Summary: After he lost everything Charles moved to a small town in the countryside. The townspeople are all very friendly and the scenery is lovely but soon Death comes for a visit and he seems to have his eyes on Charles. Dark!HumanAU
Pairings: Erik/Charles
Warnings: Character death, Stalking, Death/rape threats, Blood, Kidnapping, Dub-con
Disclaimer: Marvel's characters.
Other chapters will be longer than this; this is just the prologue to see if you all are interested.
Prologue
Charles let the flowers slip from his loose grip and fall to land with a soft bounce on the freshly packed earth beneath him. He took in a deep breath to try to steady the emotions swirling around in his head, he tried to not show any of the emotions even though at the corners of his eyes collected tears.
The tears were ready to be shed for the loss of Sharon, his mother. He stood before her grave, reading over the words carved into the white headstone guarded by an angel.
Sharon Xavier
(1924-1966)
Devoted wife and beloved Mother
He had been the one to pick out what the headstone read but that didn't mean he felt that way about her. Sharon hadn't been much of a mother to him, not since the day his father had died. After that day she shut him off and grew cold toward him. She began drinking to forget how much he looked like his father and it only got worse as he grew up. It got to the point where she was no longer able to be sober in his presence.
That was about the time she suddenly brought home her new husband, Kurt Marko. Kurt was a man she had known less than a month but married anyway. Charles had thought that meant Kurt would make her happy enough to get her to stop attempting to drink herself to death but he'd been wrong.
Kurt only used his mother for his father's money; he verbally abused her and told her just to off herself for all the use she was to the world. Charles had tried to stop him from yelling at her once but Kurt's son, Cain, quickly put him in his place. He was beaten into submission and forced to just 'stay out of it' while Kurt actually encouraged his mother's drinking problem.
Charles would try his best to comfort Sharon which only proved to backfire since he was practically a clone of her former husband by this time. When nothing he did seemed to get through to her Charles put all of his focus into his school work. He had big dreams of getting out of this house and leaving all these horrors behind and he did.
He was in the middle of his first year away at university when his mother passed away. He had been forced to leave school because the day his mother died Kurt and Cain took his father's entire fortune and left. They left Charles practically penniless except for the trust fund his father had opened for him the day he was born. There was hundreds of thousands of dollars locked away, waiting for him but he couldn't access any of it until his was twenty-one.
He was only nineteen and now had nowhere to go. He couldn't even go back to his childhood home. Kurt was selling the large estate to get the profits for himself and since he owned it now in accordance with Sharon's will Charles could do nothing about it.
Charles was more than sure that Kurt had his mother's will rewritten to favor himself and Cain, making sure they got everything while Charles didn't get a dime. He must have had her sign it when she was out of her right mind from the alcohol while Charles was away at school and unable to watch over her or help take care of family affairs.
He stared at the grave, taking in the expensive white angelic headstone and the large oak tree it rested beneath a moment longer before turning away. At least Kurt had had the decency to pay for the funeral even if he hadn't attended it himself.
As he walked away Charles reminded himself that even though Kurt had pushed her into drinking more it was ultimately his mother's choice to take this early death. She had spent most of his life trying to forget his existence and therefore she didn't really deserve the tears that now left glistening trails of salt down his cheeks.
Lights slowly began to flicker to life in various areas around the cemetery. They were to guide those who were still 'visiting' toward the exits after the sun went down but they also seemed to give this place an almost serene look, as if the dead really were allowed to rest in peace here.
Charles looked around and couldn't help but scoff at the strangely twisted beauty that was the white headstones glowing in the dim golden lights. He stopped walking a moment and shoved his hands in his pockets as he looked back at his mother's grave.
This hadn't been what she wanted when she died. She had once told him that she wished to be cremated and scattered along the edge of the forest on their family's estate just as his father had been. Charles couldn't give her that though, he was not the one that made all the arrangements. He recalled Kurt saying over the phone that it was his money and his wife and he'd get rid of her the way he wanted.
"A beautiful night to be out, isn't it?"
Charles jumped; he had been so lost in thought that the question caught him completely off guard. Slowly, he turned around to see a man standing not too far from him. He was tall, well groomed and very handsome, with dark hair and the most alluring blue-green eyes Charles had ever seen.
As they locked gazes though Charles could have sworn he saw a flash of something dark behind those eyes. A shiver crept up his spine and he took an unconscious step back. "Yes, it's a very lovely night tonight." He offered a faint smile that faded when the man began walking closer to him.
He didn't know why but something akin to fear began to twist in his gut, making him want to turn and run. He would later just say that it was the fact it was very dark out and that they were in a cemetery. A cemetery was not the type of place that normal people held conversations at unless they were talking of the loved ones they had just lost.
When the man was within arm's reach Charles' need to run was at its strongest but instead of giving into the feeling he stood his ground. He couldn't help the feeling that the man was about to grab him as he drew nearer but in fact he just kept walking, only stopping briefly to whisper a "have a nice night" before being on his way.
Charles turned around and watched as the man left the cemetery and disappeared into the night. Once the man was completely out of sight Charles let out a long sigh he hadn't realized his been holding in. He stood there for a few more minutes trying to understand why that man, who had asked a friendly question and had showed no negative intentions, had caused him to feel fear for the first time since he left home.
With a shake of his head he let the incident slip from his already troubled mind and headed out toward the cemetery's main gate.
As he headed toward his car he fished around in his pockets to find his keys. Kurt had been kind enough to let him have all of his stuff and his father's old car to put it in but nothing more.
Lucky for him Kurt hadn't been there when he had been gathering his things so he was able to empty the safe his mother had kept emergency funds in. It was only a few hundred dollars but that would get him a place to stay and food until he could get a proper job.
First thing's first though, he had to get the hell out of New York. There were too many memories and ghosts for him here and the farther away he was the better.
When Charles finally pulled his keys out of his pocket he ended up dropping them on the asphalt. With a quiet curse he bent down to pick them up and instantly felt eyes on him. A shiver crept up his spine and he stood up, looking around. No one was there. He quickly unlocked the car and got in.
As he pulled out of his parking spot the man from the cemetery stepped out of the shadows and watched him as he drove away…
