The Winter Wraith

Chapter 15

“I don’t remember the training room looking like this,” the boy said in a thick accent.

“That’s because we are in the wrong room. I told you it was a left, not right!” the lady said, obviously annoyed with the man. “If you would just slow down and listen—”

“We have company,” the man, Pietro, suddenly said, finally noticing the Wraith in her cell.

“We should go. Strucker doesn’t want us in this wing,” the young woman said, putting two and two together to understand that the unknown girl was probably another volunteer about to be experimented on.

Pietro picked up the girl and sped off, out of sight.

As soon as they had left, a small group of Hydra agents marched in from a different door, on the other side of the room. One unlocked and opened the cell door, and two agents came in to grab her. They led her to another room, connected to the wing, and pushed her in. The door immediately slammed shut behind her.

The eerie gray room had an elevated walkway that she was standing on. It ran for a couple of yards and turned to the side, where some sort of scepter stood, propped up by a stand. A glowing blue stone shone at the end of the object. Across the wall, there was one-way glass.

An intercom crackled to life.

“For our notes, Miss, can you please state your name and confirm your status?”

“Adina. Um, asset,” she hesitantly replied, not sure what her full name of status was.

“Begin experimentation. Touch the stone.”

The vibrant blue orb appeared to be the only source of light in the dim room. It felt like it was calling to her, pulling her closer, pleading for her to simply touch it.

She walked forward, and the stone suddenly shot out from the scepter, stopping and hovering in the air in front of her. She slowly closed the last few steps between her and the mysterious stone, reaching out with her hand.

The stone had a blue aura around it, enveloping it, energy swirling around the strange object, creating a barrier that her hand was pushing through.

The tips of her fingers came into contact with the stone, and the room exploded into a whirlwind of various shades of blue strands weaving around, mixing, and intertwining
together, forming a complex and constantly changing pattern as bright as the sun.

Her body felt like it was full of bright energy as her skin tingled with some sort of electric current. Just as abruptly as it began, the light show suddenly dissipated, and Adina’s body was thrown back by a wave of energy, like she was a rag doll.

Her pulse stopped as her world turned black.

~~~~~~

A knock sounded at the door, and Adina woke up with a start and shot up from her position on the ground. She was breathing heavily, still lost in the memory. The person invited themselves in, seeing the helpless teen with wide eyes, struggling to take in a breath.

The man’s lips were moving, telling her something, but she heard none of it. Adina started hyperventilating and her body trembled with a great force. The man reached down to jostle her shoulder and snap her out of the unsettling state. Now noticing him, the Wraith grabbed his wrist just as his fingertips brushed her shoulder, and twisted the metal arm to the side, as she sprung up from the floor. Her other arm shot up and wrapped around the man’s neck, cutting off his air supply.

She took a few menacing steps forward, forcing the brunette man against the wall. Another bulky man stepped through the open doorway, and upon seeing the situation, he pulled something out of his pocket.

A harsh electric current ran through her body, causing her grip to loosen and fall as she took a step back in pain. She was brought back to reality.

Steve looked at her with caution, regarding her as an enemy, waiting to see if she would attack again.

“Sorry,” Adina said, ducking her head to avoid the hurt look on Bucky’s face and putting on an ashamed facade.

Last night before she had fallen asleep, Adina began to formulate a plan to escape from this building, or compound, as she heard Bucky call it. She had no intention of being confined to the compound and being at the mercy of others. Part of her strategy was to trick Bucky into believing that she actually wanted to stay here and be his friend. So far, minus this small setback, it seemed to be working.

She would definitely need to find a way to get rid of that pesky remote or somehow disable the metal band before leaving. Otherwise, it would greatly impede her escape and be a major setback. She also needed to know the layout of this massive base. Luckily for her, they had mentioned giving her a tour of the whole place. It’s like they wanted her to escape; they were making this too easy for her.

“It’s alright. I should’ve been more careful with how I approached you,” Bucky admitted.

He knew how dangerous it would be for someone to wake him up from a nightmare and assumed it was the same for her, but he couldn’t not help when he saw the state of despair she was in.

“I was just coming in to tell you to get ready. Steve’s going to give you a tour this morning. Hopefully he won’t get lost like last time,” Bucky teased Steve.

Steve and Bucky kept up a light banter as they left Adina’s room, giving her some time to change and wash up. She did just that and now sported black jeans and a navy crew neck. She also still had on her beat-up combat boots.

Once she was ready, she mentally prepared herself to play the part of a misguided teen who just wanted someone to love and care for them. Gross.

Published: 4/4/22

A/N: I thought I had already published this, but I checked and it was missing for some reason. (Orginally it was supoised to come out 4/4/22). So sorry for those of you who missed this chapter, as the story probably jumped in time and context with it missing.