Project Ashren

Chapter 5- Keefe

Hey ya'll! I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!!!!!!! Things have been going on and school and dance and debate and football and everything just started and I've been trying to keep up BUT I'M SO SORRY!!!!!!! If you shall be ever so kind to forgive me... 

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"So, while you were in your coma," Sophie started skeptically. "You were telepathically- "

"Even though you're not a Telepath," Linh quietly interrupted.

"You were telepathically-even though you're not a Telepath that we know of- "Sophie continued nodding to Linh, "talking to a girl, Saph, and she isn't a Telepath either..."

"And you guys have been secretly communicating for weeks trying to figure out how you can talk to each other because you shouldn't be able to talk to each other, but you can even though neither of you are Telepaths and have practically nothing in common, and can read each other's thoughts without choice- because that's not intrusive at all-feel each other's emotions and share random memories, pictures, dreams, and all that stuff that totally and completely demolishes the word 'privacy,'" Tam said with a calculated tone of sarcasm and skepticism.

I flashed a mocking grin, "nice to see you're catching on, Tammy Boy."

Tam just rolled his eyes and leaned back against the back of a comfortable looking, velvet chair in one of the few living rooms in Everglen. Sophie had called Forkle over and he was pacing in a corner nervously, murmuring to himself. Tiergan had tried talking to him several times, but Forkle said he needed to think alone.

Sandor was standing in a dark corner, no doubt Sophie's other guards hidden nearby. Ro was glaring at Keefe like she could kill him with her silver glare. Her ash-colored hair was now died a bright orange and red, matching her scarlet-painted nails. She had already been here when Keefe leaped to Everglen for a reason Keefe didn't care to ask for.

In the other corner was someone Keefe didn't expect to see any time soon, or at all, really; Glimmer. She seemed to have abandoned her Neverseen cloak for a regular, long black cloak that concealed her eyes and the rest of her body except for her nose and mouth. He hadn't seen her until she spoke out asking if Saph had ever said anything about where she was located but she never had and Glimmer backed into her corner again, deep in thought.

Everything looked and felt so familiar-the house itself, the people, how we are all huddled in a room talking about our new questions and conundrums, Sophie's smile, Grady's I'm-trying-not-to-glare-at-you stare, Tam's attitude, Glimmer's ominousness, even Dex's rambling as soon as I started talking-but still, I could feel something... off. But I can't put my finger on it just yet.

"Keefe," Della stepped forward, "is there anything else you could've seen or heard when you were in the coma." Everyone gave her odd looks, but she just shrugged, "he was speaking with this girl which shouldn't be possible, so maybe he saw or heard other things. Was there anyone else you heard? Places you saw? Visions?"

Everyone's heads spun toward me and I tried not to shrink into the comfy couch. I traced my memory back to the first few days of blackness and nothingness, no one and nothing except miles of emptiness. My brain was blank, I wasn't thinking at all, I wasn't moving, I wasn't doing anything, I was just... there. In the blackness.

Alone.

And then a voice came in through the black, a person. A person and I finally started thinking again, it was just like someone flicked my on-button and I was awake again. She was just as confused as I was, but where Saph spent most of her time wondering how us talking was even possible, I was just glad there was someone to talk to.

I slowly sifted my way through the memories of the countless weeks where we just talked and shared memories and tried to figure this out. There was no hiding from Saph, though. We shared thoughts, emotions, I couldn't hide anything from her, and she couldn't hide anything from me no matter how hard we tried to. It was a shared space for both of us, a safe space.

There were times I wished I'd known her, and then there were times I really wished she hadn't. As much as I dislike it, I have a look, a reputation, that I set a long time ago, and I have to keep it whether I like it or not. But Saph knew when I was lying if I was okay or not, she could hear me thinking how I can't do this anymore and just want to get back to my friends, she knew when I was sad or angry or faking a laugh. I had to be open with her, I had no choice.

I willed myself to go back under the blanket of darkness littered with words-when we didn't talk. I could still hear Saph's thoughts, feel her emotions-intensified because I'm an Empath-but they were just voices in the background, if I listened close enough I could hear, but otherwise... they were just background noise. There was nothing then, just my thoughts, the occasional recreation of The Great Gulon Incident (which I had nothing to do with, by the way), and memories. But then, there was a flash, just before I woke up. It was a few seconds that somehow fit the world.

A quick flash of green and purple and I was watching from the back of the Foxfire auditorium as Magnate Leto stood one a podium at the front of the room, several mentors behind him talking quietly. For some weird reason, I couldn't hear anything in the room, but the immediate silence in the room was impossible not to detect as Leto rose his hand. There was silence afterwards even though Magnate Leto's lips were moving. After a few minutes a bright spotlight shone down from the glass ceiling.

Students parted in a small circle, in the center someone held their hand up to their face blocking their eyes from the bright, white light. I could see it was a girl in a ruby red Level 5 uniform, her hand still covering her eyes. My gaze was drawn back to Magnate Leto and his lips moved again. I squinted, trying to read his lips. Ashura? Elura? Alurec? Suddenly, a silver tip made its way into my peripheral vision.

My eyes slammed open and I heard a few quiet gasps from around the room. I slowly looked at each of them before standing, I took a deep breath and exhaled quietly.

I threw my arms up ecstatically, "WELCOME TO FOXFIRE, TAMMY!"

"Keefe..." I heard Fitz groan. Sophie opened and closed her mouth a couple times, Linh and Biana held back a grin, Edaline smiled sadly, Grady facepalmed, and Dex snorted which made Marella laugh from the back. Tam just glared, rolled his eyes, and pushed his bangs away from his eyes. I grinned until I saw Della's face where she was on the couch. She just bit her lip, her eyes... disappointed?

I sat back down next to Della and swallowed, "Does the name Ashura or Elura or something mean anything to you guys? It'd be maybe a family or something," there were a lot of confused faces and scrunched eyebrows. "Right before I woke up I saw this... vision or whatever. It was... probably the first day of Foxfire and I was in the auditorium. Leto was at his podium thing, teachers behind him, I was in the back of the room, couldn't hear anything though. Then there was this big spotlight and it shone down on this girl; she was covering her face though so I couldn't see who it was. The... vision whatever thingy... I don't know, homed in on the girl. She was in a red Level 5 uniform... I tried reading Leto's lips and the last name was something like Ashura or Elura. Something like that."

Forkle stopped pacing and finally emerged from his corner, "I'll look and ask around, but as of this moment, it is not ringing any bells," he looked to everyone in the room, "everyone be on the look out for an unfamiliar face, Level 5, female, last name relating with Ashura or Elura. I have to admit, I am... quite curious what this-what any of this-means."

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Yay! Chapter 5 complete! I hope you guys like it, even though I know few people read this lmao. Hopefully more will some day *sigh* BUT! In the mean time, I hope you guys all enjoy it! Feel free to tell me yo thoughts!