𝙎𝘼𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙉 ✮ 𝘯. 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘧𝘧

{𝟎𝟒} - 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠

Red Room Academy

Russia

February 2001

SEMNA had a hard time sleeping that night. She tossed and turned for what seemed like hours, causing a ruckus with the handcuffs, more desperate to tear away from them than ever before. The scuffs and scars around her wrist were evidence enough that she had been chained for the night thousands of times in the past, but this night was like no other.

Somehow, the clinking metal failed to wake any of the other girls, or even alert the guards outside that anything unusual was happening. Semna was only slightly disappointed. For she did not want to cause a scene, but only seek solace in something besides her counteracting thoughts, or the worn tiles directly above. With the help of the dim moonlight casting through the slim, fogged windows along the top of the walls, she studied the patterns of the ceiling as she let her thoughts give chase. Even through the darkness, she could still see the faded splatters and smudges of red running along up above, unevenly scattered across the white paint. It alarmed her at first, until she remembered what Natalia told her once about this being an old training room. Still, she had to wonder what suffering had occurred for the blood to reach such a ghastly height.

She glanced briefly to the arched doorway, checking the clock, and for once hoping it was almost time for them to be awoken. She huffed quietly to herself when the reality did not suffice to this desire. She rolled over again on her mattress, tucking her head frustratingly under her arm to block out the quiet ticking. This was going to be a long night.

When this did not satisfy her needs, she finally let herself run through her conversation with Madame B, something she had been sufficiently trying to avoid.

"It is a HYDRA facility, Semnadtsat'...the home of the Winter Soldier."

Uneasy sensations spread throughout her more than they ever had.

Semna had heard stories about HYDRA, but she had no idea they were real. The brutal torture, human experimentation....The Winter Soldier.

The Soldier was the one thing she had really hoped was a myth. According to others, he was responsible for the assassinations of dozens, and the deaths of many more civilians left in the wake of his tragedies. His skills were that of every girl in the Red Room combined, a fact that had Semna regretting her choice of accepting this offer. Madame B said she was going to the home of The Winter Soldier. What would happen if she saw him? If what she heard was true, he didn't show any remorse towards his victims, and there was no reason she could muster up for him to show it to her.

Perhaps that was the real reason she was being sent away. Not to train, but to be exploited even further for the sake of accelerating HYDRA's real focus. Madame B was probably hoping the Soldier would kill her himself, Semna thought.

Just when she was starting to drift off, a soft hit to her retreating figure jolted her back to the present. She lifted her head, squinting in the dim light. She found the source of the blow—a dirty pillow on the floor—and followed it up in the direction it appeared to have come from, meeting the big, green eyes of the resident in the bed next to her. Her gaze softened.

"What did you do that for?" Semna whispered.

Natalia grinned, then held up a finger to her lips. She turned completely towards Semna's bed, snapping her own handcuffs off with a single tug, then tiptoed across the marble, picking up her pillow on the way. "It's my turn to take you on an adventure."