A Reckless Soul | Captain America ✓

BREAKING POINT

    A scream, like none other, roared out of her. "ZACH! NOO!" Hearing her fathers low, malicious laugh tipped her to that breaking point, unleashing the monster from within but also fracturing every piece of her already wounded being. Her father deliberately released her arm by then and when he had, she crumbled to the floor. Her unstable knees first crashing into the wood before she caught her fall with her hands. 

     Shaking uncontrollably, it was as if time slowed and her mind ceased all thinking or processing. She couldn't accept what her eyes had witnessed, which continued to stare at the wooden floorboards as she heard little of the background noise. 

     Hardly did she hear Doom fending off the Avengers, or Hood helping in the flurry of activity. All she heard was the dull ache and thud of her heart slowly thumping, and her ragged breathing that came out choppy.

     Zach.

     Knife.

     Stabbed.

     Flashes of seconds ago went by in her head until the last thought sobered her to snap her head up, and search across the room for her older brother. She quickly spotted his body laying across the floor. Moving in a clumsy, hurried way, she pushed off the ground—still in a bit of shock and bewilderment, and flew as fast as she could to his aid. Yet it would seem...she had been too late.

     "Z-Zach!" she cried out, her voice cracking. She slammed to the ground roughly and rather less gracefully then her usual landings. This time falling to the ground, she frantically collected her brother in her arms. She rolled him over and gently laid his head in her lap. "Zach," she said once more, but this time in a low whisper only his ears could pick up. 

     His dying eyes bore up into hers, the brown slowly fading from his iris's. A tiny amount of blood had trickled out from one corner of his mouth. He grinned up at her, and as his lips spread to show his teeth, blood soaked through the crevices. "Hey Audie." He suddenly coughed. "Didn't see that coming." He chuckled, which had been underlined with slight panic. As if he couldn't quite believe how so swift an act of murder was now the means for his soon-to-be death.

     "Shut up, don't speak. Just hold on. Just hang in there. The Avengers will fix this." Audrey's voice dragged him out of his sluggish thoughts and to the present, although he'd do anything not to be in this existing present time.

     "Oh Audie, they can't fix this." 

     "Yes they will."

     "No. They're not God."

     That stunned her into silence, then she said angrily with bared teeth, "Where is God now." Her face softened after she took a breath. "Listen to me, you hang on, don't fade, just keep listening to my vo—"

     "Audrey, He's here. He's everywhere. He cannot be confined to a single location or building or object. He is everywhere—and everywhere available to a true worshiper. Don't be angry with Him. It's been proven." He coughed again, then after it subsided, the smile lay plastered across his face as if never interrupted by a cough. "It's been proven that ten out of ten will die. If I wouldn't have died today, I would have died some other way. If an accident didn't end my life, then old age will. Obviously old age lost in this case."

     She was shocked at herself that she even laughed. "Your youth frightens old age."

     His smile brightened as his eyelashes fluttered closed. "This face was never destined to age, it's too beautiful for wrinkles."

     "I'm so happy," she started sarcastically, "that your humor hasn't left you even in such an hour as death." They both chuckled, and for a split second Audrey thought everything would be all right, that he would hang on to his life on earth, that she would see him tomorrow.