Day 91
The objective was simple. Go in. Start the fire. Get out. Don’t get caught. They hadn’t told her how to set the fire, only to make sure it killed their target.
She had set the fire charges in the vents beneath the target’s room. She now sat outside and waited. She didn’t know why she was waiting. The man she had been told to kill would definitely die in the fire. He was on the sixth floor and in a coma. The fire would come up through the floor and kill him...
This was wrong. She couldn’t do this. There were to many people in the hospital. Children. Good people. The man she was told kill was defenceless. She had to stop it. Stop what she had done. Natasha lept from where she sat outside the hospital and rushed toward the building.
BOOM!!!
A shock wave swept from the building blowing out every window, and it threw Natasha to the ground. She recovered enough to look up at it as black smoke and white hot flames poured out of every opening. The black smoke filled the sky and blotted out the sun. This was to fast. This wasn’t right. It hadn’t happened like this.
Screams of pain and terror rose from the building and tore at her ears.
“No, NO!” She screamed and tried to drown out the horrible sounds of her sins. The screams grew louder and rattled her skull. She screamed louder too. She gripped her hands over her ears and buried her head in her lap. Tears stung her face and her throat hurt from screaming, but she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t stop anything. The screams. Her screams. The pain. The terror. The fire. The tears. The death. The blood….
A red figure rose out of the black smoke and laughed. The figure was made of blood… the blood she had spilled. It suddenly collapsed and spilled over her. Pulled her under drowning her. She tried to scream as it pulled her under. She fought against the thick drowning darkness, she screamed to escape, but the only thing that echoed back were the screams rising from the inferno of the hospital. She could still see the black smoke, and evil flames as the wave of red pulled her under.
She uttered one last horrified shriek before she was cut off by the drowning darkness.
“You did this!”
Natasha sat bolt upright with a scream of terror. Her blankets had been tossed from the bed and she sat panting in a cold sweat. She could feel the droplets dripping down her face and back. She stared into the blackness of her room and slowly began to remember that she was not at the hospital anymore. That had been nearly 20 years ago.
“Tasha?” A beam of light spread through the room, as a warm soft voice called to her through the dark. Clint.
“You okay Nat?” Clint asked from the door.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” The crack in her voice gave her away and she knew it. The door opened wider and Clint walked into the room and plopped himself down next to her on the bed.
“You don’t have to lie to me.”
Nat nodded, “I know.”
“Nightmare?” Clint asked slowly.
“The hospital fire…” Natasha forced herself to reply. Clint didn’t say anything. He only nodded his head in understanding.
“You want to go for a walk?” Clint finally ask after a long time of silence.
Natasha could only muster a nod.
Clint tucked his arm comfortingly over her shoulder as they stepped outside. The air was fresh and cool. Refreshing. She looked around the compound. The building’s were dark… but not in a menacing way, in a peaceful resting way. Nat loved the compound at night. It was always peaceful and comforting. It reminded her that everything was okay now. She and Clint began their walk, setting off down one of the paths that wove between the buildings. She was okay now.
But the shadow would always be there...