OVERLOOKED ㅤkotlc

010. They Are Strangers

"Wait, what—?" I say, as Rosaleen says, "The Neverseen?"

"Um—yeah, Mr. Forkle wanted—" Sophie stops, looking at Rosaleen. There's a second of anticipation, then she pretends to be nonchalant; but we all know she slipped up. "Mr. Forkle's one of the leaders of the Black Swan—which is—against the Neverseen."

She looks back at me. "Mr. Forkle came up with this plan, and you have the best chance of making it work, there's a meeting with the Neverseen in two weeks already, and—"

"But what's the Neverseen?" Rosaleen says, before wincing. "Sorry. I know it's none of my business." Her voice is faint. Her voice is lonely, almost.

This Girl, I realize, reminds me of myself.

Sophie looks at Keefe, who has a distant, thoughtful look in his eye. He glances at Sophie, hesitates, then nods.

Sophie looks a little worried about telling Rosaleen so much, but she says, "The Neverseen... is this rebel group. Who hate humans. And—they cause a lot of problems. Like, the gnome plague and the flood in Atlantis."

Rosaleen goes silent for a moment. It's a very tense silence. And then she says, "Does the Neverseen also recruit random elves?"

Sophie seems surprised by the question. "Uh—sometimes, I think. They took a girl named Jolie before. She was sent a lot of notes, and..." She trails off, and in her voice is grief for the girl she never knew.

"Oh." Rosaleen's voice is small and neutral, but her eyes tell a different story.

Keefe seems to know something. I don't know what, and I'm not going to ask, but... it seems... serious.

Sophie clears her throat. "Anyway. Um, Dex—Mr. Forkle wants you to pretend to join them. You can make them weapons that don't work, so when they use them when it counts, it'll mess everything up."

There's a silence. "Sophie, I don't think that's going to work."

Sophie looks at me, tilting her head in curiosity, but I have my reasons.

"There's no way they'll believe I want to join," I say, "unless Mr. Forkle is really really good at excuses. And it's really dangerous."

And... I think that... if I go alone, it's pretty much a suicide mission.

But I don't say that. It'll scare both Sophie and Rosaleen, and blanket all of us in an awkward, hard-to-breath atmosphere.

"Mr. Forkle said that you can say you felt neglected and did some research, then realized all the terrible things humans have done or whatever."

I wince. There's a bitter element of truth to this cover story.

"And then when the weapons malfunction and he has to run, or if they figure him out?" Rosaleen's voice is a little shaky, but she doesn't look away. "Or what if they think he wouldn't betray all of you like that?"

Sophie bites her lip, but Keefe laughs. "Well, Rosie, the thing about us," he says, "is that we're all really, really, really..." He smirks. "Stupid."

Her eyebrows rise in a silent question, and Sophie and I bite back a rueful grin. Because, yes, we're pretty reckless sometimes, but he makes it sound... really reckless.

"We usually don't think of that stuff," he continues, "because things go wrong either way. But like, when it happens, it's like—we're doing something right, because we're all still here."

Rosaleen sighs. "That's dumb. If you're gonna risk your life, you might as well spend weeks planning things out until it's perfect. Then there'll be less of a chance of dying."