Butterflies (Bucky Barnes Daughter)

EIGHT

"Higher. Stand up straight. Point your toes" Viktor grumbled. He was tired of Mila's laziness. "Pay attention".

She had been off for a few days, not acting the same as usual. Everyone could feel it. Yana tried to talk to her, she didn't respond. Viktor was getting pissed off with her lack of attention. Even the Old Man was getting tired of it.

Mila's attention turned to the steel door of the training room. The Old Man barged in, Dr. Pavlov hot at his heels, trying to talk to him. "You! Come with me now" he yelled. Mila fell from fourth position and into a jog. She was confused and nervous. Her heart was racing and she kept biting at her fingers. Yana looked down at Mila with a sad smile, trying to convince her that everything was okay, trying to convince herself.

She was dragged down hallways she had never seen before. Guards stared her down, their grips on their guns tightening. Mila froze when she heard it, a scream. She knew that yell, she was all too familiar with that sound. The type of yell that made your stomach ache, your heart throb and your eyes swell. It was her papa yelling. 

Mila stopped abruptly in the hall. "Where are you taking me?"

The Old Man grew red, his eyes looked as though they were about to pop out of his head. "Do not question me stupid girl". His finger was wagging in front of her face. Mila wasn't afraid of him but she pretended to be, for his ego, just like her papa told her. She gulped and nodded. The three of them began walking again until they reached a thick steel door. 

The guard at the door opened it and led them into a massive room. People in lab coats were walking all over the place. In the middle was a massive machine. The Soldier was sitting in the machine, yelling. Mila couldn't bear to look, she tried to turn and run away. The Old Man picked her up and dragged her towards her papa. 

He saw her and immediately stopped yelling, holding in the pain. Why was she here? What were they going to do to her?  His brain was flowing with millions of possibilities of why she would be here. The Old Man tossed her to the ground in front of the Soldier. Mila looked up to her papa, her lip had been cut and there was blood dripping from her forehead. The injuries had been obtained by the fall but he thought someone had been hurting her before she got here. He thrashed around in the chair, breaking one of the arm cuffs. Mila flinched when he stepped towards her. She didn't mean to, she wasn't scared of him, it just startled her that's all. He saw her flinch and he stopped, he scared her. She looked up at him when he stopped moving. His blue eyes, now glossed over, stared at her. 

"Mila" he breathed out as if he had run out of breath. He took a step back from where she was lying.

"Papa?" Mila stood from the floor and tried to walk towards him. Yana stood at the back of the room, a good idea of what was about to happen. She slowly made her way over to where Mila was standing.

''I've had enough of this shit. He can't focus on missions anymore, that damn child is a distraction" the Old Man barked. He looked towards the doctors in the room and told them to prep the machine. The Soldier knew what they were going to do. 

"No! No please don't" he begged. He tried to move towards Mila in an attempt to pick her up. Confusion washed over her face. No one was telling her anything. What were they going to do to her papa? She reached her arms out towards him only to be snatched away by the Old Man.

"Papa! Papa what's going on?" she was waving her arms around, trying to break free.

"Mila, va fi bine" he was shoved back into the machine. It's going to be okay

She wanted to believe him but they were strapping him to a machine and throwing her around, guard to guard like a game of hot potato. She finally stopped being tossed around when she made it to Dr. Pavlov who tried to calm her down from her state of panic. 

"Turn it on. Wipe him".

He knew there was nothing he could do to fight it, he had to let it happen. Her papa looked at her one last time. "Te iubesc mereu" he smiled at her for the first time. A real smile. A genuine smile. One no one in the last 60 years had seen. He smiled for his daughter, the only person in his life worth remembering, and here he was about to forget about her very existence. I love you, always

Mila smiled back to her papa. Unbeknownst to her what was about to happen. The machines started up and two metal rods placed themselves on the side of his face. He began screaming. Mila was scared. "Papa! Papa!" she sobbed. "Yana make them stop, make them stop, they're hurting him".

"I'm sorry Mila, there's nothing we can do" Yana tried to wipe away her tears. This little girl had only known her father for a year and he was about to forget about her. The pieces of his life that were finally fitting together were about to be snapped in half. 

In the corner of the room the Old Man watched with a smirk on his face. He was getting tired of having to fight with the Soldier every time he had a mission to complete. With the Soldier forgetting Mila's existence, a new window of opportunities would open. 

When the machine stopped and the yelling subdued, Mila broke free from Yana's grasp, running towards her papa. Guards tried to grab her but the Old Man ordered them to leave her alone. She needed to experience this pain he thought. Mila climbed into the seat where her papa was kept. She put her hands on his cheeks, wiping away the tears. 

"Papa, papa are you okay" silent tears ran down her pale face. Her green eyes turned slightly darker due to the tears. The area around her eyes grew puffy, she was a blubbering mess. Mila tried to reach for his metal hand, he grabbed her wrist and tossed her body out of his lap. He didn't hurt her but he did scare her. "Papa" she whispered.

A laugh echoed through the massive room. The Old Man stepped into view. He made his way over to the Soldier. Looking directly at Mila he asked, "Do you know who this is Soldier?" The Soldier looked at Mila with a blank expression. He shook his head no. Mila froze.

"I guess some things don't last forever, do they?" he laughed again, signaling for the guards to remove Mila from the room. 

She didn't even resist. Mila willingly let two grown men touch her, without fighting back. They dragged her out of the room, giggling like school girls at her pain. She just let them, nothing could hurt her as much as he did. Her papa forgot her, he said he'd love her always, and he didn't even remember who she was anymore.

Hello! Thank you for reading. I hope you are enjoying this story. I'm having a lot of fun writing it. Sorry for a short chapter, they are going to get longer soon I promise. Thank you for voting and reading, it means a lot! Feel free to comment, I would love to know what you think. Thanks again.

-Emma