Shattered

Thor Odinson--Depression

I am curled up in an alley far from the place I used to call home. I am alone, shivering, and I feel so numb I might as well be dead.

I have been hurt, in ways most people cannot even begin to fathom. Physical pain-I have the scars to prove it. Mental pain-I have the depression to prove it. I can't afford the medicine and each day drags on and on. My days were surely numbered at the horrid place and escape was the only route to survival. Although... maybe I should just go back and give up. There's no life for me anymore, not that there ever was-I was a mistake, the world doesn't have a place for me and never will. I am here in the alleyway because it is far from prying, pitying eyes and I can be numb in peace. Feelings have all but disappeared in my mind lately. I no longer feel sorrow, anger, joy, hope. Numbness and hunger are the only emotions left in my soul and soon they will be gone too, leaving me an empty shell of a person. Loneliness somehow worms it's way back into my mind for a desperate moment and I cling to every shred of emotion it gives me until it passes and I am left a cold, empty frame once more. I see a man dressed in torn clothes and a holstered gun on his belt enter the alley out of the corner of my eye. I wish I could run, but I can't make myself move. It's like I have lost the will to live and am resigned to sit here unfeelingly forever. The man shouts at me in some language I don't know and I somehow force myself to turn my head towards him. I barely see him raising the gun and point it at me as I think, This is it... thank god. Suddenly, the man flies away from me and lands on his back, then scrambles up and bolts out of the alley.

Someone else is standing in front of me, but I don't look at them. Please, go away, I wish and the person, who I figure out is a (very tall) guy, says in a deep voice, "Why would I do that? I have just saved you." I shake my head, realizing I must have said that out loud, and look down. "Can you speak?" he asks, although not unkindly, and I don't know how to respond. I figure if I stay silent, he will go away, but he just stands there in front of me for a while, then sits down and leans on the alley wall across from me. I assume he will not leave, so I say, as loud as I can, which is still just a whisper, "You cannot save me. No one can. They have damaged me beyond repair." The man frowns and reaches over to take my hand. I don't resist as he helps me to stand and makes me walk stiffly out of the alleyway beside him.

"I will save you, I swear on my honor," he says confidently.

I look at his face for the first time.

He smiles.