Happily Ever After
Once upon a time there lived a lonely monster who locked himself up in his mansion, afraid to hurt anyone or scare them. The town went by his mansion without even looking up at the open window in which he observed them from. They wouldn’t greet him or even wave hello or smile at him. Everyone knew the man that lived in this mansion was Erik Lehnsherr. Rumors were that this man possessed some sort of power that allowed him to manipulate metal and he would often use this power to kill anyone who would dare step into his property. Erik didn't stand up against these rumors, they weren’t entirely untrue. He did have control over metal which would explain why his entire mansion was made out of metal, the iron mansion is what they called it, and Erik had killed a few people before, slaughtered them in cold blood. Everyone was told to stay away from the Iron mansion and people did. But with time the beast grew lonely and his loneliness led him to observe people in hope that one day someone might look back at him and at least offer him a friendly smile.
The days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and months into years, and the lonely monster was losing hope, his misery turned into anger and loathing. People began to disappear; many suspected that it was the monster's doing but everyone was too scared to speak up, afraid that if they say something that the beast would get them next.
One day a man passed by the Iron mansion, a bald man on a wheelchair and for the first time in many years someone had looked up at the open window, someone saw the monster standing there and observing the people, someone had smiled at him before being wheeled away by whoever was pushing the wheelchair.
Erik was surprised, he had never seen this man pass by before, and the man smiled at him, smiled like he wasn’t scared, it was genuine, it was something the beast craved to see again after so many years f nothing but darkness and hatred. But he didn’t want to get his hopes up. Maybe he wouldn’t see the man again.
He looked through the crowd of people walking by everyday but the man on the wheelchair was not among them, not for a few days at least. 5 Days later Erik saw the man again and waited to see if he would lift his head and look at Erik, and he did. This time the man smiled and waved hello but Erik, too surprised, didn’t know how to react so he just hid in the shadows of his room and closed the window.
Every now and then the strange bald man would pass by the Iron mansion, look up at the window, smile and wave at Erik Sometimes he would be surrounded by people and sometimes he would be alone. At first Erik only smiled back, then he began to wave hello at the man and that was the only communication between them for a few months. Erik found himself looking forward to the days when the strange man in the wheelchair would pass by. He told himself that he would finally speak today, ask the man for his name, or at least say hello instead of just waving but every time Erik found himself cowering and his words were stuck in his throat.
Then one day the man looked back at the woman pushing his wheelchair, said something to her and she nodded but her face had concern written all over it. She let go of the handles of the wheelchair and the man wheeled himself to the giant steel gate of the Iron mansion, he looked at Erik then pointed at the gate. Erik hesitated but ran to open the door anyway then the gate and watched as the man pushed himself inside the mansion, the gates closing behind him.
They met by the stairs in front of the door and the first thing the bald man did was offer Erik his hand, Erik looked at the man's hand then at him before finally accepting to shake his hand. "My name is Charles Xavier," He said. "I thought I should come and introduce myself."
"Charles…"
Charles nodded and smiled. "Yes, what's your name?"
Erik thought that Charles already knew. Everyone in this town knew who he was but still he asked and so Erik answered. "Erik Lehnsherr."
