Chosen // loki laufeyson

Chapter Fifty Four

Chapter Fifty Four

Lienna

I closed my eyes, awaiting the sweet peace that came just before death that I was so sadly familiar with, but it never came.

I expected to hear the Valkyries' soft singing.

Instead, I heard loud sobs.

I should be dead.

"By Odin's Almighty name, Lienna, I am so sorry," he screamed, cradling me in his arms.

I accept your apology.

"Please forgive me." His voice was tender yet rough with emotion.

I do, I swear, I do.

Loki held me tightly, stroking my hair. "I do not know what happened, love, please stay with me."

I am trying, dear, but it's hard to try when your mind is halfway to Valhalla but your heart is firmly planted wherever you are.

The lifting sensation of the BiFrost suddenly didn't seem so envigorating, and Asgard's winds didn't seem to caress my skin as usual. "Lienna, please listen to my voice and don't ever stop. I am going to get you some help. I am going to keep you alive."

His voice seemed to come from the opposite end of a tunnel, bouncing off walls and dulling in sound until I could only vaguely understand it. Loki's heartbeat suddenly didn't seem like a solid drumbeat. It, too, felt distant, softened by separation.

Suddenly, I pitched forward, over the edge of a canyon, falling deeper and deeper into a strange dark-yet-light cavern. I was sure my body hadn't moved, but by Odin's honor, it felt as if I was going to fall apart midair.

A cry sounded out, not my own. Masculine. "Lienna, please please please. Don't let go, you're the only thing I have to hold on to!"

Another cry, this one less desperate and more... sorrowful.

My soul lurched again, hurtling toward some unknown end with painful velocity. Everything seemed to be weighing down on me even harder, crushing my bones

Is... is this what dying feels like? Is this what death really is?

This isn't poetic, or relaxing, or peaceful.

This is terrifying. This is pure, unadulterated horror. This is every fear I've ever had wrapped into a neverending spiral of suffering.

This is Hel.

I do not belong here.

Then, I hit the ground.

××××××

Everything hurt. It was a pain so intense I had to assume that maybe I wasn't actually dead.

Being left alone with excruciating pain and my thoughts did not seem so bad considering what I had been through before this, but after a while, this newfound Valhalla was turning into the most sinister form of Hel.

The pain was easy to get past; I didn't seem to have a body anyhow, just my existence.

Questions flowed in and out of my head, not forming full concepts, just tantalizing hints at figuring out what had happened to me.

If this was death, I did not want it. I did not want to be separated from my love or my life, as difficult as both of those could be. I did not want concepts to fill my mind instead of actual thoughts, I did not want the endless pain in my seemingly nonexistent body, I did not want deafening emptiness that made me more angry by the minute.

I wanted the sweet simplicity of a lover's arms, but I was afraid I could not remember his face, or his scent, or the feeling of his embrace.

I was so desperate to feel anything other than pain and longing that I would have given anything.

××××××

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Sorry for the short chapter but it is pretty relevant to the plot so :))

Also so many of you are complaining about the "long wait" for updates and that hurts my feelings because I try really hard to make sure the updates aren't too far apart and that you guys are happy with the updates that I put up. I understand how annoying long waits can be, but usually my updates aren't much longer than two weeks apart and I know that some authors make their readers wait months.

I'm okay with comments like "please update :)" or "please update i love your story and i can't wait to get more" etc., because those are nice and understandable, but when people take the time to message me and say that they have been waiting forever and that I should update because it shows I care about my followers, it really hurts my feelings. That has only happened a few times, so don't feel guilty, just please take into consideration that I am a human and have feelings.

Anyways, I love you all and I hope you survived/are surviving finals week!

love,
katiethenovelist