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CHAPTER THREE...
Night has fallen, and I decide that I've spent enough time in my room. I should explore the facility, if it's where I'm going to be staying for the next however many months. I grab a long coat that Moira brought for me a little earlier, and it fits perfectly, reaching almost to the floor.
I open the door and peer out. There is no one in the hallway. I walk down the corridor and turn right, trying to make mental notes so I can find my way back. The shadows have not bothered me since a couple hours ago, which means no one is feeling truly upset. I haven't heard from Charles or anyone else, so I guess I won't be in on any of their schemes.
My stomach tightens at the thought of it, and I pause. Why am I feeling like this? Why am I upset I won't be able to fight Shaw? How many times had I dreamed of being free from him? How many times did I imagine what I would do when I escaped? This definitely was not what I imagined. I wanted to go to school, I wanted to go shopping for pretty clothes and meet new people. I never thought I would be holed up in a facility waiting for others to do all the heavy lifting.
I want to help. I want to fight Shaw and watch him pay. That's what Erik has been trying to do all these years, so why shouldn't I? I know why, it's the large glaring sign flashing right in front of me. I can't control my powers, and Shaw makes it worse, because he can. It's how I almost never had any incidents, because he was able to absorb the energy before it got too much.
Now I don't have that, and the presence of darkness is at the back of my mind, taunting me, stabbing with it's icy fingers.
I have a choice to make, I realize. Since now I've only been following suit, doing what everyone else was. But now I'm here, I'm free, and I can either fight Charles to let me help in the hunt, or sit back and do nothing. I'm at a crossroads. One is a clean path with flowers blooming and no bumps in the cobblestone, and the other is long and winding, plotted with trouble and darkness.
But I have been a friend of the dark for a long time.
As I walk, I see Raven and Hank in one of the huge engines of a rocket. They get very close, and I decide to leave before I see anything else. A little farther away from where Raven and Hank are, there's a window that overlooks a small courtyard dotted with statues and grass. I lean against it, watching my breath fog up the glass.
As I press my face up against the glass, my arm twinges. When I pull it out, I see the veins in my hand grow dark, as if the shadows are pumping through my blood. It tingles, and I close my palm, hoping it will go away, but the darkness only crawls to the back of my hand, as if it's saying; I own you, I control this, and therefore, I can control you. I take a shaky breath and close my eyes. I think of Shaw taking the shadows out of my hand. I wonder if I could do that.
I focus hard on the energy that crawls up my arm, willing them to leave. Please let me be, just let me be normal, I think, Let me have control. Gradually, I begin to see the reincarnation of my pain swirl out of my hand and into my palm. The shadows look like black coloring in water, dancing around my hand in ebony. It twirls in my palm, and I let out a laugh.
