Thorn • Scott Summers

prologue

Florence Westling was a puzzling individual. Hard to tolerate. Difficult to control. She had a tough character. At least that's what she heard her parents say to others.

A tough character. That was her parents sugarcoating it to the point of type 2 diabetes. She had anger issues. Very prominent anger issues that made her difficult to deal with. Who she had gotten her intolerance from, was unknown to her. Her parents were pious Catholics, but they weren't the kind of intolerant that Florence was.
Florence had been homeschooled ever since she punched another child in the face in the third grade. A solid personality development.
Despite everything, Florence basked in her solidarity at home. Her parents never really conversed with her, but she didn't mind.

Florence Westling's only friend was her tutor. She had been lucky enough to choose her own teacher, and she had chosen right. His name was Lucas Carr; and they had more in common than an obsession with literature and a general dislike for others.
They were mutants.

Florence's first encounter with a mutant was with Lucas. Her parents had gotten a dog (she later figured it was to substitute their solitary only child), and it was rather aggressive; so much so that one day it bit Lucas in his arm. Hard. She saw teeth sink in, yet he didn't react. Didn't flinch, didn't verbalize any pain- he simple grabbed the dogs snout and removed it from his arm. Florence saw the tooth marks indented, and blood was forming on top of them.
He thought it cruel not to give her an explanation; he knew she would find one way or another. He told her what mutants were and spent the rest of the week teaching the history of mutants. A few years later, Florence discovered a mutation of her own. At first she was terrified, like any other mutant. Then she loathed it. If her parents didn't already hate her, her mutation would make them do just that.
Lucas taught her how to tolerate it. Not like it, not even accept it. Just tolerate it. She asked him why he was so disappointed to be a mutant.

"You see, when you grow older, you'll learn that people think of us below animals. All the physical pain I don't feel? Emotional and mental pain compensates for it."

Florence was stunned by his words.

"Darling... You need to be careful. I've told you this a thousand times, but, please. Your power is fueled by anger, and we both know it's difficult for you to control it. If anyone finds out about it, things will not go well for you."