The Ides of July // Loki - Book 1 ✓

Bonus Chapter #6: Loki's Dreams

Loki tosses and turns on the small mattress in his tiny Asgardian cell. It's much more luxurious than anything afforded to the other prisoners, but it's still a far cry from the chambers he grew up in within the palace.

Sleep evades him most nights, and the few hours he manages to drift off are riddled with horrible nightmares. He is tormented by visions of Anna's torture at the hands of Restitution, Magnus' laughter while he applies the plasma torch to Loki's skin echoing in his ears, and he's forced to watch while the woman he loves is beaten and bruised within an inch of her life. He tries to save her, every time, but every time he fails. Every time she's ripped from him at the last moment, her lifeless body falling to the ground before his very eyes, until he's convinced that the recurring nightmare is a vision of the future.

Tonight the nightmares are different.

Tonight, it's he who is tormented and tortured. His broken body hangs from the chains, fire lapping at his skin until he cries out in pain, and a musical laugh hits his ears. One eye is swollen shut while his vision is distorted in the other from the crimson blood pouring down his forehead. He blinks, the darkness fading into focus, and a familiar face stands across from him.

It's her. It's Anna. Her lips are turned upward at the sight of him, her small hands grasping the handle of the plasma torch as she uses it to etch lines of agony into his pale skin. She laughs as he screams, clearly overjoyed to make his broken body her canvas, until tears begin to leak out of the corner of Loki's eyes. He's never allowed himself to cry, not since he fell from the Bifrost into the Void, but the pain is too much to bear. His mind forms silent words begging Anna to stop, urging her to remember him, but she cannot hear him. He cannot speak. Suddenly, his lips are sewn together once more.

Struggling against the chains that bind him, his emerald eyes blaze with fear and anger as he watches her deliver blow after blow to his bare skin. He cannot fight, he cannot free himself, and - eventually - he cannot even hold himself upright. His legs give way, and his body sags forward as he hangs from the chains. All of his weight born into his wrists and shoulders, his lungs struggle to expand as consciousness begins to slip away from him.

When he wakes, he discovers himself in the same place. The same darkness hangs around him like a heavy cloak, but this time he can see Anna's body - covered in blood - unconscious on the ground in front of him. He calls out to her, the thread binding his lips together ripping through his skin until he can taste blood, but she doesn't answer. She doesn't move. He can't even tell if she's breathing.

A new voice overlaps his own, a deep laugh rumbling through the darkness, and the memory causes him to flinch. He'd recognize that voice anywhere, and a tsunami of fear rushes over him.

"I see you've found yourself a pet," the voice tells him.

Loki bites back a growl, once again finding the strength to pull against the chains that bind him, as he seethes, "Don't touch her!"

The voice laughs, a cruel and wicked sound, as Anna's body is lifted from the ground by some invisible force. Her brown hair clings to her face, matted with blood, and she hangs in midair right before Loki's eyes. With a gasp, her blue eyes flicker open.

"Loki?" Anna asks, her voice cracking from the effort as she struggles to breathe. Her skin is pale from blood loss, her electric blue eyes a vivid contrast from the deep red blood caked across her features. "W-where am I? What's happening?"

He struggles against his bonds, every fiber in his being wishing that he could hold her, relieve her of her pain, take her away from this horrific place, "I'm sorry, my love. I'm so sorry."

"As you should be," the voice returns, causing Anna's eyes to grow wide with fear. "This is all your doing. You failed me, Loki, and now you've failed her."

Anna gasps as an unseen hand tightens around her throat, her body frozen and unable to fight back, as Loki bellows out of rage. Her blue eyes meet his, growing dull by the second, as he fights with every ounce of strength in his body to free himself and save her. Tears fall from the corner of her eyes, pain and regret etched over her bloodstained features, as she struggles to stay conscious without oxygen. Her eyelids flutter closed, and - after a few more moments - she falls to the ground, her body contorted in a grotesque and impossible fashion, and Loki howls in agony at the sight of her dead body.

His wrists finally break free of their bonds, and he falls forward onto the ground only to wake up in the bright white Asgardian prison cell.

It was a dream. It was all a dream.

Anna is alive, which means he hasn't failed her. Relief floods his body as he runs his hands through his thick black hair, swinging his legs off the side of the small cot, and inhales deeply. His wrists ache, and he looks down to see marks from the shackles in his dream still pressed against his skin, a dark trail of blood pouring from the fresh wounds. Frowning, his emerald eyes grow wide at the realization.

Thanos.

Thanos knows about Anna.