Piece By Piece

Part 21

When I opened my eyes I was at a supper table with my family as our dinner was interrupted by a wailing siren screaming through the streets of our town. My mother's face paled and tears welled in her eyes as my father yelled for us to get up and to the cellar as quick as we could. Pietro put his arms around me and my sister's shoulders and pressed us forward. My mother ran in front of us to open the door and my father came behind us, yelling to hurry.

Wanda went down the stairs first, stumbling and screaming in fear, and I followed, silently praying that we would be okay. We knew what this siren meant, the whole town knew. It meant bombs were going to obliterate our small community, and anyone without the brains to get shelter would be blown to smithereens in seconds. Pietro followed after me, with his heavier body making louder thumps as he raced down the cement stairs. The three of us looked up at our mother as she began to descend, but the second her foot hit the first stair, a flash of white came from through the windows, and a catastrophic wave of heat and pressure went off, creating a deadly explosion.

My siblings and I screamed as our home above us, along with our parents were blown out of existence. Turned to dust. Dust and ash. Wanda fell to her knees and I held my hands over my mouth. A chill went down my spine and I felt my legs go numb. I felt Pietro's large body crash into me, pulling me to the ground next to Wanda as he covered out bodies with his own, protecting us from the falling rubble of where we lived. I felt like I was dying. Wanda wouldn't stop screaming, and I couldn't breathe. Pietro's shaky breaths were loud in my ear, as loud as Wanda's screams. I couldn't breathe as the walls caved in around us, or as the sounds of more bombs going off filled the air.

Ringing in my ears.

My heart beat rattling against the thin bones in my chest.

I can't feel my legs.

Ringing in my ears.

More ringing.

This was the night my parents died. My parents were dead.

This was the night that my life fell apart.

-Back to reality-

I sat up so fast that the wounds on my back pulled, sending a sting through my body, but I didn't care about the physical pain I was feeling. All hope that I had a family shattered. My parents were dead, and they didn't even have bodies anymore. They simply no longer existed. The ringing in my ears continued as I tried to catch my breathe and take in my surroundings. The girl in my memory, Wanda, my sister wasn't here with me. Neither was my brother. Surely if their sister being brainwashed my tortured wasn't worth being there to support, it meant they were dead as well. I had no one. No sister, no brother, no parents and no home. I didn't know what happened after the explosion, but I knew my life was changed.

Suddenly the air got incredibly thin and my vision began to fade around the edges. My legs went numb and the heart monitor began to speed up in pace. Shuri rushed forward with and oxygen mask and held it to my mouth and nose. She rubbed slow circles on my back, which was so soothing I almost cried. I gasped repeatedly and my eyes flew frantically around the room.

"Y/n, listen to me, we can stop. We don't need to do anymo-"

"No, no I want more. I need to know more," I gasped. I had already gone through these events, I just didn't remember them. I could push through. Shuri looked at me with what I thought was pity and went back to the computer. I laid back down and closed my eyes as she ran the technology again.

This time a few small memories flew through my mind. Flashes of a destroyed street, a pile of bricks that used to be my home. I brothers shoulder that I cried into. My sisters hands I held as we prayed for our parents. The smell of stew that the town provided for us. The images stopped at me and my siblings standing in a run-down kitchen. I sat in a wooden chair as my siblings argued with each other. Their words were fuzzy, but the sounds coming from Pietro's mouth sounded like 'no'. The images flashed by again. Our first birthday without our parents. There was a lot of crying. Pietro taking Wanda and i to a small cinema to cheer us up.

The images stopped again in the same kitchen. I felt hands on my body a hand with something awful-smelling drenching it being held over my mouth and nostrils. Wanda's big brown eyes staring me down as my knees collapsed beneath me. Pietro shouting something, and then multiple male voices shouting in Russian and German.

The images continued once again. I saw concrete floors, felt waves of pain on my back, heard screaming, felt my throat cry for water, saw multiple medical bags of different coloured serums. I felt the pinch of a needle repeatedly in the same spot on my neck. The smell of burning flesh. The memories stopped once again, this time in a high end office of a government official. My first kill. I remember the feeling of desperation I felt. If I didn't do this I would die.

I stood hidden by the heavy floor-length velvet curtains. As the man with the white hair came into the room, he sighed as he sat in his big chair. I raised my hand, lifting him off his chair, and floating him to the door to the balcony. It was a pretty view, which wasn't surprising considering we were 20 stories up. He was so shocked at what was a happening to him that he was speechless, which was convenient for me. I raised another palm and pushed a light force to the doors, opening in to the balcony. I floated him over the edge, and without letting myself reconsider, dropped him. He screamed at he fell through the air, as gravity did my job, and I felt my heart shatter. I just killed someone. I was a murderer.

I had become a monster.

The images flashed again, featuring new people. Steve Rogers, Natasha, Tony Stark, and the rest of the avengers names suddenly registered in my brain. I fought with them against robots in Sokovia, except the city was floating. I looked up to see me brother watching as a weaponized jet headed for us. He looked over to Clint, who ran with a small child. I watched the wheels turn in my brothers mind as he settled on the hero play.

I began to step forward in attempt to block him from the spray of bullets that was less than a second away, but I was too late. A scream ripped from my throat as my big brother was filled with lead. My brother. The stinging in my side was numbed by the agony that blossomed in my chest. I fell to me knees but refused to stay where I was. I crawled on my knees to him. To his body.

My brother was dead. I cried over his body for what felt like hours. I threw my arms around his stiff and cold neck, hugging his body. I hoped he felt it. The last thing I saw before returning to reality was Wandas brown eyes staring at me, with tears if hatred brewing in the chocolate pools.