Heyy, so chapter 4. Thanks to everyone who read/reviewed/added to alerts/added to favourites, this story or dream catcher. It really meant a lot to me. I wrote this while listening to first love by Adele. This is longest chapter I have done so far, and it is steadily getting longer through this A/N so I'll just shut up.
Please read and review. Thank you.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
I felt tiny in this place. Huge staircases and corridors spiralled up into the ceiling and glass windows reflected a very lost looking girl back at me. I didn't know what to feel in here, I was used to long nights and hard days in the sweltering heat. Westchester was calm; there was no need to rush or panic here. I was completely thrown off. We entered some kind of elevator for Charles and his wheelchair and it opened onto another endless corridor. There were two doors on either side of the corridor and another staircase leading to what I presumed was the living room.
"So" Charles began "This is where you will be sleeping Ivy" he gestured to the door on the right side.
"Sean is just down the corridor, and Alex and Sam will be in the corridor just below you." He was being very careful with me; I guessed that he was trying not to send me into a panic over the change in scenery.
"Um okay…" I replied uncertainly. I was very uncomfortable about being separated from Sam. I trusted these people, Charles especially, but Sam has been next to me for most of my life. I was anxious to be separated now.
"Well, I just show Sam to his room then." We all split ways, Sean to his room, me to my own and everyone else downstairs. I pushed open the door, and stepped in. It was a shock to have a room of this size all to myself after years living somewhere where the next person was always only 2 ft. from you. The bed was exactly opposite to the door with a window taking up most of the west wall. A bathroom was to my left and the window opened onto a small balcony. I never had anything so luxury in all my life. My little bag of things felt quite inadequate in this big room. I walked to my bathroom with dazed steps. That is what this whole house was to me, a daze. None of it felt real to me. I washed my face and took a look in the mirror. My curly red hair was limp to my waist and I was paler than usual with a dusting of freckles across my face. I had big green eyes that maybe used to hold some sparkle, but I never knew that sparkle. I had a feeling that had been taken away from me a long time ago along with any resemblance of a life. I walked away from the depressing site in the mirror and busied myself with unpacking (not that it would take very long). Needless to say I didn't have much in the way of possessions, back in the circus; anything of remote value was gone pretty quickly. I hid anything I had underneath a floorboard in my cabin on the train I shared with Sam. I started to unpack my worn out rucksack and took out all the clothes I had, a couple of books, my notebook for drawing in, my music box and a pocket knife Sam had managed to get for me – I had never asked him where from. I put the on the shelf in my new room and sat on the bed, taking it all in.
I didn't really have a plan. When I had agreed to Charles's offer I had only thought about leaving, not where we were going. Now we were here what was I supposed to do? Pretend to know why I was here? My thoughts were interrupted by Charles who knocked on my door.
"I just wanted to make sure you were settling in okay." He said. He was hiding something from me; ever since we got here he had been treading on eggshells around Sam and me.
"You want to make sure I don't run away, don't you." I said. I realised it came out sounding a bit like an accusation, and regretted it.
"You don't have to be afraid of this place Ivy. I brought you here so you would have a better life, so you could control you mutation, not to make you feel trapped." I noticed that he did not actually answer my question but I let it slide.
"Professor, I do trust you and your judgement, but you have to understand, this is just one big place to me, and it has as little meaning to me as the place I was before." I admitted. I never used the word home when talking about that circus. It wasn't home, that was something I had never experienced and I doubted I would find it here. Sam once told me that you carry home with you; I barely carried anything with me so that saying was pretty pointless. I could see Charles trying to understand me, he clearly was never in the same situation, but I appreciated his efforts.
"I made it my job to teach you to know your mutation, Ivy. I promise that to everyone. By knowing that part of yourself you will be part of something much bigger than yourself here. Give it some time, you'll see." I was falling into the promise in his eyes. He meant every word he said and that was reassuring.
"Why don't you get changed and come downstairs, everyone is waiting for you in the games room." He suggested, trying to take my mind of things.
"Okay then." I agreed. I changed into loose pants and a shirt that was given to me by Charles. If I was being honest with myself, I wanted to talk to the rest of the mutants. They seemed nice, and I was going to be spending a lot of time with them in the future, I might as well get to know them now. I walked down the staircase and managed (somehow) to find my way to the games room. The boys were lounging on three couches with music playing loudly in the background. There was what looked like some kind of game machine in the corner and a small TV on one side. All the boys turned to look at me when I entered, Sam got up and gave me a hug, he whispered in my ear asking if I was okay, I didn't really have time to answer.
"So how do you like the house?" Hank asked me, trying to make conversation.
"It's different, but really lovely." I replied more out of politeness than anything else. Sean and Alex went back to their conversation and Hank and Sam started talking about something called cerebro. I added to the conversation every now and then, barely paying attention. I walked over to the game thing in the corner; it looked pretty complex and had lots of buttons and levers.
"You can play on it if you want." A voice said behind me. I turned around and was met with a half-smile that made me heart do some kind of somersault-thingy.
"Uh, what is it?" I said, finally finding my voice and feeling rather stupid as Alex seemed to be shocked that I didn't know what it was.
"Oh it's really easy," He ran me over the basics of how to play it, he called it pinball, I think. We fell into an easy silence, in front of the game. He started to lean in so as to see the game better, it looked to me as if he stayed a couple of seconds too long, but I said to myself it was just my imagination running away with me. After the game was done we all sat down and spent the rest of the night talking about nothing really, but it was the most important thing to me. To be able to sit there leaning into my brothers side, talking the night away, and the strangest thing happened, I started to let myself believe what Charles had said to me.
