What Happened in Budapest

Shooting Range

I immediately went into panic mode as soon as I felt it. I was in a strange place in the dark, and it felt like the walls were slowly closing in on me. All I could see was the black of the night, and all I could hear was my heavy breathing and the silence that would follow it. I tried to remember where I was, or even simply who I was, but all I could focus on was the way the room seemed to get smaller with each breath I took, and the way the darkness would grow everytime I blinked. I tried to cry out, but no noise would leave, and all of a sudden, I could feel a hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently at first, but then more urgently, as if whoever was attached to the hand was worried for me.

I woke up to Clint, forcing me to sit up and staring me in the face, as if I wasn't embarrased enough to be caught like this. Like someone who didn't know how to handle the darkness or the silence. Like someone who didn't know how to handle themself, period. 

"You're not the only one who gets those kinds of dreams." He said softly. I ws wondering if he could read my mind when he rubbed his thumb over a tear that I didn't know was there.

I slowly looked at the alarm in fear that any movement I made would send me back to the dark place that filled my mind, and I almost breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the time was 5:48. It was close enough to six, and I had no desire to go back to sleep after that dream. I turned my head to Clint and i suddenly realised what he had said to me.

"What do you mean I'm not the only one?" 

"Those kind of dreams are the mark of those who have been broken but still try to build themselves back up. I have them. Fury has them. Hell, I bet that even the great Captain America has them. PTSD, Anxiety Dreams, all of us know what they are, but nobody wants them. Go get dressed. I'm taking you somewhere." He stood up and left ubruptly, leaving me to think about what he said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'So, where are you taking me?" I questioned, half jogging to keep pace with Clint's long strides. Now that I think about it, he must be at least a good half of a foot taller than me. 

"I wanna see what you can do. I mean, Fury always talked about how you were the hardest to find, always three steps ahead and then 2 steps behind, you were always where you knew was best. I'm surprised he finally caught you." He said, turning to face me with a small grin at the corner of his lips. 

"Besides, I gotta remind everyone who's the best around here." His grin got bigger, and he started walking faster, forcing me to jog to stay with him. I  I pulled up ahead of him and we started going faster until we were full out racing to god knows where. He arrived at a pair of doors a second before me, and while he stopped right in front of them, I kept on until I hit the door.

"You only won because you actually knew where we were going."

"No, I won because you're like 5 feet tall." He said, a full smile on his face. I actually looked at his face for the first time and I noticed he wasn't bad looking. In fact, he was handsom in that rugged kind of way. He noticed me staring and started coughing, blushing slightly, while putting his hand on a scanner next to the door. 

The scanner buzzed and the doors opened, revealing a large room full of different sorts of weapons ranging from guns to bows and arrowns to what I'm pretty sure was a trident. On the left side of the room there was a climbing wall that was at least 70 feet high, and right next to that there were people using weight machines. In the back of the room was a row of different types of spears and several people fighting eachother, seeing who could kill the other. To the right side of the room was a row of targets, and a lone girl with straight, jet black hair shooting and never missing. Clint immediately went to speak to her, and I just stood there, staring at her accuraccy. the two spoke for about a minute, using lots of hand gestures and weird faces, until the girl started walking towards me with a lrge grin on her face.