Fire and Smoke - Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Chapter 34

Carefully, I make my way around the lake towards the dark cabin. The closer I get, the more uninhabited it looks, but I don't let that fool me, remembering how the last time I snuck into the seemingly empty cabin had ended. The ground beneath my boots is quickly becoming covered with white, shiny frost as the temperature continues to plummet, and my breath has now started fogging up each time I exhale. The smell of the clean air mixed with the smell of pine trees and something else I cannot place, unique to this place is all enough to keep the memories of my last visit replaying in my head, over and over like a broken tape. As much as I try to push the thoughts away and keep my mind focused on my current situation, it keeps slipping into the past with almost unnerving fondness.

Before I can properly prepare myself and come up with any form of game plan, I've walked all the way up to the side of the wooden structure. I quietly place a hand on the cool, raspy wooden wall in front of me to steady myself and to convince myself that I'm actually here again. My heart is beating erratically and I have to take a few steadying breaths to try to trick my body into not thinking that we're walking into a trap like last time. She knows me now. I convince myself, yet without much gusto, remembering how easily and how instantly she left me as soon as I had fulfilled my part in her plan. Her last words to me echo in my ears tauntingly. I barely notice how hard I am gripping the old wood. Get a grip.

I exhale and remove my hand from the wall, letting it instead travel down to my hip, where it finds the cold, smooth hilt of my gun. I know I shouldn't, but I remove it from the holster anyway, if nothing else to just calm my own nerves. The gun does what it's always done whenever I am out on the field. It anchors me and directs my thoughts and actions like an arrow. With newfound confidence, I silently make my way around the small cabin and out onto the open in front of the porch.

It looks different than before, and I can instantly recognize S.W.O.R.D.'s handiwork in turning the place upside down in trying to find, well, probably kidnapped children or mutilated cats or whatever they could hope for in order to convict Maximoff. Obviously, they found none of that, instead just leaving after throwing furniture around aimlessly. As my eyes scan the porch, I notice the same mug I noticed the first time I stepped onto the porch. It's now lying shattered a few meters away from the front door, which is closed.

"Hello?" I break the pressing silence, my voice betraying my nerves much more than I had willed it to.

No one replies, but I don't even know what I was hoping to achieve. All I know is that the last thing I want to do is to startle Maximoff. I am here to help. I hope.

I straighten my back, still gripping onto the gun, and walk up to the door with gusto, making an effort to loudly slam my feet down against the creaking floorboards so no one could mistake my approach for anything other than confidence.

"It's me." I announce again, now knocking twice on the door. "Open up, Maximoff."

Nothing, again. I feel my resolve slightly falter, the feeling of being an intruder, unwanted, returning with full force. There's no telling what Maximoff will do once she sees me. Maybe I mistook everything, misreading all of her body language and everything she said to me. Our conversation on the helicopter promptly replays as if it's been waiting for the right moment. She did call me a friend. But with hesitation, that annoying voice reminds me in the back of my head. Maybe you mistook her trying to appease you for uncertainty. Maybe you're not as good at reading people as you thought.

"I'm coming in!" I loudly speak, if only to quiet my thoughts.

I jiggle the door handle and the door swings open. I have to blink a couple of times to adjust to the relative darkness inside the cabin. My eyes instantly fall to the middle of the cabin where a single chair lies to its side with a smashed mug next to it. Then, I notice the table which is lying, broken as well, by the wall furthest away. I step in with a frown, readjusting my grip around the gun.