The door opened slowly and like some cheesy horror movie it creaked as it did so. Out of the corners of her eyes she saw her cat Lily slink back underneath the bed where she had been all along.
For a moment, when the door opened and completely revealed the person standing behind it, some part of Melinda did see the Iron Man in his suit looking down at her through the expressionless mechanical mask. But that was her own hopes and immediately the visual hallucination faded and she was faced with someone she had never seen before in her life.

The man was huge and filled up her entire doorway.

"Who are you?" Melinda swallowed and stared up at the man who was looking down at her with something like contempt. Except that she couldn't really tell.

He was wearing a tight fitting black suit with not even a speck of dust visible on it despite what he had done, "I'm here to escort you." his voice was deep and his sunglasses were so dark that she couldn't see anything behind the lenses.

Escort me? Melinda blinked in surprise, "So you weren't after Iron Man?" She didn't dare say Bucky's name. Something told her not to say that name so lightly in front of other people.

The man grinned showing straight white even teeth, "No, he was just in the way." there was a coolness to his voice that Melinda didn't like. He sounded detached and almost mechanical and for a second she wondered if he was some robot. But no, he was a living breathing human being, she could feel it.

Melinda quickly thought of what she should do but she was at a loss. Iron Man was gone or killed or whatever. There was no one to help her and for now, it seemed as if this man wasn't here to hurt her...at least, not yet. But honestly, it wasn't like she had another choice.

"Um…" she hesitantly looked at the man who was still staring down at her, "Can I bring my cat?"

It took about half an hour and a packet of treats to finally convince Lily to come out from under the bed. Feeling the growing impatience of the man who silently tailed Melinda wherever she went, Lily was quickly put into her carrier.

Before leaving, the man told her to bring whatever she wanted to since they wouldn't be returning for a while. As much as Melinda wanted to ask exactly what that meant, she couldn't bring herself to ask. She had a feeling that this particular question was somewhat forbidden.

So as quickly as she could, she grabbed one of her black backpacks and stuffed it with some underwear, bras, toiletry items, her phone and phone charger, a small book, important documents, and some other miscellaneous things. She was about to pack her laptop but was stopped by a thick calloused hand, when she looked up, the man shook his head at her. Sighing, she left the laptop untouched on her desk and zipped up her backpack. So her cellphone was allowed but not her laptop. Why?

"All done." she announced and turned to face the man who had been carefully watching her fa few feet away from her. The sun was now going down and the sky was a brilliant orange red.

"Follow me." was all he said and he picked up the cat carrier with one hand and gestured for her to follow him with the other. It did seem like he had some manners at least.

Melinda followed him out of her bedroom out into the short hall where she could already see the beginnings of the chaos her apartment was in. She had almost forgotten about the shape it was in, it seemed like it had happened a long time ago for some reason.

Her apartment was totally devastated. The far wall where her couch had been was completely gone as if it had been ripped away, and now the view of the city had never been closer. Chairs were smashed, her table was nothing but pieces of wood, her fridge was dented and the door had been ripped off, every single wall that was miraculously still standing had holes as big as her...rather, it was safer to say that there were more holes than wall. It looked like a demolition team had begun to wreck her home only to be called away for lunch. There was no trace of Iron Man. Nothing. Not even a metal scrap or chip of paint. What had happened to him?

A pipeline in her sink seemed to have burst and suddenly a spout of water began to bubble up from the broken faucet. She sighed as she looked around, how was she going to deal with all of this? Paying off the damages with her salary in one lifetime wasn't possible. The man cleared his throat and Melinda snapped out of her brooding, she didn't realize that she had stopped walking.

Silently the man gestured for her to keep walking to the door and with another sigh, Melinda quietly followed the man. At least the door was still intact, Melinda thought to herself a little bitterly.

"You won't have to worry about any of the damages to your apartment." the man said after they stepped outside. The door creaked shut behind them and they continued to walk down the stairs towards the parking garage, "Everything will be taken care of."

Melinda blinked but didn't say anything in response, she suddenly felt as if she had been yanked into some other reality. As of this moment, she had no idea what was happening and why. The way things progressed was unfamiliar to her, this was almost like some movie. And yet, there was no choice but to go along with the flow of things.

They finally reached the bottom stairs where Melinda could hear the shrill piercing sounds of sirens and the noise of people gathered close by. It was most likely caused by whatever happened in Melinda's apartment. Media would speculate, there would be investigations…

"We'll also be taking care of the media and the police." the man continued to speak as if he knew what she was thinking. He led the way to the part of the parking garage where a large cement pillar obscured a black parked car with tinted windows.
He opened the back door for her and stood there looking at Melinda until she realized that he was waiting for her to get in. She peered inside before awkwardly clambering into the backseat. The car was empty and smelled vaguely of some kind of expensive cloying cologne. After she got settled into the leather seats, he gently placed the cat carrier next to her and shut the door.

"For starters, you can just call me Mister." the man said once he got into the driver's seat and clicked in his seat belt, "Everyone calls me that so it's like my name." he turned the key in the ignition and the engine of the car purred to life.

Mister was looking into the rearview mirror and even though Melinda couldn't see his eyes behind the dark sunglasses he wore she could definitely feel him look at her.

Before she could reply to that he continued to speak as he reversed the car and pulled out of the lot, "Any other questions you have will be answered when we get there."

There?

Melinda opened her mouth to ask where, when she caught the look on his face and decided to close her mouth instead. It seems that just as Mister had said, now was not the time for questions.

No one noticed the black car pull out of the parking garage and head out into the busy intersection. The sun was setting and despite the fiery orange glow of the rays outside, the inside of the car was still dark as if they were still inside the garage. To be honest, she couldn't really even see the outside except for a few shapes passing by.

The car ride was silent, but Mister didn't even move to turn the radio on or make any attempt at conversation. Melinda checked on Lily and then she settled herself against the leather seats. Out of awkwardness, she tried to looked at the passing scenery outside the windows but again realized that she couldn't see anything. Everything felt surreal to her, like she was in another person's body while she was inside just watching them live out their life. Was this all real? It had to be.

It all just seemed to be moving too fast for her. Not too long ago she had healed Bucky and this morning she had just realized that he had left. It was also the same day where Tony Stark came looking for her and had been 'taken care of' and where Mister was taking her to some mysterious place.

Was this usually how fast life moved along?

She thought about texting her friends or family but decided not to. What if something happened to them because of her? Melinda couldn't be too careful right now, not after everything that had happened so far.

Melinda didn't know how much time passed in the car and she didn't feel like checking either. There was no clock in the car. In fact there wasn't anything to distinguish the maker or the year. Everything was generic but despite that, even she could tell that the car was expensive and everything was high quality, from the leather seats to even the door handles and carpet.

And then there was Mister. Melinda's eyes briefly flashed to the figure sitting in front of her in the driver's seat. Was he the one who fought with Tony Stark and the suited lackey? Or had it been someone else?

Just when her eyelids were starting to grow heavy the car stopped and Mister parked the car someplace and cut the engine. Suddenly awake, Melinda blinked and sat up in the seat.

Mister stepped outside and opened the door for Melinda gesturing for her to get out, "I'll get your stuff." he adjusted his sunglasses, "For now just follow me, there's someone you have to meet."

Melinda carefully stepped out of the car and looked around herself. She had no idea where she was, only that she was in a remote part of the mountains away from the city. Nighttime had fallen and despite the bright lighting in the immediate area she still couldn't see that well around her. The car was parked outside on a smooth paved driveway about a mile long from the distant gates she saw that were lit up by blue lights. The building ahead of her was huge and not just some big mansion huge, the sheer size of it made Melinda question of it really was a house that someone lived in or if it was some kind of fancy looking corporate building. It was fashioned like one of those black blocky modern houses overlooking some kind of nature scene. Not exactly Melinda's taste but who was she to say anything? At least this person could afford it.

"This way." Mister shut the car door when Melinda was outside and began to walk towards what she assumed to be the front door. As Mister approached the double doors, they opened automatically revealing a plain interior. Contrary to what she believed would be inside, there was almost nothing. It was a very open space with high ceilings and large windows and minimal furniture.

The lighting was dim inside but she could see well and had no problem keeping up with Mister as he led her to the right and down a long hallway to a door at the end. Their footsteps made little noise as they walked despite the hardwood flooring and Melinda could smell the faint but distinct scent of the heavy cologne that she had smelled inside the car.

Mister wordlessly stopped in front of the door and then turned to face her, "I'll be here when you're done inside. Afterwards I'll take you to your room." he then stepped aside and gestured for her to go inside.

Melinda stared at Mister and then at the door in front of her. Lately it seemed that her future was being decided by doors...or rather the people behind the doors. She sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time today and proceeded to put her hand on the polished brass door handle in the shape of a lion's head. Classy.

Nervously she turned the handle, her palms were sweaty and her heart was beating faster than it ever had. Who could possibly want her more than Iron Man and why?

-.-.-.-.

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