The lost Widow - Natasha Romanoff x Female

Chapter VI

Warning: stabbing

-----

Nina started running.

She should have realised beforehand that it was too quiet. Nevertheless, she had gone into the base, where nobody was coming towards her. Recklessly, she had headed straight for the control room.

Nina turned a corner, which she saw mainly on the map in her head in the darkness. One could just barely make out the hand in front of one's eyes, every few doors - which lined the walls and led to rooms crammed with torture paraphernalia - a twinkling tube light flickered. The soles of her black boots scraped across the rough floor.
  Geradeaus. Links, rechts, geradeaus, du bist im Labyrinth.
Then came the stairs, she knew that. Then, after the stairs, it went-
  "Stop right there!"
A loud voice behind her jolted her out of her plans for a moment. Right. Her right fingers gripped the corner of the wall, pulling her tighter round the bend. Straight ahead.
  "Clint!"
A name was shouted behind her. Seconds later - Nina already had the stairs in front of her - and the arrow whirred past her shoulder. Its silver tip sparkled in the light of the naked lamp above her head. It pierced the fourth step. With a great leap, she utilised the momentum she had gained and jumped up the first five steps. With great effort and thanks to the adrenaline pumping through her veins, she managed not to lose her balance. The thought of turning around, drawing her bow and shooting at the pursuers briefly crossed her mind.
  Attack is the best defence.
Nina heard voices and quietly counted the footsteps. There were four of them, close on her heels. If she turned around now, she would have no chance. So she kept going. Left once more, then immediately right again and right once more. She was able to pick up speed again on the slightly longer corridor. If she had been a car, several heads would have turned around to see who was making such a racket. Obviously, her small stature gave her a clear advantage in the sharp bends. But here, on the straight, the others could also speed up.

Something else was bothering her. Nina had no idea who was after her and presumably her life. Her thoughts were racing, as were her legs, driven by sheer panic.
  A red ball hit the wall about 5 metres in front of her. No, it wasn't a ball, not a normal one. It was compressed energy; magic.
 What the hell?
She didn't dare look back, but she thought she could already feel the next ball of energy at her back. She turned the corner at the end of the corridor with a flourish and her shoulder smacked against the wall, just like the magic ball, leaving a crack in the wall just behind her. Ouch. Another bend to the right followed, a longer corridor and then the same again to the left. That was the break in her neck. Here she was more or less left to the mercy of fate. Her back lay defenceless, a target for her pursuers.
  Something hit her right shoulder blade. The energy ball must have been intercepted by her quiver. A feeling similar to being hit by a tennis ball spread through her shoulder.
The second blast of magic was stronger and hit the centre of her back from behind. Nina staggered. Only at the last second did she manage to pull her right leg under her body and prevent herself from kissing the ground.

Nina felt like a mouse. Chased by the house cat, day in, day out. She didn't know how long it was; not long. But her lungs were burning.
The witch had managed to hit her several times with her magic. But thanks to the adrenaline and the fact that she had much more urgent problems at the moment, she barely felt the pain. She could run snaking lines, zigzagging, but that would slow her down. Her rescue was perhaps imminent. There were four bends ahead, none of them longer than three metres. Once to the right, twice to the left and once more to the right. Then she was in the corridor leading away from the great hall, just a stone's throw from the exit. She just had to make it down the stairs quickly. That might work.

  The first bend, to the right. The skin of her fingertips cracked as she held onto the corner.
  Links, rechts, geradeaus, du kommst hier nicht mehr raus.
Left, left again. Behind her, someone hit the wall. Right and there she was. In the dim light that prevailed throughout the building, she could just about make out the tiny slit of light coming in from outside. Nina gathered the last of her strength, the continuous sprint had taken its toll on her. She ran faster, it could only be a few more steps to the stairs, but it was dark, she needed to get closer to see.

Like a brick, the blow hit her in the back. This time the magic was stronger and she didn't manage to catch herself. Like a car chased over a cliff, Nina sailed through the air. The stairs were much longer than expected. The air was squeezed out of her lungs as she hit the centre of the steps. Nina tried to ignore the cracking sound of her ribs. Unchecked, she continued her fall, somersaulted and landed with a thud at the bottom. She was lying on her back like a bug, looking up the stairs. Everything hurt, even now. And, once her pulse returned to a normal rate, it would get worse. Something dug into her hip bone from below, something on her belt.
  The smoke bomb.
She had packed it in the morning, although she wasn't sure why. Usually she used her special arrows to cause confusion. But now, from the ground, her bow did her no good, except for a long bruise on her back later.

Quickly she snatched the tiny bomb from her belt, just as she raised her arm to throw it, her pursuers appeared at the head of the stairs.
It was as if a bag of flour had blown up, only in dark grey.
  "I can't see anything!"
  "Someone fucking do something!"
  "There's stairs, right? Should we toss Tony down them?"
Nina heard coughing, then someone stumbled. The falling person narrowly missed her head. She had to hurry. To the exit? That wouldn't work, they would look for her first. She had to hide somewhere. The stairs down were the closest, she had to drag herself down somehow and hide there. Nina propped her up on her arms and dragged her tormented body onwards. The smoke she inhaled with each heavy breath scratched her throat and tickled her nose. But a cough or sneeze could instantly ruin her cover. So she struggled on. Now it really was almost impossible to see anything. That was also the reason why she put her hand in the void and tipped forwards; she had reached the stairs.
  Nina used the stairs and the rough wall next to them to at least get herself into a sitting position. Now to get down somehow.

She had made it, she didn't even know how, but she was at the bottom. Metre by metre, she felt her way along the rough wall, supporting herself. Behind her, she heard the gate open. Very good, they surmised that she had escaped outside.
  "Hey, they're not out!"
  Shit. Up ahead was the control room. Opposite, the door was ajar. An idea flashed in her mind, this might actually work. Nina dragged herself over, then pulled open the metal door so that it blocked half the corridor. Nina peered into the dim room, the light from the lamp above her casting her figure as a distorted shadow. Something was seeping across the floor, the liquid coming from an overturned cardboard box at the end of the room. She didn't have time to worry about it. If she hurried, she might even be able to copy the data onto her stick.

Nina was back in the control room, less than five minutes had passed since she had walked past him on her first lap. In no time she had transferred everything to her stick.
  "Downstairs!"
They knew she had run downstairs.
 Nina ran to the door, thick, shiny metal. She had only left the door ajar when she entered, so she could clearly hear the footsteps coming towards her from the stairs.

She should have run away, maybe she would have managed to escape. Back then, in the little hut, that had perhaps been her most peaceful time. She had had to fight for her survival, that had been no different, but it had been a completely different fight. No one had been after her, only nature had put her to the test. She would rather freeze to death, somewhere where no one would find her body, than for anyone to ever get their hands on her again.
  Nina had never led a good life, not as a small child, not as a teenager and not even when she had reached the age of 18. Never. How nice it would have been if she had simply had a normal life, if she had never got caught up in this madness; into the noose that was tightening around her throat the more she squirmed and struggled.

Nina pushed the door open. A thud. A soft cry of pain. She had slammed the door in someone's face. But there was no time to triumph, because the person was not alone.
  "Nat, are you okay?" A rushed male voice asked. So she had opened the door into the face of a woman.
A shadow loomed in the doorway. "Dead end."

Nina's heart skipped a beat. She was trapped, no doubt about it.

------------

Chapter 6, 1.650 words

 merry christmas to everyone celebrating :)
have a great and hopefully calm day

Nyx