The Other Experiment

Nightmares

Clint's POV

I woke to the sound of a blood-curdling scream, and I bolted from my sheets and out of my room, not bothering to grab my bow or arrows, I knew I didn't need them, I knew exactly where the screams were coming from. I arrived at Wanda's room at the same time as Steve and Nat, we nodded at one another before storming into the room, ready to have to tear through webs of red light and flares. But when we rushed into the room, the room was void of any red light or magic, and we stood stunned for a moment before we saw Wanda herself trying to comfort a writhing McKenna who was panting and screaming on her cot. We all rushed over to the young girl, and surprisingly Nat even started to stroke the girl's sweaty hair from her face, which was contorting into pained expressions, and let out the occasional gasp and grunt.

"Wanda." The girl in red spun around to me, concern for her friend clear on her face, "Can you stop it? Can you take away the nightmare?" The young avenger sadly shook her head as she stared at the girl's body, now shaking with sobs. "I tried Clint, but she threw me out before I could reach that deep into her mind. She had always been cautious as a kid but after what Strucker did to her, I'm surprised she even opened up to me and Pietro. We can't do anything but wait it out." I groaned in frustration, I knew it wasn't Wanda's fault, but seeing a girl so young just reminded me of my daughter Lila, and all I wanted to do was to wake her up, cradle her in my arms, and protect her from the demons that plagued her. I tugged my hand through my tangled hair, not even flinching as it snagged and tore through my various snarls. "Wanda..." We all jumped at the sound of McKenna's voice and rushed to the side of the bed. "Hey, hey, it's okay Ken I'm here," Wanda said, carefully sitting onto the cot to avoid her black wings and slowly taking McKenna's hand in hers. McKenna just shook her head and whimpered "No your not." She started bawling into her pillow before continuing, "Your not here Wanda, you left me." I felt a pang in my chest as she whimpered again, looking more and more like the child she was. "You and Pietro promised", she chocked out another sob, "You promised you would get me out, that we'd all run away together. But you left me with that...with that MONSTER." Wanda stumbled back off the bed, guilt and hurt painted onto her every feature. And even in the dark lighting, I could see her unshed tears nearly spilling over. "Don't leave me, Wanda, please..." McKenna's voice was soft, and I barely heard it, even though the room was completely silent. After that, she heaved another wave of sobs into her pillow and blanket before going quiet, with only a soft whimper here or there to remind us of what we had just witnessed. We all shared a small moment of silence where we just looked at each other and silently asked one another the unspoken question of the situation, "Exactly how much crap has this kid gone through? And do we really want to know?"