GONE DARK ✰ S. ROGERS

➜ [1] Why am I in trouble?

1925

"Mama I don't understand what I did wrong," the little girl said, her hazel eyes staring up at her mother's. "Billy Auburn was bullying that girl and you told me that I'm supposed to help people."

The older woman bent down to her daughter, cupping her little face, in her hands. "You didn't do anything wrong," she explained. "You did what you knew in your heart was right." She took one of her hands from her face and pointed to the little girl's chest.

"Then why am I in trouble?" The girl asked still looking up into her mother's eyes.

"Sammi," the woman sighed. "Your powers are extraordinary and you can help so many people with them, but people are afraid of things they don't understand. You already need to be careful because of your powers, but do you notice how you don't look like the other kids and how you're darker than them?"

The little girl looked down as if in thought and then lifted her head nodding in agreement. "Yes mama," she nodded. "The other girls on the street look..." she trailed off trying to think of the right word. "Not white like paper, but... whiter."

The woman chuckled a little. "Yes, kind of like that," she laughed. "Because you look different people may think less of you and may pick on you more. So you can't just be getting into fights like that and drawing attention to yourself."

"Even if someone is getting bullied?" She asked surprised. "Even if Billy Auburn is picking on someone else?"

"Even then," he mother responded solemnly. "You can't tell anyone about your powers and what I can do either, do you understand?"

"I think so Mama," the girl responded looking down. "But why do we have these powers? And how am I suppose to help people if they won't let me because I'm different?"

"My mama and her mama before that going all the way back to the beginning of the women in our family had this power called the Shadow Force," she tried explaining. "I know it doesn't sound like a nice name, but where the power comes from doesn't matter, it's what you do with it. When you get older the power you have can sometimes make people want to do bad things, but you don't have to. Instead you can protect people, even if people don't let you, you do it anyways because it's the right thing."

"Do you ever feel like doing bad things, Mama?" Sammi asked tilting her head.

"My God, where did you get all this curiosity from, huh?" She asked rhetorically. "Yes, I do. All the time, but I don't listen to all that, you know why?" The girl shook her head wanting to hear more. "Because I know that if I listen, I can do some very bad things that can hurt people. And I don't want to hurt anyone. Especially not your father, your brothers, and you. Do you understand now?"

The girl nodded her head for what must've been the thousandth time. "I can't help people now because I'm different and people won't understand that. But when I'm bigger, I need to help people no matter what my um...what's the word?" She looked down in thought again. "Instincts say."

"Exactly," her mother nodded.

♜ ♜ ♜

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK {1939}

"Sorry miss, you're not allowed in here," the security guard said.

"Are you serious?" I asked outraged. "I've been coming here for years, they've never had a problem with me before."

"New management," he responded shortly. Looking at me he sighed once more and went on to explain. "I'm sorry I really am, but this new management doesn't want any colors in here to keep profits up."

I nodded in understanding. I couldn't blame this man he was just doing his job. "Thank you for explaining to me," I sighed. "Guess I'm finding a new cinema then." I turned around to leave and to go back home.

"Well the cinema on Greendale Street accepts everyone, so you can maybe try there," he suggested.

I turned back around this time with a smile. "Thank you, I'll try," I said gratefully.

I turned down the block to make my way to Greendale Street, but as I passed by I heard some grunting coming from an alleyway. Most of the time, I would ignore it, because you know New York, but this sounded as if someone was in pain.

I entered the alleyway stealthily trying not to let anyone know I was there in case it was a false alarm, but it turns out my initial instincts were right.

"You just don't know when to give up do you?"

"I can do this all day!"

I turned the corner to see this a larger man who I recognized to be this bully back from my childhood neighborhood beating on some little guy.

"Still only picking fights you can win, Auburn?" I yelled.

"Like you would know you little n-"

The little guy hit him over the head before he could get the word out. That only seemed to annoy Billy even more as he turned back to the guy and went to hit him some more.

Before he could get a hand on him however, I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. I was about to knee him where the sun don't shine, but this other guy grabbed him swinging him around. When Billy tried to punch this new guy, he dove under and then clocked Billy right in the face.

To seal the deal, the new guy kicked his ass, literally and sent him running.

"Sometimes, I think you like getting punched," the new guy said, helping the little one up.

"I had him on the ropes," the little one responded panting.

"Uh, no you didn't," I laughed. The two turned to look at me as if just noticing I was there. "Sorry, I just didn't want to be left out so I injected myself into the conversation." They were still quiet as they stared at me. "Okay this whole quiet act is getting old and I keep calling you 'new guy' and 'little guy' in my mind, so I'll start. I'm Samiella, I know it's a weird name so Sammi for short." They still stared at me. "This is the part where you introduce yourselves."

Finally getting the memo, the little stuck out his hand. "Sorry ma'am," he apologized. "I'm Steve and this is Bucky."

I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you Steve," I greeted. "You too Bucky." I looked down at his uniform. "You're in the army?"

"Yeah, that's right, you get your orders?" Steve asked him.

He looked at me. "Yeah I'm in the 107th," he responded to both our questions. "You're looking at Sergeant James Barnes. Shipping out for England first thing tomorrow." He looked down at Steve and saw a paper on the floor in front of him. He snatched it and started reading it out loud. "Oh, you're from Paramus now? You know it's illegal to lie on the enlistment form. And seriously, Jersey?"

"Lying to the government?" I asked rhetorically. "I wish I had the gall to do that."

Steve snatched it back. "Whatever, I should be going," he shook his head.

"Come on, man," Bucky pleaded. "My last night. Gotta get you cleaned up. You too Sammi, come on we'll take you out as a thanks for helping Steve here."

"Alright where are we going then?" I asked tilting my head. "I don't just go anywhere with strangers."

"The future."

"You serious?" I asked. "That doesn't answer my question."

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! I'm so excited about Sammi's character and the different types of relationships that she'll form. I think about her all the time and her storyline, so hopefully this will turn out okay! By the way, I love author's notes and there will probably be one at the end of each chapter, so if you get annoyed by them, feel free to skip.

Song: Burned Out ☾ dodie