Authors notes: In this chapter things may finally get a little interesting. Forgive me if the other chapters were boring.

Robert awoke the next morning in a cold sweat. He had had another nightmare about his past which he tried so hard to forget.

He quickly got out of bed and headed towards his closet. As he reached for the knob his hand began to shake. He paused for a while and thought about his sins. He prayed for forgiveness so many times, but was afraid he wouldn't get it. He shook his head and opened the door.

He pulled out a rope with a noose on the end of it. Then he walked over and sat on his bed with the rope. He hoped for the day that he would not need it any more, but that day had not come yet.

After a long time he said to himself, "not today, not today."

He put the rope back in the closet and tried to calm himself.

After a long first period Rogue headed for her locker. As she walked she noticed a group of kids standing around in a circle. One of them was Kurt.

Rogue walked up to him and said, "hey Kurt, what's going on?"

Kurt looked at her with a look of curiosity and a little bit of fear. "It's that new kid Robert. He just walked over to his locker and started talking to himself."

Rogue looked through the crowed of students. She saw Robert in the middle of the circle talking to some one that wasn't there. She broke through the circle and went over to him asking, "Robert, are you all right."

Robert turned to Rogue as if she were an enemy. He quickly grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the lockers. Even though she had her collar on she could still feel Robert's hand on her neck.

Then Robert pulled out something from his sleeve. It was a switchblade. Rogue wanted to take off her glove and give Robert a quick tap, but she couldn't do it in front of all those people. The children around her watched in shock.

Finally Robert seemed to come out of some strange dream. He looked at Rogue and saw his hand on her neck. He Quickly pulled his hand away and looked at it.

From outside the circle Phil's voice was heard. He walked over to Robert and asked, "Robert man, you ok?"

Robert looked at him and then at Rogue. He walked towards her saying, "Rogue I" but she shoved him away. Robert fell back, but kept his balance.

Rogue said angrily, "I don't know what your problem is you jackass, but from now on you stay away from me," and she stormed out of the circle.

Robert watched as she left and then punched one of the lockers. Phil looked around and said to the students, "Ok get the hell out of her, the show's over."

For the next three days Rogue avoided Robert as best she could. She hated him for what he did to her. She didn't care why he did it.

On the third day since Robert attacked her Kurt stopped her in the hall. "Rogue, can I talk to you for a moment."

Rogue looked at her German friend. She could tell by the look on his face that it was important. "Sure what's up?"

Kurt paused as if he didn't know how to put the words. "I talked with Robert today."

As soon as Rogue heard his name she began to walk away angrily. When Kurt tried to stop her she said, "look Kurt, I don't want anything to do with that creep. You saw what he did to me."

Kurt said, "yes I did, but did you see his face when he let go of you? He looked like he was afraid of himself."

Rogue stopped walking. She didn't really get a good look at Robert's face after he let go of her neck. "All right what did he want?"

Kurt said, "he said he wanted to talk to you. He wants you to meet him in the clearing in the woods. Do you know where that is?"

Rogue said, "yes I do, and no I won't talk to him," and she began to walk away again.

Kurt stopped her once again and said, "oh come on Rogue. Robert seemed like a nice guy when we met him. Why don't you just give him a chance?"

Rogue looked at his face, knowing that he would never drop this. "All right," she said, "I'll talk to him. But if he tries anything funny I swear he'll regret it."

Robert sat on a rock in the middle of the clearing while he waited for Rogue. He was very patient when he had to be. When he saw Rogue enter the clearing he stood up and began to walk over to her.

Rogue quickly said, "don't get any closer to me. Ok what do you want?"

Robert slid his hand down his face and said, "I want to apologize for what I did to you."

Rogue said, "that's not gonna help anything."

Robert paused. He looked at her and said, "I've noticed that you seem to have some kind of problem. I want to try and help."

Rogue asked, "what problem?"

Robert didn't answer. Rogue began to walk away. Robert called out as she walked, "Rogue I know."

Rogue stopped. She turned to the boy and said, "know what?"

"I know what your power is, "said Robert, "I know that you can't touch anybody."

Rogue became very shocked and nervous. "How do you know that?" she demanded.

"My brothers and I saw you and the other mutants at the Xavier Institute," said Robert, "we saw you training and found out all of your powers."

"How could you have seen us," the Goth asked, "No one can get by our security system."

Robert smiled at her; "my brothers and I can be very stealthy when we want to be."

Rogue was very uneasy at this point in time. She didn't know what to think of this boy now. "Why do you want to help me?"

Robert sat sadly on the rock and said, "because maybe helping you with your problem can help me with mine."

Rogue asked, "and what problem would that be?"

Robert looked up at her and said, "insanity."

Rogue took a few steps closer to him as Robert asked, "tell me Rogue, you can't touch people right, but do people still want to touch you?"

Rogue thought about this. No one had ever asked her that before. "What?"

Robert made his question clearer. "At your institute, when you fall does some one want to help you up, does any one want to give you a high five, or put their hand on your shoulder when you have a problem?"

Rogue didn't know where this question was going. She said, "well yeah."

Robert looked sadly to the ground and said, "no body in my home town ever wanted to touch me, or my brothers. They were afraid of us, for no goddamn reason. Every time we past some one on the street they'd look at us with hatred in their eyes. Kids would always be waiting for us after school just to beat us up."

Rogue walked over and sat next to Robert. She asked, "why don't your parents help you out with this?"

Robert said, "they could if they were still alive My mom committed suicide long ago, and my dad was murdered." He looked at Rogue. He looked so sad now. "Finally one day, we cracked. We left our hometown and spent most of our lives in the wild. We were trying to find a place where there were people who could under stand us."

"Then what happened?" asked Rogue.

Robert smiled at her and said, "Well then we came here. We looked around and at first it seemed like all the other towns. But then Rogue, then we saw you and the other mutants."

Rogue asked, "What did we have to do with anything?"

Robert said, "Well, when we first saw you, we could tell you were outcasts. Like we are. We watched you for two months and we eventually found out what you were. And we also learned about Xavier's dream of a world where humans and mutants live in peace. We also learned that you guys helped each other even if you didn't like each other. You see Rogue, you may not be human, but you're more human than any human we have ever met."

Rogue smiled at this remark. She didn't know what to say. Finally she asked, "you're not just saying that are you?"

Robert's smile quickly faded. "I meant every word of it. As a matter of fact, you're more human than I'll ever be You see after we decided to settle down here, we moved into Fred's bar on the south side of Bayeville. There we got a job and a room upstairs. We hoped we would be all right there, but our madness followed us. And we think that death is the only way out of our miserable lives."

"You want to kill your selves?" Rogue asked shocked by this remark.

"Yes," Robert said, "we each have chosen our own ways of killing ourselves. I chose death by hanging. I already have the noose at home. It's so strong and tight I don't want it even having a chance of loosening on my neck. Every day when we wake up we have to think of reasons not to kill ourselves, but we're running out of ideas."

Rogue then asked, "why do you want to commit suicide?"

Robert jumped up and began to yell at Rogue. He wasn't mad at her, but mad at himself. "Because I'm not human! I thought I made that clear! I may have the skin of a man, but inside I know I'm a monster!"

He turned away from Rogue. He wanted to hurt himself. He quickly took out his switchblade and stabbed it into his hand. Rogue stood up and looked at the boy in disbelief. Robert knelt to the ground and ripped the knife out of his hand. He put his face in his hands, ignoring his blood.

Rogue knelt down beside him. She had no idea this boy had suffered so much. She put a gloved hand on his should. Robert then put his gloved hand on hers. She could feel his hand shake as she tried to calm him.