Outsider

Twenty-eight

The year is 2023.  I am celebrating my seventeenth birthday.  There was a dusting a year and a bit after Rumlow's suicide bombing, and then a blip five years later, as the world says.  I got dusted, so did Matt, but Trish and Tobias did not.  Society had changed, but not a lot; whole government systems didn't function for five years because too many vital officials had gotten dusted.  Luckily, Crimson Night was spared- I still had my family, and they remembered me.

With a quick motion, I slammed my finished shot glass on the bar counter and grabbed another.  The bitterness of alcohol washed down my throat, I smiled.  Matt joked, "Let's see how long it takes for you to get wasted,"

"Honey, you know that's never gonna happen." 

I cracked open a capsule of Criz and poured its fine, white powder into my drink.  Matt followed my lead, and we clinked glasses.  Then, a hand flashing sparkling red nails rested upon my shoulder.  "Trish," I said, hugging her.  But, something was different about her.  Instead of her long dark hair, she sported a pixie cut dyed a whitish blonde.  "Your hair-" I started.

"Let's just say I like the colour of yours," she teased, "Copying's the highest form of flattery."

In her tight-fitted, blood red high-necked dress, Trish stepped onto the the nightclub's stage.  She grabbed the microphone from the band's singer and half-shouted, "Someone very important to me turns seventeen today.  You know what they say, 'Dancing queen, young and sweet... Only seventeen!'  Happy birthday, Sarah!  You're the fucking princess of Crimson Night!"  No one ever used my real name any more, even when I wasn't wearing my disguise.  

It was three in the morning when we left the bar, I decided to walk home.  By then I had gained enough respect on the streets that no one would try anything with me- not when I carried my infamous Hydra knife everywhere I went.  The walk was uncomfortable in the high heels I was wearing, so I took off my shoes and walked barefoot.  It had just rained, so the wet on my feet felt soothing after being stuck in a crowded and hot nightclub.  The silver moon was clear and full, everything was almost perfect in this moment.  Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. had completely fell apart in the dusting, and as far as I know the Winter Soldier was gone.  No one was hunting me, I was respected and had a home.  Almost perfect.

"Ich liebe dich, Papa," I whispered to the starlit black sky.  "Ich liebe dich, Ollie,"  I was seventeen and my own father and brother should've been able to see it happen.  That's right, Oliver became my brother.

Whenever I felt sad, I would take a dosage of Criz- the buzz it gave would keep me adequately content.  I swallowed another pill and continued walking.  And all of a sudden, I heard soft footsteps from behind.  Someone was following me.  My pace increased, My knife came to my side in a fist ready to attack.  When I turned around rapidly, I saw a woman.  She was under a burnt out light, and even the glow of the moon couldn't make out her features.  I only saw that she was medium height with shoulder-length hair.  In her hands she was holding something- it was small and rectangular.  "She's fucking filming me," I muttered to myself.  Who the hell was she?  But, whoever it was I needed to stop.  I couldn't have her following me home and sharing clips of me to the world, just in case there's that small possibility that someone's watching.  My heels fell to the sidewalk, and I raised my knife in front of my chest.  Running towards her did no benefit, when I got there she had seemed to disappear.  I looked down the nearest alleyways, but this woman had vanished.

Trish and Tobias were making out on her bed when I got back to our apartment.  During the five years where I was a faint particle of dust, Trish and Tobias had developed a romantic relationship.  Not surprising, they talked for hours on end together when they thought no one was listening.  They're arguing grew less and less.  Then, Tobias moved into Trish's grand apartment, and it only escalated from there.  Shockingly, they had a daughter, an heir to Crimson Night.  God, she was gorgeous and adorable.  I saw so much innocence in her, like how when I lived with Papa.  In her golden brown eyes I saw myself, and when we first met I vowed to take care of her like my own.