Shadow Killer

One

My name is Posie Parker. I have no family or friends. I simply am Posie Parker, property of Hydra. Prior to Hydra, I was trained by the Red Room, who kidnapped me when I was young. My life before the Red Room or Hydra is unknown, and I couldn't care less. The only thing I have from my past is my name, and it means nothing to me.

As I said, the Red Room kidnapped me when I was very young, at least, that is what I have come to tell myself. The reality is I don't know, and nor do I really care. My earliest memories are that of the Red Room. Ballet, weaponry and combat, languages, and whatever else required to become an assassin. By the age of ten, I was on track to become a lethal weapon. We were trained to eliminate all emotion and follow orders. At age eighteen, we were given a graduation ceremony before becoming assassins, doing whatever the Red Room told us. However, I was considered one of the lucky ones to be pulled aside for inspection by some outside individual.

I ended up being the one chosen. I was taken away from the Red Room and to a place of new. Just like the Red Room, they tolerated no silliness or any form of incompetence. Once we got to this new location, they led me through endless corridors and through countless doors before shoving me into a confined room containing a cot, a sink, and a toilet. In essence, a cell. It wasn't long before they started a similar training regime to that of the Red Room. Long gruelling hours of combat and weaponry. I was also taught how to use a computer, something the Red Room didn't do, learning how to code and hack into software systems. There was little time to rest, and substantial meals were scarce. Failure to comply with the rules or to keep up would result in punishment.

Hydra was harsher than the Red Room. Higher expectations to be met, which also meant that there was a greater fall if they could not be met. After a couple of years, things changed. Once a week, a pair of soldiers with large automatic weapons would lead me from the familiar cell and training rooms to an unfamiliar one. This one had a single oversized chair with metal clamps at both the ankles and wrists. The first time seeing it invoked fear within me, something very uncommon due to the way I had been trained. I resisted. I was punished. They strapped my limbs down to the chair, as well as my head. The doctor who was present would insert a needle into my arm which was attached to a long tube with bags at the other end. I was then pumped full of unknown colourless substances.

For a while, nothing much happened other than colourless liquids being pumped in through my arms. Very quickly, however, I noticed weight gain in my muscles. I was a small person. Significantly smaller than everyone who I encountered, although everyone who I seemed to encounter was male, so I doubt that is even comparable. Yet, even when I was in the Red Room, I was considered smaller than most. This weight gain began to make more of an impact in my fighting, as I now had more strength and force to do more damage, something I always lacked, which was unsuitable to be an assassin.

However, one week they didn't hang up and insert the typical colourless drip bags. The usual doctor was present; however, the same man who took me away from the Red Room was also present this time. After bringing me, I never saw him again, until then. He never spoke, only standing to the side with his arms folded. I knew something was off the moment I was strapped down and saw him. The doctor grabbed a syringe full of an orange substance.

He injected into my upper arm before I could react and cause a commotion in the restraints. Whatever was injected, the effects were immediate. My vision became fuzzy on the outside, and all sound seemed to dissipate as I felt my body go numb. I could see the man from the corner of the room walk and stand over me, where I was met with a sickening grin before my eyes fell shut.

This happened multiple times. However, the man was never present for any more of those injections. After the first injection, I quickly realised that the substance was designed to suppress my thoughts and emotions, making it easier to control. At first, I tried to fight it, but with each injection, my brain's feeling of internal numbness grew greater.