𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 - Bucky Barnes

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞

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❝𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠.❞

WHEN ERYTHAEA AWOKE, she was beyond angry. For all the trust she had put in these people, these agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, this is what she got. Perhaps it was what she deserved.

Thaea was laid across a metal chair, like a dentist, only this would be the worst dentist appointment she'd ever had. Actually, the only dentist appointment she'd ever had. Not that she needed one, though. She was now dressed in plain grey cotton pants and a t-shirt. Her hands and legs were secured to the chair beneath her with metal cuffs. Her sunglasses were gone, and her vision was limited by the chair. Looking around as much as she could, she surveyed the 'room'. It was massive, and most likely underground. It was a large hollow sphere, made of some sort of metal. Her chair was on a platform that jutted out from the side of the sphere, and a path led to a large metal door.

-

When Erythaea awoke again, she realized she had been dreaming, but not dreaming. She had been reliving the memories she had tried so hard to forget. Her own. The metal sphere around her, the one she called home, was different now. The platform was bigger, and she had real furniture, and no handcuffs. There was a bed, a chair, a TV, and a rug. From time to time her favourite guard would bring in books as well as her meals, but that was the only social interaction she was awarded.

When Coulson tried to explain that day, he said it was too dangerous for her to be in the outside world. He seemed like he didn't want her to be there, and she would have agreed. Thaea couldn't tell whether it would be dangerous for her or others. So, she sat here, mostly alone, and waited. Waited for something to happen. Every so often they would come for more blood samples, but that wasn't nearly as interesting. Thaea tried to watch TV for comfort, but the News was the only channel to watch.

The Ancient One had warned her about people keeping her, but Thaea did not listen as well as she should have. What really bothered her, out of everything, was the silence. Out of everything else, that was the most deafening. It was helped every so often when another person would come close enough to the door for her to hear their faint thoughts, but otherwise, it was silent.

She had a pen, so when she arose from her bed that day, she opened to the bookmarked page of her favourite of the books she'd been given. She added another tally onto the count of days. The meal times helped her keep track. They were slid into the room on the floor from a slot, along with the materials to draw her own blood. The page was nearly full, and she checked to see how much of it she had left to mark. Not a lot. 2179 days. Six years since she was put in here. She had only been 19, from what the doctors said. If she remembered correctly, that meant it was 2014.

-

Another week passed, and Erythaea was re-reading Macbeth for the twelfth time. It happened to be her favourite of Shakespeare's works. She couldn't place why. She flipped the page, and she realized it was her favourite scene. She had been reading absentmindedly, as she could most likely recite the entire play from memory.

"O proper stuff. This is the very painting of your fear. This is the air-drawn dagger which you said Led you to Duncan. Oh, these flaws and starts, Impostors to true fear, would well become A woman's story at a winter's fire, Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself... Why do you make such faces? When all's done, You look but on a stool." Thaea read aloud. She thought it was comical for Lady Macbeth to scold her husband so, especially due to the insanity toiling in her own mind.