Leaving Bayville
Chapter Five: Leaving Bayville
Rogue arrived at the bus station almost running the entire distance. She wanted to get as far away as possible before anyone knew she was gone. Logan would almost assuredly come after her eventually, but she was sure she didn’t leave any clues as to where she was going. It would at least give her time, and she made it to the bus station in less time that she thought it would take her. By the time she walked through the door she was out of breath, so she sat down for a moment to get her bearings. She had a bottle of water in her bag and took it out and gulped some of it down. It took a minute to calm down, and she breathed in and out until her body became still. She was ready now, so she walked up to the booth and saw an overweight bolding man sitting there.
“May I help you, ma’am?” the man asked.
“Ah need the next bus to Richmond, Virginia,” Rogue said in a quiet voice.
“Sure, kid, next bus leaves at 1:15am. That will be seventy dollars.”
“Okay,” she said and pulled out four twenty dollar bills. She handed it to the man, and he passed her the ticket and ten dollars change.
She took a seat near the exit doors and waited for her bus. She was a little hungry and pulled out one of the muffins she bought earlier that day but had almost forgotten she had them.
Even though she had less than an hour to wait it felt like an eternity. Part of her wanted to turn and leave the station, but she dreaded seeing any of her friends and mentors knowing they would learn of her plans. She had already failed them, so there was no turning back now.
There were a few people at the station when Gambit walked in and saw Rogue near the exit doors. He went up to the counter, concealing himself as much as possible. It looked like Rogue had fallen asleep. The man behind the counter looked pleasant enough.
“Can you tell me where dat girl over dare is headed?” Gambit pointed to Rogue but the guy just shook his head.
“The only place everyone else is going, Richmond.”
“Den dat’s where I’m goin’ too,” he said and put out a hundred dollar bill. The man handed him the ticket and his change, but Gambit was careful to sit on the far side seat where he could still see Rogue, but she couldn’t see him. He had no idea why she was heading to Richmond, but he was going to find out.
Rogue was jostled out of her sleep when she heard the sounds coming from outside and a man behind the counter’s voice came on the loud speaker almost scaring her half to death. “1:15 to Richmond now pulling in!”
She rose groggily from her seat and exited through the station doors, and Gambit followed behind in the small crowd of people. He didn’t want her to see him, not yet anyway. Rogue was the first one on the bus, and she walked all the way to the back seat and sat in the right corner seat by the window. Gambit spotted her almost immediately and sat on the opposite side. He cloaked himself as much as possible and saw that she was turned towards the window. Several people sat in the empty seats between them so he had ample coverage, and something told him if she did spot him, then there may have been a scene and he didn’t want to confront her about her actions until he was sure that they were alone.
The ride took about six hours and in that time he kept his eyes on her. She had a book she was reading as normal and noticed she had some kind of journal she was writing in. He wondered if she wrote anything about him. Never before had he pursued a girl so openly, but something about her was different. Sure, he was attracted to her. How could he not be? She was beautiful even if she tried to hide it behind all her toughness, but she was also vulnerable in many ways. Something inside of him longed to take care of her and keep her safe, even if she intended on fighting him all the way.
He relaxed after a while and there were two people blocking his full view of her, but he could see she fell asleep but it wasn’t a restful one. The two other people who were sitting in the back moved not wanting to deal with a restless but unconscious girl. Gambit slid over to where she was sleeping. He touched her hair slightly as she jerked twice. He was very careful not to touch her skin.
“Quiet down, chere,” he whispered. “You’re safe.” She remained asleep but settled down until she was now completely quiet. “Good, stay sleepin’.”
She was curled up against her backpack sighing softly. He switched to the seat directly in front of where she was sitting, careful to hide himself but still able to keep an eye on her. They would be reaching Richmond soon, and he planned to follow her indiscreetly, until he learned where she was ultimately going and why.
He almost fell asleep himself when he realized that the bus had stopped at the depot, and the driver made the announcement. Remy stayed put, seeing Rogue had woken up and was gathering her things. She had not even looked over to where he was sitting hiding his face just in case.
Once she passed him he rose to his feet, making sure to keep her in his eyesight. He exited still keeping her in sight and saw her enter the depot. She entered the bathroom and he waited around the corner for her to come out. It wasn’t long before she reappeared and she exited through the door. Now, the chase was on.
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Back at the mansion the next morning Kitty awoke early to notice that her roommate was not him bed. At five in the morning no one was up yet, not really. She felt that something was off, but couldn’t place her finger on it. Did she get up to go to the bathroom? Even if she had, why would her bed be made? Kitty got up and decided to do some investigating. First, she walked down the hallway to check the bathroom. After Rogue’s nightmare episode a few nights before, Kitty had known she broke down in the bathroom crying. She was just outside but didn’t make her presence known, knowing how sensitive Rogue was about showing her feelings and didn’t want to embarrass her.
After she reached the bathroom she saw that it was ajar. She peeked inside but saw that it was empty. Maybe she was in the kitchen, she thought to herself. She ran down the hallway and down the stairs, but after phasing from two rooms to reach the kitchen she wasn’t there either. Something was definitely fishy. She raced back upstairs to their room and opened the dresser that they both shared. Rogue had the top two drawers while Kitty had the bottom two. When she opened the top drawer, she found it nearly empty. Rogue had six pairs of gloves and some socks and underwear most of which were gone. She did see a notepad and a crumpled up brochure of some kind. She unwrinkled it and saw it was an advertisement of an air BnB. Why would she have this? She thought to herself. The notepad was weird too. She usually kept that in her nightstand.
Next, she looked in the closet. Rogue side was bearer than usual. Her X-Men uniform was still there, but her favorite jacket and some of her school and street clothes were gone. Kitty was really starting to freak out, but she still didn’t want to jump to conclusions. Next she checked Rogue’s nightstand, and that’s where she found it. There were two envelopes, one addressed to Logan and one to everyone. She didn’t want to even know what was in them, but with no trace of Rogue she had to inform the others.
She ran out of the room and straight to Logan’s quarters. She didn’t want everyone freaking out, and Logan would know how to handle the situation. She banged on the door and called out his name.
“Mister Logan!” she called out while knocking loudly. “Please, wake up. It’s an emergency!”
She heard grumbling coming from inside. He was not happy and that made Kitty nervous. The door swung open, and she saw the unhappy expression on Logan’s face. “What is it?”
“Rogue’s gone, and I found these,” Kitty said handing the letters to Logan.
He grabbed the two envelopes and ripped open the one addressed to him. Looking over the letter his face went pale. He looked over at Kitty and asked, “Does anyone else know about this?”
“No, I just woke up, and Rogue was gone,” she said with a look of fright on her face. “Some of her clothes are gone too. Then I found the letters.”
“Was there any clues where she took off to?” he asked as he walked back inside his room to put on a shirt.
“Only some weird brochure to budget Air BnB,” Kitty said with a worried look on her face.
“First thing we’ll do is check her room, gotta be some other clues.” He stomped down the hallways with Kitty chasing after him. “So where’s this brochure you found?” he asked Kitty upon entering their room.
“Top drawer of our dresser,” Kitty said and waited in the doorway while Logan rifled through the drawer to find what he was looking for. Not much was in there, but he did find the items Kitty had told him about. He picked up the balled up paper along with the notepad.
After examining it for a few moments, he touched the top sheet and felt the subtle grooves in the paper. “She wrote something on here.”
“I might know a way to find out what it might be, learned this trick from a detective show,” Kitty said and ran over to her night stand to look for a pencil. She found one, but she found something else too. “Looks like she left me a letter too.” Logan handed her the notepad and she took the pencil and lightly glided the lead onto the paper. “Wow! It actually worked. I guess detective shows are good for something.”
“Find out anything?” Logan asked.
“Looks like an address,” Kitty said and studied it for a moment. “Someplace in Virginia.”
“Then that’s where I’m goin’,” Logan said and was about to leave the room.
“Can I come too?” Kitty asked.
“Better not, she might not want a crowd of people chasin’ after her, and we don’t want her to run again.”
“I’m just worried too, with all those nightmares she’s been having, I just thought she might need a friend.”
“What nightmares?” Logan asked and Kitty had a guilty look on her face.
“Last few nights, she’s been crying out in her sleep. I tried to ask her what they were about, but she wouldn’t tell me. She also made me promise I wouldn’t tell anybody. You know how proud she can be. I want to help, so please, can I come?”
“I know you want to help, Kitty, but if you go, the entire mansion will know somethin’s up. Just hold down the fort here, and I’ll find her. I promise.”
“Sure, Logan,” Kitty said looking a little disappointed.
Kitty watched from her window a short time later seeing Logan take off on his motorcycle in search of their lost friend and teammate. She just hoped that Rogue was alright.