"Don't you dare touch her!"
Sean's voice split the darkness of my unconsciousness.
"Leave her alone!"
I felt a hand on my shoulder, and someone snickered behind me. I still couldn't see anything.
Something cold and hot at the same time touched the back of my neck, and I fell on the ground.
"Luka!" I heard my father yell, his voice breaking.
My boyfriend's voice followed. He sounded furious.
"I'm gonna kill you, Trask!"
A third, amused voice sounded from behind me – Trask?
"I would like to see you try," the man said.
Then the vision disappeared.
As soon as I had gained enough consciousness to wake up, I shot upright.
"Sean... Sean is..." I gasped, making my father, who had been sitting right next to me, jump up.
"Whoa, you scared me," he said, obviously startled. Then he bent forward, looking worried and also a bit curious. "What did you see?"
I swallowed difficultly, wondering how I could get all those words out of my mouth at once but also making sure Charles understood me.
"Sean is alive," I blurted out. "Those Trask guys have captured him. And they are..." I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself to get my thoughts straight. "They're going to do something to me. I don't know what, but it's bad enough to make Sean say that he's going to kill someone."
Charles swore under his breath, but I barely even noticed it; at that moment, something else had my attention.
I had only realized then how cold it actually was, and how hard the floor beneath me was, and how filthy everything was. We weren't in the mansion, anymore. I was pretty sure about that.
We had been chased away from there by the same people that had killed Hank and had captured Sean.
I turned to my father.
"Where are we?" I asked him.
He looked away.
"Well, eh..." he stammered. "We, eh..."
His voice trailed off when I stood up. I was still a little dizzy, but I couldn't care less about that. I looked around with a shocked look on my face.
There were two brick walls around us, on top of the filthiest pavement I had ever seen in my life. A narrow stream of fishy-looking water was right next to my feet. In a corner, there were some empty cardboard boxes and a garbage can.
We were underneath a bridge, without money, far from home.
Could it get any worse?
"It is horrible, isn't it?" my father asked me.
I shrugged with one shoulder, trying to stay positive. One of us was already depressed. If I'd get low, too, we'd be lost.
"At least it's dry, here," I said.
It was true; it was snowing, but we had a roof above our heads. So to speak, of course. It was just a bridge.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't see the man that came walking towards us.
In fact, I'd swear that he hadn't been there half a second ago.
He was dressed in a long, dark grey coat, and brown boots, and a scarf that covered his mouth and nose. Impossibly bright, green eyes looked curiously at me from behind greasy, dark hair and from beneath a hood. He was about two metres away from us when he greeted us.
"Good evenin', sunshines," he said.
He spoke with a strange accent. I wasn't sure where he came from.
My father looked up; apparently, I wasn't the only one who hadn't seen the stranger. He slowly stood up. I knew what he was thinking – maybe this man could be dangerous. I didn't think so, though. He looked scary, but his eyes were kind.
"Who are you?" I heard Charles say.
The man rolled his eyes.
"I'm the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin," he replied sarcastically. "Question is, mate, what're you guys doin' here? It's not quite safe on the streets, y'know."
"We know," my father said, pushing me behind him. Was he being protective?
"Then what're you doin' here?" the man repeated. "You'd better just answer me, mate. I don't have all day. What're you doin' here?"
That seemed to make my father think.
"I could ask you the same thing," he then said.
What the hell was he doing?
Why was he being so stupid?
The man shrugged.
"That's an easy question, mate," he replied, grinning. "I'm here 'cause I'm lookin' for you two."
That was when I stepped forward, partly because I couldn't endure another one of my father's vague answers, and partly because I was too curious.
"You were looking for us?" I asked the man. "Why?"
The stranger shrugged again.
"'Cause you're mutants, just like me," he said. "And you're lookin' for someone. I wanna help."
"Wait," I said, starting to get a headache. "You're a mutant?"
"Yeah," the man said. "Stop repeatin' everythin' I say. Tryna make a point here. You guys need help, and I wanna help. So get your asses off the pavement and follow me."
Then he turned around and started to walk away.
My father and I shared a look.
"Now what are we going to do?" I asked him. "Are we going to follow him?"
Charles shook his head.
"No, we are not," he replied. "What if he has bad purposes? I... I do not want something to happen to you. You have already been through so much."
I laughed humourlessly, feeling something snap inside me.
"I'm sorry, Dad," I said, "but you're only saying that because you're selfish. This isn't about me. This is about you. You don't want to lose me because you won't have anyone or anything left. Well, guess what? I've been imprisoned with you for long enough. I've got my limits, too. I've lost a lot of friends, too. I'm not going to lose Sean as well. And seeing as you're not going to help me, someone else will have to. Goodbye."
After spitting out those last, bitter words, I stood up and ran away, leaving Charles shocked, cold and completely alone.
Awww...
This chapter, guys. It made me so sad. Poor Charles. Poor Luka, too. But it was the only way to make Luka meet her new enemy... or new friend? That's for me to know and for you to find out :)
Anyway, have a nice day! And remember: I don't like killing characters (okay, okay, I killed an OC once or twice, but you know what I mean), especially favorite characters, so don't get nightmares about Charles freezing to death or something :)