Out of Oblivion

Chapter 11

“You alright?” he asked, bending down to me.

I tried sitting up, my arms trembling from the shock of the moment. He reached out with his real arm and steadied me as I sat up. I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, trying to calm the tremors riveting through my body.

“That icy—I couldn’t—what’s going on?” I sputtered in-between coughs.

“I don’t know…” his eyebrows knit and his stormy eyes searched me.

            I felt my skin warm under his gaze. I let my eyes fall to his metal arm. Blood ran through the plates like veins. I choked down the urge to gag. “Your arm…”

            He quickly tucked it behind his other arm, as if trying to hide it.

            “Let me see it,” I half commanded.

            “It’s—its fine,” he muttered.

            “No, it’s not. Let me help you…” I managed to push out.

            His eyes met mine, the same pain and sadness still clouding them that I had seen back in his recovery room. Hesitantly, he brought his arm into my view. I scooted closer and let his hand rest on mine.

            With my other hand, I pushed up his sleeve to his shoulder. “Where is this coming from?” I asked him.

            With his real hand, he pointed to his shoulder. He then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a white cloth. “The blood can only be stopped if I wrap this cloth around the place where the metal meets my shoulder,” he explained.

            I breathed in deeply. I couldn’t comprehend the pain he was experiencing.

            He started to tug at his sleeve with his one good hand. I reached up and pushed his hand away, noticing his struggle. As carefully as I could, I yanked at the sleeve until it tore free from his metal arm.

            I gasped at the sight, turning my head away for a moment. Blood oozed out from the place where the metal met his flesh. Too much blood. “Oh death…you poor thing.”

            “I’m sorry, I should be doing—“ before he could finish, I put a finger up to silence him.

            With careful fingers, I wrapped the cloth around his shoulder. As I tied it, pulling it snug, he sucked in a breath, as if in pain.

            “Sorry,” I said guiltily.

            “No…thank you,” he said as I pulled away. His eyes met mine, full of deep gratitude. I looked away, nodding curtly.  

            Before I could stand up, I looked down at my hands, stained with his blood. Somehow it didn’t sicken me.

            “Here, this is all I have,” Bucky was holding out the sleeve that had been torn off of his shirt.

            Before I could hesitate, I took it hastily rubbed off the wet blood. The rest had already stained my hands. “What happened?” I asked, motioning to his arm.

            “Come here and I’ll show you,” Bucky answered, standing up and holding out his good hand to me.

            I slipped my hand in his long enough for me to stand up. After I was standing, I awkwardly wiped my hand over my pants and followed him. He led me to the place where I had seen the human figure. What I saw laying along the shore of the lake wasn’t human at all.

It had the body of human, but its skin was like electric blue leather. Its lifeless gaze was blood red. An evil scowl was frozen on his face. Somehow I felt the need to step closer to Bucky.

“It’s ok, I promise you he’s dead,” he assured me, as if that made our situation completely alright.

“What is it?”

“It’s a Frost Giant from Jotunhiem.”

Frost Giant. Jotunhiem. Loki. Thor. Asgard. The Tessaract. Thoughts flooded through my mind, clashing into chaos. Questions wedged their way into the chaos. What was a Frost Giant doing on Earth? Had this Frost Giant destroyed this building? Why? Were there more?

“This doesn’t make sense…” I muttered, pacing along the shore of the lake. “What is this place?”

“I don’t think this ever got to be a place,” Bucky answered, his voice travelling over the water from behind me.

I stepped out far enough that the water licked my ankles. A softball sized piece of cement lay at my feet. I picked it up, watching it change colors as it was exposed in the air.

 “What do you mean?” I called back.

“I mean that this place was exploded before the building was finished. Whatever was being built, that Frost Giant didn’t want it here.” he answered.

I pondered his theory as I began to walk along the shore, tossing the piece of cement deeper into the lake. It made sense. They had found no other debris other than cement. No furniture, no trash, no paper. Only cement.

“Why do think they—“

In a millisecond, the world was an explosion of burning light. I was shot through the air by a force inexplicably powerful. The pain only lasted for a second before I hit another solid force. The strange thing was, I kept falling. My vision blurred.

The icy fingers that I felt earlier seemed to have wrapped my whole body in a numbing blanket. Bubbles drifted above me. I was underwater.

The silky, sun-kissed surface of the water was rising farther away from me. I couldn’t seem to grasp what was happening. I closed my eyes and let my body fall into a black abyss. Something grabbed my hand and pressure rushed over me like the force of a magnet, but I was already slipping into the hands of death.