Snuff-Chapter 3

The hazy fog of days' worth of medication began to lift, racking Marie's body with indescribable agony. Her body quivered to the point of breaking, shooting her to sit up right.

Everything was dark and she was not in familiar surrounds. She felt around with arms that seized almost uncontrollably and felt small tubes attaches to syringes in her arms.

She felt nauseous! Nothing was right! What the heck happened? She reached back to touch the throbbing at the back of her head, only to discover it had been wrapped in bandages.

She started to panic!

Screaming, she reached to yank out the tubes connected to her person when a piercing light from the opening door nearly blinded her.

"Marie! Don't! Just lay still!" Logan, almost spilling his just purchased coffee, rushed over to the now conscience Marie. He pulled the IV lines away from her and added "If you want them out, I'll tell the nurse, if you do it yourself, you will bleed out!"

"Logan? What the hell happened to me?"

He sat on the edge of her hospital bed, which had been completely soaked from her perspiration.

Careful not to drudge up or distort her memories he asked "What's the last thing you remember?"

Marie shook her head in responds. "I don't know…" she let her voice trail off as she tried to remember something…anything. Her eyes met Logan's. He knew something. She had never seen such a wave of concern and panic.

"What do you know that I don't?"

Logan avoided her gaze. Shit. How do you prepare someone for the news I had to break to her?

"I think you need to talk to Hank."

"Hank? Why Dr. McCoy? I though he only handle special emergencies, like mutant powers."

Logan nodded, "Yeah…Marie…" He reached out to touch her cheek, but she instinctive flinched away.

"I ache all over…"

"Damn it, Marie…"

"I feel like someone slammed me over and over." Logan knew she was just trying to make a comparative statement about her pain, but when his eyes met hers for the first time, she saw the truth.

"Oh my God…"

Logan rushed forward to gather her up in his arms. He knew it probably was not the best idea he's ever had, but he needed to hold her…needed to do something.

"Get away from me!" The panic in her voice was sharp enough to pierce his sensitive hearing. "Just leave!"

Not sure how else to react, Logan nodded, picked up his coffee and headed out the door. He located the nursed on call to inform them of her waking and went to find Hank. He left Marie's sobs to echo throughout the hall.

Damn near breaking his office door down, Logan made his way to Hanks private study. Hank was studying over documents scattered across his desk.

"Wolverine, what can I do for you?"

"They said she would be fine!"

Hank sighed, understanding the subject of conversation. "She will be, but it's going to take time."

"She screamed at me and told me to leave her…"

"She feels embarrassed, ashamed and at fault, not to mention her loss of trust in everyone."

"How can she feel at fault?!"

"Assault victims often feel at fault, feeling as if they could have done something different to prevent the attack. Sadly, she isn't the first case I've treated of such magnitude. "Hank replied when a tone of disbelief.

"I'm going to find the fucker…"

"I honestly hope you do, Wolverine, but we know nothing about him yet. He took Rogue's powers; we can only assume he can do the same to others. We have little information, which means we do not know how to stop him"

"I'm gonna cut his goddamn head off! See if that works!"

Logan spent the remainder of the day hunting. He started by following Marie's scent. Nobody had a fragrance like hers. So beautiful, elegant and innocent. Timeless. He followed the lightly lavender scent with claws fully extended. It leads him all over the mansion; the library, classrooms, student rooms, kitchen, dining area. Nothing at all, until he reached the back entrance that leads to the garbage dumpsters. He picked up the metallic odor of blood mixed with Marie's aroma. He cautiously walked out, not really expecting to see anyone. He could feel and smell Marie's fear. He could almost paint a clear picture of how she was struck and violated. She never saw it coming, would never see her attacker.
After unsuccessfully searching for traces of the slick son of a bitch, Logan retreated back inside…he would eventually get what he deserves.

After heavy thought, Logan made his way back to medical wing…back to Marie. She had to him to get lost and to leave her, but what he thought was confusion of her state of mind, he now knew to be fright and embarrassment. He couldn't leave her again. Logan was once again lost in the mist of his thoughts that he nearly knocked someone to the floor. The dark hair and withdrawn eyes were a dead giveaway.

Marie!

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"Signed out against medical advice, I don't want to be here."

"You need to rest…when is the last time you took medication?"

"I don't know" Marie replied, attempting to move past Logan. He didn't budge. He was going to talk to her even if she hated him for it.

"You don't know or you don't care?" He asked.

"Pick one!" Marie spat.

"I didn't come here to fight, Marie."

"Then what did you come here for? To pity me? To try and get what someone else already took?" Her voice was dangerously loud and fierce. It should have hurt him, it should have ripped his heart into shambles, but he recognized the emotional barrier that was finally breaking through. He would do whatever he needed to help her cope. His sudden movement of rushing forward to cup her face in his hands startled her, but she didn't run. She trembled, but didn't run. This was good.

"Nobody deserves what that bastard did to you…"

She started to shake.

"Logan, please…don't." A tear slid down her cheek and he gently brushed it away. More began to follow and he enfolded Marie in his arms, crushed her against him, holding her as tightly as she would allow. Holding Marie felt wonderful, gaining her trust felt better than words could describe. She would be safe with him, and proving that was going to be intricate and difficult. How she flinched gave way to her entire body being racked with pain. Logan knew enough of the details to know that her attackers was one sick, sadistic son of a bitch and that he better be praying the authorities found him before he, and he had better be believing Logan was looking.

"I just want it to stop…everywhere I look, I see his face…he's on top of me, I can feel the knife dig through my skin…" Marie shook uncontrollably in his arms. Logan's rage just continued to build. There was a knife? No one fucking told me that detail! It took all his strength to bury it down. This wasn't the time or the place. Marie needed him here, to help her rather than going on a half-crazed vengeance quest. Just as quickly as she allowed him to told her, she broke free of his arms and scurried away.