Out of Oblivion

Chapter 36

Four days in my lion’s den had left my restless. Dani came to me as often as she could, bringing me food and water. Each day I grew stronger, although I was sore from sleeping on the hard cot.

            I had been placed in a cell in the great palace of Jotunhiem; which wasn’t much of a palace at all. It was ice walls with stalagmites and stalactites of icy pointed spears. To make things worse, Loki had chained my legs and arms, weighing them heavily.

            It was the middle of the fourth night when the blaring sirens went off. I crunched down in the cell, holding my hands to my ears. Glancing up briefly, I saw Frost Giants blazing around with weapons in their hands. Dani rushed by my room, her face pale and frozen in shock.

            I screamed out to her above the noise of the sirens. She whipped around and clasped the iron bars of my cell. “What’s happening?” I yelled.

            I only caught a few of the words she screamed back at me, but it was enough to help me understand. Jotunhiem was being attacked. By the Avengers.

            Dani rushed away, obviously in a hurry to get away from the battle. A surge of adrenaline flooded my veins. I stood up and searched the cell, banging against the iron bars and kicking at the solid ice walls. I was desperate to be free. The chains around my ankles and wrists rubbed against my skin until I bled.

            The kicking and banging continued until all my strength had been sucked out of me again. I sank to the floor with my back against the iron bars, my breathing labored. My muscles ached, as if rocks had been filled inside them. I could hardly move.

            Finally, the sirens ceased. But, a worse sound echoed through the halls of Jotunhiem. The grunting, slicing, shrieking, cutting, banging sounds of a bloody battle.

            I waited in agony, questions wracking my brain. I wondered who was out there. Which Avengers? Was James out there? Was he safe? Was he alive?

            My thoughts were silenced by a piercing cry that stung my ears and cracked the ice walls. The cry continued, growing louder. The battle seemed to have stopped, for that was the only sound. I was sure the people of Earth could hear it. Not only hear the piercing sound, but the pain and agony that poisoned it.

            Dani came from the hall leading to the back of the palace and peeked around the corner to where the battle was. She immediately turned back, choking sobs riveting her body. “Oh no…no…Loki…no…” she cried out, sinking to the floor and pulling her knees to her chest.

            If I didn’t have to witness the brokenness of Dani, I would have been relieved that it was Loki. But to see my friend’s heart shatter before me was a more painful sight than the relief of the defeat of Loki.

            When Loki’s cry ended, Dani gathered herself and ran out to him. For her sake, I hoped that Loki was alive.

            I closed my eyes, groaning from the pain in my muscles and the bleeding rashes around my ankles and wrists.

            A voice stirred me out of my idle slump of pain.

            “Eleanor.”