MANIPULATING THE MANIPULATOR

CHAPTER FIVE

"And they'll kill you too."
Kill you
Kill me
Kill
Me
I know he didn't mean physically, but it's not like that made it any better. Being her, being in this wretched place, wasn't making it any better. The tests, the experiments, The Chair, The Winter Soldier, Zola, Alexander. It was all a heavy rush inducing my head with fuzzy like sensations and it got hard to focus as those thoughts proceeded to work their way more and more into my main focus point.
My heart was starting to feel like it was trying to ricochet out of my chest, as if it had quit beating because it was so tired of going so fast. I was beyond surprised. I haven't snapped yet, hadn't lost it into the endless weaves of insanity, haven't lost it to the feeling of pain.
I was somewhat filled with a sense of pride, knowing I was still okay, still standing, still alive. At the same time, it had only been two days, and some people had been here for years. I was little grains compared to them, and here I was stressing about losing my sense of sanity.
"They're killing you."
"They already have."
I could tell he wasn't lying, he couldn't lie with those eyes. They were forced to tell nothing but the truth. They were filled with false perception of the world, or false hope. He seemed like he had been through more than my brain could well comprehend. Like he had had a robust of experiences, good - mostly bad - and was too demolished by the emotional states of it all to tell the tale with a smile on his face. So emotionless, so cold, so...
Void.
His eyes had so much potential, too. So much availability for light to shine thought and brighten all in its path. That so-called brightness was dimmed to a true vast of nothing, forced to remain dim for as long as HYDRA saw fit. Which, in his case, seemed for a long time that I didn't even want to think into depth about.
"They already have."
And I was next.
I couldn't see who I was before this anymore. The girl with a college dream, reduced into being a pawn in HYDRA's quick shot game. The girl with friends, family, loved ones. The backdrop civilian, completely content with being one of the billion people to blend in against the heroes and villains of our world, never thinking she might just be a part of the true agenda.
After my encounter with The Winter Soldier, I got sent back into my cell, chained and shackled back onto the floor again, forced to do barely anything but lie on my resigned bed and stare at the ceiling, leaving my thoughts the only living comfort to my brain. It wasn't like my thoughts were very comforting, however.
Tap tap.
I shoot up at the knock, the blood gushing into my head and sending me into a dizzying spiral, causing me to grunt slightly before I refocused and noticed that two HYDRA soldiers were brigading themselves into my cell with a similar like bed identical to mine one holding the end side and one holding the front.
They didn't even bother to do more than a single glance in my direction and all I could do was watch in pure confusion as they placed the bed in the opposite back corner to where mine was.
My brain is bound with possibilities. A bed? Was someone coming into my cell with me? Was I getting kicked out? Or was I just getting a measly new bed? I didn't think it was the last one, the bed they were bringing into my cell was as stingy as mine. The soldiers plopped the bed down with a clash, completely and utterly careless.
I could tell most these soldiers had some therapy-worthy daddy issues.
I flinched at the sound, and mentally slapped myself for being so jumpy, not like I could help it. This place was the definition of 'keeping you on your toes'. In the worst ways possible.
The soldiers leave as if I wasn't even a presence in the room, like they were paying to not notice I was even there. It wasn't until mere seconds later the door opened again to reveal two more soldiers, different ones this time, and man in between the two. He was practically doubled over, his body limp in his bones. I could see the slight struggle the men holding his upper arms were beginning to have as they mostly dragged him onto the bed they had now placed on the opposite side of my cell.
The man....I had never seen him before, is how I would start. He was tall, made even taller than The Winter Soldier. Six-three if I could guess but the looks of his flopped over-exhausted body. His skin was tan, a light shade of brown but not enough to compensate for a black person, almost olive-like.
His eyes were half lidded, but open enough for me to tell they were an emerald green, with tinges of blown in the far edges. Tattoos rippled the length of his arms, his veins ever so prominent against his skin, showing the underlying tension in his body.
His hair was a messy brown, almost jet black, sticking up in all places as if it had never made contact with a product or even a brush. He wears a black button up, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His pants are matching black cargo pants, his boots high and tactical.
It wasn't long until his body completely relaxed, his eyes closing. I was perplexed, both by him and why he was here, but I snapped out of my scanning daze and looked at one of the soldiers about to leave my cell.
"Who is he?"
I can't help but ask. I was sick of them leaving me high and dry, but I had a feeling they would always do that, so I had to get used to it. The soldier turned on his heel, facing me. His gaze flickered to the man lying down then to me.
"Your cellmate."