Book 1: What We Had in the Beginning

Chapter 3: Oksana Bolishinko

I respect Yelena, don't get me wrong, but she's an idiot. I understand her need to improve but she'll end up getting seriously hurt, then she won't improve at all. I've been trying to tell her this for the past 2 hours ever since we started training. So far almost all of her injuries have gotten worse, but she still won't stop.

After our ballet practice yesterday, all of the girls were completely exhausted. Most of us were able to make it through to the end of the routine but some had to stop, and from the looks of the other officers that won't be overlooked. We were all too tired to even change out of our training clothes and we just went to sleep, until Yelena woke me up. I gave her a few exercises to do but she didn't think they were enough, eventually halfway through our training I stopped giving her orders. Now she's just doing her own thing.

"Yelena, I think that's enough. I get that you want to do better but you're going to hurt yourself." I try to call out to her while she swings another punch at the punching bag. She then suddenly stops and her shoulders go tense. Yelena turns around with a furious look on her face.

"You don't want me to be as good as you, that's it isn't it? You want to beat me, you just want me gone!" She screams and turning back around, punching the bag with twice as much force. Whatever I say she won't listen, I shake my head and turn around to go back to the basement. When I reach my bed I fall back on it, burying my face in the pillow and falling asleep.

*

I wake up to the sound of soft pounding being heard from somewhere upstairs. I sit up and look around finding all the girls still in bed, including Yelena. From what I can tell from looking out of the window,  the moon's still out, it has to be around 4 in the morning. I quietly get up from my bed and walk up the stairs that lead out of the basement. The pounding's coming from the 2nd floor, probably the training room. But who would be up at this hour training?

As I make my way up the stairs to the 2nd floor I can faintly see some light flickering from the training room. Making sure to stay in the shadows and to be very quiet, I peer into the room. What I find, or more specifically who I find, surprises me. The Soldier, practically destroying a punching bag, while sand starts to fall from it onto the floor. After a couple more hits it rips off the chains and collapses onto the floor, sand spewing everywhere. I can only really make out his bare back that's scattered with scars and the metal from his left arm that keeps glinting in the light from the oil lamps. The Soldier takes a couple steps back and runs his hands throw his wet hair, letting out a frustrated sigh. He just stands there for a couple minutes breathing heavily, then rubs his face and heads back up the stairs to his room. When I hear the sound of his room door quietly close, I finally stand up to clean up the mess he made. Walking to the supply closet that's between the training room and where we dance, I get a broom and a dust pan. I first drag the punching bag across the floor and lean it up against the wall, then I sweep up all the sand and discard it into a trash bin that's in the kitchen. Normally if a punching bag is busted we drag it down to the kitchen then they set it outside to get thrown out, so that's what I do. You can imagine how hard it is to do that without making a single sound. When I finally finish cleaning up, I realize it's around the time I would normally get up and start training. I walk back up to the training room and get out a new punching bag.

Today we're suppose to find out who's not going to train with the Winter Soldier and who is. I was so sure they were going to do it yesterday, they probably wanted us to think about it overnight. I clench my teeth and close my eyes just thinking about it, swinging at the punching bag with more force. I have to make it through today, I can't die. At least not anytime soon. I need to make it through to the end of this.

The sound of footsteps brings me out of my thoughts and makes me stop swinging. I then realize everyone is waking up and I've already been in here for an hour. As I walk into the washroom all the girls are quiet, they don't even look at each other. All you can hear is the sound of the water running and everyone brushing their teeth. Looking over at Hilma I find Enora brushing her teeth. Hilma's slumped over to the side, still looking like she's half dead. Nora's here too, she has a brace around her neck and she can barley walk properly.