𝘿𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 『Alex Summers』

P R O L O U G E

WE ARE MEANT TO START OUR STORIES AT THE BEGINNING. The tragic hero's earliest memory, either filled with joy or heartbreak. The misunderstood villain and their call to the evil future they are set upon. This story is different. We can not start at the beginning because this protagonist... well, she simply doesn't have one.

She could be a tragic hero, with her first memory being the day her loving father built her a treehouse in the back garden. Or she could be the misunderstood villain who watched her entire family's downfall at the hands of someone with the same motives as her future enemy. Her future enemy could be the grown up version of the child who played with their toys in a sturdy wooden tree house. Or her enemy could be the successor of the inhumane creature that cost her the happy childhood she deserved. She could be both; a tragic villain, a misunderstood hero. A little girl who watched her family's downfall from the height of the sturdy wooden structure atop the tall oak tree that sat at the bottom of her back garden.

You can not always tell an archetype from a first glance. In our English lessons, we are taught ice cold and barely visible skin represents ghostly secrets, the silver skull embedded at the head of the young mans cane is a symbol of death, The sweet smell of vanilla that invites hugs surrounds the young girl because she's the kindest soul in a world full of no good people. But, these are often wrong. The middle aged woman with pale, sickly skin is simply getting over a rough stomach bug. The young man with the silver skull at the head of his cane simply has a limp and liked that design best. And the sweet smell of vanilla is actually the smell of cheap, heavily flavoured liquor the young girl sneaks to wash away the days pain.

First impressions aren't always the right impressions, The same way the first theory that the atom was the smallest thing in the universe turned out to be incorrect.

The recruiters in The Red Room were victim to the unruly theme of first impressions. They saw our protagonist and thought she would grow to be weak, full of fear and almost pitiful. They kept her around despite this; training her separate from the rest, knowing she would one day grow up to be a mutant. A thing, in there eyes, that was a mistake.

But it was them who made the unfortunate mistake. I suppose you could say it was her true beginning. Her first chapter. Her first dip of the quill in the pot of ink. Her first memory. Her call for villainy...