Have to run!!!

Enjoy this emotional chapter ;)

~MUsic~

Lacrymosa- Evanescence

Chapter 37

~Nobody's POV~

Neidra sits in a high-backed chair, her long fingers clamped over the edge like claws. Her jaw is tight, as are her lips. Her silver eyes glisten with silver fury. 

"Loki is one of the most powerful beings in this damned universe!" she shouts, snapping her hand to the side so that a very ornate vase comes crashing from a glass shelf, sending pieces everywhere, "And he cannot even manage to kill one tiny, one insignificant human girl!" 

"May I point out that she's not human anymore?" asks Caomh, who has regarded the pieces of plaster as calmly as he might react to a flurry of snow. 

Neidra rolls her eyes, "She might as well, that puny excuse for an Asgardian." 

"Well," says Caomh amiably, although mischief glitters in his eyes, "I wouldn't get too upset. Her throat will be ripped out soon enough." 

"No!" she exclaims, "Not soon enough! Something must be done, something, there must be something to draw her out to us!" 

Caomh inspects his nails and doesn't comment. 

"I'll just take one of her precious friends then," growls Neidra, "And see what she is willing to do for one of them. The green-eyed boy will do, or either of those-"

At this, Caomh holds up his hand, and hurries to crouch down next to her chair, "Mother, although your intentions are hardly short of admirable, are also dangerous. I advise you against this strongly." 

"For what reasons?" snaps Neidra. 

Caomh shrugs, "Think about this, Mother. If you kidnap one of these individuals, how will we ever tell Thea that we do have them, if Loki cannot even manage to snap her neck? And even if so, their kind are powerfully driven, not by strength but by determination. Their exploits in Ardhigiza are proof enough for this. So I suggest you let Thea run nilly-willy until Loki catches up to her- because he will, and when he kills her, your deliciously morbid plan can continue." 

Neidra considers this, then nods curtly, "You have grown wise, my son. But in the meanwhile, Loki does not seem to be enough. The minds of humans are weak. I will turn to them for information, if Loki cannot complete this one simple task." 

"Speaking of Loki," says Caomh, "What is happening in regards of his welfare?" 

A smirk spreads over Neidra's red lips, before the expression hardens, "His last exploits with his daughter have temporarily snapped him from my power. But he is in my control, never doubt, but below us, locked away. He will no longer fall for the trick of the potion, and I have no intentions of attempting to force him to drink it, on the danger that I too will come into contact with it, but I am not worried."

Caomh nods. He's smiling too, the bright sun reflecting his silver eyes so that they appear almost glazed in a sneer. Then, he says, "To Earth, then, to harvest the consciousnesses of some unfortunate souls?" 

"Of course," says Neidra, rising from her seat. She has regained her composure somewhat. "But first, my son, I must pay a visit to the dungeons. I have something planned for our royal guest." 

*

A cat runs, yowling, out of the dungeon as the sound of a whip crackles, echoing through the stone chambers. A man cries out, and Neidra screams, "You useless rag!" 

Inside a cell, Loki is chained to the wall, shirtless, next to an unoccupied bench that glitters with the silver of instruments. Welts are already forming on his waist, covering the scars that have already rampaged his sweating skin. The injuries, however, are not as significant as Loki's eyes. They are now green, and burning with fury. 

"Useless because I cannot kill my own daughter?" spits Loki, clutching the chains, his muscles bulging, but he cannot free himself. 

"She's a weak sapling caught in a storm," says Neidra with contempt, "And you cannot even manage to chop her down?" 

"I was seconds, inches from killing her," growls Loki, "I was seconds, inches, from killing the most precious thing in my life, my one beautiful gift to this world." His chest his heaving, and he lunges at Neidra, but the chains yank back, and his head strikes the stone wall painfully. He looks at Neidra through his matted black hair with the strongest of hatred. "If you think I will succumb myself to your tricks again, then you are wrong. That potion will no longer drip down my throat, and if I must kill myself so that does not happen, then I will do so with no remorse." 

Neidra laughs, and then from the bench beside Loki, picks up a silver knife, the blade so sharp, it is as thin as paper, but so wickedly sharp that it glints in the low light. Inspecting the weapons, she says in her low, rich voice, "I have no need for that potion. It seems as though Thea is a match for you- at least, her friends are. All I need now is information." 

It's Loki's turn to laugh, but this time, there is no joy in his laughter. "You may as well kill me now, Neidra. If you think pain will deliver to you the answers you seek, then you are more desperate and more idiotic than I previously imagined." 

"Desperate? Idiotic?" whispers Neidra. Reaching forward, she tips Loki's chin back, and then runs the knife down Loki's chest, starting at his collarbone. As his skin rips, and as blood begins to pour, Loki grits his teeth. Neidra smiles, "I do believe you were the one who was devastated at the death of his mother, devastated and desperate enough to trust me to-"

"Trust you?" Rani laughs through his pain, "I saw through you from the beginning. I was only unlucky enough that you acted before I had the chance to slit your throat, like I did Tatiana." 

"So that was you?" croons Neidra, digging the knife deeper. Rani makes a growling noise, sucking in deep breaths through his nose. "I already knew that, Rani, so if you want the pain to stop, I suggest you start talking about matters I do not know." 

"Like...what?" he hisses. 

"Why, Thea!" says Neidra. "Tell me everything about her. Her habits, her manner of fighting, everything I may need to know about the heir apparent." 

Loki glares at her, curling his lips as the warm, wet blood continues to drip down his chest. "I suggest you burn in hell, whore." 

Neidra scowls, and slices upwards, quickly. Loki grasps the air with his fists and begins to pant as Neidra continues to cut into him. "Tell me." 

"Please," scoffs Loki, his jaw working furiously, "This is no interrogation. What poison have you placed in these knives?" 

"Clever, clever," cackles Neidra, and swirls the hilt of the dagger in a circle before sending it crashing into Loki's collarbone. As he gasps, his eyes wild from pain, she says, "You know the potion you refuse to take?" Blood begins to drop from Loki's body down to the floor, "I've infused it in these knives. Perhaps now, the potion will not be so fickle, and perhaps you may be strong enough to kill your bitch of a daughter." 

"Don't call her that," snarls Loki, twisting his bleeding body, "You dare call my daughter a bitch when it was you that tormented her, you that chopped off her hair, you who whipped her?" 

"Why yes, that was me," says Neidra pleasantly, taking a clamp from the bench. "And I should tell you," She uses the clamp to slowly tear off one of Loki's fingernails. Loki yells, and Neidra smiles, "She screamed so loudly, she was calling out for you! Isn't that just precious?" 

Breathing rapidly through his nose like an enraged bull, Loki lunges at Neidra again, but not only do the chains stop him, but the knife's blade also digs into him deeper. He collapses against the wall, continuing to pant. "I will kill you," he whispers, "I will kill you for what you have done to my girl." 

"Hm," says Neidra calmly, "I don't think you will. I think you will kill Thea before you ever get that chance." 

"No!" Loki's voice turns desperate as Neidra continues torturing him, "I'm still stronger than her, in my right mind she cannot beat me! She will die by my hands, and you find joy in this?!" 

"I find confirmation," she retorts, "But yes, there will be joy in you so anguished over your daughter's corpse, limp in your arms."

Loki redoubles his efforts, rattling the chains hysterically, hurling curses at Neidra. 

"Oh," says Neidra, pouting with fake concern, "Did I make you mad? Did I make the big, bad God of Mischief quiver with anger, the anger that I need for you to kill the little firebird?" 

His hands are clenched so tightly around the impossible chains, they are white. 

"You are so calm," comments Neidra, "You are usually so calm, so controlled, so controlled of your emotions. But when it comes to Thea," The knife digs down across Loki's arm, making a deep, slow slice around his clenched bicep. Loki sucks in a breath and stares at the ceiling, his breath coming in quicker pants, "When it comes to Thea, you lose your head completely! You see, Loki, every man has a price he is willing to pay, or a wall that when crashing down, will reveal to me his weakness. For you, that price, that wall, and that weakness is Thea. The one being in this universe you care for, your little darling."

"Yes," growls Loki, tossing his hair so that he can clearly see Neidra, so that he can clearly glare at her with no obstruction, "And now, you want me to kill her?" 

"But of course!" says Neidra, smiling wickedly and slicing around his bicep again. The blood gushes, and Loki grunts in agony, his entire body beginning to shake from the continuation of pain. "And soon, you will want you to kill her too." 

"Over my dead body!" 

"That can be arranged," says Neidra calmly. "After you do this one task I ask of you. This one simple task." 

"That task," seethes Loki, "Will destroy all the humanity I have left in me!" 

Neidra smiles serenely, wriggling her fingers that are wet and red from Loki's blood, "Exactly." 

As he glares at her, she leans down so that she is staring right into his green eyes, the eyes precisely like Thea's, the eyes that are boring through her with contempt, heartbreak, fury, desperation, and pain. The eyes that are beginning to flash distinct shades of silver. 

Neidra raises an eyebrow, "Already, you are succumbing to my mind. It will not take long for me to overpower you, weak you are in your rage. It will hurt though, resisting, for I have placed inside these knives the same poison that I placed in Thea's immortality potion." 

"What did you do to her?!" 

Neidra waves her hand dismissively, "Unfortunately, the effects of the poison are counteracted with the results of her becoming fully Asgardian. But I gave her a little bit of pain, just a tad. And now, you will know the pain that she felt, the pain that you inflicted upon your own daughter." 

A burning sensation begins to form in Loki's chest, He hisses in pain and swallows hard. 

"The poison will not leave your body so easily, so if you are lucky to outlive my killing you, then flushing this out will take years," says Neidra, putting down the knife at last and standing back, watching her handiwork. Loki, against the wall, chains dangling from his wrists and across his waist, his breathing heavily from agony, saliva dripping from his red mouth, his hair hanging about his face in a tangled mat. The cuts across his abdominal muscles, and over his biceps continue to bleed red rivers over his strong, alabaster skin. 

Neidra turns away from Loki and cleans her knife on the sleeve of her gossamer blue dress, leaving bloodstains behind, "And how deplorable. You even struck her." 

Loki squeezes his eyes shut and bares his teeth.

"I have found your weakness, Loki. And I had yet to find Thea's until just recently." 

"She has no weakness," snaps Loki, his voice trembling, "My daughter-"

"Oh, but she does, for I have discovered it," says Neidra, smirking, "Her weakness is precisely like yours, Loki, because her weakness is you. She cried out for you, she begged for you, she needed you when she was in the most pain! And it was she that has tried to warn you of my plans to kill the both of you, but neither you nor her little Velah friend have given her a chance."

"No," whispers Loki, but his tone is not one of denial to Neidra, but in denial to himself. "Oh Thea!" 

Neidra rolls her eyes, and states, "I've gotten rather bored with you.Think about what you've done to her, and what you're about to do. Your feelings will only fuel your soon-to-be ambition to run a sword through her heart." 

Loki finally screams, from the torture and blood, and from the gravity of Neidra's words. The sound is high-pitched, drawn out, and terrible, almost painful to hear. Tears are streaming down his sweaty face, reddening his furious eyes. 

Unaffected by Loki's anguish, Neidra looks over her shoulder at him one last time, "I will return, my king. And I will wait out however long it takes for my poison to set in. Days, weeks, months, I have no preference, as long as it is you that sends your daughter to her grave, and as long it is you who digs her grave and buries her stone-cold body." 

As Neidra walks out of the cell, slamming the door shut behind her, Loki screams again, throwing himself against the chains in pure desperation. But although the chain rattles, they do not break. 

The blood from Loki's body drips to the stone floor, running in streams along the crevices, and then finally, Loki's strength wears out. With one last cry of pain, and as the tears and the blood continue to run, Loki loses consciousness. 

The chains clinks once more, as Loki hangs from them, but then, they too fall silent. 

Please VOTE and COMMENT! I shall reply to all comments/questions after my unfortunate math tutoring. :(

Love you all! Sierra