Madeleine wished that she could think back to a time where everything was normal. She wanted to think of a time where her mother would've taken her to see a movie, or to go shopping, or to visit a local zoo, but they were just fantasies flowing through her mind as she walked down the streets of Brooklyn in her black hoodie with red drawstrings. She hung her head low as she passed shops and restaurants filled with families and couples. She turned down an alley of old apartment buildings. Walking down the array of crumbling brick walls, she slid a pair of black leather gloves over each hand.
She stopped in front of the fire escape of a rickety brick building. The fire escaped fell at her feet after pulling it downwards. It made a large clatter against the cracked pavement as she propped it against the ground. She climbed up the stairway with her backpack clinging onto her back. The escape stopped in front of the highest window of the building, which was a mere 8 feet from the top of the building. Madeleine huffed and walked to the bannister. She gathered her momentum, ran towards the wall and swiftly propelled herself up the wall. She gripped the ledge made of old cement.
"дерьмо"(1) She muttered under her breath.
Her legs swung aimlessly beneath her as she dangled from the roof. Her hands gripped the cement even tighter as she pulled her body up towards to top, completing the task successfully. She rolled off of the ledge towards the center of the roof. Her body laid on the surface effortlessly. Her nails dug at the cement as she looked at the sky dotted with clouds. Madeleine's ears suddenly experience a blaring pitch that made her body curl in pain. She was getting sloppier by the second and this noise had no shame in telling her that.
The noise shortly stopped and allowed her to pull herself to the nearest ledge, where she propped her exasperated body against. She took a long and deep breath as she pulled her sniper rifle out of her bag. She slid the scope into place on top of the gun. The gun took its place in her hands as she pulled it on top of the ledge. Her eyes fixated through the scope trying to find her target. As her eyes moved to spot the target, so did the gun. She spotted the man sporting his navy blue polo with a pair of white dress pants and white loafers. Quite a fashion faux-pas if Madeleine said so herself.
He was surrounded by four bodyguards as he shook hands with his colleague.
"целевая пятнистая"(2) she whispered into her earpiece.
"стрелять" (3) a voice echoed back. Her arms positioned next to the rifle and her fingers hovered over the trigger. She watched and adjusted her aim as Hunter sat down at a picnic table with his comrade. Her finger slowly tightened on the trigger until the gun had fired. Madeleine stared into the scope and watched as her bullet sunk into Hunter Hartley's skull. Hunter was another member of the World Security Council who stood in Hydra's way. Her mission for today was to take him out, in which she just did. Her head poked from above the gun and she watched as terror began to tear through the atmosphere as people noticed the man's lifeless body fall to the ground.
Madeleine wished she could feel something. Remorse, pain, rage, or even happiness would've made her feel normal. But once again, she felt nothing.
She felt her heartbeat quicken as she stuffed the gun back into her backpack. She stood and jumped back over the ledge and landed smoothly on the same fire escape. Her footsteps echoed through the alleyway as she raced down the stairs. The second her feet touched the ground she turned and pushed the fire escape back to its original position. She made sure to re-adjust her hood and rejoined the bustling sidewalk. She knew where she had to go but she wasn't quite sure how to navigate through the sea of bodies. She cut through several people and found herself pushed into others every so often.
