Maddison Romanoff-Stark

The Start Of Misery

We all wake up to the sound of footsteps at what feels like 4:00 AM. It's 6:00 AM. We see Melina coming in and unlocking our handcuffs. We all rub our wrists from having them on all night. We are told to change into our suits so we do. Then we get started on training. We go to the shooting room and shoot. Then we watch the TVs for a while. After that, we go to the training room and work on some sequences. Then we change out of our suits and into Ballet uniforms.

We are lead to the dance studio and we are taught a Ballet routine. We do the routine over and over. My feet are numb now. We keep doing the routine and my feet start bleeding a little and so do the other girl's.

After another hour, we are told to shower and change so we do. Then we are brought to the lab where we are strapped down on tables and the doctors draw a line in marker from our right temple across our hairline to our left temple. Then we are sedated. I go unconscious instantly. I wake up sometime later and I have no idea what they did. All I know is that my head is sore. Once all of us are awake, they unstrap us and we are told to stand up. I feel dizzy and it's hard to balance. The other girls look like they are having the same issues as me.

Later that day, Melina pulls me aside while we're training and she says "Madison, Dreykov wants you in his office." I nod although I am nervous about what he wants me for. Four guards escort me there since Melina needs to keep training the other girls. We arrive in his office and I see the figure from the other night standing there. "Ah, Madison. I am sure you are wondering why I summoned you here, yes?" says Dreykov. I nod. "You have done well in your training. I am excited to see what more practice does for you," says Dreykov. This can't be the reason he summoned me. A bad guy doesn't summon people to tell them good job. There must be a catch. "What do you want with me?" I ask. "Right to the point. Just like Natasha. You never answered my question from yesterday. How do you know Natasha?" says Dreykov. Luckily, he can't read minds. I make up a lie quick on my feet. "Natasha's an old friend of my parents," I say trying to keep it short and not to say too much and reveal that I am Madison Romanoff-Stark. "You look familiar. Like I've seen you before. You said your last name is Stark. Hmm," says Dreykov trying to place why I look familiar. Me being in a suit must not help me stay disguised since my parents are Avengers. There are a few scenarios where I could have met my mom. I did say she is a friend of my parents. I am praying he doesn't connect the dots.

"Anyways, I have something to show you," says Dreykov. He makes a keyboard appear and he scans his ring on it. Then a red projection shows up on the window. It's a map of the world. The map has a lot of white dots on it. "All of those dots are Black Widows. Soon you will be one of those dots," says Dreykov. He clicks on one of them and it shows their profile briefly before he clicks on another one. Then he shows some news footage of buildings on fire and attacks and different things like that. "Those are done by my Widows," says Dreykov proudly.

In my opinion, that's nothing to be proud of but he's a bad guy so it makes sense. He shows me a few other things. Then he turns to the figure from the other night and says "Oh! I can't believe I forgot. Madison, this is the Taskmaster. They're my right hand partner. They can imitate any person. When you fought them you might have noticed that they impersonated Steve Rogers's shield fighting pattern and they impersonated Natasha's fighting pattern. They could impersonate yours too if they want." "Cool!" I say faking it. It is so not cool. It's horrible. That means that if they wanted they could have the same strength as Hulk. I just hope this is the only one of these people otherwise, we are toast. "Alright. That's all I wanted from you for now, Madison," says Dreykov.

Then the guards escort me out of his office and to where Melina and my teammates are. They are now sitting against the wall in the training room. The older Black Widows come back and perform for us again. It would be pretty cool if they weren't training to kill. There are a lot more of them than there are of us. We watch them for a few minutes then they leave.

After that, the same schedule as last night happens. We get changed and get handcuffed to our beds and we fall asleep.

The schedule is the same each day. Well, except for going to the lab and being summoned by Dreykov. Today is day five of being here.

It's time for Ballet and we learn a new routine. We do it over and over and my feet goes numb and the rest of my body follows promptly, but I'm not allowed to stop. We switch to our pointe shoes and we do our pointe routine over and over again too. My whole body aches. I am doing an arabesque on pointe when I lose my balance and fall. I get up immediately, though. The instructor doesn't care that I got right back up or that I'm 6. Falling is not allowed under any circumstances in his class. I continue doing the routine while bracing myself for the punishment when I finish.

We land in the fifth position at the end of the song. The instructor pauses the music and walks over to me. I am trembling as he stands in front of me and looks me in the eye. "Let her be an example of what happens when you break the rules," he says. He hits me across the face once, then another time for good measure. I will be shocked if a bruise doesn't form soon. The blows for sure made my already existing bruise worse. "You will be doing the routine an extra 100 times by yourself on pointe while everyone else watches," he says. Then we do the routine again for another hour. All of our feet are now bleeding worse than before.

He lets everyone except me stop, and they sit down in front of the mirror, watching me. Despite how much pain I was already in, the first 10-15 rounds are somewhat easy. It gets harder as I get in the 20-30 range.

The instructor dismisses my group, and they leave to get cleaned up and rest. It's just him and me. As the numbers climb, so does the pain, but I can't stop and won't stop. There is a pool of my blood on the floor. I am now in the 50-60 range when I feel and see my leg in the mirror shaking while I'm in my arabesque on pointe. I push through and land without falling.

This routine has jumps and two leaps in it. The jumps make my feet hurt even more, and the landing of the leap hurts so bad, and it makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry, but I have to keep going. 70-80 range adds a lot to the pool of blood on the floor from my feet.

I feel like my arms are about to fall off. My legs have long since gone numb. I finally reach the 90-95 range. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I just hope there isn't a catch that hasn't been revealed yet. I just finished 97, 98, and 99. I am on my last one. Despite how miserable I am, I put my all into this last one. I finish gracefully as a Ballerina should, and the instructor nods in approval and dismisses me.

I leave the room and quickly clean my feet and get changed into my normal training outfit, and I walk to the training room like nothing happened because as far as the Red Room cares, nothing did. I train for hours with my group. They have a decent amount of energy. But, after all, they didn't do the routine an extra 100 times. By themself, might I add. I can barely move. I am dreading waking up early tomorrow to repeat the same schedule. Well, minus falling over and redoing the routine an extra 100 times. This is the second time that's happened. If it happens again, it will be 200, and if it happens again, 300 and so on. If I get to 500, I am in extra trouble. I hope that doesn't happen.