Leave Me Broken [Winter Soldier] II

Dissect [Chapter 17]

"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."

Confucius

1942

              She was young, she felt hollow. It felt as though her brain were being ripped apart from inside of her, and yet no one came when she screamed. Her shrieks filled the walls of the Siberian base, there was no possible way she was not being heard. 

            The thin, frail brunette was given her first dose of the Super Soldier serum earlier that month, though it was not the same as what Steve Rogers had gotten. It did not enlarge her muscles, it did not give her the ability to outrun a car at top speed. Instead, it seeped into her veins, tainting them and responding unexpectedly with the other serums, formula's, and whatever else was inside of her. Her ability to heal increased as the tests had shown; constant abrasions made to her body while someone timed just how long it took her to recover. And that was the most bearable of the torture.

              "Please!" she shrieked from her closed cell, knowing that people could hear her, but no one cared. All she knew were these walls, all she knew were the blank stares of the doctors that tested on her, all she knew was the pain inside of her head was becoming unbearable. Previously she believed it was a side effect of the Super Soldier serum that they had given her, as it had begun to arise then. But when it persisted, she believed that she was dying. All she wanted was to stop the pain, to have her Rapture and forget about it all.

              All her screaming was for naught, as no one came to check on her. After days of this, her breathing became ragged, her lungs were no longer filling with the required amount of air to survive. Her head throbbed and suddenly her vision was blurred around the edges, focusing in on the handle of her cell door. A handle that rarely turned, a handle that led to an outside she rarely got to see. Her knees gave in and her legs crumpled from underneath her, her head hit the metal bar at the end of her small, uncomfortable bed. 

             In a panicked daze, Ophelia found herself on the floor, her head upon the cold concrete, her eyes only able to focus on the door. No sound came from her lips, even though they were moving and her lungs felt as though she were screaming. After what felt like hours, an amount of time Ophelia didn't truly know, the door scraped over the concrete, and two pairs of legs appeared in her vision. Boot clad, thick cargo-green pants.

               One of them crouched down and flipped her so that he could see her face; once he had confirmed she was breathing and still alive, he stepped back and spoke to his comrade. After some discussion that Ophelia couldn't process, she could feel the warmth of the two men, hear their heartbeats and their lungs expanding and they inhaled. Disgust; that was the emotion that Ophelia could taste upon her tongue, feel throbbing in her head. Another seeped in like poison, this one was suffering. She clutched her head and screamed, and that was the last thing she remembered.

               A swirl of bright red filled her dream; not like blood, but energy. It wrapped its smoky fingers around the edges of her mind, and she could feel it digging. She could feel it blocking her memories, or so she thought; as the redness began to open up, there were flashes of those two guards in pain, clutching their heads, but it faded. There was no explanation for what she was seeing, there was no reasoning behind this memory or dream, only that it was happening. Nothing seemed to make sense, and the red smoke consumed her thoughts, only to open up like clouds clearing after a storm.

             A young HYDRA doctor, though Ophelia wondered about his credibility, had her sitting on the gurney after her last screaming fit had ended in a panic attack that left her unable to speak for two days. He flashed a light into her eyes to see if she would respond; her pupils responded quickly. Her tongue felt numb, but she was beginning to form words once again. She lolled her head to the side, wishing that there was something more to her life than all this, but not knowing what else was out there.