Unbroken

Chapter 17

The problem with removing loki from his old life so quickly is that his life became memories, and memories became nightmares.
Frigga decided to keep loki in the same room for one more night, he seemed a little anxious when Frigga came to see him after thor brought him back (he was still thinking about Ilkay) and she didn't want to give him more new things to worry about.
But that didn't stop the nightmares from infecting his mind as soon as he fell asleep.
He had a hard time getting to sleep, as it got later his mind came up with more horrifying ways Odin might torture him later, and by the time he fell asleep he had already worked himself into an anxious sweat. When he fell asleep the disturbing thoughts didn't stop, but instead of dreaming about things hat might happen in the future his subconscious made him relive past memories.
.
He flashed back to the time when he was a baby. He couldn't see anything very well but he was crying, he was an infant and he was scared, it was dark and cold and his parents were gone. Suddenly he saw a face, the face of a man who looked much kinder than Laufey. He had had this dream many times in his life and the strange man was always unrecognizable, but this time he looked strangely familiar... suddenly the blurry image of the kind man vanished and he saw Laufey again. His mean red eyes glaring down at the crying baby who just wanted to be warm.
The dream shifted, it flashed forward a few years to when Loki was a toddler. He could see clearly now because his mind could more clearly remember this far back.
Loki, as a toddler, was crying again, sitting on the stone ground in the room his mother and father always threw him into, he was too young to understand anything, he was only two years old, but he knew he was afraid of Laufey. He was crying because he was hungry, hungry and cold and scared, he was just a baby and he wanted someone to hold him.
The door open and his cries got louder, Laufey cane in and now the baby was scared, but he was too young to move, all he could do was sit there wailing and looking around for anyone who could save him.
"Quiet!" Laufey barked at the baby,
but Loki was startled and when Laufey yelled he just screamed louder, he saw Ilkay standing in the door and reached his small arms toward her, she hadn't yet hurt him and he thought she was safe. He reached out for her and cried and screamed, trying to call for his mama, but he was so hysterical that he couldn't form the few words he'd learned.
"Be quiet!" Laufey yelled again, getting down in Loki's face and slapping the innocent baby hard on the side of his face. Loki was too young to understand that the reason he was in pain was because of his cries, so when laufey hit him he screamed louder as he fell over, unable to hold himself up.
"You stupid runt! Quiet!" Laufey was so loud and Loki was so scared, he couldn't stop crying and Laufey just got more and more angry. Laufey raised a hand to hit the baby again but ilkay stopped him.
"You'll kill him. He's too weak right now, we agreed to keep him alive as a slave remember? That can't happen if you kill him now" she said calmly. Laufey ignored he wailing child for a moment and looked over to ilkay.
"Fine!" He yelled at her as he grabbed Loki off the ground and shoved him into ilkay's arms. "You make it be quiet then" he said as he left the room.
Loki was still screaming but he thought his mother was safe, he thought he could be comforted by her and he started to calm down a tiny bit.
"Don't get to comfortable, as soon as you can walk I'm putting you to work" she said as she put him back down on the ground, he stared crying again and reaching for her, grunting through his cries to get her attention as she walked away. She didn't care if he cried all night, they couldn't hear him from their room so she would just lie to Laufey and tell him he was quiet.she left the room and ignored the screams of her baby. she left The child alone in the cold, he was hungry, scared, and had no idea why his mommy wouldn't feed him.
The nightmare shifted again, this time it was worse.
He was older now, maybe the equivalent of a twelve or thirteen year old on earth. He was skinny and weak and his hands always shook, but neither Laufey nor ilkay cared. By this time Loki knew that ilkay was as bad as Laufey, she had done her fair share of beatings.
Loki was doing a job for Laufey, he was scrubbing the kitchen clean from top to bottom, alone. He was starving and he wanted to steal some food but laufey was there watching him, making sure he didn't get a single bite as he was worked to the bone. He was almost finished, he saw a pile of perfectly good food that laufey had told him to throw in the trash, he wanted some, and he hadn't yet learned that talking was against the rules. Of course, there was no way for him to learn that, Laufey never actually told him what was allowed and what wasn't, all Loki knew was that he got beaten a lot, he hadn't put the pieces together to figure out what brought those bearings on.
"You- your highness, uh- m- may I please ha- have something to- to eat?" He asked, his whole body was trembling as he looked up at Laufey, who was quite a bit taller than Loki. He didn't know what Laufey would do but he was starving, he needed something to stop his stomach from aching so much. But Laufeys face hardened, Loki knew he had made a mistake.
"What did you say?" Laufey asked in a chillingly dark tone as he stepped toward Loki. Loki's trembling got worse as he tried to back up away from laufey, his voice was failing him and he couldn't repeat what he asked.
"I asked you a question, boy!" Laufey yelled at him, grabbing his thin shoulders so he couldn't back up any more. Loki was so afraid now, laufey was in his face and he knew he'd be hurt, but he tried to find his voice so he could reply to laufey.
"I- I asked f-for some- thing to- to eat" he stuttered. As soon he got the words out one of Laufeys hands moved to Loki's throat, the other grabbed a large knife off the rack. Loki saw the knife and whimpers and sounds of fear escaped his lips, he knew Laufey was going to cut him again. He thought to plead for him not to hurt him, he wanted to beg Laufey not to cut him this time, but his voice completely  vanished and he felt Laufey dig the knife into the side of his face, only and inch from his eye. Loki screamed as Laufey made a deep cut all the way down his face, hot blood seeping down his cheek and neck.
"I said you'd get food when I decide to feed you! So why are you asking?!" He shouted as he released his neck only to slap him on the deep gash he'd just made. Loki yelped again and stumbled backwards. unable to hold himself up he fell to the ground. He knew what was coming next, the kitchen was the worst place to fall down, there was so much in the kitchen that could be used to hurt him.  He tried to get up but before he could move at all laufey kicked him in the ribs, he felt them snap and screamed in pain from the broken bones. Laufey kept kicking him, over and over again, in the chest, the face, the ribs, anywhere that would hurt he kicked him. He cut him again and again, looking for any tool he could use to bring on pain. Laufey then realized that Loki had forgotten to put out the fire in one of the stoves, the metal surface was still hot.
Laufey grabbed the broken bruised and cut up boy and dragged him over to the stove. Loki was so weak that he was totally lick as Laufey dragged him over, his mouth was so swollen from being kick in he gave that he couldn't beg him to stop, blood was dripping into his eyes and he could barely see. He was just a heap of injuries now.
"This should teach you not to ask for food" he hissed as he grabbed Loki's hair and turned his head so that the side with the most cuts was facing the hot surface, he shoved his face onto the stove but as soon as Loki felt the searing pain of his flesh being burned he snapped out of his sleep.
He woke with a start and a scream escaped his lips. He was confused, he forgot where he was, he was shaking and dripping with sweat and even thought the pain was all in a dream, his face burned. He put his hand to his face where the cuts and burn should've been and realized that they weren't really there. It was just a nightmare, but it was also a memory. All those things really did happen, and he was being forced to relive them.