Hope you like it! This one's a bit longer to make up for all the shorties.
Love you! :)
Sierra
Chapter Forty-One
~Thea's POV~
It's hot down here; I find myself sweating and gasping for breath as I feel like I am being contained in a hot sauna. Beside me, Loki is doing even worse, coughing and breathing heavily. At least my powers don't diminish during the heat.
Once, a guard prowled down the hallway, the same black-haired man who captured me. I winced as he peered into my cell greedily, his white teeth glittering. There was a key dangling from his neck. I eyed it greedily.
"Thea...no..." hissed Loki.
But of course, I was too stupid to listen.
Summoning all the fury and anger inside of me, I lunged at him, clawing through the bars, desperate to get the key. He shouted and then before I could stop him, he slammed something sharp into my arm.
I cried out as I felt a burning sensation as some chemical flooded through my veins. The liquid hissed when it hit my skin and I fell back onto the hard ground.
While I had tried to regain my consciousness without losing it from the pain of the mysterious liquid, the man had entered the cell with something I dreaded- chains.
With the liquid submitting me to a limp body, the man had chained me up in five minutes. I now could not move; my wrists were shackled to the wall, as was my neck. If I tried to sit down, I find myself getting choked, as my legs can't quite sit. I was left in a tortuous half-sitting position...
Now, I try to shut my eyes and sleep, but the vision of Jack falling down to the ground with a knife in him keeps haunting me. Instead, I fall into a fitful restlessness, drifting in and out of consciousness. But if I go completely out, I am choked awake by the iron around my neck.
Desperate and crying, I do something I never thought I would do. "...Loki...help me..." I beg, clawing at mid-air, desperate for anything to free me. The heat is intensifying and I can scarcely breathe.
"This is what you get for not listening to me." he scolds, but underneath his scorn is something I barely recognize as worry.
"Ple-a-a-se," I sob.
He sighs, but I hear him standing up. I can't move my head completely, but I turn it enough to see him looking at me through the bars. "Stop crying, Thea. Stop."
"I...can't..." My arm is shaking from the liquid still, full of pain. "What...was that?"
"Vervain. Human idiots attribute it to their lore of vampires, but people really used it to hold back creatures such as yourself. It mixes with your blood, which now is not quite completely human and over-stimulates it, causing the pain. Then, the over-stimulation crashes, and you feel weak like you do now."
My breathing is shuttered. "Get...get me out..."
"Do you think I can do anything about this?" demands Loki.
This harsh tone makes me feel even worse.
"This is your fault," I cry, "If you had brought me with you to help like you promised me and Jack instead of chaining us both up, then I wouldn't be like this stuck with you and Jack wouldn't be dead."
"And if you hadn't proved yourself the idiot you are, then I might have let you come along."
"I'm not an idiot!" I gasp through my tears and through my racked breathing. "Now...let...me go, Loki, please, I'm begging of-"
Loki doesn't get to respond, because the door of my cell clangs open, and I see something I wish I never would see again. Kafrandi, slithering towards me, his teeth yellow and rotting and sharp, in the company of two other Imeldi and two human guards, their eyes solid black. Instinctively, I try to back up, but I obviously can't, and my spine digs into the rough wall.
One of the humans steps forward. With a prick, he attaches what looks like an IV onto my arm, the same one with vervain still traveling through. It's attached to a bag that is attached to the soldier's belt.
The other human, who is speaking to one of the Imeldi, the taller one, addresses me. In a creepy monotone voice, he says, "Your name?"
"Mine?" I ask, my voice shaking.
He doesn't respond, but stares at me. Kafrandi's tail rattles.
"...Gi...Gianna."
I hear Loki grab the bars next to me, "No, Thea, no, no-"
He's cut off, because I scream as I feel more of the vervain shot into my arm. It's burning so horrifically, I feel like my skin and organs are being melted off. I hear Loki shout something, but I can't hear it.
As the stars floating in front of me subside slightly, I hear the soldier. "Your name?" he repeats.
I feel saliva on my lips as I gag. "...Th...Th...Thea."
"How did you come across such power?"
"...What...power...?" I whisper.
"Your talent for combat, as gained from the power of the Imeldi on the night that your parents died."
"I...I don't know..." I say.
More vervain. More burning. More shouting.
"I don't know!" I scream. "Please, please, just STOP IT! LOKI STOP IT PLE-E-E-ESE."
"Thea!" yells Loki, shaking the bars uselessly.
"Then answer us this." The same voice. "Where is your sister?"
Panic floods through me as the vervain circulates through my body.
"This answer, it is apparent that you know it. Where is she?"
"No, please no!" I wail. "I won't, I won't tell you!"
I shriek again.
I twist and contort in inhuman ways as try to stop the boiling on my skin, inside my body, all around me. I feel like I am on fire, like I am being burned alive at a stake.
"Human girl," says the clearly-human guard. "It would be in your best interest that you would disclose this information. Although we cannot kill you, we can make you suffer."
"I...I got that..." I rasp.
"Where isssss your ssssisssster?" This comes from Kafrandi, hissed between his teeth, the immortal snake that refuses to die no matter how many times Loki kills it.
The question is accompanied by more vervain, more pain, and more screaming. My vocal chords are going to give out.
"I will never ever tell you!" I sob.
I shriek again.
"Stop this!" yells Loki. "She's just a child!"
"A child with more power and more information than she is willing to diverge," says the monotone human. "Now if she does not divulge this information, she will suffer a thousand times more."
*
Endless night.
A night of terror.
Pain, pain so horrific, I find myself begging and screaming for anyone. I scream for Kyle to annoy me, for Max to protect me, for Jack to just be with me, and not an angel among the clouds. Loki is helpless to watch me. His voice gets choked as I keep screaming. I begin to regret hating him.
I find myself drifting in between consciousness and the blissful land of unconsciousness. The pain, however does not subside.
Three hours later, I vaguely feel the guard freeing me from the IV before releasing the chains. I topple to the ground and can scarcely move. I can't move.
"Leave her there...." hisses Kafrandi. "Oncccceeeee she gainssss sssstrength... we will get sssome ansssswers then..."
I hear bars getting thrown back. The cell door swings. Before it closes, I feel hands on my shoulders. "Thea!" hisses Loki.
They must have raised the bars between our cells. Why, I'm not sure.
"I...I should've ..." I whisper, my body shaking. Loki grabs my shoulders and rests my head against his chest, so that I'm sitting up slightly.
"Hush," he says. "You're such a brave girl, Thea. It's-"
"...Should've listened to you..." I eek out before the dizziness and pain take over and I fall into a black, empty pit.
"MOOOOOMMMM!" I yell, walking into the kitchen in my pink fluffy robe and a towel turban over my hair. "WHERE IS MY DRESS FOR THE PARTY TONIGHT?"
"IT'S ON THE IRONING TABLE, EXACTLY WHERE I TOLD YOU!" Mom yells back even though she's only four feet from me, cutting up onions.
I can't help but smile, even though I try to be annoyed. "But it's not there!"
"How 'bout you try looking under Daddy's dress shirt." she recommends with a smile, sweeping the onions into the bowl of other assorted vegetables.
I find the blue dress underneath Daddy's shirt.
In my room, I change into the dress, which skirts my knees, and then take down my hair and begin to straighten it clumsily. I've never been very good at this girly stuff. I don't even really want to go to this stupid party at all.
"Thea?"
"Yeah?" I ask absentmindedly as I run my fingers through my freshly washed hair. Water drips from the ends.
"This is for you," says Leah, handing me what looks like a very messy circular net.
"Ah...thanks, Leah," I say, taking it and looking at it appreciatively.
"It's a dream catcher," she says proudly as I inspect the assorted feathers hanging down from it. "It'll catch ALL your bad dreams!"
"It's beautiful," I smile, hanging it from my brightly-decorated mirror. "Thank you!"
"You're not in high school," she comments. "Why are you going to a schooll dance? You never go to a school dance."
"Because I'm tired of being a loner, and besides, Bryce would tease me to infinity."
Leah frowns. "No Bryce wouldn't."
"Yes he would, you know he would. He's the most provoking, ho-"
"-Honestly, the most brilliant and handsomest big brother she could ever have" a deep voice says, and Bryce walks inside. He's wearing the faded Beatles tank t-shirt thing that I'd gotten him for Christmas last year.
I cross my arms. "Bryce!"
Bryce just laughs and swings Leah up into the air. She squeals happily and throws her small arms around his neck, singing, "She's going to a dance 'cause Bryce made her!"
My brother flicks his messy blond hair out of his eyes. "And don't you forget it!"
I throw him my old teddy bear, which hits him smack in the face. "Get out of here!"
"Aw why are you throwing 'ol Daisy?"
"Ugh..." I moan.
"All right then, I guess Daisy can go in the trash," says Bryce, carrying Leah with him out of my room.
"BRYCE FOSSIL YOU GIVE ME BACK DAISY!"
Bryce swings back into the room, Leah laughing merrily from where she's now perched on his shoulders. "Yeah? What did you want to say?"
"Bryyyyyyyyce!"I whine.
"Don't you go on and be annoying," says Bryce, tossing me Daisy, whom I catch before tossing her down on the carpet.
"I'm trying to get ready." I say, uncapping my eyeliner and making sweeps across my right and left eyes.
"You don't need any of that crap, Thea, for Pete's sake, you're twelve."
I make a face at him. "Out!"
"Fine, fine." Bryce leans down (sending Leah tumbling; he catches her in one arm) and kisses my cheek. "But you look beautiful anyway."
I wake up sobbing.
*
Loki has burn marks all over him and his armor is shredded and his clothes ripped partly, as I try to sit up and look around. They've tortured him too. Nonetheless, he sits up straight and gives me a small, cold cup. "They brought this. Drink it."
"But-"
"Don't make me say it again." His voice, although still sharp, is also tired and painful.
The cold water feels heavenly on my more-than-parched throat. "Thanks." I rasp.
"I don't think I've ever heard you say that to me."
"I'm delusional," I say, swallowing, relishing in the coolness and moistness of the still-resent water. "That's why."
He manages a small smile.
I lie back, the hard ground hurting. "Why'd they make this one big cell?"
"I have a feeling I know why." he says, which isn't helpful.
"Well, are you going to tell me?" I ask, wiping the tears off of my cheeks.
"No."
"Thanks," I say facetiously.
"Ah, two times."
"Sarcasm, you idiot."
"If you insist."
"Stop being nice to me. You're not making me feel any better."
"That was never my purpose."
"Nice to know."
I close my eyes, but all I can see is Jack, so I open them and stare at the ceiling. "Did he suffer?" I find myself asking Loki.
"Who?"
"Jack."
"What about him?"
"He died." I say shortly. "Knife."
"I didn't see it. I wouldn't know."
"You're not helping."
"That was never my purpose."
"Shut up." I roll on my side, facing the wall.
Loki snorts derisively.
Suddenly, I clutch my arm and cry out. I can't find the strength to answer Loki's hurried calls. I begin to cry again, completely and utterly having hit my rock bottom.
"I just want to die..." I sob.
"No." says Loki, and I hear him stand up, "You must not-"
He is interrupted by my cell door clanging open, with Kafrandi slithering through accompanied by the two human guards. I shudder and back away, although each movement feels as though I am skating on hot coals.
"Your friendsssss have issssssued a trade..." hisses Kafrandi. "They have one dead man of ourssss... they requessssst to trade him for one of you. Of coursssee," his yellow eyes turn to me and my lip trembles even though I try to stop it. "They do not know that we know he isssss dead. Now... what'sssssss that human sssaaaaaying? An eye for an eye?"
"No..." I whimper, my hand shaking.
"What are you proposing?" asks Loki coolly, not even glancing at me.
In answer, the taller human guard throws Loki something; it nearly hits my head, and I bite my already-bleeding lip when I see what it is: a dagger, a needle-sharp one at that.
Loki's lip curls in a snarl.
Kafrandi rattles his tail with pleasure. "A choicceeee must be made, Assssgardian and earthling. Which of you will die?"
"What if neither of us do?" I ask in a stronger voice than I feel.
Beside me, Loki sighs; he already knows the answer.
The serpent hisses in a high, raucous pitch that could be associated with a laugh. "If neither of you are dead by the time your sun rissess, you both will die."
Hissing triumphantly, Kafrandi leaves the cell, and the human guards follow suit, closing the door behind them.
"Thea," says Loki softly as the villains vanish around the corner. "Listen-"
"You are not dying." I state firmly.
He raises an eyebrow. "That was not what I was planning on saying."
I stare at him. "You're saying that I should die?"
He tilts his head slightly as he looks at me, his green eyes boring into mine. "You cannot die. But I can."
"What happens if I die?"
"You come back to life." says Loki simply. "You are immortal."
I want to protest that he's an Asgardian deity, and weren't gods immortal? But then, I remember Thor's mother, and I realize that no, they can die. "Give me the knife." I say.
He swings it out of my reach. "No." He pulls me to my feet. "You have never killed before, child, and I don't want your first kill to be your own self."
"But..." I whisper, eyeing the knife. Funny. As much as I've wanted to die and be rid of this world, now facing a knife, I can't seem to have the courage to die. "Okay."
"Look at me, Thea," he says. "Everything will turn out right. The cosmos are written out so that we all have our path, our own destiny to fulfill."
"Okay..." I say, my eyes still on the dagger. "Will it hurt?" I ask in a tiny, childish voice.
He smiles. "Faster than falling asleep and no more painful."
I don't realize I'm crying. "Are you sure-"
"I'm sure that you will be all right," he says, his breathing still hoarse from his torments, as is mine.
"Be strong, Thea. Everything has a purpose." He says, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Now close your eyes."
"But-"
"Close your eyes, Thea."
Lids trembling, I obey.
"Remember," he says in a oddly soft voice, "You should never trust me."
"Wh-"
But then, I scream, because the dagger finds it's target.
And now I'm screaming and crying, because as I open my eyes, I see Loki falling to the ground, the knife inside him with a perimeter of red, the trickster until the end.
:( :( :(
So that's that.
Please VOTE and COMMENT if you liked it.
Have a nice day!
~Sierra~