Not
Myself
By Princess
Alexandria
Princess_alex24@hotmail.com
Christy took a few deep breaths as she watched the men circle an obvious mutant like sharks. She just studied them in a detached way while she waited for her students to leave. Her attention was split between the men and the car that was obviously being driven by an inexperienced driver out of the parking lot. She'd have to teach those two how to drive. Should have thought of that sooner, just because they don't have cars doesn't mean they don't need that skill.
She'd gotten pretty good at locking her emotions away. That thought crossed her mind briefly as she started to walk towards the men. This was a fight she couldn't win. She had no weapons, and didn't know how to fight in the open like this. Christy was more of an ambush girl. Still she walked towards them trying to convey a sense of confidence that she didn't really have. At least it was late enough that there weren't any other people in the parking lot.
"You guys just go around attacking mutants? Do you even check to see what their powers are?" Christy's voice was strong as she moved to lean against the light post as if she had nothing to worry about.
"What's it to you bitch?!" On particularly clever man sneered at her, Christy's slow grin seemed to unnerve him a little.
"It's just that going up against a mutant with unknown powers is dangerous. You could get lucky and find one without much fight, but then you could stumble across someone like Magneto or worse." Christy watched as the men started to size her up. "Looks are very deceiving when dealing with mutants. You can't just look at one and tell if they are strong, or can fight." Her eyes caught the mutant in the middle of their circle and tried to communicate that he should run when the chance came. It didn't look like she needed to say it. He was desperately looking for his chance. That thin furry man's fear was easily visible. He was one without much fight. They'd picked a victim well.
When one large man stepped towards her breaking the circle around the mutant it still wasn't enough for the furry guy to run. Christy just sighed. She'd run into this mess because her students wouldn't be able to deal with walking away. She used to be able to make the hard decisions, and the right one would have been to call help and get her kids out of here. Rushing to play hero by herself wasn't the clever thing to do. Still she allowed nothing but mild irritation to show on her face and she didn't shift or move. She needed to appear unthreatened. Annie and Erik would have been horrified if they'd left this furry man to die or get beaten. They'd read the articles of anti mutant abuse and knew very well what these bigots could do. If they read about this in tomorrows paper and the mutant was hurt they'd blame themselves. So Christy shifted her head to just stare in the eyes of the man in front of her. "Now you don't know anything about me. Here's where you make your decision, you try and decide if I'm a pushover or if I have some real power." Her voice became a mock whisper, "I'll give you a hint. I've killed more humans than you know personally. I've hunted them like game, and unlike the stories they don't taste like chicken." Her eyes held madness as she stared at the would be thugs. Going up against an insane enemy was more terrifying, because they were so hard to predict. She could see they were intimidated by the madness in her eyes and the strange sing song words of death. A small part of her mind noticed the furry guy running away, but these guys didn't even take notice of that. She was the center of their attention now.
"The crazy bitch is bluffing." A man standing further away called out loudly, but he wasn't moving forward to call her on it. She just smiled a little wider.
The first man to face her stepped closer with obvious menace. "You don't look so tough."
"I told you that looks can be deceiving." Christy's focus faded a little as she tried to watch all four men for sudden movements. It was going to happen. "You know even the biggest man will cry for his mama when he's dying. I've seen it so many times." She actually sounded bored.
The man's arm raised and Christy watched the punch being aimed at her head while trying to move out of the way of it. She wasn't entirely successful and the pain of the contact with her cheek flaired. Her head shook a little to deal with the shock of contact. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the man that had hit her.
Death is inevitable, but it is how we live that determines whether we go to heaven or hell. Death is inevitable, but it is how we fight to survive that shows we are strong of will. Death is inevitable, but we shall LIVE every last day of our lives. We shall live for all the good that living is, and we shall glut ourselves on that before the body dies. Christy could actually hear those old words as she faced yet another battle.
He looked smug, like being able to punch her had proved something. She gave him a smile and it seemed to cool his celebration. "Oh, little boy thinks he can play in the big leagues. So sad."
"Christy!" Annie's scream distracted Christy and she turned her head to see Annie running towards her with Erik stumbling unsteadily after her. Dammit! They were supposed to be safe, away, not able to see this. One second after that Christy realized why Annie had yelled. The man lunged forward and Christy watched as the switchblade dug into her flesh with wide eyes. Her arm shot out and she managed to hit him in the side of the head knocking him off balance, but the knife still was embedded between her ribs.
There was no blood. Christy just stared down at the knife in shock. No blood. She grabbed it with one hand and pulled it out. Somehow it hurt more on the way out than on the way in. She dropped it to the ground and stared at the men around her, watching the fear start to really take bloom in them, and the familiar sparkling of their eyes let Christy know that Erik was helping her. He was amplifying the fear. She took a few menacing steps towards them and they ran.
"Oh God… Oh God, Christy are you okay?" Annie sounded ready to cry when she got closer. Christy just turned a little and glanced down at her shirt. Still no blood. "Where did he stab you? I can take you to the hospital."
"I'm fine. He missed." Christy sounded distracted, but didn't let herself worry about that. "Lets get out of here." She didn't like how she felt at that moment. She'd suspected something was wrong for months now, but to not even bleed when stabbed was very not normal, and the pain was fading quickly. She gritted her teeth and worked to cover up the damage while bending down to pick up the knife. While they walked to the car quickly and quietly she toyed with it in her pocket. Annie and Erik were told to stay with the car. She was going to have to say something about that, but right now she wanted to get home and check out her wound in the mirror.
********
Annie's heart was still pounding as she sat in the passenger's seat staring at Christy. The woman looked a little pale, but basically fine. Christy was very focused on the road and wasn't talking.
Annie had seen the knife and could have sworn that Christy had been stabbed. It was the most scared Annie had ever been when she watched Christy bend forward when he hit her. She thought it was the knife. Why would he just punch her with the hand holding the knife? It just didn't make sense.
Erik had managed to fill them with fear and they left, but if they hadn't Annie was ready to fight. Christy should never have gotten hurt.
Once they were in the house Christy disappeared to go to the bathroom, and didn't come out.
********
The stab wound had been gone when she'd gotten home and after just staring at where she knew it should be she'd moved on to other investigations. She was naked in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to remember when the last time she'd cut her nails or her hair had been. Her streaks of hair color would normally be grown out quite a bit after a year, but when she wasn't seeing that. She hadn't cut her hair in a year and it was still the same length it had been before. She held up her hands and stared at her nails. They used to grow so fast that she'd always have to cut them so that they didn't mess up her typing. She didn't even know where the nail clippers were in this house. She'd never looked for them.
She'd been so busy trying to build a life here that she hadn't paid attention to things like that for the first few months here, but lately she'd noticed. After they'd told her about this shield she supposedly had she'd started to wonder.
Her clothes were piled on the hamper. She'd have to find some way to dump that shirt without the kids finding out about it. There was a tear where the knife had cut through it. If it weren't for that Christy would start thinking she'd imagined it, but then she'd seen stranger things. She fished out the knife from her pants pocket and stared at it a moment before hitting the button to release the blade. It didn't have any blood on it either.
She nibbled on her bottom lip a moment before moving the sharp edge of the knife to the tip of a finger. She pushed until it hurt and pulled back. A bead of red started to grow on her fingertip. Blood.
The knock on the bathroom door startled her into almost dropping the knife. "Christy are you okay?" Annie's obvious worry made Christy realize she'd been in the bathroom too long.
"I'm fine." She answered while hunting down an old band-aid to put on the finger. She had blood. It just didn't make sense that a small cut would bleed, but that stab hadn't. "I'll be upstairs in a minute."
When she got up there she could see the entire household was sitting around the dining room table for an impromptu meeting. She just stared at them while standing on the stairs. Annie and Erik had run into danger when she'd told them to leave. It could have gone badly for the teens, and suddenly she felt like she was in charge. It was a bad feeling. She felt frustrated that she couldn't protect them, and she couldn't teach them enough to protect themselves. They'd gotten lucky, that is the only reason Annie and Erik were okay.
She walked past Wolf and sat down quietly at the table. "When I give one of my rare orders, I'd appreciate it if you listened." Her voice held some of her anger, but she was trying to hold back. She could see Annie was stunned that she was scolding her, but she could have lost that girl tonight. "Tonight I told you both to get away from the scene and to stay with the car. You just moved the car and both came back. What good did that do? Were we trying to protect the car?"
Annie's face was reddening, "You were alone! I couldn't just…"
Christy clenched her fists as her voice rose. "I told you to get to safety! Do you think these are the first thugs to ever try to kill me?! No, they weren't. Dammit, I don't want to ever see you blindly running into danger like that again. You weren't prepared, you had no plan…" Her eyes moved to Erik and narrowed. "And you… I just spent the evening reassuring your parents that I could keep you safe! God Dammit!" She ran a shaky hand through her hair as tears started down her own cheeks. Her voice shook. "This house may be a democracy, but if something like that comes up again… I am the leader, and you will listen to me. I've buried enough people."
"But there were so many of them, you couldn't…" Annie's voice was full of tears.
"I could." Christy turned to stare at her second in charge. Annie and Erik had come back for her it was that simple. They did it because they cared. Some of the anger drained from her. "I love you guys." As soon as she said it she realized that she never had before. "You are my family, and I love you all but if you want to be heroes, I'm not the right teacher for you." She slumped a little in the chair. "Being a hero is not codenames and glamour. It's not swooping in to save the day and riding off in the sunset. People die, people get hurt, and people don't show gratitude and sing your praises. If you want that thankless job, you need more than I can give you." Christy rested her face in her hands.
Christy took a deep breath when she realized she was saying too much. The others were all quiet. "I'm just trying to teach you enough to protect yourselves and each other, but in the end with what we learn, you are better running from a fight." She went quiet. She'd been taking care of them, but maybe that wasn't what she should have been doing.
"Nothing happened to anyone." Jessi interrupted quietly.
"No, something did happen." Christy looked up at the girl. "I woke up." She moved her gaze to the two youngest at the table. "Annie, Erik, I understand why you came back. I'm sorry I'm snapping at you." She could see Annie's tears and it hurt. Her voice got softer. "I appreciate that you guys care enough to watch my back, but… I…" Christy just stared at them and searched for the words she wanted to say. She'd run out of them.
"You ran into that fight alone." Erik pointed out.
"And I was wrong." Christy stared at him. "It was stupid of me, but I didn't want you following me in."
After a moment of silence Christy spoke. She'd laid into them with her fear, and that wasn't right. "Maybe I should have slept on this before talking." She ran her hand through her hair again in her frustration. Everything she was doing tonight was wrong. She felt it all as soon as she did it.
********
The small airport was just a few miles from their destination. Jean stepped out after the rest of the team and just glanced around. It was a beautiful wooded area, and during the daylight it would probably be breathtaking.
"Well, at least this van should be large enough." Scott moved closer to take the bag from her hands and gave her a soft smile. He then piled her belongings in the back of the van along with the others. His voice got a little louder so that the slightly scattered group would hear him. "The Professor gave us the directions to the school. We can get a couple hours sleep before checking it out.