⧗𝚁𝙴𝙳 𝚆𝙸𝙳𝙾𝚆⧗ - 𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙴𝚂(𝙾𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕)

-𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆-

𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐎𝐍 𝐃.𝐂
𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 16, 1991
𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐊

“Deep in December ”

Maggie Stark was only six years old when she lost her parents when she had been taken away from everything she had ever known and thrust head first into the cruel arms of true evil. A day that had started off happy and normal, normal as one could have in an infamous household like that of the Stark family. The holidays were drawing closer, with snow dusting the grounds of upstate New York and winter hung heavy in the air.

Her parents had been on their way to a plane that would take them on vacation, as to escape the hands of winter that loomed over Westchester. Due to her young age, Maggie was to travel alongside with them on this impromptu trip, while her eldest brother Tony was to stay home and watch over the house till their return. 

The drive had been long and tedious, yet Maggie could remember how the excitement she had felt when sitting by her mother and watching as the snowy lands of New York passed by them in a silver blur. Dark doe eyes had been wide and wondrous as they strived to take in everything that they could as the long town car brought them closer to their destination, winding and turning various roadways and pathways as they did.

When the skies began to glow violet as the sun sunk lower into the horizon, her excitement had faded and ebbed with the blink of heavy lids till they fell closed, lulled to sleep by the rumbling of the car engine and dreams of a vacation that would never come to pass. Her small body curled to the warmth of her mother’s side, head resting on her lap as her gentle hands brushed soothingly through her dark curls. 

In sleep's warm embrace, the young Stark girl would never see the one crucial stop the car would make as it passed by the outer limits of D.C. or the important package that was tucked safely away in the trunk of the car, a stop that would truly change the course of everything. 

The pain of the crash had woken the young girl, her body ached and screamed with each breath she took, from the dullest of aches it grew to an almost violent ringing in her ears. Little cuts from the broken glass that covered the whole of the seat she found herself strewn upon, mared the pale of her skin varying marks, her head throbbed with a painful rhythm like the strike of a hammer to an anvil.

Strength seemed to evade the girl at first when she tried to sit up from where she had once laid in the back of the town car where her mother had placed her after she had fallen asleep, her limbs no better than that of a newborn deer, yet when she had seemingly found enough strength to sit up that was when she could feel the rush of something wet and thick rush down the side of her head.

Trembling fingers reached timidly to prob at the base of her temple, wincing at the electric-like pain that flared to life from the brief touch. Fearful eyes looked down at shaking pale fingers, widening at the glaring sight of red that coated them like paint. 

Maggie could feel the gut-wrenching emotion of panic begin to settle in her heart at the gruesome and jarring sight of the blood that stained her fingertips, the growing emotions tipping over when the brief moment of consciousness she had gained, began to slip slowly away from her grip as the terrible throbbing in her head grew and the strength in her body weakened. Distressed at the situation she found herself in, the young girl tried to understand how such a terrible thing could have happened.

Her thoughts pondered on how and why they could have crashed, but finding no answer to her question. When she remembered her parents, big and unfocused eyes turned up towards the front of the town car where she found her parents, slumped over and seemingly not in any better condition than herself as they lay unconscious in their seats. 

Consciousness seemed to drift faster from the young girl as she struggled painfully to keep her eyes open but found that it was difficult as smoke from the busted engine seeped further into the car and throbbing grew worse. Her eyes felt heavy with each blink and grew slower in their response to stay open, in the distance she could dimly hear the sound of a motorcycle’s howl echo in the frozen winter air. It was soon replaced with the heavy and haunting footsteps that grew closer with each step they took to the smoking car. 

Maggie struggled to not fall under the persuasive hand of sleep that threatened to pull her under, her body protesting when she pushed herself to look outside the fractured window, her skin smarting terribly as with each movement she could feel the shards of broken glass dig deeper into her battered skin. Joints creaked and ached with the pull of battered limbs and bruised skin as she dragged herself to sit up, feeling any bit of strength she had left dwindle fastly, yet with the last burst she had she was able to do it. 

From the web of broken glass and burning metal, darkness and the singular pale light of the street lamp their car had crashed into, had created a frightening scene straight from a nightmare for the young girl. Delirious eyes searched desperately through the sea of darkness, hopeful to find help of any kind to aid for that of her and her parents, though from the shadows she wouldn’t find help but rather she would find him. 

Ghostly, he emerged from the darkness with the shadows trailing after him, face diminished by the sickly light and creating a nightmare of an image for the young girl. Nothing had stood out about the ghost as he stalked further towards them, nothing at all except for that of his arm. Harsh and glaring steel glowed under the silver light of the flickering lamp. She could do nothing but watch fearfully as the ghostly man march closer to the burning vehicle, each step matching that of her rapidly racing heart. 

Maggie fought to keep watch, to not give into the pain that racked her small frame, but no longer could she resist the call for rest as she felt all the strength in her give out. Body numbly falling back to lay once more amongst the glass and blood-strewn seat. With each blink of her eyes, her vision grew blurry with spots and her mind fuzzy as consciousness slipped further away from her. Sleep grew more tempting and soon she found it harder to ignore the heavy pull of her slow-blinking eyes. 

Distantly, before she would find herself in the warm embrace of dreams, she could almost remember the sound of her father and the timber of his stern voice. How he called out a name before it was all drowned out in a flurry of screaming and gunshots, a name that would haunt her for the rest of her days just as the ghost who would take her away would. 

‘Bucky?’