eyes, I see the middle aged man close his eyes. Suddenly, a light humming sound rings in the air.

And the next second, the glass cylinder shatters completely.

Some of the shards of glass fly past all of us, cutting our skin as we're blown back a bit. I close my eyes and hold my arms over my head, letting the glass cut my arms instead of my face. We all scream as the five of us soar backwards for a bit before landing painfully on the tiled floor.

Groaning, I force myself to disregard all the wounds, stinging pain, and all-around bleeding and stand myself up slowly. I first make eye contact with Mr. Wallace, who's breathing heavily. I'm about to ask him about him suddenly making the glass cylinder shatter completely, but I then notice Fitz on the ground, cuts covering his unconscious body and glass pieces surrounding him.

"Sophie-" Mr. Wallace starts to say. He's interrupted when I rush past him, towards the unconscious male Percipient.

"Fitz!" I shout, kneeling down besides him. I pay no attention to the shards of glass around us as I cradle Fitz's head in my arms. "Fitz Avery Vacker, wake up!" My voice cracks, but like I said before, I don't care at the moment. "Please wake up!"

I only glance up when I hear the female Sovereign and Altruistic shout, "Sophie! Are you okay?!" I see that they only have minor cuts on their clothes, but nothing major. "You're bleeding!" Laurel says, rushing over to me. "Like, a lot!"

"Gee, no kidding," Audrey sneers, looking at me. Her face softens, however, when I look down at Fitz, brushing his hair out of his closed eyes. I glance up again when Audrey says softly, "Wow... you really do lo-"

"What happened..?" I hear the male Altruistic groan as he stands up with Donovan. "Did the scanner really just-" He pauses when he sees the scene in front of him. "Well, okay- it did."

I press my lips together, not answering any of them. Instead, I close my eyes and lay my tear-stained head against Fitz's.

...

When I open my eyes again, I see that all of my wounds have been cleaned and wrapped in gauze, and the glass that's around me has been cleaned up. The conference room has been changed back to its original state, looking as if our memories weren't scanned in the first place.

As my vision becomes clear, I soon realize that there's a pair of arms around me gently, hugging me comfortingly. My eyes widening as as they can since I'm still tired, I tilt my head up to see Fitz's glistening teal eyes staring down at me, a soft smile on his face.

"Are you okay?" he asks quietly, looking over my own wounds. "Mr. Wallace told me when I woke up," he explains. "But I remember blacking out from that grey mist... Apparently, it was rentia that turned into a gas. It also melted the nebmentia sensors that have to do with memories."

I shoot up at the last part. "Nebmentia?" I ask, worry seeping into my question. "But-"

Fitz smiles a bit more, making me stop mid-sentence. When I look at him with a look of confusion, the male Percipient then explains, "I still am allergic to nebmentia, but there was more rentia fumes than nebmentia, so I didn't have much an allergic reaction. Well, other than passing out."

When I hear the word "rentia" again, I frown visibly, the phrase sounding rather foreign to me. Rentia? I ask myself. It sounds familiar... but-

Practically reading my mind, the male Percipient stops my train of thought by saying, "Rentia is a black crystal that has the capability of knocking someone out. They're used as weapons called disclosers, which you already know of, I'm assuming." When I nod, Fitz continues, "They can also be used as the cartridge of these large, black guns that I saw the security guards have at the hideout Donovan and I infiltrated last year. I don't know what they're called, though..."

Nodding in comprehension, I feel my eyelids involuntarily closing their eyes again. I hear Fitz chuckle under his breath and pull me closer, making me hear his heartbeat ring softly in my mind. Using the heartbeat as a soft rhythm, I feel my own heartbeat slow down as I fall asleep again.

...

She looks around in the darkness. It was a while since she was last here. The last time was when she scattered all those papers back then. The teal-eyed girl then looks around, trying to see if she's not alone. Unfortunately, she is. Sighing to herself, the girl takes a step forward, and then another. Before she knows it, she's walking blindly around in the darkness. All over again.

Suddenly, she hears something echo throughout the blackness, the sound shaking everything around her. It happens again, and again, and again.

The girl quickly realizes that she's not to get anywhere with the sudden tremors misdirecting her. Frowning noticeably, the teal-eyed girl tries to move in sync with the small tremors. She smiles when she actually finds herself being able to move forward, despite the shaking that just seems to become stronger, bit by bit.

Along with the shaking, the sound of something pounding echoes all around her, just like a rhythm's playing on the largest speakers that one can find. Before she knows it, the girl's bobbing her head slightly to the rhythm, which her own heart has accustomed to. The beat intertwining with her own, the teal-eyed girl makes her way to who knows where.

The thing is, the girl can't help but think that the noise sounds just like a heartbeat...