Winter's Veil || BUCKY X FEM!OC

*CHAPTER 5*

August 13th, 2016

BUCKY POV

I'd eventually decided on a bag of overly ripened plums after mulling over the overflowing market stall rich with colourful and exotic fruits. They were cheaper when they're older and I liked the way the soft, sugary flesh melted effortlessly on my tongue. HYDRA never let me have anything so soft. I'd also read in a discarded newspaper that they were good for your memory, and my head still didn't feel like my own after 4 years of freedom.

It didn't feel like freedom, but it was better than what waited beyond these walls if I let my guard down.

The local market somehow relaxed me, normally I hated crowds because it meant assessing every person in the area to deem them enough of a threat to worry about or easy enough to kill. But the market was filled with people hurrying past you, not paying attention to the crowd, always too focussed on analysing the best fruits to buy than whether or not you're an international criminal. Plus the security tech they have here is minimal and extremely outdated, so it's easy to slip in and out unnoticed. Watching all the children run around the market caught up in complicated games they fabricated, helped me remember myself as just a kid from Brooklyn, my bright eyes alive with mirth as I gazed at a scrawny blonde kid.

More often than not, there would be glimmers of those bright blue eyes smiling up at me without a hint of malice. I think I knew him as Steve, but it was marred by the scars of the electric shocks burned into my brain that screamed at me he was an enemy. Even though battles waged inside my head, I could tell that my memory was improving each day. During the first few weeks, my brain was so muddled from all of the conflicting memories resurfacing at once, I had to get a little booklet to write down each memory carefully, reliving it in those moments.

I began the tumultuous climb up the condemned building which I stayed near the top of. It was usually quiet, apart from the wind swaying the structure and creaking the frail railing, but it gave me safety. The stairs were made from cracked cement, large chunks chipped off with each step if you didn't know where to place your feet. I scaled the levels silently, making note of the subtle footsteps that had been trailing me since the market.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose as my senses heightened, my body jittery with adrenaline at the promise of a fight. It had been so long that part of me was desperate to face them now, but I knew it was protocol to let them come to you, then you could fight them on your own turf.

An icy shiver ran down my back as I recalled where I had learned that from. Dread weighed down my broken heart when a small voice in the back of my head reminded me that all of HYDRA's programming was still just beneath the surface.

I took a deep breath, hoping to calm the rolling waves of anxiety threatening to destroy the loose control I had on my body.

I carried on until I made it to my door, pausing just outside to do a quick once over of my surroundings, they were keeping their distance for now. I clenched my jaw and twisted the rusting doorknob, hearing the echoing click as the whining door shuddered open.

Closing the door swiftly behind me, I strolled over to the lonely wooden table in my confined room, setting down the bag of plums. I calmly dug my small packed bag out from underneath the rotting floorboards, retrieving my notebook and a few snacks and stuffing those in as well. I took in a shaky breath before settling in the lone, spindly chair by the uneven table. My back was rigid and dug uncomfortably into the frame as I slid a gun out from my back pocket pointing it with expert precision to the door.

I waited silently for the victim to show themself, my breathing reduced to inaudible inhales and exhales, despite my heart thumping relentlessly in my ears as anticipation set in my bones.