Accidental Avenger

Chapter 5

The room Natasha found for me looked similar to the kitchen. Stainless steel desk and bed frame. Grey sheets, carpet, and wallpaper. It didn't look like a place where people were meant to live.

"I know it's not... homey, but it'll do for now," Natasha said. "You'll be home sooner rather than later and then it won't matter."

I could only nod.

"Are you doing alright?" Natasha asked, crossing her arms. "I know this is probably a lot for you."

"You have no idea," I said.

Natasha smiled. "It's going to be okay, but I would suggest you steer clear of the communal areas, at least for the night. There's a TV in here and you can watch anything you want, just remember, Tony's going to be able to see if you buy a movie you're not supposed to watch." She narrowed her eyes at me threateningly.

I nodded.

"I'll come and check on you in a little bit," Natasha said as she made her way to the door. "And I'll get you extra clothes and some pajamas for the night. Did you take a shower earlier?"

"No," I said.

"I'll get you some shampoo and soap so if you want to wash up," Natasha said. "And the kitchen is free to use, just don't eat anything that has someone's name on it."

Natasha closed the door behind her as she left.

I stood for a while and looked around the room. It was bigger than my room at home, but it felt emptier. No posters of my favorite bands or pictures of my friends and family. No faded marks on the walls from that time I decided I wanted to draw cool designs and never followed through with it.

The TV was mounted on the wall across the bed. I grabbed the remote and turned it on. Clicking through the channels made me feel... weird. The shows were very similar to shows from back home, but there was always something just a little bit wrong with each of them. The actors were never quite the same or the premise was a little wonky. Maybe that should have freaked me out, but it didn't. I was done with being freaked out, now I needed to find a way to get home.

Rummaging around the room, I found a pen and a pad of paper and started writing. I wrote about how I was feeling before I saw the blue light, how I felt when I first saw it, and what I felt immediately after. My skin ached as I remembered the pain. I tried to hold onto that feeling, but it dissipated as soon as I tried to focus on it.

Maybe the solution wasn't in the pain, but in something else. The problem was I couldn't remember anything else. As I sat at the desk and tried to force myself to keep working this out, I felt my brain start to give up on me. My thoughts became balloons I struggled to keep a hold of, and sometimes new balloons appeared out of nowhere. My leg wouldn't stop bouncing and I couldn't stop clicking the pen.

I was getting restless. I wasn't very good at forcing myself to do things, especially when those things were boring. That didn't mean I thought finding my way home was boring, but the way I was going about it was.

Spinning in my chair, I caught glimpse of the alarm clock on the bedside table. It said that it had only been about twenty minutes since Natasha left me alone. Only twenty minutes I'd been alone and I was ready to rip my skin off.

A knock on the door gave me the relief I needed. Something to do.

I opened it to find Natasha holding a couple plastic Walmart bags.

"These are for you," She said. "Seems like Tony had Jarvis order you some stuff so I just had to pick it up."

"Thanks," I said, taking the bags.