-January 3rd, 6:52 A.M.-
Sunlight felt warm on her skin and blanketed her in a false illusion of safety. It was a warm morning sun that hid away the chill of winter that consumed the world on the other side of the window glass. She did not have to open her eyes; she knew that her alarm clock would go off in seven minutes and thirty two seconds, thirty one, thirty... she reached over and switched it off before it had even a remote chance of destroying the calm lie of a morning with its shrill, siren like sound.
When she opened her eyes, and blinked a couple of times to help them adjust to the bright morning light that came in from her east-facing window. It was nearly eight now, and the tear-off calendar on her night table told her that it was January 3rd. It had a small illustration of a snowman printed in blue ink in the lower left hand corner, and it looked whimsical. She didn't remember purchasing it.
Laura sniffed the air; there were several unfamiliar scents in her home. Three women, nearly identical, and one male, whose scent was more faint. He had not been there in several days. The women, however, had been there within the past twenty four hours. Had her location been compromised so easily?
If she was being watched, she couldn't let anyone know that she was. She had to go about things very normally. So she got up and headed to the bathroom to wash her face, which she found was covered in salt residue from crying. Her eyes were red and puffy. Was this in relation to the women she could smell, but could not recall allowing into her home? Laura splashed the warm water up over her face and scrubbed away the tears, trying and failing to summon up any substantial memory of the previous twenty four hours.
She shook it off and went through the rest of her morning routine, showering and making a nutritionally balanced breakfast and dressing for the day, to go to work at the college library. She liked it there, where it was quiet and anyone in there did not attempt to strike up a conversation with her. If she liked, she could take home a few books to read herself, as long as they weren't on a wait list. Laura ran through the list in her mind as she pulled on her wool coat and shouldered her bag, and she remembered that there was a collection of Voltaire's plays that she thought she might like to read. On the way out the door, after adding a scarf and pulling on boots and gloves, she tried to remember where on the shelf that might be...
- January 2nd, 9:33 A.M.-
"Do what you must," Laura gripped the arms of the seat and watched as the pristine doctor in white, Emma Frost, reached into the large bag and pulled out the first item that Laura had brought from home. It almost made her ill to look at it, but she had to keep reminding herself that it had to be done, it was the only way that he could possibly be kept safe. They could not track him if there was no physical evidence with which to track him, and they could not use telepaths to track him down from memory.
In one of her latex-gloved hands, Emma pulled out a four-picture strip and set it on the tray in front of Laura for her to recall. The photos had been taken in a booth at an amusement park. It had been her first time going to one, and while they were both posed awkwardly at first, with him trying to climb into the booth with her and the large stuffed bear that he'd won for her moments before, the pictures ended with one of them kissing, smiling and looking so very happy.
Laura closed her eyes.
-June 24th, 2:15 P.M-
Julian tugged Laura out of the booth by her hand and took the pictures from the slot where they printed out. He smiled brightly at her, his blue eyes sparkling, and he handed her the strip.
"For you," he explained after she blinked at it confusedly for a little while. Laura adjusted her grip on the large purple bear and carefully placed the pictures in the shoulder bag that she always carried with her.
"I do not understand. We came out here very suddenly. Why?" She tilted her head, letting him lead her over to a stand that was selling delicious smelling funnel cakes at exorbitant prices. Julian looked back at her and said, with that smile ever present on his face,
"Well, it's because you said-"
-June 24th, 10:12 A.M-
"I have never been to an amusement park." Laura said out of nowhere. She was sitting on the couch in Julian's apartment, wearing only one of his dress shirts and drinking coffee from a mug that he had given her. It said "Disneyland" on it and had an image of a castle with tall spires that had no real defenses to it.
She wasn't paying attention to the mug, but instead to the Weather Channel. There was nothing else on, so she and Julian were watching the footage of the decimation left behind after a large, sweeping line of tornadic storms had destroyed many neighborhoods. The aerial crew had taken several moments to linger on the twisted metal wreckage that had once been a very large Ferris wheel. Some of the cherry red cars were still clinging onto the irreparably damaged steel frame, but over half of them were missing. The person calling on the voice-over explained that the manager of the park had the foresight to pull everyone off of the ride the moment that he saw the storms approaching on the radar. He was being hailed a hero.
"Never?" Julian set his empty mug down on the counter and leaned over it to see the image on the flat screen that he'd hung on the wall. "After seeing that kind of imagery, most people wouldn't wanna go."
"In appropriate weather conditions, it could be... appealing." She curiously watched as the footage shifted from the wheel to the splintered remains of a wooden roller coasters. A chain of cars hung over the edge of what was left of a tall hill of track.
"Then let's go. Right now. We can go ride roller coasters that are in way better condition than that mess." Before she could retort, he went to go get dressed into something other than his boxers.
"Right now?" Laura leaned over to peer into the only bedroom in his apartment. She couldn't see him, but she could see his shadow moving against the far wall. He was pulling on a t-shirt.
"Yeah. Right now. Get dressed, we'll get breakfast on the way."
"Okay," she said without complaint, finishing her coffee and going off in search of where her own clothing had gone the night before.
-September 23rd, 8:30 A.M.-
Laura ate a forkful of pancakes smothered in maple syrup. They were light and fluffy and still very warm, like the mug of hot chocolate beside her, with real whipped cream on the top in a peaked swirl. Julian sat quietly across from her, every so often mixing his hashed potatoes into his scrambled eggs and taking large bites. He was distracted by his laptop, by the thesis paper that he had to write. So distracted that when Laura innocently reached over and stole a piece of his bacon, he didn't even notice.
The diner was one of their more frequented stops. She liked it because, in the early morning, it was almost always empty. He liked it because it always had internet access, and because the food was always fresh.
Something bright and yellow caught Laura's eye. She looked outside and saw a bright yellow school bus that was stopped in traffic. It was full of little kids, wrapped in sweaters and things, with character-covered backpacks. For the early morning, they were all loud and hectic, bouncing with excitement.
"Oh, yeah, elementary school gets in about this time, huh?" Julian said absently and ate a strip of bacon, frowning when he saw only four pieces when he sworn he could have ordered the plate with five.
"Elementary school?" Laura asked, and he noticed her fixation on the long, noisy vehicle and its occupants.
"Yeah. It's for little kids. Typically... uh... from five year olds to about eleven?"
She remembered the ages of five to eleven. She was in a white cell when she should have been attending this 'elementary school.'
"Did you go to a private academy or something, Laura?" Julian reached over to steal a bit of her pancake, but stopped when he saw the territorial look she gave him over her short stack.
"No. I did not attend elementary school. My first time in a school was when I was fourteen years old."
"Seriously? So you didn't go to middle school at all?"
"No. I believe that I attended Lincoln High school for a day before I was forced to leave San Francisco."
"And then?" Julian pressed. "You don't have any certified education at all? That's kind of-"
"I legitimately received my diploma." She finished her breakfast and sipped on the mug of hot chocolate. There was whipped cream on her nose, which Julian reached over to wipe off with his finger, and then licked off.
"Sweet. Just like you."
Laura felt a blush creep up on her; it was a sensation that she didn't feel very often.
-January 3rd, 11:24 A.M.-
"What's a beautiful girl like you doing stacking books on shelves? You could be a model."
Laura turned to look at the young man that had quite literally sneaked up on her. She'd been so distracted by re-shelving the books that had been returned that she hadn't noticed him. His hair was white as snow, but she didn't detect the chemical scent that came with hair dye. His eyes were almost as green as hers.
"This is my job." She explained, feeling herself blush. He wasn't unattractive, this man, with a runner's build. He was very lean and tall, too, with at least six inches of height over her own. He took the last few books that she had and replaced them for her with a surprising speed.
This man was a mutant.
"Done now. You really should be a model, though. You're gorgeous." He winked at her, shoved his hands back in his pockets, and stepped out of the library. She could hear the music from his ear buds as he turned it up, and found that whatever he was listening to, she quite liked the beat of it. This person was worth learning more about.
- January 8th, 8:41 P.M.-
Laura had thought that she was alone. That she was the only person in her age group that they'd attempted to turn into a human weapon. But if what Tommy just told her was true...
"Did they experiment on you?" she whispered, though there was no one in the library to hear.
"Yeah. It was rough. They injected me with different drugs so that my body wouldn't wear down, but they all just made me sick. When they weren't running tests and trying to get me to blow up kittens, I was getting the hell beat out of me in general population."
"For me it was puppies. They told me that if I didn't kill it, it would suffer. That I was saving it," Laura felt tears fill her eyes at the memory, and suddenly his arms were around her, and he was making her feel warm and safe. This was a person who had been through similar horrors. This was a person who would not betray her secrets.
She let Tommy kiss her, lost in the feeling of safety that she felt like she hadn't had in such a long, long time. Laura wrapped herself up in it to the point where she couldn't see the student coming into the library; she couldn't see the nervous look on his face turn to one of hurt and pain and betrayal, and she couldn't see his eyes water as he fled the library.
She didn't even care to smell the salt.