X-Men Fan Fiction ❯ Memories ❯ Look, But Don't Touch ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter One: Look, But Don't Touch

 

Marie wasn't feeling quite right that day. It was beautiful out. A perfect summer day, so it was odd that she felt so out of funk with everything around her. At the moment, she was waiting in line at the local grocery, watching out the tall glass windows in the front of the store as the locals were getting ready for a festival to celebrate when the town was founded some years ago, she wasn't quite sure how long and hadn't really been paying attention to the mass of posters that had been put up on telephone poles and splayed across banners down the main road for weeks now. She'd lived in this small Montana town for nearly a year, but had never bothered to indulge herself in its history. It was just a place where she could plant her roots. It didn't matter much what great things had happened there. It was someplace to call home, and that was all she had wanted.

 

She stepped up to the register as the line dwindled down in front of her and set her groceries on the conveyor belt. She sighed and tried to put her feelings of discomfort out of her mind, concentrating on a song that was playing over the radio next to the cashier. It struck her that she recognized the song. It sent a rush of memories through her from somewhere deep in her mind that she couldn't place where or when she'd had them.

 

------------------------Somewhere in the Rockies------------------------

 

“You are m'ah sunshine, m'ah only sunshine; you make me happy when...what are you staring at Logan?” Marie had been singing to herself as she had been gazing out the window, watching as the sun rose over the snow-kissed peaks of a far away mountain. They had been on the road for a while and had picked up a beat up pickup truck a few towns back when the realized it'd be too uncomfortable going through the mountains on Logan's motorcycle. She had only looked away from the view when she felt eyes staring at her.

 

“You're singing.” Logan glanced at her and then back at the road. She furrowed her brows at him and crossed her arms.

 

“There's nothing wrong with m'ah singing.” She scoffed and playfully stuck her tongue out at him. “Besides, at least AH can sing. Ah bet you're as sour as a lemon.”

 

“I can sing.” He spoke defensively, not catching himself in time. Marie gave him a doubtful look and bit her lip, fighting a grin that eventually forced its way through. “I…I just don't like to sing. It's not my style.”

 

“Yea right. Like ah can believe that.” He looked over at her again, watching as she raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes, looking away from him. She was teasing. He hated that. She liked being smug at times because she knew it got to him eventually.

 

Logan sighed and looked back at the road. “You are my sunshine. My only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear. How much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away.”

 

Marie giggled quietly and put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile. “You have a beautiful voice, Logan. You just need to be a little less serious sometimes. It'd be good for you. After all, singing is like…like breathing for the soul.”

 

This time he couldn't help but smile himself. She was right; he did need to lighten up a little, not that he'd admit it. But it was hard not to be serious considering that things between the humans and the mutants were growing more tense by the day. He was worried for her. She might have given up her own powers and was now considered human herself, but she was still sympathetic to his kind, and that could cause problems for people who weren't so open-minded about it. She could get hurt if they weren't careful, and there was no way that he could let that happen. Already, he'd lost too many people he cared about in this fight. He would never let it happen again.

 

“Heh. Maybe you're right kid.” He smirked and she smiled one of her bright smiles.

 

“Well then, sing with me.” She nudged him with an elbow and took a deep breath. He did the same, and together, they sang. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away.”

 

-------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------

 

“Marie? Marie, hun, are you okay sweetie?” The cashier placed a hand on hers. Surprised, Marie recoiled back, snatching her hand away in fright. The memory she had fallen into had distracted her and she hadn't realized that her things had been rung up and needed to be paid for. Now, it was all rushing away back into the back of her mind where it had come from.

 

“Hmm. Oh, Ah'm fine, just not feeling to up to par today.” She reached into her pocket, pulling out crumpled bills and assorted coins, counting it and handing the correct amount to the cashier. She got her change back, stuffing it and the receipt into her pocket before grabbing the bag with her groceries.

 

“You aren't pregnant are you?” The cashier placed a hand on Marie's shoulder, laughing a bit as she watched the young woman stumble a bit. “Just a joke, but I hope that you feel better soon. Are you coming out to the festival tonight? It'll be a lot of fun. Games, great food, and fireworks. The whole shebang.”

 

“Ah might if ah'm feeling better. It sounds like fun though.” She smiled and ran a hand through her hair as she adjusted the bag in her arms. She sighed, walking out the door and down the sidewalk to where she'd left her truck parked. She walked around to the driver's side and got in, putting the bag in the passenger seat, and sat there a moment, trying to pull back that distant memory. It was so rare when simple thoughts like those came back to her, especially after she had tried so hard to forget them. At times she wanted to remember, but then she'd feel this ache throughout her entire body and it hurt so much that she decided that it was best to leave things buried. She liked the simple, sweet moments that made her smile when she thought about them, like the one she'd just remembered in the grocery store.

 

He must have been important to me since the strongest memories always have him in them. She sighed again, closing her eyes and biting down on her lip as she looked away. That memory had been here, in this beat up old truck. They were travelers, that much she knew, since the memories never showed any of the same places. Logan. As she thought about it, she felt tears falling down her cheeks, which she quickly brushed away, trying to compose herself. She barely remembered him, but when she did, it always made her cry. Ah must have cared about him quite a lot. Finally, the tears dried and her thoughts rearranged, she started up the truck and made the drive home.

 

These days, home was an old hunting cabin on the edge of town. She had bought it because it was fairly cheap since the owner had considered it beyond repair and was going to tear it down otherwise. She could have easily moved into an apartment somewhere in town, but she preferred the solitude and privacy of the cabin, and she enjoyed being able to fix it up from a dilapidated cabin to a comfortable home. It wasn't anything special, but it reflected who she was. Big, overstuffed furniture, a warm fireplace, and pictures of the mountains that she had taken herself. There were even pictures of her and Logan, though she only put a few of them out where people could see them. The rest were in a box in her trunk that she kept at the foot of her bed.

 

Her favorite one, though, was the one that she kept out. She and Logan were standing against a snow covered railing of what seemed to be a lookout spot. Behind them was a cascading waterfall framed by trees on both sides. She was wearing a green cloak that hung open that showed her wearing worn out jeans and a plain dark blue turtleneck with a scarf wrapped around her neck. She was leaning into Logan who had an arm wrapped around her shoulder. He was dressed much the same as her: faded jeans and a warm shirt underneath a plain brown coat. Both of them were smiling, even though it seemed like it was very cold.

 

That trunk was also where she kept her diary, not that she wrote in it anymore, but she had at one point. The key to it had gone missing, and she had never bothered to find it again. She felt it was best to just leave the past buried. She was happy how she was. She had friends and a good life, a job even. In this remote part of the world, she had found peace. She knew that outside of her happy town, a war was brewing. It had been for several years now. Humans hating mutants, and vice-versa. She had found that she rather disliked conflict and was glad to be so far away from it. She knew that once she had been a mutant herself, and she did sympathize with them, but she didn't want to get involved in a fight that would just cause more hurt and more suffering on the world.

 

As she pulled up to the front of the cabin, the gravel crunching beneath her tires, she felt a little more at ease. Now that she was home, she could put away her groceries and curl up on her couch beneath a warm blanket and read a good book, or maybe even go through some of her old photos. Whatever she decided to do, it didn't involve leaving the house again for some time. She thought about going to the festival in town, but there would be large crowds there, and too many people to count. She was never big on crowds. It was just too cramped, confined, and at times she felt overwhelmingly claustrophobic. Not that she had anything to fear anymore from bumping into someone, she was still unable to deal with a lot of people.

 

She tromped up the steps, bag in hand, and knocked the snow off her shoes, kicking them off as soon as she was in the door. She put the bag on the counter in the little nook that made up her kitchen and sighed with a smile. Home. It was warm, and cozy. She'd left the heat turned up for once, not wanting to have to come home to a lukewarm home, especially when she was feeling under the weather. She went about putting her groceries away and went and flopped onto the couch, pulling a thick, soft blanket over her lap. She reached over and grabbed a book off of the coffee table, turning it to a page where she'd left off last. She was halfway through a chapter when a long yawn escaped and the words on the page became fuzzy. She blinked a bit and shook her head lightly, concentrating a little harder on the words on the page. She hadn't even realized it earlier, but her eyes were feeling incredibly heavy, and before she knew it, she had slumped against the back of the couch, her book sliding down into her lap.

 

In her sleep, she moved a bit, and the book fell to the floor with a loud thump. Marie groaned and rubbed her eyes with one hand while pushing her hair out of her face with the other. Ah don't know why ah'm so sleepy all of a sudden. Ah probably caught a cold is all. Ah think ah'll just go to bed now. She stretched out and pushed the blanket down to the end of the couch, swinging her feet off and onto the floor. Lazily, she got up and went to her room to lie down in her own bed, falling fast asleep as soon as she got comfortable. However, her mind seemed to have betrayed her while she slept. Confusing dreams caused her to toss in her sleep and that feeling of being out of sync with the world seemed to get worse and worse. She'd get hot, so hot that she began to sweat and unconsciously kicked off her covers. Then, she'd begin to freeze and clammed up into herself, shaking and shivering even though the room was a perfect temperature. And the visions running through her mind made her head pound and ache like it never had before. So much so that it woke her up, but the dreams didn't stop flying through her mind.

 

She didn't know what to do, all she could do was bring her hands up to her head and hold it, sobbing and trying to stop the images, to stop the pounding in her skull. She couldn't breath and her throat felt tight. The spinning visions in her mind made her sick to her stomach and she tried to get out of bed, but her legs were too weak to hold her and she fell with a hard thump onto the wooden floor. Tears streamed from her eyes as she coughed up the contents of her stomach onto the floor. Suddenly, everything stopped. The visions in her mind fell away and her thoughts cleared. The unbearable pounding stopped and it was so relieving that she let out a loud sigh. Sitting up, she backed away from the mess she had left on the floor and propped herself up against the leg of the bed, wiping the wetness from her face. All of a sudden, she could feel this tingle rushing through her entire body and she feared that it would all start again and when it didn't she began to worry what all of it had meant in the first place.

 

It had been nothing she had experienced before. Nothing she had ever felt was that excruciating. She worried about what it might mean for her and the normal life she had finally regained. Could her powers have returned? Please God, please, let them stay gone. Let me live a normal life, God please! She hadn't heard of any instances in which the “cure” had failed or only been found to be temporary. She had to be sure, though. She had to know if her biggest fear was about to come true. She couldn't live a life without touch again. She couldn't live knowing that people feared her because one touch could kill. She couldn't do it; she didn't even know how she did it before, because she would die if they had come back.

 

Cautiously she got to her feet and stumbled into the bathroom, taking a warm shower to wake her up and further clear her mind. After that, she cleaned up the mess she had left in her room. Now, all that was left was to find out what she needed to know. She just needed to find someone or something to touch. She slipped on her boots and coat, then opened the door and stepped out into the cool summer evening. From her front porch, she could see the lights down in the city just starting to come on and the even brighter lights from the fairgrounds shining brilliantly in the distance. The sun must have just set. She hadn't even slowed down to check the time. Slowly, she made her way down the steps and rounded the house to the back. She had kept a few chickens in a coop out back for when she wanted eggs and was too lazy to go into town to get some. At the moment, they were sound asleep, clucking occasionally in their sleep, but otherwise quiet. Marie walked up to the first one close enough and woke it. Instinctively, it stood up like it did whenever she came in, knowing that she wanted to poke around in its nest. This time, however, she wasn't interested in eggs. With a bare hand, she reached out and grabbed the chicken by the leg. And she could feel it; she could feel the life flowing through her and out of the chicken. It squawked crazily and woke up the other chickens, who went crazy as their companion slowly died at her hands.

 

Finally, she let the chicken go, and it slumped down in the nest. The others still hadn't quieted down and shrunk away from her when she took a step forward. Fear. Her mind raced with it, and she could sense it in the defenseless animals huddled in the far corner as to get away from her. And she began to cry; she slumped to the dirty, disgusting floor of the chicken coop and cried, cradling her head in her hands. She felt helpless and weak. How could the cure have failed so miserably? Why do ah have to suffer through this curse again?