Natasha Harkin (Natasha Romanoff x Y/N Harkin gxg)

Ghost Tour

"Natasha." I hiss toward her ear. "I don't like this." 

"You're fine." She whispers back. A flame appears in front of us and I see a woman's face outlined by the flickering light. She smiles and holds out two candles which Nat and I take. She quickly lights them and then the flame vanishes and she hops off to go to the next group. 

"I can't remember the last time I held a real candle. Why do we have candles?" I ask. 

"So you can see." Natasha answers and I shake my head. 

"But I can't see! This is such a tiny flame." I grip onto her arm a little tighter. 

"Y/N... this is all fake. Take a deep breath." She pries my hand off of her arm so she can intertwine her fingers with mine again. 

"We haven't even left the room and I'm starting to panic." I breathe out and she laughs. 

"Starting to?" She asks and I smile a little at that. 

"To begin our tour we'll be going in the opposite direction of what you think. Up to the highest peak of this church so we can set eyes upon a haunted island." The leader says and my eyes widen when he holds up a full-on torch in his hand. Everyone in the group gets into a line and I make sure never to let go of Natasha's hand. This is too much.

"Nat..." I whine and she pulls me closer to her side. 

"We're just walking up some stairs. Do you want me ahead or behind you?" She asks because the line is starting to shift into a single file in order to get up the narrow spiral staircase. 

"Behind." I decide. There is no way I'm being the last in line. 

She slips behind me but still holds onto my hand as we start to climb the stairs. The only sound that fills the cramped stairs is footsteps beating against the stone. As we near the top small slits start appearing in the walls that you can barely see the ground out of. The longer we climb the calmer I seem to get. The fear of something jumping out at me leaves because there is no space at all for someone to be hiding in this area. That sense of calm quickly leaves when we all break out onto the top part of the tower. An old bell hangs from the ceiling that slowly sways in the wind and all the walls are open to see out over the city. 

"Have any of you heard of Poveglia?" Our leader asks and I back up a little so I'm pressed against Natasha. She huffs and quickly moves her arm with the candle out of the way. 

"Be careful." She whispers but wraps her other arm around my waist. 

"Poveglia is the most haunted island in Europe! Throughout its history, there were more than 160,000 deaths related to the plague and it's home to our former insane asylum. The island would be creepy itself without its resident ghosts. The most well-known and the one we might be seeing tonight is the former asylum doctor. He is said to have tortured his patients while they spent time in his hospital. In the end, he is said to have gone mad himself, perhaps seeing some of the island's ghosts, or perhaps from something else entirely. He threw himself from the bell tower which looks a lot like the one we're standing in right now." His words send chills through my spine and I jump when an assistant walks by me. It's the same girl from before who had the candles.

"You can see the island through this window." She whispers and Nat shuffles us over to look. 

"While the fall didn't immediately kill him, he died from his wounds not long after. Some say he haunts the island still but sometimes his spirit gives us the honor of visiting our tours. If he doesn't make an appearance you are all free to take a boat over to see if the doctor is in." He finishes his speech and I stop watching him. Instead, I lean forward to try and peer toward the island.