Breathe

Chapter 3

Elara awoke with a gasp. She trembled in the aftermath of her nightmare. Her breath came out in short puffs and she wrung her hands as she attempted to calm down. Swinging her legs over the bed and standing, the girl looked at the clock and sighed. 4:13 AM.

She shakily made her way into the kitchen to grab a glass of water and pop more Advil. Her head ached something awful still after she had overexerted her healing power. Elara grabbed the glass sitting on the countertop and walked to the sink to fill it up from the tap. As she was about to turn on the water, her hand stilled.

Something was off. The air was too still. Her breath caught in her throat. She quickly spun to see the dark outline of a large man in her kitchen only 8 feet or so away from her. The blonde inhaled sharply. The figure remained as unmoving as a statue. Elara quickly abandoned her glass and grabbed a knife from the drawer next to her. She held the knife up in what she hoped to be a somewhat threatening manner.

The Winter Soldier cocked his head at her reaction, finding it cute how this small girl with no training tried to defend herself against arguably the best assassin of all time. He took a menacing step forward to gauge her reaction. The petite blonde immediately tried to step backwards, bumping into the countertop. He smirked. She wasn't a fighter. He doubted she would even try to use that knife against him.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my apartment." Elara demanded, hating how unsteady and scared her voice sounded.

The Winter Soldier, saying nothing, took deliberate slow steps forward. Elara pushed herself back further across the counter. Tears filled her eyes and she shook in fear of the reality of her situation. Her hands shook slightly as she held the knife out front of her, a silent warning that both knew was a bluff. Elara wanted to use it, to try to defend herself against this intruder, but she had never purposefully hurt another human being let alone tried to stab one.

As he drew closer and closer to her she couldn't help but notice the way the moonlight that filtered through the window bounced off of his arm. As he drew even closer she recognized that he had a freaking metal arm. What the hell...? Elara was incredibly confused and frightened but more importantly running out of time. He was less than a foot away and Elara's hand holding the knife shook harder. She was an incredibly passive person but she knew if there was ever a time to be violent it was now. But she couldn't bring herself to.

The Winter Soldier metal hand quickly and unexpectedly shot forward to seize Elara's shaking wrist. He squeezed her wrist so painfully it made her yelp. She felt as though her bone might snap at any moment. The tears she had been trying hold back so hard dripped down her face. She immediately dropped the knife due to incredible pain in her wrist, but even then the man in front of her's grip never loosened.

He leaned in even closer to her studying her frightened ocean eyes before leaning in even closer. His stubble brushed against her cheek as he inched forward to whisper in her ear," You should've used the knife."

Elara shivered when his warm breath tickled the shell of her ear. She shook in his steel grip and stared up at him with wet eyes as he moved back to his position in examining her.

"I'm not really a violent person," she admitted timidly and quietly. The Soldier chuckled and tilted his head at her.

She found herself unable to meet his piercing blue eyes. And she quivered in front of him, terrified of him. She simply stared at his chest and shook. However, as she spied his hands silently reaching into his pocket to pull out a cloth that she highly suspected of containing chloroform, she kneed him the groin. Screw her pacifist nature she did not want to be chloroformed and kidnapped.

The Winter Soldier was incapacitated for just a moment. He let go of her wrist for a fraction of a second and the blonde bolted. She started to rush toward the door as fast as she could but she never made it past the first step. The man quickly caught her around the waist and shoved her back against his chest harshly. Elara felt the wind get knocked out of her as she collided with the soldier's chest. His metal arm crossed across her chest and held her snugly against him.

Elara's breathing continued to escalate. She was trapped. The Winter Soldier leaned in again, his lips brushing against her ear making her stomach do somersaults. "And here I thought you knew better than to run," he said in her ear.

Elara saw him pulling out the chloroform covered cloth and felt a new wave of fresh tears travel down her face. She placed her hands on his forearm, vainly trying to stop its projection toward her face. "Please... you don't have to do this," Elara pleaded desperately while pulling at his forearm.

The Soldier said nothing. He held the chloroform up to smother the girl's mouth and nose. Elara struggled in his arms and held off breathing for as long as she could. But it was no use. She was forced to inhale and felt her world slip away.