Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Chapter 41 ~ the deal

Everything hurt. Every single part of me felt as if I was being prodded with hundreds of tiny needles. I closed my eyes as the pain subsided. I let out a labored breath as I waited for the pain to again radiate through every inch of my body. "Please stop." My voice cracked as I reopened my eyes and stared up at Keating.

"How the great Nightingale has fallen." He sneered as he leaned towards me.

I grimaced at the smell of his putrid. Fish. Why did he have to eat fish before torturing me?

"Unable to move." He began as he circled the table I had been strapped to. "Unable to fly away from all her troubles." He paused. "Completely at my mercy."

A cruel smile spread across his face. "Funny how your wit has suddenly disappeared." He smirked as he stopped. "I must admit I do find you much more tolerable now that you're blubbering for my mercy."

"I found you much more tolerable when you were just a spineless loser pining after my best friend's cousin." I boldly began. "What happened? She can't stand to look at you now that she knows you murdered her cousin?" I paused as I glared up at him.

"It's a small hiccup in our relationship." He muttered through clenched teeth. "One I'm sure we'll overcome when I make her see things from my point of view."

"Oh yes, because what other response could possibly make you sound like any more of a manipulative jerk?" I rolled my eyes at him; slightly amused by the bright crimson color his face had now turned.

"Enough."  Dare's harsh voice instantly quieted both of us. "I tasked you with one simple job. And you have failed miserably." Her voice was cool and steady. Whoever coined the turn cold as ice has never met this wack job. Seriously, a try of ice cubes could have a wider range of emotions.

"She's infuriating." Keating shouted as his face grew more animated.

"And you're wasting my time." She sighed. "Your methods have done nothing but result in you losing your own temper and fracturing her wrist."

"She hasn't fractured anything." He argued.

"You must be forgetting your precious ego." I muttered as I glared up at him. My mind began to race as I tried to determine how long I'd been missing. Had is been hours? Days? Weeks?

It had taken Hydra twenty years to break Bucky. But I'm not Bucky Barnes. I'm me.

He was strong. I'm weak. He had people waiting for him to come home. I don't. He fought for a better world. I fought for my own survival.

In the end, I knew I would break. The only question was how long I could fight what I knew was coming.

"Stress fracture in her left wrist from struggling." Dare's emotionless voice continued.

"That's not my fault." Keating began to argue.

"Leave." She ordered. "Your tactics are useless to me."

I focused on staring at the ceiling as her footsteps grew louder while Keating's grew quieter. The familiar ta-tap ta-tap of her gait did more to inspire fear in me than a room full of spiders. And I absolutely hate spiders.

Keating's tactics were pain. Pain I could handle. I didn't like it, but it gave me motivation for fighting back.

But Dare, you never knew what her motive or tactics were until it was far too late. She excelled at mind games. She could make you believe you were crazy. And then there were her other methods. Methods that did literally drive her victims to insanity.