𝐌𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐄 | 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖮𝖭𝖤 𝖧𝖴𝖭𝖣𝖱𝖤𝖣 ¹

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 as they walked to the cave, they had lost people who helped them. Vasilisa Lothbrok had awaken from her drugged slumber and instantly remembered what happened. "Ragnar." I called, my voice low and rigged. I got off the horse but roughly to the ground. "Lisa, careful." I heard the girls tell me but I didn't acknowledge them as I got back on my feet to figure out where we were. Walking and past trees, she found that it wasn't Ragnar Lothbrok standing in front of Charles Pike. It was my mother: Jennifer Guzmán. "What..." I asked, confused, what the fuck is going on? I watched as Mom had went on her knees. My nose was burning from the sobs I hide in me. My sobs almost wanting to release as I sniffed my runny nose. I saw her look out but I knew she didn't want to give away our location. That's when the sound erupted in the air that would haunt me till the day I died. BANG!

"No." I whimpered, I didn't even realize that I had someone behind me. I watched as Mom's body splash into the muddy water. I inhaled my sobs that I let erupt in my closed mouth. I parted my lips as my eyes were directed to the murderer. Pike. I felt my eyes narrow and soon glow in rage. My hands forming a fist before I was forced to leave and back to the cave. I walked in the cave last after everyone, I kept my eyes to the ground until I faced a wall of the cave. "Where's Mom and Ragnar?" I heard my brother asked after everyone returned. I sighed and dropped my sword. "Pike put a bullet in her brain." I said before I sobbed quietly, my head down and tears leaving my eyes. "Lis. Lisa, I'm so sorry." Bellamy's voice spoke, I looked over at the boys and Octavia. I nodded, my eyes glowing, Octavia went to beat up my brother with my consolation. I didn't bother to watch the beat down.

"Octavia, that's enough." Kane said to Octavia and glanced at me. "Kane, stay out of this." Kit said before I heard more punches being thrown. I rested my forehead against the rock wall. "That's enough." I heard Miller say behind me. "Back off!" Octavia shouted at him. "Miller, back off." Kit said, I hadn't heard a word from Bellamy, which was okay with me. My breathing was heavy and shaken before I had let out my sobs with a yell in hopelessness. I turned my head to find Kit bloody on the ground. "Enough!" I shouted, the whole cave was quiet. I slowly walked to the exit of the cave but stopped just by Kit's laying body. "Your dead to me." I hissed, my eyebrows rising before I left the cave before I sobbed again.

I stayed just outside the edge of the cave crying sadly. I felt multiple arms around me and recognized them to be Oakleigh and Kali. "Shh, it's okay, baby. We're here." Oakleigh said as she shushed me and Kali rubbed my back. "He was my husband. I am pregnant with his child. Now my baby has to grow up fatherless." I said with tears streaming down my eyes. As the three of us hugged, I realized something. "Boys!" I shouted from outside the cave and detached myself from the girls hug. "Mother?" Floki spoke for his brothers. "Ragnar said that Pike gave him the choice of how he wanted to die." I said turning to the boys and looking at each of them. "How did he want to die?"

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𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐃 torturing, there, Ragnar Lothbrok sat in a tiny cave just above a whole in the ground. Everyone watched in silence, while looking up at the body in the cage. "It gladdens me that Odin prepared for a feast. Soon I shall be drinking ale from curved horns." Ragnar spoke, breaking the silence before he sat up and fixed himself. "This hero that comes into Valhalla does not lament his death. I shall not enter Odin's hall with fear." Ragnar continued as he crouched on his feet and hung onto the metal bars. "There I shall wait for my wife and children to join me. And when they do, I will bask in their tales of triumph." Ragnar announced, talking about his lover and his sons including his to be born child, he still believed would be a son. He turned to Pike who stood tall. "The Asire will welcome me. My death comes without apology! And I welcome the Valkyrie's to summon me home!" Ragnar shouted while he glared at Charles Pike.

Pike had nothing to say before the bottom of the cage had opened, unleashing Ragnar Lothbrok to meet his death. He had fallen into the pit of snakes. Guards and citizens walking closer to get a look of the upcoming death. They could hear the snakes hissing and see them biting onto their prey trapped inside their territory. Ragnar had not let out a single sound but a groan and flinch each time the venomous snakes bit each open part of his body. With the amount of venom in his body, he started shaking. Though his body felt numb, he could feel the slight tickle of a tear drop on his bare chest. His eyes caught the hooded sight of his wife: Vasilisa Lothbrok. She was too late. Through her pain, she gave her husband a soft smile while tear stains were on her cheeks. Ragnar himself was happy. Before his death, he got to see his wife and his unborn child. His sight was blocked when he felt his eyes roll back in his head and slowly pass out. His death was given to him and he was lifted up by Odin into Valhalla.

Vasilisa Lothbrok had to contain her sobs as she watched her husband die. His good eye closed and with not a single movement to be made. The sight of the body was gone by the hole doors sliding to connect to the middle. "It's done. Ragnar Lothbrok is dead." Charles Pike announced, Vasilisa was able to leave like the rest without getting seen or caught. What Vasilisa kept questioning was how she didn't kill Pike in that moment when he was standing just a couple feet apart.

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐍𝐀𝐑 was alone and sitting on a rock with tears down his face and still glassy eyes. Odin had just came to him and his brothers that their father was dead. He suffered in silence for as long as he could. He looked through the forest in search for Vasilisa or even Ragnar to be back. "Father. Father. Father." Ivar had cried for his father quietly before he sobbed silently as well. Looking down at his lap before inhaling deep and letting out seven full cries, thunder rumbling in the cloudy sky. As Ivar cried, he felt a warm and soft hand on his shoulder. He looked back to show Vasilisa who returned the same as she did when she arrived at the cave after her mother's death. "I'm sorry. I was too late." Vasilisa said softly, the two cried together while Vasilisa kept Ivar close in her chest and warm from the cold reality they wished as a nightmare.

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐀/𝐍: 𝐈'𝐌 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍