Platinum Blonde // L. Laufeyson

XXII

It was so cold.

Very very cold.

She tried to scream but only lost air bubbles as the water thrashed around her, trying to pull her down under and under and under. Thisshouldnthavehappened. She threw herself up. Swimming towards the surface. She almost made it. But then she didn't. A current threw her further under water. No. no. nononono. She didn't want to die. She couldn't breathe. She wanted to scream. To cry. To do something. But she couldn't. Thisshouldneverhavehappened. She was drowning. Drowning in waters of Asgard. A cruel laugh escaped her as her lungs began to burn, screaming for air.

Who would have thought?

A half-goddess could drown.

If she could have seen anything more than the darkness of the rushing frozen water around her, she would have seen black spots. Her head burst through the surface. She took a large heave of breathe. Pulled underwater. Choking. Again. Air. Water. Choking. Lungs are burning. Heats are breaking. Minds are losing themselves. She couldn't breath breath breath. Where was up? Down? Left? Right? Howcouldthishappen. December didn't know, she was drowning. She burst through the surface again, hearing the yelling of Asgardian guards as she took in a deep breath, trying not to choke on the water before she pulled under again. Air. Water. Air. Water. There was no reprieve to this unending cycle. Drowning, drowning, she didn't want to drown. Oh, Zeus. Someone anyone please. The current pulled her along thrashing and chucking her everywhere as her lungs began to burn. Helphelphelp.

She broke onto the surface again, getting thrown against the rocks of the Bifrost tower before being pulled away again. The void the void the void. She didn't want to go to the void. No nono onononon. She was thrown deep under water once more, the current tearing apart at her bones, her skin at her sanity. She didn't want to drown. Not like this. Not like this. Not this. Her lungs burned, burned, burned. Worse than ever before. Whydidthishappen?

And then,

There was nothing.

Nothing but the fall of great magnitudes of water and the void.

The void and the stars and everything beautiful in between.

She wasn't drowning.

Yesyesyesyesyes.

She was falling.

The world spun around her as the last of the Asgardian island slipped from her eyesight and the stars and water wrapped around her everywhere everywhere. It was so cold. Very very cold.

She wasn't drowning.

Her eyes began to slip shut, but in her heart, she knew what going to happen next next next. It was pain unimaginable pain. Worse than drowning. Drowning times infinity. This was going to be the true nightmare. If only she hadn't jumped.

December woke with a violent start from the memory. Breathing heavily, someone was holding her down. She stiffened to struggle only to recognize the hands, Loki. She was okay. She wasn't there. She wasn't with him.

Loki sent her a sad smile as her breathing slowly calmed. They were no longer in Asgard.

She slowly rose into a sitting position, watching with wide eyes at the world around her. A graveyard of wars and battle and death. December watched with a fascination at the destruction around her, her white blonde hair (the brightest thing in the area) whipping in her face, refusing to be tucked behind her pale pointed ear.

Loki murmured, "you passed out from the impact of hitting an Asgardian ship that Thor threw us in, we're at the exchange point now. Malekith will be here soon." He stood up straighter, directing the rudder with the steering contraption in his hand. Thor held a heroic pose, one knee against the edge of the boat as he watched ahead with determination.