The Girl & The Hound | Winter Soldier

FIVE

❝YOU'VE GOT A WARM HEART, YOU'VE GOT A BEAUTIFUL BRAIN.❞

❝BUT IT'S DISINTEGRATING.❞

Sawyer slowly stepped from his grasp, her mind overridden with confusion and fright as her body still wracked with the momentary sob wrench. She was cold, she was scared and she was miserable and yet here was Sam Wilson, hiding her in an alleyway like his next victim. Relief had initially gushed through her at the familiar man but through the night she was having, meeting him beforehand on a plane was not enough to refrain her from being extremely apprehensive with nerves.

Slowly turning on her heels to gaze at him, she paused in her steps as she quickly studied at him, eyebrows furrowed in concentration and his face dripping with the rain. Furrowing her own eyebrows, her lips parted as she began to open her mouth but not before he immediately covered it with his hand once more, pulling her beside him abruptly as her eyes widened in horror and sudden fright, "what part of, be quiet, aren't you grasping?"

A surge of offence gushed through her as quickly as her abundant fear had inundated her, and with its presence her fear instantly dispersed before she furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance, pulling at his hand that was firmly placed on her mouth. To no quick avail, she instantly resorted to licking it which caused him to withdraw it with a scowl before quickly grabbing her left arm, leading her abruptly as she squealed in surprise into the alleyway away from the street light before she could even yammer a defense.

"You're being followed Sawyer," Sam growled, his low voice causing her to immediately regret her sharp outburst, "I'm trying to keep you safe, you could at least cooperate," he reasoned as she fumbled to keep up to his speed.

She remained silent as his grip on her arm tightened strongly, Sawyer unsure wether it was an empathetic gesture for her sudden timidness or rather instead because she was useless in keeping up to his energetic pace. "I was just searching for a dog," she suddenly yelped as she almost slipped into a puddle she had tried to jump over in avoidance, "I didn't mean to get in trouble, I'm sorry," she helplessly fumbled with her words, ashamed she was such a burden.

"I know," he sternly retorted within an instant, his tone incoherent over what emotion he was displaying whilst all she could see was the back of his head.

Without further protest against the direction they were running, she glanced down to her feet as they splashed in puddles in concentration and distraction to stop herself from making a larger fool of herself before Sam's further question caused her to glance up as they stopped running, "where do you live?"

Tucking a strand of hair behind her left ear, she resisted the urge to laugh that she had been trusting Sam's direction when infact he had no idea where her apartment was. She paused for a moment, contemplating wether to just lead him to the police station instead but nonetheless, she truthfully replied, "three blocks away from here in this direction," to which he nodded as she bit her lip, her stomach jolting with nerves as she hesitantly watched him brace himself to run again before she suddenly refused to move, "there's uh, a dog, please I need to help it," she quietly said as he turned to glance at her in confusion at her reluctance.

Sam turned to face her, his expression contorting in disbelief, "a dog? You want me to hold up this entire rescue mission over a dog?"

"It needs my help," she mumbled, her eyes glazing over as the rain continued to whittle down on the pair, "please."

Sam huffed, rubbing his face with his spare hand vigorously before rolling his eyes in annoyance, unable to defy her pitiful plea, "okay, fine- but I take you to your apartment first and then I'll search for it, okay?"

. . .

Sawyer placed her hands against her front door as it chunked with locks as Sam locked it from outside, locking her inside so he could search for the dog. She helplessly and silently stared at the white door, listening to Sam chortle orders for her to stay inside whilst he went to search for the dog like it was an option she could uptake.

Sighing, she turned around and slid down her door, bringing her knees to her chest as she stared into the darkness of her apartment. Her heart was heavy with humiliation, ashamed that she couldn't defend herself with her soft nature; it was hard wired into her, she couldn't change who she was no matter the situation. She saw the pity on Sam's face at her inability to confidently voice an objection, and it angered her, she angered her.

The first tear glided down her cheek as she sniffled, instantly pawing at her eyes in refusal to cry before she quickly climbed to her feet as her mind wandered to the only way she could process her sorrow and embarrassment; her journal.

Fumbling through the darkness, she tumbled into her bedroom with the indignation of her journal being on her bed. The streetlights beamed light into her bedroom through a makeshift gap in her curtains, revealing her journal wasn't on her bed.

Glancing around her room, her blood instantly pooled in her trembling legs as she acknowledged a silhouette in the corner in her perpetual view, holding her journal as a glint of metal gleamed in the bare light.

She held her breath, wishing with all her being to be invisible as her body shook with fear whilst his beaten, emotionless eyes staring at her as her mind wrapped around one fact; she was locked in from the outside.

He suddenly stepped foreword as she instinctively stepped backwards, facing him onwards whilst her tears began streaming as she remained silent. His disheveled, dark hair just cut short of his shoulders, framed the blackened mask that clung to his face painfully as he stepped foreword again before her body hit her bedroom wall.

He stood inches above her, staring down at her terrified face as she refrained from breathing to be as silent as she could humanely muster. Her lip quivered as she diverted her eyes from his dead eyes, glaring into her like she didn't exist.

"Please," she pleaded, her voice breaking in fear as she turned her head from his intimidating face, "I'm tired."

Staring for a moment at her, his senses immediately switched and his metallic arm suddenly grasped her neck, crushing a scream out of her as she squirmed in attempts to escape his grasp, unable to breath or yell for help as the tears fell from her terrified eyes.

Her feet scraped the floor as he lifted her up effortlessly, her chest wrenching for breath as she helplessly pulled at his arm to let go. She began to wrench for air with her throat blazing in fury as he glared up at her, her neck crunching under his grasp before she struggled out in hopes someone would hear, "please, help me-"

Blinking, he suddenly dropped her with an agonising thud as she gasped for air, her neck screaming in agony with her sobs as he stepped back. Rolling onto her back, she held her neck, her fingers clasping onto the metallically induced marks as he dropped her journal beside her before his shadowed presence disappeared.

Glancing to it through her glazed eyes, she realised two words had been scribbled down on the left page, a page she never write on as she wrote only on the right pages. Furrowing her eyebrows, she coughed vigorously but pulled the journal to her, weakly reading the page through her tears.

help me.