Keeper of the Lost Cities: Unlocked: A Fan-fiction

Chapter Twenty-Three - Sophie

"You thought you could run?" Vespera whispered, stalking around Sophie's room with an air of cruel vengeance. "You thought you could hide? Well I've got news for you, puppet." She stopped in front of Sophie and leaned over her, hissing, "You'll never hide."

Sophie woke, shivering in her blankets, but grateful it had only been a dream. Still, she asked Sandor to check the perimeters of the yard (and everywhere else) for signs of intruders. There were none. Edaline and Grady came up and comforted her, which she was also grateful for. But still, the memory of Vespera's pale face hissing at her was enough to scare any more sleep away for the night.

Breakfast that morning was good, and uninterrupted by imparter calls. Afterwards, she made a call herself to check in with Keefe. He assured her he was alright and that Forkle was still trying to figure stuff out, but had no other news. There was something off in his tone, but Sophie couldn't place it, and before she could ask him about it, he said goodbye and ended the call.

At noon, when nothing else had happened yet, she decided to go to Dex's house. It had been a really long while since they had just hung out for fun, and since neither of them were currently in mortal danger, now would probably be the best time. Despite the fact that Keefe had just manifested a new ability.

When she leapt to Dex's house and approached his bedroom door, she heard voices inside. More than one. Was it... were the Neverseen trying to attack Dex?

Sophie burst into the room, fury already clouding her vision, ready to inflict on anyone hurting her best friend. But when the door slammed open, revealing who was inside, she saw only friends.

Dex was sitting in a chair in front of his desk, working on something (that only looked like a bunch of wires to Sophie) with a small tool. Biana was sitting on the desk, pointing at something on the small gadget and giggling. At least, that's what it looked like they had been doing until Sophie burst into the room like a maniac.

Sophie's cheeks flushed as she realized that it had only been her friends talking. But then she realized...

"Biana, why are you here?" she asked, surprised.

Biana's cheeks now flushed pink. "I, um, I just..."

"That gadget I'm working on for her, remember?" Dex asked, laughing a laugh that sounded slightly forced to Sophie's ears. "The makeup one?"

Sophie narrowed her eyes. "Uh-huh, I remember," she said. Why were they acting so weird?

"Yeah, I needed to tell him what to make it like," Biana said, giggling.

"Yeah," Dex agreed. But his ears were red. "Anyways," he said, leaning back in his chair, "why are you here?"

"I just wanted to hang out. It's been a while. But, maybe now is a bad time?"

"No!" both Dex and Biana said at the same time.

"It's fine," Dex said. "The gadget can wait."

"Okay," Sophie said, still slightly suspicious. She shook it off. "Also, sorry for bursting in on you like that," she said. "I thought... well, when I heard voices, I thought it was the Neverseen. Sorry."

"It's fine!" Biana this time.

"Wow," Dex said with a pitying look, "it's really sad that your life warrants danger enough to bust into a door unannounced just because you heard voices."

"Yeah," Sophie muttered, "it's really fun being me. Again, sorry."

"No worries."

There was a short silence. Sophie broke it, saying, "So, do you guys want to play some board games or something... two truths and a lie? Base quest?"

Dex and Biana looked confused.

"Board games?" Biana asked, wrinkling her nose.

"What's two truths and a lie?" Dex wondered. Right, they didn't know human games.

"Oh, just some human games. Sorry, I forgot for a moment there," she said.

Dex looked interested. "Human games? Cool! I want to play!"

"Uh, I mean-"

"Me too!" Biana said brightly. "Sounds fun! I've never played human games before!"

"They're not that fun, guys, like... see, there's Chess, which is really hard and fu... and there's Apples to Apples, which is... there's also Settlers of Catan, which is really complicated but super fu... okay, they are fun. But you guys don't know how to play, and besides, we don't have the game."

"Um, you could teach us how to play," Biana said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head amusedly. "Heaven knows we've done harder things because of you." Her tone was teasing, but it still hurt. Because it was true.

"And we're all regents, Sophie. We can go to the Forbidden cities right now and pick them up," Dex said, sounding more and more excited.

They were right.

"I don't think so!" Sandor squeaked angrily. "You are not to abuse that privilege! It is one not many have. You should not be using it on simple things like buying games!"

There was a pause of uncertainty as everyone thought about it. Unfortunately, Sandor was right. While they had permission to go to the Forbidden Cities, it was sonly to be used when needed. Sophie didn't want to abuse the privilege, as Sandor had said.

"Actually, I think my mom might already have some games," Dex said, lighting up. "You know how she loves human movies? I'm guessing she has some games too!"

"Nice, Dex!" Biana said, smiling at him. He blushed.

"Should we go?" Sophie asked after they had stared at each other for a full ten seconds.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," they both said, flushing.

"Should we invite everyone else?" Biana asked.

Uh... "Um, it might be fun to just keep it small," Sophie said. She didn't really have the strength to deal with people and drama right then.

"Okay," Biana said. Then her brow furrowed. "You don't even want to invite Fitz? He is your boyfriend, after all."

Sophie froze. "What?"

"I said, you don't even want to invite Fitz? He's your boyfriend."

Her boyfriend? Fitz had never told them that they had... of course, it wasn't his responsibility alone. But she had somehow expected him to tell everyone what had happened. Either way, she didn't have the strength to tell them right then what had happened. Besides, it would make things so weird between her and Biana.

"No, it's okay. Um, there are some games that require less people. I think it might be good to keep it small."

Biana looked confused, but she shrugged and nodded.

"Alright," Dex said, grinned.

Sophie smiled. "Let's go play some games."

Word count: 1179

Hello! I'm sorry I haven't updated for like three days! I was prepping for a debate the first, then our internet was HORRIBLE, like, I didn't even have enough to do hardly anything, and then yesterday I had to clean my room and I went to my friend's house. So I've been really busy. But here you go! It's short, but it's here! It's a filler chapter, but it's here! Lol.

Anyways, yeah. Hope you all enjoyed!

- Total_KOTLC_Fan