FROZEN HEART

CHAPTER 1

I packed my clothes carefully, making sure to leave nothing behind. I never thought I'd be heading back to that place; I thought I'd be free of it forever, after all I had nothing left in common with the people I'd left behind. Yet here I was packing up the life I had created for myself and moving on, moving back. I had done this three times before, only succeeding twice in escaping the life I'd been living, I'd left my biological family, I'd tried and failed, to leave my mutant family, succeeding mere months later; now I was preparing to leave my chosen family.

I could hear Andrew shuffling downstairs getting ready to go to work. He didn't know what I was planning and I couldn't let him know. I didn't know how he'd react, whether he would try and make me stay or whether he would be repulsed just by the sight of me. Call me a coward but either way I wasn't willing to stick around and see; if he hated me I knew my heart wouldn't be able to take it. Quickly shutting off that line of thought I stored the half filled suitcase under the bed, the rest of the packing would have to wait until Andrew had left, I couldn't have him hear me clattering around and guess what I'm planning.

Pulling myself up onto the bed I huddled against the headboard, the memories of what had happened last night invading my mind like daggers.

We'd been cuddled together on the couch, watching some stupid reality TV show, laughing at how stupid some of the contestants were. He tucked the white streak of hair behind my ear, that was all. That was all it took. My mind was suddenly filled with memories of a childhood which wasn't my own.

Brothers teasing me about liking a girl in my class.

Playing on the football team at my school.

My first kiss, age 14.

Except these weren't my memories. These were Andrew's. It was back; my curse was back.

I backed away from Andrew as fast as I could after that, nearly toppling us both off of the couch, barely able to look at him. He tried to approach me, reaching a hand out towards me once my back was pressed firmly against the door frame but it was like my first attack all over again, all I could do was huddle in on myself and cry; cry because I could have killed Andrew, if we'd both been asleep I could have sucked him dry of life and I cried because I knew the life I had created for myself, away from everything I'd run from, would be ending very soon. Hurling out of the room as quickly as I could, I ran to the room we had shared these last three months, slamming and bolting the door behind me, knowing what had to be done.

And so now here I sit, tears once more streaming down my face as I pull myself from my thoughts. I hear something that sounds like a muffled goodbye before the loud bang of the front door closing then silence.

It took me several minutes to unwrap myself from the tight ball I'd huddled myself into before clambering off of the bed and once more pulling out the half packed suitcase from where I'd shoved it under there and finished throwing the rest of my clothes into its opening. Picking up the photo that had sat on my bedside table since I had moved in with Andrew I stared at it, trying to burn the image into my memories, to try and remember a happier time. Slamming the photo, face down, back onto the scratched surface of the old second hand bed side table I turned my back on that life, zipping up my suitcase before heaving the heavy bag off of the bed, mentally preparing myself to return to a place I had long since put behind me.

A/N: Thank you for reading, this is my first proper multi chapter fic and is something I've had half written up for over a year now just sitting in an unopened file on my computer, hopefully having it posted will give me more incentive to actually keep writing it. Reviews are also a great incentive and much appreciated too. Chapter 2 should hopefully be up in a few days.