CH 15: Line of Sight

**Line of Sight**, remembered by Ana Sophía as **Tears of Blood**, is the fifteenth & final chapter to ***Darlin'***. Line of Sight is also the third & closing chapter of *Phase IV*, serving as a direct continuation from **Little** **Dark Age** that seals the fate of Ana Sophía's future as she resists Miggy's mental warfare & Matilda's defensive pressures at the Allianz Parque in order to qualify for the **2020 KOVO Champions Cup**, a tournament that will grant her a stable career in soccer. The chapter's title is inspired by ODESZA's 2017 song release, **Line of Sight**.

## Summary

### **Continuous fouls**

Ana Sophía initiates the second half of the match with a higher stim of motivation. Despite the increased participation for ball possession and recovering form, she is fouled by Miggy that forces a face-first collision to the ground. Miggy proceeds to stomp on her ankle, with Video Assistant Referee (VAR) failing to hand over a punishment as Ana Sophía accuses the referee of a cover-up. Seconds after the match resumes, Miggy fouls Ana Sophía once more, causing injury to the back exterior part of her head. She makes a quick recovery, unaware the shock from the injury has developed a concussion (mTBI). In the process, Miggy stomps on her hand, breaking her left hand index & middle fingers.

### **Preventing Success**

Ana Sophía confronts Miggy amidst the ball of play in action. Miggy declines to respond at first but accepts to explain. He cites the purpose of preventing Ana Sophía from qualifying as not the reason, instead explaining that she has grown beyond the limit of what Miggy had for her. He admits he always knew Ana Sophía was destined to succeed in the United States but crossed the line in her expected growth, confessing he is willing to step in and prevent any of his friends from growing stronger if they succeeded in an area they weren't suppose to.

Ana Sophía refers to Miggy's poor mentality as monstrous and psychotic. She responds with action by outpacing Miggy when she receives the ball and gets past Matilda to score Palmeiras' first goal of the match to put the score at 2-1 with fifteen minutes left on the scoreboard.

### **Promised scars**

In the dying minutes of the game, Ana Sophía's teammate recovers a ball and receives the ball through a long ball. Both Miggy & Enzo run on either side of her shoulders, citing Enzo as the stronger player who can outrun her. She notices him backtrack and place himself in position behind her, with Miggy telling him to foul her. Miggy foul her instead, injuring her achilles tendon. It is unknown why Enzo failed to follow through on Miggy's command of injuring her.

Amidst the crash to the ground, Ana Sophía's throat is injured from the impact of Miggy's cleat, unknowingly causing damage to her **larynx**, also known as the vocal cords, located in the throat. She describes grabbing hold of her throat from the impact. It would be a permanent injury that would take months of recovery and a permanent change of Ana Sophía's voice that makes it sound raspy when speaking. After being treated on the ground for several minutes, she forces herself up but uncontrollably lets out tears, to which Matilda points out are tears of blood. Miggy jokes about it, creating the only moment of mutual fondness between the couple during the entirety of the match. Matilda scores the third goal for Porto Alanza in the 88' minute, confirming Ana Sophía's elimination and end to her dream.

### **Sealed fate**

The referee ends the match in the 92' minute of the match, with Ana Sophía dropping to the ground in tears. Enzo is the first to approach Ana Sophía, warning her to watch who she befriends. He confirms Liam was never Miggy's friend, being tricked into believing he was a person of trust and pointing to Matilda as Liam's next victim. Miggy later approaches her, trading jerseys. He informs her that he will come back to move to São Paulo, citing Carol as his main motivation. Ana Sophía makes him promise he will become a person to those who are innocent, including all his future friends of Brazil. Miggy subsequently agrees. Ana Sophía kisses Miggy and reveals the end to their relationship after 3 years.

After Miggy exits, Ana Sophía reveals her sister, Marcella. She runs on the field in her direction and expresses her fear for how she witnessed her older sister's abuse during the match. Ana Sophía assures she feels safer having her sister by her side, standing up to head off the field. As they do, Marcella looks at Miggy's jersey that Ana Sophía received from him and questions to clarify if Miggy won the game. Ana Sophía takes the closing moment of her book to clarify to her younger sister that Miggy won, but in fact, also lost for losing the person he loved most. She teases the fact Miggy would go on to regret the decision of pursuing someone he never knew and that Ana Sophía herself would remain the girl Miggy most loved. Ana Sophia's closing line in the book claims herself as the victorious character in the story, citing her successful return home and reunification with her younger sister.

## Rating

### **Review**

**Line of Sight** received a median rating of **9.2/10**, ranking as the 4th best chapter in ***Darlin'***. The ending's open fate scenario was criticized, with a strong opinion that ***Darlin'*** deserved a proper closing to learn the fate of the main characters involved. Despite criticism, the chapter excelled in detailing the events in strong detail, never excessively detailing and leaving out descriptions that were not true in the moment, with the main highlight being Ana Sophía not explaining her in-game bone fractures from not being aware and instead hinting at her injuries from symptoms and her own descriptions of how she felt her body responded.