CHAPTER 17

*Please note that Elliot Dawes is an OC of mine and that this happens after Avengers Assembled and before Captain America 2, carrying on into that timeline.*

I blacked out for a moment. Everything went deathly silent. I began to slip out of life. I felt as if I was slowly drifting upward, freed from my broken body at last. A voice cut through the silence like a dagger to the heart.

"ELLIOT!"

The scream was high and agonising. It was full of terror and panic. I struggled to come to terms with what I was hearing.

"ELLIOT! NO!" the voice cried. "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME NOW!"

I crashed back into my body. I could feel the coughs rack through me, causing absolute agony for me. After that, I blacked out. Only this time, I didn't drift. I was lay there, a heavy burden to the world.

"Is she ever going to awaken?" a voice asked.

"Her body's been through a lot, it'll take time for her recover," a gentle voice replied.

"Will she recover?" the first voice asked worriedly.

"Yes. Remember, technology has advanced whilst you've been frozen," a third voice interjected.

Nothing felt connected. I felt like I was just existing in blackness. I felt nothing. And that frightened me. I was also curious. I want to explore this feeling of nothingness, to tear it apart and understand how it worked. Unfortunately my brain decided to switch off again.

Pain. Agony. Fire. I felt like my entire body was on fire. Pain shot through me from all over. My leg. Oh god my leg. It hurts. It's on fire. Screaming. I hear screaming. My throat felt like it was splitting in half. My body was falling apart. Am I being torture? I probably am. I began to thrash around. I could feel my body juddered and shake. Some tries to hold me down. I can't see, my eyes won't open but someone's holding me down. They're probably holding me down to stop me from escaping whilst I get tortured.

"NO! NOOOO! NOOOOOO!" a voice protested. "PLEASE. PLEASE! NO MORE!"

There's a sharp scratch in my arm and the pain slowly ebbs away as the blackness takes over again.

A blood red face is floating in front of me. He's sneering smugly down at me, his eyes laughing. I try to move but find I can't. I have no control over my body. Nothing works. He opens his mouth and a cruel, twisted laugh. He's amused at my struggle.

"I told you, even the strongest break eventually," the Red Skull sneered. "You will tell me the super soldier serum!"

"NEVER!" I screamed as pain explodes through me.

I have feverish dreams which leave me writhering in agony. I don't feel real anymore. I am nothing but an explosion of pain and a laughing red skull embedded in my mind. I have no idea where I am or if I'm alive or dead. Am I still being tortured? Is this my own personal hell? Are they punishing me for pursuing science and playing god? Probably. That or I'm being tortured. Or both. This has got to be both, the amount of indescribable pain I am. I feel so heavy and smashed. I just want everything to go away. I don't want to live like this. I just want my hell to end, or the torture, or whatever. I want to go into non-existent. I want to leave wherever I am and just disappear forever. Let me fade into memory… please… please…

"Come back to me," a voice pleaded, breaking through the pain. "Please, Elliot, you can't give up yet,"

That voice. It sounded so scared. It sounded like it needed me. It suddenly gave me an excuse to survive. I have to survive. I have to for that voice. I must break free of this to find out who that voice belongs to.