CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
THEY'RE GONE

IT HAD BEEN A BREATH of fresh air. The colors, something she never knew that she would so desperately miss, were imprinted in her memory like it had been something she hadn't seen before. She had been inside of HYDRA for weeks, being used as their personal lab rat. Her body was so numb, that she barely noticed the throbbing in her throat after she let out pained screams. She barely noticed the flames that licked at her veins from the colorful liquids that were forced into her bloodstream.

No one would know, not even Beth herself, but that dream. That dream with Wanda Maximoff, the woman who she longed for, the woman in which she entrusted her life with with, it had taken place weeks ago. Her lips still stung with the kiss that she had placed upon Wanda's cheek. Her hand was still warm from where she had carefully grabbed the woman's arm, begging her not to go.

Her ears were still ringing with the sound of Wanda's sokovian accent. That one dream, that one simple dream was what was keeping her a float. Her anchor for keeping her alive, and keeping her head above water. Every night as she sat in that cell, she wondered to herself if today was going to be the day she would die. Or, would today be the day that she would live and escape? She was hoping it would be the latter. Because even if she did feel numb, her fears weren't. Her fear of dying was constantly gripping at her throat, every scream she let out, that fear grew.

She couldn't but wonder if this is what it was like for them. If Liliya and Avery both went through this. Through the process of thinking about life and death. About whether or not they would ever escape the place. The lifeless, colorless place. The place that was filled with so much death, a banshee would go insane. Someone like Theodora would lose her mind. Everything that she would touch would make her flinch in agony.

Beth's head was pounding. There was something wrong, and she didn't know what it was. After that night, the night in which she had managed to find Wanda in her dreams once more, her mind and thoughts had been completely and utterly black. She would close her eyes, and there was absolutely nothing. It was like her dreamcatcher was hanging above her head, but instead of just taking away the bad dreams, it was taking away the good ones too. Whatever these people were doing to her, it was killing her.

The process that she went through day after day, was so tiring, so exhausting, that the thought of even moving made her ache. She couldn't dream anymore. What they wanted from her, was being striped away bit by bit, and they didn't know that. And she shouldn't have told them. She knew that immediately that was a mistake. But she was hoping it would give her a break. And she was right.

"You're killing me, you know that?" Beth whispered, her eyes closed as she didn't even bother to look at the man that had been experimenting on her. "I haven't had a dream in weeks." She weakly laughed. "You got what you wanted alright, and I did too. It's gone. My dreams, my powers that you were so hungry for, are gone because of you. Congratulations."

"What do you mean, they're gone?"

"I mean, they're gone. Disappeared. No longer a part of me." She seethed. "Is that a clear enough description for you." He didn't believe her, or at least it seemed that way to Beth. But he believed her. Because he didn't do any experimentations on the girl, in hopes of it coming back. In hopes of her returning to the way that she had been. But he had broke her. He had destroyed the one thing he wanted to take from her, and he was angry with himself because of it.

But there was one question that she had. Just one. Why was she still alive? Was it simply for the fact that he wanted her alive in hopes of her gaining her gift back? Or was there something else? Why was she so incredibly important? Maybe he was still going to experiment on her. Try and turn her into something that she didn't want to be. But there was one thing that Beth never realized: her powers weren't gone, they were just hiding. They were protecting Beth, without her even realizing that they were. Her powers had become its own personal dreamcatcher. Taking away all of her dreams, in hopes of saving her life. And even if she didn't realize it then, she would. Because when she heard the first gun shot go off, she knew things were about to change.