—him

they made you into a weapon

and told you to find peace.

against the hard cement, her face in blank. Not showing any sign of emotion. On the inside, however, she was on the verge of losing it. The Soldier had just left her with the Captain America and a girl with repulsors. She had no idea what they were going to do to her, but she was sure it wasn't going to be anything near nice.

The blonde man ran up to the edge of the roof to see what Arabella already knew. He was gone. He left. He left her. She knew she couldn't complain though, those were the orders after all. But that didn't stop her from feeling a pang of hurt in her chest.

The world seemed blurry as black SUVs arrived in the scene and men in tactical suits dragged her inside one of them, clasping her wrists together with metal restraints. Police sirens sounded all over the place, blue and red lights flashing everywhere. Arabella was put inside a cage at the back of a SUV. Though the window, she saw the black-haired girl and the blonde man standing there. Pure shock and hurt on their faces. She didn't feel bad about it, she didn't know how to feel at all. She looked down at her tied hands, she could easily just phase through them and the cage and run away. She didn't even get the chance to try such a foolish plan when one of the men in tactical uniform approached her and placed a small, circular gadget on the side of her neck. And she passed out.

A stern, female voice was the first thing she heard as she started to wake up.

"You heard me." A male voice said, quite a bit closer than the female voice. She was fully awake now, but she kept her eyes closed. It was a smart thing the Red Room had taught her. So she laid there, eyes closed and listening to the conversation.

Arabella heard continuous beeps coming from her left. A hospital monitor, I'm in a hospital, she realized. She felt pressure on her left index finger, definitely from a pulse oximeter. What in hell was she doing in a hospital? As long as she remembered, she was inside a cage. But then, almost instantly, as she took a deep breath, her right side ached. Then she remembered: her ribs. They were probably broken from the impact of that damned metal shield.

"It can't be," another voice joined the talk. Another female voice to be precise, but this one sounded younger. "She died, Steve."

Steve. So Captain America was in the room. He didn't seem like a bad guy, yet Arabella couldn't help but get slightly nervous about what'll he do to her. I mean, she killed his friend and stabbed his shoulder after all.

A loud sigh echoed the room. "Doctors don't lie, Jo." Steve took a few steps backward, leaning against the white wall. A deep frown made its way to his face while he pinched the bridge of his nose, letting yet again another sight. "Look, we gotta—"

"No, Steve." The older female voice hissed. "We won't do anything. We'll let S.H.I.E.L.D. do whatever they consider right."

"Romanoff, she's Stark's kid. We can't just let them take her." The man moved towards the red-haired. "We need to get her to Tony."

Stark. The name sounded familiar, she had heard it before. She knew she had, she just couldn't put a finger on it.

Natasha scoffed, "She killed Fury, Steve."

They were talking about her. Fury, she assumed, was the name of their target. But she hadn't killed him, she just didn't do anything to stop the Soldier; which of course wasn't any better.

"She didn't. It was him." He argued back. Honestly, he didn't know that for sure, but he had a feeling she wasn't the one who did it. And his instinct was, almost, always right.

"And how do you know that, huh? You—"

"Steve's right," the two adults turned around to look at the seventeen-year-old beside the hospital bed. "We need to get her to Tony."

Tony.

Tony Stark. That was the man's, oh so familiar, name. The name seemed to echo inside her mostly hollow memory. And then, as she tried to decipher her mind, a vision crashed in her head.

Laughter. Waves. Sun. Engine oil. Red. And then a voice. "Come on, Belles. We've been playing hide and seek for too long."

That voice. That goddamned voice that haunted her dreams. She knew it, just like she knew the name. But it was all so blurry and confusing. The brainwashing had really torn her mind apart. And then it came again, this time with something more.

Laughter. Waves. Sun. Engine oil. Red. And then the voice. "Come on, Belles. We've been playing hide and seek for too long." A metallic taste. Salty tears. And then pain.

Her eyes shot open and her heart was beating harshly against her injured ribcage. Her breaths came out ragged as she tried to calm herself down. A hand wrapped around her right wrist and as an instinct, Arabella went on to take it off. But she couldn't, her wrist was strapped to the bed, as were her ankles. All the attention was drawn at her as she struggled against the restraints, not having the energy to phase through them. Steve hurried out of the room calling for a doctor to come to check her up.

"Hey, hey!" Josephine grabbed the pale arms of the younger girl, whose blue eyes were scanning her surroundings. Arabella's hand instantly reached for her neck, for the collar. A small sigh of relief left her chapped lips but was cut short when she saw a man through the window. The air caught in her dry throat as Rumlow made his way inside the very room they were in, a doctor walking beside him. A group of STRIKE members waited outside as Rumlow whispered something to Steve.

The doctor approached her, holding a syringe with a pale blue liquid inside. Arabella wanted to scream but nothing seemed to get out of her throat, nothing but grunts. The doctor placed the needle of the syringe inside the IV on Arabella's hand. A cold yet burning sensation made its way to her veins. She gritted her teeth as her head spun and ears rang.

Laughter. Waves. Sun. Engine oil. Red. And then a voice. "Come on, Belles. We've been playing hide and seek for too long." A metallic taste. Salty tears. And then pain.

The vision seemed to play like a broken record.

Laughter. Waves. Sun. Engine oil. Red. And then a voice. "Come on, Belles. We've been playing hide and seek for too long." A metallic taste. Salty tears. And then pain.

Him.

Hi! How are you? I hope you're healthy and safe and doing fine! Again, sorry for not updating sooner but online school has been a bitch. Talking about bitch, I've started binge-watching Supernatural again and damn. I've also been listening to 5SOS way too much. But can you blame me? I mean spn is one hell of a show and 5SOS is one hell of a band.

—love, lili