Life After Death

I managed to pull out of the eerily empty parking lot before the police and ambulances reached the crumbling store. I forced my car to go as fast as possible without drawing too much attention to myself. I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going, but my instincts took me back to campus and the dorm Brittney and I shared. I haphazardly parked the car in the nearest spot. I jumped out of the car and raced into the almost empty dorm building. I ran up five flights of stairs instead of waiting on the elevator.

When I pushed the fifth floor door open, I collided with another body. Fearing the worst, a small scream escaped my lips. I inhaled, preparing to scream again, but stopped suddenly when I saw who was laying on the floor with me. Alex's face went from amused to worried in about a nanosecond. “What's wrong?” he asked, sitting up.

Suddenly, all the emotions from the past hour poured out in the form of endless tears. All the fear and paranoia from the past week along with the pain and heartbreak that had been building inside me over the years burst out in the form of salt ridden droplets of water. The tears didn't stop either. They just continued to soak Alex's shirt which I clung to desperately. Alex was silent. My strong display of emotion had clearly frightened him, as it had me. When it become clear to him that there was no near end to my breakdown, Alex slowly and carefully picked me up and carried down the hall and into my dorm room.

He sat down on my unmade bed and leaned against the wall while I continued to cry into his shoulder. For the second time, he asked “What's wrong?” And the only answer he received was more sobs. Alex clearly wanted to help but he was unsure of how. “Do you want me to get Brittney?” The sound of her name pulled me, only temporarily, from my misery and back to reality where danger was still present.

After wiping my eyes and taking a deep breath, I dived into the same story I told Brittney not an hour before. Alex sat in shocked silence, probably to afraid to interrupt. I went on to tell him what happened in the grocery store and Brittney's fate. And just like Brittney, when I was finished talking Alex was speechless. An odd silence filled the air between us. The silence scared me worst than anything. “I guess we should start packing.” His tone was very nonchalant.

“We? You mean you still wanna stay with me?” Surely Alex had more intelligence than that. Why would he want to stay with someone who lied to him and is a danger to be around. Death and destruction seemed to follow me every where. Why would Alex want to subject himself to that.

“What do you mean 'why'? Oh, Lorna. Can't you see that I love. It doesn't matter what you did or what you are. I love you. I would gladly follow you to Hell and back if you let me. I am going to New York with you.”

Half an hour after Alex spoke those words, we were driving down the interstate, leaving San Francisco behind us. After packing just our clothes and taking all the things we couldn't live without, Alex and I quickly but at a legal speed made our way for the California/Nevada border. “Do you know how to get to New York?” Alex asked offhandedly. My 'yes' wasn't entirely truthful.

I knew the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was located in North Salem, New York. I knew North Salem as located at forty-one degrees, nineteen minutes and forty-one seconds north of the equator and seventy-three degrees, thirty six minutes and forty-seven seconds west of the meridian passing through Greenwich, England. I knew how to get to that specific location. But I didn't know how to get to New York. My internal GPS allowed me to never get lost as long as I knew where I was going. Or as long as I knew the coordinates of where I wanted to go.

We didn't stop until we reached St. Louis, driving straight though the night. The city was just waking up when we pulled into a cheap motel. After signing-in under fake names, Alex following my leader, we went straight to our room and without words, we fell asleep.

I awoke late in the afternoon. The small motel room was quiet. The cheap flowered wallpaper seemed to reverberate the silence. I wasn't sure how long I laid in bed, staring at the ugly wall, before I noticed the absence of Alex. His snoring should have blocked out the silence. I rolled over, only to be greeted by an empty bed. I quickly lifted myself off my bed. "Alex?" Just more silence.

I was about to lose it when I noticed the small note laid delicately on Alex's pillow. Dear Lorna, Gone to get breakfast, Be back in less than an hour. Love, Alex (4:15) was scribbled on the note in Alex's hardy handwriting. According to the crappy digital clock on the wobbly side table, Alex left about ten minutes ago. Still with a bit of worry in my mind, I took a warm shower.

I wasn't how long I was in the shower but when I exited the small dingy bathroom Alex was back. “Where did you find breakfast at at four in the afternoon?” I asked playfully, startling Alex.

“Oh, you know. Bob Evans serves breakfast around the clock.” We ate in silence, which bothered neither of us. We both had a very thin thought to mouth filter, mine was probably thinner than Alex's, and if there was something that needed to be said, we would say it.

After the late breakfast and a quick nap, we were on the road again. Alex drove the rest of the way, since most of it was interstate. For entertainment, I took to changing the radio station from song to song using my power instead of the dial on the dashboard. The trip from Illinois to New York was just as uneventful as the previous part of the trip. We exited the interstate just before we hit New York City and spent forty-five minutes on state and county roads before we entered North Salem.

That was the end of my directions. We stopped at a small diner where we got some lunch and directions to the Xavier's School from an elderly waitress. The school was hard to miss. A large mansion built out of large gray stones, giving it a small fortress feel. Green ivy grew up the south side, concealing the wall from view. Preventing any unwanted traffic, a large iron gate was placed at the start of the gravel driveway. I parked the car, and both Alex and I stepped out to marvel at the magnificence of the building.

Alex uncertainly pressed the button on the call box. A polished female voice emitted from the small metal box. “How may I help you?” Her tone was not that of a receptionist but of someone who though themselves above that.

“We need to see Professor Xavier.” I said calmly.

There was more emotion in her voice this time. “Oh, Lorna and Alex? We've been expecting you.” Without another word the iron gates opened gracefully.