- Hiraeth -

... Eleven ...

I know it's been over a week!! I'm so sorry, but I was busy trying to get my Stucky fic published. I worked kinda hard on it, and it's not very long, so if you could pop over and give it a read, it would mean a lot. If not, that's okay too. You're already supporting me by reading this! Thanks a bunch <3
Oh! And the beginning of this chapter is kinda gorey

POMEGRANATE GINGER

"Dormammu, I've come to bargain." The words rolled off of the sorcerer's tongue like marbles over glass. They'd been spoken countless times, each guiding Stephen to a fate worse than the last. His head filled with pressure, then exploded, brains splattering every which way.

"Dormammu... I've come to bargain." Thousands of needles, almost invisible, forced their way into Strange's body. He bled out slowly, feeling every minute of anguish.

"Dormammu, I've come to bargain." Nothing. No pain or death. The swirling colors around Strange became more intense somehow. He could hear the blaring white noise, like the belly of some gigantic beast. There was a pressure on his shoulder, and he turned around.

"Tony?" Stephen mouthed, but he had no voice. The man in front of him was unreadable, his expression blank.

Stark shook his head, reaching both hands out. Without control of his body, Strange grabbed the other's hands, a numbness settling over him. It was disgusting.

The left side of the former doctor's face began to feel warm in streaks. With one hand, he touched his cheek. His fingers stained black, and an awful, stabbing sensation filled his left eye socket.

"You're so blind, Steph." Tony cooed, stroking the taller man's face with his thumb. He gathered up a bit of the black fluid onto his index finger, licking it off without a second thought. "You thought... you really thought you were special. Cuz what? Cuz you died a few times?" Laughing, Stark drew his hands back. He made a fist, bringing it down, then smashing it into Stephen's cheek.

Now that hurt, mixed with the pain of his vacant eye socket. He simply took the punch, too dumbfounded to do anything about it.

The engineer had split his knuckles, but shook it off with a dark chuckle. "No, you've put me through too much to get away with it." His voice was distorted, deep and wobbly. It made Strange raise an eyebrow. "You try to hide it with fancy teas and pretty sweaters and magic tricks, but you're human." Something moved beneath Stark's skin, almost reminiscent of a worm burrowing through dirt. "A pathetic little maggot." With those words, his skin ruptured, splitting down the center of his body. The shapes moving beneath were anything but pleasant. Dormammu's roars echoed through the space around them as Stephen fell to his knees. He held his face in his trembling grasp, sobbing loudly.

He began choking, black sludge forcing its way from his throat. His only eye filled with dark, burning tears as he died.

"Dormammu, I've come to bargain."

———-

It wasn't hard to find the sanctum sanctorum. Stephen had given Peter the address at Stark's party. It was, however, a miracle that the teen had remembered it.

Parker knocked on the large front door, which immediately opened to reveal an unfamiliar face.

"Oh! Um.. hi." Peter waved, unsure of what else to do. "I'm Peter Parker." He was nervous, and the man before him looked anything but friendly.

"What is your business here?" Wong asked cautiously, hands behind his back. This child didn't seem like much of a threat, but one could never be too sure.