Secrets

Nineteen

Darkness. Everything was darkness. In a void of empty and black. 

Sophie floated, her eyes closed, fingers twitching and twisting as she struggled in her bonds. Bonds of shadow as dark as night. Her eyes shot open like a bullet, but she couldn't see anything. Nothing at all. Eyes darting this way and that, she reached in her mind and tried to imagine the ropes bursting into hundreds of pieces. 

No go. 

She tried inflicting- which drained her energy, levitating out of the bonds, and the old flailing method. But they didnt break; if anything, they grew even tighter. "VALIN?!" She cried at the top of her lungs. "WHERE DID YOU TAKE ME?" Betrayal ran swiftly through her coursing veins, making it hard to think.

 Within her mind, she sent out the loudest transmission she could muster. FITZ! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, I'M IN TROUBLE AND I'M WITH THE NEVERSEEN! But her mental arrow stopped short of its destination for some reason. She tried again, but the same thing happened. 

A disembodied voice floated in the darkness; when it spoke, it felt as if tendrils of evil were tickling her neck and making the hairs stand up. "He's gone. We disposed of him after we were done with him." 

Sophie felt her teeth chatter as the voice said 'disposed.' "What did you do to him?" Despite the things that Valin had done to her, it still wasn't right to 'dispose' of another person. 

The unseen person laughed in the darkness, high-pitched and cold like ice. But it sounded like a man's. "You don't want to know..." Hollow thunking indicated that the person was tapping the side of his head. "Wouldn't want to mess up that freak-brain of yours." He chuckled again, the sound piercing through Sophie's skull. 

That voice sounded familiar... 

Before she could piece together on who it was, the man spoke again. "Valin did what he was supposed to do, nothing else. We had to use a Mesmer on him at the last moment because of his refusal to hurt you." 

Gasping, Sophie managed to recover from her shock. The Neverseen had a Mesmer?  If so, who? Voice trembling, she gathered up her courage to ask. "W-what did the Mesmer do to him?" She had to make him keep on talking to reveal more information about the Neverseen. 

Calmly the person replied, "We made him torture himself until he submitted. And we made it very clear that if he refused to obey then we would find him and kill him immediately..." He hesitated. "Well, not exactly immediately... To put it short, we would give him a nice, long, painful death." 

Sophie felt her body shake and shudder. 

"See?" The man exclaimed. "Your freak of a brain won't be able to comprehend the things that we would have done to him." 

Sophie swallowed- hard, and when she tried to speak, her dried-up throat wouldn't make a sound. She tried again. "Why?" Her voice sounded raspy and grated as if she spent hours out in a hot, sandy desert. 

"We did what was necessary." 

Just then, a crisp accent filled her mind. Sophie? 

Fitz? 

Where are you? And is Keefe okay? Are you okay? Is the Neverseen there? I tried to reach you, but something or someone was blocking my transmission. 

Sophie looked up at where she thought the person was standing, to not arouse any suspicion. "You are evil." Inwardly, she trasmitted to Fitz. I tried transmitting to you as well, but you wouldn't answer. Fitz, Sophie shook her head, tears trailing down her face. Keefe is dead. 

A roar of emotion followed her transmit. Anger, shock, and most of all, sadness. A deep, heart-wrenching sadness that filled her heart with sorrow. 

H-how did it happen? 

H-he was swallowed whole by a loctoga. 

Oh. I-I... well... Keefe... He was... The best friend I ever had. But, Sophie... where are you? Why aren't you up yet? You've been missing for days. Your parents are going crazy, and Sandor is throwing things-literally. He's tracking you down as we speak. 

I'm with the Neverseen. 

WHAT?! 

I'm not hurt-yet...But please come here quickly before he does anything else! And, I found some really good information. Fitz, they have a Mesmer. 

WHAT?! Okay, first we are going to rescue you, and then we are going to talk. 

Okay.  

We will be there as soon as possible. 

Please hurry then, I- I really don't want to stay here any longer. 

I will. Then, almost as if in an afterthought he added. For you. 

They severed the connection.

Sophie blinked in confusion. He couldn't like her, could he? She wasn't sure what to feel. It was probably because they were friends, that's all. And Keefe... She couldn't believe he was dead. Her eyes glinted with determination. No, she wouldn't believe he was dead. She would find him- even if it was the last thing she did. 

--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--

The man stared at her from the darkness, a slow, Cheshire grin stretching his cracked lips. His smile lit up the darkness. The man knew she was transmitting to that boy. He could tell from her concentrated face and her tears running down her cheeks. He wanted for her to transmit to that boy because he had a plan. 

A cunning and devious plan. 

But first, he would have to wait. 

And wait. 

Until he could put that plan into motion. 

A low, deep laugh resounded from his belly, in contrast to the one that he had let loose earlier. The man threw back his head and laughed until it hurt.