A N N A ' S P O V
A sudden jolt through my body woke me up from my uneasy slumber. I sat up and instantly felt the stinging pain coming from my ribs. I lifted my shirt to reveal a bruise that was dark and swollen. I placed my finger on it and barely applied any pressure, but I hissed nonetheless.
I pushed myself off the bed and as if on cue, the door to my cell opened. "Good, you're awake. Let's go," the man who entered told me.
"Where are we going?" I asked, following closely behind.
He didn't reply as he continued his journey with long strides ahead of me. He pushed open a fence and motioned for me to step inside. I eyed him with confusion but stepped inside anyway.
Looking ahead of me, I stopped in my tracks as a girl stood across from me.
Her dark brown eyes removed themselves from the ground and met mine. They held nothing but pure void and at that exact moment, I realised she had undergone the same treatment as me.
"Who are you?" she asked. She didn't speak Russian like everyone else around me. Instead, she spoke English, the language I knew was my original one.
I hesitated, narrowing my eyes at her. "Who are you?"
"I asked you first," she shot back.
"I asked you second," I stated, crossing my arms and jutting out my hip.
She squinted at me, her face showing barely any emotion.
"Winter," I decided to say. "Your turn."
The girl looked down with a slight sense of confusion clouding her eyes. "They keep calling me Night Wind, but that's not my real name, is it?"
"They call me the Winter Warrior," I said and she looked up. "That's what they do. They take our names and replace them with different ones."
"Did they catch you too?"
"You ask a lot of questions," I commented.
She looked away.
The door behind us opened and a man stepped inside, tossing two rolls of bandaging our way. I knew what this meant. Night Wind stared at the roll for a second before looking up, seeing me wrapping the bandaging around the knuckles of my human hand. Her eyes widened.
"What is going on?" she asked.
"Sparring," I answered, finishing up the bandaging and walking over to her. I took the roll from her hands and began wrapping her knuckles in the white bandaging. She flinched when I first touched her but relaxed as she watched me work.
Her eyes travelled to my metal arm. "Did they do that to you?" she whispered.
I clenched my jaw before nodding almost invisibly.
I finished the bandaging and tossed aside the roll. "Just go along with it," I told her and she nodded anxiously.
I held up my balled fists and she followed my example. I sent a punch her way which she easily dodged. I flung my leg toward her head and she ducked toward the ground, landing a blow right on my bruise. I groaned and dropped to one knee. I grabbed her ankle with my metal hand and pulled it out from under her. She fell to the ground with a thud and yelped.
She was back on her feet before I could blink and she vanished from my sight. I looked around in fear and realised she had been enhanced. She sped past me, took my arm and tossed me against the wall. I landed on the ground and looked up, just in time to block her fist that propelled toward my face with inhuman speed. The chocolate shade of her eyes had been replaced by a dull brown.
I clenched my metal hand around her fist and she stared at me with wide eyes. I rose to my feet and twisted her arm backwards. She groaned and struggled against my tight grip, but I was stronger.
Suddenly, she whipped around and threw me over her shoulder. My back hit the ground with a painful thud and I struggled to breathe. Her arm pressed against my throat as she trapped my metal arm under her knee. "Night Wind..." I managed to muster out and something in her eyes shifted.
She released me from her grip and stumbled away from me.
I rolled over, choking coughs erupting from my throat as I caught my breath.
"I-I'm sorry, I don't know what happened," she rambled, holding her hands in her hair.
"It's okay. I've been through all of it," I said, still breathing with trouble as I pushed myself to my feet. "You're gonna be fine in a while."
"I don't want to stay here. I want to go home," she panted.
"I know you do. I do too," I told her softly, wrapping my arms around myself. "But I'm afraid we're stuck here."
"S-Stuck?" she muttered.
I nodded solemnly. She let out a long breath. "There has to be a way out, right? They can't keep us here forever," she said.
I shook my head. "I've been here since 1945," I told her.
She stared at me, too perplexed to say anything. I could almost hear the cogs spinning in her head and the many questions she had were piled up in the back of her throat. She was too scared to ask them.
"Night Wind, listen to me," I said and she looked up, her eyes filled with tears. "I know this sucks, but we're gonna be okay. Do you hear me?"
She swallowed visibly and nodded. "I hear you," she whispered.
The door behind me was slammed open and a rough pair of hands grabbed my arms. "You're gonna be okay! Just get out of this place!" I called toward the terrified girl in front of me. "Get out of here, Night Wind!"
I was dragged out of the cell while Night Wind shouted my name over and over, pleading for me to come back. The guard who had collected me threw me in my cell and locked the door. I curled up in a ball in the corner and let out a few troubled sobs. I could not remember ever feeling this scared about my future. I chewed my fingernails until they bled as I continuously twirled strands of hair around my finger.
Two sets of footsteps approached in the distance and I froze, not daring to make another sound or move another muscle. "I need you to wipe her right away. Make sure she doesn't remember the other girl. This was a mistake." I didn't recognise the voice that spoke.
"Yes, sir," the other voice said.
I closed my eyes, wiping away the tears from my cheeks. "Remember her. Remember Night Wind."
Hi everyone! This is a very exciting chapter for me because I collaborated with one of my favourite writers here on Wattpad, wildflowersandink, and this is the first chapter of our collab!
You should check out her books, they are amazing, and Anna might make a surprise appearance in her book 'Love Me' soon! I love her books and to have her character Night Wind in my book is a huge honour, I can't wait for you to get to know her and her relationship with Anna!
Let me know what you think and thank you for reading❤