RED ASSASSINS ▹ NATASHA ROMANOFF [EDITING]

[18]

The old, rusty bus jerked every minute, causing the whole bus to shake violently. I woke up abruptly, waking Peggy up too. The other girls were chatting animatedly away, pointing out at all the different sights. 

We were already out of countryside, and we were slowly transitioning into the city. The bus slowly screeched to a halt outside a black building. It seemed more modern than the Red Room, and the maintenance was much more better. However, one could never judge a book by its cover, right?

Ivan stepped out from the bus and chained our hands to a common lock. He knew that at anytime now, when we were stepping out from the bus, we could simply run away as fast as our legs could carry us. It was a chance of escape, but not now.

I walked steadily into the building, my legs numb after a 3 hour ride. The first I saw of it was a huge empty room. The walls were grey and there was what seemed like a thin layer of mist hanging and lingering around in the humid air. "This shall be where you will stay for the next chapter of your life." Ivan pointed out, while pointing towards the room. My eyes squinted in the darkness. I could barely make out the outline of drawings on the wall. I inched closer to it, and found some lines carved carelessly into it. There were four lines, the last line striking across them. 

I knew what it meant. It was the prisoner's way of spending their time in the cell and counting the number of days that had passed. I had seen my father do it when we visited him in jail.

There were a few splotches of blood that had faded from time and weather. It seemed like some people had lived in this place way before we did. The whole room was only lit up by a pathetic blackened light bulb which seemed like a 1000 year old antique. The way it flickered every now and then hinted at its lifespan. There were tons of moths flying around it too, which gave me an eerie vibe.

"From now onward, your mission is not to train. You all shall go in search for the person I tell you about and assassinate him or her? Understood?" Ivan stood in the front of the room. We all nodded our heads solemnly in unison. I definitely did not like killing people. A sense of guilt would always follow but I had no choice. This was Russia. I was Russian. I had to make my country proud.

Not long after, Ivan handed us each a picture of a lady. I read her personal data at the bottom of it. Green eyes. Brown hair. Noticeable scar on right lower cheek. She seemed exactly like me, just without the brown hair and scar. The mission had started.

I crept out silently into the dark alleys. The whole stretch of road was terribly quiet, sending a shudder down my spine. It was like a scene straight out of a horror movie, just that there weren't any tumbleweeds that rolled across the road like how it would be in cartoons. The occasional hoot of an owl and a squeak of a mouse would make me shrink back in fear. I was trained to never be afraid, to never feel fear, but I guessed that it didn't work considering the fact that I was scared of just a dark, forlorn alley.

Suddenly, I spotted a lady with a slender and lanky figure. Nailed it. My target was acquired as she tossed her brown bangs over her shoulder to reveal a nasty scar on her cheek. I knew it was her at that moment. No doubt.