The Captain's Daughter - The First Child Avenger

~ Chapter 10 ~

Brooke's p.o.v

I walk next door into my room and I start thinking of ways to cure the hiccups. While I'm at it, I get a notification from my screen. It's a text from an anonymous Hydra, it says, 'Stay on mission Brooke, you have a deadline of 9 days from today.' ... I feel like Hydra is haunting me and I hate it, I hate thinking that I was raised there and that the people there are the only 'family' I have ever had. I don't want to be controlled by these people but I'm too scared to say no and fight against them alone.

*Flash back to a training session Brooke had when she was 10*

Brooke is wearing her Hydra training suit and had her hair tied back in a tight ponytail, she was going in for a shooting practise with one of the Lieutenants. She followed him out to the shooting grounds outside the main facility, around the back near the forest. There were 50 targets that she had to find and hit in 2 minutes but they were rather difficult to hit and to make it even harder, the Lieutenant was going to shoot at her at 5 random times to keep her on her feet. Since she had been holding guns from the age of 6, she was pretty good with her aim and fire but she was scared as hell that she was going to get shot. 

Brooke chose a smaller gun because of her small hands and she walked over to the right side of the Lieutenant. Without acknowledging the fact that she was there, he said, "your practise begins now," and prepared his gun. Brooke started her search for the targets and within the first few seconds she had already found some by a bush. She pulled the trigger and shot them in the dead center. She was searching the grounds and found targets on trees, poles, behind tanks and in random pits in the ground, Brooke hit everyone with precision and immediately continued the search for more. 

About ninety seconds had passed and she had kept track of how many she hit; 46, four more in thirty seconds she thought. The Lieutenant had already shot at her four times but she avoided them easily. Brooke was looking around very hard for the last of the targets and was sweating really badly - mostly from fear. She found three in one particular area but struggled to find the last target. She looked over at the large clock that was placed on the outer wall of the facility and saw that she had ten seconds to find the last target. Brooke looked over at the Lieutenant who was pointing his gun at her shoulder. He pulled the trigger and it skimmed the top of her suit creating a hole. She followed the bullet with her eyes and saw that it went in the direction of the final target. She held up her gun to hit her final target but her hands were so shaky that she slightly missed the center. "HALT!" the Lieutenant screeched walking swiftly towards Brooke. 

"That was shameful Brooke. You got hit by the bullet, didn't fully hit the target AND you hit the fiftieth target after the two minute mark!"  he yelled looking down at her. Brooke had her head down and had a shuddering breath. She listened to him and absorbed all the negativity while fearing what was going to happen next. "As a punishment, you will be whipped," the Lieutenant said firmly in his German accent. "Oh please no!" Brooke begged looking up at him, "You dare to talk back?!" he replied infuriated while smacking her on the face causing her to fall to the ground and tremble with fear. The Lieutenant stared at her with great anger when McCaucan arrived for a report on how she did. "How did she go Lieutenant?" he asked looking at her unforgivably. "Hit 49 in less than 2 minutes but missed one after time, she even got hit and left a hole in her suit," the wicked man reported disgracefully, "she will be whipped for her mistakes." He finished. Brooke still looked down feeling very unworthy. "I am not surprised," McCaucan replied extremely vexed, "15 hits for your poor practise," McCaucan stated while grabbing her arm and hauling her into the punishment room. 

Brooke held her head low and silently cried the whole way there. She had spent half of her life in that room just from making simple mistakes that became a big deal. She had experienced all of the torturous  punishments in that room but the worst was the whip. Being hit with that strong leather on her sensitive skin was excruciating - almost as bad as getting her star. On the way, they passed her bedroom and the door was wide open. Harvey was doing sit-ups with a soldier standing on his feet counting in German. They made eye contact for a second and the both looked at eachother like, 'help me'. Brooke wiped away her tears on her shoulder while McCaucan continued to drag her to the punishment room. Brooke knew it wasn't actually called 'the punishment room' but there was no better way to refer to it.

He unlocked the door with his set of keys and they walked in. The lighting here was dim but and were some other men around the room that were being zapped, whipped and hurt which made Brooke tense up. They got to the whips and MCaucan threw her aggressively on the ground and picked up a whip. Brooke could sense McCaucan's arm moving up to gather energy, and so she breathed in calmly and held her breath and tensed up her body. Then, the first whip came down on her back, "AHHHHHHH," she cried, "14 more, weakling," McCaucan said very proud of himself. Brooke hated being called a weakling but she knew better than to talk back even more than what she did earlier.

*End of flashback*

Brooke's p.o.v

I shivered and took off my top and looked at my back *hiccups*. I loathed all the marks that had been left there all those years ago including the Star, whip marks, scars and bruises that never managed to heal. "I can't live like that," I whispered to myself while stroking my back. I pulled my top back over my head and looked into the mirror and let out a huge sigh. "Why is this life so complicated?"