Reversed

xiii. thirteen

Sophie's loud, pounding heart contrasted her light footsteps, but she ignored it. She didn't exactly know where she was running, only that the direction she was headed was out.

Sophie reached out with her mind as she slipped around corners. She kept searching until she found Ruy's strained thoughts. Ruy, she transmitted, making him jump for a second time. I'm free. I just have to find a way out. I'm in some sort of cave hideout.

Ruy whooped mentally. I knew you could do it.

I wasn't quite sure that I could, Sophie admitted. I think the only reason I did was because I was so scared.

You? Ruy jokingly scoffed. Scared of what?

Sophie shuddered. The Black Swan were trying to inject me with a serum.

Shock flashed across Ruy's mind. What? What does it do?

I didn't let them give it to me, but they said that it was supposed to wipe away all the "false memories" in my head. They seem to think that you guys planted memories in my brain and altered my emotional center. Sophie scoffed. Can you believe? Anyways, they said it had limbium in it. Two ounces.

Oh, no. Sophie could almost imagine him paling, and Ruy almost never paled. At least someone felt a normal level of shock when limnium was brought up considering it could, you know, kill her. They were trying to poison you?

That's what I thought. So I turned all my pent-up emotions into energy to shatter the cuffs and escape. I'm running right now.

Ruy exhaled. Okay, try to hurry. There are probably Black Swan members everywhere.

I know, Sophie transmitted grimly.

Oman is till talking about doing a food raid, so you better hurry back, Ruy joked.

Sophie smirked at the thought of it. Then she blanched. They're coming, she frantically transmitted. They're catching up. I—

Sophie broke the connection by accident when a figure rounded the bend ahead of her right before she was about to turn. She smacked into the hard chest of... Keefe.

He recoiled, not believing it was her at first. But when she tilted her head down and scooted off to the side, he reached out and grabbed her arm. "Foster?"

Sophie ignored him and tried to shake his grip. But he grabbed her other arm and spun her towards him. "I don't think you're supposed to be out here," he said.

Dread pooled in the pit of Sophie's stomach. No. She was so close. So close.

Sophie attempted to tug her arm free again. Unfortunately, she was still exhausted from the failed ambush, levitating so much, breaking out of Dex's cuffs, transmitting to Ruy, and inflicting on three Black Swan members. Keefe still had tons of energy, and the way his grip didn't budge even a little was almost laughable. 

Sophie growled, twisting, but Keefe only tightened his grim as he grabbed her other arm as well. His grip was softer than Fitz's had been when levitating, but still conveyed the same message. I've got you. You can't get away.

The more she struggled, the limper her limbs became. It was getting harder and harder to move even her fingers.

Once it was clear to Keefe that Sophie had exhausted most of her energy, he set off down the hall, dragging her in the opposite way she had come. Sophie didn't see the point in wasting her energy trying to run the opposite way, so she made her body deadweight.

Keefe almost dropped with her, but bent down and picked her up. "Nice try, but I'm not going down that easily," he said, giving her a long look with his ice-blue eyes. 

Sophie glared at the passing wall as Keefe pulled her back through the dark cave halls, now fully carrying her bridal style. Her arms and legs hurt so bad, and she was probably running on less than five hours of sleep.

The thought of coming this far just to be pulled back by some possibly-good-looking blonde boy was more than Sophie could bear. She was starting to understand what caged animals felt like. Desperate caged animals. 

She had to make her final getaway. Then she could teleport out of here, and Ruy would find her and everything would be back to normal.

Sophie wiggled out of Keefe's grasp. He wasn't expecting it—probably because Sophie looked as tired as she felt. She took advantage of his surprise and sprinted down the hall, skidding around the first corner she came to.

Her legs felt like cinder blocks, but Sophie tried to ignore that fact and channeled all her remaining energy into them. She was getting away from Keefe. She was getting away—from... Keefe. Keefe...

Had caught up to her. Again.

Sophie could see a hint of amusement at her attempt, so faint she thought it was just her mind playing tricks on her. It vanished as soon as it had appeared, making Sophie positive she'd imagined it.

Briefly, Sophie wondered what it would be like to see the full version of his smile. She could still see his crooked smirk buried deep in her old memories, but that's all it was. A memory. It probably looks so much better in real life, she thought, then shoved it away. She reminded herself that this boy with the mysterious not-smile was someone who had played a part in manipulating and lying to her.

Either way, the boy in front of her looked as if it had been such a long time since he had smiled that Sophie could almost believe that she did have planted memories—the ones of his smiling face.

"I knew you wouldn't make it that easy," he said once he had regained a firm grip. He pulled her closer and hoisted her over his shoulder.

Sophie squirmed. "Put me down," she said weakly. 

Keefe ignored her. "All you're doing is exhausting yourself," he informed her. "It's obvious that you've used up more than the energy you have. Just... stop running."

"Never," she gritted out, but it sounded like a joke when it fell on her ears. Her, telling him that she would still try to run away? The girl with the flimsy limbs and hazy mind, who couldn't even walk anymore? Ha. Funny.

It probably sounded like a joke to Keefe too, but he didn't laugh. He just shook his head and continued through the passages.

Sophie hated herself for not doing anything, but she physically couldn't. She felt farther and farther away, like she had after she fell from the sky and Ruy and Trix had gotten away.

Huh. The torches were blurry. Sophie wanted to laugh at that. The Black Swan had blurry torches! Or... maybe they were sparkles. Or tiny suns. Ooh, definitely tiny suns.

She was jarred back to the present when Keefe plopped her down back on a different cot than the one she had woken up on. She groaned. Half-consciousness was so much better than full-consciousness. When she was fully conscious, she was... hungry.

Her stomach growled, as if to emphasize the point.

That ghost of a ghost of a smile lifted the corners of Keefe's lips again. "Are you hungry, Foster?"