Loki Laufeyson - Saviour {2}

Chapter Four - Haunted by Memories

My heart was pounding hard in my chest and my hands were sweaty on my forehead as I sat there on the training floor. I shakily wiped my hands on my pants, but when I brought them back up to my face, I noticed faint sparks dancing along my hands. I sighed heavily and fisted my hands, forcing the sparks back under my skin, rubbing my eyes hard to force back the memories.

I was crouching down on the floor, my palms pressed against cold tiles as I slowly lifted my head. I slowly stood up and saw Strucker standing beside me. He didn't look down at me, simply handing me a dagger. I took it and twirled it around in my hand, testing out the weight of it, before I slowly turned my attention to where he was looking. Chained to a chair not far away from us was a figure dressed in a dirty coloured jumpsuit with a bag over their head. Behind them were two agents dressed in their pure black uniform and they pulled off the bag, revealing a young girl. Tears streamed down her face and she was sobbing so hard, her body was shaking.

"Kill her." Strucker growled in my ear.

I flipped the dagger around once more in my hand before I threw my hand out, throwing the dagger through the air with a whistle. It impeded firmly into her chest and blood gushed out immediately, It soaked her clothes and dripped down onto the floor as she slumped forward.

I sat upright abruptly, gasping for breath as my head hit the wall behind me. My vision was blurry and I furiously rubbed my eyes, trying to focus on not throwing up as my stomach flipped around from the memory of the blood all over the floor.

I stumbled into the training room bathrooms and turned on the tap, throwing water onto my face to try and wash off some of the sweat. I clutched the sides of the sink and slowly looked at myself in the mirror to see my eyes were red-rimmed with my skin pinched across my cheek bones and my neck and collar bones. It was a very faint yellow colour from the lack of food I had, scars shining in the lights as my chest heaved. I away from my reflection in disgust and back down at the sink, watching the water run down the drain, trying to stop the vomit creeping up my throat.

"Miss Emily." Came JARVIS' voice and I looked up sharply. "I couldn't wake Mr. Stark. Would you like me to wake Mr. Laufeyson instead?"

"What for?" I asked him, wincing at my shaky voice. I turned off the tap and turned around so my back was leaning against the sink.

"Mr. Stark has instructed me to wake him when your heartrate and respiratory rate breaches the normal threshold." JARIS replied. "Mr. Laufeyson is next on the list of contacts. Would you like me to wake him instead?"

"No." I shook my head, wiping water off my face. "I'm fine."

The AI didn't have anything to say to this and I wiped my hands on my pants, stepping out of the bathroom. I kept my head down so I didn't have to look at the ruined dummy, I knew I should put the dummies away, but I couldn't bare the thought of touching them.

I walked in silence back to the compound, my head a storm of unwanted thoughts. I looked up at the clock when I got back into the compound and saw that is was around one in the morning. I poured myself a glass of water and leaned against the kitchen bench as I drank. When I was finished, I set down the glass and sat down on one of the stools around the bench, rubbing my face with my hands.

"Bad night?" Asked a voice and I immediately jumped up, dagger in my hand as I spun around to face the voice, only to find that it was Bucky walking down to the stairs I breathed a sigh and put the dagger back away, trying to calm down the adrenaline pumping through my body.

"Yeah." I said quietly, sitting back down. "You could say that. Why are you up?"

"Couldn't sleep." Was all he said, and I nodded, watching him as he walked over to the large glass windows, looking out at the dark forest beyond the compound.

After a couple of moments, he walked over to the sink and poured himself a glass of water before walking over to the couch, turning on the TV to the lowest volume. I slowly walked over and sat down next to him, looking at he was watching.

I must have fallen asleep at some point because suddenly, I had fallen back into the HYDRA training room. I couldn't see anything but there were voices whispering all around me, hands grabbing at my clothes and tearing them in several places. I tried to pull away from the hands but I just tumbled into other bodies. Fear bolted through me as the clothes began to fall from my body and I thrashed around harder.

"Emily." Whispered a voice, sounding far away as all of the memories suddenly disappeared. "Emily." Something cool brushed against my cheek, sending a wave of calm through my body and immediately stopping my body from shuddering. I tried to open my eyes as tears continued pour down my face, but it felt like my eyes were glue shut.

"Emily." Said the same voice, slightly louder and closer this time. "Can you hear me?"

I nodded shakily and the voice sighed softly, gently wiping away my tears, causing me to lean into the coolness as my stomach bubbled with fire that wanted to break free. The coolness slowly disappeared from my cheek and I was slowly able to open my eyes, blinking tears out of my eyes so I could see.

The sun was filtering softly onto my face from the large glass walls of the Avenger's compound. I looked down at the arms pinning me against a body and I immediately recognised Bucky's metal arm. I looked over at the cool hand that had been touching my cheek and saw Loki crouching down in front of the couch, some of the Avengers hovering a little way behind him, worried expressions on their faces.

"Loki?" I asked in a shaky, timid voice.

"Emily." The voice, Loki, replied, slowly removing his hand. "Are you okay?" I looked around me, disorientated before looking back at him.

"What happened?" Bucky's grip slowly loosened around me and I sat up a little bit.

"You were having a bad nightmare." Wanda stepped forward, her voice gentle. "We couldn't get into your head to stop it, your walls were shut tightly."

I sat up a little more and drew my knees to my chest, shrinking myself a little bit as I felt everyone looking at me. I could almost feel the judgement radiating off them.

"What triggered it?" Loki asked, his voice slightly gentle as well.

"I..." I hesitated, my voice shaking softly. "I don't really want to talk about it."

Loki nodded, seeming a little disappointed. He stood up and Wanda took his position, holding my hand gently and moving sweaty stands of hair out of my face, before pulling me into a hug. I immediately stiffened from the contact, not use to being this close to anyone except Bucky. She softly stroked my hair until I slowly relaxed.