[3] Just A Mortal Girl | Avallone the Avenger [DISCONTINUED]

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Two full hours of screaming dried my throat till it felt like a wrinkled grape, but my attempts seemed to have been taken as truth. Sif and Phil were silent during the ordeal, unsure of how to react.

Sif looked as if she would break down herself, and Phil was on the verge of tears.

It must have pained them, to see me in such a state. I know how much it hurt when Sif was screaming herself raw. But it needed to be done, to convince not only my friends, but also my captors that I had completely surrendered myself to what they had planned.

They did not feed us that day, which coincided with what they said about hoping we were hungry. Perhaps they were going to starve us or something malicious like that.

For my sake, I was hoping for something a little less sadistic.

To my surprise and something almost equivalent to joy, the Sif lookalike appeared the next day with three trays of food. It was a feast like no other.

Our last meal.

She smiled sweetly at each of us, greeting us by name and commenting how lovely we looked today. It was all a show, which made it all the more enjoyable.

The shackles were opened and Sif and I dropped to the floor. I hadn't used my legs in so long, it felt like they were on fire.

Phil was released too, and he crawled towards the food. The magic-binding cuffs still graced our wrists as we shoveled food into our mouths. There was no chances being taken by these people.

I tried my best to make my movements slow and unsteady, as if I was beginning to lose a grip on my mind. If my hands shook as they raised the blunt to my mouth, maybe they'd believe I was about to break.

The lookalike barely even looked at us anymore. I suppose we were too wretched to look at, which was fair. But she seemed almost as if she was itching to just kill us already.

"I hope you're enjoying this meal, because it will be the last thing you'll ever have." Her voice was triumphant, laced with bitterness. I could fell her eyes wandering over our bodies. We were just beings of skin and bone now, nothing more than brittle insides and a thin layer. 

But there was something else on the agenda rather than food.

Sif was the first to start writhing in pain, and then I felt the familiar lava flow through my veins.

"Oh, did you really think this meal was gifted without a little something we can take from it? Fools. Each bite was laced with enough poison to slowly eat away at your bodies."

If poison was making its way through our systems, then Sif's body and mine would be trying to fight it, to heal itself. But the cuffs we were wearing would prevent that and also cause us extreme pain. It was the perfect form of torture.

For Phil it meant no pain, but a quicker death. He might only have days, while Sif and I could possibly survive up to a number of weeks.

"I think it's fair to say that Earth's Mightiest heroes are about to crumble."

The blow aimed to my side felt like nothing compared to the pain streaming through my body like a swift river. I could feel every nerve twitching and aching to just have one moment of painless bliss.

Every second felt like an eternity. The pain was stronger than it had been the first time. It felt like it was eating away at everything within me, until I would be nothing more than an empty shell.

It felt like it couldn't get worse, but then the part started in my brain. I had never felt anything so tormenting before, not even when I thought Loki was going to die, that I would never see him again. The pain made my brain flair up, and I was unable to form a coherent thought for what felt like a lifetime.

The pain then moved to my eyes and my ears. I could smell blood in the air, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. A thin, white film had covered my eyes, burning them till I was tempted to claw them out of my head.

My ears were no better. The blood must have come from my lobes. Every sound was intensified seven times. It was as if someone was clashing the loudest cymbals in my ear constantly.

But I could think again.

Then it moved to my throat, rendering me unable to even cry out in pain. I looked to Sif, who held her hands over her eyes in a helpless moment. Her scream tore through me, causing an inward plain to rise up and challenge the physical. Now was the time, for I would be granted no other.

The pain on my throat lingered much longer than that of my brain and eyes. I counted it a blessing.

Grabbing the fork I had used to consume my last meal with, I lunged for the Sif lookalike and stabbed her right where I assumed the jugular was.

It was the beginning of the end.