Devil's Pact

Chapter Eight

"Everything OK?" Loki asked quietly, worry etched across his face as his long fingers gripped my door. His dark green, silk pajama covered frame was just visible around the wood.

I covered my phone and nodded.

"Yes, I'm on the phone to a client" I whispered as quietly as possible, hoping Bucky didn't hear. The last thing he needed was to think someone else could hear him whilst in his current state.

Loki just nodded once, closing his eyes briefly as he did so, and slinked back out of the door, without a sound and closed it.

Turning my attention back fully to the phone I could still hear Bucky taking deep breaths.

"It's ok Bucky" I repeated trying to help calm him.

"I just couldn't stop him" Bucky sobbed slightly "He wouldn't stop, he... he... I wanted him to stop. I couldn't stop him" He broke off with another sob.

"It's ok Bucky, nothing bad has happened, it's just your brain trying to reconcile past memories. Nothing further has happened" I tried to comfort him.

"No Freyja" Bucky cut me off "This wasn't a memory"

"Then it wasn't real Bucky, you are safe. He can't hurt you anymore" I said gently trying to bring him down from his panic.

"Freyja!" Bucky almost yelled in frustration "You don't get it. He hurt you" Bucky's words rang in my ears, shocking me into silence for a moment.

"Bucky" I started as I collected my thoughts "I am safe and nothing has happened to me. Is your window open, and your heating off, as the body produces nightmares of this kind when your body is getting too hot" I worked through the logical reasons for Bucky's nightmare, hearing that it wasn't the standard Bucky type.

"It's wasn't that, I mean yeah I'm dripping but the apartment isn't warm at all" Bucky tried to brush off my logic.

"I know it seems like a strange reaction to being warm..." I started

"Freyja the God damn mask is on my couch" Bucky cut me off once more, and my jaw dropped "It was next to me when I woke up"

"Are you sure?" I asked out of pure shock and disbelief.

"I can send you a photo if you like?" Bucky growled, getting angry at my disbelief.

"No, I'm sorry that was wrong of me Bucky. I apologise" I soothed him swiftly.

"It's ok, it's pretty hard to believe, but it's here, I can see it clear as day" Bucky softened slightly.

"Maybe you slept walked and found it somewhere" I began again to work through the logical reasons as to why his winter soldier mask would be on his couch next to him when he awoke.

"No, I burnt everything I had that was to do with the winter soldier. There's nothing in my apartment that belongs to him or my time as him" Bucky disproved my theory of sleep walking.

"OK" I said slowly, racking my brains "Check your doors and windows, look for any sign of a break in, and call Sam" I urged "This must be someone trying to play a cruel trick on you, I don't even want to think about it being something worse. But if this isn't sleep walking then someone has to have planted that mask and you both need to find them and find out why" I finished, shivering with anxiety and adrenaline, an awful sinking feeling building in the pit of my stomach.

I knew Sam and Bucky where constantly targets for the bad people of this world, those that didn't want superheros around to stop their wrong doing, and those that just didn't like Bucky and still thought of him as the winter soldier, so an attempt to send Bucky off the deep end wasn't completely out of the question.