Author's note:
Ohmigawd, is it really August?!?!?!? WOW!!!!!! You guys, you are amazing, I can't believe the amount of reviews I've gotten these past months! Well, people should be rewarded, so here you are, you wonderful people you! Your prayers have been answered! 'Disappearance' lives! MWAHAHAHAHA * cough, cough, hack *
Title: Disappearance
Author: Soli
Rating: PG-13/R for angst
Coupling: Kurt/Kitty, a little bit of Scott/Jean
Summary: When Kurt is kidnapped, the rest of the X-men have to save him….before it's too late
Dedication: To XshellsparkX. May you one day find that all-girl boarding school of your dreams. They could use a guy like you.
Chapter 7: "Dark of the Night."
The room was so dark.
Then again, the room usually was dark when it was three A.M. The little light from the window cast a long shadow across the room. Everything was silent except for the light snoring coming from the left half of the room. Everything was dark except for the moonlight reflecting on sorrowful brown eyes.
Kitty shivered in the night's chill and wrapped herself tightly in her pink cocoon of a blanket. She was tired, so very tired, but she couldn't close her eyes. Every time she did, all she saw was him. His warm eyes, so full of mischief and compassion, stared at her with warmth and some akin -but more- than friendship. He would tilt his head in that certain way of his, so that the two long locks of hair that framed his furry face brushed across his eyes, almost hiding them from view. Then he would smile at her, that cute heart-breaking smile that showed off his little canines.
God, he was so beautiful. He would lean towards her, parting his lips slightly, ever so slightly…
Then the blood would trickle down his chin and from his eyes, and Kurt, her Kurt but not her Kurt, would start screaming.
And as she watched, horrified, blood would spurt from a hundred different wounds and Kurt would fall to the floor, red stained eyes staring at her accusingly, as if the sudden bleeding was her fault.
She always felt it was.
Kitty shivered again. This time it had nothing to do with the coldness of the room. Rogue's snoring could still be heard, and the shadows were still cast on the carpeted floor. If she concentrated hard enough, it looked like the shadows were moving…
Large, brown eyes widened. The shadows were moving.
Fearfully, she moved her eyes upward to the figured cloaked in the darkness. At first she saw nothing. She started to doubt that she had really seen the shadows move. Almost.
Then an outline became clear. Almost as if an invisible hand had taken up a pencil and was drawing a figure that became clearer and clearer as he continued. A familiar figure, one that she knew…
Oh, God.
"Keety."
It was as if she had lost control of her body. Kitty found herself frantically trying to untangle herself from the blanket she had bound herself in not too long ago. She had managed to get her arms loose when she remembered her phasing powers and nearly groaned out loud, cursing herself for forgetting. She had wasted time, so much time…
The figure stepped from the shadows as Kitty fell off the bed. From her place on the floor, Kitty found herself staring at familiar two-toed feet. Her eyes slowly wandered up, devouring the crooked legs, the lanky frame, the softly parted lips, and finally, the yellow eyes, still filled with warmth. Warmth for her.
"Kurt," she croaked out, barely trusting her own voice. Kurt smiled that wonderful, tooth-revealing smile. But he didn't move, didn't give her a hand up.
"Kurt?" She asked again, confused as she scrambled up. Kurt just continued smiling continued looking at her with those warm eyes.
"Is it really you?" Across the room, Rogue groaned and rolled over. Kurt didn't even spare her a glance.
"Of course, Keety. You can't get rid of me that easily," his smile widened as the German lithe filled the room. Kitty smiled, not realizing tears were streaming down her cheeks.
"Kurt," she half-choked, half-whispered. After three months of worrying, three months of fear that she would never see him again, he was here. He was here!
"Vell, I've been gone so long, and I don't even get a hug. Really, Keety, I'm insulted," he was teasing her, she knew it. He flung his arms wide, grinning madly. She laughed, wiping tears on the back of her hand before flinging herself into his embrace…
And found herself once again on the floor. Stunned, she scrambled to her feet and turned around.
No Kurt.
"Damn you Kurt, that was so totally…" Kitty stopped and sniffed the air. The ever present smell of brimstone that was there when Kurt bamfed! was not there now. There was no smoke present. It was like he had not been there at all.
Cold realization swept over her as she realized the truth in her thoughts.
Kurt hadn't been there.
He hadn't been hiding in the shadows. He hadn't given her his wide toothy grin, or looked had her with his warm yellow eyes. He hadn't teased her, hadn't said her name, hadn't tried to hug her.
He hadn't.
Kitty sank to the floor, tears streaming down her pretty face. Was she losing her mind?
"Kittay?" The sleepy Southern drawl was not enough to arouse Kitty from her place on the floor.
"You alriaght, hun?" Tears continued to roll down her cheeks.
"I'm fine, Rogue," Was the quiet reply. "Go back to sleep,"
A half-hearted grunt before the familiar rhythm of snoring was all Kitty heard from her roommate.
She sat on the floor the rest of the night, staring at the floor, not moving, barely breathing.
In front of her, the shadows danced.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Across the town, another figure was spending a sleepless night. A blue-skinned woman in lighter blue bathrobe was staring out the wall windows of her room. Her normally loose red hair was twisted up in a high bun, and her yellow eyes stared at the bright city lights below. She clutched the mug of tea tightly, sloshing the hot liquid on the carpet as her hands shook.
It had been a mistake to go and see him.
He had looked so broken, so beaten. He had just lain there, not noticing the rocks that the crowd had thrown at him, or the blood trickling down his side. And his eyes…
She shuddered again. She had forced that pathetic excuse of a human to evacuate everyone from the room. She had leered at the broken boy, taunting him, offering to stop his pain. All he had to do was say it, do it, join himself to her side.
He had stared at her, eyes blank, devoid of any emotion. She had shivered then, her will to continue fading, until there was not enough left for her to go on.
She had turned away; telling him that she would be back.
But could she go back?
All she wanted was he little boy. It was all any mother wanted, to have her child with her. She had begged, pleaded, cried for him, but all her tears had been wasted. He would not turn, would not come back to her. And so, she had turned desprete.
If heart-felt emotions wouldn't work, then maybe brute force would.
She had been convinced that if she could break him he would come back to her. So she had him captured and put in the place that mutants feared most.
The freak show. A place where they were looked upon as what they all really were. Freaks.
He son had been no exception. Of course, he had been resistant; refusing to give up the hope that his friends would come for him. But then the days past and the hope dimmed, before it died all together. She had succeeded.
He was broken.
But he was no longer her son.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Scott! Hey, Scott, wait up!"
Scott felt the familiar mental tug on his mind and stopped. Behind him, Jean had finally caught up. Her long red hair was slightly askew, and her cheeks were flushed.
"Hey, Scott, what's wrong? I've been calling you for nearly five minutes,"
"Sorry," he apologized, looking into her eyes from behind ruby glasses. "I was…thinking," A look of sympathy and understanding passed in Jean's blue eyes. She touched his shoulder as Scott looked away.
"We'll find him," she said quietly, caressing his mind with hers. He leaned into her, allowing her to hold him, mentally and physically. He was tired. He knew that, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing to do but look. And hope.
And on that day, God must have taken pity, and sent the answer to their prayers in the form of a dumb jock.
"It was so cool! I mean, we just kept throwing and he kept on ducking. He was so freaky looking too! All blue and furry with that weird tail…"
Scott thought he was hearing things. He thought he was going insane.
Jean's nails digging into his arm told him otherwise.
There was a large group of students crowded along the lockers, hiding the face that the voice belonged to. Together, Scott and Jean pushed pash the protesting students, making their way to the front, where Dan Ashton was retelling the story of his close encounter with a blue, furry monkey-like freak. His girlfriend, Britney, has clinging to him like a second skin, giggling and shrieking in all the wrong places. Scott grimaced. Dan noticed.
"Aww, what's wrong, Scotty-boy?" He sneered. Typical jock, thinking he was all high-and-mighty. Scott glowered. Dan grinned even more. Jean squeezed Scott's hand and turned to Dan, smiling flirtingly.
" Y'know, Dan, you make it sounds so intense," She gushed, hating herself for it. But it was getting the desired effect. Dan beamed. Britney scowled.
"Well, your in luck, Jean," Dan chuckled, fishing around in his maroon football jacket. He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and, ignoring the look of daggers his girlfriend was giving him, gave it shyly to Jean, who accepted it with a brilliant smile. Dan blushed. Scott glowered some more.
"Wow! Gee, thanks, Dan! Well, I've really got to go, chores, you know," She winked and Dan blushed deeper. Jean grabbed Scott's arm and forced her way out of the crowd, ignore the shrieks of anger and desprete attempts at appeasement going on behind her.
They ran.
They ran as fast as they could, wanting to find some private place, both feeling the need to cherish the moment in a sort of secrecy. So they ran, and didn't stop running until they reached the woods.
By that time, they were both winded. Their cheeks were flushed, and Scott collapsed, his legs refusing to support him anymore. Jean fell to her knees beside him, her hands trembling, still clutching the crumpled yellow paper.
"Oh, God, Scott, I'm so scared," She whispered. "I'm so scared of finding out where he is,"
Scott looked at her with furrowed brows. She felt his confusion tickle her mind, and she wiped away her tears.
"I'm so scared that Kurt's somewhere he doesn't deserve to be," she explained. "I'm scared that he's somewhere having things done to him that he doesn't deserve,"
Scott smiled and grasped her hands gently. Jean felt his strength flow into hers, and her tears started to dry up.
"There' only one way to find out," he told her gently. She nodded.
Together, they opened the precious paper, smoothing out the wrinkles and holding it under the light. Together they read the bold letters and glanced of the photocopied picture. Together they felt the pool of dread swallow them whole, and felt the tears run down their cheeks.
Hell On Earth
See a world of nature's mistakes.
Beneath the writing was a picture what looked like a spider-monkey with a mop of longish hair. He wore rags and looked thin, hunched over. What looked like a metal collar hung from his neck, and his wrists were shackled. But their attention was drawn to the eyes, eyes that they didn't remember. There was a blankness in those eyes, the usual spark of life gone. They were dead eyes, dark eyes, eyes they didn't know. It was him, but it was not him.
It was Kurt.
TO BE CONTINUED…..
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