X-men: World of Gray

Chapter 36

Chapter 36…

The cabin didn't appear much better in the late afternoon than it did at night. Mold was devouring the log walls, cobwebs conquered the corners and the stench of vomit had nestled in. Unfortunately, the latter issue wasn't due to the rotting walls.

On a chair opposite the sofa where Raven and Alex sat, Hank didn't bother talking. Any arguments had been stifled by the sound seeping through the bathroom's door. Inside, Angel was practically vomiting organs now.

Standing by the bathroom's entrance, Sean grimaced, his pinkish face practically green. The girl had been doing that all day. Earlier, Hank had spent most of his time trying to convince Raven to give up Erik.

All of that was put on the backburner as Angel's illness took over. She'd complained about headaches and blurred vision; Hank thought she'd might have been faking it. As her gag—barf resonated throughout the cabin, he was reconsidering his original suspicions.

Out of the bathroom, the black-haired beauty wandered out. On her face, a towel. They didn't bother tying her up anymore. They made that mistake a few hours before; Hank still had vomit in his fur.

As Angel sat beside Raven again, Hank already knew something had to be done. The girl had gotten knocked down pretty hard at Castlebrook, and might have lost consciousness.

"Sean," Hank said. "You have a pretty good idea how to get out of here now, right?"

"Uh," the other man shrugged, "yeah, I could find my way, I guess. Why?"

Hank didn't want to do it—after all, the only real leverage they had were the girls. Nonetheless, he wasn't about to risk anybody's life if he could help it.

He nodded towards Angel. "We're letting her go," he said to Alex and Sean.

"What?" Alex instantly came back.

"She's sick," Hank replied. "She might have sustained a concussion."

"So what?"

"So we're not going to act like Erik. We need to finish this and get Charles back. But reducing ourselves to his level…we need some boundaries here. She's sick, so we let her go. She can communicate to Erik and bring him here. Maybe after what happened with Azazel, we'll be able to get through to him this time."

"What about this one?" Sean asked as he gestured to Raven.

Hank turned his head back to the blue-skinned woman. "You're staying here."

A shadow of defeat crossed Raven's face, but she nodded anyway.

Sean and Alex helped Angel towards their car; Sean agreed to drive her to the nearest hospital to get checked out and then wherever else she needed to go. The car zoomed out of the driveway. From the cabin's front porch, Hank watched until Sean and Angel disappeared around the winding country road.

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The doctors were not keen on Charles being discharged from the hospital; in fact, they flat-out told Moira it was asinine. Nonetheless, Charles insisted on it and even threatened to start calling cab companies if Moira wasn't willing to help.

Maybe he couldn't stand hospitals anymore; maybe he desperately wanted to find Hank and the others. But Moira suspected he didn't like all the attention the medical staff was giving him and his brain. He didn't like being considered a miracle to everyone but himself.

So by late afternoon, Moira found herself driving her rental car up to the patient pick-up/drop-off zone at the building's entrance. Charles was already sitting in his wheelchair by the curb, waiting. He wore a pair of navy blue sweatpants and a matching, unzipped jacket with undershirt. The outfit drowned his skinny form like a child putting on his dad's wardrobe. Moira tried not to notice as she stepped out of the car.