How'd You Get This Number? // mamaspider

27 - alone

short one, next one is loki's, then we get the ball rolling!

_Peter_

I should've listened. Why didn't I listen?

Why didn't I just listen?!

The world was black around me, I couldn't feel a thing. All I could manage to focus on was the pain. Not physical, at least not yet, but the other kind—

"Well, he could have been controlled, right? There's a chance it wasn't him!"

I'd trusted him.

"Loki doesn't seem like someone who could do all those bad things everyone says he's done."

I'd trusted a monster.

"But doesn't he deserve at least the benefit of the doubt? Plus, even if he meant to—people change. They learn, right?"

I'm exactly what everyone thinks I am. I'm just a stupid, naive little kid.

"If we got to pick and choose who to have hope in, do you think any of us would be here today?"

I'll always be that stupid, naive little kid kneeling by the body of his dead Uncle.

That stupid, naive little kid who held hope for an Aunt who'd only ever held the neck of a bottle.

That stupid, naive, mediocre little kid who was never gonna do more with his life than pretend to believe in people just to play hero.

"People change, don't they?"

No. No one ever changes.

I'm always just going to keep passing away my trust to every hopeless leech I come across.

It makes sense now, looking back on my life—it's not their fault I believed in them.

I'm the hopeless one for constantly giving my
hope away.

I'm the hopeless one. 

I'm pulled from my thoughts by a a head rush yanking me back into consciousness. My eyes shoot open, immediately shutting when my senses are attacked with a bright light. After taking a minute or two to adjust, I look around the room.

The easiest way to describe the room would be 'prison cell', but there's something about it that make the words feel wrong. At least prison cells have some kind of upkeep. Water drips from the ceiling of the room, an unnerving stain covers the floor.

It's only now that I realize just how hard it is to breathe. My throat aches, and I can only assume it's due to Loki strangling me just before we came here. How long have I been out?

The oddly dull smell of wet cement hits me. Where are we?

I try to stand up to find my arms and legs are bound to the chair I've been sitting on. "Hello?" I croak out, my voice hoarse. It hurts to talk.

"Nat?" My voice cracks. "Hello?"

Nothing.

No one.

There's barely even an echo as my voice reverberates from the acoustics of the room.

So, I just sit there.

For what feels like hours.

Alone.

That was when I decided 'alone' was how I was going to stay.

Because no one can hurt me again if I don't let anyone close enough to stab me in the back.

____

Sorry, I know this one was also short!

triple update for loki's pov!

-moomoo