Chapter Four:
Impossible Monsters
SPRING 1999
It was a cold night, the walls of the academy creaked as the breeze of Russian spring washed through the old building. Sophia was sleeping on a cot that was too small for her, the thin scratchy sheets wrapped around her slender body tightly. She couldn't sleep. She had been counting seconds, watching as the moon slowly travelled through the sky. The other girls were asleep, lying in their thin, uncomfortable beds shivering and sniffing.
Sophia watched the blue light spill in from the only window in the room. A small ribbon of moonlight covered her as she watched, trying to work out how long she had left. When she reached 170 she heard the bell of the clocktower ring out around them. The chimes pounding through the room twelve times. She closed her eyes and took a sharp breath in, thinking back to her child self. The small, infected, frightened child which the Red Room had swept off the street. It had been eight years since she had joined the academy and today was her last. Her eyes snapped open when she felt someone crawl into her bed.
"Happy birthday, Sophia!" Natasha whispered as she snaked her pale arm around Sophia's tummy hugging her.
Sophia gave her friend a weak smile. Natasha lay on the brunette for a moment, the two girls simply soaking in probably one of the last moments they had together.
"Are you nervous?" Natasha spoke, breaking the peace, looking up at her friend with wide eyes. Sophia let out a chuckle and put her hand on Natasha's back.
"Not really. Are you?" she responded. She knew this was a lie. Natasha glanced away thinking for a moment.
"Yes." It was a blunt reply, the redhead pursed her lips after she spoke.
Sophia hummed in approval, she would never admit it to Natasha but there was a small pit of dread clawing its way through her abdomen. She knew there was no shame in being scared. She would be facing death today. It seemed almost poetic to her, even though she was terrified, to die on the day she was born. It seemed symmetrical.
"It'll be fine," Sophia whispered to herself, noting Natasha's obvious uncomfortableness.
"You'll be fine, I mean," she corrected herself, as she looked back to the window.
"You still have another couple of months before your graduation."
"I'm not nervous for myself, Sophia. I don't want to lose you." Natasha snapped as if Sophia had insulted her by reminding her of the remaining time she had left with the Red Room. It caught the brunette by surprise.
"Either way today, I will have to say goodbye to you, I don't think... I don't know how-" she cut herself off as she collected her thoughts.
Sophia's chest ached as she watched her friend wrestle with the possibilities that were facing the girls. She knew that she too wouldn't be able to handle saying goodbye to Natasha, but unlike her red-headed counterpart, she hadn't faced those thoughts yet. Whenever the feeling of guilt or sadness started to expand Sophia had always suppressed it, postponed the feeling for another day. She could tell that Natasha was about to cry.
"Don't, Romanov, we can't dwell on it, at the moment we are both here, together," Sophia said, sitting up and clasping Natasha's shoulders.
"No matter what happens today, you will never leave me, even if the distance of death separates us, you will always be with me. So we aren't going to have to say goodbye, because no matter what happens, we will be together," Sophia gently clasped Natasha's hand and placed it on her chest. The brunette's throat had tightened as she spoke and her eyes had started to prick with tears.
YOU ARE READING
The Red Soldier | Bucky Barnes
Adventure"Don't look at me like that, he would have done the same to me if he had the chance, I could see it in his eyes," Sophia explained, looking down at her redheaded friend. Natasha shook her head and seemed to hold her self back from saying something t...
