Clara's life is a nightmare. Every night, the yelling, the screaming, and then the deafening silence. Her dad, drunk and delusional, comes home after a day of drinking and gambling. He then proceeds to hit Clara's mom, blaming her for the day's losses. Clara's mom would do her best to keep her husband's attention away from Clara, but sometimes there was no distracting him. Clara, wrapped tightly in her trashy blanket that's full of holes, awaits his storming entry to her room with a pool of dread and pure fear in her stomach.
"Clara!" He growls. "You pathetic, whimpering child!" He pulls her and her cocoon of blankets off the bed, onto the floor.
"Daddy, please! Not again!" Clara begs, but to no avail. Clara's father, ignoring her cries, calls her cruel things.
"You are stupid! An idiot! You rotten, ugly, horrible child! How could anybody ever love you?" As soon as the first kick comes, rain suddenly begins pouring on their roof. He raises his hand, and he hits her until her whole body is black and blue. Clara cries and cries until she runs out of tears. When she finally becomes unresponsive to the beatings, exhausted to the point where she can't make a sound, her father leaves her room.
Clara lies on the floor, falling asleep the second her dad leaves.
The next day, Clara's dad is gone again, back at the casino.
"Mom, why can't we just leave?" Clara's mom is on the verge of tears, staring at her daughter's horribly bruised face.
"Because, sweetie, your dad will chase us… he will never let us go." Clara, completely out of tears, simply curls up in her mom's arms. Her whole body shakes.
"Please," Clara whispers. "Somebody save me."
"Agent Coulson, Sir?" An Agent is to the right of Phil Coulson, standing stiffly.
"Yes?"
"Director Fury has an assignment for you. He asks that you come to the debriefing room."
"Thank you. I will come immediately." Phil follows the stiff Agent all the way to the debriefing room. The Agent stops at the door, opens it for Phil, and then closes it once Phil is inside.
"Director, what can I do for you?" Phil asks curiously. "Another O-8-4?" Director Fury nods his head in confirmation.
"There are two things I need you to check out. Some robbers are trading some very valuable and VERY dangerous chemicals on the black market in Fonda, New York. I'm sending you in to stop the trading, and bring us the chemicals." Phil bobs his head in understanding.
"The second is I need you to check out an O-8-4. We have noticed some extremely sudden downpours happening extremely often in Fonda. The only thing is, on all of these occasions there was not a single cloud in the sky until one second before the rain starts. Out of the blue, tons of storm clouds just appear. I know this may sound strange, but I want to find out if somebody has invented a weather controlling device. Or, it could be something else." Phil nods, not at all skeptical.
"We have narrowed down the options to what we believe to be the source of the spontaneous rain; I will send you the address once you're in a quinjet."
"No problem Sir. When am I being deployed? Who am I working with?"
"Just a couple agents that are professionals in hand to hand combat. You are being deployed tonight. Get ready as fast as you can, then grab your team and get in a quinjet."
"Mom!" Clara whimpers, hearing her dad's loud coughing and clinging bottles outside the front door.
"Remember the plan, Clara. Just sit there. Everything is going to be alright." Clara's mom was standing behind the front door. When Clara's dad walks in the door, Clara's mom will spring out and attack him with a piece of Clara's metal bedframe. Clara can imagine just how much it will hurt to get hit on the head with it.
Clara's dad walks in the door, holding a beer bottle in each hand. Seeing Clara, sitting on the floor with her knees tucked against her chest, Clara's dad laughs.
"If it isn't my little disgrace of a-" He is interrupted by Clara's mom, who is now attacking him with the piece of metal. Clara's poor, weak mom is simply not a match for him. He grabs the piece of metal, ripping it out of her hand and throwing it away. Clara ducks as it flies over her head, just missing her. He then grabs Clara's mom by the neck, and smashes he head against the wall. He throws her down on the floor by Clara.
"Mom?" Clara says, looking at her mom's emotionless face. That's when she starts to bleed. Blood pours out of the gash on her mom's head.
"MOM!" Clara screams.
"I'm sorry, Clara. I love you." Her body goes limp; her eyes gloss over – still open. There is a knock at the door, but it goes unnoticed.
Clara's dad pulls back his fist, ready to punch Clara.
"NOOO!" Clara screams at the top of her lungs. Lightening crashes through the roof, striking her dad; killing him instantly. Clara looks up in shock, and sees that the front door had been busted open just in time for the people entering to see the lightening.
Phil knocks on the front door at the address he had been given. Nobody answers, but when he hears a girl's voice scream, that becomes irrelevant. Phil busts the door down, drawing his gun. Out of nowhere he is blinded by a flash of light, and his ears hurt at the mere volume of the CLAP he hears. Blinking his eyes, Phil takes in the scene in front of him. There is the corpse of a large man, burnt to a crisp. There is a lady, lying on the floor with a large pool of blood around her head. Last of all, he sees the girl, sitting in the middle of it all. Her face is hardly recognizable; it's completely covered in bruises. She has a look of pure terror frozen on her face, and she is sitting completely still, frozen in shock.
"What is going on?" Phil yells at the girl. She shakes her head slightly. She turns around quickly, looking at the woman lying on the floor.
"Mom, mom, its ok now. Please wake up. Dad isn't gonna hurt us any more, something happened. I don't know, mommy, oh please wake up!" Phil hears the girl say. She lies her head down on the woman's chest. She begins to sob, her whole body heaving. With a sigh, he puts his gun back in his holster, the other Agents following suit. Phil walks over to the girl, crouching down beside her. He looks at the woman, and at a second's glance he knows she is dead.
"Hey, let's get you out of here." Phil says to her. The girl ignores him, and keeps talking to the body.
"Mom, please, please mom, we can be happy now. Don't leave me."
"I'm sorry… She is dead." Phil says, at loss for something better to say. The girl in unresponsive. Phil reaches out picks up the girl, shocked at how light she is. He carries her in his arms like a baby. She looks up at him, as if only seeing him for the first time. She begins to scream, squirming out of Phil's arms. She runs to the closest door, opens it and runs inside. She closes the door, but leaves a crack to look out.
"It's ok; I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help you!" Phil looks up, startled. Rain starts to pound on the roof, confirming what Director Fury had said.
"You're safe now. We are the good guys. You know the Avengers? Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye? I work with them! They are my friends." Phil is speaking in his best 'kid voice', and the other Agents look at each other, amazed at how nice and kind Agent Coulson sounds. But, the girl still doesn't respond.
"How old are you?" Phil asks.
"I'm fourteen," She hesitantly answers. Phil is shocked – she looks so much younger, because of her size.
"Can you come with me? I promise I'll keep you safe." She opens the door a little wider, and does her best to avoid looking at the bodies on the floor.
"I… I guess so. It's... It's not like I have anywhere else…" She opens the door fully, but she still looks somewhat frightened.
"Let's go, you must be starving. You can have food once we get to... well, where we are going." She brightens at the prospect of food.
"I am."
"You are what?"
"Starving. I haven't eaten for a few days." Phil looks shocked, before his mouth settles at a grim line of disapproval.
"I'm sorry… Let's go get you food." Phil holds out his hand, and she slowly walks towards him. She carefully reaches out her shaking hand, putting it into his.