Lovers in Arms | Bucky Barnes

Part 28

"Whe...where am I?" Karol mutters to herself. She tries to remember what happened but it's all a big blur. And it not really helpful that she is surrounded by darkness. It disorients her.

Her head is throbbing and she feels a sharp pain above her eye. When she brings her fingers to her forehead she feels something warm and sticky. Not being able to identify the substance, she guesses it's blood and her head is bleeding. She must have hit her head. The back of her neck feels bruised. She remembers the neck trap. That's right, the neck trap.

Trying to move she feels a sharp pain in her shoulder and tingling sensation running up to her neck. Fuck! She brings her hand to her shoulder and feels that it's dislocated. She sighs and tries to lift her arm, but it's really painful. She grabs her wrist and raises her arm forward and straight in front of her. She carefully pulls her wrist. Seconds later she hears a loud pop. "Goddammit! Motherfucker that hurt." She scolds to herself.

And why is it so dark in here? She tries to feel where she is by touch and finds a wall. It feels clammy and damp, like there's plants or moss growing on it. Now that she has recovered somewhat and is more alert, she suddenly notices the sound of water falling and that she's standing in water that reaches up to her hips.

"No no no. No!" She feels panic rising from deep in her core, creeping up her spine, her neck and right into the back of her head, consuming her mind. She looks up and sees way up high in the distance a round hole. "A fucking well?!" The moon appears from behind a cloud and shines it light inside through the small hole. The moonlight barely reaches Karol, but enough to see where she is. It's a well alright.

Desperately, she tries to climb up the wall from the side. But she soon realizes she is shackled to the bottom. "Fuck!" She hits the water angrily.

She feels in her jacket to see if she has anything on her that can help her. She finds her phone in her inside pocket. "Yes!!" The screen is cracked and the battery symbol is red and blinking, but she has some range. She quickly searches for Bucky between her contacts and hits the green button. It only took a few seconds, but it felt like ages before he picked up.

"Karol? Where are you?!"

Bucky picked up, she can hear Steve and Natasha in the background, and lot of other people buzz in the background.

"Bucky! I... I don't know... I'm in some kind of well!" She shouts through the phone with a shaky voice. She notices just now that the water is slowly rising. "It's so cold and it's so deep, I can't climb out! The water... the water is rising!"

"We'll find you! What happened?"

Karol tries to remember but she can't. But she doesn't care at the moment, she only wants to be found. Memories of the car accident come flooding back. How she was stuck, how the water rose until she couldn't breathe anymore. The cold, freezing water.

"I'm not sure. I got knocked out cold and dumped here." Her body starts to tremble and breathing becomes hard. "I'm stuck." She sobs softly. "You need to get me out of here Bucky. The water is so cold."

"Don't hang up. We're trying to locate you!"

She hears him barking orders to someone. "My battery is low. I don't know how long it will last." Karol puts the phone down in a small nook in the moss covered wall. She reaches her hand down into the water, trying to keep her head above it, and tries to crush the shackles on her ankle but she can't. Then she tries diving into the cold water and try to pull the chain from the bottom. With both hands she holds on tight and uses her feet on the ground to pull on it as hard as she can.