sunshine. chapter one.
SUMMARY ; marleigh fell unconscious in 1945 and wakes up in 2016.
❝ watching you's the only drug i need
so gangsta, i'm so thug, you're the only one
i'm dreaming of ❝
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MARLEIGH HADN'T had a clue where she was, though she could definitely say it was somewhere she's never been. she woke up laying flat on her back, and when she opened her eyes she was met with the sight of a beige ceiling above her. siting up from the uncomfortable bed, marleigh stood up to her feet, clutching at her head when she grew dizzy.
blue eyes scanning the room, she saw she was inside an unfamiliar bedroom, it definitely wasn't her own. there were two large windows close to the neatly made bed, and the scenery behind them looked odd. it was just the sight of the side of an apartment building, but it looked... fake.
walking towards it, marleigh placed the palm of her hand on the glass of the window, and after finding out that was real, she looked for the lock to open the window to see if she could see anything from outside to try and figure out where she was. her hands fumbled all over the window, her eyes scanning everywhere, and no, there was no lock or even a handle to pull the window open with. that raised her suspicions.
turning back to the bed behind her, she furrowed her eyebrows, realizing she couldn't have been laying there long, considering the bed looked as if it had barely been touched. glancing around at all the decorations in the room, there was a baseball poster hung on the wall right above the bed that said lets play ball! in white, bold letters.
squinting her eyes, marleigh got closer to the poster to read the letters that were in smaller print on the right bottom corner. brandon forry, 1941. backing up in small steps, marleigh's face grew white. she sat at the edge of the bed once the back of her knees hit it, panic starting to settle in.
okay just calm down. you're fine. howard is probably looking for you right now and you know he won't stop until he finds you. don't stress.
"goooood afternoon ladies and gentlemen," the sudden loud voice erupting the silence in the room made marleigh practically jump out of her skin. after settling down as she realized there was a small radio sat on the beside table, she calmed herself and sat back down on the bed, her brain trying to come up with a way to get out of there.
"brandon forry and the rest of the team members of the national winning baseball team here in brooklyn.. are ready to take on the california eagles in tonight's game.." the announcer's voice trailed off, but marleigh was already banging at the door to get out of there before he could finish, though no one ever came to let her out.
his few words practically made marleigh want to cry. that game isn't live, and she knew that because she went to that game with her older (by 2 years) brother steve and their shared best friend bucky. it was such a big deal for marleigh because she loved brandon forry, he was her favorite baseball player. they ended up losing the game, but that was a day the girl would never forget, she had so much fun with those two boys.
marleigh begin to search everywhere around the room, and after noticing a vent just below the ceiling, she tossed everything off of the bedside table, and put it on top of the bed to try and reach the vent. slowly, she stood up on the shaky small table, she placed her palms on the wall for support. when her hands reached the vent, her face fell, and her heart dropped to her stomach.
it was a smooth surface, no physical vent there, although it looked like one. her nails picked at the edges of it, and peeled it back, revealing it was just a sticker. tossing it to the side, marleigh huffed in frustration. climbing off the table and placing it back on the floor in its previous place, the blonde walked to the door in the corner of the room.
flickering her eyes shut, she placed her palm on the center of the door, relaxing her muscles. and within seconds, the sound of the lock popping open echoed throughout the room. grinning in victory, marleigh twisted the cold door handle, and pulled back the door. revealing itself on the other side of the wall, was something mary never would've guessed.
stepping out of the room, she walked into a movie set, it looked like, it resembled a studio of some sort. before marleigh could get ten feet away from the room she was in, two people, a man and a woman, were rushing towards her, trying to usher her back into the room, marleigh began to panic.
"get off of me! what's going on?!" the girl exclaimed, shoving their hands off of her arms and shoulders. the two adults took a step back, dropping their arms back down by their sides. she glanced at the room behind her, and saw it looked like a white box from the outside, excluding the door, which was made out of dark wood.
"marleigh, what year is it?" the girl scrunched her face up at the odd question. "1945... why?" the blonde asked, confusion written all over her facial expression. "i don't understand is how you have that baseball game on the radio? i went to that game with my brother and our friend," marleigh began, crossing her arms over her chest. the two shared a look, remaining silent.
"whatever, if you don't wanna answer me i'll go find answers myself." and with that, marleigh was running as fast as she could out of there, she didn't know where she was going, or where the exit was, but she decided she would find it herself. she ignored all the shouts for her to stop, and sped up at the sound of heavy footsteps following behind her.
finally, after a few minutes of running around and frantically searching for a way out, she found the tall, glass doors to the front office and pushed on the silver handles to open them. slowing her pace to a stop, marleigh glanced around her, realizing she was in new york city. cars were honking, people were shouting, the streets were crowded, it made marleigh's head hurt.
turning around in a circle, marleigh searched everywhere for some sort of explanation as to what was happening. when her eyes landed on one of the many (glowing?) build boards, mary didn't understand, she's never seen anything like that before. can we expect a stark expo in 2017? with a photo of a guy marleigh has never seen before, but he looked a lot like howard.
"excuse me, what year is it?" marleigh stopped a young, brunette woman walking down the busy street, clutching onto many shopping bags. the woman gave her an odd look, similar to the one marleigh gave the man and woman that asked her the same thing only minutes prior.
"2016..." her voice trailed off, before continuing on down the sidewalk. marleigh felt her heart skip a beat, as her temperature started to rise. she didn't understand, how could it be 2016? nothing was making sense, and marleigh felt like she was losing her mind.
turning around at the sound of the heavy glass doors being flung open, marleigh glanced behind her to see many people rushing out of the tall building she was previously in, as well as multiple cars racing down the street towards her, swerving in and out of busy rush hour traffic. panicking (and not knowing what these people wanted from her) marleigh took off on a run again, this time going towards an alley way sense it was the only place with no one trying to stop her.
the blonde ran, reaching the end of the alley way she continued her pace down the sidewalk, never slowing to look back. she dodged people left and right, quickly apologizing when bumping into someone. her ran only came to a stop when she saw a large building (it towered over everything else in the city, it was by far the tallest thing) with an a on the side of it. but that wasn't what sparked her interest, it was the billboard across from the tower.
it was the same man that looked almost identical to howards. the words spelled out all across the bottom of the billboard confused marleigh to no end. "when asked what it was like being friends with the super soldier (aka. steve rogers) stark replied with "it's like being friends with a toddler that's confused about everything but at least knows how to dress themselves"
steve rogers? that was definitely her older brother's name (her older brother that was dead) and as confused as a toddler? yeah, steve was a bit clueless at times, marleigh used to make fun of him all the time for it (jokingly, of course) and stark? that was howard's last name, and with them looking identical that couldn't have been just a coincidence. looking back at the building, considering it was the tallest thing in the city, and now knowing that he had to be related to howard, maybe he was in there and could help her out.
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calm down. you're fine, find the man that looks like howard, shouldn't be too hard. you'd be able to spot him out of a crowd, don't stress.
expect she was stressing, and she couldn't stop herself from doing so as she slowly entered into the building. as soon as her foot passed the threshold, all heads turned to her. there was one woman standing behind a very large, white desk, and a man to her left. across from them was a desk identical to the first one, with two women standing behind.
"can i help you?" the black haired girl to her left spoke first, brows furrowing as she looked marleigh up and down. swallowing her fear, the blonde started to take steps towards her, stopping when she reached the desk that went a little above her rib cage.
"um.. i'm here to see stark?" her voice was filled with uncertainty, slight fear crossing over her soft features. the woman chuckled a bit at her words, as if she was waiting for marleigh to say she was joking. furrowing her brows in confusion, she was about to ask what was so funny when the woman spoke.
"a lot of girls your age want to see him, sweetheart. but i'm sorry, mr.stark isn't doing meet and greets right now." and with that, the woman went back to her work, ignoring marleigh as if she had walked away. marleigh started to grow defensive, she knew howard, she knew the starks, everyone in the company was on a first name bassist with her. she wasn't some fan girl.
well.. that was also back in 1945.
"um, i don't think you understand.. i know him- well, i knew his family, and i need to speak with him, it's important." marleigh pushed, pulling her best i'm being serious facial expression. the woman sighed heavily, before grabbing a... small device? marleigh didn't know what it was, from off the desk to her left. she pressed her finger against it a few times, before placing it to her ear, ignoring marleigh's confused expression.
"yes, mr.stark, i'm so sorry to bother you right now, but there's a.. sorry what was your name?" the woman asked her, hand clutching the device to her ear, marleigh swallowed. "marleigh." the blonde responded.
"marleigh, her name is.." the woman's voice trailed off. "yes, of course," she brought the phone away from her ear and pressed her finger against the screen of the device a couple times, before turning the back of it to face marleigh.
"uh, i have no clue who she is.." she heard a man's voice say. disappointment washed over marleigh's facial expression and her emotions, this was her only chance at finding steve, she would have no clue where else to go from here.
"but she's cute, so let her up." marleigh's ears perked up at this, as her eyes lit up as well. she heard the man chuckle from the other end of the device, but didn't pay much mind to it, just like she didn't pay much mind to the glare the woman shot her. the woman pressed a button hidden behind the desk that opened up the elevator, alerting that it was now available to use with a ding.
"go to floor 107." was all the woman said, before disappearing into a back room, closing the door behind her before marleigh could thank her. shrugging her shoulders, the blonde walked into the elevator, and gaped at all the glowing numbers. it went from one all the way to three hundred and twenty seven. she didn't think that was even possible. clicking the glowing 107 with her index finger, marleigh watched as the elevator doors closed and it began to move.
she decided to prepare what she would say, and how she would tell this man that she's been unconscious for 71 years.