Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men films or the characters.

I am Death

Chapter 10: Late night levitation

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As soon as I ceased crying, John brought me back to the mansion with him. I walked the whole way in some sort of exhausted tiredness. The whole world seemed to be one big haze, a dim memory more than a real place. I felt to emotionally drained of emotions, like there was nothing inside me except for an empty hole. It didn't feel good, but I didn't care. I just wanted to sleep, for hour and hours. Without saying a word, John led me to my room and opened the door for me. I tumbled inside, and fell down on the bed without the strength to even take my shoes off. Somewhere far away, or at least so it seemed; I could hear John move around the room. Then I felt something, a blanket being placed over my immovable body. I send him a thankful thought before slipping away into the darkness of my dreamy landscapes…

Something was wrong, I could feel it. Though my room looked as it always did, I felt something was terribly wrong. Then the sunlight outside the window began to fade, until my room was dusky and filed with shadows. Then the darkness began to press against the cold glass, and the last fain light faded, leaving me in total darkness. Startled, with my heart beating like a drum, I reached out a hand and switched on the small flashlight I now always kept underneath my pillow. The flashlight lit up a small part of the room, and everything seemed normal, only I knew it wasn't. I directed the light to the widow, and could see the thick darkness press against the glass. Then it began to trickle through the frame and into the room. I jerked a hand over my mouth and smothered the scream I felt wanted to escape my lips. I watched as the darkness filled the room, expanded and became thicker than air, lethal. My flashlight lit up lesser and lesser of the room, until everything went black. And then heard it again, the heavy sound of meat being dragged over wooden floor. It was coming at me.

I could no longer smother the terrified shriek, so I let it out. I screamed from the bottom of my lungs, though I knew no one could hear me. And when It crept up my bed, and gripped my shoulders, my shriek raised one pitch. It began shaking me violently. Its claws ripped through my clothes and dug into my bony shoulders, and as I felt something wet find its way down my arms, I knew I was bleeding.

"Rose, Rose!" It screamed, shaking me even more violently. "Wake up Rose, you're having a nightmare!" It was John's voice, but he was wrong, this wasn't a nightmare. If it were, then why did I still feel its claws tearing my flesh? Then I realized my eyes were shut, and I tore them open.

The room bathed in a red light, it was sunset. The scream rising from my throat faded as I realized I was staring into John's concerned brown orbs. He stopped shaking me, and let go of my shoulders as he saw I was awake. I let my eyes fly around my room, cautious of every sign saying that it had been more than a nightmare. Only there weren't any signs. Everything smelled and looked normal.

"What happened Rose?" John seemed worried. I didn't want him to worry about me, so I opened my mouth to tell him it had been nothing, but then I remembered something. I turned my gaze to look at both my shoulders. There were no tears in the sweater, and there was no blood. Relieved, I decided to pull the collar down over one shoulder, just to make sure. As I did it, I suddenly wished I hadn't. I had dark markings on each shoulder, five on each. It looked just like claw marks. Shocked and frightened, I stared at the soar marks. Then I began to cry again.

"Rosie, what's wrong? Who did that to you?" He sounded frightened, and almost desperate.

Please, please don't go. Don't leave me alone in the dark:" I managed to stammer between my sobs. John put a finger under my chin and turned my head up, facing him.

"I swear I won't. I'll crash on the couch."

I cried in relief, It wouldn't some for me if he was here. I was safe. I fell asleep almost instantly again, but knowing that John were there with me. It couldn't exist as long as he stayed close, and I could rest safely. However, I didn't get to sleep for too many hours before I was awakened again.

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I felt someone nudge my elbow. Irritated, I waved my hand at it, and expected it to go away. It didn't however. Feeling rather grumpy, I opened one eye. Someone had lit the bulb standing on the table next to my bed. I saw John sitting on the couch, tense as a barbed wire. His eyes were round and his mouth was hanging open, staring intensely at something behind me.

"Rose, are you doing this?" he whispered, sounding startled. I didn't understand what he meant, and with a bad feeling in my gut. I gasped for my breath. All the furniture at the opposite side of the room was floating, levitating in the air. Was I doing this? It scared me, watching my damaged wardrobe soar silent in the air. If I did this without noticing, what could I do if I really wanted? What if I lost control over this? I searched somewhere inside me to find a way to put them down. Concentrating really hard on imagining the furniture settle on the ground again. But they didn't, instead something else happened. My bed began trembling; shaking harder and harder until if left the floor and soared upwards.

I could hurt someone sometime if I didn't stop this. But I had no control, inside me I felt like I wanted to do more. But I didn't wish to do more. I was frightened, wondering how much I could lift, without even feeling tired from it. I closed my eyes. "Stop it, stop it, stop it!" I mumbled to myself, trying my very best to let go of the power. At my right, the table with the bulb on it also left the ground. The light shone stronger and stronger, until it exploded, shattering pieces of glass all over the room.

"Rose?" John sounded frightened; his voice was small and scared. At instant, the force surrendered and withdrew inside me again. My furniture settled on the ground slowly, and as did my bed.

For a few minutes, we sat there in the total darkness. I felt relieved and disappointed at the same time. Something inside me had wanted more, something within had driven me forward when I wanted to back off. Someone sharing me wanted to lift the whole mansion off the ground. It wanted that, and much worse. Without getting off the bed, I expanded my mind, and forced the light switch to turn on. On the sofa, John jerked a bit. He hadn't seen that one coming. Now he looked at me with some sort of… was it admiration? In that second, I realized Pyro was back, 'cause only Pyro would admire such a destructive power.

"Do you feel like going back to sleep?" I asked him, smiling a little. He shook his head, and the corner of his mouth curled.

"Don't know if I would dare to." I shrugged; it was such a Pyro-ish answer.

"Me neither." I thought for a second, and then I got up from the bed, and went to search for my slippers. I found one of the slippers underneath my bed, and the other one on top of the wardrobe. I could swear that I'd put them both by the side of the door yesterday. But well, if I could make furniture levitate, then why not slippers too?

"What do you need those for?"

"I'm going to the kitchen." He got up and came with me. We could both use some comfort eating.

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The kitchen wasn't as abandoned as I'd expected it to be at this late hour. Bobby sat on a chair, drinking a glass of milk. We told him nothing of my little 'issue'. I guess that we sometime had come to a silent agreement that we wouldn't tell anyone about it.

I grabbed a bottle of ice cream from the freezer; it was half empty, so I decided we could eat from the carton. We chatted about the small things while eating. Bobby didn't seem to have any intentions going back to bed, and neither did we. I doubted I would get more sleep this night.

At the sound of silent feet against the wooden floor, we all looked up. In through the door stepped Warren, the angelic guy we'd me earlier today. He seemed taken aback by the fact that there were other people in the kitchen, and I could almost swear he thought about leaving again.

"Hi Warren," I greeted him. He seemed relieved I recognized him, and instead of leaving he stepped further into the room.

"Hello Rose. Can't you sleep either?" I shook my head as an answer. I gestured to Iceman:

"This is Bobby." Iceman smiled to Warren, who relaxed a bit further. The blonde and timid boy found him a glass and poured water in it, then turning his back to the counter. He looked me in the eye, with no fear in his face. I found that strange; even I myself felt scared looking me in the eye. I found this young man very remarkable over all.

"When did you first realize you were growing wings?" I asked him.

"About when I was eight, maybe nine." His gaze darkened at the memory. Reaching out to his mind, I suddenly understood why he was so timorous. A memory came drifting to me from his conscious, and suddenly I understood him much better than before.

"Your father never appreciated you being a mutant, did he?"

Warren flinched; surprised to get that question. I could see why, it wasn't something that seemed normal to ask, especially not to a stranger. But again, I knew a lot about people.

"No, he didn't" He put the glass in the dishwasher, and prepared to leave. I stopped him.

"Warren?" He turned to me again.

"Yes?"

"They are beautiful. It's a shame your father never saw that." He smiled.

"Thank you." And then he left.

I noticed Pyro looking as if he'd just eaten something very sour. Guess he really didn't like Warren, though I couldn't understand why.

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