The day seemed so normal at first. She had woken up, did her morning rituals, ate breakfast with her father, and retreated to the large "tea room" where her precious piano sat awaiting her. She loved playing that piano, and she taught neighbor kids how to use the elegant instrument, of course she was only a teen herself.
Her name was Madge Undersee, sixteen years old, and the daughter of the mayor of District 12, a poorly district located in the country of Panem. The blonde's fingers hit the keys of the piano, a natural feeling for the young woman. Her house began filling with the sweet sound of music. While Madge did this as her passion and hobby, she also played the music in hopes that the sound would revive her mother from her vegetable state upstairs.
Madge's mother suffered from a sickness brought on by the stress of her sister's demise. Madge barely remembered her Aunt Maysilee, but from what she heard from the neighbors was that Maysilee used to be normal, but changed before her death.
The sound of the doorbell brought Madge away from her piano and the blonde stepped away, smoothing out her dress as she walked towards the front door. Opening it, she smiled down at the visitor, who happened to be her neighbor Julian, a nine year old boy who happened to be very infatuated with her, a feeling that he wasn't very subtle about.
The redheaded boy hugged his red folder filled with sheet music and smiled back up at his music tutor, "Hi Madge." He greets her.
"Good morning, Julian." Madge replies, stepping aside and ushering her young pupil inside, closing the door behind him. She follows him back into the tea room, and watched with amused eyes as the boy rushed over to the piano, placing his folder on the stand, and sat down impatiently, his short legs kicking the air between the bench and the floor.
Madge walked over to the bench and sat down next to him, "Alright. Did you practice remembering the music notes and keys?" She asked, she loved teaching kids music, their wide eyes were always full of wonder when they watched her play different scores from films or old classical pieces. In fact, one of Madge's favorite students was Posy Hawthorne, but sadly Posy's family had moved a year ago without explanation. She missed that girl since Posy always seemed to be the one most enchanted by her musical style.
Julian nodded excitedly and began pressing random keys and stating their names, an action that made Madge giggle, which in return made the young boy blush furiously. "Alright, slow down, how about you play the short piece I taught you a couple of weeks ago as a warm up?" Julian's blush deepened more so in nervousness and embarrassment than infatuation.
Madge relaxed when the boy started, his small fingers hitting the keys slowly and off-tune since he was still a novice and therefore was still learning. She continued to listen, hearing a few errors but does not comment, as she didn't want to ruin the boy's confidence during the piece. The blonde started to rub her hands together, a habit that she had grown accustom to in the recent weeks. Her hands had begun to feel agitating and a small burning sensation would always be present whenever she relaxed for a long enough amount of time, or when she played the piano.
She tried to focus on Julian's piece, but the agitation began to grow, and burning began to feel as if she was holding her hands over an open flame, or pressing them against the burners on the stove. Trying her best to conceal her pain, Madge turned to the side and created a fist, which only made the burning feeling worsen. Her blue eyes widen, when she noticed that her fist had small glowing particles floating around her wrist and circling her hand. Panicking, the blonde quickly undid her fist and the small particles grew into a large beam, firing across the room, colliding with a very expensive vase.
She watched in astonishment and fear as the vase explodes into small pieces of polished clay. She brought her other hand to her mouth, and Julian stopped his playing, having heard the loud breaking of the object and peered around Madge to see the scattered pieces on the floor. "Whoa. How did that happen?" He asked innocently, hopping off the bench and walking over to it.
Madge grew nervous and held her hand close to herself. She was scared, did she really do that? Was she seeing things? Was this a dream? These questions danced in her mind and her hands began to burn once more.
Julian finally brought her back to her senses, however she jumped back away from the boy when he tapped her on the leg. "No—no!" She exclaims, holding her hands out so he wouldn't get close.
Julian's eyes widen and he stares back at her in confusion. "Are you okay? Did I do something wrong? I swear I didn't break the vase... I was playing the piano."
She shook her head and quickly gathers enough of her senses to reply, "I'm just not feeling well, how about you go on home for today? I'm going to clean up the broken pieces and lay down."Her tone was sweet and gentle, adjectives that she definitely wasn't feeling at the moment. She hoped he wouldn't ask questions, and thankfully he didn't. He silently gathered his sheet music, ran up and hugged her and hurried out the door.
Of course Madge was frightened, especially when the boy had hugged her, afraid that he would hurt himself- or worse that she would hurt him. She glanced down at her hands nervously before retreating to the hall closet to retrieve the appropriate tools to clean up the mess.
Later that night Madge sat with her father for dinner, she wasn't feeling very hungry, and she was shaking out of nervousness. Her food was being pushed around on her plate by her fork, a habit that her father saw as a sign of something wrong. Of course her father had noticed, he was the Mayor, he had to be extra aware. "Sweetie, does your weird demeanor have anything to do with the missing vase?" She glanced up at her father and she nodded grimly, and she was shocked at her father's teasing smile and causal tone. "I'll just order another, there's no reason to be so upset about it. I'm sure it was an accident."
"It was." Madge replied a little too quickly for her own liking, and she returned to pushing her food around. She loved her father, and she loved that he trusted her, and she was thankful that he didn't ask anymore questions, just like she was thankful for Julian for the same reason.
A very forceful knock at the door caused Madge to jump, and she glanced at her father, who was looking at her strangely. She watched as he got up to answer the door, and she followed quietly, leaning against the wall to eavesdrop. An activity that she had partaken in since a child.
She heard the door open and a muffled voice converse with her father's. "What do you mean?" more muffled words. "My daughter is not one of them. You must be mistaken." What did those people mean? One of them? She wondered, her heart beginning to race.
She heard a noise that sounded much like a car engine and she turned to see her favorite of her house's maids, Emmaline. Emmaline looked scared, her hair that was usually tied up in a bun was undone and her eyes looked dangerously more icy blue then they usually were. "Em-?" Madge began in a whisper.
Emmaline shushed her with her hand, and calmly ushered the girl out the backdoor, and with a whispered tone grabbed Madge's face. "Look at me, darling. They are here to take you. Don't ask me who or why or how, I just need you to jump the back fence and run. Run towards the outer fence of the district, there should be a way out behind a tree near the Seam, exit the district through that opening and run into the woods. Someone will come for you." the maid spouts out this information so fast that Madge can barely comprehend it all.
"But-" She began but was hushed again.
"I said no questions, now go!" Emmaline whispered forcefully, shoving the girl gently towards the white fence that bordered the Undersee Home. A loud boom from the front yard echoed through the night, and Madge finally listened.
She ran.
She ran very hard, she had jumped the fence and ran the path that she used to walk so long ago, the path that she used to take to pick strawberries. Her thoughts were jumbled, were her father and mother alright? How did Emmaline know about her strange occurrence earlier, and how did whoever was at the door know as well? What did they want from her? She didn't even know what was wrong with her, and why she created that strange beam of light.
She reached The Seam faster than she thought she would, and she slowed down, catching her breath, and resting her hands on her legs before taking off again towards the outskirts of the district. She saw the large tree and ran behind it, slipping through the small opening and running off into the woods.
She rested against a tree, her breathing had finally slowed and she was now just tired and scared. Her parents, Emmaline, little Julian. Would she see any of them again, her hands were burning, but she didn't care, she didn't even check them to see if they had light particles surrounding them. Her eyelids began to grow heavy, and she didn't resist when she finally fell asleep.
It was still dark out when the sound of twigs snapping woke her up. Going into defensive mode Madge stood, her back against the trunk of the tree, her eyes analyzing the area, and the movement of someone walking towards her catching her eye. "Who's there?" she called out.
The form grew closer and Madge made out that it was a woman. "Hello, Madge, I'm thankful that Emmaline got you out in time." the woman's kind and comforting voice calmed Madge's nerves.
"Who are you?" She asked, still cautious.
"You don't remember me?" The woman asked, she finally stopped in front of her and Madge thought that the woman was actually very familiar.
"You're Hazelle Hawthorne, Posy's mom." the blonde finally remarked.
Hazelle smiled, taking Madge's hand. "Yes, now come. We need to get out of here before they track you here."
"Where are we going?" Madge asked, her voice faltering, she was clearly still exhausted.
"Someplace where you will be safe." Hazelle stated calmly, and that is all she said, as the woman turned and began leading Madge farther from the district, question began running through the blonde's head, but she remained quiet and held the woman's hand tightly, as the pair walked off into the dark forest.
Okay, as you can see this, story has heavily influences and is based on the Marvel stories and characters of the X-Men franchise, a personal favorite of mine. This will be a Gadge story, so if you don't like Gadge I warn you to hit the back button.