Night 86.
Even after a few months, Zemo still finds it hard to fall asleep - and stay asleep - in prison.
When he falls asleep, his dreams are odd, chaotic, traumatic or simply…
Nightmares.
Tonight as he realises he’s dreaming, it first seems like it’s a nightmare again.
He’s in his house. Back in Sokovia. But the way it looked like when he was… seven? Maybe eight?
And he feels the very same uncomfortable feeling as he felt back then. Grown up strangers, talking to him in languages he doesn’t understand. Touching his face, pinching his cheek in seeming adoration, tutting him.
But this time, he recognises a few people.
Over there, that’s Tony Stark.
Talking to him? James Barnes.
How odd.
Staring him down and scaring him nearly enough to wake him up in the other corner of the room…
Steve Rogers.
Zemo feels small and feels the anxiety in his chest rise up. His parents are nowhere in sight and he’s in the middle of a crowd of grown ups that still speak languages that he still doesn’t understand.
So, he tries to leave. Looking around the big room and rubbing his aching cheek he looks for the exit to his room. It’s not where it’s supposed to be, not where it used to be, at last. But eventually he finds it, snaking his way through a crowd, past the Tony Stark man and very quickly, with a shudder down his back, past the James Barnes and Steve Rogers men. Finally he reaches his room.
But as he turns back, it looks like the crowd is closing in on his room. All staring at him. Once again, he feels the fear within him bubbling up and he retreats further into his room.
Now… Everything goes quiet. He slowly approaches the door again and looks outside. The crowd is still there but they seemingly don’t even know about his existence. They calmly talk to each other. Not loud enough to scare little Helmut. But still, letting his gaze go through everyone in the crowd, he still can’t spot his parents.
But… he spots Oeznik.
The blue eyed, light brunette, nearly fifty year old man almost immediately spots him and shoots him a smile. But as soon as Oeznik notices him, so does the crowd. They all turn towards him, all starting to smile and the unintelligible mumbling starts again.
Helmut frowns.
He’s scared, and steps back, quickly closing the door in front of him. He goes all the way to the back of his room, the mumbling and muttering in different languages continues and gets closer.
Little Helmut, he goes and hides in the closet.
Closing the door in front of him, sitting in the very, very dark.
Now the muttering is muffled.
And tiny Zemo relaxes a little. Then….
A knock on the door.
A thud.
This is really about to turn into a nightmare. They are about to come.
Oh god, oh god…
The cold, constricting feeling builds up again.
The door breaks open. He can hear it.
He presses his eyes shut and now the closet doors open. But they open gently.
Zemo, no longer little, carefully opens an eye. Then blinks with both eyes, and Oeznik comes into view.
“Why are you hiding in your closet, sir? All these people are waiting to meet you.”
The baron frowns looking at the now old looking Oeznik and carefully climbs out of the closet, tilting his head a little. “What happened-?”
That’s all he managed to ask before waking up.
It’s nearly 9am.
He stretches a little and sits on the bed for a little longer. He frowns, recalling the dream.
It’s true, the only person who’s still left for him is Oeznik.
So, after stretching once again, he gets up and gets to sit on the small table he has and he starts to write a letter.
“Dear Oeznik
I miss you
… …… …. … ..
……. … … ….. …”