The Redroom

2. winter soldier

Natalia

"The Winter Soldier"

As Ivan says this I turn back to The Winter Soldier, god I hope we don't have to call him that all the time. I notice he was still staring at me as I turn around but he moves his eyes somewhere else and begins to walk near us.

I notice the other girls look scared of him but I can't quite understand what it is they are afraid of. His arm perhaps? Maybe it was his height? I think about it for a few minutes, ignoring everything Ivan begins yapping on about. I looked back at The Winter Soldier and then to the girls, it seems they are ignoring any eye contact with him. So it was his eyes? Glaring. Definitely his glaring. I mean it isn't quite intimidating to me, I've dealt with peoples glares a lot more than the others have. When I was younger, Ivan used to glare at me, the guards glared at me, the butlers glared at me and still to this day, my competitors/fellow recruits glare at me.

I stop thinking about the silly topic and listen to what Ivan is saying. "-You will not address him as 'The Winter Soldier', you will address him as 'Mr Barnes' and if you do not do so you will be punished. We will not begin training right at this moment but we will begin tomorrow so that means you either do your own training or practice your dancing, piano, behaviour, provocation or language. The choice is yours but it is highly suggested you practice your weakest subject." Ivan tells us and leaves it at that, Madam B. also leaves, leaving us with Barnes.

The others begin to leave, afraid of being too close to the man, but I stay as I want to train in combat. He notices I'm not leaving and I notice he isn't either so as I stare at him and go get some knives to throw at the targets nearby. He continues to stare at me as he heads towards the punching bags.

Damn, I was hoping he would leave. Guess I'll just have to deal with his unwanted presence.

I spent about half an hour throwing knives and every time I run out I go to the target to retrieve them. As I do this though I always glance back to where the Soldier is. This time though as I retrieve my knives I notice he had stopped punching for a moment and is narrowing his eyes at me. Well at least I think he was narrowing them at me. I stop looking at him and quickly scurry on back to what I was doing. After the third knife I've thrown I have a weird feeling and turn back around but notice the Soldier isn't at the punching bag anymore. Weird. Must've walked out without me noticing. I turn around to see he is right next to me and I almost jump.

Keyword: Almost

I glare at him for slightly scaring me and I continue on with throwing my knives. "I thought you were supposed to be practicing your weakest subject?" He asked. I was about to respond when I realise he actually spoke. I hadn't heard his voice before. It was soft but also gruff. I stopped focusing on the sound of his voice and responded, "Well actually it was suggested that we do our weakest and I.. don't have a weak subject." Well that was a lie. After that he doesn't respond. Maybe he could tell I was lying. I go back to throwing anyways. I don't need distractions.

Out of the corner of my eye I see him pick up one of the knives and inspect it for a moment. I stop throwing my knives again and bring my attention to what he is doing. He gets into a position and throws his knife straight at my target, right on the bullseye. I raise my eyebrows at him and a slight smirk appears on his face for less then a second, but he can tell I noticed it. He then walks away and I roll my eyes and scoff. When I know he is far enough I whisper "Show off." But only loud enough so I can hear, he looks back at me after I say it though. Shit. Can he hear me from all the way over there? He doesn't seem bothered and rather amused actually but still continues to walk away. That's when I realise that he is probably the strangest man I've ever met, but not the worst.