Destroying the Avengers [Book 3]

Chapter 14: Sammi

I stand in a daze, staring at the scene before me. It isnt real. It cant be real. And yet, here it is. Here i am. I am sitting on my old springy bed, that creaks if i move a muscle. I can see the loose tile where i would store my supplies. And i can see the beds where the other 29 girls would lie and sleep while i would tinker away by the soft light of the moon.

Here, where i spent 14 worst years of my life, after being abbandonned, like so many others before me had, on the front steps of this very building. Where i was malnourished, mistreated, unhealthy, dirty, and abused. Here is my orphanage.

I wasnt an orphan though... at least i hoped i wasnt. I was left on the door step when i was no more than a few days old. Lying in the cold rain that the spring had brought on. Until one of the mothers found me. Its a wonder that i lasted as long as i did. The orphanage is in the heart of bejjing. It would have been nothing for me to have moved a little in my sleep and rolled right off the steps and into the busy streets below. When i got older, the mothers told me that they dodnt know who had left me on the steps that night. It could have been my parents, or just some random passer-by. I probably will never know.

I slowly pull myself off of my bed. I try to move carefully, as not to make it squeak. It is useless though; the bed creaks and moans tirelessly with every muscle i move. I wince as the final squeak comes out of the old matress. My old instincts from growing up here tell me to do so, everytime that those springs sounded after dark. They were like an alarm for the mothers to come in and punish us. I wait. I wait to hear the loud footsteps poundig up the rotten wooden stairs and towards my room. I wait. I wait for the women sith the crooked faces, from years of drugs and malnutrition, to come into the room and punish me.

No one comes.

I decide that i have waited a sufficient amount of time to determine that they are not coming for me. I reach over and pull the old tile off the wall. There it is, brand new. Well... not "new"; it is made up of old supplies. But its newly assembled.

My arc reactor. Underneath it sits my piles and piles of magazines, all talking about the same one person. Tony Stark. All of the magazines that i had "aquired" (more like stole) from the stand below my window, over the many years that i was stuck here.

I pick up the reactir gently in my hands. I cradle it, so precious to me. So imortant to my life. To my story.

Just then i hear he footsteps pounding up the stairs. Theyre coming. I stuff the reactor back into the hole in the wall and cover it quickly up with the tile. I brace myself, knowing what comes next.

The door breaks down. As it hits the floor, i wince. I see the two mothers at the door. They glare at me. Their twisted faces, glaring at me. Chilling me right to my core. They come closer. The first one lifts her hand up near her head. When it comes down, she delivers a swift blow to my cheek.

"Ah!" I scream. I reach up and place my hand on my cheek, in the spot where she hit me. She mutters some words under her breath. I cant quite make them out but they are probably something about how bad ive been.

The other mother looks over at my bed. I look over too. Hoping she wont notice the loose tile, which i am only now noticing that i didnt push it all in the whole way.

No. No. No. Please. Dont see it. Please dont see it!

She walks closer, inspecting the area. Her eyes fall upon the tile. This is it. Im screwed. She lift up the tile and removes it from its place on the wall. Sitting in the little wall in the crappy old cement wall, is my prized possession. My arc reactor. Seven years i spent building it. SEVEN GODAMN YEARS! Seven years of sneaking around and stealing and bartering for the hundereds of rare and expensive items that i needed to build it.

She takes a long look at it. I wait for her to ask me what it is or to hit me again. But she doesnt. She looks at it, fear in her eyes. I hear her whisper something to the other mother. I try to figure out what they are saying. It seems like they think... they think its dome kind of weapon or bomb or something. Thy shove me aside and lock the door. I hear one of them dial the phone and call the police from what i can make out of them saying. Theyre going to come for me and lock me up! Why? Why did i have to be so stupid?! Why did i have to go and make a stupid src reactor?! Its useless! And now its going to ruin my life! Why... why... why?