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Chapter 11: Something In the Darkness
Previously on The New Recruit:
Even if I had been there, what good would I have done? Without my astral body, would it have even mattered?
Thinking on his feet, Erik immediately begins giving out orders, his tone sharp and commanding, "Alright, Azazel, take us down." Azazel nods in understanding while Glenn and I exchange glances of uncertainty."Janos, Raven, Emma, and Toad you will come with."
Angel begins to object, but Erik cuts her off as I move away from Azazel so they can take their places. It obvious Glenn and I aren't needed here but why? Donovan is our friend. Shouldn't we be part of this, too? Judging by the tension in Glenn's rigid frame, I'd say he's thinking the same thing. "No," Snaps Erik, his gaze hard with anger and anxiety. "We need clear heads out there if we're going to find out who did this. Come." He commands. "There is no time to waste."
And then they're gone without a second glance.
"Elizabeth," Angel begins, eyes streaming once more but I shake my head, taking her hands in mine as I say, "Don't. It's not your fault. You did what you would." But even as I say it, I can't help but feel the sting of blame when I look at her. I want to blame her so badly but that isn't fair. I can still hardly believe Donny is gone. "We need to get to you the infirmary." I say dully, holding the door open while Glenn helps the other Mutant to her feet. He guides her through the door and we start towards the infirmary.
I glance up at Glenn to find him looking back at me, his grey eyes exotic and bright against his Indian features; his gaze is dark and warns of danger, but I've already made that assumption for myself. Something is not quite right here. But what that is, I have the feeling, we won't know until later. The question is:
Do we really want to know?
Not three minutes after we get to the infirmary, Emma contacts me telepathically, asking where we are. As Glenn settles Angel into a chair and begins to dab at her wounds, I tell her our position, and a moment later, the room is filled with people and brimstone. Everyone looks incredibly tired; like they've just been in a huge fight just now, which turns out to be exactly the case.
"What happened?" Angel asks weakly, obviously heartbroken that they didn't catch up with the kidnappers. "Was it Xavier?"
"No," Erik mutters irritably, finding two robes in a closet and hands one to Raven before shrugging on his own with a slight wince. His hair is tousled and the lines in his face tight with anger. "Charles would never do something like this. This is something else."
"I've never felt a mind that strong before." Emma murmurs, cringing with a hand at her pinched brow; I can tell that she got one hell of a mental beating out there, but from whom? It's unusual to see her so messed up like this. She always seems so calm; so untouchable. In fact, they all do. But now, they seem more shaken than I've ever seen them. "We're dealing with a powerful Mutant."
"But why was Creed there?" Janos speaks up, something I haven't heard him do in awhile. He tends to keep to himself mostly, but now he looks especially disgruntled; what with that large, purple bruise forming at his right temple. "I don't know," Groans Erik, pacing in his frustration. "A hired hand perhaps." He turns to Emma. "Did you find anything when you were inside his head? Anything at all." He asks Emma but she frowns and I can tell something is wrong immediately. "I-I don't..." She moans, clutching her hair with her head down, and I rush over to catch her as Emma falls to her knees and nearly plummets head first into the floor. Her weight almost takes me down with her but I manage to steady us both to keep from collapsing.
"Hold on, Emma!" I tell her, holding her up by the shoulders so she can sit in a more comfortable position, determined to be useful. The others crowd around in shock, unsure of what's going on, but, somehow, I already know what to do. "I think I can help you. Just let me in." I tell her softly as she leans back against the wall, her breath coming in short, pained breaths. I don't know what makes me think I can do this but right now I can sense that she's in distress and will become overwhelmed by whatever that Mutant did to her if I don't do something right now. Emma gives the slightest of nods, her eyes squeezed shut as she whimpers in pain, and I touch her temples with the fingertips of each of my hands and close my eyes, blocking out all other sounds save for our breathing and my own thoughts.
There's a draw, like being sucked into a vacuum and then...
" 'Emma?' "
" 'Emma?' " I call into the darkness. I've just entered Emma's mind. I've never done this before. But I can't let myself be afraid just now. Instead, I focus my attention on my surroundings, just able to make out shapes in the darkness. I'm in a forest surrounded by black, blurry trees and a crushing darkness all around; very unlike what I would imagine Emma's mind to be like. The only noise is...darkness. I don't know how to describe the sound of darkness but it's an unwelcome sound; hollow yet all encompassing. There is something very bad in Emma's head.
" 'You shouldn't be here.' " A child's voice rings out in the black, and I turn around to see a little girl with curly blonde hair that falls across her shoulders standing a few feet away; she wears a bonnet and a very old-timey dress with frills and a bow in the front. Although she looks like a child, the look in her eyes suggests that she is far older. Centuries older. Her eyes are the most haunting feature about her. They are dark. No, they're black. Completely black with no whites at all and they are empty, without end.
" 'Neither should you.' " I answer and flinch reflexively when hear a distant growling somewhere in the forest but when I uneasily glance around, I see nothing. Nothing but that never ending darkness. When I look back to the child, I see that she's gone, but I quickly sense her behind me and whip around, giving a startled gasp to find that she's much closer now.
And angrier.
" 'Get out!' " She commands demonically, black eyes flaring with rage. " 'Or I'll have 'him' kill you, too!' "
I back away quickly, bracing myself for an attack, " 'What are you doing here?' " I ask her as nicely as I can. I don't want to offend her any more than I already have. " 'Why are you doing this?' "
" 'I'm here to find what I lost.' " Is her mournful reply, her grief washing over my in a single wave of emotion that sends me staggering back a step. " 'I'm here for us! You will not separate us again!' " She says and I can feel her trying to push me out but I'm overcrowding her; fighting back. And she's panicking.
" 'You're the one who took my friend, aren't you? Why?' " I ask, trying to get as much information out of her as possible.
" 'You took from me!' " Her voice screams, but her tiny mouth isn't moving. " 'And now you'll pay!' "
" 'I don't understand!' " I object desperately, trying to appease the girl but her rage continues to grow and grow the more I fight her. " 'What did we take?' "
" 'She knows.' " The girl says and I feel a tremor surge beneath my feet. She's hurting Emma! Another low growl can be heard behind me in the trees as well as the sound of twigs breaking under heavy foot fall. There's an animal lurking somewhere in the darkness. Probably planted here by the girl herself. And it's coming for me. I can feel it draw ever nearer. I have to get out of here now. But not without Emma.
" 'Then let her go!' " I plead with the demon. " 'If she 'knows' then we'll need her to return whatever it is we took-' "
The girl's curly hair whips about her head quickly, too quickly, as her face contorts in fury, " 'You don't know! You don't know anything! Not yet. But you will. That is, if you survive...' " The girl says ominously and I hear another loud growl, this time closer and when I look to see I catch a glimpse of a shadow, sprinting through the bushes. I could make out it's shape, but it was long and far larger than me, and darted like a bullet into the forestry on four powerful legs. " 'And 'she' will take you.' " The girl says turning away from me, her little dress swaying behind her, and I can feel her begining to pull out of Emma's mind.
" 'Wait!' " I call out, reaching out to her mind, only to find darkness blocking me. " 'Who are you?' "
" 'Wouldn't you like to know? Child...' " And then she just disappears, leaving only the echo of a creepy, childish giggle and the growling beast in her wake.
They'd been sitting there for nearly an hour when the tight muscles in Emma's pale face suddenly relaxed and she opened her eyes at last with a shuddering gasp. "Emma?" Angel whispered worriedly, hurrying to the telepath's side but Elizabeth still had a firm grasp on Emma's temples, her fingers serving as her physical connection to Emma's mind. Afraid of harming her somehow, Angel refrained from touching either of them.
"What's happening?" Asked Erik immediately, growing more and more anxious by the second. He couldn't afford to lose both a trusted Telepath and a possible-ally with so much potential. He'd already suffered one too many loses that night alone. "Why isn't she coming out of it?" Eric questioned, stooping beside the Mutant girl to study her face. Her eye brows were drawn in tight with concentration and her body tense. Magneto reached out a hand to touch her, but quickly drew back when Emma suddenly gasped, exclaiming, "There's something there! Something-something dangerous!" Emma's hands clasped the Ghostgirl's, her eyes squeezed shut against the pain as she fought to see through the clouds in her own mind. "An animal."
"With her?" Glenn asked, stepping forward anxiously, and Emma nodded stiffly after she slowly removed Elizabeth's hands from her temples. Her eyes were closed and the muscles in her face tense in concentration, but otherwise, she did not stir. "It was planted there by the little girl." Emma explained vaguely as she shakily got to her feet. "A parasite of sorts. She is trying to fight it as we speak." Emma's gaze went to Azazel's. She'd learned to read his expressions over the few years that they'd known each other, and she could see the thin lines of worry creasing his brow. She chose, however, to pretend she hadn't noticed.
"But isn't it in your mind?" Angel asked in confusion. If only she were a telepath, she could help.
"Not any more." Said Emma tiredly. "What ever invaded my mind has chased her back into her own." Emma lifted her head, reaching out for her apprentice far easier than the Ghostgirl could. "But I can still feel them."
"Please," Glenn begged in a sincere undertone. "You have to help her." His grey eyes met Emma's in a look of pure desperation, suddenly seeming small in spite of his great height and stature, but Emma found that it only served to strengthen her resolve, "I'll try." Emma promised. "But I don't know if I can."
I'm running. I'm running as fast as I can but the wolf is on my heels and getting faster. I can practically feel it's breath on my ankles as I try to get away. I'm running through my own mind, which has become much like a forest (not unlike Emma's) and I'm getting slower and slower, as though I'm being held down by a weight that steadily increases with each step I take. Just when I feel myself beginning to give out, however, I feel the animal fall back and I stop, panting, and look back.
It's Emma! Or a projection of Emma, I should say. She's nothing but a fuzzy, white, haze in the distance and she's already becoming cornered by the wolf as she visibly fights to control it. A streak of blue darts from her forehead and strikes the large beast once, twice, but nothing is strong enough to keep it down and it bounds to its feet with renewed vigor with each of the Telepath's blows.
" 'Go!' " I scream at her, thrusting out my palm and, to my surprise, a purple ball of energy flies from my palm and knocks the wolf into a tree with an echoing crack before it slumps to the ground in a heap of mass. I've always been able to project blasts of energy from my hands, but I've only been able to use them when in my astral body and I've never had this much control over them-
Until now.
" 'Go!' " I repeat as I make my way over. The beast is rising and she isn't strong enough to fight it off after it's fed off of her mind. She's still too weak. " 'You can't help me! Find what it is we took! Or we'll never see Donny again and she'll never leave us alone!' " I shout just as the wolf begins to shake and vibrate like some kind of satanic hound, frothing and foaming at the mouth through razor sharp teeth that glitter in the dark. " 'GO!' " I scream and use my mind to give her a push out of my mind before returning my attention to the wolf fast approaching me.
Scratch that: Wolves.
The thing has somehow multiplied and I now face three, frothing beasts with razor sharped teeth barred at me...
They had just laid her down on the bed when Liz's body suddenly jerked, forcing Azazel and Erik to forcibly hold her down while Raven and Emma worked to strap her into the bed. They couldn't risk having her hurt herself or someone else I her struggle. Especially since the only one most likely to understand what was happening was Emma Frost. And even she looked frightened which only served to increase the other's panic.
"What's happening?" Erik asked Emma heatedly as the woman seated herself before the Ghostgirl with one hand laid on her forehead, "She's fighting it. But it's strong, stronger than anything I've ever encountered before. It's split into three, now." Emma says, a little taken aback that Liz was not only able to take this moster out of her mind but that she would do that for her, despite the risks. After everything...
"You've got to help her!" Glenn barked angrily, unable to contain himself, and Angel was forced to step in front of the Mutant to keep him from lunging at Frost, his eyes glowing white in anger. No one could blame him. He'd already lost one friend that night. He couldn't afford to lose his best friend.
"I can't!" Emma snapped back, cringing at something she'd seen in Liz's mind. The lead wolf had lunged for Liz with claws extended, but she narrowly managed to avoid it's claws from raking across her face with one, well-placed energy blast. But it wouldn't save her for much longer. "I'm not-not strong enough." Emma confessed, her face heating at the notion. "I'll only make her chances worse-"
Again, Liz's body jerked in response to her mental distress, and a cry of pain escaped her lips. Emma jumped back in response, having still been connected to the other woman's mind, but when she returned her attention to the Mutant, she came to the halting realization that Elizabeth had fallen completely silent. She was no longer moving.
I open my eyes as far as I can but only manage to see through narrow slits. My eyes feel incredibly heavy and I feel like I'm waking up from a deep sleep.
"Emma," Erik says somewhere above me but Emma only shakes her head, "I can't see what is going on. I don't know..." She murmurs, looking quite upset and I frown and open my eyes a little wider, wondering what's going on. "She's awake!" Angel cries suddenly and they all peer closer at my now frowning face in shock. What, did they think I was dead?!
"What the hell?" I mutter, finally snapping out of my daze when I realize I'm strapped to a hospital bed. "Why am I-?" I begin to question as I tug at the restraints on my wrists, but stop talking abruptly when I remember what happened in my mind. I try to get up, stuggling against my bonds frantically. There's something I have to do and I have to do it right now!
"Woah, wait, Elizabeth! We'll get you out!" Glenn calls, holding me down while hands work at the bindings on my arms and legs. Once I'm freed, I shoot up and begin to pace around the tiny room, going over everything that just happened in my head as I move my lips feverishly without actually speaking, trying to piece it all together. "Liz, you're scaring us!" Angel says and I hold up a hand, saying, "Wait! I'm thinking!" I resume my pacing, murmuring, "But this doesn't make any sense! She says that we took something from her...But what did we take? Wait! I think she was talking about a person! But then who did we take? And when...?"
"Elizabeth," Azazel says, and I'm so startled, wondering if this is the first time he's said my name, that I stop talking as he takes me by the arms and gives me a small shake. I blink, pausing as I remember something very important. "She knows." I say softly, turning my head slowly to look at Emma, who looks like she's caught in the head lights of an oncoming truck. Everyone turns to look at her and Emma's wide, pleading eyes look back at them all uncertainly.
All except for me and Glenn.
"It's time." Erik says finally, sounding tired and quite old for his age. A tension falls over the room and Emma silently nods her head. The other's won't meet our eyes. "Time for what?" Glenn asks, suspicion lacing his voice with a hint of fear.
"It's time for you to know the truth." Erik states bluntly, apathetically, and the feeling of growing suspicion that's haunted me since we got here becomes all the more persistent as something the little girl said echoes in my head over and over...
" 'You don't know!' "
" 'You don't know anything!' "
THANKS FOR READING AND KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING! I LOOOOVE REVIEWS! ;D I THINK WE'RE NEARING THE CLIMAX OF THIS STORY BUT DON'T WORRY, THERE ARE PLENTY OF CHAPTERS LEFT IN ME! ;D
~THE SCRIBE! :D
