Don't be a silent reader x enjoy

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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧: 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐈𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥

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Hell is a powerful word. It is used to threaten children if they misbehave. It is a word that sends shivers down people's spines because it is an unknown variable that nobody has ever been able to figure out. It scares those into doing good in their life so they will not suffer for all of eternity.

But what is hell? Is it a place of ever-burning fire where devilish demons roam with sharp tails and horns on their heads. Is it a place where ordinary people go who have done small wrongdoings and not repented. Or is it a place where the worst criminals go to receive punishment for all those who they have harmed.

Perhaps hell is a place on earth. A place where evil has corrupted the purity of humans and turned their minds into ones of greed and sadism. A place where damaged people feel at home, a place where evil people sin and feel no remorse.

Because if that is the case, Allie is once again walking down the hallways of hell and playing games with the devil.

Why Schmidt suddenly had the kindness in his heart to let her out, she doesn't know. Why she and Bucky were imprisoned for so long together and then taken out on the exact same day, once again, she does not know. Her mind is stuck in a big guessing game that she needs to figure out as quickly as possible so that she does not get thrown back in there or even killed.

The morning had started out like any other morning that she had experienced for the last two weeks. They had both awoken at the crack of dawn and sat up talking to fill in the many tedious hours of the day. They were expecting to be taken in for their regular punishments as per usual as they weirdly hadn't had to endure the painful occurrence for a few days. But instead of having two guards in their regular uniform coming in and taking Allie whilst Bucky would have a gun pointed at his head as he stood face against the concrete wall, they had around eight soldiers coming in with shotguns pointing at their heads. They screamed in German at the two until they got both of them kneeling on the ground with their hands above their heads in surrender.

Bucky was constantly flicking his gaze over to Allie worriedly and saw that despite her calm facade, her hands were trembling behind her head as she gave him a small smile. The guards came behind Allie and harshly pushed her body onto the ground and handcuffed her arms together. Bucky yelled and screamed at the men to get off of her but they paid no mind to him. Instead, they put him in his own chains and banged the butt of a gun against his temple, immediately rendering him unconscious.

As they lifted Allie's limp body up of the concrete she saw the figure of her only friend lying on the ground surrounded by four other soldiers and she desperately pulled with all her might to reach him. But she was soon greeted with the same action and darkness once again overtook her body.

Next thing she knows, she awakes in her old bedroom. A pair of clean clothes are folded on the end of the bed and a bright red apple is placed on the small bedside table in the corner of the room. She stares at the small fruit and feels bile rise up in her throat. Her face pales and guilt overwhelms her body. The apple becoming a painful reminder of her actions that she can not undo. If only there was a God up there that would forgive Allie of her sins but has too many to forgive. Perhaps she doesn't deserve the forgiveness of whatever God that is up there. Even she does not fully forgive herself for all the terrible acts that she has committed.

She quickly averts her eyes from the gut-wrenching sight that was placed there to remind her that she is only a pawn in HYDRA's game and hurriedly changes into the clean uniform. As she pulls up the grey clothes she sees that she is unhealthily frail. Her body is bony and thin, resembling the prisoners who lay in the cells outside her room. What has she become, she questions as she looks at her emaciated frame. Her limbs are as thin as twigs and they are almost as pale as the white of the snow that lays outside.

Every day in that cell with Bucky was torture. The company distracted her mind from the hunger and pain that thrived in her body but soon they became too powerful to ignore. The slops that HYDRA called meals barely would have fed Allie alone, yet Bucky and her had to share so that they could both maintain some nutrition. There was barely ever water offered to them, but when it was, it was murky and contaminated with dirt. The bitter hunger kept the two awake for many hours as they curled up into balls and clenched their teeth in the hope that they could forget the pain.

As her mind drifts back to Bucky she feels a pang of sadness and worry fill up her chest. She doesn't know where he is but she is certain that it will not be good. She needs to get out of here and the only way that she can do that is if she gets help from him. Or at least that is what she is telling herself.

"God, I hope that he is alright..." She sighs dejectedly as she pushes the door to her room closed. She isn't sure if he would consider her a friend but she does care about him enough to hope that he is ok. She has seen the kind of torture that HYDRA has inflicted on its prisoners, and she has even participated in it herself. She would not wish that fate upon anyone.

Allie stands outside her room and contemplates what she should do. All the actions by HYDRA indicate that she is to return to normal duties but she isn't so sure that they would just let her go back to all her previous tasks. Before she was a high-level agent who participated in many top secret missions but after her escape, HYDRA wouldn't trust her. Or at least she wouldn't trust herself if she was HYDRA.

She sees a few guards walk down her hallway, eyeing her with smirks as they continue past. In their eyes, she sees nothing short of disgust, almost hatred, as their faces redden with anger. It would be common knowledge of what happened two weeks ago. They knew that she ran, and now she would be known as a defector. Anyone else would be dead if they tried the same but she was lucky. Or perhaps she is unlucky, depending on which way you look at it.

Despite the looks that she is receiving, she isn't embarrassed. She isn't ashamed of her choice. She would do it all again if she had the opportunity. And she will.

Instead, she turns her head and walks down to the one person who will treat her indifferently. Or so she hopes.

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Allie knocks softly on the wooden door of Arnim Zola's office. When she hears the muffled voice of the man, she pulls the door open and enters. She scans the room quickly, noticing the mess that the room is in. His office walls are painted a dark grey and in the middle of the room, a wooden desk sits with a large map of the world printed out on top. Stacks of papers are flung around everywhere as if a tornado had whipped through the room. A bookshelf, bursting with books sits in the middle of the back wall, with yet another stack of papers that lie haphazardly across the shelves and a leather-bound notebook sits next to the papers, tightly held closed by a thin piece of string.

Zola is sitting on a chair behind the desk and taps his fountain pen against the dark mahogany wood. "Ah Ms. Williams, take a seat." He speaks, raising his eyes up from the sheet in front of him and lays his hand out gesturing for her to sit. Allie cautiously takes a seat on the opposite side of the desk and waits patiently for him to finish scribbling out the jumbled mess of thoughts that corrupt his brain.

"Well Ms. Williams, what is it that I can do for you?" He questions in his thick Swiss accent as he finishes whatever writing that he was doing. He lifts his gaze back up to the stoic girl who sits across from him and places a smile on his face.

"What is my task, Zola?" She replies bluntly without any emotion. Zola raises his eyebrows at her harshness but keeps the smile on his face.

"Well, Schmidt has decided that you will spend the next few weeks working in the control room with a fellow soldier as you had brutally attacked the last man who worked there and he has now transferred bases." He answers smugly as he sees Allie tense up at his words.

"If he couldn't take a hit from me, then is he really fit for HYDRA?" She responds mockingly. She went easy on him and if he was too much of a coward to take that then he shouldn't be involved in the war effort at all.

"Not all soldiers are like you Alexandra, they don't live off the thrill of danger." He taunts with a cocked eyebrow. She grinds her teeth at his comment and glares daggers at the man who still sits there smiling. She pushes herself up from the chair angrily and watches as Zola flinches at the sudden sound.

" I didn't really have a choice in the way I lived now did I, Zola?" She bites back bitterly and turns around to exit the room. She flings the door open and once again continues down the hallways of the base, heading towards the overwatch room that is situated directly in the middle of the camp.

She lifts her wrist up to look at the time and sees that it is 6 o'clock in the morning. That means that all of the able prisoners would be leaving their cells to go start building the Valkyrie. Which would also mean that Bucky could potentially be amongst those prisoners and Allie doesn't want to him to see her once again doing HYDRA's bidding. She doesn't want him to think that she lied when she said that she wanted to get out of here. She desperately does but from his perspective, she can see how her current situation wouldn't prove that. Perhaps it would be better if she held off seeing him until she is able to get him alone and fully explain the situation to him instead of him just assuming answers.

With that in mind, she turns down a different hallway and takes the long way to get to the overwatch rooms. Turning away from the one person that she cares about who is going to experience some of the worst hours in his life.

When she reaches the overwatch room she pushes open the door with ease and spots no one in there. That's weird, she thinks as she walks further into the room and takes a seat in the swivel chair. In front of her is a wall of tv's that all are playing different footage from all areas of the base. This technology was a first of its kind in the world and it made security around the base less intense. They were able to watch HYDRA men and prisoners that were located all over the base as well as any intruders who would try to sneak in.

Ironically, in the screen that sits right in front of Allie's eyes is footage of the prisoners starting construction on the mighty Valkyrie. She spots the man Jones welding pieces of the ship together off to the side. In the middle of the screen, she sees lines of men completing various different tasks and if they move too slowly they get the harsh punishment of a whip across the back. She scans the screen looking for Bucky's figure and finally, she spots his tired face in the top corner. Bucky is slouched over and is hammering away at what looks to be a piece of metal. He moves labouriously and she can tell that Bucky looks even worse for wear than her.

Suddenly, a guard comes into view and starts yelling at Bucky from what she can tell. Bucky ignores his gaze and continues to hammer away and is rewarded with a whip across the back. She can picture his piercing screams from here as she watches his body fall forwards onto the wooden plank of a table in agony. Her whole body tenses as she watches the scene unfold in front of her and can do nothing about it.

The guard sends the whip cracking once again down onto the soft skin of Bucky's back and in response, she sees him wail inaudibly and clench his fist around the hammer that he is holding. He then pushes himself back up and turns to face the angry guard that continues to talk to him in basic English and Allie watches frightened as she can see Bucky slightly lift the hammer in his hands,

"Don't Buck, don't do it!" She whispers afraid for her friend. Almost as if he can hear her, he loosens his grip on the hammer and turns back to his work, ignoring the smirking guard. Allie lets out a sigh of relief and relaxes back into the chair as the guard walks off to the next person who will receive their own cruel punishment.

Suddenly, Allie bolts up to her feet as she hears the door open and in walks a very huge, burly man who eyes her with a snarl. The man silently walks past her and takes his seat next to Allie and watches the many screens that sit in front of him. Allie slowly lowers herself back into her seat and turns back to the screens as well.

First, they start killing me with knives and now they are trying to kill me with boredom, she groans as she watches all the prisoners slowly walk their way towards death as they build the deadliest plane ever seen.

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The days slowly pass by, and the end of her first week back as a HYDRA soldier nears. Each day she takes the same path to the control room, away from the hallway of prisoners that are commuting to their positions in the Foundry, so that she can avoid seeing her only friend. She spends hours on end watching the HYDRA guards punishing Bucky and she watches as his health starts to slowly deteriorate.

At first, it was just the slimming down of his body. Then he started to take tumbles and he struggled to hold the hammer above his head. And now, she watches as Bucky collapses in the middle of his work. With one step backwards, he topples like a puppet suddenly released of their strings. He falls down onto the ground and seems to be completely unconscious with little rises of his chest showing that he is still breathing. All the men around Bucky stop and wait to see what is going to happen to their fellow soldier.

Allie holds herself in the chair, resisting the urge to jump up and go see if Bucky is alright as the scary looking man is sitting next to her and has a gun strapped to the inside of his thigh. Allie watches in horror as two guards race up to Bucky and drag him by the arms out of the Foundry and she watches on the screens as they slowly make their way around the base. The two men weave in and out of the many tv screens as they carry the still unconscious Bucky to the east wing of the camp.

She seizes up once she realizes where they are taking Bucky and her face drains of all color. The two men finally stop outside of the examination rooms and they walk inside once the door is flung open by a doctor who greets them with a sinister smile.

The examination rooms are where HYDRA experiments with science and test its boundaries. Men walk into those rooms and more often then not, they end up leaving the room in body bags. The doctors that reside in there are ruthless and cruel. It is everyone for themselves as they attempt to recreate the Doctor Abraham Erskine serum to give to Herr Schmidt. Teamwork is a term unheard of as they all would steal each other's results in the skip of a heartbeat to prove to their leaders that they can replicate a serum that could change the world. The scientists are all brilliant nonetheless. But in there, their brilliance is standard and even a genius didn't stand out amongst the group.

She watches on one of the screens as the guards roughly fling Bucky onto the steel table and they tie his limbs down with leather belts. The doctors file around the room, cleaning utensils and setting up for the experiment and Allie can only guess what kind of horror they are going to make Buck endure. She sees the nurses set up the table by Bucky and right as one of the nurses goes to inject a syringe into his neck, he wakes.

Bucky's eyes fly open and he pulls on his restraints in distress. Allie watches as he starts to yell and kick at those who come near him which causes all the nurses to back away from him afraid. His eyes go wide as he realizes what they are doing to him and his thrashing increases tenfold. A doctor comes up from behind him and jams a syringe into Bucky's neck and he slowly falls unconscious again.

And just like that, they start the gruesome experiments. It feels like hours that Allie sits there and watches as the doctors write notes on their clipboards and fill him up with various different drugs and chemicals. The doctors that are all wearing white coats move in choreographed silence as they draw pipettes of fluid from one tiny tube and transfer them to others or even Bucky, a doctors dance. They are all transfixed by their experiment and would stay that way until they get the results that they want.

So she waits. She sits in her chair watching her friend until the clock strikes 10 o'clock and all the doctor's retire to their chambers. She turns her head to the side and sees that her 'watcher' has fallen asleep on his chair with his head rested against the bench. A small smile graces her lips as she ducks under the table and files through the seemingly endless amount of cords that power the many screens that she has been watching for hours. She flicks through each wire until she finds the one that connects the examination room to the screen and she pulls out the pocketknife from her back pocket. She silently makes an incision into the cord and cuts the inside wires causing the screen to fill up with static.

She quickly pulls herself back up from the table, shoving the knife back into her pocket and picks up her stuff from the wooden table. As per usual, she quietly makes her way out of the room and leaves, not staying a second longer than what she is required too. But her destination, however, is not the same. She walks briskly as not to arouse any suspicion from others as she makes her way to the east wing of the camp. Even if the guy whose name she still doesn't know, wakes up right now, she will still have up to 6 minutes before they get the screen back working. She only needs 3.

She soon rounds the corner to the examination room and pushes the door open slowly, checking that no one else is inside. She then walks into the laboratory and is greeted with the gentle hum of the metal machines. The room itself is as silent and cold as a mortuary. A thin layer of dust covers most of the counters despite its frequent use.

Allie moves into the center of the room and looks at the sleeping body of her friend. His lip is cut open and blood has dried on his forehead from what looks to be a fairly decent sized wound. Dark bags reside under his eyes and bruises cover almost every part of his uncovered body. She frowns and tugs his arm gently. His eyes flutter open scared and he cowers away from her touch.

"Bucky, it's me." She whispers with a small smile on her lips. His eyes immediately change from scared to confused as he looks up and down her body.

"Allie?" He questions as she takes his hand in her own and gives it a warm squeeze. "Yeah, it's me, Buck. I only have a few minutes but I'm going to explain as much as I can alright?" She responds, pulling away from his hand and gently unties his bonds. He nods his head, still greatly confused but he trusts Allie, so he listens intently.

She lets him stretch his arms and legs but then goes over to the counters where the doctors have left their chemical mixtures and notes. She reads over them and sighs in annoyance. "Stupid doctors would kill you if they injected you with this!" She groans and empties the mixture down into the sink and starts a new one to replace it.

"What!" Bucky shouts in shock and is immediately shushed by the girl who is pouring different chemicals into the beaker. "Quiet Bucky, it's alright. They were going to inject you with a mixture of nitrogen trichloride which could have potentially stimulated mutation growth but it would have definitely killed you as well, quite painfully may I add. But everything is alright, I'm going to mix a different compound to replace it that will be harmless and they won't even be able to tell." She replies quickly as she shakes the now green fluid in her hands.

"How did you learn how to do this stuff?" He asks, still in shock. "And what would happen next time if you aren't here?" He follows up.

"Well firstly, I learned this from a friend who is a chemist and from the looks of these notes, this was a one-off as they have planned stupid, but harmless, injections for the rest of this week at least. Secondly, I'll be back as soon as I can to make sure you aren't dying and I'll try to counteract as many of these injections as I can." She answers as she places the beaker on the counter to rest and goes back to reading the notes.

"So you are working for HYDRA again?" He inquires sourly as he sits on the edge metal table, swinging his legs back and forth.

"Oh yes, that's what I am here to tell you. I am going to get us out of here." She looks up from the notes and sees Bucky's incredulous look. "Yes, I know I failed last time but now we can do this together. But if we are going to get out, I need to gain HYDRA's trust again and the only way to do that is to do what they say, sad as it is. I'll figure out the plan and come back here, hopefully by the end of the week or earlier if I am lucky and brief you about it. Your job is to stay alive, soldier." She informs as she moves back to Bucky's side and gives him a sad smile.

"I'm sorry Buck, but I am going to have to strap you back in. If there was any other way I would get you out but there isn't unfortunately." She says in remorse. Bucky returns her sad smile and lies back down against the cold table.

" I know, doll." He utters as she straps his legs back into place. "I'll look forward to your visits in the meantime then." He states a bit more cheerfully and Allie's smile morphs into a real one as she tightens his chest restraints.

"I would expect nothing less." She responds as she walks to the door and turns back around before she exits. "Goodbye, Buck." She replies sadly. Bucky smiles at the girl, "Goodbye, Allie." He says before dropping his head against the steel table with a sigh as he hears the door click closed.

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Hey guys, thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the extra long chapter!

Thank you guys for 200 reads! That's absolutely amazing considering that this book has only been published for little under a month now and I honestly can't thank every single one of you enough xxx

I just have a few questions for you and I would really like to see as many answers as possible, please! But don't feel pressured to do so and please be honest x

1. Where are you from?

2. Can you guess where I am from? ;)

3. What do you like about the book?

4. What do you dislike about the book? (constructive criticism plz)

5. What would you like to see next?

6. What do you think will happen next?

Thanks for your time and see you soon!

- Grace xx