Chapter 11

Marie woke up naked, her back arched on a cold metal table with a block underneath her head. A bright light shone so brightly over her body she thought she might be blinded by it. Well, that wasn't completely true. She could make out millions of dust particles in the air. The small movement of a baby cockroach from across the room caught her eye as it crawled quickly through a crack in the floor. She could smell the clean, sterile scent of antiseptics and iodine and hear the deafening sound of what sounded like a cart rolling down a long hallway. The thundering noise by the clunking air conditioner seemed loud enough to make her ears burst.

Every cell, every fiber in her body told her one thing: she needed to get out of here.

Her movement on the metal bed sent a spike of pain through her abdomen. She carefully lifted her head to check the severity of her wound only to see her naked torso covered with blood, the dermis and muscles of her chest cut open to reveal blood-coated ribs before her skin folded back and sewed itself together until all that was left was a bright red line.

A surprised sob escaped her lips as she gingerly lifted her hand to touch the red scar in the middle of her chest. There was no pain. Her fingers trailed down her skin to the several faded, pink scars littered over the center of her abdomen. Confusion built up inside her as she softly touched the scars, flinching when she expected the pain to erupt over her body again. Nothing.

She squeezed her eyes shut when she felt a piercing headache begin. She watched the hands –Logan's hands? –in horror as the two fists slammed blades into her body.

Marie let out a low, pained groan. What was that? Panic overwhelmed her.

With shaky legs, she rolled herself off the metal table to the floor, her feet slapping loudly on the linoleum. She glanced around the room and saw her t-shirt and pajama pants neatly folded but with lengthwise cuts through them. A white lab coat peeked out from behind the only door in the cold room. Without hesitation, she slipped on the coat and buttoned it before exiting the room with her sneakers and gloves.

The hallway was brightly lit, to the point where she had to put the heel of her hands to her eyes to stop the pain, but once she got control of herself, she noticed it was empty.

She looked up to see her own body, frozen in midair, eyes glowing a light blue, mouth wide open to scream but no sound escaping it, the blue light filling her open mouth as well. Her long hair floated in the air, slowing waving through a thick layer of static and her knees hovering slightly above the edge of the mattress. Electricity surrounded her body like a shield. Her hands were on the body she looked through and pain surged through that body until a roar erupted from its mouth and blades from its knuckles till it sank deep into her middle.

The hallway tilted, and her body slammed against one wall with brute force. With shaky hands, she steadied herself and searched along the wall to walk forward. It felt like she was scaling along the wall for hours -the hallway didn't seem to end. Eventually, she turned a corner and passed an empty security desk and fluorescent lights that flickered when she walked by until she pushed open the front doors of the small building into darkness.

Despite the questions swirling around in her head, she knew the answers to most of them. The surge of memories felt too familiar for her to not know. She bit her lip hard to stop a sob from escaping her lips. She had looked through Logan's eyes. She now wondered if he was still alive.

She walked along the side of the road for almost thirty minutes, her senses taking in the surroundings in micro speeds. Her brain already mapped out the geography around her. At first, every loose pebble and the rough, crumbling asphalt irritated the bottom of her foot, but it was like her body understood the uncomfortable feeling until the soles of her feet felt tough like she was wearing an extra layer beneath her feet. It wasn't until another fifteen minutes till she began to recognize the familiar buildings of Kindersley like the small but well-equipped recreational center and the small grocers next to it. It meant that the motel she and Logan had stayed at wasn't too far.

Crickets and cicadas sang to her the rest of the way home and the squeaks of hunting bats squeaked so loudly she thought they were right at her ear. She crossed her arms tightly around her middle and walked faster.

Every time she blinked, her mind transported her to frightening places -dark, cold and metallic, the taste of blood in her mouth from biting her tongue. No. It wasn't her blood or her tongue. Logan's. She could hear him roar in his head, banging at the walls in her brain and the walls in his memories. A few times, his voice was so loud she couldn't remember who she even was. Logan. Logan.

She almost cried out in relief when she saw the orange lights of the motel in the distance. Her feet were sore, and she could still feel the phantom pain of the cuts on her chest. She stumbled into the empty motel lobby and furiously tapped at the silver bell on the front counter.

A sleepy twenty-something stepped out of the back office in the midst of a heavy yawn. "How can I help- Holy shit are you okay?" Marie had not spoken more than a few words to the receptionist since they first arrived at the motel.

"Yeah…why?"

The woman looked around her as if she was waiting for cameras to poke out to admit it was all a prank. "Are you serious? Your boyfriend stabbed you and took off and I saw them take you away in a stretcher." She glanced at Marie from head to toe. "Are you not wearing pants?"

"Can I please just get a spare key to my room?" Marie snapped, holding her hand out impatiently.

"Uh, I mean sure I guess. You guys paid till the end of the month but…like, the cops were all over your room. Do you want to go back in there?" The woman grimaced dramatically, her opinion on the matter obvious.

Marie straightened her fingers and shook her hand a little to gesture for the keys. She really wasn't in the mood to talk to her.

The room was in complete shambles. The bed she had sat on was ripped to shreds with three distinct claw marks slashing through the fabrics. At the foot of the bed, there was a large, dark stain on the blue carpet that traveled up the ripped sheets to the center of the bed. She stared at the bloodstains for a while before stepping over more crime scene markers and crashing into the second bed -Logan's bed -and succumbing to her exhaustion.

Her dreams were virulent with anger and violence.

Marie scrambled out of bed and immediately fell to the floor. Her legs felt so weak. How long had she been sleeping? She crawled toward the foot of the bed before using the frame to pull herself up on her feet.

She peered through the curtains, hissing when her eyes reacted to the bright sunlight. She glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table: 7:23AM. Marie plopped down next to the window and groaned. A low growl emitted from her stomach. When was Logan going to come back?

"He's not," Cody said.

"Cody, not now," she grumbled. "He'll be back. He had to get away before the cops came. But they're gone now. He'll be here soon."

Cody's expression became something of grave concern "Babe…who are you trying to kid? You died last night. He's not going to know you're here, alive and walking."

Marie laughed. A hysterical, nervous laugh. "I didn't die." When Cody didn't reply to this, she repeated, more affirmative, "I didn't die." The memory of Logan's claws sinking into her flesh and of waking up on the autopsy table appeared. "Shit."

She sat there in silence for some time until a question burning on the back of her mind caught Cody's attention. He, of course, knew what she would ask before she even said it aloud. She turned to face where she visualized Cody sat. "What even happened last night? I was being shocked by something…Logan tried to help me, he got shocked too, he attacked me…." He attacked me. Marie's heart sunk at those words. Of course, she knew it was because the electricity was hurting him, and hadn't he told her before that the blades come out when he thinks there's danger? She knew but the fact that he used it on her made her feel pretty low.

"You attacked him too," Cody justified. "You touched him right before you died." There he says it again, Marie thought, like it was the most normal thing to say. "But back to the shock thing -I think we know exactly what you took from Jeremy Smith. But, you clearly didn't hold onto him long enough. I can't feel him anywhere in here. I think you used his mutation up."

Marie's eyes widened. "Jeremy was a mutant? And used him up? Like a car battery?"

Cody shrugged. "What's the other explanation? He's the only other person we've touched, and I know I'm not a mutant."

They both shuddered at the thought that such a violent man had so much power within him.

"At least we know one more thing about our abilities," Cody continued. "It's either a one-time go with mutant powers or it matters how long you touch them. Either way, we gotta be careful how we use Wolverine."

Marie didn't like the way he said that. "We" and "our" as if this was his body too. It was selfish of her to think considering what she had done to him and leaving him in god knows what state in Meridian. But it was clear to her that he had the ability to take over her body at certain times -granted, they were times when she felt she was in danger -but it felt like a ginormous red flag.

"He didn't even know he was a mutant -I mean he tried to use a knife on me of all things! Is that even possible to not know?"

"Well, let's be glad he didn't know. We might not be here."

Marie bristled at his use of the word "we" again and her expression became sour. The glimmer of Cody looked at her quizzically and Marie suddenly realized she could hide things from him. She imagined a wall between her thoughts and him. Cody's image flickered a couple times before he disappeared, looking hurt.

She sighed and saw the crumpled-up newspaper at the foot of her bloody bed. She picked it up and looked at the article again, her heart clenching with sadness. Both victims were found by their only son Trevor Hudson early in the day. She bit her thumbnail anxiously. It was no coincidence, then, that she already met a Trevor here who rubbed her the wrong way. But why was he here of all places? He should be after those two crazies that attack them and destroyed their camper.

She couldn't even begin to imagine that a sweet couple she had stayed with only a few short weeks ago were dead. All because of Logan and her. Those mutants that killed the Hudsons were after them and they put that couple in the line of fire.

Marie balled up the page and threw it against the wall and cried till she couldn't anymore.

The phone rang three times that day.

Marie stood next to it while it the first time, shifting from one foot to the other debating whether she should pick it up. It had to be Morgan. Who else would it be? Marie was scheduled the first shift with Sheila. Morgan must have been fuming at the other end of the phone. As soon as Logan returned, they would be off to their next destination, that much was clear. Though, she did feel a twinge of regret about leaving behind someone she considered a friend.

The second time the phone rang, she felt Wolverine rouse in her head. It was a sudden shift, similar to how it felt when Cody first emerged, like someone else was in the room with her. His presence in her head felt nothing like having the actual Logan next to her. With Logan, there was a sense of security and comradery, even when they fought. Whatever was in her head didn't give her that comforting feeling at all. It was anxious and angry and confused all at once and every thought Wolverine had had an impact on Marie's body. She fidgeted and pulled at a pillow on Logan's bed until the phone stopped ringing and she realized that there was a pile of shredded cotton in her hands.

The third phone call came when Marie was curled up in Logan's bed. Her hunger pangs were worse, but she didn't want to risk leaving the hotel in case he came back while she was gone. She already showered and was dressed in her jeans, green coat, gloves and converse, ready to jump out of bed and into the blue truck the second Logan walked in. Marie refused to believe he wouldn't come back.

She lifted her head from the intact pillow after the phone stopped after the fourth ring. Weird… A shuffling outside the door raised the hairs on the back of her neck and Marie hopped out of bed in a nervous delight just as the door opened.

Her heart sank.

"Trevor!" Marie exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Trevor, wearing a dark jacket and sunglasses, shut the door behind him with a sharp slam and turned the lock. Marie stumbled back, perplexed, but the back of her legs hit the bed. "I heard something happened here last night -that you didn't survive an animal attack or a stabbing or something." He pulled off his sunglasses to reveal his green eyes turning black with red rims around the iris. Like camera lenses. "A lot like what happened to my parents."

There was a lump in Marie's throat.

"You have no idea how easy it was to find you two. But that's the thing about being a mutant in this country. I've never had to use my abilities to find another mutant. They were never the enemy." Trevor looked down with a faraway look that Marie remembered Heather having. "Because mutants aren't supposed to hurt mutants."

"Trevor, let me explain. We didn't –" Marie started but Travis cut her off.

"But I knew after seeing what happened to them that it had to be mutants. You two left 'signatures' all over that house as if I couldn't find you!" He slammed his fist against the wall. "And you must have made the decision to kill them very swiftly because my mother couldn't even call to tell me that premonition -she…oh God." Trevor stopped talking and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You didn't even give her time to have a premonition. You two are truly monsters."

Premonitions? God, how many people were mutants? Marie thought, surprisingly calm at the revelation. Trevor was good at tracking people and Heather had premonitions. Seemed like literally everyone and their mothers were mutants. "What are you talking about? We didn't do anything to Travis or Heather. I didn't even know she was a mutant and they didn't know we were either!" At least it didn't seem like they knew. She saw him falter in his step at the mention of his parents' names. The red rims around his irises relaxed momentarily. "They were kind to us -we wouldn't have ever harmed them for anything. I promise you."

Travis looked angry again. "I've seen that man -the one with the claws -oh, I've seen him fight before. He's famous around some parts here. No one else could have done that to their bodies!"

"Listen to me," Marie said desperately. "Right before we got to their house, Logan and I were attacked by two mutants. One of them could have done that to your parents."

"How convenient," he muttered, shaking his head. The red rims constricted again. His nostrils flared.

"Have some mercy, please," she whispered. "We didn't harm your family."

"Did he not have any mercy?" His voice trembled. Marie suddenly saw that despite his stature, Trevor was very young. Maybe even younger than her. A young man who lost both of his parents for no reason. "When he ripped through my mother?"

Marie darted past him through the door and pushed him aside. Before she could take another step into the hallway, she felt him grip tightly on leg. She stumbled and fell, using her arms to break her fall. Trevor used this to his advantage and dragged her back into the room. Marie let out a curdling scream but the impact of her body on the ground minimized the effect, sounding like a choked cry when her body entered back into the motel room. Did anyone hear her?

Trevor dragged her further into the room and reached for a blade sheathed on the side of his belt. He used his knees to pin her legs to the ground painfully and his free arm grabbed her wrists. "Don't worry. Your friend will meet you soon." He raised the knife high with a strong grip and brought it down swiftly.

Suddenly, an odd sensation grew inside her and Marie felt herself rushing backwards in her own mind a million miles per hour only feeling her body move. Without her own volition, her body twisted around on the ground, her arm loose from his grim reaching out quickly to grab Trevor's shirt from the back and yank him down to the floor with her. Her legs swung over his body, pinning his front down while her left arm put him in a choke hold. Her right reached from behind to touch his face. Trevor yelped beneath her, but his body immediately went from stiff to relaxed. Marie's body waited on top of him, her hand hovering over his face in case he got up again, until she was absolutely sure he passed out. Once she heard his calm, deep breaths, her body immediately got up, grabbed the ready backpack, and ran outside to her dusty blue truck.

She pushed Cody's presence to the back of her mind as far as she could, building more and more walls until she could barely feel him anymore. Marie wanted to scream out her frustration and punch something repeatedly until the built-up pressure in her body escaped.

Marie couldn't stop the sobs from hacking through her chest as she turned on the engine. Cody had used her body again without her permission and this time he had used her abilities. Her body and her abilities. He had no right! Trevor's presence slowly emerged in her mind, confused and angry, screaming to be let out. She swiped angrily at the tears blurring her vision and stepped on the accelerator harder, ready to use her newfound power to find Logan.

A/N: Let me know what you think. If anything is confusing about the chapter or the story, please review or send me a message. I can re-edit the chapter to make things a little clearer.