THE RAVEN | avengers

[08]

ACT 1
Chapter 08
Nightmares

Raven's peace didn't last long.

As the night stretched on, the stillness of her room began to feel suffocating. She tossed and turned in the bed, trying to find some semblance of rest, but sleep eluded her. Her body ached with a restless energy, her mind churning with thoughts that didn't belong to her. Every time she closed her eyes, there were flashes — blurred images of people, places, things she didn't recognize. Faces without names. Voices without meaning. They invaded her mind, pushing aside any sense of calm she might have had.

She threw the covers off and sat up, her hands pressing into her temples as if she could force the thoughts away. But they didn't stop.

The room felt too small. The walls too close.

She stood, her bare feet hitting the cold floor as she began to pace the length of the room. Back and forth. Back and forth. The steady rhythm of her footsteps did nothing to quiet the chaos in her head. It was like her mind was fractured, torn between who she was and something... else. Something she couldn't grasp.

She stopped by the bookshelf, her fingers grazing the spines of the books. German. Russian. Latin. English. She pulled one down at random, flipping it open, her eyes scanning the pages. But the words didn't make sense. They blurred together, jumbled and meaningless. The sentences twisted and turned, warping into things that made her head hurt.

With a frustrated growl, she slammed the book shut and tossed it back onto the shelf. Her hands curled into fists at her sides as she stalked back to the bed. She sat down, her back pressed against the cold metal frame, her knees drawn up to her chest.

What is happening?

The invasive thoughts clawed at the edges of her mind, refusing to let her rest. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the fragments of voices, the flickers of faces she didn't know. But it was useless. The more she tried to push them away, the louder they became.

Pieces of a puzzle that didn't fit.

Raven pressed her palms to her head, her breath coming faster. She felt like she was drowning, trapped in her own mind, unable to escape. Whatever had been done to her — it was more than just physical. Her mind was at war with itself, caught between two realities.

The night dragged on, and Raven's restlessness only grew. She paced again, then sat, then paced, the walls of the room closing in on her more and more with every passing minute. She tried to block out the noise, to quiet the storm raging in her head, but there was no peace to be found. By the time the faint light of dawn began to creep through the cracks of the metal door, Raven felt no closer to understanding what was happening to her. All she knew was that she couldn't escape it. Not here. Not in this room. Not anywhere.

꧁ ༺ ༻ ꧂

The door to her room slid open with a metallic hiss, but Raven was already awake. She lay on her back, staring at the ceiling, her mind far from restful.

"Good morning, Raven," Viktor's voice cut through the silence, calm and composed as always.

She turned her head slightly, her eyes meeting his. A slow smile crept across her face, a hint of mischief flickering behind her dark gaze. "Viktor," she said smoothly, her voice carrying a subtle edge as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood.

As she approached him, there was something almost predatory in her movements — confident, graceful, completely at ease in her new skin.

"Dr. Reinhardt wants to see you," Viktor said, his eyes never leaving her as she closed the distance between them. "Is that okay with you?"