Her Imperfections

Chapter Twenty

Sophie's heart skipped a beat as she reached the door. Why was she so nervous? It wasn't like he was going to be mad at her, right?
"Ms. Foster?" Sandor prodded her shoulder.
Sophie pulled an eyelash and nodded, rapping her knuckles quickly on the door once. The knock echoed through the room behind the door and Sophie heard a muffled voice yell, "Come in!"
That was all Sandor needed to open the door and push Sophie inside before she could hesitate longer. Dex was sitting one of the Alluveterre hospital beds, various pieces of gadgets and little scribbled notes scattered around the room. His gaze was still focused on the wires he was twisting in his hands when Dex blushed and mumbled, "Sorry about the mess. I just couldn't sit still and Livvy said I was driving her crazy."
Sophie shrugged and took to one of the empty seats by his bed. Her gaze strayed reluctantly To his leg and...
It was fine.
Scarred for sure, one long one covering most of his calf that still looked chaffed and red, but everything was closed up now. Dex matched her stare and waved to the leg like it was a malfunctioning gadget, "Oh yeah, that's still in the recovery process. Livvy says I need to work on getting the muscles strengthened, but I'll be out of here soon."
When Sophie was still silent and thinking about his scar, Dex tried to give her a Keefe worthy smirk. "Now I finally have scars like the rest of you guys. Can I join the club?"
The anger and guilt hit her like a rock. This was.... her fault. All of her friend's scars were her fault.
"I didn't mean it like that." Dex's voice and eyes softened with the realization of his mistake.
"I know," Sophie paused, then brushed off her seat as she stood. "Hey I've got to go, I'll check in on you later."
"Sophie, it's not your fault." Dex called quietly after her.
Sophie was already at the door. "It is." She whispered before slipping out.
Sandor, as usual, had to bite back his questions as Sophie stormed the Alluveterre bridges as if she could run from the guilt and regret following her like a shadow. Her heavy steps eventually led her to a field around the back of the base, cozied up to the end of the cave. It was small, almost unseen with bushes surrounding it. Only her and Sandor knew of it.
Sandor had cleared it out for her and filled the field with training dummies when Keefe had joined the Neverseen. Needless to say a lot of dummies had be wrecked in those awful weeks. Now Sophie felt the tug of it again, just wanting to distract herself from it all.
Sandor laid a gentle handle on her shoulder, "I'll leave you. Just don't stay too long."
"Thank you." Sophie said, but he was already gone.
Grabbing from the bin of various of daggers and goblin stars, Sophie started to slice through the dummies. Stuffing covered the field like snow and Sophie panted, working through the exhaustion. But once her body fell into a rhythm did her mind force her to think.
In order to stop the guilt from hollowing her out, Sophie had to focus on a much more sensitive topic. Ever since returning to Alluveterre she had been able to block out the information she learned in the Neverseen base, but not anymore.
So she had another ability, why was she surprised? Mr. Forkle had always hinted at it. Sophie threw the dagger a little harder when she remembered he was gone. She couldn't even ask him. Most importantly, how did Fintan know? Sophie could have asked him but she doubted the answer would come without a price.
Until she had more answers, Sophie decided she would keep the ability a secret. The last thing she wanted was her friends playing "What is Sophie the Freak's new ability?"
Sophie dug into the bin again but her hand met bare plastic. Darn it, she was out. Although good timing. Any more daggers and the stuffing-covered field would be impossible to walk through.
From behind her someone crashed softly through the clearing. Sophie sighed and started to pick up the dummy stuffing, "I'll clean it up Sandor. Thanks for this by the way."
"I'm not Sandor."
Mr. Forkle.
Sophie spun around, stuffing dropping from her hands. Mr. Forkle was standing there, with his hands clasped over his stomach and he looked very.... normal. He didn't know she knew.
"We need to talk." Sophie blurted out.
He looked more nervous than she expected, did he suspect she found out? "Perhaps another time. I just got back and wanted to say hel-"
Sophie shook her head. He was not going to get out of this. "I know I have another ability. And Fintan knew too," Mr. Forkle didn't even looked surprised and Sophie curled her hands to a fist, "It was great by the way, finding out from the Neverseen before you deigned to tell me."
"I can explain, truly. Just not now." Mr. Forkle looked too kind for her to get mad and Sophie's anger mostly disappeared. She still beat him with her silence until Mr. Forkle spoke again.
"Do you trust me?" He asked.
Sophie nodded and her heart leaped. Finally, answers. But they fell the next moment like a shooting star.
"Then trust me Ms. Foster, this is one secret you do not wish to know. I highly doubt you will manifest it without help and with what I know, you won't want to."
They always did this.
The Black Sean never gave her trust, but they always asked it of her. A never ending loop of double standards. Sophie wasn't even surprised by now. It only made her more interested. If Mr. Forkle didn't think she should know, then she would find the answers on her own.
Sophie set her attention back to the stuffing and let her cold tone brush away Mr. Forkle's all too nice one, "Fine, I trust you."
He paused a moment, whether to answer her question or ask her further about her loyalty, but Sandor suddenly pushed Mr. Forkle aside.
"Dinner's ready, are you coming?" Sandor asked and Sophie sent him a silent prayer, always there when she needed him.
Sophie couldn't help feeling proud as she passed Mr. Forkle with a stone face. If they didn't want to trust her then she didn't have to ask them anything anymore. She would get her own answers.
Sophie was going to ask Fintan.