"You are weak! You failed us! You are a disgrace to the Red Room Program!" Madame B's eyes burned in fury. Katya's body was bloodied and scarred from the many bullet wounds she had received. Two large, strong arms pinned her to the floor as more bullets rained down on her, sending her whole body into a constant, throbbing pain, as the tiny fragments of metal pierced her skin. She felt the strong pair of hands curl around her neck, just as she heard a snap, she sat up, in an unfamiliar room. She took long, panicked gasps of air. She saw the camera in her room move, so that it looked directly at her. Katya couldn't help it, the dream was too real, all too familiar. She wrapped her arms around her knees and shook violently. She began to sweat, and the room swirled around her, like a carousel. She closed her eyes and buried them into her knees. She tried to disappear, but couldn't get rid of the powerful feeling.
That had to be real, it was not a dream. If I am not dead, she will surely kill me soon. Katya thought to herself. She heard the door open, and shrank away into a corner. Her breaths coming even more rapidly than before. She felt someone kneel beside her, but she couldn't tell who it was.
"Shh… It's okay sweetie, you're safe. We won't hurt you." Katya recognized the voice, it was the nurse from earlier, and another woman stood nearby. Katya, still flinched away from her reassuring strokes.
"What's happening to her?" The other woman asked the nurse.
"Panic attack, and maybe a little bit of shock." The nurse grabbed a bottle of water from the nearby bedside table.
"Would you like some water?" Nurse Franklin asked. Katya shook her head quickly, then more tremors possessed her limbs.
"What can you do?" The other woman asked.
"It's usually best to just wait it out. Take deep breaths Marta." The nurse heard the shaky breaths gradually become slower. The girl held her head in her hands and stared at the floor as she took deep breaths. She kept shaking her head.
"Please...Please don't.." Katya pleaded to no one in particular. She flinched away whenever the nurse tried to touch her.
"Don't touch me!" The girl said, her voice more defensive than aggressive as it cracked slightly.
"It's okay, we won't hurt you." Nurse Franklin said again reassuringly.
At this, the girl stood up, and made a quick dash for the door. The other woman grabbed her from behind, wrapping her arms around the girl's waist. The girl struggled for a few moments, but eventually accepted her position. She sank to her knees on the floor, and just sat in silence, staring at the floor, defeated.
"Please, just make it quick." She said in a voice so quiet, so broken, it was barely audible. The nurse and the agent looked at each other horrified, knowing what the girl was referring to.
The nurse went to help the girl up. The girl protested not wanting to go anywhere with the nurse, and shook in her hands, as she was finally helped off the floor. The nurse stayed beside her, catching her as she swayed on unsteady legs. The unfamiliar woman watched warily, her hand, close to the gun located on her hip. She wore a neat bun, a black utility suit, and had cool blue eyes. She had a patch near her collar bone that said Hill, and another on her shoulder with the logo of a bird. The girl finally seemed to come to her senses. Her eyes became more relaxed, and less crazed. Her memory came back to her, she now remembered, she had been captured and placed in a cell. It was only a dream. She held a hand to her throat, reassured that nothing was broken, she could feel her heartbeat slow down in the vein in her neck. She turned to the nurse beside her.
Katya looked at the nurse, her eyes showing all the gratitude that she couldn't express verbally. The nurse smiled warmly, and nodded, Agent Hill looked puzzled.
"Here, take this." The nurse held a pill out to the girl.
"What is it?" The girl asked warily.
"It's a sedative, to help you sleep, and calm down." Katya shook her head in fear. Normally she would have had more control of her emotions, but her panic attack left her mind in a weaker state.
"No, thank you."
"It wasn't an option." The nurse said, thrusting the pill into the girl's hand, and the opened water bottle into the other. Both women looked at Katya expectantly. Katya, just stared at the pill, then back at the nurse. Everything she had ever learned told her not to take the pill, but her heavily scarred gut told her to trust Nurse Franklin.
"We won't leave until you take it." The agent threatened, after seeing the girl's hesitancy. Katya slowly placed the pill on the back of her tongue, and swallowed it with a sip of water.
"Attagirl." The nurse said. She felt the girl's forehead. It was warm and damp with sweat.
"You lost a lot of fluids. Make sure to hydrate." Then, both women left and locked the door behind them.
Katya paced around the room, like a caged animal. She started biting her nails, a habit she had formed when she was very young. She remembered being smacked by a ruler when the Headmistress had caught her doing it. She silently scolded herself for reverting back to it.
Nail-biting is a nervous habit. Nervous agents are weak agents. Weak agents die. Do you want to die? Madame B's words came to her. She stopped biting her nails, just at the thought of the strict woman. She still continued to pace. Then, she laid down on the floor, and stared at the ceiling. She took deep breaths, waiting for the ceiling to stop swirling around her. Katya's panic attack had made her feel sea-sick, and pacing did not help. Slowly, she crawled back on top of the bed. She curled into another little ball, but her eyes were wide open. She laid there for hours upon hours rocking back and forth. She was only awakened from her self induced trance when the door opened. She leapt out of bed, and faced the person that entered.
"It's alright, sweetheart." It was just the nurse, and the agent from yesterday accompanied her. She recognized them, but still didn't relax her tense muscles.
"I brought you something to eat." She said, as she set down the tray.
"Do you mind if I check your injuries?" Nurse Franklin asked quietly. Katya looked her up and down, before giving her a terse nod. The nurse began to walk towards her.
"Hang on a minute." The agent said.
"After that episode last night I think it would be best if she had restraints, just for now." She walked over to the girl and handcuffed her to the frame of the cot. The girl's body language stayed calm and relaxed, but her eyes widened in fear at being confined. Then, the nurse began her examination. None of her wounds seemed to have gotten any worse, still she cleaned them and rewrapped them in new bandages. Though, her bed had random splatters of blood on it so the nurse guessed moving had caused some of the wounds to reopen. She also noticed the girl's clothes were very soiled, they were covered in blood, oil, bullet holes, dirt, and overall just very threadbare.
"Would you like me to get you some clean clothes?" The nurse asked. The girl replied by shaking her head.
"Okay, someone will be back later, to take you for further questioning."
The girl nodded as her handcuffs were removed. She stared longingly at the door that closed behind them.
The food looked innocent enough, it was a bowl of something beige and clumpy, but warm. Steady tendrils of steam rose from the tray and floated into the air. It smelt better than any of the food at the Red Room, but she knew she should not eat it. Her stomach felt empty, and ached at the thought of food. She put it on the nightstand, straightened up her bed, and sat with her back pressed against the wall, so that she faced towards the door.
She waited there for hours. She kept herself entertained by counting pairs of feet she saw passing beneath the space between the floor and the door. By pair 107, they had stopped by the door and stood there for quite some time. She stood up knowing who it probably was. Sure enough the door opened and the agent walked through, Katya recognized her by her heavy, dark, military grade combat boots.
"Place your hands on top of your head." Agent Hill said. The nurse said she was just a girl and had felt badly that she got wrapped up in this mess. Hill still didn't trust the girl, after Natasha had joined S.H.I.E.L.D, she learned all about how she, among many other young girls, were trained as assassins. Then, child agents became more normal, nobody to overlook. Katya obeyed, Hill approached her and handcuffed the girl's hands behind her back. She grabbed the girl's arm in a vice's grip as they marched down the hallway. She was returned to the original room with the metal chair. The next few days were all the same her captors had a new tactic. Every interviewer asked the same darn ten questions every time. How old are you? What is your name? Who do you work for? What was your mission? She was asked these by all different kinds of people, different races, ages, sizes, and appearances. One person looked to be about 7, another close to 80. Still, she never broke, she never betrayed the Red Room. Her answers varied everytime, so that S.H.I.E.L.D would not know what was true. She had at least 12 different names by now ranging to as normal as Sophie to as sophisticated and Russian as Anastasia. She had told them she was as young as twelve and as old as twenty two. She worked for the spy organizations NOYB, SPHINX, KNA, QWERTS, and others. She had either forgotten her mission, refused to tell, or made something up that was simple and believable. Finally, after ten hours of interrogation, the agent returned her to her cell. Dinner was waiting for her on her bedside table, but she drank water and laid on top of her bed instead.
Hours went on, the hours turned to days, the days turned to weeks and everyday was exactly the same. Fall asleep, wake up from a nightmare, wait, refuse to eat, be interrogated, repeat. But, today seemed different…