And All These Bad Dreams

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men or any of the characters, Marvel does.

A thick, hairy hand clamped over his mouth, taking him by surprise as he sat in the alleyway eating the scraps he'd managed to pull together for dinner. He tried to scream as he was dragged away to an old, broken-down apartment building, but the man just punched the eight year old in his ribs, causing him to gasp for breath. As he inhaled he could smell the old cigarettes on the man's hands, and the stench of someone who hadn't washed in several weeks. Remy was terrified…even if he got away from this man he had nowhere to run to.

The man took him up several flights of stairs to apartment 4E. He opened the door and threw him inside, double- locking Remy's only escape behind him. The shades were drawn and empty beer cans littered the floor. There was urine and blood stained into the carpet and it smelled terrible. The little boy's eyes grew wider and wider as he looked around, and he quickly began to scream as the man began unbuckling his pants. As he yelled, the man took off his belt and started beating the little boy with it. "No one will hear you or even care, so you might as well stop shouting!"

But Remy didn't stop. "No suh! Please! I don't got not'ing to give! Let Remy go! Please! Please…"

Remy jerked up in bed, sweating coldly. The dream had returned to haunt him again. No matter how many times he tried to forget, he just couldn't. He couldn't forget how he'd been abused because that man knew that no one cared. How he'd been left to die in the gutter, beaten and bloody and broken. Even dogs had stepped over him as uneven breaths racked his little body. He didn't even remember how he'd been saved from death…sometimes he thought that he'd been denied death so that he might be tortured by having to live with the memories.

He sat hunched, head in his hands. All of a sudden he began twitching, shaking his head back and forth, slowly at first and then violently, trying to remove the images from his brain. But they wouldn't leave. He rolled over, facedown into the pillows and let out an inhuman noise; a heart-wrenching yowl that was muffled by the bed. "Dere's only one t'ing dat can make Remy forget…" With tortured eyes gleaming red, he reached over for his knife resting on the end table.