Eliza Broussard had been taken in by the Red Room Academy at the peak age of five years old. She was trained and hardened into the Soviet's own skillful assassin by the age of fifteen. After ten years of brainwashing and training, she was discovered...
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Eliza focused her attention on the top of her spine. With her eyes closed and legs folded beneath her she was able to block out everything except for the highest vertebrae on her back. She felt her shoulders push towards one another as she straightened herself up. The tension built between her shoulder blades and stiffened the muscle covering the top of her back and stretching across towards the peak of her shoulders.
"You have a want for control, and a need for it." Natasha's gentle voice coaxed her through her meditation. "You feel that your mind is not your own. There are ways to ensure that it is."
Eliza took a long, steady breath in until her lungs wanted to burst open, then she held the breath and let it spread life through her veins. After a moment, she let the breath go through her parted lips.
"When you are worried that you are slipping back into a memory, remember your five senses, and use them to ground you."
She drew in another long breath and let it consume her. Though her attention was focused on the top of her spine, she pictured Natasha pacing around her, drawing circles in the metal flooring as she watched her passively.
"To start, acknowledge five things you can see around you. It doesn't matter what those five things are, you just have to acknowledge them. Count them out in your head as you do."
Five, Eliza thought to herself. That's not too hard.
"Then, acknowledge four things you can touch. Run your fingers through your hair, grab the hand of the person next to you. Think of its texture, or how soft it is as your fingers run over it."
Her lungs filled automatically with air. Eliza noticed how hot the air was as it settled in her lungs.
"Acknowledge three things you can hear. Don't count the voice in your head, or the whispers of a memory. Pinpoint three things outside of yourself that you hear."
Eliza noted Natasha's voice, the deep, gravel timbre of it and the non-existent accent from years of disguising who she truly was. She wondered what Natasha would sound like with the same accent as herself. Surely at one point Natasha spoke with the same slurred tone as she. But if she lost it, would Eliza lose it too?
"Find two things you can smell. Acknowledge them for what they are. Name them. Breathe them in and hold onto them."
She took in a long breath, filling her lungs with hot air that smelled like stale sweat and disinfectant. Two smells... right there.
"Lastly, think of one thing you taste. Was it the toothpaste you used this morning? Or the last thing you ate? Think and acknowledge it. Let it bring you back to the present moment."
Eliza's tongue pressed against the roof of her mouth. She massaged the ridges behind her front teeth, then ran the sides of her tongue along the insides of her molars. She didn't know what she tasted at the moment. Tea? Sugar?
