I had always loved rain. It began as a whispering in the air, and then tar-black clouds rolled over the sun, turning the sky into a sea of grey. The first drop slipped down the window and I put a gloved hand up to the glass wall. This room was smaller than my room, but it was still larger than the master bedroom in my old apartment. An eight-by-eight room with a bed built into the floor and a single shelf filled with books, paper, pencils, and anything I could possibly waste time with. There weren't any clothes, I didn't need them. There wasn't any food, I wouldn't eat it. If I ate, my stomach would throw it back up within an hour. A single outlet stuck out of the wall, with a lamp plugged into it. A mirror hung on the wall opposite the bed, taunting me. The door was locked from the outside. I sat leaning against the window with a book in my lap, staring at the one place I longed for.
I knew I had been locked in here for my own protection, but it didn't keep me from wanting out anymore. A sandwich sat uneaten on a plate next to me, as well as a cup of water, but I ignored the rumbling of my stomach and closed my eyes, leaning my head against the wall and listening to the rain drumming on the roof.
The sickening feeling in my throat woke me, and my arms and legs moved by themselves, shoving open the door to the small bathroom and kneeling next to the toilet, just in time to hurl the three bites of sandwich I had eaten and half a cup of water up. I sat coughing for a minute afterward, and wiped my mouth with a towel, crawling back to the bed. My eyes looked up to the mirror, and the person I saw wasn't me. It couldn't be.
The girl in the mirror had lifeless, bloodshot eyes that had lost their colour a while ago. Her cheekbones jutted out from her skin and dark circles rimmed her eyes. Hands that trembled and gripped her waist as if protecting herself from whatever was in the dark. The bathroom light illuminated her unbrushed hair, no more than small knots that curled around her head. Chapped lips and a slightly red nose. Small lines down her neck and blood under her nails. Her head turned as the lock on the door clicked and an arm reached through.
"I brought you another picture," El said quietly, closing the door behind her. She wasn't supposed to be in here, I could end up hurting her on accident. But she didn't care. Elytra held a small Polaroid photo in her hand of the night sky and the rain. I nodded and she pulled a thumbtack out of her pocket. After carefully pinning the photo to the side of the shelf facing the end of the bed she walked over and sat down next to me, pulling the blanket over us both.
"You know you shouldn't be here El. I could end up hurting you like I tried to do to Bucky." I muttered, thinking about what I had done earlier in the week. The second day in here, Bucky had brought me a bowl of ice cream and Tony had said after I set the bowl down and he had sat down next to me I had brought my hands around his neck and tried to strangle him. He had managed to pin me to the wall and loosen the hands around his throat before I did any serious damage, but I didn't remember any of it. He hadn't set foot in the room since.
"If you do, it's not your fault." She picked up one of the sketches I had done yesterday and pinned it to the shelf with another tack.
"Still. I don't want to hurt anyone. That's the whole reason I'm in here." My hands pulled the covers up around my shoulders, covering some of the scratches on my neck.
"The reason you're in here is so you don't hurt yourself," El whispered, pulling a pillow behind her back. I let out a yawn.
"Besides, no one has to know I'm in here."
She was gone before I woke up. She always was. The sun slipped over the horizon as I stood, using the wall to hold myself up. After stretching, I snatched a piece of paper off the top shelf and picked up a bag of coloured pencils with the other hand. Resuming my position next to the window, I began to sift through the pencils, trying to find the right shade of green.
The creaking of the door hadn't woken me, so when I sat up I was startled by the man leaning against the wall.
"Hey Echo." The archer looked the same as when I first met him, with a Shield uniform on and the bow strapped to his back as well as two guns in his belt.
"Why, why are you in here?" My lips stumbled over the words as they came out, and he tossed me a bundle of clothes.
"Change. We're going outside."
I didn't hesitate to jump out of the bed and run into the bathroom with the bundle in my arms, practically tripping over the pencils scattered over the carpet. Clint had tossed me a pair of thick leggings, a sweatshirt about three sizes too big, a hooded jacket, and a pair of running shoes. I slipped the shorts off my legs and pulled the leggings on and threw the sweatshirt over my tank top. After putting the jacket on and sticking my feet in the shoes I stepped out of the bathroom. He opened the door and I took a breath, sticking my shaking hands in the jacket pockets.
"We have ten minutes, so make them count," Clint said, stepping next to the other Avengers on the platform outside the compound, next to an open field. Each held a weapon of choice and a tranq gun. I didn't mind, I probably would have asked them to have the guns anyway. It was pouring rain, but we were under the protection of the roof that jutted out from the building about twenty feet above the ground. I looked around and stepped out into the open air.
I pulled the jacket off and tossed it back onto the porch, looking up to the sky. Raindrops hit my face and my hands and I never wanted to go back to that room but I didn't have a choice. The sound of water hitting the ground drowned out any of the other noise in my head and in the world, I had never felt so free and suddenly a burst of power built up inside me and I couldn't control it and as the storm inside me was released I could feel myself falling to the ground. Footsteps approached, shoes stomping in puddles and kicking up water and I stared up at the sky with arms stretched wide on the wet grass and let the raindrops kiss my face until I couldn't feel the comfort of rain on my fingertips any longer.
أنت تقرأ
The Monster Within - Avengers
قصص الهواة"If you're treated like a monster for long enough, you become one. But, I already was." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After sixteen years of hiding, I had been found. Nick Fury had found m...
