Bloody Hands and Broken Minds Book 1

Part Four - Chapter 64

"Hey Buck, how you doing pal?" Steve smiles softly as the brunette staggers into the living room where a few members of the team are gathered.

"Riley." Bucky whispers.

"What?"

"Riley," He speaks louder, "Where is he?"

"We've been looking for him but we think he went off the grid—"

"No one can fully go off the grid." Bucky grits his teeth.

"We've been looking Barnes. Believe me, we want nothing more than to find this fucker." Natasha speaks with hatred just as a figure appears in the middle of the room.

"What are you doing here?" Steve snaps, his tone hostile as he stands from the couch along with Natasha.

"I mean no harm." Thor answers, his voice saddened.

"What do you want?" Natasha demands as she crosses her arms and glares at him.

"I came to bring Loki's body to Asgard."

"He died almost six months ago, why are you just now coming to collect his body?" Natasha interrogates the god.

"My father does not wish for me to return Loki's body to Asgard. He believes he does not deserve to come home for a proper burial."

"If your father isn't allowing you to take Loki to Asgard then why are you here?"

"My mother pleaded with him to allow me to bring Loki back and he has finally allowed it." Thor responds.

"Why do you care so much about him, he's a horrible person."

"Despite Loki's cruelty, he is still my brother and my friend and he deserves to be put at peace with the rest of Asgard's people who have fallen before him."

Steve glances back at Bucky who's standing quietly while glaring at Thor with hatred in his dark eyes. The Captain turns his gaze to Natasha who gives him an almost unnoticeable nod before he looks back at the god.

"We'll take you to him." Steve agrees.

Natasha and Steve both try to persuade Bucky to stay at the compound but he isn't having any of it. The soldier merely pushes past the couple and heads to the garage to find his motorcycle.

Bucky is the first to arrive at the horrid building. He parks his motorcycle a few feet from it and just stands there staring at the base. The building looks different from how he remembers it.

When he first encountered the building it seemed small and harmless. He remembers he thought the exterior resembled a rotting corpse, or what he thought a rotting corpse would look like at least. The worn down building had possessed a dead personality as if the life was drained from the faded stone walls. The old windows had various cracks that spiderwebbed across the granular glass and had given the base an abandoned appearance.

But now the building has life. 

The early sun allows the tall building to birth a dark shadow that sweeps over the land surrounding Bucky and chokes him like a thick fog. The building seems to loom over him like it's challenging him to back down. He doesn't remember the windows looking intimidating before but they do now. The meaningless old panels of thick glass, coated with heavy dust, are glaring down at him.

The large double doors of the building are carelessly hanging open as if they're inviting Bucky to enter the base. The building is taunting him. It's waiting for him to walk past the threshold so it can conjure up horrid and bloody misconceptions of Evelyn for his unfortunate viewing.