Lacuna [1] {Completed}

Chapter Sixteen

"Verklemp (adj.) completely overcome with emotion."

Erin gasped awake. She was back in the lab at the safe house. She was back in Wakanda. Though her eyes were clouded with unshed tears, she saw Steve and Wanda looking at her. Bucky was still asleep in the chair.

            "Did you-?" She asked looking at Wanda.

            "Only a glimpse," She whispered.

Tears escaped down Erin's cheeks as she struggled to control her breathing. She gasped for air again, but it felt useless. She put her head down in her hands trying to calm herself, but the memories kept flashing in front of her eyes.

            "What happened?" Steve asked, concerned. He knelt beside her putting a hand on her back, trying to comfort her.

            Erin didn't say a word. She looked up from her hands at Bucky's sleeping face. He looked harmless in this moment. Nothing was there to suggest he was the most feared assassin of the century; no proof that his own mind had been taken from him. Someone else's hands had assaulted his thoughts, memories, and tampered with his emotions. The thought made her want to punch her fist through a wall and make the people responsible pay.

            "Erin?" Steve asked again, looking at her hands.

The lights in the lab were flickering. She hadn't realized she had clutched her hands together so tightly that it hurt when she opened them. When she released the tension, the lights remained on.

            She looked from Bucky to Steve and Wanda. Both of their faces were a mixture of confusion and concern.

The room was too small. She needed to get out of there. She bolted up from her seat and walked out of the room.

            "Erin!" Steve called after her.

            "No," She heard Wanda say, "Let her go."

            Erin slammed the door shut behind her. She walked through the maze of hallways until she found a room in a part of the house she didn't go often. She thought about what she had just seen. Every memory played in her mind, pressing her closer and closer to suffocation. She tried to calm down, tried willing the tears away, but nothing worked. She put her hand over her mouth suppressing the sobs that racked her chest.

            The memories kept flashing before her eyes, one by one like a punch to a bag. Bucky had never done anything to deserve his fate. All he had wanted was to protect Steve and serve his country.

            She screamed into her hand in frustration. Uncontrollable tears started to roll down her face. She couldn't erase the memories that weren't hers, memories that would now haunt her.

            Tragedy seemed to enjoy keeping her company.

*****

Erin leaned against the railing that kept her from falling over the balcony edge. She looked into the night sky. Stars glittered across the black night canvas and she let her mind wander. The moon was bright in the Wakanda sky and Erin imagined for a moment what it would be like to be weightless. She imaged herself floating into the vastness of the sky, forever exploring the stars. She would give each one a name and leave behind all the pain that tethered her to the ground.

The sound of the door behind her sliding shut made Erin come crashing down back to the earth. She turned around the see Wanda walking towards her with two mugs and a bar of chocolate floating next to her covered in red mist.

            "Perks of my ability," She joked, "Now I never get to complain about needing a third hand." She smiled joining Erin at the railing, "Hot chocolate?" Wanda offered with her hand making it float towards Erin.