Sane // A Winter Soldier Story

chapter fifteen // goodbye

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"The world outside just watches as we crawl, crawl towards a life of fragile lines and wasted time. And so I cry, as I hold you for the last time in this life." -Ditmas by Mumford and Sons

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《Athena》

Everything changed overnight. When she woke up, she could feel it.

A chill had settled over Athena's bones. She woke up freezing, and immediately she sat up in the chair she was in, wrapping her arms around herself in an effort to keep warm. She shivered in the dark.

It was late, and it was normal for her to wake up at odd times at night, so she didn't think much of her random awakening. She just shook it off and went to go back to sleep.

She closed her eyes and tried to get comfortable. She pulled her arms tight around her.

But then she couldn't fall asleep. She sat there forever, freezing and tired and unable to drift off. The longer she sat there, the more she knew that she wasn't going to get to go back to sleep tonight. Her body refused to allow her to succumb to rest. Somewhat irritably, she gave up with a huff.

Her muscles were sore from sleeping awkwardly in the small chair, but when she glanced up to see James sound asleep, curled up on the side of the bed closest to her -- she didn't mind the soreness one bit. It was absolutely worth one bad night of sleep to see Bucky so content.

She yawned. Looking at her phone, she saw that it was four in the morning. Everything was silent and dark.

She knew she couldn't sleep, but her eyes were stinging, so she laid her head on the back of the chair and closed her eyes for a little. Everything was calm for a few minutes.

Until suddenly the calm air of the night started to give Athena an uneasy feeling. Suddenly, she realized that it was way too quiet outside of this cell. She realized that she couldn't hear any guards pacing around outside, nor could she hear the usual hum of the psychiatric facility working late at night. In fact, she couldn't hear, or see, anything. She could barely make out James' form on the bed beside her. Something was wrong.

 Her heart began racing, but she tried to avoid physically showing how she was feeling. She had a strange sense that somebody was watching her very carefully at the moment. She felt an extra presence in this ward -- something that didn't belong.

Athena thought rapidly in her head, formulating an escape plan. After she had a vague idea of how to get her and Bucky out of there, she leaned carefully forward, pretending to check up on James.

Instead, she whispered as quietly as she could to him, feeling guilty for waking him up but knowing that there was something dangerously wrong.

"James," she spoke, so softly that barely anything audible escaped her lips. James was used to intense combat training, so clearly he was not a heavy sleeper. A whisper should be all it took to stir him. But he did not budge.

"James!" She whispered quietly again, this time looking down and pretending to examine something she'd found on the floor. Everything remained insanely quiet. James stirred.

"James, I need you to wake up. Please," she pleaded, her voice still barely audible. This time, he groggily peeled his eyes open. He was clearly tired, but when his eyes met hers in the darkness and he was just barely able to make out the fear reflected in them, he woke up instantly. He tried to sit up, but Athena put a hand on his chest to keep him down.