The Beginning and Ending of Everything

Prolouge - Why Are You Stealing This Child?

They remind us that we're heroes

They call us heroes,

they remind us every day.

We want to stay strong,

but the memories make us weak.

We stood for them already,

but will stand again.

We've lost our hope

that darkness will subside

We'll never have the chance to stop fighting.

It's broken us down and beaten us

it suffocates us

We feel weak even though they remind us

that we are heroes.

It doesn't feel that way,

When we are tired and done with all this fighting.

Our pasts haunt us, tortured our souls

We are just looking for peace.

Even though they remind us every day

that we are heroes

We are scared

we always have been.

But we will stand to fight anyway,

and that is true strength.

No one understands

they can try, but they don't

This weight that presses down on us

will one day crush us.

But until that day,

we've already stood for the people,

But we will stand again.

[~~~~~~]

[3rd person omniscient - Friday, August 18, 2023 - Avengers Compound]

Not that any of the Avengers or anyone from SHIELD would notice, but no one ever saw Natalia Alinovna Romanova on August eighteenth.

Every year, Natasha would disappear on that day into her room. No one questioned it. They all assumed that she was doing something spy-ish-y. After all, she does usually disappear for days on end. But every year, on August eighteenth, Natasha locked her door and cried.

Now, you must understand that Natasha is a highly trained, secret-operative spy-assassin. She never cried. Never.

But she does on August eighteenth, and this is the eighteenth time she has done so. Plus, eighteen years ago on this day was one of the happiest days of her life. So why was she crying?

Natasha sat on her bed, silent tears streaming down her face, rocking back and forth, clutching a small, three-by-five picture to her chest.

[Natasha - 1st person - Friday, August 18, 2023 - Avengers Compound]

Why? Why did I let it happen? Why didn't I get back up? I could have tried harder. I could have saved him.

I reached over, and faster than you could blink, I grabbed my glass of water from my bedside table and threw it at the wall across the room. It shattered everywhere.