The Quiet

Chapter Nine

     It's one in the morning. The sounds of the night are on full volume. The bedroom is dark, yet a single candle it let, leaving the room with a light scent of sweet lemongrass. Cybele curls up into a ball, she holds a small kitten in her embrace.

Cybele is spending another night, getting sick, and not being able to sleep. She has spent the last couple of nights walking in her garden, only for Kurt to accompany her for a couple minutes for it grows to late for him. But tonight, she is too weak to go out and heal herself.

The kitten lets out a small noise, rubbing its head against Cybele's roses cheek. Cybele lets out a quiet giggle, scratching the kitten gently behind its ear. The kitten makes another noise as it adjusts itself. But, swift movement caused the kitten to jolt off the bed and out of the bedroom.

Cybele shoots up, watching the candle across the room go out. The soreness of her back, Cybele winces from sitting too fast. Clutching the sheets of the bed, Cybele's worry causes the vines from the cold, stone walls to grow abnormally long. Her eyes scatter over the room in search of explanation.

Everything was suspiciously quiet.

A loud noise startles Cybele and reaches for the knife under her pillow. She hears panting. as the mutant hesitantly, and quietly, crawls to the foot of the bed, keeping a death grip on the knife. Cybele shivers as the cold air stings the bare skin of her legs.

"Kurt? Is that...is that you?" Cybele whispers. Her voice is quite and soothing. "Kurt?" Cybele stumbles out of bed as she puts the knife on the bedside table. She makes her way to see Kurt, curled up in a ball. He seems to be mutter things in German. Cybele can't understand a thing he is saying. She crouches down beside him, touching his arm.

Bamf.

Smoke surrounds Cybele for a second, but soon, the smoke disappears. Cybele coughs lightly, looking around, confused. "Kurt?"

Kurt is gone.

Bamf.

Dogs start to bark from outside. Cybele turns her head to see the outline of Kurt's dark figure, slumped on her doorway. Cybele stands and approaches Kurt. "Kurt, you're sca...scaring me." She says quietly, laughing lightly. His tail is hanging low, swaying a little.

As Cybele gets closer to him, she can see him clearer. She takes his hand, only to become confused some wet. She reaches for the light swatch on the wall. Light fills the room. Cybele gasps at the sight of Kurt.

Blood is dripping over his face and out of his mouth, out of both nostrils. Blood soaks a sleeve of Kurt's arm, dripping down to the hand in which Cybele is holding. Kurt is shaking. His whole body is shaking. Soon, his legs give out and he falls backwards into the hallway.

"Kurt! Kurt!" Cybele immediately takes him to hallway bathroom, stuffing to drag him. Vines crawl off the walls and gently wrap around Kurt's wrists and ankles, putting him into the tub. He groans loudly in pain. "Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, it's going to be okay!"

     Cybele rushes over to her room as vines grow towards the bathroom. She trips over one of them, vines over lapping over her legs. The vines start to wrap around her legs as she struggles to get up. Cybele pulls herself up, slipping out of the grip of the vines.

The mutant struggles to get into her room. She rushes over to her dresser to her house phone.

~•~

"What happened?" Ororo asks.

"I don't know. He was spazz...spazz...spazzing out in a way. Everything was Quiet, but then he was teleporting all over the cabin." Cybele answers.

"What do you mean?" Scott asks as he sits down next to Cybele, noticing her shaking hands. He takes one of them, trying to calm her down.

"He was teleporting ever...everywhere. I didn't even understand what...what was going on. I didn't even notice anything wrong tell...tell an hour ago whe...when he teleported into more room." Cybele tells them. "I re...really don't know what to...to do. I don't know what happened. Honestly!"

Logan walks into the room with the professor leading the way. Logan glances over at Cybele, watching her keep tensing up. He never seen her like that. He isn't close to her enough to know her other than the shy garden mutant who helps everyone.

"Is he...he okay? Is he going to...to be alright?" Cybele asks pleadingly.

"He is going to be okay, Cybele." Charles tells her.

"What happened?" She asks him immediately after.

"A something injected him with a virus. I don't know if it was a person or-"

"What? Cybele's cabin practically shielded be trees! How can someone find Kurt?" Ororo says.

"Must have been some tracking device or mutation." Charles responds.

"Who did it?" Cybele asks.

"I'm still trying to figure it out!"

"But-"

"Don't need to question anymore about what was it or what happened, Cybele, you go back to your home and rest." Charles tells her.

"One of my friends was attacked in my home, Charles! I don't think I can simply just go back to sleep after what happened to him! I promised him a place to stay where he is safe! I want to know what the hell made him like that!" Cybele yells. He friends stared at her wide eyed.

She didn't stutter.

She practically never yells.

"You feel guilty." Charles states.

"The hell I do! Kurt isn't safe and he is hurt!" Cybele growls. Vines slowly start to grow on the walls of the room. They are dark and large.

     "Cybele."

     "What?" The vines continue to grow, making their way around bookcases and pictures on the walls. Dark flowers start to bloom from the tips of Cybele's hair. A dark mist surrounds her, little stars and leaves slowly migrate around her in circles.

     Ororo quickly grabs her hand, causing the mist to slowly fade away, the leaves drop to the floors and the stars still floating around her. But her eyes. They are pitch black. Ororo looks at Cybele questioningly. She is shocked by her friends eyes.

     "Cybele?" Ororo mutters softly, squeezing her hand. She's Quiet.