Sofia's Curse

The Pawn

"Hey, babe," Ian leans in to plant a kiss on Victoria's lips.

She doesn't move. Are you kidding me? she thinks. What am I going to do now?

"What's up?"

She jerks her head back to check if anyone is looking, then pushes Ian farther away and follows him out on the porch.

"I told you to come?"

He frowns, "Yeah."

She nods, "Thought so."

He has a wary look. "Are you okay?"

She clenches her teeth. "I don't know what she's trying to accomplish."

"Who?"

She shakes her head. "Forget it."

"You sure you're okay?" he reaches his hand out to caress her.

How is it possible that it doesn't bother her that her boyfriend is intimate with someone else? She knows Sophia must've found out about her little identity theft before. This is an obvious revenge, showing who is in charge. But how did she find out?

Suddenly, the door opens. Wade peeks out. His forehead creases seeing Ian. "Who's that?" he asks, "You okay, Vic?"

Ian straightens up. He doesn't like the tone the guy uses with his girlfriend. He's on high alert. "Who are you?"

Wade smirks. "I'm the owner of the house."

"Hmm," Ian nods. "I'm her boyfriend," he says possessively.

Wade chuckles, "No, you're not. Vic doesn't have a boyfriend."

"Vic? I'm talking about Sophie here," he gestures.

Victoria stares into the ground, wishing on it to open and swallow her.

"That here isn't Sophie," Wade says, amused, "That's Victoria Jenkins. My class mate."

Ian gives him a skeptical look. "What's this guy blabbering about, Soph?" he asks, his eyes never leaving Wade's.

She takes a deep sigh. "It's true."

He shoots her with a puzzled look, and she continues, "I'm not your girlfriend. I'm her...look alike."

Ian starts laughing, but seeing their serious faces, he goes silent. "What's going on? Why did you call me to come here?"

"I didn't," she lifts her shoulder, "Sophia must've done it. We wanted to meet up with her, but instead of coming, she sent you."

Ian looks displeased. He checks Victoria from head to toe and frowns. "It was you the other day, wasn't it?"

She swallows hard. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. The visit to my mom...it was you."

She says nothing. She kissed this boy. He kissed her, okay, but she returned the kiss. And now he knows she was only pretending to be his girlfriend. He must think she is nuts. Normally, she would've felt ashamed, but too much has happened, too much evil, for her to be able to be concerned with such a petite event.

She shrugs, indifferent. "Yes."

"I knew it," Ian mutters. "And there I was...this is ridiculous," he suddenly shouts. "Why am I here? Does Sophie know about this?"

He is angry. Victoria hesitantly nods.

"That's just great," he says sarcastically. "You know what...I'm sick of her games," he bursts and, turning on his heel, leaves towards his silver Range Rover.

"What was that all about?" Wade asks, his eyebrows furrowed.

Victoria shakes her head, still gazing into the ground, "Nothing," she says shyly, and then she leaves to enter the house.

#

Sophia is restless. She knows she has to tell Leeroy about the twins' location. She has to. And she will.

But still, she had to warn them somehow. She hopes the twins will realize Leeroy is coming. Ian coming had to be a wake-up call for them – she doesn't care about them. Anyhow, she did her best. If they still trust her, they have it coming. She can't cure stupidity.

And so she stands up from the edge of bed and heads for Leeroy's study.

Their house is a cold place, with no signs of a family living in here. No family pictures on the walls, no warm colors, no mess. Their house has a hotel's atmosphere.

She carefully knocks on the door two times. She waits for an answer.

"Enter, Sophia," she finally hears his invitation.

She grabs the knob and pulls the door out. It is rare for an indoor room to have a door that opens on the out. It gives the house an ever colder spirit.

"Hello, sir," she says. "I'm interrupting you because I have important news."

"Ah," he grins. "Is it about the twins?"

She nods affirmatively, "Their location. I have it."

He smirks as she walks towards his desk and reaches her hand out to give him a little piece of paper.

He inspects the paper. "Well, well," he finally says, "Looks like you were right. They haven't left the town."

"Sir, I need to warn you, though," she says, "They're with humans."

He slowly stands up. "It's called collateral damage, Sophia."

He thinks I feel sorry about him killing humans? She gazes to the floor, "That's not what I meant, sir. I was only worried about you blowing your cover of a businessman. It's a nice town to live in."

He presses his lips, but stays silent. Then he shakes his head, "Do you seriously think I'm that stupid?" and he walks to the door.

Sophie's lips part. This won't be good.

#

Vanessa shifts from Jake's lap to the sofa when she sees Victoria return. "Where is she?" she opens her arms in confusion.

Victoria lifts a shoulder. "She's not coming."

"What?" Vanessa stands up, "Who was at the door?"

"It was her boyfriend."

"Ian?" Vanessa asks skeptically and fixes her eyewear, "Well that's...weird. Where is he now?"

"He left."

Vanessa looks at Jake and frowns. "What the hell," she mouths and reaches for her iPhone. "She's going to hear from me," she shakes her head and starts to dial, but a door bell interrupts her.

"Oh!" she exclaims, "See... I told you she'd come," she heads for the foyer.

Victoria sighs, irritated. That must be Ian again, she thinks and collapses on the couch. Why can't he just leave? I can't deal with him now.

"Mr. O'Connor!" they hear Vanessa's voice.

Chris immediately jumps up. "O'Connor, that's Sophie's surname, right?" he grabs Jake's elbow.

"Yeah," he frowns.

"We got to go!" Chris orders Victoria and pulls her hand.

She's shivering. "No," she whispers, "We have to stay, Chris. He can't do anything in front of them!"

Chris clenches his teeth. "It was her," he hisses. "She sent him."

Victoria nods.

"We never should've trusted her!"

"Maybe she didn't have a choice," Victoria whispers.

"Well, well...We meet again," Leeroy shows his scary grin as he steps into the living room. "And I thought you'd left town." His eyes glow greedily and his skin seems bright. "Hadn't your mother told you it's a disgrace to ask for pity?"

Victoria's knees fail and Chris has to provide her a stand-fast.

Wade frowns angrily. "What are you doing here?" and Victoria feels grateful. He is uninvited here. He deserves to be put in place. Then she remembers, we're uninvited, too.

"Boy...You need to show some courtesy to the elderly."

Wade cockily lifts his eyebrow. "I wouldn't call you the elderly."

Leeroy lets an evil laughter out of his lungs. "You don't know a thing about me, boy." His eyes shift to Christopher. "You think I can't do anything because of the humans around you?"

His throat stiffens. I knew we had to run.

"You should've run when you had the chance," he says and Christopher freezes. Can he also read his mind as Victoria can? That's impossible, he thinks. Isn't it?

He glances at his sister and she shakes her head. She has that I-know-what-you're-thinking look on her face. He feels reassured. It must be a coincidence. He has no time to dwell on it, because Leeroy lifts both his arms and suddenly Vanessa, Wade, and Jake are in the air, screaming.

Leeroy smiles seeing the petrified looks on Victoria and Christopher's faces. Without moving his eyes from theirs, he clenches his fists, and with a silent c***k, just like that of a tree branch, all three of their friends fall to the ground, their throats snapped, falling dead. The murder is done, accompanied only by Leeroy's vicious smile.

Victoria screams.

Christopher has to grab her elbows to calm her down.

"See, Sophia, sweetheart?" he says gazing to the door and Sophia appears. "No cover blowing if there are no witnesses," he continues and moves his eyes back on the twins.

They see Sophia winces, but it doesn't feel genuine. She looks like she's chastising them with her eyes. Is she disappointed that we didn't run?

"Fair point well made, father," she says stiffly. "I see you've received my little present," she grins staring at Victoria. She knows she's referring to Ian. How does she know?

"Saying that your cheeks are red would be an understatement," she chuckles.

"Are you going to drag this on for a long time?" Leeroy interrupts, losing his patience already.

Sophia knows she has to buy time. She has to make this interesting for Leeroy. "Why shy now, Vicky?" she teases, "You weren't that shy kissing my boyfriend the other day."

Leeroy raises his eyebrows, astonished. "You don't say..."

Sophia nods affirmatively, shaking her head in a mocking disapproval. "I never would've taken you for an easy woman, Vicky."

Victoria flushes, but she's both embarrassed and angry. "Don't talk about morals with me! You killed my mother!"

Sophia blinks disinterestedly, and then looks at Leeroy, ignoring her presence. "Did you know that she pretended to be me with Ian?"

Leeroy widens his eyes. "Yes, I've realized that, Sophia, thank you."

"Me?" Victoria snaps, "How dare you pretend to be me in front of my mother?"

Sophia laughs. "You know," she looks at her nails, pretending to be bored, "She didn't even notice the difference. Does it hurt to know that?"

"Liar!" Victoria screams, "I don't believe you!"

Sophia frowns. "Ooh, so distrusting," she shakes her head, "When have I lied to you?"

"Of course she noticed," Victoria hisses, "I'm not nearly as bitchy."

"Well, thank you," she smirks.

Suddenly, a knew-found strength gathers inside of her. She wants to fight. "You know what... Ian noticed! He said he never had such a good kiss."

Sophie licks her lips, acting poignant, but squinting slightly gives her away. "Actually, come to think of it...Your mom did notice. She said I wasn't as slutty as usual."

In any other situation, Christopher would enjoy this fight. Now, however, he keeps on scanning the room for an easy exit. Suddenly, he sees something strange.

It looks like Sophia is pointing with her eyes at something to his left. He frowns only slightly, and subtly checks what it is there, while Leeroy is preoccupied with admonishing Sophia. "That's enough now, Sophia," he grabs her for the elbow. "I believe you've had your fair share of try-outs."

Sophia gazes at him, her chin lifted, and she nods once sharply. "You're right, father. Let's get down to business."

With a gentle swing of his hands, he unhooks two long grey curtains and wraps them around the twins' necks. They cry out desperately, screaming for help. They yell and shout, until they lose their breaths, and can't scream anymore. The last words of their mouths are only whispers, as they struggle for air, "Scarlett," they hiss, "Scarlett, please..."

And she is just standing there. Watching them die.

Sophia bolts upright as she is awakened from her nightmare. She seizes the glass of water off her bed table as her throat is dry. She checks her clock - it's only 5 in the afternoon. She should've gone already to Jake's house. She checks her phone. Three missed calls from Ian. And a message. I need some answers, it says. She rolls her eyes and checks the other texts. It's from Vanessa. She texted her the address. It's only a ten-minute drive from their place. Good thing she didn't tell Leeroy, the twins would never have the time to escape. Nor the opportunity. And she cannot afford saving them in front of her father once more.

She stands up and goes for the closet. She reaches her hand out to grab a black camisole, but then changes her mind. Let's have a little fun, she thinks.