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CHAPTER NINETEEN...
The sun beats down on me as I slip my tired feet into the lake, letting the cool water envelope my toes.
I sit on the edge of the pond, watching the fish swim about in the crystalline water. They are unfazed by my presence, and continue about their home as if they don't have a care in the world. I scoff. Of course they don't, they're fish. I rub my forearms, hoping to dull the cold that creeps along my skin.
A breeze pushes up against my backside, and my hair flies in all directions as I look out across the estate. I turn my head slightly, back up to the sprawling mansion that will soon house students, children like me with abilities they might not be able to control. In front of the castle that will now be my home, I see Moira in a beautiful purple dress pulling a now wheelchair bound Charles. They stop in front of the house and Moira leans down to him.
A wave of sorrow overtakes my senses, and I turn back around.
It's been three days since Erik left us on the beach in Cuba. Three days since I pushed him away and told him I couldn't go with him, not after what he had become. It's been three days since I started to break.
It was small at first, a twinge in my heart and an ache in my fingertips. It was a crest of agony, soft as a feather, that weighed me down like nothing had before. Then, it grew steadily worse. The first night after we came back to the manor, I awoke in the middle of evening screaming, clutching my throat after Shaw's hands had gripped it in the nightmare. Shadows had sprouted from my hands and my back and my eyes.
Sean and Alex and Hank had come running into the room, powers at the ready. When they asked me what was wrong, I couldn't speak. My throat was covered in suffocating darkness, as hot as burning steel. They had left after an hour of trying to console me. The moment they did, I broke down into tears. Hot and wet against my cheeks, I cried and cried until I finally dozed off once more.
The next day Charles came to me, his numb legs now bound to a metal chair. We talked out in the garden, and I told him about the dreams. He said he was getting them too, voices in his head that he couldn't stop. Uncontrollable grief that washed over everything. We talked, and later, during dinner, Charles proposed the idea.
A school, he had said, I would like to make this place a school for gifted students like yourself. Alex and Sean were apprehensive at first, but eventually came around to the idea, and Hank, while still upset by the loss of Raven, encouraged it. He wanted to become a Professor, teaching other students, other mutants, like him.
I agreed to it as well, but I told him I would not be a student or a Professor.
I thought having a school would be a nice idea, but only because it would be a worthy distraction. I push a strand of hair behind my ear and wrap my arms around my middle. I close my eyes for a second, trying to get the memories of the beach out of my head.
