Winter's Ghost
Chapter 6
The sun was finally shining in New York city. It had taken about a week of dull, rainy and cold days but now the decent part of autumn was beginning. Bucky sat silently at the front of a cafe that he frequented pretty often, leering out of the window at all the passersby. Things had started to heat up in these past few days, the tension between his best friend Steve and the famous billionaire Tony Stark becoming more and more evident as more time went by. And Bucky knew that it was his fault it was happening, if he wasn't there Steve would probably have no issue with the registration act. Maybe this was how Dora had felt about him, that she was making all his problems worse by her presence. Dora. His heart skipped a beat remembering the dream that had haunted him last night. If anyone could help him now, she could. But, she wasn't there anymore. So he had to deal with his problems on his own.
The phone on the table in front of him rang, it was Steve. Immediately he picked it up, walking outside to talk to him.
"Hey man what's up?" He answered, praying that something else with Stark hadn't occurred.
"Bucky, the police and private detective that I've been working with on your case have finally come across something. I sent you the documentation and pictures, you should check it out. I think it may answer some things. And by the way, it is Dora. They verified the DNA."
Click. His heart was in his throat with nervousness as he checked his email and text messages. Pictures of a car crash in a ravine, the area around it was burned pretty badly. There were streaks of blood on the side of the charred vehicle, Bucky's palms were sweating. Oh God— she couldn't be dead. Not Dora.
Dead body identified as an ex-convict in the driver's seat, assuming from the symbol stamped all over the truck he was definitely a HYDRA employee of some kind, but obviously disposable, seeing as no one had taken the trouble of finding the dude by now.
More files on the chemical that the crates contained, it was a serum that hadn't yet been tested, probably for human experimentation, the police were too scared to touch it until experts came in and verified what it was. But more than likely, it would turn humans into utter monsters. No one knew where the truck had been headed, perhaps the liquid was to be used in a city experiment, leaking it into the water supply to see what would happen. Bucky knew that HYDRA was capable of that kind of inhuman bullshit, and it was viable, there was enough serum in there to treat an army with whatever it was.
A few moments later a video arrived in his inbox, he opened it and started watching.
The police were at the scene, yellow tape everywhere, they were all careful and reluctant to move around. The camera was somewhat shaky as whoever was holding it stepped over logs and branches fallen on the ground because of the explosion. Another policeman, in front of the guy with the camera was in the process of moving a tree aside when he suddenly dropped it, exclaiming in surprise.
"OH SHIT!"
"Donny, what is it? Dude, talk to me!"
The first guy had his hand covered with his face as the cameraman rushed upon him and turned the camera on the scene.
"Fuck— what is this?"
What looked like a body, it was covered in blood, blood and— something else bluish grey oozed over it. The person underneath— for it was a person, twitched slightly, they were still breathing it seemed. But whatever else was happening here was obviously unnatural.
"Get the Sergeant. Donny go— fast!"
The camera shut off unexpectedly.
Bucky clapped his hand over his mouth and tried to breathe calmly as he realized that Steve had meant— that— thing was Dora. What had they done to her?
His hands were shaking as he typed in Steve's number to call him back.
"Steve, can I get into the place to see her?"
"Bucky— I don't know. You shouldn't be going anywhere near the police right now and you know that."
"But— I have to see her. Please, Steve."
Steve audibly sighed.
"I'll find a way. Maybe I can tell them you're my cousin or something. I don't know. I'll pick you up in about fifteen minutes, okay?"
Bucky nodded, forgetting Steve couldn't hear that on the other end. Ending the call he sat down on a bench outside of the cafe and stared at the pictures of the marred body that Steve had sent him. This was like an awful nightmare, and it was happening to Dora. If only he'd been able to keep her safe.
In a little while Steve's car drove up and Bucky hopped in.
"Are you sure you wanna do this, Buck?"
He nodded.
"I promised myself I'd find her. Even if it means— I have to watch her die, or turn into something so much worse."
"Okay then. Just remember you said that."
And they drove towards the police station.