𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒍

infelicitas

A quick shock in my right side jolts me awake, making me take in a small breath out of surprise. I go to open my eyes out of reflex, but right before I do I make the quick decision to keep them shut. I immediately begin to try to listen for noise around me or anything else that could give away information about where I'm being held. I don't hear any other breaths, eliminating both the possibility of some of the other Avengers being held in here and the possibility of one of my captors being in here. I release a breath out of disappointment at this realization, but continue to keep my eyes shut. For good reason I find out, as a strangely human monotone voice speaks out from above me.

"Subject 19 reacted slightly to electric. It appears the subject is still suffering from the Dart. Current time is 1:19 PM, next time check in one hour." 

The speaker cuts out, and I wait a few moments before peeking my eyes open just enough to get a grasp of my surroundings. Through my eyelashes I see a small room lit with dull blue lights along the ceiling, and with glass cabinets just below, covering all of the wall space I can see. I take a moment to feel if there is anything holding me down, but from what I can tell I'm simply laying on a table with nothing stopping me from getting up and leaving. With this knowledge I take a deep breath, my body preparing to carry out the plan forming in my head. Within seconds I've completed what I need to do to escape, and before I can doubt myself I put it into action.

I force my eyes open and rip myself off the table I'm lying on, the blue light startling my vision for a moment. I look around the room to find myself alone as I predicted. I quickly glance through the glass cabinets to see if there's anything of use, but all I see are empty beakers. As I'm about to run toward the door, I see a closed off vial with a transparent liquid in it, and as I walk up to it I see it has a label on it that reads "ONE TIME USE: REVIVAL". My hand shakes as I pick up the vial, unsure of what it truly is, but I grab it anyway and finally make my way to the door. I place the vial in my pants pocket to free my hands for the next step. I raise my hands and try to twist the door knob, but it doesn't move. For a moment I'm frozen in confusion as I continue to try to open the door, but it won't budge. 

"Shoot, no," I mutter under my breath as I continue to rattle the door knob, my frustration getting the best of me and I push away from the door and throw my hands through my hair. 

I take a breath and try to calm myself down, but my internal clock knows any second wasted is a second that someone could use to track me down. I take my hands out of my hair, my right one coming out easily but my left getting caught. I scrunch my eyes in confusion for a moment before I realize the reason: my bracelet. I detach my bracelet from my wrist and unwrap it from my hair, and when I finally untangle the bracelet I take a look at what my hair was wrapped around– the charm. My eyes widen at the realization and a smile breaks out on my face. I silently thank Pietro for his brilliance and run over to the door, picking the lock as soon as I kneel down. Within seconds I've opened the door, and I reattach my bracelet to my wrist quickly. Without a second of hesitance, I'm out the door and into the hallway, which I expected to be busy but instead is completely empty. The lights of the hallway are a much brighter blue, a color I'd think to see in a hospital or a place just as ominously sterile. Though this place is nothing like a hospital, the empty hallways still give me the same feeling of strange anxiety, one I get when I'm somewhere I feel I'm not supposed to be. I start to run down the hall, passing many closed doors as I do.

I'm almost at the end of the hallway when I hear the first sign of people even occupying this building. 

"Hey, where are you going?" The person yells out to me, his voice low and gruff. I don't even turn to acknowledge I've heard him, instead choosing to continue running. 

My speed makes the harsh blue lights blur above me, contrasting the darkness of the flooring and walls. I'm rounding the corner to enter the second hallway when I begin to hear footsteps trailing me, the hallway echoing his voice as he speaks a series of numbers into his arm. I don't catch onto the strand but I clearly hear what he says after: "Code 6. All available personnel to Gateway 2 immediately."

I continue to run as fast as possible, knowing that any second now it won't just be one man chasing me. I try to shut out the questions racing through my mind as I try to place all my concentration on a way to get out of here. Each door I pass looks the same, and I begin to wonder if I've made any real progress. The lights above me still shine blue, and though I'm starting to doubt myself on my hastily made plan I continue to run, turning around yet another corner. When I make it into the third hallway, I start to hear the echo of footsteps behind me grow, quickly turning from one pair to two, to four, the number increasing faster than I can keep track of. My mind starts to become unfocused as I start to breathe too fast, my head feeling a bit too light and my legs feeling a bit too numb. Trying to keep my focus, I force my eyes from my feet to what's ahead of me, and I'm immediately glad I did. Only about fifty feet away is a set of panel doors with an exit sign glowing above them. A small relieved smile grows on my face and I force myself to run faster, knowing if I can just make it to the exit door I'll be fine. The increasing volume of footsteps behind me fades away as I focus on just making it my goal. Everything around me fades to black, the distance between me and the doors closing in quick.

I'm just a few steps away from the doors when I'm knocked over by someone from my right side. Despite it being hours ago, the pain from the shot I took earlier flares up again upon the impact, making me wince. We both fall to the ground from my momentum, and I try to slip out of the grip the person has on me. I almost do, but as I try to stand up the person latches onto my ankle and I fall once again. This time, the person pins my arms to the ground as more people begin to surround me. I finally get a good look at the person's face, and I'm shocked to find that it's a boy who looks just around the same age as me, with short brown hair and piercing blue eyes, the color matching the lighting almost exactly. 

"Pick her up," he barks at the guards, who quickly lock onto my upper arms and yank me off the floor. I attempt to kick out, but another guard grabs onto my ankles as well, trapping me in the air.

"You know, I wasn't really expecting you to be the one to escape, Aveline," he says, his head tilting up.

"What do you want from me," I growl, still thrashing against the guards' grip. 

After a moment I realize he used my name, though I'm not sure how he knows it. My mind doesn't focus on that information at the moment, however, as the boy in front of me poses a much bigger threat than the words he decides to use. The boy steps forward, a malicious grin marking his face. My eyes burn holes into him, but if it bothers him he doesn't show. He even laughs a little at my anger before raising his eyes to me to respond.

"You'll find out soon enough, don't you worry. And if it's matters at all to you, you managed to get the farthest out of the rest of the subjects. Only one other person figured out a way to get out of the room, let alone almost escape." His eyes never leave mine as he says this, his grin turning bitter as he talks. "And though it's been fun to watch you struggle, I think it's time you're put in your place." 

I watch as he takes what looks like an extremely wide pen out of his pocket and slowly walk toward me. I don't say a word as he approaches and continue to try to escape the grasp, but with no success. As he finally makes it to me, I expect that he'll say something to try to anger me further, but instead he abruptly stabs the object into my arm. I cry out in pain as he holds it there, and I slowly feel myself drifting. I'm dropped to the ground and vaguely notice the vial still in my pocket dig into my side, and right before I pass out the boy leans over me once more, his eyes holding a blue poison.

"Good luck, Miss Ridley. You'll need it."