A Golden Cage (Loki x OC)

Part 3

He woke up what felt like a second later. He wasn't falling anymore, but now he couldn't move. He tried to get up from where he lay uncomfortably on a sharp edged rock, but his hands were tied to the wall behind him, immobilizing him. The sharp strike of hunger hit him, his body screaming for nourishment. His stomach hurt as though he had swallowed a hundred needles, and his mouth was dry as a desert, his lips chapped and bleeding where they had split.

He couldn't move his fingers, which alarmed him beyond measure. Something damp ran down his arms and back; that he could not tell whether it was water, sweat, or blood was the worst of all things.

It was difficult to assess the extent of his bad condition due to the absolute darkness he was plunged in, and his inability to move. All he knew was that he was in dreadful shape – gone was the dulcet touch of his beloved, forgotten the quiet contentedness he felt a moment before. He recognized the place and it instilled fright in his heart, turning his blood cold in his veins. The fear of being thrown back in this horrendous place, his own personal Hel, was daunting.

Now he only wished someone would put an end to his misery.

Regardless of his obvious solitude in these dark caverns, Loki screamed out his agony, hoping against hope that someone would come and finish what Odin could not when he put him there.

Laetherea had woken up in the darkness too, though she wasn't hurt and free of movement. Lost in what seemed like an endless maze of cavernous tunnels, she conjured a torch and wild fire to light her way. The walls and ceiling were made a black edgy stone, strangely geometrical and allowing no room for her to sit or lean on. Her soft leather shoes did not offer much protection against the bumpy ground covered in rocks of various shape and size, but she ignored the stinging pain and the oozing blood and walked onwards, searching for Loki.

In her heart she knew exactly where she was, and she anticipated what she would find at the end of this road. Time didn't exist in this cave, but she vaguely estimated one hour or so had gone by by the time she heard a bloodcurdling scream echo against the walls. She cursed these treacherous tunnels going in every direction, which didn't allow her to find the source of this cry for help. It couldn't be anyone but Loki. It her haste she hurt herself, cutting open her palm when she stumbled and tried to steady herself using the wall. Still she hurried on, wasting no time.

"Loki! Loki?!" She called his name again and again until her voice gave out and her throat hurt.

How many hours passed while she wandered aimlessly through these tunnels? She had to look in every corner for she held the only source of light in this place forgotten by the gods – all but one, who was tied there.

Every now and then a long, piercing scream echoed through the cave, urging her to press the pace, making her blood run cold. Those were not screams of help, they were agonizing cries of pain, a pain so great it forced the barrier of his teeth to get out of his body. She could only imagine what torture he was being subjected to as she got deeper and deeper into this maze without any clue of where she should go.

A dawning sense of alarm made it hard to reason however irrational it was to panic now – Laetherea knew it was but a dream, a nightmare Loki was stuck in. But she had failed to rescue him once, she could not bear the though of failing him again.

Being imprisoned in a dark, silent, and timeless prison was enough to drive any man mad, but surely there was more to this caverns than the location itself. Laetherea could still see the hollow look in Loki's eyes when she found him playing with the flame of the candle. She had never seen eyes so dull in her life, so devoid of vitality and will. Deep down she knew that she couldn't fathom what he went through without seeing it with her own eyes – which is what had motivated her to dreamwalk tonight, even if it meant upsetting him.