❛ 𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ❜ ✿ yelena belova

1 : sparkles

" it pains, it pains and pains and pains, it hurts her brain but through the hazy glitter she sees a face. "

[🌙]

the first thing maya does upon waking up is sneeze.

(the thing is, maya has severe dust allergies. the red glitter falls around her face, and it looks like magic, but she's allergic.)

it takes a few more sneezes for the glitter to clear, but once it does, maya squints and someone is next to her.

quickly, she scrambles backwards until her back hits a wall and she pulls out the knife hidden in her shoe.

(her shoes, once grey but now red. whose red? who did she kill to stain her shoes?)

"stay away from me," she says, but maya's voice wavers oh-so-slightly. the knife is warm against her hand, like she's used it time and time again, but it's unfamiliar at the same. the knife knows her but she does not know it.

the other woman (who is she? why is she so familiar?) holds her hand out to maya, far enough that her fingers are only a few centimetres from her face, but close enough that maya can study her.

(the way they're positioned, one might think that maya was a wild, escaped animal that the blonde was simply trying to calm. she nearly laughs- what a metaphor.)

blonde, young- maybe her own age- and she has the feel of a trained assassin. like her. like maya. like maya's friends.

"what did you do to me?"

the other lowers her hand, slowly, gently. "it's okay. it's okay, i simply freed you."

freed her? from what?

(god knows, maya could have some help being freed from her mind. that shit imprisons her harder than any cage.)

"you see the glitter?" blonde asks, gesturing up at the tiny flecks of red, spinning in the air like a glittery shower. maya sneezes again, before nodding. 

"the glitter frees you," she says. "it frees you from them." she points far above, and maya knows she's talking about the red room.

"from the people Up There?" maya whispers. she regrets saying it after, because it's not like blonde will understand. "are you one of the Escaped?"

it takes her a moment to place the name to the face, but maya's eyes light up upon recognising the other. "you're yelena! you were the first Escaped."

yelena tilts her head, trying to work through maya's phrases, before nodding ever so slightly. "y-yes. i am one of the Escaped. and you," she holds out a hand to maya, but this time instead of it holding her back it gestures her forward. "you are one now, too."

maya is Escaped. maya has escaped.

she takes a breath before grabbing onto yelena's hand, and standing up.