"And when nobody wakes you up in the morning,

And when nobody waits for you in the night,

And when you can do whatever you want,

How do you call it?

Freedom or loneliness?"

When Margaret asked me to cover her shift at the homeless shelter during Christmas Eve, I knew I couldn't refuse: I was the only one without a family to spend the night with.

I was already cleaning up when a cold breeze made me tremble. There was a man leaning on the door frame, hooded and all dressed in black. He crawled to the nearest table, without saying a world.

Please, please, please, make me end this shift without problems.

I took a deep breath and tried to approach him, but he didn't look like he noticed me. He was holding his head, whispering something through his teeth.

"Hi, would you like something to eat?" I asked softly, but he wasn't listening. For the little I could see of his face, he looked in pain, I felt useless. Then I had an idea.

"Take this, I'll give you something to eat in a minute" he suddenly started looking at me, my heart skipped a beat. He had the most beautiful and deep eyes I've never seen. He stared at my hand, the one that was giving him a little envelop of aspirin. He seemed confused and wary, but he took it.

When I went back to the kitchen, I could feel his blue eyes staring at my back.

After that night, I haven't seen him again.

Ending up late wasn't that bad, even though it was New Year's Eve. I closed the food bank as soon as I could, happy that I still had ten minutes before the fireworks.

I knew about a wonderful bench on a hill, in a park not far away from there. In five minutes I was there, I sat on the bench by myself, surrounded by darkness and peace.

I could hear people having fun from the nearby pubs, and I couldn't help by feeling miserable.

When I moved to Brooklyn, I left behind me everything I knew, everything I had, but either way I couldn't feel at home.

The countdown started, I raised my eyes at the sky.

Three…

The noise of broken glasses made me jump.

Two…

Male voices where approaching me.

One…

Colored fountains of light brightened the sky above me, now I could see two huge men pointing at me. I got up from the bench immediately, trying to run away, but one of them threw himself on me, making us both fall down from the hill. My head was spinning around, I tried to get up as soon as I could but they kicked me on the head, making me cry of pain. My forehead was burning as hell, I could feel blood running from it. Somebody got me up holding me from my harm; it was one of the two predators. The smell of alcohol in his breath couldn't let me breathe. He started laughing,

His grip on my harm was hurting me.

"Ya can't start New Year without a kiss, can ya?" He started pushing me over his body, his face terribly close to mine.

"I'd rather fucking die" I kicked him before trying to ran away, but they were two and huge, and I was helpless.

Before I could even realize it, I was on the ground again gasping for air every time one of them would kick me.

The edges of my view started darkening; I could feel myself slipping away. Then everything stopped. I heard two thuds then silence.

I froze for a couple of seconds, trying just to focus on my breath and on the sounds around me, but everything was quiet, I started getting up slowly, my head and my stomach was hurting as hell.

"Hey! Is everything alright?" in the darkness I could see a couple running in my direction and they were wearing…costumes?

"I…I think…I'm…" I couldn't find the words, my eyes were running from the boy and the girl in costumes to the two men fainted on the floor. The girl, that had beautiful short red hair and a leather suit, watched them with disgust.

"Such a couple of bastards…"

"Nat, language!" she laughed.

"Yeah, grandpa…" the blonde guy that was with her smiled embarrassed at me.

"I'm sorry, dear. How are you feeling? There were…just the two of them? Did somebody else attacked you?" I blinked for a couple of seconds. Blond guy here was Capitan America?

"Yes, just…just the two of them" I turned to the two animals on the ground, still unconscious, then something caught my attention: a green and white consumed envelop of an aspirin. I kept staring at it, I knew damn well where I had seen that aspirin before.

The reddish girl looked at me concerned, one eyebrow up.

"Is everything okay?" I leaned to take the little envelop, holding it tight in my hand.

"Yes"

Trying to lose Capitan America wasn't an easy task, especially when I didn't really know If I wanted to get rid of the one that was supposed to be my best friend since 1941.

I wasn't ready yet.

I didn't want him to see me in this way.

I was getting better day by day, my memories were getting back and the blackout were decreased, but still I was way too messed up to show up to Steve again.

"I would rather die" I froze immediately when I heard this voice, I knew her, and I didn't like how scared it seemed. I started running through the dark park, trying to find her.

It took me three seconds to bit the hell out of those bastards.

I could feel my blood boiling in my veins, anger all over me. She was laying down, trembling, her face on the ground.

My body was still tensed, anger burning me, but I knew he was getting closer. That Steve, always there when a lady needs help.

I disappeared, like I had to learn to, but this time it was different. This time, I looked back.

*Hi everybody! I would like to say that English is not my first language, I've just studied it at school, so please feel free to correct any part of the chapter!

This is kinda a challenge for me, so I would really like to know your opinion!

Big hugs