Dreamwatcher | KOTLC

Chapter Thirteen: Dex

"Dex?" Sophie asked, bewildered. "Is that you?"  

"Uh, duh," Dex replied un-enthusiastically, "no-one else has dimples this cute."

Sophie face-palmed, grateful to have found her beloved friend. "So what happened?" she asked.

"Well, I got the mail a few days ago," Dex explained, rubbing his forehead, hoping that'll help him remember. "It said to go to Foxfire to find out more about Technopaths, so that's what I did. When I got there, I saw a table with two chairs. I went to sit on one of the chairs as I waited, some guy came with a brown sack. I asked if he was the guy who wanted to meet with me, and he said to wait a minute. 'Okay,' I answered. Then two minutes later he knocked me out with this serum! It was horrible! Sorry, I don't remember the rest."

"Wow . . ." Sophie answered, surprised that the same thing that had happened to her happened to Dex as well. "I'm shocked."

"I know, right?" he asked, scratching his head. "I've been here for two days."

"Two days?" Sophie asked. "Did they give you food and water?"

"Yes, and listen: this is the good part. Every day in the afternoon, they take me out of this horrible cell out to the fields and train me, help me fight."

"Uh, why? What the heck? Do I have to do this, too?"

"Most likely." 

At that moment, Sophie had just realized a crucial question she needed to ask Dex. Just wait for his reaction to this. "Dex?" 

"Yeah," he replied bluntly. 

"Do you remember what day it is today? 'Cause I sure don't."

Dex paused, raising his hand to his chin. "I think . . . isn't it Tuesday or something?"

"It does feel like it," Sophie mentioned.

"Well, okay, but why?"

Sophie looked at him like he was the stupidest person in the world.

"Um, why do you think so?"

Seeing Dex hesitate, Sophie sighed and shouted, "School!"

Dex processed the horrid word then widened his eyes, admitting that she was right. 

"What do we do?" he asked, terror flooding over him. 

"I don't know . . ." Sophie replied. After replaying the scenes back at home a couple of times to trigger some memory, she realized that . . . "Oh no!" Sophie gasped.

"What's wrong?" Dex said, somewhat in the middle of daydreaming. 

"Well, before I left, my parents asked me where I was going . . .一"

"And you told them?" Dex interrupted.

"Don't interrupt me! Anyways, I told them一"

"That you were coming here?" Dex interrupted once again. 

"Dex," Sophie whispered, trying to block out any anger rising up inside her. "Please don't interrupt me. Dex nodded, and whispered, "Sorry" back.

"I told them," Sophie restarted, glaring at Dex like she dared him to interrupt her again, "that I was going shopping with Biana."

Dex frowned. "Do they even know you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, when was the last time you voluntarily went shopping? With Biana?"

He did have a point there, Sophie thought. "But the problem is that I didn't go see Biana. And it gets worse the longer we're here."

Not long after, the pair heard footsteps approaching, so they quickly scrambled away from one another. "They can't know we know each other," Sophie hissed across the room. Dex nodded just as an officer walked to the cell, glaring at Sophie and Dex. 

"Good. You're awake."

"Come with me," the officer said as he pulled out a key from his pocket. Sophie noticed the shiny gold name tag on his grey tunic that said "Shon. W." in bold lettering. 

Sophie and Dex both grunted as they stood up from the hard floor, and sauntered over to the officer. 

"You can call me Shon," the officer said as he imprisoned their hands in handcuffs. "These handcuffs are enchanted. They block any abilities so we don't have anyone escaping."

Dex scoffed. "As if I would be able to escape. Sophie's the one with, like, seventeen abilities!" Shon looked like if he could, he would face-palm. "Dude, you're the Technopath here. You're fantastic with gadgets!"

"Oh? Thank you, thank you very much."

"Before we leave, I just need to take the chips out first. We only have a limited supply, and we'll need them for the newcomers." Chips? Sophie thought. 

"I am kinda hungry," Dex mentioned as his stomach grumbled loudly. "Not that kind of chip!" Shon retorted. Then he raised his hand towards Dex's head and pulled out some invisible circle made of metal. 

"Where did that come from?" Sophie asked, completely puzzled. "This is a microchip we implant to somewhat change their personality. Why? We don't know; just for the fun of it. Some make you really smart, some make you really stupid一"

"I think Dex has that one," Sophie interrupted. Seeing Shon nod in agreement made Sophie grin. They both turned to look at Dex and found him trying to tug out a lock of his own hair. "I'm not even going to ask what he needs that for," Shon said with a long sigh. 

"But then why am I not acting differently?" Sophie asked. "N-not that I want to, but, uh, still." Shon raised his hand to his cheek to think. "Well, didn't Mr. Rambunctious Redhead over here say that you had, what, eighteen abilities?"

"He's just over-exaggerating," Sophie replied. "I have si-four." Sophie almost said she had six, but as far as she was concerned, this Shon dude knows quite a bit about her.

"Well, maybe that's the problem," he suggested. "But whatever the issue is, we can't have the boss waiting. Let's get going."