STEEL-MINDED | erik lehnsherr

CHAPTER TEN

Erik had seen enough of humans to know how much damage they could do.  He paced back and forth, every knife in the kitchen spinning around in the air. 

"You want me to just let it slide?" Erik snarled. Charles sighed.

"Grace needs to do this herself," Charles said, "It's her life."

"She's under too much stress! She can't handle it!"

"Erik stop!" Charles roared, "She is an adult and she can deal with it like an adult!"

"Snap her neck. Make her scream!"

"We are happy to take your daughter into our school," Hank said to Danielle as she sat across from him, "I'm sure India will make a wonderful student."

Grace stood in the corner watching the exchange. It was so... normal. The woman who'd destroyed her life sat there enrolling her child without a care in the world.

"She made your life hell, Grace. Time to turn the tables."

"Thank you, Dr McCoy," Dannielle said smiling at him, "I know it's half-way through the year but she's been so afraid of what the other kids would think of her."

"I completely understand, Miss Denton," Hank said.

"You have every right to rip her head off her shoulders."

"Now that we've sorted out the daughter we can have good ol' fashioned heart-to-heart," Grace said stalking towards them.

"Grace, please," Hank started.

"It's OK," Dani said, "She's right. We need to do this."

Standing up she turned to her sister. The two women exchanged glares, Grace's eye twitched.

"Are we going to stay civilised or do you want to take this outside?" Grace asked. Something had snapped inside of her and the sadness and pain had twisted into malice. Everything was amusing to her all of a sudden.

"Why would we go outside?"

"I'm feeling a little bit violent today," she said grinning, "Don't you?"

"Now that's more like it."

"No... I'm not." Grace saw a flash of fear cross her sister's face.

"Too bad," Grace said, "Tea?"

The only thing Danielle could hear was the ticking of the clock and her own, heightened heartbeat.

"So..."

Grace continued to stir her tea. She sat one leg over the other. Unafraid.

"Where are we going to start?"

"Are you trying to get your daughter as far away from you as possible or are you just here to start a fight?"

"What?" 

"What is it that your daughter can do exactly?" Grace asked, "Blow bubbles?"

"Acid. Bubbles. They come out of her hands when she's over emotional."

"Cute."

"Are we gonna-"

"Is she a disappointment to you?"

"What?"

"You heard me." Grace put her spoon in her mouth, licking it clean.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you hated me for my gifts. Then again you probably don't think of them as gifts."

"Grace she's my daughter-"

"And I was your sister! But that didn't stop you from disowning me now did it!" Grace snapped.

"I love her."

"Doesn't mean you don't hate what she's capable of."

"I don't hate her! You know I thought we could sort out our problems! I guess not!"

"You made me believe I was worth nothing! I thought I deserved to die! I wanted to die!" Grace yelled standing up, her tea cup thrown on the floor.

"You drove our mother insane!"

"Don't you bring her into this," Grace snarled, "Everything you did was your choice."

"You provoked her! You-"

"She shot me right here," Grace whispered pointing at her stomach, "She tried to kill me. I was fifteen. I didn't know what I was doing and she shot me."

"Don't act so innocent."

"Innocent! You think this was my fault!"

"Who else's was it?"

"Do you even know what happened to me after you sent me out into the world with a broken heart and nothing to my name?" Grace said in shock.

"I'm sure it was wonderful," Danielle laughed cruelly.

Grace stopped moving.

"She has no idea what I am."

"My life wasn't all cupcakes and rainbows after you left either. Do you know how hard it is to get a divorce?"

"A divorce? Wow. Really puts your life in perspective."

"I had someone make me stab myself until I said sorry for knocking a cup over," Grace said, "I said sorry before I made the first cut but I couldn't stop.  I stabbed myself twenty- seven times before he'd decided it was enough."

"Why didn't you just stop?"

Grace laughed.

"Because he told me too."

"Who? I'm sorry Grace but this is ridiculous. Why don't you just own up for what you've done?"

"Because I can't."

"You always were a coward."

"Am I a coward?" Grace asked. Erik turned to her.

"Of course not," He said. He sat down beside her. Wrapping an arm around her he placed a kiss on her head. "Whatever your sister said she's wrong. Believe me, I know ."

"But it hurts."

"Yeah. I know."

"I'm a monster to her."

"She's the monster."

Erik was beyond anger. Someone had gotten inside Grace's head and messed around and now she was crying in his arms for the third time in a week.

"This is what they'll do to us. This is what they think about us. They think we're the monsters but in reality it's them who're the monsters."

"You're right. You've always been right."

"Sometimes it takes you long enough to see it but they always prove your hopes wrong. Everytime Charles thinks they've grown they go back to slaughtering us."

Grace felt every word he said. Each one driving into her head like a drill. She believed him in her heart and soul. He was right. They did hate them, they hated her.

"I hope you understand how much they've done to us."

"My own mother shot me because she thought I was a demon. Do you really expect me to stand up for the goodness in humanity?"