The Wolf and the Widow | Winterwidow

Chapter 3: The Arrival

"Out of bed! He'll be here soon! Get up and shower, now!"

All of the girls start frantically unlocking themselves and jumping out of bed. They all have panicked looks on their faces, and for good reason. The soldier is coming today. He'll be here soon, and we have to shower still.

All of the girls are rushing into the shower room and stripping their clothes of fast. I turn of the cold water and dunk myself under the water. The water here is only cold. Freezing cold. We wash off all of the sweat and blood that may still be lingering from yesterday. Girls are using shampoo and even the limited supply of conditioner that we have. We only use it for special occasions, and I feel like this is definitely a special occasion.

We all take maybe a 5 minute shower, then we dry off and start brushing our hair in the slightly dirty mirrors. Their chatting really never stops unless needed. My wavy red hair goes down to my mid back. As the only red head here, I'm often picked on for my hair color. Fiery red curls that is unique to me. I honestly like it. Most of them have straight brown hair, but not me. One of my most notable features is my cherry red hair, and I'm proud of it.

We all get dressed and go down to eat.

The girls all sit together again, unsurprisingly. They're all talking about the soldier and they munch on their granola bars. As usual, I sit in silence and wonder about this mysterious soldier. Thankfully, I wont have to wonder much longer. Today's the day we finally meet him. Our new teacher.

"Widows! Sparring room, now!"

All of us look around at each other, as if we didn't think this would really ever happen. We slowly get up and walk to the sparring room silent with fear and anticipation.

We enter the big room silently and line up as usual.

"Widows in training. I hope you're ready. Because there will be little to no mercy shown. Is the soldat ready?" I van announces.

"Yes. He is ready now. Are you ready for him?"

"Da. Send him in."

From a door on the opposite wall, a huge masked man enter the room. All eyes snap to him. A tall muscular man in a mask. He has long brown hair that covers his mask. He's wearing goggles and a muzzle. He has a metal arm with a red star on the bicep. Dressed in a bulky black suit and decked with weapons.

"Say hello to your new trainer. The Winter Soldier.

All of the girls but me go wide eyed. They stare up at the soldier in awe. I keep a stoic bland face unlike them. Though you can't see his face, his head is pointed slightly towards me. I can tell he's looking at me. The one red head who doesn't seem scared.

"Now, all of you will be sparring him one on one. In alphabetical order."

All of the girls start lining up in alphabetical order as he said. With the last name of Romanova, that puts me at the end of the line. Wonderful.

The soldier turns around and enters a room across from us. I guess that's where we will be sparring today.

"First up, Svetlana." Ivan calls.

Svetlana stands and nervously walks up to the room. She hesitates before entering.

The girls around me start chatting and whispering about the soldier.

"The Winter Soldier? He's going to kill us!"

"Oh my god, it's the Winter Soldier!"

The girls are clearly scared, and I am too. Of course I don't show it, though.

A few minutes later, the door opens. Svetlana stumbles out with a bloody face and a broken arm. She's covered in blood and tears.

All of the girls go wide eyed as she stumbles over to us, leaving blood trailing behind her. We're pretty sure all of it is hers.

"Next up, Marie."

Marie sees her life flash before her eyes. She very slowly walks into the room that will be hell for us all. After seeing what he did to Svetlana, I'm even more scared than before. He's no joke.

All of us look around at each other, thinking the same thing. Will he kill us?

Not 5 minutes later, Marie stumbles out with a clearly broken leg. She is also covered in blood, sweat and tears. All of us know we're going to come out of that room looking like the last two girls to walk through hell's gates.

"Next, Nikita."

We can see the fear in her eyes as she walks into the room.

Eventually, came my turn.

"Finally, Natalia."

Everyone looked at me, the last to be destroyed. All of the girls, covered in blood, sweat and tears shift their horrified gaze to me. I walk up to the room with a blank face to hide my terror.

I open the door and slip into the room. I shut the door and take a quick scan of my surroundings. The room is big and dark. There's only one very dim light in the center of the room. He wants me to step into the light. I know he does. I walk down alongside the wall and into the dark corner. I pres my back to the corner and scan the dark room. No sign of him. I continue walking around the dark outskirts of the room. I turn my head to the corner and see him. Just the very faint outline of him. If you weren't searching for him, you would never have known he was there. He's leaning in the corner, arms crossed, staring back at me. Watching me as I watch him. My stoic expression doesn't falter. He takes a step towards me and uncrosses his arms. I watch as he gets nearer and nearer until he's standing 3 feet away. I can tell holding back wont do me any good in this fight. So, no holding back this time.

Let the battle begin.

He swings his left fist at me and I dodge it easily. Finally, some competition. I throw my fist and his masked face and it's a hit. He goes low and kicks my legs out from under me. I fall back and roll out of the way just before he stomps on my chest. I flip back up and roundhouse kick him across the face. He swings his right arm at me and I dodge that too. He swings his left fist right after, which I wasn't expecting. Solid hit across my face. I stumble back, but move out of the way when he tries to kick me. He punches me across the face, and I cover my mouth with my hand to not squeak. I dodge his next punch and hook him in the face. He kicks me to the floor again and cracks me across the face with his right arm. I have to cover my my mouth so I don't make any noise. I yank him closer to me and knee him in the stomach. The battle becomes very back and forth. He punches, then I kick. He rolls away, and I lunge at him.

Eventually, he gets me cornered. Is this it? Is this where he breaks me? He approaches slowly. I ball my fists. He's so much taller than me. I'm the smallest of the widows. I only reach up to about the bottom of his neck, since I'm only 5,2. He stops when he's only about 2 feet in front of me. He grabs my shoulder firmly with his bionic hand and pulls me out of the corner. I quickly try to get away, but me pulls me right back. He keeps a hold of my arm in his right hand, and his left hand goes to my lower back. He starts walking and pushing me alongside him. He walks me to the door and opens it for me. I look at him, and he's looking at me. I hesitate, then I turn away and walk out the door to the other girls. They all look at me in shock and surprise when they see how little blood I have on me. I do have blood on my face, but not nearly as much as they do. No broken limbs either. I look pretty good for just getting into a fight with the Winter Soldier.

I walk over and sit on the bench at the end. None of them can believe what they see. Even Ivan looks subtly surprised, but he's trying to hide it. Soon after, the soldier exits the dark room.

I think this is the start of a new beginning for me.