Perfect Little Lightning Heart● Marvel Fanfic {𝒯𝒽𝑜𝓇 𝒪𝒹𝒾𝓃𝓈𝑜𝓃}

Chapter 20: 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒫𝑜𝑜𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝒪𝒷𝓈𝒾𝒹𝒾𝒶𝓃

The stone walls of the cave were covered in cravings of different runes and scenes. There was one that looked similar to the one in Loki's book, Valkyries riding into battle. But it was different here. Instead of just the Valkyrie, there was a woman on the ground before them. A woman with horns and twin swords in her hands. There was another of the same women standing before a horde of demons who seemed to be praising her.

I believed this woman was the Queen of Hel.

"You said The Pool of Obsidian was guarded by sirens?" I questioned, running my fingers over the cold, etched surface of the cave wall. I was given a round of yes'. "Have any of you fought a siren?" The cave went quiet again.

"Uh..." Thor scratched the back of his head. Lovely...we didn't know what we were going up against. "Not to worry, Clarissa. I have fought many foes in my life. These sirens will be no different."

"That is if you're not pulled in by their song," Loki said, moving his green glowing hand so that he could look at another craving in the cave.

"What?" Loki looked back at Thor.

"And again, another time reading would do you wonders." Thor sighed, annoyed. "Sirens use their magic songs to pull men and women alike under their spell so that their prey is more docile and easy to eat, but that is what normal sirens are capable of." They sounded like really great beings to go up against.

"Normal?"

"We are in Hel, going to a place called The Pool of Obsidian. You believe any of the beings here will be normal?" Before Thor or any of us could respond, the green light Loki had been holding went out.

"Loki--"

"I didn't do that." He growled in frustration. "My magic has been blocked."

"So has mine," Dúfa spoke, something like fear in her voice.

"Thor," I said, grabbing hold of his arm, but when I reached for him, my hand met nothing. "Thor?" I carefully moved about, needing to feel him. Needing him to be by my side.

"Clarissa?" Thor's booming voice called.

"I'm here!" I called back, trying to follow his voice.

Loki shouted. A shout that was cut off abruptly. "Loki?" I called I but was only met by Dúfa's cut-off shout as well. "Dúfa! Thor!"

"Claris--" Thor shouted, but his voice vanished from the darkness just as the others had. Oh god, oh god! I pulled the sword I had strapped to my back out, ready to fight off whatever was in the darkness with us. I hoped my training would pay off.

When nothing attacked me after a moment of standing deathly still in the darkness, I was confused. Confused but with a mission. I started back on my journey. Sirens lived in water. The Pool of Obsidian was a pool of, hopefully, water. They would live there and have dragged Thor, Loki, and Dúfa to their home.

I pulled the glowing ice shard Dúfa had given me out, using it as a sort of flashlight. I was alone in the cave. Utterly and completely alone. Fear filled my heart because I knew I wasn't utterly alone. There were monsters lurking somewhere in the darkness. Somewhere out of sight.

I continued on, down and down I went. Here and there I thought I'd heard Thor or the others shouting, but when I listened harder, I heard nothing. Just dead silence.

The narrow cave began to open up gradually, revealing a large, round room. It was lit with dim torches, so I repocketed my shard, not wanting to lose it. My heart nearly stopped when I really took in this room. It was full of skulls and bones of all different kinds. A room, which at the center sat a still, black pool. The Pool of Obsidian.

I made to go over to it, but grunting had me freezing in my spot. I turned ever so slowly and nearly gave a scream.

Pinned against the stone walls was Thor, Loki, and Dúfa--pinned by creatures...pinned by sirens.

Sirens were not what I thought they would look like. They weren't beautiful, mermaid-like beings. No, they were terrifying. Though they did have mermaid tails, they sported two of them and they were barbed. Their human-like half was covered in feathers and wings sprouted from their backs. Their faces--god, they were horrifying. Twisted and ugly with pale, gray skin and razor-like teeth. Their eyes were a black that matched the pool they lived in. I found their taloned hands on either side of my friend's faces, black veins grew larger and wider the longer the sirens had held them.

Thor grunted again and it shook me from my shock. Okay--okay, I needed a plan.

A bone-chilling, hissing roar shook that earth. Oh god...oh god, oh god! I turned slowly and god did I wish I hadn't. Another siren was pulling itself from the darkness that was the pool, her ink-black eyes trained on me. Shit--

The siren screamed her chilling roar and rushed at me. I was hardly able to dodge the monster's first attack and even then, the siren still managed to rake its talons across my shoulder. Blinding pain rocked through me. Pain I'd never in my life experienced before. Pain I thought must be the worst possible pain I could ever come across.

The siren hit me with one of her tails, sending me flying to the edge of The Pool of Obsidian. I gritted my teeth together, trying my hardest to keep focused. To relocate the pain I was feeling. Something shimmered gold in the endless darkness of the pool. A shimmer of hope in a world of hurt and pain. The sword.

I quickly looked back, finding the siren making her way over to me. Finding Thor and Loki and Dúfa still being held captive by the other sirens. I was the only one left. I stood quickly, shoving down the pain that flared in my shoulder and body.

Freya. I had to do this for Freya.

The siren roared and began booking it over. But she was too late.

With a small, running start, I dove into The Pool of Obsidian. I dove into darkness itself. The gold became the only thing I could see. The only thing I could think about. It was as if I had become bewitched by the sword as it waited in its resting spot.

When I began to slow, I took to swimming downward, grateful I hadn't quit the swim team like I had wanted to.

Deeper and deeper I went. The closer I got to the sword, the more it called to me. The more it shouted my name, begging me to take it. Begging me to free it from the darkness it lived in.

I hit the sandy bottom and found the sword lodged into a boulder, like something King Arthur would be interested in. But I didn't have time to think over what it remembered me of, or how familiar all of this felt, because I was running out of air--fast. I wrapped my hands around the hilt of the sword.

Green light flashed behind my eyes. It snaked its way through my mind and being and it clenched its fist around me. I screamed in pain, though it was muffled by water filling my mouth and throat.

I was being invaded. I was being taken over. Taken over by--by someone. Someone who was controlling the green light. Someone had been calling to me in my dreams and in the waking world. Someone who was meant to stay at the bottom of this pool.

And I'd just let them out.