Sorry for the long wait again. I had a serious case of writers block.
Chapter 13
Truth Be Told
"We're cursed!" Remy finally yelled out as everyone looked at Marie who collapsed in Jean's arms.
"Marie!" yelled Logan, running towards Jean who held Marie in her arms.
"Let's get her inside." said Kurt. He walked over to Jean and helped Logan carry her inside.
Once everyone was inside, they laid Marie on the couch.
"I hope she's alright." said Ororo, as she sat on an empty chair.
"She'll be fine for now. She just needs her rest." said Erik.
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room. No one spoke to anyone. No one looked at anyone. Everyone just sat and waited for Marie to wake up. They stayed like that for about 20 minutes before Marie started to stir in her sleep. She groggily sat up and looked at everyone as they all stared at her.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"That's what we'd like to know." said Scott as he stood, leaning against the wall.
Marie looked at Erik as if asking for help. All Erik could do is nod. "Marie," he said, "I think it's finally time we tell our guest the real truth about all the weird things going on around here."
"What do you mean by the real truth?" asked Ororo.
Jean sighed, "First of all, Erik or Mr. Lensherr is not our grandfather. He isn't related to us at all."
"Actually," added Kurt, "none of us here are related at all."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," said Jubilee, "so you guys are saying that all that stuff about you being cousins is a lie?"
"Yeah." said Wanda.
"And, and you guys," Warren said pointing to John, Peter, and Marie, "aren't twins and she's not you sister."
The three teens nodded their heads.
"Ok, I don't understand, what are you guys doing here?" asked Ororo.
"We don't really know ourselves." said Raven.
"What do you mean you guys don't know?" asked Kitty.
"A very long time, we were all strangers on a bus on our way to California." said Erik. "I was going to visit my family, my real family. It was my first grandson's fifth birthday and I was bringing him his very own football, which I presume is the same one you guys were throwing around earlier this day."
"I was going to be a model in a new campaign." said Raven, "How I wish I had the chance to go and make something of myself."
"I was going to join the circus." said Kurt, "I have the skill of acrobatics. I too would have become famous, or at least well known."
"Peter, Remy and I were on our way to San Diego, to enlist in the army." John said not being able to look at anyone in the eye.
"I was going to meet my fiancé." said Wanda, "We were in the final stages of planning our wedding." she struggled a little to keep tears in.
"I was going to med school." Jean said. She looked up and caught a glimpse of Scott's eye. "I was on my way to becoming a doctor."
In that instant Pietro and Cain walked in the front door.
"Hey family, did we miss anything?" asked Cain as he saw every one sitting in the family room.
"They know Cain." said Wanda, "They know we're not cousins."
"Oh." said Pietro after Erik had recapped everything that had happened within the last hour.
"Hey Logan, Remy," said Cain while he took a seat on an empty chair next to Raven, "sorry, I didn't see you guys there."
Both Logan and Remy nodded towards Cain and Pietro.
"Well, I guess I might as well tell you why I was on that bus." said Cain, "I was going to meet up with my brother. We were gonna open up a garage together. To bad I'll never get to see 'Marko Brother's Garage' on a big sign anymore."
"I was on my way to a small city called Long Beach." said Pietro, "There, I was going to join a crew and go on a big fishing expedition."
Everyone looked at Logan and Marie, who were the only one's in the room who had not yet told why there were there.
"Marie and I," began Logan, "were on our way to Los Angeles to, to make a new name for ourselves."
"We were going to start a new life, you know, and get rid of the old one." said Marie, "Logan became my legal guardian about two years before this trip took place. The court said that the only way he could stay as my guardian was if he kept a steady job."
"About a month before we left for California, I lost my job." said Logan, "Social Services was quick to find out about it and said that since Marie was not yet of legal age, and she wouldn't be for about a year, that I was still responsible for her well being. They threatened to send her away to a foster home. So I heard about a job offer out in a L.A and jumped at it. That's how we ended up on that bus."
"What about Callisto and Sarah?" asked Warren.
"Callisto and Sarah were both going to L.A to find music careers." said Peter.
"So you see, none of us are related at all." said Erik.
"I don't get it, why would you all lie to us?" asked Jubilee.
"Because," spoke Marie, "if we told you the truth, this would have all taken place sooner."
"Why is that a bad thing?" asked Scott.
Marie looked down at the floor.
"It's a bad thing because if we told you, you wouldn't have stuck around as long as you guys have." replied Jean as she met Scott's stare.
"Does this have anything to do with what Remy said?" asked Bobby as he looked at his hands.
Everyone turned to look at Bobby who till now remained silent the whole time.
"Well you sure catch on quickly don't you?" asked Remy smirking.
Marie glared at Remy. She looked over at Bobby and smiled warily. "Yeah, it does."
"So what are you trying to say? Are you guys like vampires or something-what? Are you guys dead is that what you guys are trying to tell us?" asked Bobby slightly annoyed.
The room went silent. Bobby and his friends looked around the room trying to find an explanation as to what is really going on.
"Shit," said Warren breaking the eerie silence, "I think they're serious."
"Um, Bobby," said Marie. Bobby looked up at her. She saw a state of shock and confusion in his eyes. "Do you remember when I said I was 60 years old?"
Bobby slowly nodded his head, not sure if he really wanted to hear the rest of her sentence.
"I wasn't lying, I was telling the truth." she said as a tear started to fall from her eye.
Ororo started laughing, "What is this, some kind of joke? Ok, we get it now, the joke's on us."
"We're not joking around Ms. Munroe." said Erik.
Her laughing stopped as she saw the look of seriousness on all their faces.
"What?" she asked, "You can't be serious."
"But we are." said Raven.
"It was a stormy night," began Erik, "on October 17, 1962. We were all on that bus traveling to California, when suddenly the strangest thing happened…"
"There were bumps on the road and lightning somehow hit the bus." continued Pietro.
"The rain added to that by making the road slippery. The driver somehow lost control of the bus and swerved off the road." said Jean, "The bus fell off a fifty foot cliff."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Scott said, "if that bus fell, than that would mean you guys would be-"
"Dead." said Peter.
There was an eerie silence in the room. The only thing that could be heard was the snowfall that gently started to fall outside.
"So," sighed Jubilee, "are you guys like ghosts or something?" she asked.
"No, not really." said Wanda.
"I don't understand, this is, this is just to weird." said Kitty.
"But it's the truth." said John.
"You see, the funny thing here is that we're cursed." said Cain.
"We're sorry you had to find out like this." Kurt said.
"No we're sorry," said Scott, "C'mon kids, lets go pack, we're leaving in an hour."
"Scott wait," said Jean, "give us a chance to explain first. Please?"
"Explain what? How you lied to us?" he asked. "I-mean, for all we know your lying to us right now. You guys could be plotting to kill us all and take off with everything we have."
"That's not true." said Raven.
"Then prove it." Ororo said.
Jean sighed and looked away.
"That's what we thought." said Scott, "C'mon kids."
"Wait!" yelled Marie. She suddenly got up and ran out. She came back a few seconds later with a knife in her hand. "You want me to prove it?" she asked as she held the knife in front of her and stabbed herself in the stomach before anyone could stop her.
"Marie!" they all yelled in unison as they saw the girl drop down on the floor gasping for breath.
Logan ran over to her and helped her sit up. There was blood gushing out of her stomach. Marie gasped for breath as she put her hand over her wound.
"Oh my Lord!" yelled Ororo as she covered her eyes, "What have you done?"
However, before anyone could say anything else, Logan slowly helped Marie to her feet. She took her hand away from her wound. Everyone stared in awe as blood, along with the wound, had begun to disappear. Pretty soon, it looked as if she never stabbed herself. Marie dropped the knife on the floor and took in a deep breath.
"Ok, this is just way too weird for me." said Jubilee.
"But it's the truth," John said, "we're not lying to you. We can't die, not even if we tried."
"But you guys said something about Marie dying and becoming corrupted or something like that." said Kitty.
"What Marie is going through is something that everyone else before us went through." said Erik.
"What do you mean?" ask Ororo.
"Every four years, They choose someone from the house." said Raven.
"Wait," Scott waved her off, "who chooses?"
"They do. We don't exactly know hat or who they are. But They choose who should be next." said Kurt.
"Next for what?" asked Kitty.
"Next for destruction, for becoming corrupted, for being eaten alive, for many horrible things." said Jean.
At that, Bobby suddenly stood up and walked out of the parlor.
"Bobby." said Marie as she followed him out the parlor and out the door.
Everyone got up to follow the two.
"Bobby wait!" yelled Marie, "Wait please can you just listen to me for a second?" she got him by the hand.
Bobby stopped and turned to face her. "Listen to what? Do you want me to listen to you lie some more?"
"Bobby I'm not lying anymore." she said.
"Marie, I don't even know what to believe anymore. Everything you've ever told me about you was a lie."
"I know and I'm sorry." a tear started to slide down her cheek, "I never wanted to hurt you."
"Well you did." He looked behind her and saw the others standing behind her, witnessing everything that had just been said between them.
"Mr. Drake," he heard Erik say, "Believe us all when she says we didn't want to hurt you at all. Truth be told, it is my fault that the whole thing began. I should have never allowed her to suggest that you help."
"Help in what?" asked Bobby.
"Help in helping us break this curse, before it happens again." said Marie.
"What would you need us to help you in?" asked Ororo.
"There's this theory that whoever bears the emblem of truth and power can help break this curse." said Jean.
"What makes you think we have it?" asked Kitty.
"Actually, Bobby is the only one who has it." said Marie. She pointed to the emblem of the white eagle with the snake in its beak on Bobby's jacket.
"What, this?" he asked, looking down at his emblem, "No, no, this, I got this at the mall back in the city. It can't be it."
"But it is." said Wanda.
"You can help us," said Raven, "You can all help us."
"I'm sorry," said Bobby, "but I can't. Not even if I tried, I wouldn't know what to do."
"Please Bobby." said Jean.
"I'm sorry." Bobby said.
"Please," sobbed Marie, "we need your help. If you don't help us, we could never rest in peace. We would be living in hell forever. You don't know what it's like to be waiting around to find out if your next or if your not. You don't know what it's like to find someone missing in the morning. You never know if they went for a walk or, or, or if they were taken. Please, we need your help."
"We all believe that you are the one to help us." said Erik as he walked towards Bobby, "Sadly, we can't force you to help us. You can leave and forget this ever happened. You can go on and live your life, go to school, get that career you always wanted, settle down and start a family. But the truth of the matter is, we are cursed people Mr. Drake, none of us will ever have the opportunity to do what you all can. But, it's your decision, will you help us?"
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