Of Mutants and Men

[02]

          Three days – or what felt like it – had passed since Angelika befriended young Erik. The young girl noticed that they tended to disagree on various yet quite serious matters such as killing Schmidt when given the opportunity. She wanted him to rot in a prison for the rest of his natural life whereas Erik craved to spill his blood in retaliation for shooting his poor mother.

Their heated arguments slowly morphed into tiresome whines – mostly from Angelika since Erik was just plainly grumpy – as they had not been fed. No soldiers bothered to look after them and it seemed Schmidt's gruesome research did not require either of their presences, for which they were grateful despite the lack of food.

"If you're a metal bender, can you transform any metal to gold?" Angelika questioned as she laid on her stomach, looking up at her brooding cellmate curiously.

"No, Angelika, I cannot," came the exasperated answer, "I am not an alchemist or a wizard. I merely control metal; I can make them come to me, feel them."

"So you're basically a magnet?"

"If you call me that, I will name you Snooper for snooping in people's mind."

"That's lame!" She exclaimed before grumbling under her breath, "And I don't always read people's mind..."

"Sure," he scoffs. "Regardless, magnet is lame."

"Not Magneto." Angelika said with dreamy hand gestures and a matching facial expression.

Contrasting to the apparent pride brightening Angelika's face, Erik looked utterly done with her childish antics. It didn't take much or long to break her out of her shell. After his grand promise and the brief name exchange, she began to pester him with ridiculous questions every waking hour. She seemed to have missed companionship.

Erik pinched the bridge of his nose. "You merely added an 'o' to magnet."

"Yes," she narrowed her eyes at him, "And it changes everything. Magneto sounds like a superhero name."

"I never said anything about becoming a superhero."

"No, you did not. But I felt it. There is good here," she pointed to where her heart was, "and here." Then pointed at her head. "Not to mention, your grandfather would be very proud of you if you ever become one. I mean he seemed awfully proud to have fought during the Great War."

"Stop snooping, Snooper."

"Don't call me that!"

"I see you've met."

At Schmidt's voice, all traces of playfulness evaporated from the pair. Angelika jumped in the air before practically sitting on Erik's lap, eyeing the mad scientist with fear. The boy seethed at his presence, biting his tongue to prevent himself from shouting insults at the devil.

"It's pleasing to see my two favourite students getting along." Schmidt commented, crouching to meet their eye level. "Although I am sorry to break you up, it's time to go, Angelika."

Heart hammering against her ribcage, Angelika felt the urge to throw up like she always did when he was around. Deep in her fears, she almost yelped when a skinny arm wrapped around her shoulders rather forcefully. She stared at Erik curiously. Why was he acting like this?

"If you even think of disobeying me, Erik, the girl in the Gypsy camp – Magda was it? – won't live to see another day." The young boy's eyes widened as his iron grip faltered at the mention of his name.

Having noticed this, Angelika patted Erik's bicep and shot him a look of reassurance. She knew the value of friendship in a world where everyone you knew, loved and hated died. Wobbling towards the bars, she whispered telepathically to her new friend, "I'll be okay. Don't worry." Even if it was one big, fat lie, she was hoping it'd ease his racing mind.