Innocent (Stark's Daughter 7)

Chapter 39

Ward taps his fingers on the glass table in a pattern, every third beat he switches hands. The metal clock on the wall ticks loudly, filling my head and making my hands shake. Coulson enters the meeting room and closes the door behind him.

Striding to the front of the room, he throws two files onto the desk. My eyes jump to them, then to Coulson and he nods at me. I brush my fingers on the first file and slide it across the desk towards me. Glancing at Ward, I look at the file then back at him, gesturing for him to read the other.

"I've already read them." He admits.

Flicking open the cover, the first page is plain paper with boxes of writing. At the top of the page is the name "Zeke Matthews" and below are a few photos of him taken from a newspaper. The first photo is him singing while playing his beloved guitar in Fighting Blind's music video P.S. I Love You. The next photo is Zeke posing at the camera, winking his left eye and smirking happily while running a hand through his hair. The next photo is recent, Zeke wrapping his arms around my waist and dragging me off the press conference stage, his lips whispering in my ear to calm me down as he lifts me off the ground.

Flicking to the next page, there is a screenshot of a video. Zeke is leaning forward on the bed, his teeth clenched in anger as he tugs at the braces on his wrists. His eyes are pure red like boiling bitter blood and his face is tense with hate.

The next page is a photo of his blood in a microscope, I instantly notice the darker cells that shouldn't be there. Underneath is a drawn table containing information on movement rate, temperature and various other factors.

"Why the sudden meeting? If this is about Zeke's reaction to the serum I made, there must be an error in my calculations or something." I explain.

"This meeting is not about Zeke, it's about you, Skye." Coulson announces.

Raising my head from the file, I close it. Coulson has my full attention now. Pushing the file forward, I lean back slightly in my chair.

"What do you mean?" I quiz.

"We were sent this." Coulson begins, pushing the other folder forward and opening the cover.

"Skye Stark is to meet us at the shopping centre car park at 10pm tomorrow night. If she does not turn up, we will kill everyone she loves."

"Obviously I have to meet these people." I point out, closing the file and pushing it back on the table.

"How? How do you plan on doing that?" Ward questions, his tone raising slightly.

"I don't know. I can't sit around and not go, if I don't everyone I love dies." I argue.

"What's the plan then?"

"What if, Skye met them alone, but around the area there are several vans with Agents in?" Ward suggests.

"That could work. I will have to arrange that. Skye?"

"Yep. Sounds great." I mumble. I have to do this. I need to do this.

"Are you sure? There are other ways."

"No, what Ward said is a good idea." I whisper. There is no other way.

*
Wrapping the bandage tight around my wrist, I see red lines form under the material. Pulling my hair into a tight ponytail, I raise my fists high and by my eyes. I push the headphones into my ears and a fast paced bass song plays, seeping into my brain. Punching over and over, my fists disappear in the bag. After twenty minutes, my fists start to sting from repeatedly hitting the punching bag.

Stepping away, I stretch my fingers and shake my legs. Grabbing the bottle of water off the shelve, I quickly drink until the scratchy feeling in my throat has been drowned out. Yanking the headphones from my ears, they fall down my sweat drenched t-shirt. Pulling them through, I throw them onto the wooden bench along with my phone.