God, if I could end the story here I would.  This part... I don't know anymore.  As we crawled through the grimy, cramped vents of Hydra one last time, all I could think about was my mother.  Is this how she and Papa ran away together?  Climbing through the vents like us, running through fields and forests like madmen?  How did they cross the ocean to America?  In a way, Oliver and I's escape reminded me of Papa and Mama, Noah and Valentina.  

Sweat beaded inside me, the weight of my trench coat pulling me down.  Deep inside its pocket, I carried only three things:  My knife, my boarding pass, and the slip of paper from the red book.  That was my luggage, all I had but all I needed.

Carefully, we pulled ourselves out of the vent into an empty hallway.  As expected, most of the guards were away from their original posts to attend Alexander Pierce's briefing- lucky for us.  But, I saw something that stopped me.

"The elevator's straight ahead," Oliver whispered, pulling my arm.

I was staring at the memorial of Black Widows.  Their names printed out neatly underneath their sullen picture frames.  At the very end, in the corner, I read Elissa Fleur.  It dawned on me- I was a Black Widow.  In a way, I felt honoured; it felt good.  With a lump in my throat, I said defiantly, "I'll survive."  There was no way in hell that Hydra was going to kill me.

Oliver gripped my hand.  "You're better than any Black Widow,"  

In the darkness I smiled.

Our serenity did not last long; a siren blared and we heard the quick, thudding footsteps drawing nearer and nearer.  Hydra knew we were gone.  We bolted towards the elevator, but two soldiers emerged, blocking our path.  "We have them," one reported.  He stepped towards me, wielding a knife threateningly.  "You, bitch, need to be taught a lesson."  The soldier thrust his weapon towards my abdomen.

A knife met skin.  The skin wasn't mine.  

Collapsing to the floor, the soldier clutched his stomach in pain.  I stared at my knife, covered in thick, red blood.  Oliver suddenly began to drag me away.  When my feet started moving on their own, gunshots were already firing.  Yet, my mind was elsewhere.  That soldier was weak, unlike the Winter Soldier, could I have killed-?  

"We need to find another way out of here," Oliver panted beside me.  "Or at least a safe place to stay for now!"

In an instant, I thought of the tubes!  Hydra would never suspect it, because in their eyes I had never been there before.  I took the lead and said, "Come with me."  Hoping that I would remember the path, we scrambled through the vents, hearing sirens blare and gunshots echo down below.  Fortunately, that part of the plan went well.  The room was empty and eerily quiet.  Oliver asked, "What is this place?"

"I don't know," I admitted.  "I found that paper here, in this book."  I lifted the red book.  While Oliver looked at the book curiously, I tried to think of a way out of that place.  There was a path heading to the right, but it was dark and cold.  I was worried that it would be a dead end, some path that Hydra had cut ties to many years ago.  What choice did we have, though?  It was only a matter of time before Hydra finds us here.  I explained to Oliver, "Our best option is to go through this path, it looks like it's unused anyway.  

Oblivious, my friend flipped through the book's pages and said, "It's all in Russian, my mother taught me the language.  But, this page- it's just random words."

"Huh?"

"Like Longing, Homecoming... These words have no connection."  Oliver frowned in confusion.  Eventually, he shrugged and placed the book down, not before adding, "Why didn't you show me this place?"

However, I paid no attention to that piece of information.  Something else was terribly, terribly wrong.  The Winter Soldier was out of his frozen place.

"Elissa, look out!"

Pain shot across my left jaw.  Clutching my face with my hands, I fell to the floor.  Blood was a rushing river, seeping out between my fingers and spilling all over my trench coat.  I rubbed away the tears welling in eyes, smearing my blood across my face.  I kept waiting for the pain that arrived initially to return, but instead I felt numbness.  Oliver kneeled down and helped me sit up.  "What happened?" I muttered, dazed.  He swallowed, and I met Oliver's gaze at the Winter Soldier.  This time, it was his knife that was red, with my blood.  The Winter Soldier said something over an intercom, in Russian; Ollie and I scrambled to get up while he was distracted.  Anxiously, Oliver cried, "Elissa, he slit your cheek!"

"How bad is it?" I questioned, running hard.  No pain had returned to me yet, I must've been in shock.  But, when my fingers met my cheek I traced a jagged line from the edge of my lip all the way to my ear.  Shit, I thought, that needs stitches.  I wondered how I could get that fixed, maybe the boat at Crimson Night would have medical supplies?  

We reached the end of that path, and there was merely a red button.  A dead end, Oliver and I were trapped.

It did not take long for the Winter Soldier to find us, down that path.  This time he brought a whole posse with him, all Hydra soldiers with loaded guns.  "Stay where you are," the Winter Soldier said gruffly,  "It's over." 

No, it couldn't be over, not when we were so close!  Without thinking, I slammed my fist upon the red button as gunshots began to fire.  My move was a stroke of luck because a door slammed shut, separating us from the rest of Hydra.  Another one opened, revealing a room open to the elements.  I heard the wind howling, smelled the crispness of snow- we had found a way out!  Quickly, I grabbed Oliver's hand and we ran neck and neck towards the end of the room.  At that moment, we were one person, one soul wanting freedom.

The room was concrete, with snow piling in drifts along the edges.  There were areas that may have once been windows, but the glass had been removed to reveal openings large enough for a person to fit through.  Without thinking, I dove through the opening, ready to become a runaway.

Instead, I met a rocky edge.  The drop was quite high, and rough-edged rocks littered the landscape.  Snow did not compensate for the rough impact, and the blizzard's wind accelerated my fall, making it worse.  I tumbled down, my trench coat ripping in the back.  Fortunately, my boarding pass and knife remained intact.  Hitting the bottom with a thud, I lay on my back, once again stunned.  Oliver slid down like a professional, he wasn't good at the Hydra obstacle courses for nothing!  "C'mon," he said, hoisting me up.  "We have to keep moving,"

The Hydra officers had broken through the door, and were now sliding down the cliff as well.  More were coming up from the main entrance.  I looked straight ahead, and saw the beginnings of a forest.  I was mostly blind due to the raging snow, but tall, dark shapes had emerged.  Yet, the forest seemed so far away.  Guns began firing, and I slouched forward to block the shots.  To be honest, I was terrified, and I screamed my head off.  Wind was slowing Oliver and I down, there was no way we were going to make it to the forest without getting shot!

But somehow, we did.  The snowstorm made the Hydra soldiers' aims terrible.  Everyone struggled towards the forest, cold slamming against our faces like a ton of bricks.  The snow was up to our knees, and we barely moved a metre a minute.  A voice from behind called, "Stop, and perhaps we will be lenient!"

Their voice was almost lost in the wind.

God, my body felt so frozen!  My hands were stiff exposed to the elements, my feet had gone numb under my weak training boots.  This was the coldest I had ever been in my life.  And I hated it.  Just when I wanted to give up, I hit something hard, something coarse.  For the first time since I was nearly nine, I felt nature.  I had hit a tree.  Oliver felt it too, and looked at me.  In the darkness, I watched his crystal blue eyes and saw the happiness and kindness that he had treated me with for so many years.  I smiled, the trees would give us cover.  We would be safe.  

We wasted not a moment longer, and ran hand in hand Southbound.  All we needed to do was find the road, that would lead us to Russia.  We were going to be runaways, have a home of our own, and live happily together- just like a fairytale.  I was optimistic, a grave mistake.

One lucky, damn lucky gunshot.  It sent me tumbling, bullet ripping through layers of clothes and skin.  Faintly, I heard Oliver scream my name.  He ran over to me, where I lay trembling in a pile of snow and mud.  "C'mon, please don't give up, Liss." Oliver begged, lifting me up.

The same fear that I had before we left overcame me.  It was like I had first entered Hydra, I was bawling and choking on my tears.  No, my wound wasn't the issue- the bullet entered my right side, missing my internal organs- I was petrified with the horror of death.  I managed to stutter to Ollie, "We aren't going to make it,"  I gazed ahead and saw the lights and dark shapes of Hydra soldiers coming towards us.  At least we would die knowing we made an effort to escape evil in this world.  Papa and Mama would be waiting for me.

Someone screamed my name.  They told me to duck.

I didn't listen, I was still frozen.  

"Elissa, look out!"

My head was shoved into a pile of snow.  I turned, looked up at my friend, and watched bullets rip his chest to shreds.