Dreamwatcher | KOTLC

Chapter Twenty Nine: Oreos

"Dex?" Sophie asked. She thanked herself for remembering when Alan told them their Subject number. Or was it Cathy? Sophie shook the thought out, trying to focus on the bigger picture. 

Callie and Alan started to chat about where he could've gone, and how he could've gotten out. "How did he get past the security?" Callie asked while rubbing her head, probably going through all the possibles ways to escape this prison. 

"I don't know! It was like he just vanished! Out of thin air!" Shon was waving his arms around drastically, surely grabbing more and more attention. Just what they needed. 

"Are you sure it's Dex?" Sophie jumped in. She hated to admit it, but she wasn't used to being left out of conversations. It was usually her who was talking to everyone at once, trying to figure out an action plan. Not the other way around. 

Hmph! Leave it to Foster to be wanting all the attention. Again, a voice suddenly spoke in her mind. 

What WAS that? Sophie thought. WHO was that? 

"Keefe's the only one who calls me Foster . . ." Sophie noted. 

Then her face turned rock solid. "Keefe," she reminded herself. "What's he doing in my head?" Sophie went over all the ways how Keefe could be in her head, and most importantly, why?

"Sorry, I'm confused," Callie interrupted Sophie's thoughts. "Who's Keefe?"

Drat. She can't know.

"He's um . . . a friend of mine, and, uh, we just don't talk anymore," Sophie explained. 

Suddenly, Callie started humming this tune and literally began to sing along. "We don't talk anymore, we don't anymore, we don't talk anymore like we used to do . . ." Once everyone noticed, she informed them, "It's a human song."

Wait . . .

"You're human?" Sophie asked skeptically. 

"What did you think?" Callie responded.

"Then how can you understand me?" Sophie pressed, ignoring the obvious answer to the previous question. 

"With these," Callie motioned to a pair of earrings that were silver and shaped as stars. "They're called Extranrings. I know, weird name. I didn't come up with it, though. So here's the deal with them: Any human and any elf can wear it ─ though it's mostly worn by elves. They can translate the opposing language to understand it. I'm wearing them so I can understand any elf. Does that make sense?"

It honestly didn't. 

But Sophie nodded anyway. 

"Good." Callie clasped her hands together delightfully, before continuing: "You obviously don't need them since it's us humans who need to understand your elf-y Gibberish."

"It's called the Enlightened Language," Sophie shot back. "Such a shame you humans haven't learned it yet." The second the words came out of her mouth, she regretted them. She only intended to go as far as "It's called the Enlightened Language."

"You do realize that I'm not the only human here, don't you?" Callie questioned Sophie, moving her hands that were previously dangling below her to her hips. 

"No," Sophie whispered. Now that it's been mentioned, she had realized that most of the people here didn't have elf ears. Callie gestured to Shon, and Sophie noticed that he also didn't have elf ears, but instead Extranrings, in the shape of a seashell. Odd. 

She tried to put her photographic memory to some use and remember who else had elf ears and who didn't. Kylie? No. Cathy? Maybe? Boss? Sophie gasped. 

He did. 

Could Boss . . . goodness, she really needed a new name for him. Saying Boss was stressful . . . and weird. From now on, Sophie will call him Mr. S. Why? Because it was another one of the names Boss didn't want to be called.

Anyway, could Mr. S be a human?

Her conspiracy at first sounded genius and something that could turn out to be HUGE, but after telling Biana about it the next day, she face-palmed and explained how self-explanatory the answer should've been. 

"We're in Paris?" Sophie asked, bewildered after Biana had given up and told Sophie after her obliviousness kicked in. "Sophie . . . if there was an illness named, "Oblivious Elf,-itis" she'd have it. 

Sophie hadn't really thought about where this mysterious camp was, but Paris? It brought back many memories when she got kidnapped for the first time with . . .

Sophie trailed, sadness filling her heart. She tried to hold back the incoming tears, but she let a couple slowly roll down her right cheek. 

"Sophie, we'll find him, don't worry," Biana assured her, not needing to ask her why she was upset. She was sure her facial expression said it all 一 well, most of it.  Anything else would have to be self-explanatory; she couldn't bear having to explain it all again.

Marella had found out yesterday, after eavesdropping on Sophie and Callie. After she found out, so did Skylar and 一 Sophie really hated to admit it 一 Kylie. Not long after, most of the kids she met at the Introduction heard rumours about it, and Sophie heard multiple theories that were nowhere close to what actually happened: "Dex got kicked out for dying Cathy's hair purple!" or "That Rex kid used one of his gadgets and dug a tunnel underground to escape!" and one kid even said, "What's his name, again? Drax? Anyways, apparently, he was killed!"

"Uh, Sophie?" Biana was now waving her hand lightly in front of her face. "Are you okay? You kinda spaced out there . . . ." Biana paused, sneezing a couple of times before handing her an Oreo. "Here; try this! It'll take your mind off of the whole Dex thing." The mention of his name did make her wince, but she tried it anyway. 

She raised it to her mouth but stopped herself before she actually ate it. "Before I eat, can I ask what it is? Is it edible?"

Biana laughed. "It's called an Oreo. Kylie gave me a box of them as an acquainting present. It's human food, which is why neither of us have heard of it. And of course, it's edible! Go on: try it!"

Kylie's a human? Sophie thought, then shook her head, shoving the thought to a corner of her mind labelled, "Things to Worry About When I Have Nothing to Worry About." She knew Alden would hate it since there's no reason to worry. Pfft. As if. 

Without thinking about it, she shoved the cookie in her mouth.

It.

Was.

Delicious!

Sophie ate rather slowly, hoping to savour the enticing treat. The crunchy cookie. The creamy filling. Even the aftertaste was heavenly. But the real question: Was it better than Mallowmelt? No. Of course not. Nothing beats Mallowmelt. 

Right?

Just then, Sophie noticed Biana beaming at her. "I'm gonna assume you like it?" Biana laughed, 一 a real laugh, not a fake one, pretending that everything was okay, even though it wasn't. And Sophie laughed too. She realized that it was the first time she laughed. 一 truly laughed 一 in a very long time. 

There. 1100 words to make up for the late chapter. Sorry about that, I totally wasn't spending hours reading Keeper of The Lost Memories or listening to BTS. Totally . . .