Chapter 1: Running away.
- Rogue… hey Rogue! Wake up, we're here.
She opened her eyes lazily and for a second, wondered where she was; but right away she remembered it all at once, like a punch on her stomach, and closed her eyes again for an instant.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"About… 10 pm, but that doesn't matter, just… get off and… and leave, all right?" he told her, while taking her bag from the back seat and placing it on her lap.
"Yeah… thanks for helpin' me run 'way, an' stuff…"
"Yeah, look, there's a gas station we just passed by. Go there and wait 'til morning; and then… I don't know, just take care…" Rogue thought she had never seen him so tense, but couldn't blame him for that; it was probably the first time he was doing something at Mystique's back, and precisely something she wouldn't be too pleased with.
"I will; take care, yourself, eh?" she said trying to smile genuinely, but not quite achieving it. When would she see him again? Maybe never; they had become good pals during all that time.
"Ok, Ok, good bye". He wasn't looking at her eyes, and didn't want to; just wanted to get over with it as soon as possible and, for the millionth time, to begin the very hard task of trying not to think about her. With a last look at him she got off the ride, and her hand was still pushing the door close when the car accelerated to leave; she watched it 'til darkness swallowed it, took a deep breath and started to walk towards the opposite direction. It was a pretty cold and windy night, but she almost wasn't scared anymore.
"This is better than stayin' in that place; everythin' would be better" she thought, and smiled a bit, this time for real. No matter how hard her situation seemed (alone, almost penniless, with no place to go, in the middle of the night), she was right: now she was on her own. After walking for a couple of minutes, the gas station appeared; at that same moment a truck was arriving. The driver got off and joined another two truckers that held beer cans and cigarettes in their hands. They all looked pretty much the same way: bearded, mullet haired, wearing old checkered shirts. The men looked obnoxiously at the girl that passed by their side, but she paid no attention to it. Any other gal would have been pretty grossed out by it, no wonder why, but she didn't; she didn't have to be afraid of those kinds of things…
Rogue walked through the door of a small restaurant; there was a 24 hours store next to it, but she suddenly realized she was hungry and decided to have something to eat. It was much warmer inside; she walked towards the bottom of the room, among a few tables, under the suspicious look of an old man that sat on a corner; besides him, there were only three or four other customers, and they didn't seem to notice her. The illumination was quite lugubrious, and a "good ol' southern song" could be heard; it was a place like stuck on the early eighties. She finally sat on a very cosy seat, and made a mental list of the provisions inside her bag: thirty bucks, a t-shirt, a sweater, a teeth brush, a hair comb, a book (Crime and punishment) and that was it.
"Good 'nough to begin a new life? We'll see… hell, what am Ah thinkin'? Ah don' even know where to start; Ah can… find a way to get to the closest town, maybe askin' a trucker to take me there, an' then… Ah can take a bus to New York. Once Ah'm there Ah gotta get a job, find somewhere to live…" Everything had been so fast (the chance and the decision to run away) that she hadn't had time to think about those important details. That very same day, in the morning, she wouldn't have thought she'd be doing something like this, but the opportunity showed up and she wouldn't miss it for a thing.
"Hamburger, sandwich, fried chicken, or salad?" she hadn't seen the waitress standing besides her table; she was wearing a stereotypical pink uniform and looked very tired.
"Am… sandwich please, an' a mokacchino" that was the only way she used to take her coffee.
"We only have black coffee". Rogue felt tempted to ask for hot chocolate, but decided she should try to save money as much as possible.
"A glass of water, then". The waitress left, saying nothing.
Then, Rogue realized she had been in a similar situation a few years ago, when she was 16 and had to run away from home because of her "gift". "Always running 'way… can't Ah find a place where Ah can stick 'round for a longer while?" That time, she was much more scared and felt terribly lost, and that's what Mystique took advantage of to make Rogue part of her team and later on, to manipulate her.
The sandwich arrived, and she ate it eagerly; two clients left, one arrived, the old man on the corner started to talk to himself, and rain began to pour. When she finished her food, Rogue rested her head against the wall behind her seat and closed her eyes. There was another song now, but like coming from very far away; it went something like:
"It's not what you thought
when you first began it,
you got what you want,
now you can hardly stand it though,
by now you know
it's not going to stop…
it's not going to stop…
it's not going to stop,
'til you wise up…
you're sure there's a cure
and you have finally found it…"
…Suddenly she felt a bit scared again ("What if they find me?") Rain kept falling, and she wished she could open her eyes and be in a different place, in a different time, and definitely living a different life…