All in a Blur: Special Edition

The Dark Room

"My name is Tony Stark."

He says that and I start to remember things from my life before. Tony Stark means something to me. 

"When you were young, your parents died and left you and your brother with me." He says, starting to fidget with his nails. He picks a part of his nail off and finishes his thought, "When you were nine, you were abducted. I come to find out, you were taken by Hydra, A secret Nazi organization from World War II."

He takes a deep breath and I notice tears in his eyes. It's almost impossible to see though because he is very successfully avoiding eye contact with me. I'm more focused on him and how he's dealing with this than I am on what he's saying to me. 

"Soon after that, your brother got sick. Now, I'm not proud of this but I left him. I dropped him off at your Aunt May's and I left. 

"My brother, is he okay?" I say, cutting him off from his next thought. 

"Yes, and that's a bit of a long story. A few months ago, I got word you were still alive," He continues, "I put together a team of some of the best heroes, to help rescue you. I had no idea what they'd done to you." He says, gesturing to my arm.

I looked down at my left wrist, sitting in my lap and I saw my reflection staring back. I started to remember. I was in a training fight, testing out one of their new serums and my opponent broke my arm. They didn't have time to wait for it to heal so they just replaced it, up to my shoulder with one made from metal. 

"Tony, this isn't even the worst."

"So, you remember?"

"I'm remembering." I start to get overwhelmed by all of the memories flooding back but the fog is clearing up. I was a test subject. A lab rat.

"They used me for experiments. They trained me and I fought. They stabbed me with needles, they tortured me." Saying this, I can feel tears coating my eyes and I listen as my voice gets louder.

"Calm down, kid. It's okay now. We've got you."

"That's right. 'the team' Who are you talking about? Who would want to save me? Who would want to save this me?"

"Anna, I-"

"Anna," I repeat quietly, cutting him off. "Anna," I say again, just listening to the way it sounds. "I haven't heard that name in so long." When I say that, I start to feel a wave of exhaustion fall over me. I hear that same mumbling voice from before but this time it's more obvious. It isn't someone speaking, I can hear Tony's thoughts. I can feel Tony's emotions. I get overwhelmed by my own thoughts and the new ones welcoming themselves into my brain

I hear him sigh and watch as he leans back further into his chair.

"I feel you."

"What do you mean, you feel me?"

"I just-" I stumble over my words trying to explain it to him. "I just feel you. You're blaming yourself for what happened to me. I can feel your remorse as if it's my own."

"Oh my-"