In The Hands of a Stranger

Nightmares & Realities: Part 6

Remy drove like a mad man. He wanted to get Rogue to someplace safe. Where they were there was just too many people around, and Rogue was in no condition to deal with spectators. She was still mumbling incoherently, only muttering a few names of people she must have known. He didn't know what to do for her at this point. He couldn't take her to a hospital. He knew all too well how the world treated mutants. He looked down at her cellphone and saw that she was calling out for someone called Logan.

There was a rest stop ahead, so he pulled over taking another long look at her phone. He punched up her contacts. There was only one number listed as X I. He wondered what that meant. He dialed it. He looked hopeful when it started ringing. Soon there was an answer.

"Hey, Rogue, is that you?" a girl answered. "It's Jubilee."

"Non. I be lookin' for Logan," Remy said in a trembling voice.

"Who is this, and why do you have Rogue's phone?" she asked.

"Name's Remy, and she be in real trouble. Gotta talk t' Logan."

Rogue stirred a little. She opened her eyes to see Remy on her phone. "Remy, what yah doin'?" She snatched the phone out of his hand and threw it.

"Rogue, why you do dat?"

"Who were yah callin'?" she asked, getting out of the car. She ran down the highway, until she reached the place where she had thrown her phone. She tested it. It still worked. She shoved it in her jacket pocket and turned around to see Remy behind her. She backed away from him.

"Rogue, what wrong?" Remy asked.

She felt Carol still in her head, yelling at her, mocking her.

Poor little Roguey. Who will be your next victim? Him?

"Stop it!" She shouted. "Leave me alone." She fell the ground and wept. Remy knelt down beside her and put his hands on her shoulders. She jerked away from him. "Don't touch me!" she screamed.

He backed off a little, feeling how much pain she was in. "It be okay, Chere."

"No," she cried. "No, it won't. Don't yah see how dangerous ah am?"

"Non. Yah jus' confused cuz yah powers came back. An' dat girl be runnin' 'round in yah head. T'ings gonna be okay. Remy's gonna help yah."

She looked into his eyes, wanting to believe him. In a way she already did. He held out his hand to her. This time he waited for her to take it. She did, although reluctantly. He helped her to her feet and back to the car. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep almost instantly.

The cell phone that had been stuffed into her jacket pocket fell out onto the floor and started to ring. Remy picked it up and looked at the caller ID. The call came up restricted. He answered it anyway. He didn't want the ringing to wake her.

"Hello," he said, while exiting the car.

"Who is this?" said the man on the other end.

"Remy Labeau. Who be wantin' t' know?"

"This is Logan. Now what did ya do with Rogue?"

"So, you be Logan. I ain't done not'ing to her, but she be in a bad way. She needin' help. She callin' your name in her sleep."

"If you hurt her..." Remy could hear the man growling on the other end.

"Remy don' wanna hurt...just wanna help her. Dat's all."

"Then why yah call the school and hang up."

"Rogue do dat, not Remy. Her powers done come back, since den..."

"What?" Logan demanded, cutting Reny off.

"She got some ot'er girl in her head," Remy said. "Was an accident. She don' mean t'do it. Jus' happened."

"Then let me talk to her," he said in a calmer voice.

"Non. She asleep, an' I ain't gonna wake her. She been havin' a rough few days."

"Where are yah?"

"We be somewhere in Connecticut," Remy said, checking the signs on the highway.

"You stay where you are. I'm comin' after her. Just tell me exactly where."

"Someplace called Middletown. You know where dat is?"

"Don't worry, I'll find it. Just hang tight, but if I find out that you did something...?"

"I know, I know," Remy said, rolling his eyes. "Ya gonna bash my brains in, right."

"Yeah, something like that," he said. Then the line went dead.

Remy peaked into the car to check on Rogue. "Still sleepin'," he said. "Dat good, chere. Ya need ya rest."

He drove off the highway, looking for a hotel where they could stay. Rogue needed rest and a nice soft bed. That would be better then an uncomfortable seat in a car. He drove about two miles when he spotted a cheap motel. He left her in the car while he went in and check them in. The place was nearly deserted. Rogue was still out cold when he came back out to check on her. He picked her up and carried her into the room. He laid her gently on the bed, while he went out to get their things out of the car.

In all this time he was so worried about Rogue, he didn't realize how exhausted he was. There was only one bed, so he thought he would be a gentleman and sleep on the floor. He fell into sleep rather quickly.

In a few hours time Rogue awoke not knowing where she was. She rose out of bed, still a little unsteady on her feet. She made her way to the bathroom to freshen up. She looked into the mirror of the medicine cabinet, and to her horror she didn't recognize the face looking back at her in the mirror.

"Oh my god," she said. "This is not my body." The girl staring back at her in the mirror had green eyes and brown hair with a white streak coming down on either side. Her skin was tanned and flawless. She touched her hands to the mirror. "Who are you?" she asked, obviously not having her southern drool. Wasn't she born in Mississippi? "No, oh god, I wasn't dreaming. I'm not her. I'm Carol." She told herself that, but the name Rogue kept popping up in her thoughts.

It was real alright, but she still was clinging to the idea of this whole thing being a nightmare. "My name is Carol," she told herself while looking in the mirror, but the name Rogue was repeated over and over in her mind. "I have to get out of here."

She flew out of the bathroom and into the motel room. She saw a young man sleeping on the floor. He must have brought her here, not her exactly but the girl known as Rogue. The name of the girl her mind told her that she was.

"I'm not her," she kept telling herself.

She quietly left the motel room, trying to figure out where she was. She made it to the highway and realized she was in Middletown. She realized she wasn't too far from her parents home, and she so desperately wanted to go home. Would they recognize her? She didn't even know herself, but she had to at least try.