"Wanda, what does that mean? What's going on?"
"Did the woman give you a name?" She asked back, ignoring your questions, and now keeping her eyes on you, "The man? Would you recognize either of them? Where was this bus stop? What time exactly did the woman get shot?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow your roll!" You pleaded and she nodded, taking a deep breath to slow herself down, "Her name was...something with a B? Maybe? I'm not sure, it was forever ago," You told her honestly, trying to rack your brain for the details, "Um, but yeah, the man, he had...wait."
You looked at her with wide, fearful eyes and she raised her eyebrows, knowing you just remembered something that was crucially important, but then she saw you mentally trying to bury it.
"I don't want to dig into your mind, but if you leave me no choice, I'll do it." She threatened loosely and you scoffed.
"You can be a real tool sometimes," You shot back, and she shrugged, unaffected by the insult, "But he uh, I think he had...blue eyes...kind of like mine are now."
"How do you know?" She pried, trying to get you to finish the story, "What happened after you ran over to the woman?"
"Wanda," You looked over at her, your voice low, and you were silently begging her not to make you finish, your heartbeat speeding up with the memory crawling back into the front of your mind, "...What does it say on the wall?"
"You've dealt with a lot," Her voice was soothing, but it didn't stop you from shaking some where you sat, "Not many people would be strong enough to handle everything you have, but I think you can do just a little bit more."
You opened your mouth to respond, but there was a loud thud upstairs that cut you off, your wide eyes going to hers from where they had been on the ceiling where the source of the noise came from.
She barely glanced in your direction before she headed up the steps, her hands already glowing red as she ascended them. You followed her hesitantly and she pointed to the door when the two of you got to the top.
"Bathroom, right?" She confirmed when you nodded in response and she approached the door cautiously, pushing on it slowly since it was already cracked open.
The whole room was cased in a dark red lighting, but it was empty. Just your typical bathroom, shower curtain half closed, large sink, toilet, a stool under the sink's vanity, and-
"Holy shit." You muttered under your breath as a long fingered, almost alien-like black hand reached from behind the curtain and went to pull it open excruciatingly slow.
"Hello." The voice was slippery and deep, but it was enough to send a chill down your spine as the word echoed off the walls.
When you exhaled, it came out a puff of air and you realized the room had dropped over thirty degrees since the two of you had stepped inside.
"Timeless," You spoke out as Wanda readied her power, but the thing just shook like it was struggling to stay awake in a world you stood still, so you shouted, growing scared and angry, "Timeless!" Again, putting all you had into stopping it cold, and it worked, but then, "Wanda, what're you doing?"
You turned towards the witch, but she wasn't blinking, completely frozen where she stood, and you knew something had broken in that moment.
Your first instinct was to unfreeze everything, grab Wanda, and get the hell out of dodge, but what stopped you was the hand you recognized behind that curtain.
So, you did the bravest thing you've probably ever done in your life.
You approached the shower and ripped the curtain back in one swift motion, revealing the hand's owner to be the woman who was shot outside that bus stop. Your breath caught in your throat and when you opened the curtain, it pushed her back, so now she was laying in the tub.
You were panicking, your breathing erratic, and your mind swimming with what you just saw.
But everything was frozen, and you knew if you could figure out a way to stop the bleeding, dig the bullet out, you could save this woman's life. But you were just a kid, you weren't equipped for this type of thing, so your next thought was to get the face of the man who did this so that you could help the police catch him after you somehow unfroze everything.
You slowly walked around the man who still held the gun at his side, and glanced up to get a good look at his face, but what you saw would give you nightmares for the rest of your life.
"Dad?" You whispered, recognizing the face, but his eyes were different, and it had you backing away until you tripped off the curb into the road.
Right before your ass could hit the hard ground, a long fingered black hand reached out and caught you. You peered up at the stranger, but they had no face, making you panic and run away. You ran as fast as you could until you were out of breath and couldn't go any further, so you banged on the first door you saw.
Thankfully, everything had somehow unfroze on your way there.
An older couple lived on the other side of the door and they let you in, calling your parents to come pick you up.
Your mom didn't come until the next morning, caught up at work, and she couldn't find your dad, which gave you both panic and relief to know he wasn't coming, so the older couple, who had been celebrating becoming great grandparents, let you stay the night.
Looking back, you found it strange and unsafe for your parents to let you stay the night as a kid with people they didn't know, but you weren't uneasy about it then. They were warm and sweet, making you feel at home while you slept in their guest room and it was the first night where you actually felt completely safe and protected from the outside world. Like there was some invisible shield around that townhouse that nothing evil could penetrate.
Until now, anyway.
You were so sick and tired of this place not feeling like your home lately. So done with how you feared your townhouse, the one you bought after the couple retired to Florida, first renting it out to you and then after they passed away, you bought it from their kids, and you wanted – no, you needed this to end here and now.
You don't know what came over you, but you bent down and, thanks to your training with the avengers, only struggled some to lift the woman from the tub, laying her on the floor before you looked to Wanda.
You gently pushed the witch away so that the orb she created with her powers stayed midair, but she was back by the door now, at a safe distance. Then you pulled the woman up by her neck and middle, only pausing for a second before you shoved her face into the orb Wanda had created.
It made a loud noise, almost like a deafening scream was being muffled, and you squeezed your eyes shut as the light became too much.
Instead of falling to the floor when you dropped her, she vanished into a puff of blue smoke and you were the one to collapse on the floor just as the world started spinning again.
"Sometimes superheroes can turn bad, sweetie," Your mom told you the night you came home after staying with the elderly couple, clutching you to her middle protectively as the two of you sat on the couch in the dark apartment, "And sometimes it's not their fault."
You peered up at her with doe eyes, having just told her that you thought you saw your dad shoot a woman, and she had wet ones looking back at you.
"Will he hurt us?" You whispered, fearing lacing your shaky voice, and she shook her head with a tight frown.
"No, he would never hurt you."
