WinterWitch: Control

Chapter 19

James POV

I was staring at the hole I had made in Wanda's wall, wondering how I was going to fix the mess I created when I heard the door open. I panicked for a moment until I saw her face. I didn't want someone thinking I was in here without her permission.

"Hey," she said sweetly, walking in with a small smile on her face. She didn't seem surprised to see me standing there. I smiled back quickly before returning to look at the wall again, not sure what to say. I was about to ask her whether we could sneak some supplies into the building, not wanting anyone to know what I had done, but she stopped me getting the chance to.

"So I spoke with Nat..."

My eyes immediately went back to her, making it feel like some kind of table tennis game between her eyes and the wall. The small pout she wore on her face showed that she was definitely concerned about something. I guessed that Natalia had told her about the memory already.

"Did you now?" I replied, moving to sit on her bed behind me. My mother would roll in her grave for sitting on a woman's bed without asking, but Wanda wasn't bothered by that type of thing anymore, not that we were friends now. She seemed to hate it whenever I went to ask her for permission, so I stopped asking.

"She has a memory that she wants me to find," she explained. I sighed and pulled my legs up underneath me, preparing myself.

"Does she now..." I knew we were both talking about the memory now and so did she. Her eyes were glued to the carpet floor as she stepped closer, a guilty look on her face.

"She's given me a description of what happened and some things from the memory specifically that might help me locate it, but it might take a while."

I held out my hands as if to tell her I was ready. She seemed to get the message, nodding and making her way over to me.

As she sat down on the bed, I shut my eyes, awaiting her hands to clasp in mine. However, that isn't what happened. I felt a light tap on my palm from her delicate fingertip. I opened my eyes to be greeted with a frown on her face, one that didn't quite suit her right. Wanda's frown was an expression that I didn't like to see on her.

"Just...be careful, okay? Tell me when you need to leave." I didn't question her warning, half knowing that what I was going to see was going to be difficult to view. It couldn't be worse than what I already remembered from HYDRA.

I nodded. Satisfied, she shut her eyes. I did the same.

Once again, we were standing in the living room I used to call home. Wanda was wearing the standard 1940s fashion once again. This time she was wearing a blue dress that stopped just above the knee. The sleeves were long and patterned with a series white swirls. The material covering her chest was tight and went all the way up to the beginning of her neck. It clenched in at her waist and then puffed out. I remembered some of the girls I used to dance with wearing dresses similar to it. Perhaps it was where the outfit came from, somewhere in my subconscious. I looked down - I was still in my army uniform.

I looked up at Wanda again to see she had disappeared, only to realise that she was now over by the door, holding it open and waiting for me to walk through. Quickly following after her, I stepped through the door and she followed, entering the terribly clouded mist of my mind. I turned to Wanda.

"What happens now?" I was curious as to how the search was going to happen. She gazed around at the memories.

"I will try and locate the memory by briefly tuning into each one. Nat and I figured out that you calling her Natalia must be something you picked up from your time together," she answered, sounding a little bit spiteful, Natalia's name sounding particularly forced from her mouth. I pushed back the curious frown that was threatening to form on my face.