Strings - A Winter Story

-7-

"Words can inspire. Words can destroy. Choose well"

Suddenly she's awake. Autumn pants almost aggressively and sweats profusely from every pore. Beads of sweat drip off her body and her limbs shake like trees during a violent storm.

The nightmares. Her father.

"I had strings but now I'm free. There are no strings on me.." Autumn whispers through her shaking voice.

She brings her knees up to her chest despite her muscles protesting and hugs her legs. It would be five minutes until the shaking and sweating stopped, and she feels like she can function like a human again. With her breathing under control, she raises a hand to her slightly swollen jaw. She examines it briefly by applying pressure in various spots but concludes that despite the pain, it isn't broken. Next it is time to take in her surroundings. Autumn pushes the haunting nightmare of her murdered family from her mind. She has a new mission. To escape.

Autumn is in a room that she concludes looks similar enough to the one she assassinated Sitwell from. It is bare and unfurnished, new even. She is sitting on a mattress with some blankets crumpled to the side, presumably where she kicked them off during the nightmare. Autumn can't shake the strange feeling that courses through her, she feels naked. Not clothing wise but defensively naked. Her boots are gone which means her knife is gone. She had lost both her guns during the fight also.

The fight.

Autumn suddenly remembers the stranger who knocked her out. Suddenly feeling exposed, she jumps as she realises she overlooked the attacker who is sitting in the corner on a chair. He has his head hanging low, blocking her view of his eyes. The goggles and mask have been removed revealing only a glance at the features that lay underneath. A gun rests upon on his lap, his hand lingering nearby. Autumn immediately questions why he didn't wake up during her nightmare.

Not knowing if he is awake, asleep or dead, Autumn definitely isn't going to wait it out to find out. Using minute movements, she slowly pushes her achy limbs off the make shift bed, eyes on him all the time. The concrete floor is cold through her socks but its the last thing on her mind. Now that she is standing she can see another door on the far side of the room behind a wall. She starts to stalk away from the stranger and heads towards the door. Her head is pounding from the physical and mental trauma but she pushes through and keeps going. Her heart is also pounding, one would be able to hear it if one was close enough. Autumn has now successfully managed to turn her back entirely to the stranger despite it being a big no-no. An important rule in a combat situation, never turn your back on the enemy. It proves to be a big no-no move by Autumn as the familiar click of the safety switch on a handgun causes her to frown and freeze in her spot.

"Come back here" the stranger orders in a low threatening American accent with a hint of a foreign one. Autumn sighs with defeat and annoyance before turning on the spot to be greeted with a barrel of a loaded gun pointed at her from the attacker's seated position. Appears he did wake during her episode. Autumn lifts her arms up in surrender and slowly walks back to her original spot. It is only now she gets a good look at his face. Piercing blue eyes, stubble and sharp cheekbones. Handsome.

Not wanting to obey him completely she deliberately halts halfway between her furthest point and the mattress.

"I'm not moving any closer until you start telling me what the hell you want with me" her turn to order but she does it  with a smile. His face remains emotionless as his eyes scan her facial features. Autumn lowers her arms from the surrender style and places them in her hips, a point to prove that she isn't moving anytime soon. Unexpectedly, the attackers breaks eye contact first as he looks down to the concrete flooring. His eyebrows scrunch up as if he is struggling to understand something.