Broken Cages (MCU)✔️

Getting Better and Stronger

Tony and his wife, who I learned was named Pepper, left shortly after. They both looked proud of themselves like they had talked me into something all on their own. I just felt... tired. Like my body was recovering from the beating I had endured and the years of restful sleep I didn't have. It didn't take long for me to go back to sleep, letting lunchtime roll into dinner without so much as moving.

No one visited me for 32 hours. Everyone left me alone, even though I couldn't be sure Cassie wasn't watching me through the vents. The doors were unlocked so I could leave, or anyone could come in, but they either had better things to do or were letting me think. So, I distracted myself with sleep and tried not to think. In those hours, I cleared out the fridge of food and drink and stared at the shower when I started to feel the dirt creep on my skin.

I didn't want to scream. Even though I now knew it was doubtful I had ever been close to death, the idea of feeling like I was drowning again let me sit in my stench. At 32 hours, the doctor visited to change my bandages. She mentioned that I needed to shower to keep the wound clean.

24 hours later, I had no food left, and I still hadn't showered. This time, the doctor came with reinforcements.

"Why aren't you taking care of yourself?"

Natasha looked scarier than I had ever seen. Gone was just her authority, and what replaced it was frightening.

"Not eating or showering isn't punishing us or your parents; it's just weakening you. So tell me, what are you thinking?"

I tried to remain tall. She stepped close. Our noses almost touching. She was not tall, but she seemed much bigger than me. I flinched away. I was not her.

"Tell me, Katya."

I stepped back, but she waited until I had nowhere else to go.

"I can't."

"Yes, you can, you're on two feet."

"I don't want to drown," my voice felt small, but I didn't know how else to explain it, and I couldn't see an escape. I don't like that in my newfound freer life. I had found another way to trap myself. It was like all the fear I felt was channelled into one thing.

Nat took a step back, understanding flooding her eyes.

"Is that all? Let me show you how you can feel in control again."

She marched me to the shower.

"It's a detachable shower head; just hold it. Now you have all the power." She demonstrated, and I watched as she gave me back something that felt lost. She did it so simply.

She left the shower head to dangle. "Now you have an hour to shower, and then Cassie will bring you out of this room. You can't let your life waste away."

"It has been a week," I said.

"That's too long." She stated and marched out of the room. "This is your second chance, Katya."

When she left, it was like my own odour would suffocate me. I wondered how much was real and how much was the power of suggestion, but I decided I would do exactly what she suggested. I shut the bathroom door and stripped out of the dirty clothes. My throat still clenched when the water sprayed out of the shower head, spraying everywhere like a garden hose, but once I grasped the handle, I felt a little better. My mentality about stepping in the shower got a little stronger.

After cleaning myself as quickly as possible and only choking back tears twice, I smelled better and felt better than I had in days. I put on a black tracksuit that I had yet to wear and sat at the table by the door, fiddling with the tracker still on my wrist. I had been able to ignore it in the room, but now that I was leaving this room, I felt hyper-aware.