My older brother was out of the country for the next year, a helicopter mechanic on an Army base in the middle east, so even though it was hard to be in his big house on the Potomac alone, there I was, moving all of my shit into his practically empty house.

Looking around, I laughed at the huge living room, with literally a lamp in the far corner, the couch I bought him when he bought the place six months ago, and a GIANT TV, compete with his infamous Xbox setup next to it, and closing the front door behind me with my foot, I thought out loud, "Seriously, Ryan? A little decorating never hurt, Bro."
As I set the last box from my truck on the (again empty!) breakfast bar, I beamed and scurried over to the couch, ready to play some call of duty for the next couple hours, headset and everything. I was turning everything on and grabbing a controller, just putting my headset on, when I heard a bunch of explosions outside. I ran to the window, watching as these huge flying aircraft carrier type things shot at each other, and my heart raced as I ran back to the couch and switched over to the news with a few clicks of the remote. As I listened to the already frantic reports go even crazier, shouting about SHIELD and the war machines, currently blowing each other up just upstream from where I was, I watched the live footage of, what they were calling 'helicarriers', smashing into the huge building I could barely see through the trees on the deck out back earlier.
I relaxed a little, at least knowing that I want going to get smashed by some shit falling out of the sky, as I watched the last heli-whatever fall into the river upstream and feeling a little safer, I kicked off my sneakers and set them beside the couch. After turning the Tv off, I got up and walked over to the kitchen, fishing my Ipod out of my purse Id put on the counter earlier. I plugged it into my brother's Ihome on the counter by the fridge, blasting the volume as I smiled at the song the came on the shuffle, singing along to Foxes Holding Onto Heaven as I started to unpack. I reached for the box on the breakfast bar, grabbing the picture frame set on top inside and setting it by the sink, I smiled as I thought about the picture of me and Ryan inside.

I'd had some guy in his platoon take it the day he left, just before they got on their first plane of many. His big arm was wrapped around my shoulder as I smiled up at him, my dark brown waves fading into a lighter brown ombre at the ends as my hair fell over my shoulder. Looking down at the ends of it in between my fingers, I smiled at how much longer it was in just six months, but I snapped out of my thoughts as the song changed to Sia's Chandelier, and instantly, I was singing and dancing around the kitchen as I put a bunch of assorted soda cans I brought in the incredible overstatement of a refrigerator.

After the song ended, I had finished putting away the snacks in the upper cabinets, and coming down from the top of my step stool, I changed the song to something less intense and grabbed a soda from the fridge. I sung along to Judy Garland's I Ain't Got Nobody as I walked across the house and opened the sliding glass door, leaving it open to hear the music as I sat on the patio couch, yet another present from me, in the shade and stared up over the trees at the black smoke billowing up into the sky. I sighed, popping my soda open and taking a sip before I sat back and sang along.

"Romeo had Juliet,
And Louis the Sixteenth had Antoinette,
But I ain't got nobody,
And nobody's got me,"

I smiled, loving the way the trees rustled loudly in the wind over the music as I stopped to drink some of my soda, and kept singing.

"Abercrombie has his Fitch,
But here I am crying and sitting and sighing with no one at all,

Hans had Gretel,
By his side,
And Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
But I ain't got nobody,
And nobody's got me."

Taking another sip of me drink, I could've sworn I saw something move in the corner of my eye by the door, but when I looked a second later, there was nothing. I shrugged, rolling my eyes at myself for being so paranoid, but hey, aliens attacked New York last year and now SHIELD was, how the news described as "revealed", so I needed to be ready for anything and lighten up a bit. I mean, its wasn't like I couldn't defend myself, Ryan taught me to kick some serious ass in high school, and he'd made sure I'd been practicing when he'd gotten word he was being deployed.
I'd been training whenever I could before moving from where Ryan and I grew up in an array of foster homes, leaving my job as a substitute teacher for the local middle school to take a better paying, full time position as the history teacher at the middle school a few blocks from my brother's house in Washington, D.C. (Technically, since it's is on this side of the Potomac, it's still Virginia.)
I sighed as I stood to go back inside, thinking about how I'd probably be the youngest teacher at this school too and how I should just "rock this shit like I always do", according to my brother, and get over being nervous about my first day on Monday. I closed the sliding glass door behind me, humming along as the song shuffled to Tove Lo's Habits and pulled the shades of the tall windows along the wall, before I went to the kitchen and turned the music down.
I picked the box up off the breakfast bar and went to put it in the guest room, which I guess I could call my room now, when I noticed that my brother's bedroom door across the hall from mine was cracked open. As I set the box on the floor of my closet, I kept my eye on the crack of the door, before I saw a shadow move inside. My brother's parting words echoed in my head as I walked slowly to the hall, closing the door silently behind me as I inhaled and braced myself for a fight.

"Caroline Mildred Clark, You better not do anything stupid until I get back!" Ryan called to me as he walked down the connector ramp to his plane, and with a tear in my eye as I smiled and shouted back, "How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you!" and as he turned the corner he shouted back, "Love you, Jerk!"

"Who's there?!" I yelled, shaking as I braced myself against my bedroom door, and as I looked down for a split second, instantly there was a tight cold grip around my neck, slamming me into it. I could hear the wood splinter against the side of my head at the sheer force of how hard it hit, and as my vision started to go black, I felt myself falling to the floor, and before I was completely unconscious, I felt the grip from my neck disappear and strong arms lift me into them before I hit the ground.

A/N: Hope you like it! Reviews are much appreciated :) Thanks for reading! Ill have the next chapter up soon! :)
I own nothing but my OC :D anyone notice that CA:TFA reference!? FORESHADOWING MUWAHAHA :)))))))

THANKS AGAIN! :0)
-*J*-