THE FADING FALLEN ● Bucky Barnes X OC ● 18+ ● ENGLISH [COMPLETE]

Prologue

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New York, 2012

'How deep can you fall to consider your soul irretrievably lost?'

This thought had been haunting her over and over again for almost three weeks. As did the feeling it gave her.

The images bordered more on memories than the madness that would come to her.

A distorted octopus. Six arms. The head a skull.

Behind it was the washed-out smiling face of a young man.

She thought recognizing it. Somewhere she had seen the old photo before.

Now it seemed as if she just hit the bottom of an abyss. Hard. Merciless. Without any way out.

Yet there was something. A small sliver of light that brought her back.

She remembered exactly how she felt the very last time sneaking secretly into the botanical garden of her father's laboratory to admire the beautiful flora and fauna.

The sight of the many flowers and plants, the chirping of the birds and the crackling sound when a caterpillar or a beetle crawled over the leaves made her so carefree and happy. Even then she loved nature and the miracles that came out of it.

She could really use a miracle right now.

It was the first time she didn't remember what happened.

Thanks to her photographic mind, she could store an almost unlimited amount of information and memories, and without any problems she could reproduce every moment of her life down to the smallest detail since she was almost seven years old.

But now she didn't know how she got here. She only remembered the phone call that ripped the ground out from under her feet.

"We are sorry to inform you that there were no survivors - the plane completely burned out. We are still searching for the black boxes and..."

Everything went black after that. Until now.

"How... did I get here?" She looked around. On the ground people. Next to them, shopping bags, phones or spilled coffee cups.

When she looked closer she realized: they were dead. All five women and men were lying with their eyes wide open, frozen, not moving.

'What...? Was it... me?'

She stood motionless in the small secluded shopping passage for what felt like an eternity. No one else to be seen far and wide.

What should she do now? Call the police? The rescue services? But what if she was accused?

'I don't even know what happened', she thought.

Her eyes darted to the house walls and lanterns, but there were no sign of cameras that could have recorded the scenario. Her mind went blind and she decided to do something that lays a long time behind: ask someone for help.

Her phone still in the left hand, she searched out a contact.

Recently, she had updated the number. It took her some intensive research to find it. It lit up on the display. Below a name she was all too familiar with.

"Banner?"

Silence.

"Hello, who is there?" the dark voice on the other side asked.

After another moment of nothing, she heard herself say almost whispering: "Emilia... This is... Emilia Carson, Thomas' and Evelyn's daughter."

Now on the other side just silence.

"Dr. Banner? You still there?"

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