There was a time when my legal name was Nicolle Darling and I was nothing like I am today.
Those were the days of grief... my brother Adam had died and I endured our
hateful parents all by myself. Those were the days of loneliness, when I suffered
through my awkward phases of high school, before I knew anything about the
others. Those were the days of weakness as well, before I became, most probably, the
deadliest woman on the planet.
Perhaps the most succinct way to
describe things back then: it was before the Chess Club.
Because after that, in all the years
that followed, and after all the things I witnessed and did, life was something
different entirely.