interviews
“Fury! You’ll be overseeing and recording the interviews, Gooseman will be primary in conducting these interviews. I suggest you separate witnesses and start now.”
“Yes Sir.”
Fury and Goose decided to start with Natasha first as she had been the one Madam B seemed to show an obsession with. The sixteen year old sat across from them, nervously picking at her fingernails underneath that table. The only reassurance she got was Fury’s calm expression.
After she stated her name and history of how she came to the house they began questioning her on the abuse.
She began to tell them the gruesome parts of her childhood.
“You were forced to fight?”
“The other girls. To see who was best. If not we could be eliminated.”
Goose looked to Fury.
“And what happens if you are eliminated?”
“Dead.”
“Madam B killed girls?”
“Some.”
“Who all was involved in the eliminations?”
“Madam B, Galina, Alina, Olga, Vera, Svetlana, Me.”
“And this lot of people did what?”
“Killed. girls, marks, people.”
“You killed another girl?” Natasha nodded and Goose continued, “Can you provide information on this incident.”
“I was fourteen, she was twelve. Her name was Polina. We were fighting, I won. She said I cheated. Madam B was tired of her, said she was disrespectful, had me finish the job.”
“And what weapon was used?”
“Me.”
“You? Your hands?”
“Me. My hands.”
Fury noticed Natasha becoming more and more robotic as Goose pressed on.
“And the deaths of other girls were similar?”
“Yes. Galina used a knife, Alina a gun, Olga her hands, Vera a gun, Svetlana poison.”
“And Madam B?”
“Anything on hand.”
“Okay, we will come back to this in a little, Can you tell me what a normal day would look like in the home?”
“Wake up, get un-cuffed by Madam, walk to school, after school we complete schoolwork in an hour. Three hours of Ballet or Weapon training, Three hours of combat. Showers and then 30 minutes for dinner. Then we go to bed and are re-cuffed.”
“They handcuff you?”
“Yes, always after Anastasia.”
“Anastasia?”
“She tried to run, Madam found her and she was eliminated.”
“When did that happen?”
“I was six, maybe seven.”
“So if you got in trouble you could be killed?”
“Not always, sometimes she just took you to her room.”
“What would happen in her room?”
“Switches, sex, sometimes both.”
Fury held back a gag, his eyes watered.
“Please elaborate if possible.”
“Her switch, she used it a lot- would have us undress and whip us till we couldn’t move.”
“When was the last occurrence of this for you?”
“Saturday, I was late coming home, got in a fight with a widow. She was mad. Didn’t give me a reward.” She shuddered at the last word.
Fury felt sick, he genuinely couldn’t believe what he was hearing. God he should have reported sooner.
“And what is a reward?”
“Sex.”
“Was the sex consensual?”
“I don’t know?” Natasha looked down at her nails one nail bed had begun bleeding.
“Did you want it to happen?”
“She said I did.”
“But did you?”
“no. i did not.”
“Let’s take a break, I need to grab something,” Nick stood and Natasha ducked her head down, cowering in her chair.
Nick exited the room and made his way to the Sargents office. Phil sat in the chair but quickly stood when Fury came in.
“Fury are you alright.”
The man sat on the couch near Phil’s desk, “No,” He buried his face in his hands, “Fuck Phil it’s bad, it’s really bad, I think this is the worst I’ve ever seen, I don’t know what the fuck to do. these girls aren’t just a case, it’s personal, Maria is involved-“
Phil sat beside him and handed him a water bottle, “How is she involved? She’s friends with Natasha?”
“She would kill me for telling you but no, she never even told me but they are dating and I really don’t want to say this but I don’t think they should be. She literally just got out of an abusive home and has zero coping mechanisms and I don’t want her to be dependent on Maria and there’s just so much going on.”
“Hey think of it this way, you know what to look out for now, dependency and other things. You can have a conversation with Maria, make sure she knows what to look for.”
Fury nodded, “I have to get back- we’re not even done Natasha’s interviews.”
“That one will likely be the hardest.”
“Yeah most likely.”
Fury stood and squeezed Phil’s shoulder, “Thank you.” He made his way back to the interrogation room and they resumed the questioning.
“Can you tell us about any other notable moments or events?”
Natasha nodded, “Another group home for boys, Hydra, they experienced similar things we did. Some of them chose to be there though. They would make them fight for us.”
“Fight for you? How so?”
“They would fight each other to win one of us, to have sex with us. They called it offerings.”
Fury actually gaged but regretted it when Natasha looked a little hurt.
“Fury tell the captain we need CPS and dispatch at this Hydra home.”
Fury wasted no time and doing exactly that, Natasha’s interview ended shortly after that. The following interview were much more of the same. Some went into more details on missions and marks and things like that, some provided information on other girls, like how Natasha was a favorite of Madam B and how Madam B often wanted to reward her more than other girls.
Natasha came out of the interrogation room dissociated. Maria quickly came up to her, “Nat?”
Natasha shook her head but her eyes were unfocused. Maria turned to Carol who quickly approached her as well.
“Maria go sit down.” Maria backed away from the redhead and listened to her sister despite not wanting to.
Carol spoke to Natasha softly before leading her back outside. Carol sat next to the girl and guided her through some deep breathing.
“Natasha are you with me?”
Natasha replied this time, “I am, I’m sorry, I didn’t like all the talking.”
“I understand. Talking about everything is hard, it can help though.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I don’t either.”
Natasha nodded.
“Sometimes,” Carol starts again, “it’s nice to talk to certain people. Like my wife, I love talking to her because she is a good listener and she knows what I need most of the time.”
Natasha didn’t respond for awhile, “I’ve never really talked to anyone. Most of it was lies if anything.”
“Not even the other girls?”
Natasha shook their head, “we all went through the same thing, mostly. I got to talk to Bucky.”
“Bucky?”
“He was in another home, he knew what was going on in mine and I knew what was going on in his. I already told Mr. Fury about what was happening there so you don’t need to worry about it.”
Carol nodded and Natasha seemed to uncurl a little, she still picked at her nails though, “Do you ever get to talk to Maria about this stuff?”
Natasha shrunk a little more, “I wanted to, really bad, but she’s smart and even with me lying she was getting close to figuring things out.”
“Yeah I guess, she can be smart sometimes.”
Natasha huffed a little laugh and Carol counted that as a win.
“Just one quick thing then I’ll leave you be; If you ever need anything at all you can talk to me.” She handed Natasha a card with her number on it, “I’ll be a good listener I promise.”
Natasha held the card with care, tucking it into her waistband for safekeeping. Carol left her soon after that and Maria filled in as a replacement.
“Can I-”
Natasha didn’t let her finished, she simply wrapped her arms around Maria, resting her head on Maria’s shoulder. The brunette reciprocated the hug carefully, tightening her hold when the redhead began to shake a little in her arms.
“Please don’t let go.”
Maria heard Natasha’s whisper and pulled Natasha impossibly closer to her.
“I won’t. I promise.”
That’s how Nick found them thirty minutes later. Natasha seemed to know he was there before he made himself known. She had pulled Maria closer as he approached, her eyes were full of fear and her hands gripped at Maria’s shirt painfully tight.
“Hi girls, I just wanted to let you know that the people from the other group home you mentioned will be here shortly so we want to get all of you girls back in the meeting room.”
“Okay, we’ll be there in a second Dad.” Natasha nodded along with Maria’s statement. Maria took a breath, “We should head in.”
Natasha squeezed her once before starting to get up, Maria followed.