Jim saw her face as she darted past. She no longer wore that dead expression, that visage that bore no pity or remorse. She had a visible emotion now: fear. So why was she moving toward Xavier? At first Jim thought she might be going to end his suffering. The man's mouth was split open so widely that the ends had disappeared around the back of his head. Jim was reminded of a game he had played as a kid: Mr. Mouth, a game where two half-spheres joined at the back by a single hinge formed an impossibly wide mouth that rotated around in a circle as kids tried to flip tokens into it. Xavier's turned into Mr. Mouth. Why doesn't she just shoot him? His thoughts were going everywhere. He was in danger of losing it. Focus, Jim. Keep cool. You'll end up like Mom. Just like her. Keep it together. Karen darted to the back of the car. Not to Xavier after all. She grabbed her leather satchel, which she had dropped there a few minutes and a million years ago when they had first entered this car. Then she hurried back to the rest of the group.
