WARNING: Hey, guys. So this chapter is one of the biggest reasons for my fic's rating. Riley's entire dream sequence will be very dark and horror-esque, even to the point where I'm squeamish writing it. That said, if you have any triggers or are prone to be shaken by any gory or dark material, I'd skip this chapter. I included it because I want to emphasize the cruelty of Valek's character, since we haven't really seen it first-hand thus far. There will be child abuse in this chapter, and it gets pretty gruesome; child abuse is actually something I'm very easily nauseated by, but it felt necessary.
If you feel it might be too much, scroll down to the end, where I've included a very basic summary of this chapter.
You've been warned.
...
These days, the nightmares were less frequent, but never fully ceased. She could usually have a full REM cycle uninterrupted by Valek's torments (lest she completely collapse in her waking hours from exhaustion), but every other dream or so, Valek found a way into the deeper pathways of her mind.
Tonight, unfortunately, seemed to be one of those times.
Riley awoke in a darkened space, a realm apart from reality. No true light penetrated this place, but Riley could perceive her own body in its depths. She slowly stirred, sitting up on an unseen floor, the idle drip…drip of an unknown source of liquid echoing both from a far off distance, and somewhere right beside her. To describe this place in coherent terms would be a difficult task, and the pain she would endure would be nothing anyone other than a fellow host of Valek could understand.
"Riiiiiiiley."
You could get used to the dick's trickery after a while, but the fear never fully subsided. Fear's a funny thing that way—it can fluctuate and change shape, but it never really dissipates.
The ground beneath Riley shifted, melting like molten lava as it began to scorch her flesh, its color brightening until it became apparent that she was now waist-deep in hot, dense blood. She'd had this kind of dream before, but that made the pain no less severe.
Riley cried out as the blood boiled her skin, swallowing her up in a fiery prison. She attempted to trudge through the thick, gloppy substance—was it truly blood? It certainly smelled like it—and find higher ground; although she knew the attempt would be useless, it was only human instinct to try and flee from the danger, even if logic told her there was no place to go. Pride mattered not here, and Riley shrieked and shrieked as she tried to swim through the burning current, but the more steps she took, the farther her body sank down, until the blood reached her throat.
Her whole body was melting—she was sure of it. She could see bits and pieces of her own porcelain flesh peeling away, layers of reddening skin becoming charred before liquefying to reveal bone.
"This can all stop," Valek's cooing voice reassured her, his voice shifting as it morphed into the higher tones of Frigga's. "Come on, Riley. You don't have to endure this pain. Let me take it from you—just give in to me. Please."
Crying only worsened things, for Riley's eyes also leaked hot blood, stinging her cheeks as fat dollops rolled down her face. As the ocean of vermilion fire swelled up to her face, she began to choke on it as she sank, the substance burning her throat and tearing her apart from the inside out. The skin on her neck sizzled away, leaving holes in her trachea like Swiss cheese.
Ghostly forms of those long past began to rise up from the blood, people she'd long since put from her mind but never forgotten. They, too, melted as they reached skeletal hands out for her, grappling blindly as their eyeballs popped and rolled from their sockets.
"Riley," they moaned. "Why did you do this to us, Riley? Why are you letting us suffer, Riley?"
Dry sobs continued, despite the pain—because of the pain. Riley begged and pleaded to an unknown source for it all to end, for her to just die, damn it, and be done with it all.
"Just say pleaaaase," Valek's voice soothed as the skeletal digits of Riley's former companions reached her, clawing at what bits of tissue remained on her own bones. "This can allll be over, I promise. Just give yourself to me. Let me take over for you."
How Riley always managed to ignore him, she would never be sure. Perhaps it was the fact that her parents had sacrificed themselves to give her life, and had risked and lost everything just to give her a chance. Perhaps it was because of Quinn, and Fury, and the Avengers, and how this torture would be given to them if she let Valek take over. How the world would burn like her flesh, and the next world after that, and the next…How everyone she ever knew and loved would suffer just as she had, how all of her years of resisting would be for nothing.
Maybe it was just the fact that she was so damn stubborn and petty that she refused to let a bastard like Valek control her, the way everyone else in her life had done. Maybe because she needed that control.
Either way, these thoughts did little to quell the agony gushing through her veins. A bony hand clasped over her mouth, dragging her under. Realistically (assuming anything occurring here was realistic), she should have died by now. She should have succumbed to the pain, should have lost all sense of mind, should have drowned in this scorching blood.
Instead, she choked on the bubbling liquid, attempting to draw in air to her burnt lungs, only to gulp in mouthfuls of the putrid muck, the taste and scent of iron overwhelming her other senses. Her tongue shriveled up in what was left of her gaping maw, her teeth rotting away into black kernels.
And then nothing.
Riley blinked. She sat in the center of a white space now, deceivingly contrasting to the dark of the previous realm. Her skin and bones had been remedied, but she knew better by now. Valek's bag of tricks had run low these days, so she could anticipate his actions pretty well. She was strapped to a chair, bound by her wrists and ankles, but she made no move to escape. This was Valek's world. She had no power here.
"There was a little girl." Valek stood before her now, accompanied by a young girl with blue hair, blue eyes, and blue skin—blue, blue blue. She looked to be about eight in earth years, with pointed elfish ears and huge eyes. This could be nothing good. "An Ice Elf, from the frozen parts of Alfheim. Alais Norydark. Say hello, Alais."
"Hello, Riley."
The pure innocence of the girl's voice made Riley's stomach lurch. "Don't, Valek."
"Alais was one of my hosts, about, say…four thousand years ago? Eight? Who can remember." Valek nudged Alais forward, so that she stood only a foot apart from where Riley sat. "Like you, she was my host from when she was a baby. A real trooper, this one. So stubborn."
Ohh, this was a new low, even for Valek. Riley squirmed now, in spite of herself, fingernails digging into her binds. "Valek, seriously, stop! Please!"
"I've brought Alais here today because she reminds me of a younger you. I wanted to demonstrate for you today what it took for me to break this one. For reference, perhaps."
"One day I'll die," Riley swore, wriggling against her restraints, "and I'm going to drag you with me to Hell!"
Riley knew the girl was only an image, conjured by Valek's mind. Alais was long dead, and though her spirit remained tied to Valek's, he could no longer do her any harm. Even so, she had no doubts that what he was about to do had indeed occurred before, so while it wasn't really happening now, it would still be a very real memory.
Valek flicked his wrist, and a blade materialized between his long fingers. "Alais never liked knives; I killed her mummy with one, so they're a bit of a sore spot for her." He chuckled at his own revolting pun, the sound rumbling like an oncoming storm in his chest.
"Valek!"
Valek shove the dagger into Alais' mouth, forcing it down her throat. Riley squeezed her eyes shut, but her eyelids provided no cover; she could see straight through them. She attempted to avert her eyes, but it seemed that no matter where she looked, Valek was there, choking the poor little Ice Elf with the blade. Tears bubbled in Riley's eyes, streaming down her face as she screamed and pleaded and cried.
"VALEK, STOP! STOP! STOOOOP!"
The elf's own muffled, gurgling screams echoed all around them; Riley turned her face to the side, promptly vomiting all over herself. By this point, her real body would have fainted, which would have been an absolute blessing.
But respite was not something Riley had ever known.
Valek forced the thrashing girl to choke down one whole knife after the other, all while Riley screeched and sobbed her eyes out. All she could do to keep herself sane was remind herself that if she gave in—let Valek win, let this memory of Alais be saved—Alais would never truly be free. All of Valek's hosts remained tied to his own soul, and the only way to both free them and kill Valek was for his current host to die. Valek would never allow for it, not even if she tried to lay down in front of a truck, since he sensed her every next move, so the only thing she could do was wait, and pray her life was a short one.
Blood splattered in all directions, since this realm appeared to have no concept of walls, floors, or ceilings. It ran in thick rivers like spilled paint, flecks splashing all over Riley's bare skin.
"Riley?"
Riley hiccupped, tasting bile. The voice pierced this realm from far away, like light streaming in between clouds.
"RILEY!"
Riley shot up in her bed, chest heaving hard. Hot sweat drenched her from head to toe, leaving her bra, underwear, and night clothes sticky and clinging to her skin. Fresh tears and mucus peppered her face, so she had apparently been crying in real time. She trembled almost violently, gooseflesh decorating her bare arms and legs.
Thor sat at the edge of her bed, large hand on her shoulder and other resting on one of her clammy hands. His gorgeous baby blues darted back and forth as they surveyed her face, deep concern rooted in their cobalt depths.
Riley startled in surprise, recoiling away from him. She wasn't used to people waking her from her night terrors—namely because she had almost always lived alone. It had been many years since she'd had anyone around to rouse her from the nightmares, so she had grown accustomed to having to ride them out on her own.
"Wh…wh…" Riley all but whimpered, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, which did absolutely nothing to keep the sweat from her eyes. "Th-th-Thor?"
"Yes, it's me." Thor looked almost more terrified than she felt, completely at a loss as to what to do to assist. "You were yelling in your sleep; one of my personal servants alerted me to it. I'm sorry for intruding," he added, but Riley only lunged forward, throwing her arms around his neck with a wet sob.
"It's all right," he soothed, though he looked immensely uncomfortable with the whole situation. "You're okay now. It was just a nightmare."
Yes, just a nightmare… Riley sniffled against his neck, ashamed that she was currently smearing all manner of bodily fluids all over his shirt, but too shaken to compose herself. Normally she would just head for the bathroom, splash her face with water, and recite as much as she could of one of her favorite books, The Thorn Birds.
"'Th-there is a legend,'" she murmured softly, slowly drawing herself away from Thor, "'about a b-bird which sings just once in its life, more s-sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From', uh… 'from the moment it leaves the n-nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine.' And, um… 'And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain...Or so says the legend.'"
That was about as far into the book Riley could ever remember, but it was also the exact amount she needed in order to calm her down. A friend had suggested the exercise in her youth, and she'd used it ever since.
She was well aware of Thor now staring pointedly at her, probably thinking she had gone absolutely batshit crazy. But the trick worked, and that was all that mattered. Riley rubbed an eye with a fist, sighing deeply.
"I'm sorry, Thor. I didn't mean to wake you." Riley must have been a sight, with her dripping nose and red eyes, rumpled clothing and wild hair. Thor, of course, looked just the right amount of disheveled to where he still looked attractive.
"You needn't apologize." Thor patted her roughly on the shoulder again, seeming unsure of himself. "Are you…all right now?"
Riley nodded. In her disoriented state of mind, Valek had quieted, at least for now. His presence would be back with a vengeance soon enough, but the shock of her night terrors usually kicked him out of her mind for a while after awaking. "Did I say anything in my sleep?"
"Mostly, uh…screaming," Thor admitted, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. "The only thing I could make out was Alais…Is that someone you knew?"
Riley's shoulders wilted. "Y…yes. Someone I knew." She was frankly relieved that she hadn't yelled out Valek's name in her slumber, since that would make for a pretty awkward conversation. "It's not a big deal, really."
How embarrassing. Try as she may to play it off like nothing, Thor had already witnessed her bawling into his shoulder only minutes ago, so his concern wasn't likely to go away. Still, Thor rose from her bedside, content that she would be okay, at least for the time being.
"Well…the night is still long. I will see you in the morning, Riley."
"Goodnight, Thor."
But sleep never returned. Riley wouldn't allow for it, not again, not tonight. She'd had enough mental torture for one day.
...
Summary:
Riley's nightmares come once every other sleep or so. She gets night terrors where Valek brutally tortures her mentally and physically, and uses memories of past hosts to torment her. He shows her a memory of him torturing a child host, an Ice Elf, from long ago. She wakes up screaming, to find that Thor has woken her up. She recites the first paragraph of "The Thorn Birds," one of her favorite books, as a coping mechanism to calm her down. Thor leaves, and she remains awake in bed, too afraid to fall asleep again.