Almost Gone- A Keeper of the Lost Cities Fanfiction

Chapter 3

The banshee screams awoke her. Bright lights flashed all over, dizzying her vision. She opened her eyes slightly, only seeing lights and orbs around her, but she could hear everything. The wails of the banshee were like ear-splitting shrieks, and on top of that almost everyone else in the room was screaming at this point. 

She lay atop on a bed in a familiar place in Elwin's office. Her torn tunic and leggings made her feel bare, like she was naked. She squirmed in uneasiness, but pain flared up in her body. Everything stung like crazy, especially her neck, and stomach, and back.

 "Whaa-" she groggily said, sleep laced into her voice, but got interrupted.

"She's awake!" Keefe yelled to no one in particular, immediately taking her hand and sending out breezes into her mind and body. Loud chattering erupted the room, and she turned her head over.

"No!" Sophie complained as loud as her voice could get, but with being out for a long time made it sound like a squeak. She didn't want to feel calm, she wanted to know where Edaline was and if she was going to recover from her injuries, she wanted to know if her friends were hurt, or if they had captured Fintan, but apparently to the people in the room, she was their priority. 

She forced herself to turn her head up, and only to see Keefe near the side of her bead, with deep distress in his eyes, but it quickly went away when he noticed her concerned gaze on him. 

He gave her a sad smile not quite meeting her eyes, "Always dying, aren't you Foster," it was supposed to be a sarcastic, but she could tell that he wasn't joking this time. Keefe wasn't quite making her eyes, and his gaze kept darting to her neck.

 It dawned on to Sophie that her neck felt achy and it stung like crazy, taking a deep breath and lifted her hand to touch her neck. Her neck was bumpy, and it felt like the skin was torn and twisted into unnatural ways. Please don't be permanent, she wished, knowing that people would look at her with pity.  

Elwin, hunched over his desk mixing elixirs, ran over to her, shoving people to the walls, and with his big glasses he brought a silver vial and firmly pressed on to her lips. 

"Sedative?" she said with discomfort after drinking the silvery liquid.  Her voice was quiet, and the more she spoke, the more the pain burned her. The pain in her body eased up to a pulsing throb, and she realized it wasn't what she'd feared. 

But Elwin, couldn't hear her, nor could Keefe, and Elwin who rarely yelled, set his jaw firmly and turned to the crowd. "Everyone OUT! NOW!" She craned her neck to see the people in the room, silent, probably surprised from the ferocity in Elwin's voice, but most of them shuffled out awkwardly.  

As they all walked out, sheepishly, a few people had hesitated, including Alden and Grady. Keefe didn't even bother to look at Elwin still holding her hand, sending out breezes into her mind to keep her mind calm. 

 Meanwhile, Elwin gave them a hard look, daring them to do anything but they just stayed where they were. But she couldn't stop her heart plummet as she saw Grady. He looked tired, and his eyes looked as he had spent a long time crying.  She was too afraid to look at Grady directly in his eyes gaze, but she forced herself knowing that Edaline would want her to do so. And she did.  He looked relieved, like a huge weight had been carrying down had been lifted from his shoulders, or maybe a huge weight had lifted off her shoulder, but he still had shadows under his eyes, and it didn't make her feel better when he his eyes were still red. 

She asked, her voice wobbling, fearing the answer, "Edaline?" She didn't exactly who to tell it to, but she tried to direct it to Grady. 

Grady flinched, but his voice cracked when choked out, "Recovering." He nodded to the other bed on the other side of the room. 

She turned to see Edaline, to see her bright turquoise eyes, but they were closed. Edaline's face looked grey and lifeless, their were bandages on her shoulder all the way down to her arms. Sophie winced when she saw the scars, just peeking out of her mother's arm. There was a lump in her throat, and she didn't know how to respond back to Grady, or to even look at him. 

"She's going to be okay," Keefe assured her quietly so that no one except Sophie heard. She head pounded on the back of her skull, but she felt the pulse of breezes flowing through her like petals soaring in the air. 

"You on the other hand, will not be if you don't go back to sleep. Your burns are just going to get worse if we don't treat them right," Elwin paused as if the next news would make Sophie hesitant to comply, "You're going to need a sedative."

"No sedatives!" Sophie rasped out. Keefe held on Sophie's hand tighter, sending out easiness in to her body. 

Alden who had been quiet this entire time, sighed and said directly to Sophie's face, "There's no other way." Grady nodded in agreement with Alden. 

Sophie was appalled, how could both of them agree with the treatment. They of all people should have known her deep hatred towards sedatives considering she'd been drugged countless times. 

However, they weren't  being hard with her, they were being reasonable. If the pain of the process to heal was worse than Fintan's burns, wouldn't she want to take a sedative, instead of Keefe and Grady pinning her shoulder to the bed. She looked at Edaline, and she realized, she was probably sedated to.

After a minute, lost in long thought she finally sighed. "Okay, I'll do it. But only this time."

Grady forgot how to breathe by the last word, and hacked a cough out. Alden thumped him in the back and his eyes looked weary when he said, "There's no reason to worry," he paused, "And when you get back, your friends will be here too."

Alarm bells rang in Sophie's mind. She had forgot all about her friends. "Are they-"

"Relax Foster, " Keefe said interrupting her sending out cooling breezes. "No one got hurt except, well you and Edaline." He hung his head down in guilt.

Sophie wanted to comfort him so badly, but she remembered the promise he made her swore that she'd never feel pity for him. Abiding those rules, she saw Elwin bring a long needle out of his sleeve.

Sophie's face drained of color from the sight. She clung to Keefe's hand, and he squeezed back in assurance, despite looking in fear of the needle. 

She tensed when Elwin brought it to her bare shoulder, and she felt the needle go in. It hurt like crazy, and Sophie even let out a squeak.

"Sorry," Elwin added, when Sophie let out a yelp. "It's going to be okay from now on."

She felt her mind go hazy from all of her racing thoughts, and her eyes fluttered awake, defying the sedative. She looked at Grady, and he was covering his hand with his red face, and turned around from all of them. Alden leading him out of the room, with a last reassuring smile to Sophie, turned around and closed the door.

Sophie, felt a panic through her veins. Couldn't one of them stay? 

"I'll be right here," Keefe guaranteed, with a determined look on his face. "Team Foster-Keefe forever."

Sophie smiled, or whatever a smile she could muster with a sedative working fast throughout her body. And with a last thought, she let herself fall into the darkness, and finally sleep the sleep she had longed for.