Miracles Happen...Right? (Open to X-Force)
Xavier's 3am--


Joey has no idea what he was dreaming about or why; the only thing apparent to him right now is the pain in the sockets where his eyes should be. It feels as though his brain is trying to force its way out of his skull through both holes at once and he has to bite his pillow to keep from screaming.

The pillow doesn't help and he can taste the blood on his tongue as the pain intensifies. He falls off the bed, hitting the hard floor and immediate reaches out trying to orient himself in the direction of his bathroom.

Just 180 degrees behind me, right? Just gotta get there....

The pain in his head intensifies as he crawls across the floor to the bathroom, pulling himself up by the door knob. His hands fumble in the dark, looking for the damned light-switch that should have been near the wall. He finally finds it and stumbles in the direction of the bathroom sink and the mirror, tearing off the cotton patches over his eyes. Later, he'll say he had no clue why he did this; if what happened next hadn't happened, he doesn't know what it would have accomplished.

But he didn't expect what came next.

The bathroom light nearly blinds him Joey throws a hand over his eyes to shield it out. The lights were never that bright, were they? Not even when the bulbs got changed. Why were they so bright now? 

Wait a minute.

Joey puts his arm down and looks in the mirror. He sees his reflection staring back at him. With his eyes.

"My eyes...grew back?" he asks his reflection stupidly.

So focused on his reflect is he that Joey doesn't notice the shadow that vanishes from beside his bed, fading away into the dark.