Almost the Heir...

Chapter 36: Wounds

Elena awoke with a start. Pain overtook her body as she slowly became aware of her senses. Black spots clouded her vision, but from what she could tell, it was dusk and she was laying in an unfamiliar field. It smelled of sulfur and oncoming rain. There were what she assumed to be bullfrogs ribbiting somewhere in the distance.

Then another wave of pain hit her.

She couldn't seem to use her voice, but she knew that if she could, a gut-wrenching scream would've escaped her lips. All Elena could do was silently writhe on the ground. Agony coursed through her veins.

When the pain finally subsided a bit, she became aware of the many gashes across her body. She knew they were bleeding severely. How long was she going to last? That was the question she couldn't stop asking herself.

Thunder boomed in the distance and lightning crackled overhead. It became apparent at that moment, this was how Elena was going to die. The honorable death she had promised herself, turning out to be by her own accord after all.

She had left it all behind. Everything she had worked towards, all her goals, everyone she had ever loved. It was all gone. There was no going back now. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone would miss her. Or if anyone would find her body, or if she would just lie here and rot until the crows scavenged what they could from her body.

Of course they'll worry about me! she thought. I did just disappear without a trace. And I know they care; they raised me. And if I know them, they'll never completely stop looking for me.

The pain came again, stronger this time. Elena was glad that she was numbed almost completely by the guilt she felt. She had let anger control her, lead her to do something stupid and regretful. She thought she was doing herself a favor by ditching her life, but she realized now just how wrong she was.

Memories of growing up on the hellicarrier played through her mind. She remembered her three-year-old self playing hide-and-seek with Tony and Steve.

She remembered being held in Bruce's strong arms, waving goodbye to the rest of the team as they went off to save the world. At the time, she didn't understand why they were leaving her. She had tearfully buried her head in Bruce's shoulder.

She remembered her first day of school. She had hidden behind Steve's legs, to afraid of the unknown to go on alone. Even at a young age, she was too proud of herself to back down from a challenge- and Steve used that to his advantage. "I know this was a bad idea. I knew you would be too afraid..." he had said. This had caught young Elena's attention. "Am not! I'll prove it!" she had snapped as she marched through the front doors. Then, later, she had spent the rest of that day telling Clint all about how amazing school was, right up until bedtime.

She remembered when she was twelve and she started the most intense prank war the world has ever seen. It started when Tony had put salt in Elena's water and tricked her into drinking it. Seeking revenge, Elena used her magic to charm Tony's favorite chair to make whoever sat in it fall in love with the nearest lamp (Why she chose a lamp she never really knew). Of course Natasha decided to sit in his chair before he could, so she ended up having multiple make-out sessions with an old lamp. Clint accidentally walked in on one of these make-out sessions and started laughing hysterically. When Nat was back to her normal self, she got her revenge on Clint, and, well, the cycle went on like this for a full eight months.

She remembered all those nights she had pulled all-nighters in order to study because she had been too engrossed in books during the day.

She remembered all the weekends she had spent doing nonstop training. All the times she had gotten frustrated and ended up destroying things around her. All the times Steve or Clint or Natasha had come down to the training room to help her out.

She remembered the time that Clint and Natasha had taken her out for ice cream on her ninth birthday.

She remembered a much more innocent girl crawling through her beloved air ducts until she fell through a vent in order to have another conversation with the mysterious stranger she had met the previous day. They had talked about seemingly unimportant things, until the unexpected happened. Elena could only feel joy in those moments, no matte how much she told herself not to: no matter how much she denied the feeling. How could this villain be her father? She remembered the man kidnapping her in the middle of the night and showing her what a real family could be like.

She remembered being dragged away, kicking and screaming. She remembered not being able to feel anything for the next month. She remembered the feeling of betrayal.

She remembered all of the good, some of the bad, and everything in between. All the stories of peoples' lives flashing before their eyes suddenly made sense. Then something strange happened.

What Elena assumed to be another memory surfaced in her mind. But it was unlike any of the others. This memory seemed more like a dream, and every seemed blurry. It just wasn't normal. "She's beautiful" A masculine voice said, they sounded as if they had been crying. "She looks exactly like you. Except for the nose and ears." a tired, feminine voice replied. She couldn't make out who these people were, but she felt connected to them. Had her body not been shutting down, she might've realized the link, but in her current state, there was no way. "We made it. We're going to be okay. I love you- both of you." the man said. And then it ended. Elena was brought back to the painful reality of it all.

Darkness had finally set in and the sky was just beginning to open up to pouring rain. Elena considered how odd it was that what seemed like only a few seconds was, in reality, a couple of hours. Who knows, maybe perception of time is messed up when a person dies.

A ghost of a smile passed over the seventeen-year-old's lips as she stared up at the starry sky and took her life into consideration. It could have been so much worse for her. Eventually, she finally felt the harsh rain begin to pelt her. She was thankful for the rain, believe it or not. It washed away the blood on her body.

Elena felt the life draining from her body as she rolled her head to the side so that the entire right side was resting in the thick mud. She noticed that her hair was brown, not her preferred black. How sad. she thought. I won't be dying as myself.

And then she began to count her breaths.

One. Two.

It became harder to breathe.

Three. Four.

Uneven and rattling.

Five.

More like a series of gasps.

Six.

And that was it. That was the end. It was all over. Seventeen short years, all gone in an instant.

The sky clouded over and the rain only fell harder. The sky was no longer visible beneath so many clouds. The universe was perhaps mourning the loss of a lost child. A child who had never known that she was constantly being watched over and protected. A child who never did believe in anything she couldn't see.

THE END

Read the author's note after this chapter to find out more information about a sequel, because there WILL be a sequel!