Resilience | S. Rogers [3]

14 | CHANGE

July 2016
Kraków, Poland

The wind of the retreating quinjet pushed Rose against the door slightly, forcefully ushering her to turn the knob. Her hand remained on the metal for a while, deliberately taking time. She'd stared at the details of the house intently, the thatching in the roof, the bright dark wood that framed the house, contrasting with the white coloured one of the walls. The entrance stuck out, a wooden door with natural patterns blocked the inside.

The cat in her left arm must've felt her uneasiness for she started squirming in her arms. She took that as a sign to finally twist the knob. Rose heard the latch retract simultaneously, feeling the soundwaves the sound created as well as the faint creak the movement of the door caused.

She left Alpine on the floor to grab her bags and stepped inside. The feline's eagerness to move had suddenly vanished as she put out one paw tentatively forward. It seemed Rose wasn't the only one feeling doubtful about the place, not because it didn't seem safe, just because it was unknown.

She was supposed to be free, but she certainly didn't feel like it.

Sure, she was a fugitive, but that shouldn't have prevented her from walking into the house that was meant to be hers. The tights and restraints she'd put on herself made it hard to move.

After slowly moving her stuff in and closing the door, she took a step further inside the house. Rose hadn't moved from the entrance still but she could make out what looked like a living room, a cosy couch that resembled the ones she used to have in her old house in the 70s. Once she seemed to be moving without fear, albeit still tentative, Alpine deemed it safe to move as well and she went ahead into the house, she'd make herself comfortable scratching one of the carpets in the master bedroom.

Rose watched her ago, acknowledging the fact that Bucky had gone to sleep only some hours ago and she'd left Steve in that departure zone by himself. She'd left everyone. She'd left everything.

Though she couldn't say she'd done any differently if given the chance to choose again.

Her hand caressed the furniture gently, it wasn't anything too fancy. Aside from the couch and the record player, everything else seemed quite ordinary. There was a bookshelf with a few books, but it wasn't anything mind-blowingly beautiful. Notwithstanding, the simplicity of it all gave her a quiet peace of mind.

If only for a little while.

A smart TV stood out disrupting the antique aesthetic the place had going on, it had been the only surface she hadn't passed with her fingers. Everything else she had touched as if discovering something for the first time.

She'd been so transfixed with one sense that she had just recently noticed the only sounds she clearly felt were her own touches and faint footsteps as well as the faint ones from the cat.

Yet another indicator that she was far enough away from civilization.

When she passed to the main bedroom to leave her belongings in, she passed through the window and saw briefly the scenery she'd seen outside too. A nice forest. She wasn't accompanied by only pasture and a single tree, but tons of them. She was close enough that if a strong wind came, she'd be lullabied by the songs of their leaves.