Secret World

16

    "Echo, are you okay?" Bucky asked, breaking the silence. Slowly I lifted my eyes from the floor, his eyes a mix of confusion, fear and pain. I opened my mouth to reply and I was hit with a wave of terror moments before everything went black.
"Sir, she's not reacting to any of the outside stimuli." A crisp voice broke the air.
    "Try it again!" The accent echoed through the chambers, anger filled his words.
    The hum of electricity permeated the air, I closed my eyes to brightness of the lights, knowing they would dim enough, just enough to see the twisted faces of the creatures. Tears rolled down the sides of the face as I laid strapped to the hospital gurney. Seconds, that's all I had before I felt the jolt of electricity run it's course through my body. Every muscle tensed on its own accord and the pain ripples through me again. I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming again.
    "Are you going to behave now!" The accent filled my ears, if evil had a voice it would be his, I was sure of it.
    The lights dimmed as the voltage was increased, my punishment for not telling them things I hadn't seen. I don't control this, it controls me! The sound of  the creatures skittering across the walls, the floor, the ceiling anywhere, anywhere it was dark enough for them to show their haunting faces. Terror courses it's way through my body as the electricity slowly subsided. The lights brightened again, as I slowly opened my eyes. I stared straight up at the ceiling.
     "Let's start from the beginning again." His voice was closer then before. "Tell me what you see when I place this object in your hand."
    The sleek staff was placed in my palm, it was warm to the touch and alien all the same.
    Slowly eyes fluttered open, the lights in the room had been dimmed. I rolled slightly, the coffee table still had the newspaper the old man had been reading from a couple days ago. I looked over to the chair in the corner and saw Bucky sleeping. I sat up cautiously, every corner of the room  had some amount of light to it. Just enough to keep the creatures at bay.
    "You're back." Bucky stated groggily. I looked back over to him, he sat up alittle straighter as he looked over to me.
    "I'm not exactly sure what happened, if you're going to ask me that." I replied quietly.
    "Nope, wasn't to." He calmly said. "You have your reasons, I'm sure of it. Trust me, I've been there, on the run. Not trusting anyone, it's not going to get you very far though. Sure you trust the kid, and he's a good kid but whatever you're running from, he alone won't be able to protect you."
    "I'm not even sure why I'm running anymore, to be honest." I stated as I looked around the room.
    "Then why not tell us?" He asked, leaning forward placing his elbows on his knee.
     "Because the every time I told an adult, or someone I didn't really know, I either ended up in a padded room or on a table with electrodes sticking out of various points of my body." I explained harshly.
    "I get that, electrodes hurt like hell. But we aren't them. I know that's hard to believe, especially when you've probably had people tell you that exact same thing." Bucky stood and calmly walked toward the kitchen. "So which is it, running from someone or something? I won't ask for specifics."
    "Both?" I replied. "Except I don't know I need to run from someone here. And I know that doesn't make any sense."
    "You're right that doesn't. But I'll go with it."
    "But, the things I'm running from I can't ever out run them, they are always with me. No matter how hard I try, how far I run, the minute the lights get to dark, they are there. Waiting for me."
     "Personal demons?" Bucky asked as he came back and set a mug down, the warm scent of vanilla and coffee filtered toward me.
    "Something like that."
    "Have you ever tried to face them head on?" He asked as he sat back down.
     "They would win." I scoffed as I picked up the cup and took a sip.
      "Why?"
      "They're stronger then I am, faster, smarter. It's hard to explain."
     "Some times when you face your demons, no matter how much bigger they seem, you can still beat them." He replied, tilting his head to look at me.
"Where is everyone?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Asleep, you've been out for a couple hours." Bucky stated before taking a sip out of his mug.
"Seriously? I haven't black out like that since.." I stopped myself before I could finish. The last time I blacked out was in the cement room, the one were they had in flicked so much pain.
"Okay, stop me if I'm wrong, I ain't going to to ask, but I'm going to take a stab and see how close I am." Bucky said as he set the mug down on the coffee table and took a deep breath. "From the way you talk, and the way you act, you're very vigilant of the people around you. Which means you've had people sneak up on you. You've mentioned electrodes so you've been tortured, most likely from people posing or actually the government. Which explains your hesitation of telling people about these demons of yours."
He paused as he gauged my reaction, ice blue eyes staring straight at me, unnerving and calming.
"These demons, only you can see them and they must only appear in the dark and whatever they are they're dangerous. Otherwise you wouldn't be as terrified as you are. You're very confused about the world around you, more then normal even for someone pre-snap coming back. So I don't think you're from here."
"I.." Bucky held up his hand in response.
"It's okay, this world got a hell of weirder after Thanos, so you not being from here isn't that big of a thing." He chuckled. "I just want to make sure you aren't going to hurt the kid, he's been through a lot for someone his age."
"I would never hurt Peter." I replied back. "He had been the first nice person I've met since my Auntie passed away."
"Sounds like it's been along time."
"Since I was a kid." I sighed, leaning back on the couch, tucking my knees to my chest. "Everything was easier back then."
"Isn't it always?" He chuckled.
"What language were they speaking? When you were in the snow?" I asked, I saw his face tense up for a brief moment.
    "Russian." He stated flatly.
    "I hate seeing the echos, faded moments and memories. Especially the dark ones, the fear and pain, terror, it's draining." I said, my solemn words echoing in the dim room. "Before all this, the worst ones I had seen were that of murderers and terrorist when they had me, and now... the things I've seen, I've heard."
    I shook my head as I stared at the coffee table, feeling somewhere between relief and panic.
    "You're right Bucky, I'm not from here. The things I've seen here, they're marvels, they're bits of science fiction wrapped into a world so similar to mine that it was hard to believe. It's still hard to believe the things I continue to see."
    "And Peter knows this?" He asked, leaning back.
    "Yes, he knows everything." I replied. "Except the painful parts, and the ones with British man."