Chapter Twenty-Five
Lainey didn't even remember falling asleep, but when she woke up, she woke up to murmurs and whispers.
She temporarily kept her eyes shut, trying to listen for anything out of the ordinary, and found that the voices around her belonged to many females and they all spoke Russian.
Oh no.
She couldn't be back there.
Her eyes flew open and she sat up from her place on what she realized was a matted floor, and nearly threw up when she looked around.
She was back in the Red Room.
She knew it by the red mats, the red walls, and the smell.
The odor was not easily forgotten.
At the familiar and sickening smell of overworked sweat, blood, and tears, bile rose to the back of her throat, which she had to push down in order to save herself from severe punishment in the environment she was in.
If she were to vomit. She would be weak. Weakness was not tolerated in the Red Room.
And a lot of those missing memories came at her at full force; the handcuffs, the screaming, the crying, the killing, the fighting, the orders….all of it.
She couldn't handle all of this.
How did she get back here? Did they finally find her again? And was she here to stay?
Lainey couldn't imagine living her life like this, but it was a possibility she needed to accustom herself to and fast. This place was no joke and she knew that.
"I see you're awake."
It took everything in Lainey not throw up right on the crimson mats beneath her.
She knew that voice. She knew it well. No amount of time away from this place could make her forget.
Not permanently.
That voice belonged to Madame B. The most ruthless instructor the Red Room had ever seen, just under Dreykov.
She taught her pupils under the guise of ballet, teaching discipline, flexibility, and focus before moving on to the more rigorous training.
Lainey's blood ran cold as she looked at her face for the very first time in years. The woman was significantly older, but nothing much had changed. She was still the same vile woman she was all those years ago.
"It's been a long time, Alyona." Madame B addressed her by her given name, a name Lainey wasn't used to responding to just yet. "Let's see if your time away has ruined you."
Lainey didn't expect a break from this woman, but she had just barely gotten on her feet and she was already planning on testing her.
The eleven year old swore she was going to have a meltdown before a new voice crackled in her ear.
"Lenusha? It's Baba." It was Melina. "Don't panic, солнышко. Play along until I give you the signal."
She spoke up right on time, too. Lainey really needed to know she wasn't alone in this situation. It gave her a bit of courage to fight.
The confusion of waking up all alone in a different place when she didn't even recall falling asleep, was almost too much for her.
Melina's voice was a welcomed distraction.
But her little victory was soon snatched away when 'Swan Lake' began to play over the speakers and everyone got into formation.
Observing every pupil around her, Lainey realized she had been placed with the older girls who were more experienced and more disciplined than she was.
This was a setup.
Madame B wanted her to fail as an excuse to either cycle her through the program from the beginning once again, or to get rid of her. Neither option was going to work very well in her favor.
Lainey caught the woman's smirk as she quickly held her port de bras in preparation for the dance to begin.
And when it did, she made sure her lines were clean, her toes were pointed, and her head was held high. She wasn't going to give that woman and excuse to criticize and abuse her. She was going to do her best and prove her wrong.
She wasn't weak. She had never been weak. And she wasn't going to start being weak now just because an ornery instructor was out to get her.
She didn't stumble once and she didn't miss a single step.
Internally, Madame B was shocked to find that after all these years, Lainey could keep up with the older girls. But she wasn't happy about it. She didn't like the smug and confident energy that radiated off of her. She wanted Lainey to be submissive and fearful. That had always been the girl's issue in the Red Room. She was never frightened enough of her authority.
It was time to fix that.
"Sloppy, Alyona." She finally got her satisfaction towards the end when Lainey's port de bras wasn't so clean compared to everyone else's.
Lainey willed herself to remain calm, ignoring her heart hammering against her chest as the the older woman slowly walked towards her. It was even harder not to take a few steps back once she reached her.
But she had to remember, there was no room for weakness.
Madame B slapped her dance stick on the ground right by Lainey's right leg, sending the cane whizzing through the air, landing with an unsettling thwap. She caught the eleven year old's visible flinch and took it as a victory. Her pupils were dilated and her breathing had become a little shallow. She thought that she was hiding her emotions, but really, they were obvious.
They were making progress here.
"Sonya, Svetlana, to the center." She ordered two of the girls while everyone else stood off to the side. "You stay." She turned her attention back to Lainey. "Show me what you know."
Lainey's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion before it hit her. She wanted her to fight those two girls. And they were bigger than she was. Lainey wasn't even twelve yet and these girls had to be at least fifteen. There was definitely going to be a big difference between them.
A sharp crack against her cheek that echoed off the walls brought her back to reality. She heard it long before she even registered the terrible pain. But she knew it had come from Madame B. She was known to lash out at her pupils more often than not and Lainey seemed to be the perfect target for her aggression today.
When was Melina going to give her that signal?
"Didn't you hear me?" She grabbed the girl's face, painfully squeezing her cheeks together, causing her lips separate. "Fight."
When Lainey was released, a dark red outline of fingers began to form on her left cheek, which would definitely bruise later on, and bright red prints painted themselves along her chin all the way to her cheeks.
But she didn't have time to think about that little issue. That was going to be the least of her worries.
Sonya was the one who threw the first punch. She was a tall girl; lean, muscular. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her eyes were dull. Lainey could tell she'd been here for a very long time. Her form wasn't very sloppy, but Lainey had seen better. It wasn't hard to dodge her hits.
She wasn't safe, but she wasn't struggling.
Not yet.
A sharp kick to the ribs made the child stumble back as Svetlana joined in on the fun. Her nearly white, blonde hair whipped against her back in the single braid it was pulled into to keep it all out of her face. Her eyes weren't dull like Sonya's, but they weren't exactly light either. They were just…..determined.
Lainey stumbled back to regain her balance, refraining from holding the new wound, knowing that wouldn't work out well for her. So she ignored the pain and sent a similar kick right into Svetlana's underarm. That was a sensitive area, and Lainey knew that if she kicked there, it would give her enough time to deal with Sonya.
Sonya dodged her right hook, and Lainey immediately felt a horrible pain near her right eye.
That was going to leave a nice bruise later on.
The fight continued for several minutes afterwards. Lainey was beginning to worry that the two older girls would win. Especially when she was knocked down onto the floor with several kicks flying towards her stomach.
She couldn't help but groan and clutch her midsection in pain, but she couldn't just give up.
Her hand shot out for both the girls' legs and she used nearly all her energy to help her yank their feet right out from under them.
The two girls flopped onto their backs and Lainey wasted no time in scrambling up onto her feet.
This would be the opportune time to give the killer blow. She silently hoped that Madame B wouldn't order her to do it the way she had done to many other children in the past. Lainey wouldn't bee able to handle that kind of situation.
Instead, Madame B grabbed a good chunk of her hair and gripped it at the roots, to cause as much pain as possible without actually ripping it out of her head. "You're weak." She tutted, motioning for Sonya and Svetlana to get up. "You had many chances to win and end this fight. You took none of them." She tightened her grip.
Lainey couldn't help the loud gasp that filled the air as her head tilted closer to the woman's direction in order to alleviate the pain.
"You weren't born to be weak." Madame B continued, hissing in her ear. "You were made for more. You have so much…potential, but you're lazy." She finished, shoving the girl onto the ground.
And Lainey fell fast. She tried her best to catch herself, but was very unsuccessful. Her ankle twisting beneath her sent a flood straight to her eyes.
She couldn't will herself to hold those tears back. Her ankle was burning!
"As I said, sloppy." Her instructor spat, slapping that dance stick down, catching a bit of the mat beside her, narrowly missing her foot. "Back to your chambers." She ordered everyone, before looking back at her. "Dreykov wants to see you. Irina will show you the way."
Lainey watched as she left, finally showing that she was in some kind of pain once the doors shut.
She didn't care if Irina saw her cradling her ankle. What more could she do to her? She was already hurt and humiliated.
Irina's face harbored no emotion as she stalked over to the girl much younger than herself. She didn't ask if she was alright and she didn't offer to help her wrap her ankle. She just grabbed the girl by the hair, much like Madame B had been doing just seconds prior, and pulled her to stand up on her feet.
When Lainey put weight on her ankle, she nearly fell right back down again, but she had no choice but to keep going. She was sure Irina would have no problems ripping the hair right out of her head if she needed to.
Lucky for her, she didn't have to walk, or rather, hop very far. Dreykov met them in one of the many corridors of the building.
And she recognized him immediately. Everything about him was familiar. The stubby build, the grey hair, and the permanent scowl on his face. Lainey thought that Madame B frightened her, but this was a whole new level of fear.
"Welcome back." He smiled and his eyes crinkled. "I see you've had your first lesson."
Lainey didn't say anything. She didn't know if she could, and she didn't want to. This was the most vile man she had ever been in contact with and she felt she'd be much better off if she never interacted with him at all.
"I see you're still very defiant." He stepped closer as Irina let go of her hair. "You've always been a defiant creature. You were one of the hardest to control without some sort of….." Dreykov quickly lifted his hand and backhanded the girl, his ring causing her lip to split. "Incentive."
"How's our little pupil doing?" Dreykov asked Madame B, watching a young Lainey train in a small room, meant for the younger girls.
"She has promise." The woman held her dance stick in both hands, waiting for the child to make the slightest mistake. "She is not easily broken, that one. She does not listen easily."
"Good." The general smiled. "She will need to be stubborn when she goes out into the world. But for now, she must learn that she has no place to question our authority. As you were." The man nodded and left the room.
The shutting of the door seemed to distract Lainey, because as soon as the noise reached her small ears, she stopped dancing.
No sooner did she stop, did she feel Madame B's hand in her hair. It was one of the only ways she could control her without leaving a mark.
The woman was saying something to her and she sounded very angry, but Lainey could only focus on the pain and the fear she was feeling.
She wanted her mama and her papa.
They never grabbed her like this. They never hurt her to get the results they wanted.
She was safe with them. Where were they? Where did they go?
Why had they left her?
Madame B and General Dreykov were mean. They made her train until she dropped, and they hurt her whenever she made a mistake.
The poor child just wanted to feel loved again.
Lainey's breath quickened as she struggled not to cry in front of him. These memories were only fueling her fears. She didn't want to provoke him any further than she already had. She knew how dangerous he was and how much more dangerous he could be.
This wasn't the time to play tough.
"So much like Katya…..sweet, gentle…before I put her right back in the blender. With your father's stubbornness." Lainey could see the small beads of sweat dripping down his face, he was so close.
Too close.
"So much potential in one child, yet to be explored. You will become my newest protégé. You will be better than my Katya and Natalia. Better than Soldat. Stronger."
Lainey was beginning to feel very sick again.
"After I lost my Antonia, it didn't seem right for your parents to get to keep their daughter, so I had you all separated. It was a good thing I did or you wouldn't be as strong as you are now. I've been watching and waiting." He softened his features to get her to put her guard down.
And once she did, he jumped at her, making her flinch violently.
Her eyes squeezed shut and she held her breath in anticipation for the next blow, wherever it would land.
But it never came.
Instead, he laughed right in her face, at her expense. He was playing with her…..having fun at her misery.
"You're home now, Widow. The Red Room will make use of you yet." He nodded to Irina. "Take her to her room."
This time, Irina took her arm to guide her through the darkened hallways once again. Her grip was firm, but it wasn't very tight. Lainey could slip out if she wanted to, but she hadn't been given the signal.
And she felt too weak to fight. Sonya and Svetlana took nearly everything out of her.
"Lenusha? Now." The child had never been so happy to hear Melina's voice.
But what was she supposed to do? She was too….weak.
Between her wrist and her ankle, there wasn't much she could do.
The girl inhaled sharply and with the last bit of energy she had left, she took out her knife, slashed Irina's leg and shoved her into the wall to their left and ran as best as she could.
Her ankle was still bothering her and she could feel it burning every single time that foot hit the ground, forcing her to run and limp. And that shove, of course, wasn't enough to take Irina out. She was following closely behind.
At this rate, she was going to catch up.
Just when Lainey had decided to just give up and resign to her fate, someone jumped out from the shadows and took Irina out for her.
She didn't know if this woman's intentions were good, so she tried taking off again, only to be stopped by gentle hands lifting her up and taking her inside of an empty room.
The room was a bit small, but large enough to be a small medical clinic for minor injuries. There was an examination table and some medical supplies, but that was about it.
"Here." The woman's heavy Russian accent filled the room. "Sit."
As the woman set her down on the table, Lainey's eyes widened once she got a good look at her.
The dark complexion, the dark curls, and the slim figure…it was her mother.
"Mommy?" She croaked, watching the woman rush to find what she needed to fix her up.
"It's me." Allison, or really, Katya smiled tightly, taking a bandage she found to begin wrapping Lainey's foot. "It's me. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."
Lainey wouldn't even have cared if she did. She was just so happy to see her.
"I'm so sorry, Baby." Katya apologized profusely. "I'm so sorry. I never wanted you to end up back here." She finished up and cupped the child's chin, looking at all her bruises. "Oh, what did they do to you, крошка?"
"I"m okay." Lainey coughed.
"You were never supposed to come back here, I—"
"—I know." Lainey smiled. "Baba told me."
"She did? How did she…how did you….." Katya knew they didn't have enough time for a full blown conversation, so she was trying to keep it simple. "I never wanted to hurt you, Baby. Please, believe me. I never wanted to see you in pain. I had no choice, they would've taken you from me. I'm so sorry. I need you to know that."
"...I know." The child winced when her biological mother dabbed at her split lip.
Katya hadn't been lying. For those years she and Lainey spent in New York, the Red Room had spies watching and waiting for a slip up. If Katya was caught coddling Lainey, or treating her like a normal child, she would be taken away once again. If that happened, Lainey would have probably ended up in a situation that was even worse. Katya had to do what she did for her protection.
She hated every second of it, but she had no choice.
Finally, she was able to find a way to get some help and deliberately leave clues for someone to find them without the Red Room noticing. She knew she would get arrested and probably never see her daughter again, but at least Lainey would be safe.
Whose hands were safer than the Avengers'?
It seemed like Lainey had been striving with them. She was healthier and her eyes weren't so dull. She was where she belonged.
Katya was so glad she got the opportunity to explain herself, but she loathed that Lainey was brought back.
She had a feeling that the Red Room wasn't going to last for very much longer. So right at that exact moment, she vowed, she was going to help in destroying this place.
Once and for all.