Hey guys, sorry this took longer than usual. School has started and I find it harder to keep up my writing mojo, but I will try my best to post a new chapter regularly. Got hit with a major cold this weekend, not fun at all. I have been working on this chapter for the past two weeks, so I hope you enjoy!
The night dragged on as they sat outside the front of the base for what Laurien felt was an eternity. CIA agents passed by in a chaos of dark blue, black and grey, leaving waves of mixed emotions in their wake. With no one in their group saying a word to one another, Laurien sat on the frigid pavement, her ears tuning out the excess noise, as she was left alone with her thoughts.
It seemed a cruel punishment, being completely alone in one's head after something traumatic had occurred, all of the racing thoughts of 'what if' and 'could have' would eat at one's brain like famished mice. Laurien felt the painfully familiar sensation, complimented by a faint buzzing sound in her head that refused to let up as she felt the cold of the concrete seep through her clothes, consequentially causing her body to shiver as it crept into her bones.
Surviving members of the CIA had herded them out of the lounge to where they were sitting quietly now, but not before they had seen the body count that Shaw had left in his wake. Besides the slaughter in the courtyard and the array of fallen bodies, they were told that the earthshaking boom that they had heard earlier was the main atrium being blown up in a fiery explosion, killing everyone in it and some in the surrounding rooms.
Laurien could remember the last time she had seen so many bodies lying about, after a bombing in her childhood town. Whole houses and streets had been completely ripped apart by the explosives, leaving nothing behind but a large crater and piles of rubble to hint at what had previously been there. It had admittedly taken a long time for Laurien to forget those images, but to her dismay, the evening's events had brought it all screaming back again.
They were supposed to be safe here; she thought bitterly. That's what Charles had promised them. But instead, on their second day all together, they were attacked by their own kind and forced to watch helplessly as countless men and women were ruthlessly murdered around them. But surely, she reasoned, Charles couldn't have foreseen this, no one could have, for all he knew, this was the safest place on earth.
And Darwin… Oh, Lord, she was never going to be able to get the image of his last fleeting gaze out of her head. He had looked so afraid, so filled with childlike fear that it made her heart ache terribly. Part of her couldn't quite understand why it made her so upset; she'd only known him for two days, but in those two days he had proven himself to be a brave, good-natured man, and certainly someone she could imagine building a close friendship with.
This was exactly why she didn't let herself get attached. Awful things happened when she allowed someone to get close to her, especially when she knew full well how it was to end; only in pain. Darwin had done a valiant deed, but at the same time it was a sorely reckless thing to do, to put himself in the position where Shaw could hurt him.
That was the difference between them, Darwin took a risk that sadly didn't pay off, but at least he tried, whereas Laurien had little to say on the matter of risk taking. She had to admit that trusting Erik and Charles was a leap of faith, but that was the first one she'd taken in years. Better safe than sorry, she had always reminded herself. Though even staying in the safe zone wasn't without its dangers.
Laurien could feel her head getting overloaded on her debates and thoughts, as if her questions were a barrage of news reporters all simultaneously screaming for answers that she couldn't provide. Not without pausing to dissect one specific inquiry at a time, which her brain was not allowing her to do at that moment.
Her body was overtaken by a sudden wave of iciness as she gritted her teeth stiffly, trying to stave off the urge to cry out in pure frustration with herself. Why was she so stupid? Why couldn't she have done something to stop Shaw from killing Darwin? The bastard hadn't even stuck around to witness the consequences to his actions, but fled before Darwin was left to die in front of her and Alex.
Oh Christ, Alex. She'd completely forgotten about him. Talking a shaky breath to calm down, Laurien glanced guiltily up to where he sat, hunched over, his face as emotionally stony as ever. He might not show a lot of how he felt to them, but by his body language and the steady waves of pain flowing from him, she could tell that he was hurting severely. With his jaw firmly clenching and unclenching as he slowly lowered his head into his hands, the telltale signs of grief were clearly evident.
Light was beginning to appear along the horizon as dawn came upon them, lessening the effect the night had on their nerves in the darkness. Morning was coming, but it wouldn't erase the memory of the nightmare from their minds.
The CIA agents slowed to a brisk walking pace as they passed the mutants on their way in and out of the base. Laurien observed them as they went by, noticing their flushed faces as the air whipped against their skin and the fatigue that weighed down on all their shoulders from a sleepless night. She felt sorry for them, considering that most of them had either lost friends or colleagues in the attack, but still had to continue working and dealing with the aftermath.
Oh, God, she wanted to scream. Something was building inside of her, threatening to burst out of her chest as an enormous sense of pressure was surrounding her head. She desperately tried to quell it by focusing on the light slowly spreading farther into the sky, but found herself failing.
Unable to contain her emotions for much longer, Laurien stood up abruptly. "I'm going for a walk. I'll be back in a little bit." She mumbled to no one in particular, wincing as she heard how terse and awkward it sounded out loud.
Not hearing the small protests from behind her, she blindly headed towards the nearby forest that laid spread out around the building, hoping to find release without the watching eyes of the others on her back. As she walked towards the trees, she found that the cold had still not relinquished its hold on her. This was odd in her mind, considering that she preferred and even prospered in wintry environments, but what was even stranger was the fact that it was only the start of September. She hugged herself tightly as she reached a path; large shadows were stretched far in the morning light, as she followed the cobblestone pattern through the tall trees.
She continued along the path for a few minutes before stopping dead in her tracks, a sudden bizarre sensation rushed up to her chest. Feeling it take control of her emotions, she suddenly turned to the nearest towering tree and slammed her fist into its coarse bark. The blow echoed up her arm and through her body like a reverberation. She reveled in the sharp crackling pain it shot through her fingers, and hit again.
Over and over, she delivered blow after blow into the splintering bark, her training coming back to her as she envisioned the tree as an adversary, someone to be defeated. The punches soon grew wild and desperate as the skin split from her knuckles, the spots where she made contact slowly being smudged with crimson. Her thoughts were overwhelming, with voices and words racing through her head at an unfathomable pace, until it all built up into a horribly familiar scream that had her seeing bright red.
Having quite enough, Laurien let out a strangled cry as she backed away sharply, savagely ripping the tree up from the roots with her mind as a barrage of dirt and mulch attacked her. She could feel the surge of power running in her veins, the delicious burning sensation that tore through the channels of pumping blood as the overwhelming rage flowed along with it. Throwing the tree as hard as she could away from herself, it soared through the forest, as straight a spear, before smashing into a large boulder with a dense thud and promptly collapsing to the ground.
Laurien stood there, staring unseeingly at the fallen tree as the blood ran down her fingers and dripped onto the ground, staining the dirt speckled cobblestone beneath her. The red of her eyes slowly dissolved, her crushing emotions went with it, leaving her with a desolate pit at the bottom of her stomach. She couldn't feel anything, no sadness, no regret, she was numb; any rage that she'd previously held had been expended to the fullest on the tree that lay a ways away.
Shit, why did she have to lose it like that? She knew better than to let her emotions boil over in such an idiotic and exposing way.
"Impressive."
She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of the low murmur that floated from directly behind her. She hastily spun around, only to come face to face with none other than the metal bender, Erik Lensherr. In surprise at his close proximity, she accidentally lashed out reflexively with her hand, but thankfully he snatched up her wrist before it could do any harm.
"Easy now, we don't want to be repeating last time, now do we?" He said softly, his steely blue gaze curiously searching her own wide accusing stare. "I have no intention of hurting you, Laurien."
His eyes then flicked down to the hand he was holding and took in the broken mess that was her knuckles, blood now slowly seeping down to her wrist where his fingers were wrapped tightly. His other hand came around to grasp hers and brought it up to compare the damage with the first, his eyes giving her nothing to go on as they flitted between the two.
"You lead prominently with your right." He stated, adjusting his hold so that he was carefully cradling her hands in his. His skin felt warm against her cold flesh, she could sense the heat seeping through her numb fingers and almost immediately flinched when the pain sparked through her knuckles as the nerves regained feeling. Her eyes lowered quickly to mask the discomfort that would surely show through her betraying irises.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Laurien inquired stiffly, feeling the urge to rip her hands away from his grip, but resisted as she found herself relishing in the calming warmth he gave off.
"Nothing really, just an observation." He stated simply.
She suspected that it might be more than just a simple observation, but she let it slide. With her head pounding the way it was, she wanted to get straight to the point.
"Why did you leave for Russia?"
"Sorry?"
"You and Charles just left without telling us anything."
Erik sighed, the small outtake of breath leaving his mouth in a faint mist due to the cold early morning air. He held her hands closer to his body, almost as if he could sense the allure to his heat. She suddenly felt very strange standing there with a man she hardly knew, who was gripping her fingers close enough to his chest so she could feel the soft palpitations of his heart. She hadn't been so close to someone in a long time, and admittedly she wasn't quite sure if she completely disliked the proximity to the man.
"I'm afraid that I cannot disclose that information." He uttered smoothly in his low magnetic voice.
Laurien raised an eyebrow, utterly intrigued. "And why not?"
He shrugged in a blatant display of fake innocence. "A matter of national security."
She scoffed. "Vol volslagen onzin."
He smirked, apparently understanding what she had said, which only made her angrier, but before she could say anything else, he swiftly changed the subject. "What are you doing all the way out here? It's much safer back at the base with the others." He said, his head bowing down to her level as he tried to engage her eyes.
"Really?" She asked rhetorically. "It doesn't seem like anywhere is safe anymore. Not even when you're surrounded by a thousand or more trained CIA agents."
Erik nodded angrily, his handsome face setting into a frustrated frown and a deeply furrowed brow as he looked off towards the base. "I know all too well, this is Shaw's work." He growled. "This should never have happened."
Laurien stared up at him in surprise, raising a questioning eyebrow and ripping her hands away from him at the mention of the assailing mutant's name. "You knew about him?"
Erik remained silent, his eyes darkening as if he had just realized that he had involuntarily revealed a piece of valuable information. He began verbally backtracking as smoothly as only he could, stepping back, but with her fading patience, Laurien wasn't about to let him get away with it this time.
She impulsively grabbed him by the lapels of his leather jacket, her grip strong and unwavering as she shoved him up against a nearby tree, the breath being pushed out of him at the impact. "Look, Erik, if there's something you and Charles haven't told the rest of us, you'd better fucking do it right now. We're supposed to be a team. Darwin died for Christ's sake, at the hands of that maniac and we couldn't do anything to stop it. We have a damn right to know just what the hell happened last night."
Erik stared down at her with wide fascinated eyes as she could feel the electricity of the earlier adrenaline still running through her veins. She was not to be trifled with at that moment and Erik knew it.
He cleared his throat, his serious gaze flickering to her set mouth before returning to her glowing daggers for eyes. "I've known Shaw for many years, and I've seen exactly what he can do. He ripped my family apart." His voice wavering a bit, but he continued on. "I have been tracking him my entire life, and in the midst of it all, my search was what led me to Charles."
Laurien frowned. "How did he rip your family apart?" She asked, but despite her anger she quickly recovered her manners when she saw the pained look that flickered across his face. "If you don't mind me asking."
He gave a small shake of his head, as if he was ridding himself of an old memory, before addressing her softly. "That might be a subject for another day,"
"How did you and Charles meet?" She asked, changing the subject as she felt herself finally calming down.
"I had managed to find Shaw two weeks ago, and Charles saved me when I admittedly got a little bit over my head when he tried to get away." He explained, wincing as he shifted against the tree behind him. "Would you mind if you allowed me to remove myself from the tree, I can feel a knot sticking into my back and it's rather uncomfortable."
She sighed, letting go of him and backing away. "I guess Charles is good at that, saving people."
"That he is." Erik nodded, his eyes softening as he moved himself off of the tree and towards her. "Look, we both know you didn't just come out here for the fresh American forest air, so why don't you just tell me what's going on with you?"
She grimaced, mentally cursing him for being so infuriatingly correct the whole time they'd been out there. "I– I just needed to clear my head." She mustered, the freezing temperature returning to haunt her body as the heated jolt from the spontaneous tree displacement and confrontation wore off. "With all those people and the chaos, I couldn't think straight. All of the emotions were-" She stopped, not wanting to have another outburst as she felt the crushing weight returning from earlier.
"You can feel them, can't you? Other people's sentiments."
She paused for a while before nodding tentatively. "It's been getting worse over the past few days. I didn't used to be aware of it; I thought it was just that I could read people well, but I've recently noticed something odd when I'm around others, something akin to waves."
"How would you describe them, these waves?" He inquired, visibly enthralled with her eyes as they shifted to metallic silver.
"I'm not quite sure." She stated truthfully. "It's just when I'm close to people, I can perceive what they're feeling emotionally at that moment. It's almost like radiation waves, in the way the sun warms the earth…" She faded away, a sudden realization dawning on her. The theory might explain as to why she felt so chilled earlier, with all the chaos and fear, the people around her had been letting off swells of freezing temperatures. It made perfect sense, though at the same time, the new developments in her mutation worried her.
She gave him a sideways glance, biting her lip anxiously as she mulled it over in her head. "I shouldn't be concerned about this, should I?"
He grinned, and just then Laurien noticed the small dimples appeared in the middle of his cheeks as he smiled; it was a rather charming feature, she had to admit. "How about we start heading back, don't want to keep the others worrying. Here." He took off his leather jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders protectively. "Your hands were freezing."
Laurien was taken aback by the kind gesture as she thanked him, engulfed in the blissfully warm jacket. Perhaps, she thought carefully, she had judged Erik too quickly during that first meeting. Noticing the fading purple bruise around his cheek bone and nose, she then remembered what she had been meaning to say when she saw him again. "Hey, I meant to say this sooner, but I'm sorry about punching you when we first met in my apartment."
To her surprise, he chuckled. "Don't worry about it, but I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of your right hook again.
She felt the corners of her mouth turn up into a smirk, as they started heading back down the path towards the base.
Yay, Erik. I love Michael Fassbender, can't wait to see Macbeth next month. I saw Slow West not too long ago and I enjoyed it very much. A very odd and quirky film, but interesting to say the least. Watched First Class last night, made me feel better when I was feeling rotten the whole day. Also saw Black Mass yesterday, which I recommend for any Benedict Cumberbatch fans. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, please review!