In Their Hands ✧･ BARNES ✔

𝟎𝟕|Семь

   WITHOUT HER MOTHER, she had to clean her own wounds. She ripped off a  piece of the small and thin blanket that they'd given her years ago, and she walked it over to the sink before she rinsed it off. It was too thin and small to do anything, anyway. 

   One of her eyes was swollen shut. She dabbed the cloth of the thin blanket over the cuts of the swollen eye, then down her cheeks and back up to her forehead. She winced at every touch, but she kept going.

   As she continued to clean the bruises and whatever else on her face, she couldn't help but imagine if her mom was here doing it for her. She felt unloved when Natalia wasn't with her. She believed that everyone else hated her because all they ever did was beat her and hurt her and smile while they did it all.

  She hated the way that they would look at her and snatch her up and take her away. She was slowly starting to give up fighting. As much as she wanted to escape and kick and fight them and run, she couldn't. She couldn't go anywhere. There was nowhere for her to go. She couldn't take down all of the men that stood outside of her door, so what made her think that she would get any further?

   Zola grew smarter. She never planned to escape because she knew that she never would. She was tired of living in a cage and being trapped until they found use of her. She was tired of being a toy to them. 

  The man with the metal arm never stopped beating and hurting her. Whenever they came, he was there, and they made him do something to her every time. She hated the way that they praised him and she hated hearing the Superior's voice when he would tell James to "Keep going".

   Madame B was one of her newest harassers. Unwillingly, Zola had begun the harsh ballet lessons. She didn't hate them actually. Although her feet were in pain for hours after the lessons, she enjoyed going. It was something other than getting beaten by the metal arm or staying in that stupid cage all day. Personally, she enjoyed the dancing a little bit. 

   "Again." 

   She didn't talk to any of the other girls because she knew that they were competition. Zola thought that maybe if she could be the best, then they might treat her better than the others. Sadly, she was so wrong. She had no idea.

   "Again." 

  If they favored you, then you were in danger. You were pushed harder than the other girls. more was expected from you. You were expected to go on missions sooner, everything happened faster for the favorites.

   Natalia would know. So would James.

   "Again."

   Madame simply stood at the foot of the room and watched the small girls as they danced. She stared specifically at Zola and watched her perfect the motions just as her mother had the years before. She smirked because she knew who Zola was, and she knew what she was going to be. She would be the next Natalia Romanova.

   "Again."

   Dimitri stood at the foot of the room as well, just as they did when Zola watched her Mamulya dance before her around seven months ago. He watched them carefully but he watched one girl specifically. Everyone did. Everyone knew who she was, and everyone knew who she was going to be.

   "Again."

   Zola closed her eyes and imagined that she was anywhere but in this room. Dancing kind of allowed her to let go and disappear from the reality that she lived in. 

   "Again." 

   She tried to drown out his stupid voice. She pictured that she was somewhere with her Mamulya, somewhere far from here where they were happy together again. Somewhere where the people here would never hurt them again. She didn't know that she had a father, and she didn't know that such things existed, but if she did she would've imagined him there too. She didn't know him, but she would've made him up in her head.