I Die Often Hank

Chapter 58

Crimson's POV:

The last thing I can remember is Erik pulling me away from the door and now I'm back in the afterlife. I'm back once again in the strange and peaceful grounds of the school. Everything is exactly as it was the last time I died. I laid down on the ground next to the lake and enjoyed the comfort of the familiar setting. Considering what's going on in the mortal world this is a welcome break. Although everyone out there is probably freaking out wondering if I'm dead for good. I don't know if I'm gone for good either, the door back home hasn't shown up yet. Guess I'll relax and wait.

What happened to Erik? Why did he go in there, it was suicide. Is he gonna be okay? I don't even have enough strength to be in my own body, can I heal him? Did he die, or he is just badly hurt? There are a million and questions and a severe shortage of answers. I dozed off on the grass and waited for the door to open up. 

An Unknown Amount Of Time Later

I woke up from god knows how much sleep later and decided to go for a stroll. I spotted a very confused and freaking out Erik running around in a daze. Guess he's stuck here with me. 

"Erik!" I called out. He turned and looked at me very quickly. He came running over. 

"Where are we? What is this place?" He asked.

"Think of it as a waiting room. Every time I die I end up here and I wait here until my body is healed enough for me to return to it," I answered him.

"So we just hang out here and wait? How do we know when it's time to leave?" Erik responded. 

"Over my the lake a door will come up and we just go through that, and yeah we just kinda hang out," I answered. 

"I didn't come here when I died before..." Erik spoke in disbelief.

"You being here is a good sign, it means you're not all the way dead. You're dead in the same way I die, temporarily. So long as everyone back in the world keeps us close enough that I can heal you, things should be fine," I reassured him. We walked toward the lake and I got the idea that Erik wants to stay near the door, he's very eager to leave. We sat down on the bench by the lake and relaxed in the comfort of this waiting room. 

"I'm sorry we couldn't save him," Erik spoke reminding me of the events that brought us here. 

"My brother is dead..." I uttered in complete disbelief. I always thought of him as kind of invincible. That happened with him with his daughter messed with his powers. Where even is his daughter? I circled back mentally to the original point. My brother is dead. "He burned alive, we won't even get a body to bury..." I whispered. Erik pulled me closer to him for support and I leaned my head onto his shoulder. I felt myself starting to cry a little, Erik noticed and looked down at me worried. 

"Why don't you tell me about when you two were little," Erik asked. 

"We got separated when we were young so there's no much I remember. However, since we were little runaways we got around using trains. Logan would always insist on keeping watch at night and I'd do it in the daytime," I told. 

"What was it like sleeping on a train?" Erik questioned. 

"Well it was Canada so it was fairly cold a lot of the time, but the bumps from the train tracks were oddly comforting. You could sometimes find useful stuff in the crates, but mostly you'd just barricade yourself with them so the inspector won't see you," I answered. 

"How'd you two get food?" Erik asked. 

"Some people would give us some since we were kids, you know sympathy and all that. We did have this one thing we'd do though, it was fairly clever. I'd go to the front of the place and ask the manager for something like a cup of water to distract them, while Logan snuck in through the back window and stole their food," I told.