::X-Men:: In The Claws Of An Angel ::Wolverine::

Chapter Twelve.

"Here..."

My body automatically turned to my right, where a bookshelf promptly spun around,  revealing a very futuristic elevator pod, basked in a white fluorescent glow.

I felt my eyes blink in astonishment as I cautiously leaned my upper body inside the elevator. Didn't this stuff only happen in 007 movies...? But before I knew it, I was sealed inside, and jolted into motion. Judging by the dropping feeling in my stomach, I assumed I was headed downstairs.

When the doors opened again, I stepped out into a hallway that matched the elevator: futuristic and fluorescent. It seemed to stretch on forever to my left, but to my right I could see an enormous, heavy duty metal door a few yards down.

"Ana..."

The mysterious whisper seemed to be emitting from behind the door...  Something inside my mind could just tell. It beckoned me toward the huge barrier of steel, leaving me breathless as they smoothly slid open...

Before me was a room... An enormous space in the shape of a dome. The walls were completely metallic, shimmering from the light leaking in from the hall.  My feet carried me through the door's threshold, and the metal plates slid shut behind me.

I was suspended on a platform, leading out a few feet to a control panel of some sort...  But that was it. I peered down over the side of the platform and gulped... There was no floor in sight.

"Anabelle..."

I lifted my head up, and was surprised to see a man in a wheelchair sitting at the control panel with his back to me. I narrowed my eyes in confusion, searching the entire room for another entrance...  But there were none.

I stared at the man in utter confusion. How did he get in here...?

Just as I began to open my mouth to speak to him and ask him that very question, he suddenly lifted his arms and placed a strange looking helmet over his bald head.

There was a long pause... Then suddenly, the entire room became engulfed in a red glow. I screamed, feeling the floor fall out from beneath me, but my voice was muted. I was suddenly swirling in a sea of red fog, littered with glowing white orbs that almost looked like stars.

A searing pain abruptly invaded my mind, but there was nothing I could do about it. I tried to scream, to move my arms and legs, but it was as if nothing of me existed anymore besides my mind...

I was nothing but a white orb floating through the red mist... Whispers of all sorts of different voices clouded my brain, growing louder and intensifying the pain.

But one voice was most persistent.

"Don't let it control you..."

x

xx

xxx

xx

x

"Ana...!"

I woke up frantically to a shout of my name and a pair of hands constricting my shoulders.

Still mentally trapped in my dream, I gasped and thrashed about, the pain in my head still present.

"ANABELLE!" A deep voice screamed. My eyes were squeezed shut, but I could hear cabinet doors slamming and objects pelting the walls around me. The pair of hands gripped my shoulders tighter. "It's me! It's Logan!"