Winter is for Lovers (Bucky Barnes X OC) [Book 1]

22. Rhumboogie

I longed for the blue-eyed boy in my dreams.

I missed the star-spangled man.

I wanted to die.

"You have to fight to secure your survival," the voice inside my head screamed at me.

My routine has changed in the last few months. Something outside of this chamber I was trapped in had changed, and it had scared the Red Skull. Whatever it was, it made him decide I was ready to begin to test out my new strength and speed.

He made me fight.

And I would survive.

I took a deep breath, listening to the shuffling sounds of the soldiers surrounding me, counting five pairs of boots. They all had weapons of various kinds, ranging from knives to rifles.

I had nothing, just one goal:

Survive.

Within moments there were three dead bodies at my feet, two with severed spinal cords, one with his knife in the center of his chest.

Too easy.

I took another deep breath, yanking the knife out of the dead body under my foot,  wiping it clean with my pant leg. 

"My name is Hazel Marie Grace," I muttered to myself as the next guard took his shot at me. "I was born in... 1920."

'You're my greatest weapon!" I heard Schmidt's voice in my head, countering my memory, replacing it with a false one.

The more I tried to remember myself and who I was, the more my head hurt and the less I could focus.

The guard aimed his rifle at my head, and I was quick to dodge as I launched the knife into his throat. He stood there, dead, dropping his weapon before collapsing onto the ground.

"Brooklyn," I shook my head. "I lived in Brooklyn, New York."

'HYDRA is your home now,' Schmidt's voice echoed in my head.

I sighed, kicking the last guard in the chest, sending him flying back and hitting the wall. The impact from my kick had broken his ribs; the contact of hitting the wall had broken his back. I picked up the rifle from one of the bodies on the floor and pulled the trigger on my last target, the bullet entering his forehead.

I threw the weapon to the ground, leaning my back against the wall next to the dead guard, sliding down to sit on the cold floor.

I kept my breath steady, breathing slowly in and out as I tried to pull more memories to the front of my brain, but I couldn't.

I could only see faces, blurred with little to no detail in them, except one.

My brown-haired boy with storms for eyes; I could see him almost perfectly. The way he would scrunch up his nose when he laughed and smiled at me, the warmth of his hands on mine when we danced...

'Hazel!' I heard a familiar, warm voice call out to me. I screamed, holding my head between my hands.

"Go again," the Red Skull's voice echoed in the chamber. I stopped to look up to see him observing me from the window above, with Doctor Zola next to him.

I complied, getting back to my feet and plucking the knife from the throat of the dead guard at my feet. The doors opened to a few more guards parading into the room, their weapons all raised at me. I twirled the knife in my hands, the movements keeping my breathing calm as the light reflected off of the blade.

I saw one of the guards start to move toward me out of the corner of my eye, three of them now circling me. One tried to swipe at me with his knife, and I quickly ducked my head down to dodge his attack. I wrapped my arm around him and flipped him over, throwing him to the ground.