Charles stared at me. I wondered if he even knew who Sebastian Shaw was. "Go on." He said at last.
"Shaw..." I trailed off. "Shaw loved to... bend other mutants to his will. I remember a man named Eric, and he told me Shaw had killed his parents. After that, I knew I had to escape. One day, I was let outside for a few minutes. That was enough for me to run away. I just kept on running. When I heard you behind me, I thought you were Shaw. Then after I fell, I realized that you were someone different." I explained.
Charles didn't say anything for a while. "So you ran all that way."
I instantly regretted what I had said. "Well, it wasn't that far."
"Over a hundred miles, approximately." Charles said. He waited.
"I-" I didn't know what to say. I didn't trust him completely, not just yet. I had lived as a slave for all my life, I wasn't ready to believe that not everyone wanted to control you. But somehow I knew that I should trust him. So I said, "My power is running. I can run very fast if I want to, but if I just run normally, I can keep running for days. I almost never get tired, but after a very long time, I have to stop." The words flowed out of my mouth unbidden, but I didn't really mind. It all depended on how he reacted.
"So that's how you ran so far." Charles said. "That really is incredible."
I smiled. Maybe here, I could be accepted.
"Tomorrow we're going to find more mutants." Charles announced. "I've decided to start a sort of school for mutant kids."
"Including me?" I asked.
"Of course including you!" Charles exclaimed. "You're the reason why I started this whole thing."
I smiled. "Thanks."
"No problem." Charles grinned. "Though I have to warn you, some of the mutants we'll find are a little... disturbing."
"Oh, I've seen disturbing." I said, picturing all the grotesque mutants that Shaw had experimented on.
"No, I mean..." Charles trailed off. "Never mind. You'll meet Angel tomorrow."
