Can't Ask, Don't Need, Won't Acknowledge

Chapter 3: Revelations

Wanda woke up with a start in the middle of the night, she brought her hand up to her face and wiped her sweaty brow. She was soaked and drenched in sweat. Wanda took some deep breaths as she tried to stop herself from hyperventilating. She closed her eyes to centre herself, she gripped her hands roughly into the bedspread. Wanda couldn’t even remember what nightmare had woken her up, she just remembered the feeling. That dark feeling in the pit of her stomach that made it hard to breath, it just hurt. Like someone had yanked an important organ from her body. It took her a moment to realise she was crying. She used the back of her hand to wipe away her tears. Wanda was annoyed at herself, why was she crying? She wasn’t in actual pain; her limbs were fine. She wasn’t bruised, she wasn’t broken. Wanda dug her fingernails further into the duvet, as she got increasingly annoyed with herself. Pathetic, she was pathetic. No that wasn’t the right
w

ord, pitiful? Deplorable? Feeble?

The self loathing filled her every essence. She looked down at her hand gripping the bedding and realised her hand was glowing red. She got out of the bed and paced in the room, trying to make herself calm down. Unbeknownst to the young witch, Natasha had set an alarm to be notified if the teenager got out of bed in the middle of the night.

Natasha groaned as the alarm woke her up, but quickly put on her dressing gown and made her way to the younger girl’s room. She made a rookie mistake by not knocking first.

Wanda in her heightened state sensed the intrusion and threw her arms up in front of her. The red mist shot from her body and Natasha went flying back into the hallway colliding heavily with the wall.

Wanda looked in shock as she watched the woman go flying backwards, “Nat!”
She panicked and ran over to the woman, “I’m so sorry, it was an accident! Nat? You ok? Nat?”

Natasha groaned slightly slowly getting to her feet, “I’m ok Wanda.” She grimaced as she straightened herself, she could tell that her back would be bruised by the morning.

Wanda rushed back into the room. She hurriedly opened her chest of drawers, and started rooting through the draws grabbing some of her old tatty clothes throwing them onto the bed. She then moved on and opened the wardrobe and grabbed a backpack that she tossed on the bed as well.

“Wanda what are you doing?” queried Natasha following her back into the room.

She carried on rushing around the room, “Packing,” was the one-word response.

Natasha cocked her head curiously at the teenager, “for what exactly?”

“I’m leaving,” came the reply. Natasha looked again at the frazzled and clearly terrified girl. Wanda started sorting haphazardly through her book case, tossing random books onto the bed to join the backpack and the other items she had collected.

“Why do you think you are leaving?” asked Natasha calmly.

Wanda turned back to her in disbelief, “I just threw you into a wall Nat, I am a liability what if I hurt you again. What if I hurt anyone else?” Her voice was starting to break and choke up as she said the words. By the end of the sentence she sounded so broken, that it even made Natasha want to cry in empathy.

Natasha approached the girl and stopped her erratic scurrying around the room. “Calm down Wanda, it was just an accident. You clearly had a nightmare and I should have knocked first.”

Wanda shook her head, her face was red and tear-stained. “I hurt you.”

Natasha shrugged, “I have had worse in training with Barton.” Natasha wrapped an arm around Wanda, and pulled her into a hug. Wanda found herself resting her head unconsciously on the older woman’s shoulder.