DUSK TILL DAWN ▹ SOPHITZ | ✓

dusk till dawn.

WARNING: THIS IS SET AFTER NIGHTFALL. THERE ARE SPOILERS! SO MANY SPOILERS!

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A/N: I should have tallied how many times Sophie and Fitz held hands in NIGHTFALL, like. . . really.

My heart is officially melted.

Sophie awoke in a cold sweat, shivering as she gripped tighter onto her bright blue elephant, Ella. She held back the tears welling up in her eyes at the reminders of everything that had happened.

It had taken such a toll on her and the affects had been going for weeks on end.

Everything from the disastrous and awkward kiss with Dex, Mr. Forkle's emotional planting, the treacherous treck to both Nightfalls, the battle with Vespera and Fintan, the rush to save Atlantis, Biana's injuries, Prentice finally being healed, but one of the Forkles not being there to see it, the meet with Dimitar, Keefe's injury (but thankfully he also recovered), the strenuous calls with Lady Gisela, Keefe and Fitz. . .

But the one that stuck with her the most was the part where she teamed with Damel to wipe her parent's memories. Granted, she should consider how lucky she was to get to have her sister remember everything, including her, but. . .

The way her mother had looked at Sophie with her beautiful green eyes. They'd been clouded until Sophie had whispered, "I'll always love you." Then they cleared and her mother looked away.

Sophie had instantly gotten a lump in her throat, figuring her mother was confused and didn't remember her, so maybe she was checking out her surroundings. Or maybe she had been too traumatized with the remembrance of the interrogations, her wounds, her husband's wounds. Perhaps the things Vespera had filled her head with, all lies meant to drag the truth out of her. Or, hey, maybe even that her mother did remember her, but she knew in her heart that it was Sophie's fault she was here in the first place.

So Sophie had tried to blink away her tears as she reached for Damel's hand, ready to enhance him and rid her mother of those awful memories. Let her slip from the dark past into a bright future where she'd hopefully be happy with her husband and their one daughter.

One. Not two. Because that was how it was supposed to be.

But then Sophie's breath caught in her lungs, making them burn as fresh tears surfaced when her mother rasped, "I'll always love you too, Sophie," right as Damel's fingertips reached her pale temples.

Her mother had remembered her.

I'll always love you too, Sophie.

But how could she, with no memory of the daughter that was never really hers? How could she, even if she did have her memory?

For then she would truly know Sophie wasn't hers, just as the blonde elf already knew. Maybe some love would have severed if she'd known. Who could love a girl shoved into their life, who was made to appear as their own, but never truly was? Why would they love someone like that? A lie?

A parasite was what she felt like. Like she'd nestled her way into the family and clung on even though her whole life her brain had secretly been a couple step ahead of her conscious being, knowing she didn't belong. Knowing it wasn't right.

And Sophie's heart hurt to think about that. It ached like this empty void inside her. This gaping whole, a festering wound that she feared would only grow and grow with time.