Eloi
35
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Eloi Chapter Thirty Five
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Kitty
pressed the cool cloth to her eyes and sighed. She knew they were swollen from
crying and she knew she looked like Death warmed over, but she did not feel
like doing anything about it. She wanted
to crawl into a hole and sob her brains out, she thought, the knot of nausea in
her stomach working its way upwards. _I
want to be sick. I want to take it all
back… _
She curled on her side, pulling her comforter up to her earlobes, one
hand still pressing the damp, cool washcloth to her eyelids.
still hurt her to open her eyes. She had
a migraine, a rare occurrence for her, and she honestly wished, for all of five
seconds, that she would just cease to exist.
Kitty groaned in frustration and annoyance when a light knock fell on
her door; it was barely a tapping sound, really, but it was enough to make her
head throb in response, her teeth gritting as she curled even more tightly into
the fetal position. “Go.
After a moment’s hesitation, she added, “Please.”
“Kitty, it’s
just me,” Rahne’s light voice replied.
She knew her friend was suffering but it could not be helped at the
moment. “I need to come in, please.”
Kitty
groaned again, this time loudly.
quiet and don’t turn on the light.” Each
word hurt her head, echoing in her skull and seeming to jab and slash at
sensitive nerve endings in her face and neck.
She managed not to wince as Rahne opened the door, the slight squeak of
the hinges more annoying than Kitty thought possible.
Carefully,
the Scottish girl pushed the door shut behind her, hissing softly though her
teeth at the subtle click of the latch sliding into place.
to sort out the best possible way to phrase the request, then
sighed. “Kitty, I hate to do this but…we
need your help downstairs.”
“
covers and clutching the damp cloth more tightly to her face.
“Not
really,” Rahne sighed. She was in her
pajamas and bathrobe, shuffling her feet almost guiltily as she looked on
Kitty. “There’s a problem they want to
run a sim on and they can’t get the Danger Room to
work right.”
“It’s a
sign,” Kitty replied. “The Danger Room
says ‘no.’ All
heed the Danger Room.”
Rahne
snorted softly and approached the side of the bed.
in no time.” She smiled thinly, knowing
Kitty could not see her but feeling the words called for it.
goes up and down…”
“Rahne, I
love you but please stop,” Kitty ground out.
“This migraine medicine isn’t working, I want to barf all over the place
and I have no idea why no one else can fix the damned
knew how to work it!” She pushed her
covers aside and laid there a moment, the cool air of the room making
gooseflesh rise on her arms and legs. “Obviously
he knows how to work the air conditioner,” she muttered under her breath,
sitting up carefully. “What’s going on
that it’s so urgent? Don’t they have
other things to worry about?”
Rahne bit
her lip, guilt over waking Kitty, making her do this, threatening to make her
take it back and go face the others herself. Finally, after a deep breath, she
said “Professor Xavier and Magneto want to run a possible sim
about the bombs.”
Kitty
paused, half way into tying up her robe.
The ends of the terrycloth belt hung loosely in her hands before she
curled her fingers into fists, her face coloring red in anger.
“Um… yes.”
that issued forth from Kitty, rising from some primal place to escape between
clenched teeth. Involuntarily, she pawed
at her ears, the sound tingling and almost hurting her.
“What is
that…that… *man* doing here? I refuse to
be part of helping him! He killed my
cousin! He tried to kill me! He’d have all of us dead in a heartbeat and I bet
he’s the one who did the bombs! He set it up!”
She jerked her robe off her shoulders and flung it to the bed.
proportions, even in the dim light of the bedroom, and she felt the nausea
threaten to become overwhelming. “Tell
them they can do it their own damned selves.
I refuse.” A faint tingle at the
edges of her awareness made her flinch.
Someone was trying to peek in, she thought.
the Professor had asked permission, and from the few times Jean had gone
looking around her mind. _STOP IT, _ she
demanded in her best mental shout.
Rahne
fidgeted nervously for a moment, then sighed.
and I even told ‘em that you’d say no but the Professor thinks they might be
able to reconstruct what sort of bomb it was before the police can figure it
out and then maybe they’ll have an idea about the group that did this, this
Friends of Humanity bunch. They want to
help Paige. Well, the Professor does
anyway. Magneto likely only wants to
help himself.” She picked at the edge of
her pajama top, not meeting Kitty’s eyes in the semi-darkness.
Kitty
gritted her teeth again and glanced at the bedside alarm clock.
pain-scarred vision but she could make out that it was after one in the
morning, nearing
taking care to shut the door as quietly as possible behind her.
_The world doesn’t stop for you,
Kitty, _ her grandmother’s voice said primly, rising from the recesses of Kitty’s
memory.
_I know, _
Kitty thought in return. _But I wish it
would. _