Chapter 10
There is a first time for everything.
The first time Yelena died since becoming White Knight, she didn’t even realize what happened. One moment she was taking her target out and the next she was sprawled on her back on a hard floor, bright fluorescent lightbulbs making her eyes hurt.
When she reaches her hands up to cradle her aching head, she notices something was very wrong. Her hands are tiny and her limbs are short. Upon looking down at herself to check herself over, she realizes that she’s wearing a pink striped shirt and a pink skirt with matching shorts underneath.
She’s wearing the outfit she had on before she was trafficked to the Red Room. She’s six again and very confused.
As Yelena takes stock of the room she was in, she climbs to her feet. Her body is uncoordinated, unused to the small proportioned limbs. Taking a step causes her to stumble but she gets right back up.
The room is small and the walls are colored grey. There is only one exit to the room in the form of what appears to be a heavy metal door.
She reaches up to turn the door handle. The door isn’t locked but it’s heavy and it takes everything in her tiny frame to lug it open and slip through it.
The hallway is very familiar to Yelena. She doesn’t really remember very much of why she knows it and her mind is telling her that she needs a weapon. It’s not safe here.
Yelena sticks to the walls as she slips down the hallway until she reaches another door. She pressed her ear against it, listening for anyone on the other side before she grabbed the door handle and pushed. It takes almost everything in her before the door suddenly gives and she tumbles forward into the room.
She’s outside suddenly. There’s dirt beneath her knees and hands, and she can feel the warmth of the sun shining down on her back.
“No, no. Blow, like this.”
Yelena jerks at the sound of a young voice, spinning around until she comes face to face with a playset, one that she knows very well. She’s spent hours upon hours here in the backyard of her home in Ohio.
“I’m trying.”
The second voice is very young and small, laced with frustration. Yelena moves closer to the voices until she comes face to face with a very young blue-haired Natasha and an even tinier Yelena sitting at the top. They don’t appear to notice her as they continue to talk.
“Come on. Just like I do it, see?” Young Natasha tells young Yelena before pursing her lips and blowing out. A whistle pierces the air.
Yelena remembers this. This was the day that Natasha taught her how to whistle.
Young Yelena does her best to mimic her big sister, pursing her lips and blowing out. She doesn’t manage to make anything but an exhale of air. “I can’t do it!” She finally cries out in frustration.
“You can,” Young Natasha tells her firmly.
“No, I can’t!” Young Yelena huffs. “Why do I gotta learn this anyway?”
“Because then we can talk to each other in a super secret code,” Young Natasha replies, her voice lowering as if telling a secret. “Mom and dad won’t even know what we’re talking about. And we can find each other because whistling is easier than yelling when you need to stay quiet. Think of all the games of hide and seek we could play when you learn.”
“But it’s hard,” Young Yelena complains although her face betrays how curious she was about this supposed super secret code. “What kinda code is whistling anyway?”
“Well, there are long notes and short notes along with high pitches and low pitches,” Young Natasha explains as she then demonstrates what she was talking about. “And we could have one that means… come find me. Like this!” She whistles a short low note followed by a short high note and then a long short note. “And you can reply with one like… I’m here!” She then one high, two low, and then another high one.
“But that’s more than one whistle and I can’t even whistle yet!” Young Yelena points out in disappointment.
“You can do it. You just need to practice. Here.” Young Natasha grabs young Yelena’s hands and brings them to her face. “Feel my mouth, see how I’m doing it.”
Young Natasha whistles again and young Yelena’s brow furrows in concentration as her hands feel the muscles in young Natasha’s face move, doing her best to mimic her.
Something akin to a whistle leaves young Yelena’s lips when she tries it and she immediately lets go of her sister. “I did it! Did you hear that Nattie, I whistled!”
Young Natasha beams at her, clasping her shoulders excitedly. “Try it again!”
Yelena looks away as a door appears once again. She barely manages to get the door open before she’s bumping into a large figure with grey skin. Before she can even look up, she’s suddenly gone.
She’s back in the motel her safe house was set up in, sitting up as she gasps for air. She doesn’t remember how she got here but she’s wearing the suit and her body aches in a way that it hasn’t for a long time.
“You’re awake.” Khonshu comments and Yelena’s head jerks to see him looming over in the corner. “How do you feel?”
Yelena’s brow draws together in confusion as she pulls the mask from her face. “Sore… what happened?”
“You died.” Khonshu says plainly. “Bullet to the back of the head.”
That certainly explained the headache. Yelena reaches up, her fingers ghosting over the back of her head where she can feel a slight divot beneath the hair. “How did I get back here?”
“I brought you here,” Khonshu replies, moving toward her.
Yelena wonders if the memory she had was just something her mind conjured up to comfort her. “I had a dream…”
“Twas not a dream,” Khonshu tells her firmly, his voice low and unusually quiet. “That was simply where your mind took you to wait until your soul could be judged. Your own personal afterlife, I suppose is the simplest way to put it.”
She died and went to some sort of afterlife this time. “How did I come back?” She looks out the window to see that it was night, the moon high in the sky as the stars shone brightly.
“I took your soul once the moon was high and guided you back,” Khonshu says simply, as if the face he just resurrected Yelena from death was no big deal to him. “You should have worn the suit.”
Yelena doesn’t let him change her mind about the suit. “You always told me you were gonna wait to pull me back from getting my soul weighed… I didn’t think you were serious.” She admits. Khonshu said a lot of weird things at times and she learned to take everything he said with a grain of salt.
“You are my avatar,” Khonshu merely replies before changing the subject. “You must rest up. Your body is still healing from it’s post-mortem state.”
Yelena sits on the edge of the bed and reaches down to undo the laces on her shoes as Khonshu sinks into the shadows and disappears. She toes her boots off and flops back onto her bed as she stares up at the popcorn ceiling.
She swallows hard before she whistles two notes.
Her heart clenches as she waits for a reply that doesn’t come.