Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men. I do own minor characters of my own creation.
Thank you to all my dedicated readers and new readers!
The classroom was still noisy with the sounds of last minute test desperation, when I shuffled in and plopped down the chair next to Kitty. The valley girl watched me with the same curiosity Remy had, but didn't speak. Maybe she knew that I wasn't in the mood to talk about my feelings? Smart kid.
The teacher came into the room a few minutes later and handed out our tests with a sickening smile on his face. Why he seemed to get pleasure in our pain I didn't know. But as he stopped at my desk, the look in his eyes held the warning I knew he was thinking in the back of his head. If I managed to pass this test with anything better then a 'C' he would accuse me of copying Kitty or cheating through some other method. The old fart had already made up his mind that I was a horrible science student, so getting a good grade at this point would be nothing but suspicious to him.
I took the test as quickly as I could. There really wasn't any point in wasting effort reading the questions, since all I could think about was my conversation with Remy. I wanted to blame the Cajun. I wanted to be able to truthfully admit that these horrible feelings tumbling inside my body were all his fault, but I couldn't. For some reason, I couldn't stop blaming myself for everything going on.
My pencil circled the last answer on the test just as the rest of the class was starting page three of the giant packet. Kitty watched me in unabashed curiosity as I got up from my chair, walked up to the equally confused teacher, and dropped my test in front of him. "Done."
"But, you…" He tried to think of some objection, but came up with nothing, "Fine. Enjoy your break."
Once the words of freedom were spoken I took off without a single glance back to the classroom. There was no time to sit and mope in the hallways over what happened this morning. I had a plan to take care of and I needed to get the last supply.
The library staff gave me a few quizzical looks as I entered the large room. They all seemed to be curious as to why a student would stop by the library this close to vacation. In order to ease their suspicions, and my own pounding heart, I walked over to the classic literature section and started to browse loudly, "Now which would be a good car trip book…"
The Librarians heard my fake musing and seemed to be appeased since they went back to their own work. Without the watchful eyes of the library staff, the rest of the assignment was easy. I was able to check out the atlas with little suspicion from the librarians who, surprisingly, seemed to really think I was interested in finding places to go over the break. Seemed kinda naïve to me that they had no outright suspicion about me, but then again they had no idea what was really going on. They were blissfully unaware of everything.
Once I left the musty library, I knew that it was now or never to complete my plan. There was no turning back now. The safest thing to do would be to get a large amount of distance between me and the X-men. If I tried to find the location in the atlas now there would be a good chance one of my fellow mutants would catch me. So, with a strangely heavy heart I made my way out to the back of the school, took off into the air, and left the only true home I had for the mystery of a faraway place.
I loved flying. Being able to float by myself in the sky had always been a cheap form of therapy. But as I zipped through the clouds and around flocks of birds, my mind was finding the flight to be almost torturous. Everything around me reminded me of the fact I was leaving everything I knew behind. And even though I fought it, there was still the annoying voice in the back of my head trying desperately to convince me to turn around and go back home. When exactly had I grown so fond of the mansion and the X-men? I guess they had gotten under my skin more then I realized.
After a good three hours of flying through the skies, I landed in the middle of a forest clearing. The place was surrounded by dense trees which seemed a great bonus since I was on the run from a group of mutants. I would need any bit of defense I could get to outrun the psychics and 'Mister Super-Sense Logan'. Then again, maybe they wouldn't search for me… Maybe they would realize what a benefit my leaving would be for them? I tried to focus on that thought as I sat my bag on the snow covered ground and pulled out a thicker jacket. Once I was bundled up in the extra layer, I pulled out the atlas and started trying to figure out where my destination was located. I had spent half of the night planning and studying the locket so the numbers were practically engraved in my brain. The process was slow and rather cumbersome since I had no idea whether or not I was even in the right section of the map. Why was it that there had to be so many damn numbers on the thing?!
"Come on!" I groaned and searched the pages of the thin book, "It's freezing out here. Just work with me!" My mind must have officially left me. Here I was in the freezing snow yelling at a book. What kind of idiot was I becoming?
"Damn book…" I shivered in my jacket and flipped another page or two, "Probably be better off using you as a fire starter. At least then you would be helpful-"
I stopped mid sentence as something on the page caught my attention. With little if any hope, I stared closer at the page and started to try and decipher the numbers of the locations latitude and longitude. After a few moments of work, I found that the mystery location was no longer a mystery; It was just a long, long, long way from here. A sigh escaped my frozen lips as I stood up and pulled my hood over my head. This was going to be a long and bitterly cold flight…
I lost track of exactly how many hours I had been flying during what felt like the millionth hour. The sun had set a while ago and my speed had decreased because of it. I had already flown into a tree since there were no lights in the wooded area, and I was not going to run into another if I could help it. The snow had started to fall harder as the temperature steadily dropped.
"Why coul…couldn't I go.. go on this se..search in the sum…sum..summer?!" I complained through shivers to the clouds unmercifully dropped large snowflakes on my head. Though I know it was immature, I half expected someone to yell back a response. I guess the silence was getting to me more then I wanted to admit. It made sense in a way that I would have grown used to being surrounded by noise. A mansion full of teenage mutants was always noisy, and now the silence around me was somewhat depressing and unnerving.
I sighed softly as exhaustion and possibly hypothermia began to set in, and descended into the forest covered area hoping that I could find some kind of shelter where I could get a few hours of sleep out of the wind and snow. There wasn't much hope left in me that I would actually find a decent place to catch some sleep, but after a few minutes of wandering around the rural area I spotted what looked like a cave of sorts nestled into a cliff side a few feet above the ground. It seemed strange to me that a cave, or even a feature like the tall cliff, would be in a place like this, but I wasn't going to argue with the chance to sleep in a place that held no snow.
Slowly, I flew up to the mouth of the cave and looked inside. It was unlikely that an animal willing to try and eat me resided in the cave, but I decided to use my cautious side and search a little before barging through the entrance. The place looked like it had never been used as a shelter. It was as if no human had ever been inside it. I figured there would have been something like cave drawings on the walls or even some trash from a bunch of tourists, but the place was completely empty of anything but its natural features.
My sore body collapsed inside the cave and leaned against the left wall. I couldn't remember the last time I had been this tired. Then again, I had never flown for so long without a break. The wind outside began to blow harder forcing a few blasts of icy air to hit me inside the cave. I shivered and hugged my body to try and keep warm through the onslaught of winter weather. If I could just get some sleep then everything would be better…
Sometime later, I was awakened by a soft noise that almost resembled a song. My eyes blinked open slowly since a bit of frost had started to grow over my eyelashes. But, when I looked around the cave there was nothing in sight. My brain was too tired to investigate so I merely readjusted myself against the hard wall and tried to pretend it was the wind. That thought let me fall back into my cold sleep until I started to hear the soft sound turn into a comprehendible voice;
"Who are you? Who are you?"
This time the strange voice's words somewhat disturbed me. I stood up from my position and felt my frozen joints ache with each movement. Whether it was my practice with Logan or just dumb luck, I didn't know, but I was able to asses that the sing-song phrases were coming from farther back in the cave. The voice started grew louder as I began to slowly wander further into the cave prepared for a fight, if an attacker should try and jump out at me. My tired eyes scanned the deeper parts of the cave and were surprised to discover that I was alone in the darkness. The fact I couldn't spot anyone else nearby, did nothing to kill my suspicions that I was not alone. There had to be someone making the noise… But who?
"Do you know little girl?"
As the voice came to me again I shivered uncomfortably, but continued to follow the noise deeper inside the cave. I had no idea the dang thing was so long, but as I kept following the sing-song voice I found myself wandering further and further into the rocky rooms.
"Are you lost little girl? Can you not see with your heart?"
The voice was singing some kind of tune to me now that I didn't recognize. It was somewhat strange to me how the voice was enchanting yet at the same time incredibly creepy. There had to be someone in the cave with me. I was not just hearing this voice! Or was I? Hearing strange voices when I was completely alone was not too far from the normal for me. As I rounded another corner of the cave the voice fell silent.
"Hello?" I looked around the room and still saw nothing out of the normal. Granted, with such limited light I was thankful I could see any part of the room.
After a few minutes of waiting for the mystery sound to return, I was ready to turn around and head back. As I turned my back a small giggle filtered through the cave and into my ear. My body jumped into a defensive pose, but relaxed somewhat as I heard a child's voice accompany the laugh from the other side of the room.
"Aren't you coming?!" The voice asked and let loose another familiar giggle that echoed off the walls of the cave.
My eyes opened wider as the sound clicked into place and I suddenly remembered where I had heard that noise before. I took a few tentative steps forward, and caught my foot on a rock jutting up from the floor. After picking myself up I tried to stare off into the distance before calling out to the girl, "Molly?!"
"Come on!" Molly, who I still couldn't see, yelled once more.
"Look," I wiped some of the dirt off my jacket and started to walk carefully over the raised floor, "I don't know what's going on here and I want some answer-"
My words were cut off as a blindingly bright light erupted from the floor. I looked down and saw through squinted eyes that my locket had started to glow with a brighter hue then it had during the last fight. What was up with this damn thing?
As the glow of the locket grew brighter, I felt the floor beneath my feet start to heat up in rapid succession. The idea that I could feel such a strong warmth through boots and wool socks was disturbing, to say the least. I looked down to what I had thought was merely a stone floor, and found a round stone, At least, I assumed it was a stone underneath the strange lights that attempted to permanently scar my retinas.
"What the hell?!" I watched through the tears starting to leak out of my eyes as the light began to crawl up my legs and encompasses my torso. Desperately, I shook my legs and tried in vain to detach myself from this strangely warm substance. Each movement felt harder and harder to make as the force continued to slide up past my neck and over my face.
"Let me go!" I yelled as the blanket like light started to cover the very top of my head leaving me in a deathly silence.
