Hi-ho! This would be my longest chapter yet, isn't that exciting?


Chapter 9: The ghouls come out to play

Kitty had no idea how long they'd been walking for. What she did know was that the dual carriageway they were walking down seemed to spread on for eternity, and that the rain apparently had no intention of ever stopping. Her clothes were soaked through and their weight made every step one bit harder to take. The only thing preventing her from shivering was the sheer amount of heat her body had produced from walking their never-ending journey.

However, she could feel the cold settling in her extremities, and every step she took made her sodden ponytail smack irritatingly against the back of her head. Her feet were pounding in pain, and her arms felt ready to fall off after hours of dragging her suitcase along the coarse, bumpy tarmac.

All in all, she was cold, wet and miserable. The rain had made visibility so poor that the gradual transition into night had completely passed her by. But it now meant that she had to strain her eyes just to make out the details on the back of Logan's jacket.

They hadn't spoken to each other since starting out, and at first it hadn't bothered Kitty. She had been far too wrapped up in self-loathing to even think about striking up a conversation. But after hours of being lost in her thoughts, the bitter emotions lost their sting and she came to accept the situation as it was. After all, people made stupid mistakes all the time. It wasn't like she was the first one to lose a purse with a lot of money in it.

But the way Logan was acting, she was tempted to believe the contrary. He hadn't bothered to look back at her once since they'd started out, which left his temperament entirely to her imagination. For all she knew, he could be a few heated moments away from skewering her. He hadn't exactly responded to her slip-ups with calm forgiveness, and the more she thought about it, the more Kitty decided it would be beneficial for her well-being to find out just where she stood with the older mutant.

Clearing her throat, Kitty asked, "Are you mad at me?"

At first, Logan didn't respond. Kitty wondered whether she'd spoken loud enough over the rain, but her doubts were squashed when he grumbled, "What makes you say that?" His manner was obviously evasive and didn't do anything to dissuade Kitty's suspicions.

"I dunno," she said, concentrating on her feet. "Sometimes it's hard to tell whether you hate me or if you're just plain grumpy."

Again, Logan paused before answering. "I don't hate you," he said, sounding slightly pained, and Kitty couldn't help but feel unconvinced by the statement. The way he'd said it suggested that there was some inaudible 'but' attached to the end of the sentence, and Kitty was pretty sure she knew how to complete it.

For clarity's sake she stated, "But you are mad at me?"

She was convinced that she saw Logan's shoulders hunch and mentally prepared herself to phase, just in case he got itchy claws.

"Not… really," Logan said, struggling to get his words out as if trying hard to hold something else back.

Not really?

Kitty frowned. She expected that he'd wanted to say a whole lot more. Perhaps he'd held back to be nice, but Kitty found that a hard concept to swallow.

No matter what the reason was, it was evident that he was still mad at her for putting them in this situation, and she didn't blame him. After all, she'd been stupid enough to get spotted as a mutant twice, once with nearly lethal consequences that had put them on the run, and then she'd gone and lost her money. Even though Logan had rudely been treating it as their shared income, it was still a pretty stupid thing to do and put them at a serious disadvantage.

"I'm sorry," she said, feeling the need for an apology. "I know I messed up – like, three times consecutively – but I'm not really used to this sort of life."

The last part sounded like a pathetic excuse, but after hours of turning the events over and over in her head, it was about the only explanation Kitty had for why she had managed life on the run so miserably. Unless she wanted to factor in her response to Scott's death and the frightening nightmares she'd suffered since, but that was something she wanted to admit out loud even less.

"Well you need to get used to it quick," Logan replied, with his typical gruff demeanour. "I can't always baby-sit you."

Kitty blinked. She may have been deep in self-loathing, but she still had a sense of pride. "I don't need babysitting!" she retorted.

"Oh really? So what you gonna do next time someone tries to shoot you in your sleep?" Logan quipped.

Caught by surprise, Kitty scrabbled for a convenient comeback. She hadn't really thought about the possibility of that horrid situation repeating itself. She had just assumed that if they kept their heads down, then there'd be no more madmen with shotguns.

"I'll… learn to phase really fast," she answered lamely.

"Hmph," Logan scoffed, not sounding impressed.

To be fair, she wasn't surprised that he mocked her answer, but she knew if it came to it, she'd find a way to survive. She'd been trained as an X-Man and learning to adapt hade been a daily lesson. If anything, Logan's dismissal of her abilities only served to rile her.

"Look, I'm not the sweet innocent little child you seem to think I am," she snapped.

Logan fell back in step with her so that they were walking almost parallel to each other. He eyed her with a scrutinous stare that she found hard not to wilt under.

"Really? You ever killed someone?" he asked, maintaining his shrewd expression.

Kitty gulped, the blunt question making her feel a bit hot and uncomfortable. She averted her gaze from the older mutant, watching instead the collision of raindrops against the tarmac ahead.

"No," she replied.

"You ever thought about killing someone? So much so that you actually planned it all out?" Logan pressed.

"Well… no," Kitty mumbled awkwardly.

"Then in my books, you're as innocent as they come," Logan said gruffly.

Kitty frowned. His conclusion hardly seemed fair; it wasn't like she still lived a sheltered life with her parents.

"I've seen things," she said. "Lots of really messed up stuff."

Although the first thoughts that jumped to mind were mostly of Logan tearing men apart with his claws, Kitty had seen her fair share of the bizarre and morbid. She'd had people crawling around inside her head, messing with it on more than one occasion, and she'd seen plenty of mutilated bodies, not just by her feral companion's hand. If that didn't diminish her innocence, Kitty didn't want to know what did.

"Doesn't mean anything," Logan said bluntly.

Kitty scowled. She was sure that the man was just being difficult on purpose.

Determined to have him recognise her as an adult, she blurted, "Well there are other ways of losing your innocence, you know!"

"Are there?" Logan said. He didn't sound convinced.

"I'm eighteen, a fully grown adult, of course I've lost my innocence by now!" Kitty snapped indignantly.

She wasn't really thinking straight, spurred on too much by the need to prove herself as Logan's equal. If she did have a clear head, she would have probably stopped with this trail of conversation.

"Pray tell, how exactly?" the older mutant asked skeptically.

"Well you know, with boys and stuff," Kitty said heedlessly.

Logan froze in place, a perfect picture of shock painted on his face. For a moment he seemed unable to move forward, and Kitty looked back at him, more that a little perplexed.

She was beginning to wonder whether the root of the problem was that Logan had failed to comprehend that there'd even been a two year gap since they'd last seen each other. If he really had been spending all that time just getting drunk, then she supposed it might feel like only a few weeks had passed for him.

Like an old computer rebooting, Logan eventually shook his head and slowly started putting one foot back in front of the other. Not looking at her, he finally acknowledged her declaration with a quiet, "Oh, right."

Uncertain as to whether she'd actually caused the information to sink in; Kitty followed him, checking for any signs. He was definitely avoiding her gaze and hunched over a little more than before, but she couldn't quite tell if that was out of awkward embarrassment, or if he was just being his regular, antisocial self.

Finally, he turned to look at her with a frown and said, "Just how many boys?"

"Oh, you know, a few," Kitty replied, quite unable to believe that she'd struck a chord with the older mutant.

"I see," Logan said stiffly.

"I only went all the way with a couple of them," she added earnestly.

Logan flinched. "I don't really need to know that," he said, clearly disturbed by the thought.

"But it proves my point. I'm not as innocent as you think I am," she prompted him, nervous that she'd revealed something deeply personal for no avail.

Logan looked away, cringing. "Definitely not now," he mumbled.

Almost entirely certain that she'd put her foot in it again, Kitty fell silent. In retrospect, she decided that telling him she'd lost her virginity was probably the wrong way to prove her maturity. But at least the man had something to think about; at least she'd proved she wasn't a little child.

The roaring rain gave way to the sound of a car approaching, and a harsh white light rapidly cast creeping shadows on the terrain around them. The two travelers turned back to squint in the bright beams.

It had been hours since the last car had passed them. Logan had stuck his thumb out to hitch a ride, but the driver had ignored them, as if they were nothing more than ghosts. Kitty was sure that she wasn't alone in hoping that this next driver would be a bit more compassionate.

Again, Logan stretched out his arm, thumb pointing to the sky. As the car approached it showed no signs of slowing.

"Come on," Kitty whispered.

It was impossible to make eye contact with the driver, with the headlights flaring in her vision, but it quickly became obvious that this car wasn't stopping either.

Kitty braced herself for the spray of ice-cold water as it went past. Some flecks hit her face like tiny sharp needles. She did her best to ignore them.

Logan growled, returning to face their faraway destination, and with a sigh of resignation, Kitty followed suit.

"Tell you what," Logan grumbled, after a moment of silence. "You're so worldly, why don't you use your charms to get us a lift?"

Brow knitting together, Kitty stared at her companion. "What?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Well, no one's going to pick up a grizzly old man like me, but a young attractive female like yourself…" Logan continued, taking on a slightly playful tone.

"Alright, alright," Kitty snapped quickly, doing her best to ignore the flush spreading on her cheeks. "You could have at least tried to sound like you meant that."

She was pretty sure that she heard a soft chuckle from Logan's direction, but when her gaze flickered over, his expression looked suspiciously blank.

Grumpily, she checked the road behind them. Far away in the distance she could see the twinkling of white headlights. It was time to perform.

She tried to mentally prepare herself, although she was hardly in the mood to act alluring, and it was going to be particularly hard when she looked like a drowned rat. However, there was always the possibility that she could win the sympathy vote.

A dark shape darting away in the corner of her eye quickly distracted her focus. She turned to see Logan disappearing into the undergrowth on the side of the road.

"What are you doing?" she called over to him.

"Well we can't let them see me, what would be the point then?" Logan called back.

"So you're just going to hijack my ride?" Kitty scowled.

"Pretty much," Logan replied casually.

Kitty groaned and returned her attention to the road behind. The lights were much closer now, the long creeping beam just metres from her feet. There were so many things that she could find wrong with this plan, but at the same time she was desperate to get out of the cold and wet. Her companion clearly wasn't going to help, so it looked like it was up to her.

"Super," she grimaced, sticking out her thumb.

There was an additional row of lights above the main headlights that dazzled Kitty's eyes, and a deep rumbling noise cut through the rain. It was very clear that this particular vehicle was much larger than a car, most likely a truck. However, she was far too blinded to tell and settled for pulling a hopeful smile and waiting to see what would happen.

As it turned out, fate seemed to favour her, and the truck decreased in speed. It screeched to a stop a few feet ahead of her.

Unable to believe her luck, Kitty ran to the cabin at the front. The door swung open, bathing the hard shoulder in warm yellow light. She stepped into it, imagining the soft warm rays of the sun and looked up into the promising vehicle.

There were two steps up to the passenger seat, so she had to crane her neck to even see the driver on the opposite side. He was leaning over towards her, his face fixed with a friendly smile. His hair was short and greying, and there was a smattering of grey stubble on his chin, which somehow complimented the weathered lines marking the rest of his face. He was dressed in a large navy blue jacket, making him look both blessedly warm and dry.

"You out here all alone, love?" he called to her in a thick northern accent.

"Um…" Kitty hesitated. She was pretty sure that she should be honest about the fact that she had a friend hiding in the bushes, but she had no idea how to verbalise something so strange.

"Come on, I'll give you a ride," the truck driver said kindly.

"Where are you going?" Kitty asked, deciding to avoid the topic of Logan's whereabouts altogether.

"Final destination is Whitehaven, love," the truck driver replied.

Kitty hesitated when she realised that her question had been redundant; the only city in England she knew was London. She had no idea where this Whitehaven place was or if it would even be safe.

Filled with doubt, she turned back to search the undergrowth for Logan. There was a chance that he'd have a better idea than her about where they were – assuming that he'd retained any information about this new country he called home.

A dark, thorny looking bush that seemed just tall enough to hide a man, started to quiver. Logan stepped out from behind it and walked up into the light.

"That'll do fine," he said, brimming with confidence.

"Oh, there's uh, two of you," the driver said, sounding taken aback.

Kitty flinched. She knew it had been a bad idea for Logan to hide out of sight. It gave the image that they were more likely to steal the truck than ask for a lift.

Eager to do some damage control, she turned back to the driver, and using her sweetest, most imploring expression, she said, "Is that ok?"

The man's mistrusting face softened. "Course it is love, but your friend will have to ride in the back, only room for one more up front," he smiled, patting the passenger seat.

Kitty's eyes followed the motion tentatively. She didn't much like the idea of sitting with a complete stranger, especially when she had no idea how long their journey would take. But it seemed like she had little choice; if she wanted warm and dry, she'd just have to settle for awkward and nerve-wracking.

She made a move towards the cabin steps, but Logan quickly shouldered her out of the way. He pulled himself up onto the first metal step and peered inside.

"Nah, there's loads of room on that seat, come on Kit," Logan said in a tone that chilled her blood. She realised a second later, when he looked back at her with an uncharacteristic grin, that the reason it had frightened her was because she couldn't remember the last time she'd heard him sound so carefree. It was such an incredible piece of acting; she was almost too stunned to play along.

Feet stumbling slightly, she moved forward, at least managing to mask the shock on her face. She attempted a smile as Logan helped her up the steps into the truck, but kept her head down once inside, not feeling brave enough to withstand the driver's scrutiny.

The inside was very spacious, with a deep foot-well that Kitty could comfortably fit her suitcase in and leave room for her legs. The grey passenger seat would have been wide enough to fit two of her in, so at least she knew that Logan's acting hadn't been too over the top. However, she was nonplussed as to why he'd bothered in the first place; she doubted he'd care about riding in the back and unless he'd sensed her trepidation, there was no reason to insist that they shared the seat.

Still, he stepped in behind her, threw his bag to join her suitcase in the foot-well and slammed the truck door behind him. Kitty settled in the seat, but quickly discovered that while it would have comfortably taken her twice, sharing the seat with Logan wasn't going to be quite as simple.

He was much broader than she was, and when he sat down, her left leg was nearly crushed. Thankfully she was fast enough to whip it out of the way, and after some awkward shuffling they found a half decent position where her left leg was only slightly propped up over his right. Her back was twisted towards the driver, pushed forward by Logan's torso, and his arm was lost somewhere in the gap.

It wasn't exactly the most comfortable position in the world and did little to ease the tension. It made Kitty wonder whether it really would be better to make Logan sit in the back with the cargo.

"Well, OK then," the driver said. He didn't sound too happy with the situation either. Still, he put the truck into gear and pulled off.

It took a while for the huge vehicle to gain speed, and as it did Logan shifted behind her, pulling across a black seatbelt. He attempted to reach around her to buckle it in, but with his right arm lost behind her back, he could only stretch so far. Kitty abruptly took it from him, keen to make the situation no more awkward than it had to be, and she snapped it into place.

The driver watched them out of the corner of his eye, making Kitty feel very self-conscious. She tried to involve herself in studying the dark grey dashboard, but it didn't look dissimilar to any she'd ever seen before.

Finally, the driver's gaze switched back to the road ahead and he said, "So, you guys are American, huh?"

Nervously, Kitty replied, "Oh, you could tell?"

"Well, the accent does give you away," the driver replied jovially. "So what are you doing in England?"

Kitty wavered. It probably wouldn't help the tense atmosphere to begrudge the man information, but she could hardly tell him the truth. She supposed it was time to come up with an appropriate alibi.

"Oh, you know, we're just like, traveling and seeing the sites and stuff," she said, pulling a good-natured smile.

She'd obviously sounded convincing enough, because the driver replied, "Yeah, had a good time so far?"

Not missing a beat, Kitty replied with a false grin, "Oh yeah, the best."

The driver reciprocated her false humour in earnest, and he took it as a cue to further the conversation. "My name's Pete, by the way. Do you mind if I ask yours'?"

"Oh,um," Kitty stumbled, rapidly discovering that her brain wasn't moving fast enough to come up with a fake name. However, she doubted there'd be any problem in telling a truck driver her first name. "I'm Kitty," she said, and after a moment's awkward silence from her companion, she added, "and this is Logan."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet ya," Pete said. If the older mutant's mute behaviour bothered him, he didn't show it. Instead he continued with his curious inquest.

"So what are you doing this far up north? Not much to see around here," he said.

"Err…" Kitty lingered, desperately scrounging the recesses of her mind for any dormant information about English geography.

Thankfully, Logan stepped in to save her. "The wall!" he said abruptly. "Hadrian's Wall."

"Heh, yeah," Kitty confirmed, as casually as she could.

"Oh, you want I can drop you in Carlisle?" Pete asked.

Kitty panicked at the increasing abundance of unfamiliar place names. Luckily, however, her companion seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of the local geography, because he replied, "Nah, wouldn't mind a bit of sea breeze first."

The carefree inflection in his voice was still persisting and although it seemed unnatural, Kitty decided that she was starting to like it. Listening to him speak in such a way, she could almost pretend that the last couple of terrible years hadn't happened, and that they weren't on the run or penned in by anti-mutant activists.

Pete clearly seemed to think that Logan was out of his mind for wanting to visit the sea, and it probably had something to do with the time of year, but he shrugged all the same.

"Well, whatever floats your boat," he said, maintaining his concentration on the road.

The conversation ground to a halt. Whether Pete was now suspicious of their cover story or not, he didn't let on. But Kitty was quite thankful that she didn't have to task her exhausted mind with creating any more convenient lies.

She settled herself into the seat a little more comfortably and allowed her eyes to droop. There was a soft warm breeze coming from the ventilators on the dashboard that encouraged sleepy thoughts.

Logan seemed to be equally as effected, because his voice rumbled through her. "You mind if we catch a few zees? Didn't get much sleep last night," he said, retaining his casual tone.

"Sure, be my guest," Pete replied.

And with that, Kitty's eyes firmly shut. The roar of the vehicle's wheels on wet tarmac slowly muffled as her consciousness drifted away. In the end, she forgot where she was entirely. She was warm and nearly dry, and that was all that mattered.


Logan tried hard not to fall asleep altogether. He didn't trust the truck driver, and knew better than to let his guard down, especially in a vehicle moving at sixty miles per hour. However, the constant, heavy heat blowing in his face was a tough adversary. His eyes ached too much to keep open, and in the darkness behind his eyelids he fell prey to fatigue.

He struggled to keep his senses about him and listened carefully to the deep rumbling of the engine to ensure that he stayed awake. But the monotonous sound only dragged him deeper into sleep's oblivion. His head slowly lowered, falling closer and closer to his chest.

When his eyelids flickered open, he had no idea how much time had passed. It felt like just seconds, but it could have been hours. His vision was blurry and the dark of the cabin made it hard to discern any details. There were still no streetlights by the side of the road and night had fallen darker still.

However, through the gloom, he could just about distinguish something moving in his line of sight. Still half asleep, he attempted a blink to refocus his vision. The moving object was pale against the darkness. It moved shakily towards him, before four slender parts flexed in order from nearest to furthest.

Squeezing his eyes tighter, Logan stared at it once more and recognised the shape as a hand. It was then that he realised with stomach-churning clarity that the darkness was in fact Kitty's leg, and that the hand was far too big to belong to her.

Limbs stiff with fatigue, he reached across to clumsily strike at the hand. It recoiled as if struck by acid and disappeared from sight.

Logan frowned. Although he was still groggy, it didn't take much brainpower to work out that the hand had belonged to the truck driver, who had taken advantage of their slumber to succumb to his more sinister impulses.

It came as little surprise, as the sort of person who stopped to pick up a lonely young girl from the side of the road rarely had noble intentions. However, Logan had hoped that his presence would deter any lewd behaviour. Apparently his falling asleep had given the man all the courage he needed.

Still, if he could just stay awake and alert, then there was no reason to terminate their journey prematurely. Even if their driver was a disgusting pig of a man, it would be best if they could get to somewhere civilised before ditching him.

Shifting to sit more upright, Logan focused on the road ahead, hoping that the next city wasn't far away.


He awoke with a start, rapidly blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

"Just getting some coffee, won't be long," Pete said.

The sound of a door opening and slamming shut jolted Logan to his senses. He quickly scanned his surroundings and discovered that the truck was stationary.

Through the front windscreen, he could see the glow of a petrol station standing alone in the darkness. Pete had parked the truck on some sort of by-road. Off on the right, the motorway disappeared into an inky black horizon, and it was clear that they were still miles from anywhere civilised.

Logan didn't remember falling back to sleep, but abruptly recalled why he hadn't meant to. He momentarily panicked, before realising that Kitty was still half-sitting on his lap, apparently unchanged. Her head was rested in the crook of his neck, her eyes were closed, and she had a peaceful expression on her face.

It seemed a shame to wake her, and the longer she remained oblivious to the truck driver's perverse intentions, the better off she'd be.

However, a discomfort in Logan's bladder informed him that this pit stop was fortunately well timed, aside from the fact that he had a teenage girl propped up to sleep against him.

He slowly reached around her to unbuckle the seatbelt and turned to stand up, all the while moving her gently into a comfortable position. She didn't seem to stir, so he quietly opened the door and stepped out into the cold dark night.

The rain had reduced to occasional light droplets and the atmosphere had a damp smell to it. Not far from the truck was a small cluster of trees and Logan stiffly walked up to them.

He unzipped his jeans and proceeded to relieve himself, but the sound of a door slamming shut caused him to jump. He hastily twisted his upper body to check the truck. The cabin was flooded with light, with Pete sitting once more in the driver's seat.

"Won't be a minute," Logan called out, struggling to keep his tone casual. A discomforted feeling grew in his gut and he urged his body to work quicker. He didn't like the idea of Kitty being alone with that man for any length of time.

The growl of an engine coming to life made his blood run cold. The truck's headlights flicked on, and he watched in horror as it started to move away.

"Shit," he hissed, zipping his jeans back up.

The truck roared, straining in its gears. Pete was pushing it as hard as he could.

"Hey!" Logan shouted, running from the trees to catch it up.

The truck accelerated, quickly putting distance between them.

Logan's eyes flared wide with panic. If it got to full speed before he could reach it, Kitty would be long gone. And if that happened, he'd never forgive himself.

"HEEEY!" He roared and threw every ounce of strength he had left into his legs.

He had to catch the truck. There was nothing else – nothing more important – he had to get her back.


I had an alternate title for this chapter, that went something along the lines of 'In which I make the characters do stupid things and dabble with irony', but I thought the other one was more catchy :P