Monster

AN: For people interested in music, the song "Monster" by Imagine Dragons goes well with this section of the story.

Also, WARNING, this chapter is dark. Brief mentions of self-harm.

Anne's POV

Cold. So cold. But getting warmer. I can feel the blood thumping through my veins again, and I long to stretch my sore muscles. It feels like an eternity before I can open my eyes, and when I do, I am forced to squint at the bright light close to my body. After a few blinks, I recognize the light as coming out of Iron Man's hands. I realize he is using the fire from his gloves to melt the ice off me, and as the last of the ice leaves my face, I stretch my sore neck.

Iron Man, or Uncle Tony, as I prefer to think of him, sees the movement. "Are you ok?" he asks over the sound of his gloves firing.

"Yes," I say, but it comes out as a slow "Yeth." It seems my brain has some unthawing to do as well. Now that I think of it, how did I end up in the ice again? I went to Sam's party with Laura—

Laura.

The truth hits me like Thor's hammer. Laura was about to attack Sam's sister. Laura was working with Loki this whole time. Laura froze me into a block of ice just for getting in her way. Laura, who I thought was my best friend.

"RAAAAWRRRR!" I yell as my body explodes, the ice shattering like glass. "ICE NO MATCH FOR GREEN GIRL! GREEN GIRL CRUSH PUNY ICE! GREEN GIRL CRUSH PUNY LAURA!"

"Anne, just stay calm," Tony voice says.

"NO! CRUSH PUNY LAURA!"

"Bruce, code green," Tony say on ear-thing.

"RAAAWRRR!" Hulk says. Hulk angry, but Green Girl more angry.

"GREEN GIRL CRUSH HULK!"

"HULK SMASH!"

PUNCHPUNCHKICKPUNCHKICKPUNCHJUMPSMASHTHUD…

"Owww…" I groan as I wake up.

"Anne!" Dad exclaims, running over to me from across the room. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, dad," I say, a bit groggily. I try to stand up, but end up feeling dizzy, so I reach forward to lean on dad for support. But instead of dad, it is the bars of the Hulk-proof cage in the basement that end up supporting me. My dad stands on the other side of the bars looking sad.

"Dad, how…" …did I do, I was about to say, thinking I had woken up from another practice of learning how to control my Hulk form. Then I remember. The party. Laura. Ice. Hulking out.

I can feel the anger bubbling up again, but this time, I am able to keep it under control. I can see dad watching me carefully as I clench and unclench my fists, then start crying.

"Oh, Anne," dad says, coming into the cage and giving me a hug.

"How… h-how much damage?" I mumble.

"None," dad says, smiling slightly.

"None?" I gasp, unable to believe it is true.

"None," dad repeats softly. "I was there."

"You were… oh no! Did I f-fight you? I'm so sorry!" I gasp, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"It's ok, sweetie, my dad says, stroking my hair in a soothing way. "It's no wonder you were angry after… what happened."

"But I should have been able to control it!" I exclaim. I promised myself never again.

"We'll work on it sweetie," dad says, patting my back. He sighs. "In the meantime, Director Fury left several messages that he needs my help with something. Will you be ok if I leave?" he asks, watching my face carefully. "Your mom should be home in an hour, but if you would like me to stay, I will."

"I'll be alright," I say, attempting to smile. I won't be alright, but my dad has something important to do, and I won't ruin it by slowing him down. After all, all I've done since Laura… all I've done is Hulk out and slow everyone down by having to deal with me.

"Alright, if you're sure," dad says. He gives me a quick hug, then walks away while getting his cellphone out to talk to Fury.

I walk out of the cage and head to my room, looking for something to cheer myself up. However, on the way there, I wonder if I even deserve to be cheered up. After all, I could have killed someone from Hulking out, yet I Hulked out anyways. I'm a terrible person for caring about my own emotions more than the life of others.

And doesn't being friends with Laura just prove I'm a bad person? I mean, if the only person willing to be my friend is a crazy supervillain, there must be something terribly wrong with me! Maybe I'm just as evil as her and just haven't noticed somehow. After all, the one time I tried to be a hero, when Loki attacked, all I ended up doing was hurting my teammates. Maybe all I can do is hurt people. Maybe I deserve to hurt too.

Two streams of tears flow down my face as I decide that, yes, I do need to hurt. I make a cut, and soon a third stream of red tears cries from my wrist. It stops soon after, however, and I feel ashamed. I could have killed someone, yet the most pain I can give myself is a tiny cut. It just shows how selfish I am, how much more I care about myself than others.

Suddenly, I feel exhausted. I head to my bed and lay down, as I cry myself to sleep.

AN: What do you think of this chapter? I noticed some people really liked the last few chapters, which were a bit darker, but this one is even darker, so idk.

Anyways,

ElvishJedi1: Loki was trying to help Laura in the way he thinks is best. He thinks that Laura shouldn't bother trying to convince the Avengers of anything, because the Avengers are stupid mortals, so who cares what they think? Also, he just really wanted to get Laura out of the SHIELD base, because he's starting to care about her and doesn't want to see her get hurt/ yelled at.

Lokilover911: Sorry, my computer keeps capitalizing the first letter of your name :( Damn it, Ultron, stop pranking me! Lol, just kidding :) Anyways, thank you for sharing what you like about the story :)