December // A Winter Soldier Story

26

ｄｅｃｅｍｂｅｒ ３０ｔｈ， ２０１３

２２°

ℒℯ𝒶

She spends the whole night tossing and turning and imagining all the nightmares she might encounter once the next day begins. By the time it is morning, she is exhausted with worry.

A feeling of dread has seeped it's way into her bones, and the feeling only worsens when her fate finally arrives. A different man from before, but still wearing a white lab coat, eventually appears at the door to her cell. He unlocks it while giving her a stern look.

"Come," he orders. His voice is quiet, but it is clear by his demeanor that it'd be in her best interest to do as he says.

Lea does not question it. To disobey means certain death; to listen means more time to plan an escape. She must listen for now, and use her extra time to think.

She stands weakly, her body already tired and shaky from a lack of food and aching in various places from being kidnapped. She curses herself for being so weak already, for not caring about her strength and endurance more before. She could've at least done some push ups once a week. Now, her chance is gone.

The man leaves the cell door partially open behind her, grabbing her arm once she's out and pulling her with him. She ignores how tightly he's clenching her skin and eagerly analyzes the building around her. Perhaps if she can memorize the area, she will be able to find her way out when the opportunity arises.

She also thinks of Bucky. She's going to need to find a way to get him out, too, if she even can.

 Dull, grey walls stare back at her, each looking the same as the last. Every now and then the sea of grey breaks and reveals a cell. Some of the cells harbor prisoners, some are as vacant as the eyes of the man beside her. Everything smells musty and damp and she can hear nothing but fear-inducing sounds in every direction. Shuffling, coughing, moaning, what sounds like screaming far out in the distance, the clanging of heavy metal chains. It's a scenario straight out of a horror movie, and she wishes nothing more than for it to be exactly that - a movie, not her reality.

She is pulled down so many halls that look the same that she is beginning to think she is hallucinating when finally the last hall opens into a grand room. The ceiling arches a good thirty feet above her head, and surrounding her are numerous men in lab coats, prisoners, and pieces of machinery.

She discovers that many of the eery sounds she'd heard earlier had come from here. The chains are around the wrists and ankles of the prisoners, who are either being guided around or are tied to a piece of machinery. The shuffling noises are also from the prisoners, many of whom can barely limp around the complex. The other noises - the moaning, the screaming - are all the result of exactly what she'd been expecting. Several pieces of machinery are evidently designed for torture, because in rooms sectioned off from the general area, she can just barely see through the porthole windows that there are patients in big, metal chairs unleashing the most pained screams she's ever heard in her life. She is seized by overwhelming panic as she watches them.

I don't belong here, she thinks, fear gripping her heart and squeezing her lungs so strongly that she struggles to catch her breath. Someone, anyone, please tell them I don't belong here.

She is so trapped in her nightmares and her fear that she doesn't notice that she is being pulled to a room of her own until she gets there. The door opens to reveal a metal chair just like she'd seen in the other rooms, and she is thrown harshly against it.

Her heart is beating rapidly by now, even more so than before. She keeps her eyes fixed on the now-closed door before her and allows her vision to go blurry in all places except for the spot she is staring. Breathe Lea, she tells herself. It's the only way she knows to calm herself down, but it is failing her today.