She Will Be Remembered

Chapter 1

The gun went off and Sophie used her adrenaline to fuel her sprint. She didn't even realize that she had made it to the front of the pack because she was too caught up in a flashback.

~ ~ ~

"Moon Lily, you will pay for your actions!" said the voice of a mysterious man. Sophie turned around to find a black cloaked figure with the Neverseen eye embroidered on his sleeve. She immediately pulled out her throwing star in an attempt to scare off the cloaked man. The only problem was, Sophie was only 6 years old, barely knowing how to hit her target. And she wasn't too intimidating, with her big brown eyes and cute shoulder length blond hair.

Sophie summed up all the courage she could muster and said, "No, I think you will pay for yours!" She then threw her throwing star, and, surprisingly, it hit it's mark, imbedding itself in her opponent's shoulder.

The man hissed in pain and started walking toward Sophie. Sophie wanted to make a run for it, but she knew she had to finish her mission, or else the Black Swan could do worse than injure her. So, she stood tall, ready to take whatever was coming her way.

But she wasn't prepared for the man to take out a gun. When Sophie saw the gun, she started running and screaming like the small child she was. This was the first time in two years where she felt powerless. Her brain couldn't come up with any smart plan of how to get out of there alive, so she was too caught up in her thoughts to realize the bullet coming her way.

Before the bullet hit her, the flashback faded.

~ ~ ~

Sophie bit back a scream and focused on the trail in front of her. She had to focus on the race, not the flashbacks that haunted her every day and night. For this race could either make her or break her. If Sophie finished in the top 12, she would officially be a part of the Foxfire High School Girls Cross Country team. Cross country was the only thing, other than her Black Swan training, that truly made her happy. She had been bullied her whole life, so she loved things that made her feel empowered.

Other runners had started to crowd in front of Sophie, trying to block her from surging to the front of the pack. Sophie wouldn't let them, though. She couldn't get past the road-block without cutting the course so, if she wanted to make the team, there was only one thing she could do.

Sophie sprinted as fast as she could, and when she came upon the gaggle of girls she jumped as high as possible. She got a nice 6 feet of air, and flipped. All the girls looked up and gasped when they saw her flip.

She then clumsily landed on the ground, surprisingly without tripping or breaking her foot. Sophie knew that if she wanted to stay in the front of the pack she had to sprint ahead to where the next 3 runners were, so that's what she did. Her legs took control and suddenly she was ahead of the group of three, already approaching the next girl, without even breaking a sweat. Black Swan training definitely paid off.

Sophie raced ahead to the girl in front of her, determined to be in the top 12. Most of the girls at Foxfire High School were super fit, just like Sophie, so this was going to be a hard race. There were 29 girls trying out, and so far Sophie had beaten 11 of them.

She realized the race was going to be harder than she thought as she started to slow down and her legs started burning. But Sophie wasn't going to give up, she would never give up. So she sped up, even though she felt like death. She sped up until she threw-up on the side of the path, without even stopping to clean her mouth, afraid of how many seconds one motion would add.

     Sophie saw that she was about to approach the 2 mile mark and wondered when she passed the 1 mile mark. Her coach, Coach Alexine, told her that her 2 mile time was 14:12. Sophie thought that was a pretty good time, but still knew she had to beat a few more girls, so she kept increasing her pace little by little.

     She had passed 4 girls by the time she hit the 3 mile mark. She just had to beat 1 more girl, and that girl was Sophie's main tormenter, Biana Vacker.

     Biana was about 20 feet infront of Sophie, so Sophie channeled all the hate she had towards Biana and sprinted to her. She kept trying to beat Biana, but Biana would always cut her off. During their fight for who would be in front, they passed Marella, one of Sophie's few friends.

The last 200 meters of the race were left, and Sophie knew she had to start her sprint. She forgot about Biana as she gradually started to speed up until the last 100 meters, when she started to all out sprint. She got another flashback as she sprinted to the finish.

~ ~ ~

"Sophie! Why can't you just be normal like Amy!! I wish you were Amy," her mother's voice became more desperate as she continued her lecture, "You know we don't have enough money to support our whole family, much less enough money to pay for all the doctor bills you cause. Just stop getting into fights, and we won't send you off to a discipline school. If you get into one more fight we WILL send you off."

Sophie's voice was small as she said, "Y-y-yes m-ma-ma'am."

~ ~ ~

Another flashback flooded her senses as the last one ended.

~ ~ ~

Sophie stood over a bloody, beat-up 6-year-old, crying. She couldn't have just done that, could she? She didn't just kill him, right!?! He had to be alive. A four-year-old couldn't have done THAT much damage, RIGHT!?! She was too freaked out to realize that the kid was alive, and had ran into an alley to get away from her.

Sophie continued to sob, and her sobs started to become hysterical. She couldn't think, couldn't move, and couldn't breath. Wait—didn't she need to breath to live? Yeah, she did. Wait—and if she wasn't breathing she could die. She had to breath, but her lungs wouldn't suck in any air.

She ran into the nearest alley, clutching her throat and trying to get any amount of air into her lungs. She started coughing, and finally a glorious rush of air filled her lungs. Sophie slumped against the wall in relief. But then she realized something.

She was going to be sent to a disciplinary school because the kid she just beat-up was severely injured, or worse. She couldn't go to that school, and with a new rush of confidence, she came up with a plan. She wouldn't go to that school.

After her final statement she ran like her life depended on it, because her freedom did. She ran faster than she had ever ran before. Even thought she was 4, she could sprint faster than any 8 year old. She saw the trees and buildings rush past her. She kept running even as she left the city, she would only stop if necessary. She had no destination in mind, only the goal to run as far away from her home town as possible.

~ ~ ~

The flashback suddenly stopped and Sophie remembered that she was almost to the finish line. She was about 20 feet from it, and Biana had managed to get ahead of Sophie during her flashback. Sophie used the newfound energy from her memory to sprint faster than she thought possible. She heard the cheering of her adoptive parents, Grady and Edaline, as she caught up to Biana. She sprinted past Biana right as she crossed the finish line. The lady who recorded her time gave Sophie a popsicle stick that had what place she made written on it. She glanced at her popsicle stick, it had the number 11 on it.

She made the team!!!

꧁A/N꧂
Yay!! I finished the first chapter of my Keeper of the Lost Cities fanfic!!! I'm SO excited, it was actually kinda decent!! I forgot to say in the A/N before this, but I won't usually do A/N's unless necessary. And to anyone who's wondering, Keefe will come in soon-ish. Also feel free to ask questions if you don't understand how Cross Country works. Thank you so so so so so so so much for reading this!!! Love you guys ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

~Penguin out ❤️✌🏻