The snarling beast bared it razor sharp fangs at its prey. Casey was forced to remain absolutely still from whatever was shot into her neck. Her brain was shouting commands for her arms to push her up, for her legs to run, and for her inner darkness to shield her. Maybe she had the ability to open a portal under her and dodge the creature's death grip? She tried her best; nothing happened. Oh shit.
Casey couldn't see the physiological form of her demise; everything within her field of vision was black. However, she could vaguely see the tips of her short hair being blown by the monster's horrendous breath. Come on then, get on with it! Inside, the paralyzed girl was screaming every curse word she knew; patience was definitely a virtue, just not in the aspect of waiting for your death. The moment lasted a little longer with the creature heavily breathing over Casey's motionless body. There was a small instance where the monster shifted its head to stare the girl in the eye; the only part of its body that was different than the rest was the soulless white orbs that it used to see. She stared into the tiny white dots and awaited her end.
"Hey!" Bucky's voice rang over the harsh breathing of the creature and the howling wind. Casey saw that the monster made a noticeable change in direction, from her to The Winter Soldier behind them. The only difference was the pitch in the low growl; when it was looking at her, it was softer but when it shifted its gaze, the tone was deeper and more menacing. "Stay away from her!"
The low growl within its throat immediately altered into a screeching sound as it jumped over Casey and lunged for Bucky. From her paralyzed state, she was unable to see; but that didn't stop her. Although her muscles were absolutely useless, the idea of Bucky perishing by the hand of this thing was unfathomable. The creature took all but one step towards Bucky before Casey felt a surge of unknown strength. Her darkness was pumping through her and was able to swing her body around. As a black aura encircled her, Casey turned her body and waved her arm around. The power she thought that was lying dominant in her awaken just enough in order to stop the creature from hurting him.
With an extended arm, Casey quickly drove her hand to wrap around the shin of the monster. She couldn't feel how hard she was squeezing, because her shadows were controlling her motor functions, but she wasn't letting go. The monster stopped short in front of Bucky; the trained assassin was ready with his combat knife and fighting stance. The black aura tracing along Casey held long enough for her to speak. It wasn't much, but her point was made clearly.
"Not. Him." The girl demanded to the beast.
It circled back and howled at Casey, as if shouting a response to her request.
The Shadow Stranger didn't flinch or bat an eye; mainly because her shadows were only allowing a small amount of movement for her. Her hand kept the bone crippling pressure while the creature growled in annoyance. Casey glared steel daggers at the monster, doing her best to intimidate this shadow creature. It wasn't long before the shadows that was controlling her arm were weakening. The aura around her skin began to fade and her head slowly descended to the ground. Once her head laid on the concrete, her arm dropped from the creature's shin. Casey's view blocked out the monster and Bucky; so she relied on her ears to figure out what was happening.
There was a hesitation before the creature snorted and skulked away. Casey relaxed her breathing as she realized that the monster disappeared into the night. Her heart eased as she heard light footsteps approach her. Bucky knelt down to his friend; without saying a word, he scooped her up in his arms, steadying her head against his chest, and carried her, bridal style, away from the house. It was painful for Casey to leave her fresh start; she had worked hard for everything in that house, and once again, she would have to start over. It was almost too easy for her to assume a new identity because she had done it so many times before. However, this time, she didn't mind. Luckily, Bucky had found her house before that team of red and gold attacked him; she never how much she missed him.
From the rhythmic pattern of his heart beat, Casey couldn't resist the urge to drift into unconsciousness. Before she reopened her eyes, she stretched her sore legs and stiff arms with a mighty yawn. Her shoulders popped and her joints cracked just as she relaxed and sighed with satisfaction. Peeling her eyelids apart, Casey was ambushed by soft daylight. It was filtered through thin window blinds and unsettled dust danced in the cracks. With drowsy green eyes, she glanced around and almost immediately found Bucky. He was hunched over next to her while twiddling his combat knife in his hands. When he noticed her, he silently shifted his gaze across the room they were in. Casey turned her head to see what he was looking at.
On the other side of the hardwood business office, there were two people; a mother and teenage son. She was holding the boy with white knuckles and tears coating her face. The boy seemed unamused by his mother's need for physical connect. Casey raised an eyebrow at them and then at Bucky.
"What is this?" She pushed herself upright and directed her question at him with a raspy voice.
"He saved us," the mother asked. It was obvious that she was hysterical.
"He didn't need too," the teenager scowled, "I had everything under control."
"Liam, hush!" the mother coached him into being quiet.
The boy rolled his eyes and pried himself from his crying mother. "Whatever," he stormed away from his protective mother and pulled the oak wood double doors open. Once he left, Liam slammed the doors just as his mother sprang up after him. Casey and Bucky were quiet as they exited the office.
"Who are they?" she gestured to the double doors.
"You're more concerned about who they are rather than how you're moving around?"
She took a moment to realize that he was right; she was able to move her limbs again. However, she wasn't given the chance to question her sudden ability to control her muscles.
"Do you really think I would allow anyone who posed a significant threat to be in the same room as you?"
"Well, when you put it that way," Casey shrugged her shoulders as if to express her lack of words. "But why can I move?"
Before answering, Bucky moved to reveal an empty syringe. He tossed it while replying, "The antidote."
She stared at the needle in bewilderment, "You believed him? What if he was lying?!"
"He wasn't."
"He could have been!" Casey swung her legs over the faux leather couch and buried her face in her hands. "Jesus," she muttered.
"That man had no reason to lie." He explained his conclusion.
"Are you high?! He wanted to shove us in that damn car of his and take us who knows where. Probably would have said anything to get you in the vehicle."
"Casey," he shifted from the armrest to sit right next to her, "You need to trust me. I've dealt with this type of stuff for years."
"More like for decades," she joked.
"Even more reason to trust my instinct." Bucky was hesitant, but placed a comforting hand in her shoulder, "I would never let anything hurt you."
Casey met his blue gaze with her own green one; they shared a reassuring stare. She was skeptical about trusting his instincts; even if he didn't remember telling Pierce about her before, there was a few months he was MIA. But, again, she couldn't turn him away. Call it her girlish, sensitive heart, but there was no possibility that Casey could deny the genuinity of his eyes and words.
With a warm, sincere smile, Casey leaned in and gave him a hug. "I know you won't." She agreed; this time, Bucky was much faster in returning the embrace. He was getting used to her physical contact. His arms held her tight and she gave him the same squeeze. Underneath her buried face, she felt his chest rise sharply and drop deeply; he sighed. Did he enjoy having her in his arms? It was all too clear that he seemed more relaxed, but wasn't that the point of hugs? Maybe she was just imagining things.
After a while, when he didn't release her, she began to gently rub his back and ribs. "What are you thinking?" she wondered out loud.
Another deep inhale from him, then he answered, "I remembered something else."
"You do?" She forced a gap between them in order to look at him in the eyes with excitement. "Oh my God, what?"
He opened his mouth, however his chance was lost. The double doors was slammed open and the teenage boy ran back into the office. With powerful strides and a determined look, Liam rushed up to the two on the couch. Despite the "insignificant threat" that Liam possessed, Bucky stood up and kept him a distant from Casey.
"I want you to teach me," he demanded.
"Liam!" his mother emerged in the room and tried to pull him away.
He freed his wrist from her and stepped up to Bucky, "I want to learn!"
"Learn what?" Casey raised from the faux leather couch, but Bucky held a hand out to keep her back a step.
"To fight, to kill," Liam answered with a dead serious glare.
His answer unsettled her.
"Please," she mother coaxed again. "You have nothing to prove."
"I have everything to prove!" he snapped.
"Trust me, you really don't want the ability to do that-" Casey knew all too well what the consequences were about hurting others.
"How am I supposed to keep her safe when I can't fight?!"
Before Casey or his mother could talk him down, Bucky grabbed Liam by the shoulders and shoved him against a wall. The framed awards from the lawyer shock and dropped from the nails and cracked on the floor. The loose shelves with legal writing books and common State laws stuttered and tipped over. Liam's mother gasped with water filling her eyes while Casey rushed after the two and tried to pull Bucky away.
"Hey, hey!" She held onto his forearms, provided a small amount of pressure to keep him away from Liam. Normally, she was definitely too weak to push him off, but just feeling her touch kept Bucky under the right mind enough to control his anger.
"You. Don't. Want. This." He growled his teeth and shoved his mechanical arm into his chest to demonstrate its power. Once Liam coughed for air, Bucky followed Casey's led and stepped back for the adolescent. His mother rushed to her boy's side and coddled him.
"Are you alright?" she breathed into his ear.
"No! I'm not!" Liam shouted at his annoying mother. "That's what I'm talking about! I can't even hold my own against one guy, when he took on like six!"
"You are two very different people," the mother said.
"I want to fight!"
"Bucky," Casey stood on her tip-toes to whisper in his ear, "What happened? Who are these people?"
Rather than answering her, he grabbed one of her hands and began to walk out of the room. She glanced over her shoulder at the mother and son just as the oak doors shut behind her. The Winter Soldier led her down the hallway and pushed open an emergency staircase. Stepping down each stair quickly, he brought her down a few floors before entering another level. This story of the building was a spa, a softly colored waiting room, soothing water trickling down rocks, and simply equipped with desktop computers for reservations. No one was behind the front desk or patiently waiting on the sofas.
"What is this?" Casey glanced around the white and light blue decor while Bucky continued around the entrance. "What-"
"Riots," he said, peeking around the corner and into a massage room.
She took a moment to comprehend what he was referring to, "In the streets? Because of the blackout?"
"It was city wide; the power's still out and no one knows why."
"Wasn't it because of the wind gusts?"
"That's what I thought; but they've stopped, and nothing is being done about turning the power back on."
Bucky released her hand and began to search the cabinets. She stood and processed what he had informed her. "It was only a night," she scoffed at the idea.
Closing a cabinet, after tossing a towel over his shoulder, he looked back at her, "A night? More like six."
"Six days without electricity?!" Her jaw dropped.
"You thought it was only a night?"
"Well, yeah," she admitted, feeling slightly dumb for being asleep for so long. "Why didn't you wake me? Jesus, the last thing I remember was that creature lunging after you after those red and gold guys ambushed us."
"I tried, but you wouldn't open your eyes."
"How? Like, what did you do to wake me up?"
Offering the towel to her, he rolled his shoulders in discomfort and then answered, "Do you remember what you did to wake me up, back in the doughnut shop?"
Casey didn't need a reminder; she was the reason why he was almost comatose, but what could you expect poking around in someone's head? "Yeah," she said, a little unsure of his explanation.
He didn't elaborate, just nodded to confirm. She held a curious gaze at him attempting to silently encourage him to continue. When he didn't, she understood all too well what he was referring to.
"Was that what you remembered?" she altered the subject a little, but her curiosity was not filled.
He straightened his posture and broke the eye contact; was he embarrassed? "Not exactly." Again, he kept the details to himself.
"Do I get to know?" she tried to be lighthearted about this subject.
Bucky ignored her question, "The government's blocked off all highways in and out of the city. Every major road is littered with soldiers. They're saying a criminal broke out of jail and is extremely dangerous with electricity. They shut the generators and won't inform the residents. They've responded with vandalism, riots, even law enforcement executions. The National Guard isn't doing anything; just waiting and watching."
"How do you know this?" Casey narrowed her eyes.
"I interrogated one of them."
"Oh," her disappointment was evident in her tone.
"I didn't kill him," Bucky clarified. "That isn't me anymore."
"I know," she said, unsure of how to prolong this conversation. "What about that thing that attacked us?"
"You don't know?"
"No, why would I? Apparently I've been passed out for six days."
"But," he looked back at her with confusion, "It was made of shadows. It followed your order to leave me alone. It obeyed you."
"You think I made that?" She choked up.
"You didn't?"
"There's no way I could have created that monster!"
"Are you sure?" Bucky's stern face was serious and obviously looking for any sign of her lying. "You once explained that your book was powerful and if you mastered it, you could do anything."
"Well, if you recall back at the basement, when I jumped into your mind, that didn't end very well. I almost lost you." The last phrase she said it with a bit more emotion than she anticipated.
"I'm not going anywhere," he reassured her with confidence. "Now, go shower. You stink."