Somewhere Along the Way... (Loki x Reader)

But I Still Rise...

Another two weeks of continuous torture and I was hanging on by a mere thread. I was fading, fast. My body couldn't recover from the pain quick enough before they laid into me again.

After they had finished their last session of torture they left me hanging bound from the roof my wrists in chains. I had been here two days now. They had broken bones, drowned me in a bath, flogged me some more and strapped me to a metal frame electrocuting me.

That's when they had hung me up and left me, hopefully to die...they had removed the collar from my neck knowing I was too weak to summon any kind of powers, leaving me with no food or water. I felt completely useless. Defeated. Why hadn't they found me yet?

As I dangled I tired to move my wrists, but it was pointless, the feeling in my right one was no longer present. As I struggled against the bounds thats when I noticed out of the corner of my eye someone watching me, a new guard. He looked quite young, must be one of Rumlow's newest recruits.

"Excuse me?" I called out to him.

He shifted realising I had spied him, "Y...yes Miss?" He stuttered nervously.

"I know you're not meant to talk to me but please if I'm going to die. Please...could I have my ring back? Please? It's on the floor it must have fallen off....please I beg of you.." I looked at him pleadingly, I knew I sounded desperate, but I was.

"I...I'm not meant to be talking to you Miss, they will kill me if I go in there." He rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand, dropping eye contact to stare at the floor.

I sighed defeatedly, it was worth a try. "That's ok." I whimpered, feeling my emotions get the better of me, "Someone very important gave me it that's all, I just wanted to have a part of him with me when I go."

I turned my head away from him and began to cry. Thinking like the rest he would only get a kick out of my pain, much to my surprise though he didn't leave, I could feel his presence still lingering. He was conflicted. That's when I heard the clinking of the metal gate opening and his footsteps.

"What hand was it on Miss?" He smiled briefly at me as he reached up.

I looked into the strangers face, meeting his eyes. He wasn't like the rest, there was a kindness in his eyes. He was young and naive, but it was the fear present in his eyes that struck me the most. He went to reach to put it on my right hand...

"My left hand please, I...I can't feel my right one anymore." I blurted out quickly.

He nodded silently at me before reaching over and slipping it onto my left hand, my ring finger. That made me choke on my tears. As the realisation that I would never get the chance to have any of that with Loki sunk in. I was never going to get to see him again.

The guard lowered his hand away from mine and turned to walk away, before he left my cell he stopped. I started to rub my finger over the ring...

Please...please...don't fail me now.

"I don't think what they are doing to you is right Miss, do...do you need a drink of water?"

"If you wouldn't mind, thank you." I smiled weakly at him. He nodded and disappeared.

Loki? Please? Can you hear me? Please....

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Bucky woke abruptly, sweat beading over his upper body, his breathing ragged, he blinked looking around the room a few times. As his eyes adjusted to the room that was faintly lit only by the glow off his alarm clock he let out a long shaky breath. He was in his room. Safe.