Prologue (The Twins)

The faint orange glow of a cigarette was the only bit of light visible in the darkness. A million thoughts raced through Alix’s mind as he sat on the swing set of his childhood home. This was the first time he had seen this place in almost sixteen years. Once a lively house where he and his brother, Xander, would play, was now old and falling apart. The windows had been boarded up; the railing on the porch was broken and missing in places and a layer of dust and grime coated most of the house’s exterior.

Alix had often wondered what life was like for his parents after he and Xander had left so long ago. From the looks of the house, aside from the filth and destruction of being abandoned, it seemed as though they tried their best to keep it the same as the day they disappeared. Maybe they held onto hope, maybe they expected the boys to come home. They never did. Alix missed his family from time to time, yet he had learned to live without them. Born on Halloween of 1992, Alix and Xander Fury were very unique individuals from birth, twins, who were never expected to live due to complications during the pregnancy. There were only two differences between them, the five minutes that separated them, and their hair. Alix had thick shoulder length jet black hair, while Xander’s hair was close cut and very blonde. Apart from that they were identical. Both were tall, muscular, young men with sharp features and broad shoulders.

Looking around and realizing that his brother had been gone for some time now Alix began to get annoyed. He stood up from the swing set and walked towards the front porch of his old house. “Hurry up Xander; we have more important matters to deal with. I’ve seen all I need to see, besides, this was supposed to be a quick stop” He thought to himself. He waited a moment listening carefully but could hear nothing but the stillness of the night. Finally, “Alright I’m on my way out now. I just wanted to look through some things to see if there was anything here.” His brother’s thoughts were so clear to him recently that it seemed as if he were standing merely a foot in front of him. A minute or two later Xander turned the far corner of the house and strode over to Alix.

“Did you find anything?” Alix asked his brother as they sauntered down the over grown drive. Xander shook his head and looked at his feet. Feeling Xander’s disappointment as if it were his own, Alix gave him a playful push. He knew his brother wanted answers badly, and to be honest he did as well. “We are going to figure this out. You knew this was going to be hard. We have all the skills we need, we can take care of ourselves, but all we have really ever known is The Facility.”

“The rest is just distant memories now, faded like an old photograph.” Xander said sadly. They walked in almost complete silence for a while, thinking to themselves. Both were contemplating what to do next, often sharing their thoughts with one another. Alix began to realize that they may never find out why they were chosen to be placed in the Facility. He shielded his own thoughts from his brother not wanting to him to become any more upset than he already was. He could still feel Xander’s conscience pressing against his own, the flow of emotions often made the brothers nauseous. When they were younger the experience left them weak and on more than one occasion made them ill. They had grown more accustomed to feeling each others experiences as their own over the years though.