No Angels

Chapter 7

Heather ripped her hand away from Erik's arm and stepped back, her eyes blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear her vision. The horrifying images seemed to be burned into her brain, however, and the more she tried, the harder it was to forget them. Someone had tortured Erik when he was only a child and that same person had killed Edie - his own mother - right before his own eyes. The thought and the memories had Heather's stomach doing somersaults and she felt the sudden need to throw up.

Erik, who looked at her with both confusion and concern, reached out hesitantly for her and he was saying something - but the ringing in her ears prevented her from hearing any of it. Feeling suddenly very sweaty and shaking, Heather moved past him as quick as she could. "I'm fine," she tried to reassure him, "I'm perfectly - I just - I just need to sit down."

She managed to stumble her way down the hall to her room, closing the door behind her as she entered. She leaned against the wood for a moment, trying to calm her breathing, before finally getting up and moving to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. It took a while for her to get used to the bright lights within, but she moved quickly towards the sink. The water was cool in her hands and on her flushed cheeks, and it helped ease her nausea. 

She placed her hands on either side of the sink, leaning against it as she looked down in it. Edie hadn't mentioned that. Edie hadn't mentioned any of that. She didn't expect for Edie to tell her everything but - that was big. That was really big. She had known about the treatment of the Jews within the camps, her brother had told her almost everything about them after he died, but something told Heather that what happened to Erik wasn't because he was Jewish. 

It was because he was a mutant.

A sudden drop of red in the porcelain white sink had her thoughts coming to a halt. 

And then another.

And then another.

And suddenly hot, thick blood was running down her mouth, down her chin and into the sink. She clamped her hand over her nose, trying hard not to choke on the liquid or the heavy smell of iron now filling the room. She scrambled away from the sink and grabbed the first towel she could find - a white one, of course it had to be the one that would stain - and pressed it against her bleeding nose. 

There was a loud knock from the other room, and Heather called out, "I - I'll be out in a minute." It took more than a minute for her nose to stop bleeding, but when it did, she let out a relieved sigh before walking out of the bathroom to answer the door. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she spotted a familiar shape.

"Heather," Edie asked as she stepped forward, "What happened, schatz?" Heather was silent for a moment, before asking her own question. "I had a vision of Erik. He was - being tortured by a man. Do you know him? The man, I mean." Edie's face went blank, her face deathly pale in the darkness of the room. "You need to rest," she responded, her voice cracking, "You shouldn't strain yourself so much."

"Edie - "

Another loud knock had Heather turning to look at the door for a moment, before looking back at Edie - or where Edie should have been. Letting out a sigh, she shook her head and moved to open the door. Erik was standing there, looking surprisingly awkward and concerned, and when he saw her, his eyes widened almost comically. 

Why was he - Oh, the blood.

She hadn't washed the dried blood off her mouth or nose, so she probably looked like something straight out of a horror film. "Uh - sorry, I'm just gunna - " She motioned behind her, before moving back to the stained sink to wet down the towel and scrub the dark red liquid off. Once she was done, she dried off and turned the faucet off, an awkward silence falling over them once the sound of running water was gone.