"Versuche es noch einmal." <Try it again.>
Sweat and blood and tears poured down my face. I shiver, feeling like a ghost in my own skin.
It's disturbing, the silence in the room. The scratching of a pencil on paper and my own labored breathing are the only sounds. It's like the scientists standing around me aren't even breathing. Maybe they're not even there. Maybe I'm hallucinating again.
I wish I was.
A scientist reaches for my head and I flinch, screwing my eyes shut. I don't have the energy to fight back this time. They took that too. They took everything.
I feel the frigid metal as it snaps closed, digging into my forehead. I tell myself it's just a horrible nightmare, just wait it out, and I realize I'm not convincing myself anymore. It'll be over soon, it'll be over soon, I'll be free soon, they're gonna come save me soon -
Electricity arcs through my body and blood trickles out of my mouth when I scream. Seconds turn into minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, days to years, and they tell me I'll never be free, I'll never be free, I'll never be free, and I can't take it but I have to.
The machine switches off, leaving my fingers twitching violently, my wrists raw from being twisted in their bonds. I slam my head back on the table and clench my fists so hard they tear off the fresh scabs leftover from my previous days of torture. It might have been a decade before I register the small tap on my forehead, forcing me to reorient to the figure standing next to the table I'm strapped to.
"Soldat?" he asks.
It takes me a moment to process what he said, but when I do, I remember someone else. A fragment, a name, a flash of blond hair, a blue suit, a gun, a sketchbook, five letters, a poster, a medication bottle, a dance in the dark.
"Steve?"
The man pulls away with an irritated sigh, and I know I answered wrong. I start struggling harder, even though I know it won't do anything. My breathing comes harder and spots begin to dance in my vision. "Please, I just need Steve, no, please, Steve..."
The man places a tight hand over my mouth, locking my jaw. I stare at him with pleading eyes, but he's not even looking at me, and I fight to get any air at all. The man nods at one of the others before drawing his hand up rapidly, leaving me gasping. "Erfolglos. Mach es nochmal." <Unsuccessful. Try it again.>
They're going to do it again.
I scream mercy and murder, trying to hold onto my last scraps of humanity. Steve's coming to save me. They're all gonna rescue me. I just need to be strong. They need me to be strong. But I'm not made for this. At the flick of a switch, fear takes me under.
My eyes flashed open to bright lights.
I yelled something animalistic and tried to lunge forward, not even caring where I was. I only gave myself whiplash. I glared down at my restraints, black bands tied around my wrists and elbows and crossing over my legs, keeping me in place. I tried to tear them off, rip them to shreds, kill the people who put me here. I'm not an experiment. I'm strong. I'm going to fight until I die.
My left arm restraints broke off first, snapping bit by bit, and I reached over and ripped off my right-hand bonds with ease. I tore them until they were just broken strings and leaped off the table, panting and savage and wild and furious.
A hospital.
Machinery beeps behind me, and I slam it into pieces on the tile floor.
White walls, a little white window, and a steel door.
YOU ARE READING
I'm Here | ✓
FanfictionIt's post CA:CW. The Avengers have split, a mysterious organization is hunting down Bucky Barnes, and Team Cap is struggling with their loss of the fight. Instead of going to Wakanda, Bucky decides to stay with Steve for protection. Although everyon...
