::X-Men:: In The Claws Of An Angel ::Wolverine::

Chapter Eleven.

The night was calm, quiet and peaceful. The trees swayed in the breeze, sprinkling the earth with droplets of rain water that still clung to the leaves.

Above, the stars were sparkling like sequins against a black backdrop, surrounding a big, shiney white pearl; The moon. Pale beams of moonlight cascaded down to the ground, illuminating everything in a soft, glowing aura.

Crickets chirpped in a sleepy pattern all throughout the bushes, and small critters could be heard rustling around on the forest floor, foraging for food.

It might have been one of those perfect nights you hear about in country songs, if I hadn't been exhausted, freezing, and lost, aimlessly wandering around in my damp clothes.

My teeth chattered as I wrapped my arms around myself in a useless attempt to stay warm... I hated Alabama's bi-polar summer weather; Blazing hot during the day, and downright frigid at night.

As my stiff, numb legs struggled to keep plunking along, my mind began to tease me with thoughts of fire, and my cozy spot on the couch in the camper... Which I hoped still existed for me.

Pain radiated through every part of my body, from my head to my toes, and every inch in between. The sore, hot ache of the coyote bite tore at my nerves and caused a grimace with every step. With my luck, I probably had rabies...

"Aah..!" A strained gasp escaped my lips as a jolt shot through my brain, as if traveling from temple to temple in just a nanosecond.

I doubled back and leaned against a sturdy tree, my hands shooting to either side of my head as the throbbing, electric pain grew more intense. I felt a little scared as a rather large rock a few feet away from me began to quiver and rumble, responding to the immense, crushing pressure I could feel inside my mind.

I groaned in pain, catching a glimpse of that strange, unnatural electric blue glow before my eyes squeezed shut... It surrounded each of my hands, and was beginning to pulsate around the boulder that my telekinesis seemed to be targeting on its own.

This had been happening periodically ever since I had somehow busted through that thick wall of stone, making my escape from the underground cavern. Something inside my head was different, I could feel it... As if some sort of locked door had been unlocked and jarred open deep within my mind.

More telekinetic energy felt present in my body than ever before, tingling from my brain out into my fingertips, just begging to be tapped... But I didn't know how to get it under control... How to make it mine... And it terrified me. It made things like this happen, things I couldn't control...

My telekinesis had saved my life, but my problem was getting worse... It was progressing without me.

But now, as I stood with my back pinned to the tree bark, waiting for my mind to silence and loose its grip on the giant boulder, unsteadily waving about in the air, I knew my body was too exhausted to figure out a solution.

I could only pray that the rock didnt crush me when my mind decided to release it.

I endured a few seconds of the mind crushing pain before it abruptly halted, and the boulder was sent freefalling though the air, crashing to the forest floor.

My hands lowered from my head and my breaths came out in short bursts. My vision faded in and out, becoming fuzzy and splotchy.

I was done, so close to giving in and letting my body lose conciousness. Allowing the easy, peaceful death of freezing take the pain away from me...

Suddenly, Logan's face flashed into my mind. It was so vivid, it startled me back into alert-mode. There was no way he would leave me behind after just one night... He had to be out here looking for me. He had to...