Natasha Romanoff One Shots

Come Home ~ A

Words: 7.3k
Genre: Dark-ish Halloween fic
Triggers/tags: Ghost!WandaNat, dark!WandaNat, mind control, kidnapping, blood, visions, death, burns, an all round spooky fic. No smut but dark themes so proceed with caution. 

Summary: Your entire life is turned upside down when you discover a book of the supernatural, propelling you into days of horror just before Halloween. What or who is causing the curse?

My contribution to spooktober :D

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The chill of October air passed through you as you headed towards the campus library of the University that you attended. The way that the wind whipped the sides of your coat to the side, letting the awful freeze of the air wrap around your torso made you curse yourself for choosing to do a Master's degree after your Bachelor's. If you had just gotten a job like the rest of your friends had, then you would not be traipsing to the library every evening, and instead would be at home, snuggled under the comfort of many thick blankets after another day at the office.

But instead, you were wrapping your arms around yourself in a hug, angry at the universe for your broken coat zipper as the hands of mother nature kept clawing their way through your outfit, yanking your tote bag repeatedly down in the process. By the time you arrived at the library you were already frustrated with the universe, and you hadn't sat down to start your essay yet.

Sighing a large puff of air from your already agape mouth thanks to the struggle of climbing stairs, you collapsed into a rickety old chair, slumping down and staring at the wall ahead, trying to mentally prepare yourself for the late night that was to be had. Thanks to your procrastination, you were missing pumpkin carving with your roommates, an activity that you adored, making this essay your arch-nemesis.

Due to it being the Friday before Halloween, there were no fellow students also slumped in their seats, society beating them down as their burnt-out minds kept pushing on the invisible barriers that tried to stop them from working.

You were all alone.

Taking the opportunity, you unpacked all of your things and laid them out on the desk in front of you in a haphazard way, not caring about everything being neat in front of you. You were simply here to rush through your essay, put in the absolute minimum effort, and get home to the likely 'after pumpkin carving party' that would be happening. After all, C's get degrees.

Usually, you would find any books or papers in the long line of the library resources before unpacking, in case anyone ran off with your laptop or bag, not that you had anything truly of value, your laptop was ancient. It looked like a slab of concrete and felt like one at that too, your shoulder consistently being weighed down. Every day you made a mental note to use a backpack next time, and every day you ignored yourself.

But thanks to the emptiness of the place, you wanted to walk around without your laptop. You felt silly that it felt freeing to be walking around without holding anything. It felt as though you could walk on air. There was no rush to get back to your seat, especially because your mind was still procrastinating, so you decided to fully immerse yourself in the giant bank of knowledge that this building held, having never had the opportunity to do so in the past.

You marvelled at the various books that students in other degrees would most likely groan at seeing due to reading them all the time for their assignments. It's a funny thing. Most of the time you could do copious amounts of research in your own time and never get bored, digging down all the rabbit holes that you could find, but as soon as you needed to research something for a class, all interest is immediately tossed out of the window and stomped on.