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Chapter Fifty-Seven: Close Your Eyes

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"Alivia?" Loki's frantic voice sounded.

I could hear it—I could hear. I could feel. Ropes around my wrists. I could taste. Residual chloroform on my lips. But I couldn't see anything.

I tried to answer Loki, but found that I was gagged. I lifted my hands to my mouth, pulling frantically at the gag until I was finally able to slip it off.

"Loki? Steve?" I asked softly, the panic clear in my voice.

"Alivia!" Both of them called over their earpieces.

"Where are you?" Steve demanded.

I swivelled my head. There was darkness everywhere. I tried to move, but found that there were walls pressing in on me on all sides. I was in—I was in some sort of box. And I couldn't move.

My heart began to accelerate as my breathing became quick and shallow.

"I—I don't know. I can't—Can't move," I shuddered, "Van Leer knew who I was. He was working with someone I knew from Italy. They both knew."

My words came out in a frenzied slur, and I was becoming winded with the effort of talking. I was sure that Steve and Loki could hear me hyperventilating through the earpieces, but I wouldn't have enough air if I tried to stifle my loud breathing.

And then a memory surfaced. One I'd supressed for years. One that took me back in time and accelerated my breathing and heart rate.

I'd been no more than ten, and was playing with two kids on my street, a boy and a girl. We'd been playing in their basement, and the boy had started to pull at my hair. My temper had gotten the better of me, and I'd burned him.

Kids usually ran to their parents if something like this happened, but these two pulled me by the wrists, the hair. They stuffed me in their toy chest and hadn't let me out. It was hours before their mother found me there. By that time, I'd clawed at the hatch until my fingers were bloody, screamed my throat raw, cried until my eyes burned.

The memory haunted the back of my mind. Made it so that I couldn't stand to be in tight spaces. Tight spaces like this one.

I could feel that old but familiar feeling of rawness in my throat. Could feel the walls closing in. Could almost hear the taunting laughter of those two children. The taunting laughter of everyone who had ever discovered my powers.

"Alivia calm down," Steve said gently, likely in response to my hoarse breathing, "You need to tell us where you are so we can get to you. What do you see?"

"I don't see anything—" My chest heaved as I sucked in sharp, shallow breaths, "I can't see anything. I'm—I'm tied up."

"Rogers turn off your earpiece," Loki ordered suddenly.

Steve began to protest, but Loki cut him off. "I'm not asking. Do it now."

There was a high tone, and I assumed Steve had obeyed.

"Alivia, listen to me," Loki's calm voice was the only sound, and I tried to focus on it. "Close your eyes. Take a breath."

I listened. I closed my eyes. I breathed deep. There was a smell I couldn't quite place.

"Listen to me. Focus on my voice. Keep breathing," Loki instructed.

I did.

"Come on, you know I'd never let you hear the end of it if I had to come and save you, Alivia," he said, and despite everything, I chuckled. It was faint and strangled, but I laughed. "Keep your eyes closed. Now listen. Tell me what you hear."

"Other than your annoying voice—" I began, keeping my eyes scrunched closed and stilling. I listened.

And there was a sound. The beep of a car unlocking. The shutting of doors. Suddenly, I could place that smell. New car smell. I loved that smell.

"I think I'm... In a trunk?" I said slowly.

There was silence for a moment. Then, the same high tone as before.

"Alivia?" Steve's voice sounded again, "How are you holding up?"

"Been better, not gonna lie," I said, breathing deep to quell the panic that bubbled in my chest.

"Is the vehicle moving, love?" Loki's voice came softer than I'd ever heard it.

"I don't think so," I said, listening intently.

"Can you burn through your binds?" Steve asked.

"Not without setting something else on fire and cooking myself alive."

"We're in the parking lot Alivia," Steve said.

"Do you hear anything at all? Traffic? Voices?"

I strained my ears. And then, there it was. The scraping shuffle of a foot on pavement. "I think someone is outside the car."

There was a silence. And then, "There." Loki said.

"Hold on, don't rush the guy," Steve cautioned, and there was a shuffling. "We don't know that's him."

"He better pray it isn't." Loki growled.

My breathing stilled. That last part had sounded over my earpiece, and outside of the trunk I was confined to.

I kicked roughly at the trunk. The thudding sounded over my earpiece, picked up by Steve's and Loki's.

"It's him," I confirmed.

"Well," I could hear Loki's voice from outside, muffled slightly but audible. "Today is a most unfortunate day for you."

There was a choked shout, a succession of thuds, and a slam against the car that rocked me.

And then, suddenly, light flooded my surroundings, as the trunk was lifted open.

I probably looked like a mess, with makeup running down my face and my hairdo coming undone, but I didn't care. Immediately I launched to a seated position, sucking in sharp bursts of air.

Steve put his arms around me. I shrugged him off. I needed space.

There was a pull at my wrists, and I realized Loki was undoing my bonds.

The moment I was free, I pushed myself out of the trunk, falling unsteadily to my knees. The pavement burned my palms, but the cool night air kissed my bare back. I breathed in rapidly.

"Alivia," Loki's voice came from above me, and suddenly there was a hand on my shoulder, "Slow your breathing. That's it."

As my breathing and heart rate stabilized, I remembered to be embarrassed. And the moment I remembered that, heat flooded into my face.

I couldn't believe I'd just let the both of them see me like that.

Quickly, I pushed to my feet, dusting off my dress. They both watched me with concern on their faces, so I made a point of not meeting their eyes. Instead, I looked to the car I'd been trapped inside.

There was a man, bloodied to a pulp, slumped against the side.

"We need to get out of here," Steve said suddenly, stepping toward me, "Before whoever he was waiting for gets back."

"So all of this was for nothing?" I asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

"Perhaps not for nothing," Loki said, from where he was stooped by the man's body. He stood, waving something around in his hand. A cellphone. "Suppose Romanoff might be able to get anything out of this?"

"It's worth a shot," I said.

"Great," said Steve, "Then what are we waiting for?"

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