Chapter Thirty-Three

Sydney gasps as she wakes, there is a scream of surprise and alarm close by but she's more concerned about herself right now. She reaches up and touches her neck, frowning. He snapped her neck. She lets out a breath and closes her eyes. She gets why he did it. She knows she would have stayed and fought and likely end up captured. And she knows why he was worried about that outcome. She doesn't want to be a test subject as much as he doesn't want her to be one. Snapping her neck was the only way for her to get out of there. The only way she was leaving him. He was trying to protect her. She finally looks around to where there is a voice, speaking down the phone in hurried tones. Some form of a doctor watching her as he talks into the phone against his ear, calling for help, because this has never happened to him before. Sydney takes a breath and looks around. She was actually brought to the morgue, which is actually a first. She looks down at herself. Naked. They were pretty damn close to going full autopsy on her as well. She looks back at the doctor who is staring at her.

"Where are my clothes?" She asks, he points with shaky hands towards her clothing, folded into a clear evidence bag. She hums a little and swings her legs over the side of the cold metal bench before hopping down.

..............

Sydney keeps her hood over her head as she watches military and government swarm her apartment building. She's not getting in there any time soon. Not during the day anyway. She has to wait for the sun to set, then she can slip in, grab what she needs, if it is still there, and then leave again. She needs to get out of the city. Out of the country. She just needs to leave. Put as much distance between herself and this place and the memories that are here. She reaches up and brushes the tears from her cheeks. She needs to go. She backs into the alley and then vamp-speeds away.

................

It's silent when Sydney finally gets into her apartment, the guy that is supposed to stop people in, clearly some form of an intern because he is not doing his job very well. She lets out a breath as she looks over the mess that has been left. They've trashed her home. She looks around sadly before she moves to the bedroom. They've touched everything. She pulls up a couple of floorboards to reveal a safe underneath. Not everything. At least they haven't found this. She opens it up and pulls out her passport and some cash, just enough to get her started again somewhere else. Nothing else really matters. The clothing she can just replace. Her books can be replaced. She steps closer to a shelf as she tucks away her passport. Her eyes are saddening. She picks up a figurine from the shelf and smiles sadly at it. It's the first goat figurine Bucky brought home. She runs her thumb over the edges of the goat and sighs. She's really going to miss all this stuff. She's going to miss everything about this place. She sits on the floor as she cries, an arm around her legs as she buries her head against her knees. Everything just hitting her. That it's gone. All of it is over. Of course, she wasn't ever going to actually get happily ever after.....she's a monster, monsters don't get happy endings.

.........

Sydney walks through the nearest airport, her heels clicking away at the tiled floor, hurried but calm. She is not wanting to raise suspicion by running or rushing, but she needs to leave this city before it breaks her. And she knows if she stays here any longer she will break. There is too much of her life here intertwined with Bucky. She can't stay.

"Where to, Miss?" The clerk asks her from behind his desk, Sydney sighs and shrugs.

"Surprise me" She answers, the clerk frowns at her. "I'm serious...just anywhere, I don't care, just want to get out of this city, whatever flight is leaving next" He nods and types away on his computer.

"There is a flight to Paris leaving in thirty minutes" He offers.

"Perfect," She tells him and she hands over her credit card, he makes the transaction and prints off her ticket. He hands over her ticket and her card before she nods and walks away. Paris is good. Somewhere she and Bucky were meant to go. She can at least go herself. Even if she is now completely alone. She takes a deep breath, trying to control her feelings, she is not going to cry, she can't cry, because she knows that if she cries she will never stop. And right now, she has to concentrate on getting out of here.