REVISIT

The skies are stormy on this nineteenth century evening. Lightning crashes and thunder roars as strong rain soaks the ground. The earth seems to shake as a large mob chases a young boy down the dark Chicago streets.

“Get the hell out of our town freak!” exclaims one man.

“We don’t want no monsters ’round here!” cries another.

Days earlier the boy began projecting fire from his fingertips. The newfound ability was so new to him… so strange… so uncontrollable. He accidentally burned a church to the ground, killing a priest and thirteen innocent people. Some people became scared, others became angry. Either way, they wanted that monstrosity out of their town, and they would do anything to accomplish that.

His heart pounding, the boy continues to run, and manages to gain some distance from the crowd. He turns down a dark alley, desperately looking for salvation. Unexpectedly, he collides with a tall, solid man. After picking himself off the ground, the boy looks passed the man’s massive chest to his pure white face. He can’t help but notice the stranger’s glowing eyes, and the strange diamond-shaped insignia on his forehead.

Even though he whispers, the man’s voice seems to thunder louder than the storm, “Come with me if you value your life.”

The mob finally catches up, and turns into the silent alley. Amazed and bewildered, they discover that the boy is gone…

The boy’s eyelids slowly begin to open. As hard as he tries he can’t remember what had happened since a cryptic stranger apparently saved him from an enraged rabble. He looks around him trying to find some clue of his location.

He’s inside a cage, trapped like an animal. To his left he sees a large somber room in which he can only see darkness. To his right is a long corridor leading to a tall set of stairs. On either side of the corridor there are rows of more cages. Inside each one lies a person. Most are thin, malnourished, and close to death. Some are already dead…

A door at the top of the staircase slowly opens and a shadowy figure descends the stairs. He walks apathetically down the passage to the cage where the boy lies. As the form draws nearer the boy recognizes him as his apparent rescuer from the previous night. But obviously he has more in mind than the boy’s safety.

“Wh… who are you?” the boy mutters quietly.

“My true name is of no concern to you.”, the man’s voice thunders. “But if you wish to address me, you may do so as Mr. Sinister.”

There is a long silence between them as they share a cold, quiet stare.

“What is your name boy?”

“An… Andrew. Andrew Cordon. Why am I here? Is it about the… accident at the church?”

“The deaths of those people mean nothing to me!” Sinister exclaims heartlessly. “I am more interested in you. I’m sure you’ve realized by now that you are different. In your genetic code exists a rare gene called the x-factor, resulting in your recent extraordinary abilities. You are the future of the human race! I exist on this dismal blue orb only to study you, and others like you.”, he says gesturing towards all the other prisoners.

“What are you going to do to me?”

“You will find out soon enough.”

Sinister leaves as silently as he had arrived, leaving Andrew with his dreary thoughts. He just found out that he’s a freak of nature, a monster! He does what he’s wanted to do ever since the accident at the church first happened. He cries…

Sinister walks from his cold, dark basement to a surprisingly pleasant and well furnished living room. On the left wall is a large fireplace; a lone picture frame sits atop a stone mantle above it. Inside the frame is a photograph of a ravishing woman with raven black hair and strong cheek bones.

Sinister stars vacantly at the picture for minutes. His mind begins to wander back to the past. He remembers forty-two years earlier when he was still known as Nathaniel Essex. His son Adam had just died tragically at the young age of four. Essex became detached from the world and inconsolable. He submerged himself into the only thing that made him happy: evolution, and the future of the human race.

He began using human test subjects in his twisted genetic experiments, treating them in a detestably inhumane fashion. Soon after, his pregnant wife Rebecca discovered his secret life and became disgusted with her own husband, but was unable to leave him in that male-dominated era. They drifted apart, and quickly became strangers living in the same house. Rebecca soon gave birth prematurely, and the baby was born dead.

The doctors said the untimely birth was induced by the stress that she had recently endured. Rebecca’s life immediately began to fade. Her last words echo through Sinister’s mind: “To me you are utterly and contemptibly… SINISTER!”

Distraught, Essex accepted the madman Apocalypse’s offer of power in exchange for eternal servitude. After the metamorphosis, Essex would be able to study human evolution without the restraints or mortality… and morality!

After the abandonment of his old life, Essex also had to abandon his old identity and chose a new name. He remembered the last word his wife uttered to him: Sinister…

“Why do you torture yourself with thoughts of the past?” Sinister thinks to himself. “You swore you would leave your past behind you after you were reborn as Mr. Sinister. I must clear my mind… take a walk…”

Sinister puts on a coat and walks out his front door. He strides down a long path and out a large iron gate onto the street. With image inducing technology stolen from the maniacal Apocalypse he does not need to worry about people noticing his peculiar appearance. He walks down the lonely streets, staring at the abundant stars in the sky.

Suddenly, a shrill scream breaks the silence of the vacant Chicago streets. Sinister quickly rushes to see what is happening. He turns around a corner to see two surly men attacking a young woman.

“Please sir… help me…” the woman utters fearfully.

“Forget what ya seen here mister!” exclaims one man with blatantly obvious poor grammar.

“Yeah. Just turn ’round, and go ‘way!” the other yells in an equally moronic fasion.

Sinister advances towards the two men to help the woman. He isn’t sure why he does it. He’s never cared about these pathetic humans before. Is it out of pity? He doesn’t know.

With Sinister’s exceptional strength it doesn’t take long for him to gain control of the situation. The two men lay unconscious on the ground within minutes.

“Thanks you, thank you sir!” The woman runs towards Sinister and throws herself upon his, hugging him tightly. He looks at her strangely, thinking.

“I know this woman… I’ve seen her before… but where?!?” Sinister thinks. “Yes, that’s it! She looks like the woman I encountered almost forty years ago, the one who tried to stop my transformation into Mr. Sinister. But that is impossible! That woman would have to be in her late sixties by now, and this one appears to be no more than twenty-five…”

“Oh… I… I am sorry for being so forward sir. My excitement got the better of me, as it so often does. May I ask you your name sir?”

“My name is… Nathaniel Essex.” Sinister says hesitantly.

“Thank you very much Mr. Essex. I owe you my life.” the woman says gratefully. “My name is Elizabeth Grey.”

“It was no trouble at all, Miss Grey, believe me.”

“Please, you must let me repay you somehow, for saving my life.”

“Such a gesture is not necessary.” Sinister says nonchalantly.

“Then please, let me have you for dinner tomorrow evening. It’s the very least I can do.”

“You… you are not married?”

“No. My father is horribly overprotective. He barely lets me leave the house, let alone socialize with men.” Elizabeth says jovially. “Although I’m sure he would be glad to have you over. He’d love to meet the man who saved his daughter’s life!”

Sinister contemplates the request for an instant. He vowed to himself that after he was transformed he would never again become involved with these mere humans. But he feels strange. He feels attracted to this woman. He hasn’t known this experience for decades… since Rebecca died. His mind tells him to refuse her, to walk away, but his heart says otherwise. His heart prevails.

“Yes. Yes I will join you for dinner.”

“Wonderful! Our address is 174 Lake Shore Drive. I will see you at 7:30 tomorrow evening?”

“Yes, I’ll be there.”

“I’ll be counting down the minutes.” Elizabeth smiles and walks elegantly down the street leaving Sinister alone to reflect upon the past few minutes. Then he does something he hasn’t done in over four decades. He smiles, then walks in the other direction, retaining the smile all the way home.

He soon arrives back at his enormous house and walks up the long path leading to his colossal front door. His mood seems to suddenly shift drastically as soon as he walks through the entrance. He’s become glacial and unfeeling again, abandoning his short revisit to humanity. He hangs up his coat and disables his image inducer, revealing his true chalky-white visage and cold, ruby eyes. He walks towards the door leading down to his basement, and sluggishly opens it, then walks casually down the stairs.

As he descends the stairs he takes a torch from the wall to light his way. He gaits down the corridor approaching his newest acquisition, the young boy Andrew Cordon. The time has come for the first experiment to begin…

The boy’s cage creaks as Sinister opens it and picks him up with one hand, throwing him over his shoulder.

“Wh… what are you going to do to me now?” Andrew mutters fearfully.

Sinister gives him no answer. They proceed into the murky room Andrew noticed before, whose darkness his eyes couldn’t penetrate earlier. As they progress further into the room, the torch begins to illuminate the once unlit chamber, like a rising sun on an early morning horizon.

Andrew raises his head to examine his surroundings. He’d be in awe if his mind wasn’t so cluttered with fear. The room is teeming with machinery more technologically advanced than he had ever seen. Innumerous wires are stretched across the icy, damp floor attaching to the many large, lustrous machines. A cylindrical cage hangs from the ceiling in which lay a grotesque, disfigured creature. The creature appears to have been human at one time, but clearly Sinister has played with his genetic structure, mutating him to his current hideous state.

The creature raises its head and stares somberly at Andrew. Andrew can’t stop the tears from collecting in his eyes. That image will haunt him for the rest of his life, although at the moment he’s unsure how long that will be. Sinister re-affixes the torch to a clamp on the wall, then fastens Andrew to an enormous metallic chair, clamping his hands and feet, not allowing him the slightest movement.

For the next two hours Andrew is subject to countless blood tests and degrading examinations. Meanwhile, Sinister never speaks a word.

After the last experiment is finished, Sinister finally speaks. “I need to see the efficacy of your powers.” he says in his usual emotionless, monotonous voice.

“But… but how?” Andrew inquires weakly. “I can’t control it… it just happens…”

“I have methods you are unaware of, technology you are unaware of.” Sinister walks over to the large chair where Andrew sits. He picks up a strange helmet and places it on Andrew’s head. He pulls wires down from above and connects them to various places on the helmet. Suddenly numerous buttons begin to flash with light, and an image of the interior of a church appears on a screen across the room.

“Wh-what’s happening?” Andrew asks worriedly.

“This is your mind. Your memories”

Andrew’s eyes open wide with shock and disbelief. All of a sudden the image comes to live. The back wall of the church seems to be getting closer. Then Andrews realizes that this is exactly what he saw the night his life changed forever. He continues to walk down to the back of the church. To his right he sees the priest talking with two people, a man and a woman. The priest and Andrew exchange a smile, and Andrew continues walking. To his left he sees approximately eleven people, apparently two families who came to pray.

Then it happens.

His mutant power sparks for the first time. Unexpectedly, fire begins shooting from his hands catching a nearby pew. It quickly spreads to the carpet, expanding across the floor. Everyone in the church screams with pain and terror as they are swallowed into the flames… except Andrew. The flames don’t hurt him, don’t even seem to touch him. All he can do is watch in horror as the others burn to death in front of him, screaming until the fire has completely consumed them, and they can scream no longer. Then, the screen goes blank again.

“Quite interesting.” Sinister says dispassionately.

“No… I didn’t mean to…” Andrew says sobbing. “I couldn’t help it! It wasn’t my fault… I didn’t mean to…”

Sinister unshackles Andrew from the chair and takes him back to his cell. He throws him in the cage and locks it. He hangs the key on a hook affixed to the wall, gives Andrew one last menacing stare, and leaves.

Andrew realizes that if he could get that key, he could set himself free. But it’s too far. He can’t reach it. Frustrated, he just sits in his cage crying, as the screams of his victims echo through his head, until a hoarse voice interrupts.

“It won’t be the last time.” it says.

“What…?” Andrew replies.

“Sinister does these experiments every day.” the voice explains as its owner emerges from the shadows. At first Andrew was frightened by the stranger in the cell adjacent to his. His entire body is covered with emerald-coloured scales, and his hands and feet are webbed.

“I’ve been trapped in here for almost two months,” the stranger said, “and that madman Sinister’s experimented on me every single day. My name’s Maclean. What’s yours?”

“Andrew. Haven’t you and the other captives ever tried to escape? You greatly outnumber Sinister.”

“It’s useless.” said the prisoner in the cell beside Maclean’s. Andrew noticed, that like himself, he looked like a normal human. “We’re all too weak and frail to even escape from our cage, let alone get past Sinister.”

“This is Pearson. He’s been here the longest out of all the living prisoners.” Maclean told Andrew.

“Yeah… three years.” Pearson added.

“What makes you different? What’s your ‘mutant power’?” Andrew inquired.

“Sinister calls it ‘telekinesis’.” Pearson answered.

“What does that mean?”

“It means I can move stuff with my mind, just by thinking it.”

Andrew’s eyes lit up with excitement, remembering the key Sinister hung on the wall. “Pack your things guys,” Andrew said grinning. “We’re getting out of here!”

NEXT: Will Andrew and the other captives break out of Sinister’s basement? What will happen between Sinister and Elizabeth Grey? Plus, the spine tingling return of Apocalypse!