It seemed the best time to leave the mansion for the day. Even though it had been quiet (save for moving people out north by the droves), Danielle found it relaxing to try and see the home she grew up in. Granted, it had been some years since she had been there and the place was hardly maintained, but she needed something familiar to hold onto before departing. Her mother committing suicide the way she did reminded her of where she came from and that alone was comforting.
Besides, Logan was coming with her. He insisted on it, claiming that the town was dangerous enough, even at the outskirts where the property laid, and that she needed protection. Danielle could have laughed had Logan not been serious. After all, she was bringing the children, hoping to let them loose and get them some fresh air, and was more than able to protect them, although she still felt weak and her skills as an assassin were rusty. However, at least Logan would be nearby and able to get them to safety if something happened.
If…
Danielle drove an extra vehicle from the mansion garage to her childhood home, now abandoned and empty of all life. When she parked the car, delaying in unbuckling the children from their car seats, Danielle stared at the place as the memories overwhelmed her, feeling that she wasn't supposed to be here, but needing to find closure. Her earliest years had been spent in happiness before her father left them, lamenting over a pool of blood he alone created. Over the course of time, she had looked back at that day with dread, trying to make footsteps that veered in many different directions and all of them with the pulls of others on her shoulder.
However, all of that was gone and before Danielle stood the true ruins of neglect. From there, the child with a thousand years behind her eyed the flaws. The vinyl siding was coming apart from the top and it appeared as if squirrels had made a home inside of the walls. The shingles on the roof were peeling off and some spots were even bare from the harsh winter winds and moods. Various plants sprouted here and there throughout the place, unable to be weeded and begging to thrive and vine around the house.
This made Danielle think. She tapped the steering wheel with her fingers impatiently, unable to believe that all of those years had come down to this, and tried making an action plan on restoring the place for their return. Resolving to start cleaning it up and relive some good memories at the very least, she exited the car, pocketing the keys and opening up the back to take Riley and Michael out. The former smiled a gummy grin and the latter clamored to be freed, asking all sorts of questions.
Logan followed suit as soon as the children were released, deciding on keeping a distance behind Danielle and the boys as they headed for the door. He glanced around on the way there as well, feeling it a little off and like they were surrounded, and took out a cigar to smoke on the porch. While the old plastic chairs had been destroyed some time ago, he still found the railing sound, perching there as the smoke whirled around him.
Danielle shook her head. "You gonna be out here for a while?" she asked, juggling the keys, diaper bag, bouncy seat and Riley in her arms. It was also the first words she uttered since expressing her wishes to come over before they left the mansion.
Logan exhaled away from Riley and raised an eyebrow. "I figured as much."
"Fine." Danielle had no time for the easiness. "You stay here and check the damage outside. I want to get an idea of what's inside and how the structure is holding up. I think the stairs will be ok and I can work upstairs a little."
"You mind if I clean up a bit out here?"
"If it makes you happy, Logan, go for it. I'll be with the kids inside."
Danielle seemed irritated to Logan. He left their conversation at that, finishing his cigar as she unlocked the door from an old set of keys and entered. From the uncovered window, he saw that she settled Riley on the old dining room table and buckled him into the seat, setting up the ring of playthings above his head. Then, she spread out a blanket on the floor nearby, putting enough toys there for Michael to be entertained with. Certain that she would have no further trouble in the next five minutes or so, Danielle walked around the area, testing the floors and checking the walls. Then, she disappeared upstairs.
Logan chuckled at Danielle's cautiousness. The house itself was sound and sturdy. It just needed a little more work. Some things needed to be replaced and others cleaned (and that seemed silly to do now that it was planned that they would be moving to Canada). Definitely, the place needed to be weeded and mowed. Logan wasn't looking forward to the outside work. He knew that he volunteered himself, but it was going to be a long job and one that would not be concluded until peace was declared. Best to wait out the storm, he figured. Instead, he had to amuse Danielle and come over to check the place out.
Still, something was off. Ever since Logan stepped out of the car, he sensed something was not right and that it was too quiet. He wasn't sure if Danielle felt it too. It was like someone was closing in on them. Indeed, Logan smelled other people around them and then Jay's presence. It could have been because Jay lived here for so long and his scent was all over the place, but Logan doubted it. He was nearby…and inside the house with maybe three others who snuck in before they arrived.
It's a trap!
Throwing what remained of his cigar to the side, Logan sprinted inside, knocking the door off of its hinges and leaving it hanging loosely. He checked on Michael and Riley. While they were content with each other and their toys (Michael even teased Riley and giggled), Logan still felt uneasy, especially leaving them alone. He yelled for Danielle, begging for her to come downstairs, and heard nothing from above except her gentle footsteps. He debated running after her, but there wasn't anybody to watch the kids.
Danielle could take care of herself. Logan was sure of it. Unleashing his claws, he waited.
~00~
It was a little cold upstairs, but Danielle did not mind that. She wanted to see the hallways again, walk through the bedrooms and remember the good times. She first stopped in Jay's bedroom. It was the same as it was before he left, but it was covered in dust, even the Army cot he always slept on emitting particle through the window's sunshine. Smiling, Danielle moved in, skipping the guest bedrooms and her mother's as well, thinking it too raw to think up people who are long gone.
Instead, passing the bulging bookcases full of old books and the pictures that showed families members dead or not present anymore, Danielle stopped at the end of the hallway, her bedroom. The door had been closed shut and was difficult to open. Finally, it creaked open when she tried to the cold knob a few more times and kicked the bottom. Inside, the curtains had been drawn, almost in the same manner she left them all that time ago. Feeling this darkness too overwhelming, Danielle opened the room to some light.
Dust flew in the light and planted itself on the intruder's body. Danielle blew it out of her face, looking around at the inner sanctum of her younger years. Nothing much had changed except age. The bed had been covered with a sheet to avoid it dirtying. The closet held all of the shoes and clothes she used as a teenager. Even the odd knickknacks held some nostalgia for Danielle, the fantasy creatures and award plaques of long ago holding memories, both good and bad.
Danielle was sucked into the past that she almost did not hear Logan yelling for her downstairs and some feet shuffling around the house. Logan sounded frantic and frightened, something that alarmed her into action. She turned for the door, but suddenly felt a pull from an old and acquainted force, locking her into place. When she found the source of it, she gasped. It was Jay.
Jesus Christ!
Jay, who Danielle had not seen since their mother's funeral some years before, appeared a lot older than thirty-three years old. He was pale, wretched in clothes too big on him, and was a scarecrow in every way. He had lost most of the reddish-brown hair of his youth (he was practically bald for God's sake!) and his eyes were sunken and lifeless, devoid of the red and black he and Danielle showed at every opportunity. He soon was on his knees too, his hands folded in a prayer-like stance, ankle chains rattling beneath him.
"Please, Ghost," Jay begged, using a name that Danielle hardly did in the past. "Please get out of here. Forget me. Just get them all out of here."
Danielle did not need to be told twice, not even lingering to ask how Jay was doing. Dashing for the door, she ran as fast as she could down the hallway and to the stairs. Before she even took a step down though, someone grabbed her from behind, almost out of nowhere and maybe from Jay's old bedroom. She fought back, pulling out the knives she had been carrying with her since arriving back in Salem Center. She managed to slice an arm and heard some swearing before struggling free. By then, she used the railing and snaked down in a slide, rushing to Logan and her children.
By the time Danielle reached the bottom and was in the dining room, she stopped in front of a barrel of a gun. She followed the metal object to the owner, seeing her husband in a rage. In one hand, he held the weapon close to her head. In the other, he had Riley, who was crying hysterically. Logan was no longer in sight.
Danielle noted that Leon was not pleased and was worse off than the last time she saw him. However he was dying on the inside. Indeed, even in his sixties, he seemed older than the start of his glorious reign some years before. His clothes were just as dirty and ragged as Jay's, but better-fitted. He was well traveled, especially after his campaign in Mexico, and that wore him down. It must have taken him a lot to find them, Danielle mused, and he had spent miles and men to get there. That alone was a very frightening thought.
"Leon, we can work this out," Danielle began, working out a plan in her mind to escape. She first needed to get the children out and then find Logan, wherever he was. "Give me the children."
"To you?" Ellis laughed, the gun shaking slightly in his hand. "You, a mutant who has done nothing more than betray me? Lie to me and pretend to be the perfect wife? I don't think so. Say your prayers, Danielle. This time, you'll never see the light of day again and neither will your lover or your sons. It'll be the day of your death you'll behold the last goodness God gave us. Let's just hope you get forgiveness then."
By then, Danielle knew she had to act. Using the same speed and agility as before, she pulled out a knife and aimed it at Ellis' arm to push the gun out of her way and maybe have it skid a few feet away from them, all in order to get some time. She succeeded, causing Ellis to drop the weapon and Riley and curse her to hell. Danielle caught her baby before he hit the floor and swung over to liberate Michael, using her one free hand to punch the additional captor in the face, tripping him. She quickly disabled him and grabbed her oldest and was soon running for the door, taking a large chance by leaving herself so open. She had hardly reached her destination when she felt a sharp sting at her right side.
I've been hit!
Behind her, Leon Ellis stood, his gun smoking from the sudden usage. He shot again, missing his children and hitting their mother in the arm instead. By then, Danielle collapsed, using her body to cover her children from any further assault. Ellis moved closer, hoping to finish the job, and did not look up in time to see Logan jump and then sprint through the door and tackle him to the floor.
Logan regretted not coming back in time, fighting his way through a series of men around the house before reaching Danielle and her kids when they had been ambushed and Ellis arrived with his supporters. As he rolled around the kitchen with Ellis, laboring to grab the gun before the deposed dictator tried using it again, he kept his eye on the three he needed to get out and almost lost. With so much guilt built up in Logan, he struggled more, trying to get more hits on Ellis and missing since the man had combat training. Logan had had to quell it, concentrating his frustrations on the man who made this miserable mess. There would be enough time to get Danielle some help before long.
Using his full weight, Logan finally managed to get back on top and still Ellis with his knee. The gun had slithered across the floor, just out of reach of the two. Ellis tried making a grab for it, but squirmed enough to be just inches away. Logan wanted to laugh triumphantly. Slowly, he pushed it more out of the way with his spare foot, just about to punch Ellis in the face when he too was shot from behind. This was no ordinary bullet though and one that even made the mutant stagger.
Continuously, a series of shots rang out, all of them hitting Logan in the back and paralyzing him. Groaning, he dropped as quickly as he came in, unsure of why he could not get back up. He was soon staring up at the yellowed, moldy ceiling, not knowing where he was or why and struggling to find the answer. He had the day's events in his mind a few times, from the morning at the mansion to now, but it was fleeting. Shaking his head a few times cleared it, although it left him feeling like he was many, many years ago when events cascaded and surrounded him with choices that led to death.
It was the most horrifying thing that Logan could turn back to. He was slowly transforming back into a mindless animal.
Peter Ellis came within Logan's sight, his own hands smoking with something. Logan could not tell what it was then. All he could feel was that the Ellis cousin was kicking him fiercely, laughing as he did, even if the wounds healed quickly. Logan could not focus still, trying to figure out what happened…why they had been so stupid…how Danielle could have not put aside her feelings and run away when they could.
In an abrupt burst, Logan found his strength and lunged up again, but Peter had him on the floor once more, closer to Danielle though and Logan not seeing how and why. Ignoring the Ellis cousins behind him, scheming already how to handle the situation, Logan crawled towards Danielle, tired of the attacks. He managed to reach her right side, feeling the pool of blood underneath his body and hoping the two kids were alive. He turned her face towards his, noting the red hair dipped in a color more fine than it already was and the pale body slipping towards death.
Underneath her, Michael and Riley breathed, the both of them whimpering in fear, especially the baby. Logan did not want them to see this last scene as their final memory of their mother (Michael especially), but they had to choice now and all thanks to their father. He raised Danielle's face to his and kissed it, her cold lips hardly returning the favor. He tried again just as Ellis and his cousin shot him again, this time in the neck. Danielle kissed him back gently this time, opening her hazel eyes that turned red and then onyx black.
"I love you, Logan," Danielle whispered, a rattle caught in her lips. "Don't you ever forget that."
Logan was about to mouth back the words that Danielle wanted to hear. He said them a few times to her since they had been together and it didn't seem too hard to comply. When he tried though, he could not get the words out. All he felt was a tap to the back of his head…and then nothing more.
Surprise for all of you! Another note and another chapter in the same night. I hope you all enjoy it. This section of the past and the future will be featured soon. By then, we'll move towards the end of the conclusion of this series (unless I have something else in mind) and a new beginning. This girl also saw the new trailers and caught up, so I'll leave speculation to everyone. Who else loves the last that features...GASPS!...Logan?!