Part Eleven

Silence


The main door closed on its own when Remy and Penelope reached it, throwing back the maitrê d' who was standing just outside. The whole restaurant began to fill with a sickening sense of dread much similar to the one Remy felt when he had stood outside the mansion with Rogue. They turned around to see Louis' headless body vibrating violently.

Slowly he realized that the body was, somehow, laughing. Truly, he could hear it as he began to realize that, in his head. Penelope must have heard that too, as she started to cover her ears and hugged him tighter.

The laughter was playing in his head like some insistent gramophone, playing over and over again. Under the bright afternoon sun illuminated by the glass paneled roof from above Remy saw something else was happening to the body; from the gaping hole that was Louis' neck frothed out something akin to water but with thick consistency and its color was clear, like water. Just as slowly it began to overflow from the severed neck and fell out in disgusting small tendrils. They gained more dimension as they touched the floor, hissing and searching.

All the while the laughter never cease in their heads.

A woman who sat next to Louis' table fainted the moment the watery tendrils touched her, which was all the better because the next thing that happened made the patrons screamed in terror.

One of the tendrils touched her leg and quickly, as if her skin was some stimuli it bound her feet and flung her across the room, toward a seventeenth century shield that had a sharp spike on the middle. It met her head and the tendril hungrily licked at the blood and entered the shattered head. Slowly they all saw the body began to deflate and melt away.

Terrified silence reigned for a moment before panic exploded and turned one of the most prestigious restaurant in Manhattan into a swamp of survival and fear.

The laughter in their heads served to heighten the craziness more. The tendrils gained speed and velocity, as if the first victim nourished the rest of them with vital energy. The panicked patrons who were not fast enough were plucked of their feet and flung across the room, splattering their brains on the marble wall while the tendrils feasted on them greedily.

And it went on.



"We have to stop him," Hank said when Xavier was done. "He is a deadly force. Remy cannot fight him alone."

"But even if we got there in time, how can we fight him? From what I heard, he's as close as he can be to being invincible," Bobby said.

"Everyone has a weakness, Bobby," Logan said. "We just have to know where to look."

"Oh yeah? Where, in National Geographic?"

Logan gave him a black-daggers stare. "Use your brains, pretty boy."

Elisabeth snapped her fingers. "I think I've got it."

"What is it?" they all chorused.

"Ectoplasm."



Everything was quiet now. Almost all of the patrons were either on the floor or on the wall, all were lifeless. The once civilized-looking restaurant now resembled a barbaric slaughter house. Penelope and Remy sat huddled together in a corner, their escape thwarted by the firmly closed doors and windows. Even when Remy shattered the windows open it seemed there was another unseen barrier that forbade them to reach outside.

Louis' laughter had long cease, and now his body lay quietly on the chair, shaking now and then. The tendrils, however were still around him, hissing threateningly whenever Remy tried to venture closer.

Not now, Remy, he heard Louis in his head. I want to have a fair fight with you. Can't you see I'm not ready?

"You damned devil! When are you going to stop dis?"

I never intend to stop unless you die before me, Louis replied. A tendril rose like a snake would toward him and he lithely stepped aside, avoiding its blood-red tip still drenched from the blood of its victims. Then I will stop.

"Why, Louis. What have I done to deserve dis," Remy said almost pleadingly.

YOU KILLED PENNY! Louis suddenly bellowed in his head, making the whole world around him spin mercilessly. YOU KILLED HER AND LET HER DIE WITHOUT A TRACE! I CAN'T EVEN FIND HER BONES! I CAN'T EVEN ERECT A GRAVESTONE FOR HER!

"Louis, you don't understand! Remy never killed her! Remy never met her that day! You can't imagine Remy's feelin' when she died! I was hurt too!"

LIAR!

"Stop...," Penelope said suddenly. "Louis, I told you... Remy did not kill me..."

STOP!

"Then who did?" Remy asked her.

STOP!!

Penelope looked at him with tired eyes, looking more and more transparent with each breath. "Monsieur Sinister."

LIAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!

The scream exploded in Remy's brain; it crippled him for a while as the tendrils suddenly elongated around and past Remy toward Penelope, wound themselves around her and pulled her toward Louis. Quickly Remy grabbed hold of Penelope's hands that flailed amongst the wild tentacles and pulled them.

"Remy..."

"Non! Tell me what you've said is not true!"

She shook her head slowly; Louis's screams deafening in the background. "I don't lie, Remy... what is it left for me to lose, or gain? He did it, Remy, but I don't know why..."

Her hands was fast fading in his hold. "Remy, let me go."

"NON!" He was close to tears.

She suddenly smiled, a calm, unfettered smile. "You did well, as a friend, as a lover. I never had the chance to repay your kindness. Now please let me do so before I lose this chance forever."

"Wha - " he began just as he felt her hands simply fade in his hold. "No.. no no... Penny,... Penny!" He fumbled as Penelope's figure dissolved inside the chaotic tangles slowly. "Penny!"

Louis began to shake involuntarily as a slow glow suffused from toe to head. Just as it reached his head his almost perfectly formed head began to split and crack, letting out something similar to a club fungi expelling its spores. Just as it reached the air it quickly disappeared. Then his head closed again as he fell on the floor shaking, groaning.

There was a loud crash; Remy looked upwards. The glass-paneled roof was broken, and a large jagged piece fell toward him fast.

Mon Dieu, he thought as he closed his eyes.