STEEL-MINDED | erik lehnsherr

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Erik wandered through the trees, his arms limp at his sides. There were no birds to be heard, an empty silence filled only by the occasional stick snapping under his shoes. The only thing he could think of was Grace, her hands, her smile, her lips.

He missed it, something he was surprised about. He missed how she'd clung to him as she cried, how she needed him. He liked feeling wanted. She'd given him a purpose for a little while and he didn't want to go back to being a bitter man with no love in his heart. He owed it to the people he'd loved in the past, the people who had loved him, to not make their gift of love to him wasted. He owed it to his mother, to Magda, his wife, to Nina. He owed it to Charles. 

He owed it to Grace.

As he walked through the oaks, which were gradually becoming closer together, he felt a sort of chill shift in the air as he stepped forward. He stopped. Moving backwards the chill left him but was quick to return as he stepped forward again. 

Something was off about the air. A few more metres and he found what was wrong.

Danielle's eyes were wide open as she lay there in the leaves and dirt. Her body was splintered in a hundred directions. It was as if she had been pushed inside out, again and again. It was horrific.

Erik wasn't sure what to think. Grace had killed her sister, that he was sure of but she'd done that. She'd told India her mother had abandoned her.

"She killed Danielle," Erik said as he entered Charles's study.

The professor looked up.

"What?" he asked.

"Found her body in the forest... or what remains of it."

"We need to stop her."

"Yeah, we do."

"Am I interrupting anything?"

The two men turned to find a man standing in the doorway. He looked ill.

"Who the hell are you?" Erik asked.

"I'm..." He froze, seeming to have forgotten his own name. "Adrian."

Erik and Charles exchanged glances.

"What do you want?"

"Um... Grace offered me a bunch of money to get you guys to join her in world domination."

"I'm sorry?" Charles asked.

"She gonna kill me anyway so I thought why do want she wants, right? Bitc-"

"How does she expect you to convince us of that?" Erik asked, utterly confused.

"Because this is the man who can convince you of anything," Charles said with complete certainty, "This is the man inside Grace's head."

Erik turned, slowly.

"What?"

A nearby chair shook violently and the pencil cup on Charles's desk crumpled slightly. Adrian gulped.

"Listen, I don't what you're talking about," he said, "I don't even use my powers anymore. I did some bad stuff and I paid the price. Whatever Grace is trying to do, I don't want to be apart of it. But she did break be out of an insane asylum so I owe her one."

"You're the bastard that messed around in her head?" Erik said.

"No?" Adrian replied not sure if he was telling the truth.

"Bad decision."

"Please don't kill me!"

"Erik, please!" Charles said, "He knows where she is, correct?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I know where she is. I can help you guys."

"When we're done you better run as fast as you can," Erik snarled.

"OK. Cool. Death threats. Got it."

Charles thought for a moment before looking up.

"You can convince anyone of anything, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Anything?"

"Yeah."

"Good," Charles said,

"Because I know how to stop her."