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Her body bolts upwards, quilt falling off her chest and onto her lap. She takes large heating breaths, as if she’s emerged from underwater.
She keeps her eyes screwed shut as she fumbles for the knife next to her bed. Only opening her eyes once it’s been unsheathed.
Dani’s dark eyes glance around the room. Carefully surveying every inch of the room without getting up.
Closet.
Check.
Windows.
Check.
Under the bed?
Dani took a shaky breath before cautiously leaning over her blue comforter, knife first, in case anything should pop out.
The floor under the bed is empty. Nothing but smooth wooden floorboards and dust.
Dani takes a sigh of relief before dragging herself back to the top of her bed.
She felt almost childish, like a scared little girl checking under the bed for a monster.
Except Dani’s actions weren’t childish.
They were a matter of life and death.
Dani was a mutant. A mutant with the power to reach into the crevices of others’ minds and pull out their greatest fears.
Including her own.
Which meant Dani’s monsters typically turned out to be real.
Except for tonight.
Thankfully.
However…
She could be wrong.
Dani’s nightmare didn’t have to appear in the room with her. It could easily be downstairs.
In the living room, in the library, somewhere in the kitchen.
It wasn’t out of bounds that she could walk downstairs the next morning to find her grandfather’s corpse slumped over the kitchen table.
Dani lets out a sob at that thought.
It was bad enough having to stumble upon the dead body of her grandfather once.
She didn’t think she could do it again.
Her body grows cold as she remembers riding out in the middle of the night, her grandfather having left home, and still hadn’t returned.
He was getting older, his body growing frailer, not that he would hear of it. Perhaps he had fallen and couldn’t get up.
Maybe he was hit by a car and had to be rushed to the hospital.
He could’ve also gotten lost.
But that was most unlikely.
Dani’s heart stopped when she did see him. Lying on the ground, white hair caked in dirt, eyes closed with pain and worry.
She rushed towards him screaming, grabbing onto him, hoping she was wrong.
She wasn’t.
That was the moment Dani’s life changed all those months ago. When she left her home in Wyoming and traveled to Charles Xavier’s school in New York.
That was the moment Dani relived in her dreams.
Dani’s body shook at the idea of coming downstairs to find her grandfather’s body once again.
She didn’t care if it was just a figment of her imagination, it would be all too real.
Dani wrapped her arms around her shoulders and gave a loud sob.
She hated crying. The itchy scratches of tears running down her face, as snot gurgled in her nose, and air cut against her lungs.
Tonight though she couldn’t help it.
The thoughts of death zoomed around her head, crushing her skull like a soda can.
This wasn’t the first time it happened, and it wouldn’t be the last.
Dani glanced at the knife in her hand and briefly imagined what it would be like to zip it’s blade against her wrists, before lying back down in bed, her heavy grief slowly draining out as the blood pooled against the sheets.
Dani tossed the knife across the room in a panic. It gave a loud clang as it hit the floor.
Her breath sped up, as she let out more hyperventilated gasps.
No, no, no. She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to die…
She just wanted it all to stop.
Dani snatches up a pillow and wraps it around her head. As if that could stave away the thoughts of death that creeped around her like a monster in the dark.
Dani’s not sure how much time passed before the door opened. She was too lost in her thoughts.
Grandfather, mom, dad, her body lying against the bed.
Stop…stop…stop.
Xuân is the first one to come in. Probably because she had the room right next to Dani’s.
Xuân glances at the knife sitting on the floor, she doesn’t say anything. Instead she carefully picks it up before setting it on the bookshelf, far from Dani’s bed.
Dani doesn’t greet Xuân.
She can’t talk.
She can’t move.
She can’t breathe.
She can’t do anything.
Xuân doesn’t say anything as she takes a seat next to Dani. Her legs crossed under her as she sets herself by Dani’s feet.
Xuân doesn’t move, she doesn’t touch Dani, she doesn’t speak.
She just sits there.
Which Dani is grateful for.
Roberto is next.
How he heard Dani or knew she needed help, she has no idea, but he’s there.
He doesn’t say anything either, instead he follows Xuân’s led and takes a seat next to Dani. Resting his back against one of her pillows.
He does turn the lamp on, which Dani is grateful for.
Even with Xuân there everything seemed so much worse in the dark.
Sam arrives as Roberto turns on the light. He glances at his classmates, blue eyes finally landing on Dani.
He sits down next to Xuân, he doesn’t say anything, but he does grab the blanket at the foot of Dani’s bed and wraps it around her shoulders.
It’s a sweet gesture, that Dani’s panicked mind finds somewhat comforting.
The group sits in silence for a few minutes, as Dani’s breaths start to resemble normal breathing patterns.
She can feel her chest warm up and calm as the tears on her face dry and the snot coating her nostrils starts to harden.
Panic is briefly replaced by embarrassment, but she thinks of how many times one of the others have burst out crying in the middle of the day.
Xuân during a flashback.
Sam when he missed his siblings back in Kentucky.
Roberto when confronted by memories of Juliana’s death.
The embarrassment is replaced by sympathy as she leans against one of her pillows.
Rahne’s the last one to arrive. She crawls on the floor, her big bushy tail wagging to and forth as stops at the edge of Dani’s bed.
Xuân and Sam create some space for her and Rahne leaps onto Dani’s lap.
She uses her tongue to lick the dried tears off Dani’s face, before setting her head down on Roberto’s free lap.
The group continues to stay nothing, instead they just sit in the warmth of each other’s company.
And Dani thinks that for now, that’s just enough to keep the monsters that lurk in her head at bay.