What Wicked Lurks Within (Avengers x Reader)

Chapter 1

Tires screeched to a halt. The people occupying the cars stepped out, along with whatever little luggage they had left. The house before them was old, yet it stood tall, detached from its surroundings. The effect was almost as if time held no power within its boundaries.

"Wow, that's old!" Sam remarked blatantly, "You're not seriously making us stay here."

Tony also eyed the building with not a particularly impressed expression. "Yeah, well, you should have thought of that before leaving the stove on and burning down the facility."

"I'm sorry about that, man. Anybody could have done that." Sam's tone was softer with a tinge of defensive. Tony glared daggers at him and marched on inside the house, exhaling fire.

"This is the best we could put together on short notice. We still needed to be in the middle of all the hubbub so we don't reach a crime scene, you know, two years after it has happened and we couldn't be somewhere teeming with people so if in the event that someone decides to attack us, we don't take down a bunch of civilians with us." You tossed your bag to Sam and followed the team inside. He was carrying more bags than the rest of the people combined. Consequences.

"It's cold in here." Bucky rubbed his hands together, whatever goal he intended to achieve seeing as one of them was metal. Wanda stared vacantly at nothing in particular. "There is not one quiet corner in this entire house." She faintly said.

The commotion around her allowed no one to dwell on it. "If I have to share a bathroom, so help me God, someone is going to lose a limb." Clint screamed.

"You can sleep out in the hall then!" Natasha was not loud, however, she was definitely annoyed.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna...I'm... yeah." Steve quickly realized that no one was actually paying attention to a word that was not said in offense. He walked out, wanting to canvass the property. The perimeter was not much, just the house and a band of grass surrounding it with fencing.

Steve walked along the side until he reached the back. There, almost as if waiting for him, was a little boy. He had blond hair and blue eyes, like his. His lower lip was quivering, he was scared.

"Are you lost?" Hands on his thighs, Steve bent a little to get closer to his level. Except, he quickly wished he had not. White foam came into view from behind the quivering lip. The boy's body spiraled into a series of spasms until his knees could not hold him up anymore and he lifelessly fell to the ground.

Horrified to his very core, Steve ran back to get help.

"Everybody check the stove and make sure Sam does not turn this place into a crisp too!" Tony instructed to whoever could hear him as he continued with his work of stumbling around the house. There were a lot of rooms so he was certain no one would have to share. 'Thank God.'

As he walked past a hallway, he could have sworn he saw movement at the end of it. Tony took a step back and entered the corridor. Before long, his eyes adjusted to the dark and he saw a little girl sitting at the other end. "Daddy." She smiled.

She had brown hair, brown eyes and skin as fair as day. In that moment, Tony could have searched all the science in the world and still would have no answer for how he knew what he knew. He just knew; he recognized the little girl. "Morgan?" It was his daughter - his unborn daughter. He wasn't even married yet for crying out loud!

"Where's mom?" Tony did not know what to say or what to do. His body would not move and he felt this unbearable chill yet somehow, he was sweating.

"Mom." The girl seemed to test the word, "She made a wonderful dinner."

Fresh beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. The sentence only had one meaning coming from a child's mouth, there had to be. For a moment, Tony thought he saw blood around her mouth but no, she was smiling. With her rosy lips and perfect teeth.

"What kind of a dinner would you make, Tony?" She was walking now, walking toward him. She was still smiling and Tony could clearly see the blood on her hands and lips. He wanted to take a step back, hell he wanted to run but he could not move. Why couldn't he move? The girl was nearing. "Tony?" She reached with her bloody hand that was ripe with decay. 'No!'

"Tony? Tony? Tony!"

Finding movement and sensation all at once, Tony spun around only to come face to face with Steve. "It's you! Of course, yes, Steve. What do you want?" It was not cold anymore. Steve felt mildly concerned about his teammate but he had bigger issues at hand. "There's a boy behind the house and I think he's... something's happened to him. You have to help."

Tony had trouble focusing his thoughts, "Cap, there is no behind the house. The property stretches forward." Steve stared at him in further confusion. "Wha- no. I was just there. Come with me." He ran for his destination and Tony, very exasperated, followed suit. He did once look back at the hallway - it seemed emptier than the darkness that consumed it.

As soon as they reached the end of the side, Steve came to an abrupt halt.

"See, I told you, just fence. No behind the house." Tony wiped his face with his hands and turned around to get back. In the sunlight, Steve noticed his friend was paler than usual. In that point in time, Steve was  certain he himself was too. There was no behind the house and if Tony was to be believed, never had been.

After brooding over it for what couldn't have been more than a few seconds, he also turned back to get inside. He had only taken a couple steps when his feet froze. He could see him - the little boy. Steve could never mistake the gold of the hair and the blue of the eyes. He was not directly in his view, only visible in his periphery.

But he was there and if Steve was seeing right, his feet never touched the ground. Only this time, he was smiling.