Prank call
Chapter six
Rouge had successfully gotten back to sleep. Her dream was rather strange however. At first she was standing at in a ballroom in a beautiful dress. She looked around, but there was no one there. Then a figure in black came walking towards her. He stopped right in front of her, but she couldn't bring herself to look upon his face no matter how much she wanted to. Despite that she knew that he was someone she liked.
He reached out and took her hand in his. That was when she noticed that she didn't wear any gloves, but she also noticed that it didn't matter because she could control her powers.
Slowly he led her across the ballroom and through a door on the other end. The door led to another ballroom only this one was full of people. They all felt strangely familiar although she couldn't place where she had seen them before.
Then suddenly she heard a voice whisper in her ear; "So this is what you dream of. How betrayed I feel." She spun around, but saw no one. Instead she found that she was back in the first ballroom.
Then once more the guy from before came walking towards her. Once again he reached out to take her hand but this time she pulled away. As she did he started to fade and soon she was alone again.
"Better," the voice said. Rouge just stood there feeling alone and rater scared although she could not explain why.
Then suddenly the scene changed. Now Rouge stood outside the institute, still wearing the same dress. Then the front door opened and out came everyone who lived there, well everyone except for her, with a bitter expression on their faces.
Then the opening and closing of the gates drew her attention. What she saw made her gasp. It was a slightly older version of her; she was coming home to this. She watched herself walk up to the others and ask what was wrong. She got no response at first, then Jean spoke up; "Go away."
Then Scott said; "You have no place among us. Get away."
Next was Kitty "Just disappear Rouge, no one wants to see you here."
The older Rouge looked at the professor, hoping for an explanation but received only an "I'm sorry Rouge but there is no place for you here anymore."
The younger Rouge watched herself get told by her teammates, the people she had lived with for over a year now, the people she trusted, to get lost, until she couldn't take it anymore. She ran of, not wanting to watch the end of this exchange.
As she reached the other end of the grounds she ran right into someone. She looked up to see who it was, only to find the face of the guy who called himself Death. At the look of her tearstained face he draped his arms around her. She hugged him tightly, more tears threatening to spill over.
"What happened, little Rouge?" he asked his voice oddly soothing.
"I-I saw the-them drive me a-away," she whispered.
"It'll be okay. You have me, I won't leave you. You're safe," he soothed.
Then the dream changed again. Now she was standing in a dark room with lots of crystal balls floating around in midair. When Rouge watched them more closely she saw that they contained images of the different members of the X-men. At that moment she just wanted to crush them.
"Are you sure that this is what you want?" Death asked. This was the first time she had noticed his presence.
"Yes," Rouge heard herself answer, although she didn't even know what was going on.
"Then do it. I won't stop you, but you must know that there is nothing that can be done to reverse it." The reminder was unnecessary as he had already told her this countless times before. Wait a sec, something's not right here. He never said anything like this before, heck, I don't even know what this is about, Rouge thought. None the less she heard herself say; "I know. I'm sure; this is how I want it."
Then she took the crystal orb containing images of Jean and crushed it in her hand.
……--……
Rouge was awoken by a piercing scream. It was Jean. Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Rouge got out of bed and hastily put on some cloths and went to see what had happened.
When she came to Jean's room everyone else was already there.
"What happened?" she asked Kitty, who was closest to her.
"No idea." Was the only response she got. Then they were all told to move out of the way so that Jean could be moved to the med bay.
When Jean was moved past her Rouge couldn't help but stare, she was paler than a ghost and her eyes were wide open, but unseeing. It was a rather scary sight. Just then, as if Jean knew that she was being stared at, she let out another scream. Every student clasped their hands over their ears against the sound. Then Jean's head turned towards Rouge, her unseeing eyes looking straight at Rouge's own. Jean then started to shiver and then she closed her eyes.
A few seconds later she opened them again and looked utterly confused.
"What's going on?" she asked.
……--……
Kitty looked at her roommate with concern in her eyes. Rouge hadn't said anything since the incident with Jean. That had been a week ago.
"Rouge, we are going to rent a movie and I wondered if you wanted to watch it with us," she said.
Rouge looked up from her book and the empty look of her eyes sent shivers down Kitty's spine. She tried really hard not to let on how uneasy that look made her feel.
This had been what the whole past week had been like. Not a word from Rouge, just that look. Kitty had tried several times to lighten her friend's mood, or at least make her show any feeling. So far she had had no such luck.
Then something unexpected happened and brought Kitty out her thoughts. Rouge gave a small, but sincere smile.
"Sure," She said. "As long as it's not some romantic comedy or something equally awful."