“Fuck.” They took in the carnage around them. Women and children. Puddles of blood and other bodily fluids.
“This was supposed to be safe…” Roland stuttered. As it became apparent that Grendel was getting greedy, attacking in broad daylight they had gathered most vulnerable habitants to the safest place of the outpost. A bunker they called the sanctuary. Grendel had found a way in, narrow window at the edge of the rooftop.
“Well you thought wrong,” Hrothgar said with a clipped tone. Logan saw how Roland’s wide shoulders slumped, and he wanted to hurt the old geezer. At least Roland had tried. What was Hrothgar doing? Other than fucking the mother of the beast on nightly basis? Granted, he had tried to put up a fight at the courtyard earlier, but it had been halfhearted attempt, more to soothe his bruised ego than anything else. He turned to leave when Roland snagged his hand.
“Where are you going?”
“I know where it went. I’m going to finish this now.” He had gotten Grendel’s scent when he had fought it earlier, and now he had a fresh trail to follow.
He had a strong feeling it wasn’t as invincible as it looked. Sure, its skin was hard enough to ward off even adamantium, but what about its joints? Bone was a rigid material; joints couldn’t be as well protected as the rest of Grendel’s body.
“I’m coming with you,” Roland said. Logan shook his head.
“You have to stay here. If I don’t make it, somebody has to protect rest of these sheep.” And it was enough that Kyra knew about his claws and mutation. Her father had been so devastated about Grendel’s lack of interest in him, that he hadn’t noticed how he had attacked the beast, and there had been no other witnesses.
He stood in shallow water in the crypt of the outpost. He could sense Grendel, as it was moving stealthily around him. Putrid stench of it, coldness radiating from it. Darkness so thick it nearly suffocated him. Now that he knew what it was capable of, he wasn’t going to be as careless as he had been before. Now he had a plan. So, when Grendel charged towards him, he let it come and throw him.
For several long seconds he was airborne and then he collided against stone pillar and fell to the water. Grendel grabbed the back of his shirt and threw him again. This time he managed to avoid collision and fell face first, nearly choking to a mouthful of foul liquid sloshing everywhere around him.
Aqua vitae… Grendel chuckled.
“Cogito sumerum potum alterum…” He was coughing and spluttering. Grendel was dangling him in front of its ugly face, looking all too pleased for himself.
Quiusvis hominis est errare. Nullius nisi inspientis in errore perseverare.
“Ante mortem victurus te saluto. Divide et impera!“ He growled, unsheathing his claws and sunk them deep to Grendel’s armpit, severing its right arm with one, neat slice. Grendel screamed and dropped him. He curled around himself and rolled away from the beast.
He got on his feet and twirled around, expecting to see a fallen carcass lying in front of him. Instead Grendel stood on its ground, clutching the stub that was left from its hand.
“Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem. Cur etiam hic nes?” He asked.
Probatum est. Primus inter pares. Non omnis moriar…
Scenery around Logan started to shift. He realized he was waking up. He tried to stay under. Tried desperately to grasp a hold of Grendel, stone pillars around him, anything, but it was futile. They slipped through his fingers like water, and he came back to his senses in a med lab, coughing and gagging away offending plastic tube of the ventilator from his throat.
“No!” He bolted up with a furious growl, dislodging several sensors that were attacked to him and scaring their current doctor Henry McCoy in the process.
“Chuck, I know you can hear me! You have to put me under again! I was so fucking close…”
Calm down, Logan. We’ll have to discuss about something first, Xavier’s voice echoed inside of his head.
“What’s there to discuss? I was just about to kill off that fucking dragon!”
Look to your right. What ever you were fighting against, it had some unexpected side effects.
His head turned hesitantly. What he saw made him sick of himself. Marie lie on a gurney next to his, whole body covered in bruises and deep gashes. Three gauges adorned her left shoulder, wide and deep enough to severe her hand if he had struck only few centimeters lower.
“Kid?” She didn’t move. She was pale and her eyes were sunken deep in her skull. She looked like death warmed over. Without the faint movement of her chest and silent flutter of her heart he would have thought she was dead already.
“We found her from the pool house. She was stuffed inside of a locker. Scott had to blast it open. Something, most likely the dragon in her had made her crawl in there and melt the hinges from the door.”
“How long was I in there?” He asked, pointing at Marie’s head. Xavier checked his watch.
“Nearly ten hours. I hope you understand I had to bring you out before you… Before that thing managed to transfer irreparable amount of damage to her.” Logan took her hand to his. It was cold and limp under his touch. He could hear Hank shuffling around in the background, putting away equipment that had been used to monitor his vital signs.
“Where did you find the others?” He asked.
“They just appeared almost immediately after I put you under. It was like the dragon was only taunting us. This is the most puzzling situation… What would it gain if she died?” Xavier muttered, rubbing his temples. Logan’s eyes flashed.
“She has to die so that it can take over her body completely. It can’t kill her because it doesn’t have physical form. Instead it tried to make me kill her.” He brought her hand to his mouth and breathed warmth on it.
“You were in her conscious mind. I have a feeling that the beast we are seeking has burrowed deeper, in to her subconscious,” Xavier said from his seat next to the gurney she laid.
“Subconscious? And how the fuck are we going to purge it out from there?” Xavier sighed and rubbed his face. Logan hadn’t seen him this tired ever before.
“I have no idea. And right now I’m too tired to think straight. We are all exhausted. Henry is keeping her sedated, and we are going to get some sleep before we try anything new.”
“We can’t leave her alone with that monster!” Logan growled, rounding her bed. Warning glare from Xavier stopped him to lay his hand on him.
“Then stay here. I’m going to get some sleep. I’m in no shape to help anybody. I would most likely only hurt one of us if I try anything right now.”
“Hi. I hope you don’t mind me sticking around. Things are getting better. Though I haven’t seen Ororo, Xavier and Hank seem to be genuinely concerned about you.” His voice, a mere whisper now, sounded too loud in the silence of the med lab. He leaned to the gurney, holding her hand again, fingers fiddling with the ring on her finger. Somebody, most likely Hank had put it on so that they could safely treat her wounds. Wounds that he had inflicted.
“I’m sorry about this…” He whispered, trailing a long, shallow scrape that extended from her clavicle to her navel with his finger. Fact that she was nude hadn’t gone unnoticed from him earlier, but the state of her vanquished all inappropriate thoughts. Suddenly he blinked.
“Kid? I’m coming in.”
Ten minutes later Hank found Logan dead from the floor, still clutching the suppression ring on his rigid hand. Marie’s wounds were healed.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me…” He was standing in a large, empty space. Everything was light grey. Like he was walking around in a fog. Except that he could see. And yet he couldn’t see a thing. It was so empty it hurt his eyes. This was supposed to be her inner self. The core. Everything that made Marie. And it was fucking empty! He turned around, peering towards the direction he thought he had come from. Same painful grey emptiness greeted him in that direction. It wasn’t cold. It wasn’t warm. It just was. And wasn’t.
“Marie!” There was not even an echo when he called her. Voice just faded after it had traveled far enough.
“Marie!” He sat down. He wasn’t exactly sure if it could be classified as sitting down, when there was nothing under his ass, but he was going to think about this for a while. Now that he had the time.
It had taken him ten hours to get close enough to the dragon masked as Grendel to try to kill it. It would take Hank at least couple hours to resuscitate him. With a little luck he would stay in a coma for few days. Should be long enough to figure out what to do and how to kick that pesky lizard out of here without hurting Marie.
“Kid! If you don’t haul your pretty little ass here in this minute, I will personally spank it black and blue next time I see you!” He bellowed and smirked when he felt something shift. Nothing around him felt little more solid. Like it was little more there.
“Come on! Sooner you get in here, the sooner you get rid of me!” Little more shifting. Then sudden click.
“Uh…” He narrowly managed to avoid a sharp looking hook that flew towards him, dragging a sturdy looking chain after it. More shackles reminding that flew towards him from every direction. Few of them attached to his torso, and he tore them off grimacing from the pain. Wounds they left healed instantly.
Alea iacta est. Voice came from behind him. He turned around, and this time he didn’t have the time to dodge. Small grappling hook pierced his stomach, and tore its way out through his back. The chain it was attached to was icy cold. Line went taut.
Vae victis. Apparition in front of him spoke with a hollow voice. Pale body clad to shiny black leather. Bald head and face covered with long pins.
“Marie… You’re a sick little girl…” He gasped. Fucking Hellraiser.
Totum dependeat! Pinhead shouted, and grappling hook tore free from his body, pulling out bits and pieces that would have served their purpose much better when inside of him.
“Miserere!” He growled, falling to his hands and knees. Wound on his stomach was closing rapidly. He waited. Heard approaching footsteps when Pinhead came closer to inspect the damage he had done.
“Miserere…” He mustered every ounce of hurt and pain to that one word, making it sound like he was about to draw his last breath.
Tacet. Stern command. Hand on his hair, tugging his chin up.
“Causa mortis. Tu stupidus est!” He snarled, sprung his claws and sunk them deep. Creature in front of him hissed and crumbled to a pile of ash.
He stood up slowly, wiping his hands to his jean clad thighs. There was not a mark on him. Even though that monster had torn his gut out just few minutes ago, there was not even a tear on his shirt. No blood. Only proof that anything at all had happened was a small pile of ash. He kicked it and snorted. Looked like in here he was the stronger one.
“Marie! Come and get me out of here before another one of your friends comes to play!” He didn’t know if it was a futile attempt to scream after her, but at least it kept him occupied while he walked around, trying to find something. Anything. Even that pile of ashes had started to look entertaining.
“Kid! Get in here now!” And he was getting tired of this game. He just wanted to find her and go home. Give her a hug. Maybe give her a kiss.
“Better not to think about it…” He muttered. No kissing. Just a friendly hug. Pat to the back. Then get in a car and drive back home. Back to the cabin. Back to the rest of the animals. To easy life without strange occurrences and even stranger people scurrying around. To a life without her. Without Marie. He could practically see it. Snow crunching under his feet. Thick forest covered with white, powdery blanket of it. Small log cabin in the distance, smoke curling from the chimney. Lights were on, and from this distance he could smell delicious aroma of cooking meat and fresh coffee. Suddenly he wasn’t walking anymore. He was running. Scenery around him was quite intact. It was his cabin. Only other person that knew about that place was Marie. She was in there. She was in the cabin, waiting for him.
“Who’s there?” Hesitant voice came from the inside when he tried to open the door.
“It’s me, kid. Let me in.” He tried to tug the door open again, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Logan? Is it really you?” Voice grew hopeful, but door stayed shut.
“It is I. Open the door and let me in,” he assured.
“Tell me something only we know.”
“I was about to choose Poison from the jukebox in that bar.” Door creaked open. Narrow strip of pale skin and brown hair. White strand. He forced his fingers to the narrow gap and wrenched the door open. She screamed and tried to back away from him. He followed, slamming the door shut and pulling he to his embrace. For a moment she struggled, hands and feet flailing, trying to hit him, but when he did nothing, only held her, she relaxed.
“Is it really you?” It was nearly a sob. She pulled back a bit and studied his face with her fingers. Run them over his brows, found muttonchops and his unruly hairdo. Her eyes wandered restlessly, not once looking at him. It was as if she was…
“Kid? What’s wrong with your eyes?” She didn’t answer, just buried her face against his chest and hugged him. He took a hold from under her chin and tilted her face up. He tried to look in to her eyes, but her gaze wandered recklessly.
“You’re blind.”
“It tricked me. I was running away from it when I saw a tall tower. There was no door to it, but there was a window. You were there. At least it looked like you. You threw me a rope and told me to climb up, and I would be safe. I did as you told me to. I was half way up when you let go of the rope and I fell. There were sharp branches on the ground…” He was sitting in front of the fireplace Marie curled on his lap.
“It wasn’t me, kid. I just came here. When you were climbing, I was fighting the dragon in another story. Don’t trust… Don’t trust anything you see or hear in here,” he said. Marie tensed, and he heard a snicker.
Fallaces sunt rerum species…
Bundle of chains erupted from his chest, curling and slithering like snakes, searching a suitable prey. Cabin disappeared, leaving them in to empty darkness.
Unitas mirabile vinculum! Hooks claimed the girl on his lap, piercing her skin and muscles underneath, linking her to him with chains made out of his bones. She was screaming and struggling to get away. He held her to him, trying to keep her still before she hurt herself even worse. All the while his hands worked furiously, trying to dislodge hooks from her, but it was a futile effort. Every time he got some part of her free, two other hooks replaced the one he had taken away. They started to coil tighter; he could feel the pull coming from deep inside of him. They would tear her to pieces right under his eyes, and there was nothing he could do. More shackles were coming out of him, curling around them and crushing their bodies, almost like they were trying to force her inside of him through his skin.
“Enough!” Hollow voice boomed around them and shackles fell, dissolving and melting back inside of him. They could move again. Logan twirled around, still holding Marie against his chest.
“What the fuck…?” He tilted his head. There were two Pinheads, standing face to face. One was your regular Lord Of The Hell with only long pins coming out of his skull. The other had little extra, flames flicking out from its eyes and wide, black wings spanning from its back.
“This is not for your eyes,” the real Pinhead said, pointing at Logan without taking his eyes off from the doppelganger in front of him. A small flick of his wrist made cabin materialize around Logan and Marie again, sealing the two monsters outside.
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