The Face Of Ballet

Winnifred Barnes

A/n: This chapter gives more back story into James dark past. It's a long chapter and it really dark. If you don't want to read about death and abuse I would skip this chapter.

T/W: death, abuse, attempted drug use, murder and strong language.

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James was just 8 when his father died. James and his mother were everything to each other. They had there own little world within the walls of there home. Everything they had was perfect until James turned 11. James' mother brought a man called Alexander Pierce home to meet him, finding out that he was her boyfriend hurt James. Even though he was only 11 he had been through more than most kids his age, James couldn't believe that his mother had forgotten about his father. He didn't want her life to come to a halt but he didn't expect her to find someone so soon -3 years being too soon for James.

James knew he couldn't say anything to his mother as when she was with Alexander she seemed genuinely happy again. He saw her smile and laugh like she had with his father. As much as seeing his mother falling in love with a man that wasn't his father he was happy if she was. James never really cared for Alexander simple things that the man did annoyed a younger James. Something as simple as calling his mother by her name bugged him, no one called his mother Winnifred. Not even his mother rly liked her full name insisting that everyone call her Winnie. Not that Alexander called her Winnifred every time only when they would argue -which eventually became more frequent as the years went on.

Something about Alexander was always off to James, when he started to notice unusual things about the man as he got older and smarter. When James only started to notice red flags, Winnie had been poking around his office when he would leave. Alexander worked for a private organisation called S.H.E.I.L.D, Winnie knew that this meant he couldn't tell her everything about his work but in the past year or so she started to be a bit suspicious as to what he was doing when he would come home at nine o clock every night.

One day when James was out all day with Steve and his other friends (they were now 16) Winnie was concerned when it was almost eleven and Alexander wasn't home yet. She called him repeatedly worried something bad happened to him at work. She knew James was going to be home soon as him and his friends were at a game ( she couldn't remember what sport he was even talking about when asking if he could go). With her heart beating rapidly and her head telling her she needed to find out what was going on she decided to go to his at home office and try and find anything abnormal, a piece of paper, a document, a picture absolutely anything to prove her concerns right.

She went down the hallway to open the door. Winnie reached down to the handle to open it when the handle suddenly stoped moving. To her surprise the door was locked, this sent alarms blaring in her head as he had never locked his door before. Winnie ran frantically down the hallway and out the front door. She made her way across the damp grass barefoot to the garage, she kept spare keys to all the doors in the house out there. Winnie grabbed the bundle of keys and ran back to the house as fast as her legs could carry her. Winnies heart raced in her chest with the fear of Alexander returning to find her invading his privacy for her own state of mind.

Winnies shaking hands tried almost every key in the door when she came to the last one she started to sweat in fear of what may be on the other side of the door. As she slid the key into the door and turned the lock the door clicked open Winnie slid the key out of the door and pushed the handle down and let the door swing open. She slowly walked into the room, closing the door behind her and tuned on the lamp above his desk. Winnie decided that she would lock the door behind her so if Alexander came home she could get out the windows and sneak in through the back door of the kitchen.