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2014, NEW YORK
RUNNING. That's all Elise could do — run. It became a primitive tactic, becoming second nature. El would run, buy water and whatever food she could bargain — which would have to last her at least a few days at-a-time. Every day it was the same question replaying in her mind 'when will this end?'
It was day 756. Elise Vance had been running for over four years. HYDRA had induced paranoia into every fibre of her being, every cell was in fear.
"My name is Elise Jane Vance. I am twenty years old. I was born in Sokovia." The now adult would repeat that every day, every moment she could.
As time went by, the less she had control of her mind. Of course, her mind belonged to HYDRA — but the remaining parts she could grasp were slowly slipping from her fingers. Time went rogue. Becoming a lost figure, something she couldn't comprehend. In the past four years, she had lived a life worth forty-six.
Nobody would believe her. If she told someone, they would put her in a straight jacket and lock her away. They would call her crazy and plaster her all over the news.
It was about to be the fourth anniversary of El's disappearance. The headlines were talking about Vance women for decades.
"Breaking news, two females ageing from sixteen and thirty-two. Mother and daughter, Elise and Elizabeth Vance have been reported missing when their car was found unattended on the side of highway forty-three in Sokovia, last night. Nowhere to be found, searches began early this morning."
After thirty years, the case was marked unclassified/incompetent and the women were ruled dead.
Present day — January 16th 2014.
El was walking along the Hudson River, never fearing the looks given to her crazed state. Her look screamed runaway teen, navy baseball cap with a black bomber jacket, jeans and Adidas sneakers. It was the best she could bargain. She stood at 5'4 and her frame was all bone and skin if you saw her stomach you'd see some if not all her ribs.
The wires in El's brain were mixed and matched for entertainment, pure sadism. Time and time again her mind would start conversations to flip one more switch closer to send her completely insane. All in all, it was just her paranoid mind, she thought.
'Come on Elise, talk to someone.' The antagonising voice appeared.
"You know I can't do that." El was sitting on a park bench, observing the world around her, watching the bodies move in fast motion. She rubbed her dry eyes in an attempt to slow down the sight in front of her, it was all a blurry haze. "Just leave me alone." Her hands on either side of her face, trying to shield the voices which came from every which way. "I don't wanna do this anymore." Her body starts to rock as she brings her knees up to her chest. "Let me out, please just let me out." She whispered as bodies started to approach her. A comforting hand lay on her shoulder as she rocked back and both on the park bench. "What do you want from me?" She whispered in fear, to the hand, not the voiced in her head.
"I'm here to help you, Elise." The smooth voice perked her interest, she turned her head to the voice. Her eyes became glossy and she kept her arms around her knees as she stared at the man in his running gear. Flashes of light broke her trance and she faced the cameramen filling in her personal space. Steve motioned for her to stand up and start walking away from the news-hungry leeches.
As the girl stood from her rocking position the blurriness evened out and her heartbeat levelled. "Why are you here? Who sent you?."
"Not HYDRA if that's what you're wondering. I'm Steve Rogers." He rests a firm yet endearing hand on her shoulder as they walk. "I know who you are, the man with the plan." Her eyes drifting from his own then back to the ground. "How do you know who I am?"
"You went missing in '52, everyone assumed you were abducted but after years of searching they ruled you dead and the case closed." Steve now held his hand on her lower back, guiding her back to s.h.i.e.l.d.s headquarters. "And now you're here."
Elise was surprised he said nothing about HYDRA. "On an intel mission, we found files that dated back to the time you went missing and we found your file." There it was. "We know that you were used as a test subject and we know the experiments were successful." Steve gave Elise a sympathetic look before a reassuring smile. "You don't have to worry about HYDRA anymore, they can't hurt you anymore." If only he knew he was so wrong.
Steve took the girl back to s.h.i.e.l.d, to Fury's office. "We'll put you in protective custody, a safe house really before we contact anyone about your whereabouts. We can't let the wrong people know you're here." Fury spoke to the girl, with Steve by her side.
"I can talk to Stark, see if he can give her a room for now," Steve questioned. "That might be best, let me know his word." Fury then left the room, his office with Steve and Elise alone, no public eye, nothing.
"Where have you been Elise? All those years, nobody could find you. And here you are now." Steve had a sad look in his eye, almost as if he knew Elise and lost her all those years ago.
"I was with hydra." A blank stare washed over the girls face. "They tell you that time travel isn't real, it's just a made up concept to create a fantasy, another made up concept. I went missing forty-six years ago and for me, its only been four years." Steve looked curiously with a bit of remorse. "But I've come to the conclusion that they wiped those forty-two years away, it's like they wired my brain to forget and remember things at the right and wrong time." Steve and the girl shared a look, her eyes said 'don't worry about it' and his 'let me help you'.
"Let's go talk to your friend Stark."
AUTHORS NOTE:
It's taken me a while to write this, I have a timeline of what I want to happen but I just never seem to write lol. I don't know how long this book will be also.
written ( Nov 11th. 2018 ) edited ( Dec 30th. 2018 )
