The Girl & The Hound | Winter Soldier

TWELVE

❝TRADEGY SHOULD BE UTILISED AS A SOURCE OF STRENGTH.❞

A firm grip crunched her neck under the surface as she gulped in a flood of water through her desperately blood-curled screams, her body thrashing violently under the water as her lungs filled mercilessly with the murderous liquid. She clenched her eyes shut, coughing and spluttering out water under its brutal embrace only to choke endlessly on more, gagging as her injured neck was crushed under the strength of the man.

Her left hand desperately felt around for his face to distract him with her right foot dragging the scissors from the ledge into the water, not at all mustering enough strength to push against his strength as her mind was inundated with one thought just as her lungs were inundated with water; she was going to die.

In utter helplessness, she began to blindly claw at his eyes as her lungs screamed for oxygen whilst she felt the scissors slide up to her right thigh under the water. Feeling the slightest retrieval in his grip on her neck, she immediately retrieved the scissors and brutally slashed them repeatedly into her attackers face until she was assured she had pierced an eye.

Instantly he withdrew in agony, Sawyer feeling a suction of air as she jolted frantically to the surface, in an audacious desperation for oxygen as she instinctively wasted the opportunity, screaming for Natasha and Steve with all the voice she had left- feeling all the more helpless as she felt her loudest yell was too quiet under the suffocating adrenaline of the mans presence. Within seconds, he ripped the scissors from his eye and screamed profanities at her as he suddenly grabbed a fistful of her hair.

Her throat immediately clenched with a scream as she felt the sobs wrack in her chest, the man abruptly pulling her head to the edge of the bath as he growled insults in her ear, his blood dripping onto her face as she sobbed whilst he retrieved his pocket knife from his belt and presented its shining form prominently infront of her face. Her eyes widened, her heart thundering against her chest as she felt her entire world cave in around her- this was how it ended for her, she was certain.

Pressing the knife eerily close to her face, Sawyer, trembling incredulously, clenched her eyes shut before he slightly winced again at his eye, an impulse of pain surging through the wound before a small drop of his blood splashed onto Sawyer's nose, causing her to quietly open her eyes and glance up to the distracted man. Instantly, without even processing it, her instincts immediately punched in, her body subtly twisting the smallest amount before he could realise and she managed to enforce any remaining strength into her leg as she kicked him fast.

The man stumbled backwards having let go of her hair, his stomach winded as she instinctively reached quickly over the edge of the bath, retrieving the scissors from the floor he had thrown before scrambling her back against the wall of the bath. The bath swarmed with blood, mixing with the bubbles as she stared at the man stumbling back to his balance whilst she gripped the scissors, her stare glaring into him as he flicked his knife open.

He glared at her, his blood smeared across her features and her wet, dishevelled hair messily brushed over her terrified face. She looked like a horror scene. His fingerprints added to a collection of brutally indents on her skin and the height of the water, which was enveloped with bubbles, hid her intimate features before he acknowledged her expression contort at the sight of the knife again.

Her stomach had clenched at the sight, the idea of the knife slashing into her flesh creating a nauseous foresight but she refrained from allowing it to disrupt her focus as he wiped at his gauged eye with his forearm.

"All this because you won't leave Barnes alone," he scowled as she frowned momentarily, her lips parting as she tried to register the name whilst opening the scissors absentmindedly in her right hand as she traced her fingers against them for security. "No doubt you will now-" he scowled before throwing the knife at her, missing her head by inches as she averted her head whilst it cracked into the wall.

She glanced back at him in horror, her heart racing and breathing dangerously fast as he scowled, about to step foreword before he was suddenly kicked in the head, collapsing and sliding at the force to the bath. He slammed head first against the outer basin of the bath as Sawyer glanced up in shock, Steve instantly flushing with embarrassment and respectively turning around to give her respect before another man jolted in, occupying Steve before the man grumbled next to Sawyer.

Weakly retrieving his gun from his holster, Sawyer's eyes instantly widened as he aimed it at Steve, her instincts jolting in as she twisted her position and knocked it out of his hand. Steve stared around in sudden bewilderment as the gunshot echoed in the bathroom and so he covered his head with his hands momentarily before then having to block another punch from the other man.

Sawyer quickly reached for the mans collar, weakly pulling his head against the ledge of the bath as her trembling hands pressed the scissors to the mans neck whilst she averted her grip to his hair. He hissed in a breath as she pressed it deeper, "who is Barnes?" she questioned, her voice raspy and struggling from being strangled as he chuckled.

He was humoured by her terrified attempt at trying to appear intimidating, "-you sound rough," he chortled before she pressed the opened scissors deeper to his neck, desperate to feign strength whilst her hand shook uncontrollably.

"How do you know his name?"

He ignored her, laughing as Steve continued to fight his accomplices outside the bathroom, Sawyer staring at him as she still continued to try and obtain a steady breathing pace, "did you touch the dog?" she questioned, her vigorously trembling body undeniably betraying her.

"We shot it-" her trembles suddenly fell still, something in her immediately contorting as she violently slammed his head against the edge of the bath, causing blood to spurt out from his cracked skull as she then instantly sliced the scissors across his neck in anger, cutting him deep as he instantly began to choke on his blood. Blood began to splash out of him as he collapsed onto the white tiled floor, Sawyer trying to catch her breath through her blinding anger before suddenly widening her eyes open as she dropped the bloodied scissors.

"No no, no- it's okay stop, please stop-" she instantly yelped helplessly, ridden with immediate guilt as she leant over the basins edge.

He shrivelled into a small ball as he gagged on the red liquid, desperate to deplete his torture whilst Sawyer felt inundated and absolutely terrified that she'd just taken a life as she watched him squirm for his life on the floor like a beached fish, disbelieving it was real as she ushered he'd be fine in distinctive horror.

She trembled in the bloodied bath, half believing what she had done as he clenched at his throat whilst drowning in his own blood as tears began to stream down her face, her body in shock as his body fell motionless, her eyes not moving from his dead body as she remained silently drowning in guilt.

Natasha slowly appeared by the door with an empathetic smile as she slowly walked in, clutching onto his shoes as she braced herself to drag the dead body out of the bathroom to limit the pain Sawyer would endure if his body remained there.

"Good job, Sawyer," she retorted, a small assurance to no avail as Sawyer distantly stared at the trail of the blood, the substance glistening in the light as it splurged like ink along her bathroom floor as Natasha pursed her lips in consideration, "I mean, I've never fought naked before."

Sawyer refrained from looking at her, continuing to stare at the blood before diverting her attention to her bloodied hands, stained with the remnants of a man who was alive only a few moments ago as she trembled, a sob wrenching from her as her lip quivered, "I'm sorry Nat, I didn't cut my hair," she whimpered, slowly clenching her eyes shut as she felt disgusting, tears mixating with the bloodied water as her entire body felt like filth.

Natasha paused in her steps, unable to ignore the pang in her heart at Sawyer's distraught state, "you're not a tragedy, Sawyer," she reassured her, again to no avail as Sawyer remained unresponsive, "never had you down for one either," she muttered mostly to herself, slowly continuing to drag the body out of the bathroom whilst shutting the door behind her.