Lost in the Dark

You can smell anxiety on a person, and it’s especially strong if you happen to know them. I wouldn’t go so far ascallcall Summers a friend, and I know he wouldn’t do the same for me, but since Jean’s death we’d formed a sort of mutual bond. Without Jean, there was no one to fight over, no competitive edge between us which might’ve made us friends if we weren’t so vastly different and if we didn’t annoy the living shit out of each other.

We resented each other; we always had, ever since we met. He had always been the alpha male of the X-Mansion, the dominant one, the one in charge, who no one questioned. It didn’t come naturally for him, thoughcoulcould tell that he wasn’t a born leader. He carried a vague scent of uncertainty and self-doubt; it smelled like if he made one small mistake everything would come crashing down around him and he wouldn’t be the trusted alpha male anymore. I guess I could be considered a natural alpha male. I’ve always kept to myself, but people listen to me when I’m around them. I can make decisions on the spur of the moment without agonizing over them. My movements are natural reflexes, whereas Summers’ are careful and calculated. He envied me because of that; when we first met he reeked of it.

Xavier always said that the eyes are the window to the soul and I suppose they are. I can look into someone’s eyes and tell if they’re lying, if they’re scared, if they’re upset or angry, if they’re happy. But I can’t see Summers’ eyes, and that scares me. Not a lot. Just a little. Because I can’t tell how he really feels, what he’s thinking, if he’s lying. Not knowing makes me uneasy; the man could crack at any moment and you wouldn’t see it coming.

He trudged up the stairs from the basement and sub-cellars, his head down and his hands in his pockets. He made a beeline for the kitchen. He passed me, giving a slight nod that was the equivalent of a dull, flat, ‘hello.’ He smelled different and his clothes looked rumpled and slightly damp. He carried a thick, wet scent that wasn’t his. Someone else. Someone who had been outside recently and for a long period of time, someone who was bleeding or had blood on him, and something else that I couldn’t really pin down. It was something I’d smelled before, but it was faded and thin.

I was automatically suspicious of Summers, and the fact that there was a sger ger in the basement who he’d touched or been near made me even more so. I followed him, walking carefully and slowly. I was pretty stunned when I saw him on his hands and knees, pulling up a loose floorboard. He looked up, holding a bottle of gin.

“You want some?” he asked after a moment. All I could do was stare. SummerAnd And a bottle of gin? Gin? That was wrong on so many levels; Summers’ was the most anal-retentive, straight-laced son of a bitch I’d even known and here he was with a bottle of gin?

“What’s the matter?” I asked. He rose, taking time to slide the floorboard back into place and went over to the cupboard. He got out a glass and some ice and poured himself a drink.

He shrugged and shook his head. “A friend of mine…someone I know is in trouble,” he said, picking the words carefully. “Well, he’s not in trouble anymore, I guess. Something bad happened to him.” He looked down at the glass and took a sip, grimacing slightly. This was either his first drink in ages or his first drink period. “He was at Alkali Lake, too.”

“Who?” I asked, sitting down across from him. “No one else was there when we got there.” Well, no other mutants, at least.

“His name is Mortimer,” said Summers, “and he escaped before we got there.” He finished his drink, and this time it slid down his throat ealsily. “He got out a few days before the Professor and I were captured.”

“Really? What happened to him?”

Summers poured himself another drink and downed it almost instantly. “They raped him.”

All I could do was stare. They raped him? That didn’t make sense; men just don’t get raped. That’s not how it happens…unless this guy can’t or won’t fight back. This Mortimer must’ve been on the small and willowy side; he must’ve at least looked feminine in order for a bunch of non-gay soldiers and guards to take turns with him. I was forming a picture of him in my mind – slender hips, slim, small, feminine face, curly hair, long eyelashes – when Summers broke my traf thf thought.

“Erik’ll be here in an hour,” he said. “He’s bringing Raven, Victor, and John…maybe, I don’t know. They’re friends with Mort.” He reached for the bottle again, but then lifted his head up so that he was looking me full in the face. I hadn’t responded. So this man’s friends were coming to pick him up. Big deal. “Did you hear me?”

“Yeah.”
agneagneto and Sabretooth and Mystique are coming,” he said, pouring the last of the gin into the glass. I nearly fell off my chair.

“You mean this guy is with the Brotherhood?”

“Yeah,” said Summers, tilting his head to the side. The gin was starting to affect him, but he wasll rll relatively lucid and coherent. “Mortimer is Toad,” he said, as if he was explaining it to a little kid. Or someone who didn’t know.

“Christ, didn’t Ororo kill him?”

Summers shrugged. “We thought she did, but I guess we were wrong.” He gulped the rest of his drink and stared down at the emptass,ass, rolling it around in his hands. I had only seen Toad once or twice, and he didn’t look like the rape victim I’d pictured.

He was shorter than I am, but well-built and stocky. His hair was cut short, and his eyes were large and spaced far apart. On first glance he’d looked autistic, but if you looked harder at him you could tell he wasn’t. Damn Summers, there’s no way this guy was raped, I thought, he fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down; no way in hell he’d even get laid, let alone raped. Plus he’s got all that lower body strength. He’d kick your teeth out in a heartbeat if he felt threatened. Summers stood up, putting the empty glass in the sink.

“The Professor’s calling me,” he said. “I need to get down to the medlab. They’ll be here soon, can you just let them in and bring them down?”

“Sure.” He was gone before I replied. I started poking around at the floorboards, looking for something to drink. I found the compartment and took out a bottle of scotch. I sat down at the table, thinking about what Summers had told me. A member of the Brotherhood was in the medlab, and the rest of the members were on their way. I stared at the bottle for a while, knowing that Magneto, Mystique, and Sabretooth were going to be in the mansion in less than thirty minutes. It felt wrong. These were our enem peo people we fought, who wanted to destroy us and the rest of humanity. This could go so wrong in so many ways…how do we know this isn’t an ambush? They send Toad over and have him pretend he’s been beaten and raped, then they come by and invade. I decided it was best not to drink anything and was putting the scotch away when I heard the knock at the front door, followed by the clacking of Rogue’s shoes as she went to answer it. I raced into the front hall in time to see Rogue slamming the front door.

I could smell the terrified sweat forming on her forehead and noticed a set of familiar fingers caught between the door and the doorframe. Sabretooth’s thick black claws left marks on the door as he struggled to push it open.

“Get away!” Rogue was screaming, “just go away and leave me alone.”

“Look, we aren’t here to hurt you,” he shouted, his fingers squirming and grabbing at the door, scratching it further, “you have to let us in, this is an emergency.”

“Rogue, it’s all right,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder and gently pulling her away from the door. It swung open, nearly hitting me in the face and Sabretooth entered. He had a wild look in his eyes, but it was clouded with fear and concern, like he was asking if Toad was all right. Or afraid that he was dead. I could smell the adrenaline that he was running on, and saw that he was shaking slightly. Magneto and Mystique were on either side of him, though they looked more like they were standing next to a bomb with a lit fuse.

“We got a phone call – “Ye “Yeah, he’s in the medlab,” I said, pointing towards the door. I was about to lead them there, but they walked past Rogue and me as if they knew where they were going. Sabretooth brushed past Rogue, his hand briefly touching her bare arm. He was too wired and frazzled to even notice, but I could tell that she did. Rogue stumbled back, her gloved hands glued to the sides of her temples. I turned towards her on instinct, putting my hands on her shoulders carefully and trying to get through to her. I lost track of the Brotherhood; they ignored Rogue and me and went down to the medlab.

“Rogue? Rogue, are you OK?”

“I can’t…he’s in my head – I – my head – ” she whimpered incoherently, shaking her head and squeezing her eyes shut.