-Seven-

Charles closed his eyes and ran blindly. He was expecting to trip, to stumble, or to crash into something at any moment, but he kept his eyes welded shut nonetheless and sprinted in any direction that was away. Away from the hisses and the feeling of cold fingers reaching for him, for his mind.

"Charles! Up here!"

His eyes snapped open and he looked up to see Erik on top of a building to his right. Only, this wasn't Erik. The man grinned widely, and Charles knew it was his mind-Erik – the one he had spoken to in the park earlier… was it really only that morning they had spoken? The smiling Erik reached down a hand for him, which he took without hesitation, and hoisted him up onto the roof of the building.

"Run!" he yelled, pulling Charles along the rooftops by the hand he was still holding on to. And they ran, ran hand-in-hand along the impossibly long rooftop that seemed to warp and bend in a sickeningly unreal manner right before their eyes.

"What's happening to me? This…" he gestured madly around them with his free hand. "None of this can be real! Help me, please – what on earth is going on?"

Not-Erik looked back at him over his shoulder, contemplative. "It's more real than you think, but not in the way you think."

"Well that's bloody cryptic and not helpful in the slightest! I'm asking for help, not more confusion!" Charles spat angrily.

"I know but I can't… it's dangerous to tell you more right now. You're not ready yet." A regretful flash of a grin.

"No!" Charles dug in his heels and ground them both to a halt. The Erik lookalike looked around wildly. The hisses were rapidly closing in.

"What are you doing?! We have to go!"

"Whether or not I'm ready, we don't exactly have a lot of time to mess around here! Tell me exactly what the fuck is going on – right now – or I turn us both around and walk us straight into whatever they are."

The taller him went pale. "You can't be – "

"I'm deadly serious! And you should know it, if you're me at all!" Charles yelled. The hisses were all around them now, and he might have been imagining it, but he thought his vision might be getting darker at the edges ever so slightly. "WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" he bellowed.

There was no smile on not-Erik's face. Charles' vision was definitely getting darker at the edges now, and worryingly rapidly too. The other man looked down slowly, almost regretfully to his hand – their hands – still clasped tightly together. "I think you already know…" he said.

Charles too looked at their joined hands through the tunnel of un-darkened vision left to him. "No, I don't… Erik…"

But he did know. He'd probably always known. He was with Erik. Everything was always all right when he was with Erik. Wasn't it? Why was his vision blurring?

"Erik… why? We're going to be okay, right?" He looked up into a face that was no longer Erik's, but simply his own reflected back at him. He blinked in shock and a single tear fell from each of their eyes.

"No, Charles." His reflection said to him sadly. "I don't believe we will be." And he began to turn away.

"NO!" Charles screamed. "Don't leave me here! Don't leave me here to die! Help me, Erik!"

His reflection turned sharply. "Charles, I'm not Erik. I never have been. You know that." He looked down at their hands again. They were still joined. "You need to let go."

"No! Please! I don't understand! I need you! I still don't know what's going on!" Charles was begging, pleading with every part of his being, for his instinct to be wrong.

But there was only sadness in his mirror image as he confirmed his worst fears.

"But Charles… he betrayed you."

Then their hands were wrenched apart and a single metal coin fell from between them to the ground with a cold, metal clang.