X-Men 1st Redemptions

27: X-traordinaries

[Extraordinaries: Things which exceed the usual order, kind, or method.]

Logan's mood went over the heads of the two men, but Shine picked up on it easily enough.

"Something's shifted, Logan," she said upfront to him. "You seem sadder. Is it about the other day?"

"What are you talkin' about?" Logan tried to deny it.

"Don't BS me," Shine said. "Come, you're more honest than that. Just tell me, I won't judge."

"Well, maybe ya should," Logan said.

Shine laughed. "Maybe, but I probably won't anyway. Just tell me."

"Eh, people like you are too pure to understand." Logan looked at his fists. "When I see people like Creed, I hate 'em. I just want to tear 'em to shreds.... Even when the anger passes, I still hate them. But then, I know I'm not that much better. It's bad all around. Maybe that's why I don't have peace. Too much bloodshed..." He frowned. "I've done things you wouldn't be able to hear."

Shine fingered the Bible in front of her on the table.

"Have you massacred your entire family?" she said quietly. "Or had to watch it? Have you killed everyone you loved? Have you almost killed your own father? Have you driven your wife mad? Have you beaten a child? Have you murdered dozens of people you didn't even know?--I know that one is probably true."

"What in the h---?" Logan actually swore openly.

"Maybe you've framed someone else for murder?" Shine went on, in a totally normal voice. "Or plunged an entire kingdom into a magical ice age, or been a villain, or tried to drive someone mad."

"Who are you?" Logan said.

"A World Walker," Shine said calmly. "I travel worlds, helping people who need it and who can take it. Often ones with horrible lives. This is not the extent of the stuff I've heard. Girls who've been used their whole lives, people with curses in their blood that made them crazy, people who's parents shoved demons into their bodies at birth. The list goes on. Logan, I really doubt you could tell me anything I haven't heard--and Wally too. Kurt, maybe not."

"You're...you..." Logan sputtered. "All that...wait, if you've seen all that, why are ya so d--- happy all the time? Ya ought to be the most miserable person in the whole d--- world."

"A gift we have," Shine said, "is that when we leave the world, the horror fades like a dream. I believe it's a little taste of the heavenly experience. We remember the love and joy we have with our friends, but the pain and sorrow become less real because it is less real, Logan. Darkness is nothing to light, not when all is shown for what it really is."

She smiled warmly. "And also, whenever I hear a horrible story, I ask God, if He could help me, carry it for me. I learned it from one of my heroes Corrie Ten Boom... I have the book. I think you should read it--you lived through the same War. It'd probably speak to you a lot. But anyway, The word says that God keeps us in perfect peace when we trust all these things to Him. And, the horror I feel, it always passes away once I pray that."

Logan sank into a chair kitti-corner from her.

"I wish that would work for me," he said wearily.

"I think it would," Shine said. "It could take time for you to notice, but you can begin even now. Tell me, what's the hardest evil for you to accept?"

Logan thought.

"That people will hate others just because they are different," he said.

"You can dig deeper than that," Shine said.