Sweet Like Arsenic (B. Barnes) ✔

8 | birthday

< 11 years ago >

   "Mum, what's my birthday present this year?" I ask in excitement as I watch Mummy load up the boot of our car.

   "You'll have to wait to find you, dear." She replies with an air of mysteriousness, making me groan. She instructs me to hop into the front seat, and I comply eagerly.

   She starts the car without getting in. "I'm gonna go out and get a box of Kleenex, wait in the car. You can turn on the radio, 'kay?"

   Mummy leaves, walking back to the supermarket. Feeling bored, I hum to the song on the radio and reach for the grocery bag in the backseat, hoping to find a bar of chocolate.

   I am halfway through a Kitkat when I hear footsteps coming towards the car. Mummy!

   I look up, expecting to see Mummy's kind face through the car window. Instead, I am greeted with the sight of a big, scary-looking man, the ones Mummy tells me to get away from.

   I click on the door lock.

   The man walks even closer, his warm green eyes meeting mine.

   I press down on another switch to activate the window lock, just for safekeeping.

   Instead of walking away, the man swings his arm up and punches through the car window, the sound of the car alarm slicing through the silence.

   "Mummy!" I scream, scrambling to the driver's seat. Unlocking the driver's door would mean that the man would get in, but he'd get in either way.

   I unlock the door hastily, jumping out and starting to sprint in the direction of the supermarket. Unfortunately, the parking lot is too wide and my speed too slow. The man grabs me around the waist halfway across the empty lot, clamping a gloved hand over my mouth.

   I try biting down, but the hard material is too strong. I start to scream as loud as I can, but his hold on my mouth is too tight. I remember what Mummy taught me and decide to kick the bad man's legs, but there was something sweet-smelling in his gloved hand that made me want to sleep. I feel my eyes close involuntarily, falling into an unnatural sleep.

   I wake up in a bright room, lying on a surprisingly soft mattress with a little thick blanket covering my body. I jolt up, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light, then scanning the room I was in. The only thought I have in my mind is to escape, and to get away, quickly.

   White walls, white curtains, white window frame... window! I trip out of the bed, walking over to the window in front of it. I tap it lightly.

   Nope, no invisible electric field thing. That means all I have to do is to punch through the window and get the hell out by jumping onto the nicely placed tree branch, just, I don't know, a few metres down.

   I pivot on my feet, spotting a wall clock that read four-thirty. Maybe I could jump up and get it to smash the window. I walk over to the wall hastily, noticing a steel door. Why didn't I notice it before? I reach for the knob, turning it both ways. It was unlocked.

   Suspicious.

   I pull the door open slowly, opening it as wide as my body so I can slip my head through the gap. Green Eyes stands in front of me, a gun in his left hand.

   Screaming, I throw my body out of the door's slamming range and shut it with a kick to the door, creating a loud clunk when the steel meets the probably metal frame.

   I run and jump up to reach for the clock, catching it by the rim. Patting myself on the back mentally, I sprint over to the other side of the room, throwing the clock as hard as I can at the window. It breaks satisfyingly, the glass raining everywhere.

   I hear the sound of a gunshot and feel a small wind brushing past my ear. Green Eyes. Not caring where I'd land, I hurl my body out of the window like how I dive into the swimming pool, letting my arms fly out in front of me.

   I'm glad that I take gymnastics.

   I manage to grab onto the tree branch that I'd seen moments ago, and I hang on for dear life with both of my hands.

   Monkey bars, Elvira. Monkey bars.

   I am stuck in the middle of a thick tree branch that jutted out from the tree trunk. The tree was one of those really sucky ones, the ones definitely not fit for climbing. The next branch was too far from my reach, and was a body's length from me and was on the other side of the tree.

   I swing my back arm in front of my first, making my way to the centre. I dare myself to look down... oh God. I was a few metres up, not too high to kill, but not too low to just jump down without getting a scratch.

   I look up instead, noticing Green Eyes watching me from the broken window. His arm moved, and just like that, his gun was up and aimed at me once again.

   Hug the tree and slide down!

   And that's exactly what I do.

   I land on my butt with an irritated "Ow!", but other than that, I am unscathed.

   That was a surprise training session. I'm now reviewing my past missions with my mother, watching video recordings.

   I'm ten, learning how to use a gun.

   Fast forward to thirteen, killing my first Hydra deserter. Two bullets in the chest, and one in the forehead. He won't be my last kill.

   Fifteen. My first mission. I track a defect Hydra agent and terminate the target with my little brother, Casper by my side.

   The defect wasn't any regular defect—she was my sister. I felt no remorse when I did what I had to do.

   Seventeen. A training lesson taught by the Winter Soldier. His eyes are as emotionless as mine. He would train me for years. We never spoke a word.

   Nineteen. My first time at a wiping session with the Winter Soldier, watching him shake and scream like a crazed animal but never begging them to stop.

   I remember his eyes, bloodshot and filled with tears, sweeping through the room to look at each and every one of us. When his eyes reached mine, they softened. They were asking me to help him, I swear they were.

   But I was a Hydra agent, so I kept my eyes blank.