Chapter 9: A Series of Unfortunate Events
I followed Mr. Rhodetsky and the class and listened to his lectures, however I was incapable of stopping my mind from wavering. I kept thinking about Rogue and Scott. This time I wasn't thinking about the adventure I was missing out on. Plus, I felt guilty of all the eavesdropping I had been doing. Right now I was worried about them. I actually cared whether they were ok or not, and yet I had not even had a single conversation with them. I mean I still cared despite the fact they were weird mutie thingies.
"Mr. Rhodetsky!" I called.
"Yes Ms. Woodrow?" he asked, pausing during his lecture. "Do you have a question?"
"Actually, I just noticed Scott and Rogue aren't here. They might've gotten lost or something," I said.
The class began to mumble. A couple of them giggled, thinking about some of the "improper" things these two might be doing away from the class. My hand shot out forward again, "I volunteer to go out looking for them."
"The Taepo Caves are pretty huge, I don't want another student to get lost," Mr. Rhodetky said.
"I'll go with her. I've been here on vacation with my family and know these caves like the back of my hand," Paul declared and I was grateful for his volunteering. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go out looking for them by myself. After all, I didn't know as much about Bayville as Paul did.
Mr. Rhodetsky sighed. There was a moment of silence for Mr. Rhodetsky could think. Reluctantly, he nodded his head, "Fine, but don't get lost."
Paul and I nodded and the class watched us depart. I followed Paul and there was an awkward silence between them. If I haven't already mentioned it before, I HATE awkward silences. They're so … awkward and I hate feeling awkward.
"So where should we start looking?" I asked him.
Suddenly Paul halted in front of me and I accidentally bumped in to him. He turned around slowly, and I gasped seeing yellowish, devil eyes. Gulping, I backed away from him ever so slightly – also hoping he wouldn't follow me.
I didn't say anything. I mean, what would I say? "Paul you need new contacts?" I don't think so. Was Paul a mutant too? I didn't doubt it considering all the mutants that lived in Bayville. Paul could be one of them, but why show me his powers? All the other mutants seemed so uptight about it. They tried desperately to hide their true selves. Maybe Paul knew I knew and that was why he was showing me – to confront me about it. Whoa … getting carried away with my imagination again…
My lungs let out a sharp scream as Paul pounced on top of me. My eyes widened in shock and fear when suddenly Paul's face was no longer his own. No longer was the figure on top of me Paul, it was instead a blue skinned, red-haired, yellowish devil eyed female who was obviously a mutant. But a mutant I had never seen before. This mutant didn't look human – she looked like a swamp creature or something.
"Get off!" I said struggling myself from her grip.
"Not so fast. Apparently you know too much," the woman said, her voice sounding indistinctly familiar.
"What?" I asked, pretending to be unbeknownst of what she was talking about.
"You're too much of a liability, therefore you need to go," the woman said.
Was she going to kill me? I mean it was obvious she was talking about me knowing about mutants. She was worried I was going to tell everyone, which I wouldn't. Yet, anyway.
"What are you talking about?" I demanded.
"Don't play dumb with me blondie. I've had Pietro follow you to confirm my suspicions and they proved to be correct," she explained.
"What?" I shrieked. "That silver-haired freak's been following me around?"
"Exactly. And now you have to disappear," the blue skinned woman said and punched readily into my face.
Fear and panic struck in and I jerked my head to the side so she only ended up hitting the rocky, dirt covered ground. I wriggled from underneath her and kicked her shin hard so her grip on me loosened. I stood up frantically and was ready to run away when suddenly she grabbed me by the arms and twisted. She then spun me around and my body met with the rocky wall. I groaned and slid down on the ground in pain from the wall smashing.
"You can make this hard or you can make this easy. Either way, you die," the evil redhead woman said and kicked me heard in the face. I could feel blood escaping my nose and my eyes began to water up. I was going to die…
Suddenly she picked me up by the collar and dragged me to the cliff where the ground was very, VERY, VERY, far away. I shrieked as my body hung in the open air. My only life support was the woman holding me up by the back of my jacket.
I was going to cry. But I didn't have time.
My screams echoed high and low as I felt my body falling slowly down…down…down. The air whooshed past me as my surroundings seemed to blur before my eyes. The feeling and urgency to live kicked in and I grabbed a rock that was jabbed into the caves outer exterior. It was out enough to grab and so I did. My legs dangled out in open space. I looked up and saw that the blue skinned woman was no longer there.
Sighing, I took in a deep breath. With all my strength, I began lifting myself onto the rock. I laid on top of the smooth surface for a while and then backed myself away from the cold open air. To my dismay it slowly began to snow. My breathing hardened and I felt my heart pounding against my chest. It felt like nothing I had ever experienced before. I had missed death by barely an inch. I was alive and I would keep it that way.
I pinched my nose hard as I felt blood beginning to escape it. If only I had a tissue with me…
The problem now was how to get back into the cave. I looked up, hesitantly, my fear of heights overtaking me. Carefully I stood up and grabbed onto a rock. Luckily for me I had rock climbed before, but only on those fake ones. When it came to the real thing I was too afraid to do it so my mom took me out of the class.
I adjusted my foot ever so timidly onto a rock and pulled myself up, rock by rock. Rock by rock until I was finally at the top where the blue-skinned woman had fought me. I looked around, scared she would pop out in my face again. As I began to walk I realized I had strained my arm and grabbed it in pain.
Never in my life had I been this hurt. My back hurt. My nose was bleeding. My stomach was bruised. I had strained my arm. My head was pounding and my legs were sore.
If only I had minded my own business. Stupid Haley! This is what you get for eavesdropping so much. A blue-skinned lady tries to kill you because of it. The one thing that didn't make sense though was why she was willing to go to extreme lengths to keep the mutant secret a secret. Plus she had Pietro follow me around for who knows how long. He was after all very speedy so I probably hadn't noticed him following me around.
I groaned and walked so slowly around the cave that my mind didn't even register after a while that I was lost. I was ready to let the waterworks out and give up in defeat when suddenly I heard a pair of voices. I knew never to eavesdrop again, but I had to if I wanted to go back home on my nice comfy bed. I missed mom. I missed dad. I even missed Max.
"We, uh-" a familiar, masculine voice stammered. I peeked out with my tired eyes to see Rogue and Scott together. They were fine and I just had to volunteer to go look for them. Stupid, stupid Haley!
"It's true, isn't it? I know all about your battle simulation; the one where I'm the enemy?" Rogue demanded. She turned away. I couldn't see her face but it seemed like she was going to cry.
"No, no, wait! Rogue, i-it's complicated. We're not who you think we are and we've never tried to hurt you. You've been lied to. We want you with us," Scott said. My brain hurt too much to contemplate on what he had said. I didn't know who "we" was and how Rogue had been "lied" to and as far as I was concerned it was none of my business – for the moment.
"Yeah? Well, sorry. Not interested," Rogue said, looking at him straight in the eye. A bit of viciousness was buried in her voice.
I gasped when suddenly Paul's form appeared out of the shadows. He (blue-skinned lady) looked at Scott and Rogue, "Hey, everything all right? Rhodetsky's lookin' for ya."
"Paul here's your friend, but I bet you never practice fighting him," Rogue said angrily and began to walk past Paul (red haired lady) when suddenly he (she) grabbed her by the arm.
"I'm afraid you'd-" Paul (yellow-eyed lady) began and slowly materialized into Principal Darkholme, "-lose that bet, Rogue."
Principal Darkholme! The Bayville High Principal was Paul or was it the other way around. Ok. Ok. Ok. Wait a second: Principal Darkholme was the blue-skinned lady. She's a mutant who can look like anything she wants. She was posing as Paul. She tried to kill me.
Got it.
"Hello, Scott. Are you more surprised to see me-" Principal Darkholme began and shifted into her (what I was assuming to be) natural state, "-or me?"
She laughed maliciously.
Scott looked appalled and pointed an accusing finger at her, "Principal Darkholme, you're Mystique?"
"Something Professor Xavier neglected to tell you. Nice of him, wasn't it? You have no idea what he's been hiding from you. Let me fill you in," Mystique said, putting her hands on her hips. Mystique. Interesting name. Was she born with that name or…
Suddenly Mystique pounced on Scott and pushed toward the edge of what look like a waterfall. Underground waterfall? Cool…
"You X-Men are nothing but puppets for Charles Xavier and I am sharply cutting your strings just so I can watch you fall!" Mystique accused. Her voice sounded bitter and her expression was raw with revenge.
X-men?
The sounds of Scott's scream could be heard as Mystique pushed him over the edge.
Shocked, Rogue ran over to the edge and looked down below. She covered her mouth in astonishment and cried out for the brown haired boy, "No! Scott!" She turned and glared at Mystique, demanding, "Why did you do that?"
Mystique crossed her arms unabashed by her actions. "I'm protecting you, dear. From his lies. He only wants to hurt you just like Charles Xavier and all the other X-men."
Again: X-men?
"And you don't? What did you do to Paul?" Rogue demanded, glaring daggers at the devil eyes woman. That's what I wanted to know too.
"Let's just say he missed the bus due to a little miscommunication about the departure time," Mystique explained and shifted back into the blonde haired boy known as Paul. "Now, let's rejoin the others and break the tragic news."
"No more secrets!" Rogue shouted. She took of her glove and grabbed Mystique/Paul's. Mystique cried out in pain and agony causing her to shift back into her true form. Rogue continued, "Your powers are mine! Your memories are mine!"
Rogue closed her eyes and squinted like she was seeing something flash before her eyes. I looked helplessly from Rogue to Mystique, wondering what to do. Should I break them apart or would that make a bigger mess?
Finally Mystique's comatose body fell to the ground and Rogue snapped out of her trance.
She shook her head and said, "Oh, Scott. I'm sorry."
The green-eyed girl rushed over to the edge and looked over. I followed her example and found Scott clinging to the side of a rock – similarly to what I had done before. She didn't notice me there. She was too focused on Scott. I gasped as Rogue shifted into Mystique and jumped down on the ledge above him as he began slowly slipping away. She shifted back to Rogue and grabbed his arm with her gloved hand.
"Gotcha!" Rogue declared.
I sighed in relief when suddenly Mystique began to stand up. She looked at me in shock, "I thought I got rid of you!"
"Well, I guess not," I retorted. She growled and lunged at me into the wall. I kicked her stomach with all my might and she went flying to the other side of the room, smashing against the wall.
Suddenly I felt my head throbbing and my heart thumping quicker. My vision was growing lighter and I felt glowing warmth on my hand. I brought my hands forward and a brilliance of light shot out across the room, barely missing Mystique. Instead, it hit a rock by the waterfall and it slowly became undone, falling off the cliff.
"No! Rogue!" Mystique shrieked and dived off the edge of the cliff.
I massaged my throbbing head and gasped in terror at what I had done. My breathing quickened and I ran over to the edge. I shivered as a cold breeze passed my way. Where was Rogue? Where was Scott? Where was Mystique? Were they dead or…?
Bringing my hands in front of me, I examined them. My hands … they … blasted that rock …
I stood there for what seemed like hours was only a few minutes. I took in a deep breath, ready to cry over this experience. Some lady was trying to kill me and now I had just blasted out light, knocking over that rock to where Rogue and Scott were.
"Haley! Haley!" a voice cried.
I turned around to see Miranda Wenkamp standing there looking over at my bloodied up nose and me. The purple haired girl glanced over at the underground waterfall and studied it with awe. She spoke, "Mr. Rhodetsky was worried sick about you, Scott, Rogue, and Paul. Where are they?"
Shrugging, I looked back at my hands. For a mere second I saw a light shining above them but then it was gone.
"What happened to you?" she asked again.
"I fell," I said and chuckled, "Tripped over my own foot."
The lie was reasonable for the moment. After all, what would she say if I told her the truth? A blue-skinned freak that was actually pretending to be Principal Darkholme attacked me. Then I blasted off a rock and because of that Rogue, Scott, and Mystique, the blue-skinned lady, could all be dead?
"C'mon, Mr. Rhodetsky's looking for us," Miranda explained and we walked off together to the cave entrance where Mr. Rhodetsky and the other kids were.
This was a new chapter in my life. I had learned something about myself I never knew before. I could try denying it for all it was worth, but the truth would keep coming back. I was no longer just Haley Woodrow. I was much more than that. I was Haley Woodrow, the mutant.
Violet: I hope everyone like this chapter. R/R!
