Hey all :) 

So I'm posting a day earlier, but it's because I already had this chapter done, and also am in drop, so I have free time. 

Thank you to rachfreund for pointing out that in my Posting Dates, I skipped the entire month of February. After I get home, the dates will be fixed- there will be some posting dates that are 2 weeks apart now instead of 1 to make up for this month- I think there are about four of these unfortunate gaps. 

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. It makes me a bit sad, but then again, this book is sad, so you know. 

-Music-

Iridescent~ Lincoln Park

tradgedy- Christina Perri (this song is so beautiful and so perfect, I cannot.) 

Nobody's POV~

The sun sets over a white sided house on the top of a hill, with a small pond shimmering in the dying rays at the bottom. A flock of ravens flies cawing across the fields, behind the house where three horses graze: one black, one brown, and one dappled gray. Even though it is only August in Lincoln, Massachusetts, there is still a slight crisp to the air as the leaves skitter over the surrounding stone wall and across the driveway.

As the last of the rays begin to vanish over the western crest of the world, lights in the windows become more apparent as they glow. Inside, a young man in his late twenties with mussed black hair, narrow eyes, and a determined gait walks into the kitchen, holding a black iPhone. He is frowning as he looks outside the window out to the fields that open to the forest.

He glances at his watch. It's nearly seven-thirty: his brother isn't due back from Boston until nearly an hour, but that's not what he is worried about. Another concerned look out of the window, and then he strides across the wood floor, his heeled boots clanking, and opens the screen porch into the chilly air.

It takes him less than ten minutes to saddle and bridle the big black horse, and after making sure that his phone is still in his pocket, he kicks the horse out of the pasture, closes the gate behind him, and then rides out towards the hills and towards the forest.

He rides for about twenty minutes, and the blusters from the west make him glad he had brought his leather jacket. The sun makes his shape into a silhouette across the land.

The horse, snorting, comes to the middle of the forest, which is so thick with trees that the man has to slow the black horse considerably. The crickets are beginning to chirp and the temperature is dropping with some help from the wind.

He comes across a small copse of trees clustered together in an arch, in front of a small cave marred by residue and moss. With a short tug of the reins, he stops the horse and then dismounts.

Ground-tying the well trained horse, he walks forward, his boots crunching on the leaves and twigs. Coming to a halt in front of the mouth of the cave, he crouches down.

As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he sees what he has been looking for: a bundled heap in the corner of the tiny cave, wrapped in a thin blanket. Her hair is tangled and blonde, her small nose red from the cold and from her tears, the figure of a young girl of thirteen, shadowed in grief and misery.

"Thea," the young man says quietly, "Oh, Thea, honey, this has to stop."

Slowly, she turns to look up at him, and he has to bite back his surprise. Her eyes are blotched and bloodshot, but most of all, they are dull and glazed. He has never seen her like this, and it gnaws at his typically steadfast heart. He doesn't know what to do.

And it is very uncommon that Kyle Calen is at a loss for what to do.

He looks at her for a few minutes, and then he says, holding his arms out, "C'mon. It's time to go home."

For a few seconds, he is positive that she is going to refuse, but then reluctantly, she moves forward, allowing him to scoop her up and then place her on the saddle. Making sure that she is secure, Kyle swings up behind her, and then he urges Frollo forward, back towards the house.

Kyle doesn't say anything to Thea, and Thea doesn't say anything to Kyle. The latter isn't that unusual, but there are still lines of worry etched into Kyle's forehead.

Inside the paddock, as Kyle dismounts Frollo and helps Thea off, he gestures towards the dappled gray mare, "We got Minny for you for a reason. You might as well use her if you're going to go gallivanting into the woods."

Thea doesn't reply, but hesitantly reaches forward to stroke Minny's silken mane. The mare snorts, her large liquid eyes staring at the girl, and nuzzles Thea's shoulder.

"See, she likes you. I bet she got all depressed when you went hiking past her pasture without even bothering to let her come with you."

The girl merely shrugs, and Kyle sighs.

At this point, there is another person inside the kitchen, sitting at the table, on his laptop. As the back door creaks and the two walk in from the pasture, Max looks up. Strong and sturdy, even Max's level of worry is beginning to heighten.

Kyle, leaning against a column, watches through narrowed eyes as Thea walks past them and up the stairs.

As soon as he hears the bedroom door close, Max says in his baritone, "She went out again?"

"She was gone for hours. I didn't exactly have a choice but to go looking for her."

The older Calen brother shrugs, "I'm not denying that what you did was right."

Pause.

"She didn't even take Minny."

"She just walked?" Max looks surprised.

"Middle of the woods, yeaap."

Max sighs, closing the screen to his laptop. "Ky, we ned to do something."

Kyle raises his eyebrows mockingly, "Oh, really? Yes, because I don't find it all worrisome that Thea Fossil basically refuses to talk, scarcely eats, and holes herself up in her room or some abandoned cave."

"Kyle, this isn't the time for jokes."

"Does it sound like that was a fricking joke?"

Kyle does not exactly say "fricking".

Max, who is used to this sort of thing from Kyle, says, "Point is, both of us have noticed it, but we're not the only ones. Jack called me earlier today to inform me that Thea hasn't texted him back in two weeks, or picked up the phone. Basically, he was checking to make sure she was alive."

"She isn't talking to Jack now?"

"Or Peter."

"Or Peter." Kyle says this in an exasperated statement.

"Okay, so who is she talking to?'

"Do you have another list of people that Thea might, in fact, talk to, that we haven't heard about?" Kyle's voice is becoming more and more sarcastic.

Thankfully, Max has lived with Kyle long enough to not be bothered by the snarky tone of his brother. But he is still worried, "Let's give her a couple more days. We can try to pry her out of whatever isolation she's put herself in."

"She feels guilty." Says Kyle dryly, "I doubt there is a more depressing trait for Thea to possess."

"I know she's guilty!" snaps Max, "And she's not the only one."

"I know that," says Kyle, slightly more gentle, "But she's the one...you know, it was her sister, for God's sake."

Max runs his hand through his short hair. His face is becoming more stubby, as is Kyle's, from lack of caring.

Then, he sighs, "All right. Let's just try to get to her. She's torturing herself more than anything else, and we need to get her to stop."

Kyle snorts, "Good luck."

27 August 2014

It's starting to get colder. When I hear that Thea is still continuing to wander off, I get even more worried. What more of anguish must Thea go through in order to appease her soul? Kyle and I don't want to shadow her, but I fear we might not have a choice.

She has no more life to her than a zombie, and at least a zombie will try to kill you. I suppose that's the worst part: Thea doesn't fight anymore. She obeys without a second thought, except she still goes off into the woods by herself. She does the schoolwork Kyle and I give to her without question. She is no longer belligerent, no longer snarky with Kyle, and no longer has light in her eyes.

She's like this because it is partial disobedience that got her sister killed. If she had listened to Loki and learned to fight off his scepter, this may not have happened. But if we even mention Thor or Loki, Thea grows agitated and angered. She is not the only person that she blames.

If there was something I could do for her to make her better, I would do it in an instant. I would sell my soul to make this little girl just that: a little girl. Loki and I, for all of our differences, have this in common: we both now look at Thea as if she is our daughter. And although I don't have any kids of my own, I have Thea, and to see her torture herself every day is more painful than if she tortures me.

~Max

\

~Nobody's POV~

The next night, which is a Friday, Max walks upstairs to Thea's room, which is at the end of a long hallway on the second floor. It overlooks the pastures, like the house in Michigan.

Poking his head in, he holds out the wireless home phone to her, "You've got a phone call."

Thea is sitting on her bed, curled up and staring at the comforter, tracing the flowery pattern with her finger. She looks up and shakes her head.

Max gives her a small smile, "It's Peter. He really wants to talk to you." When she hesitates, he shakes the phone a little, "C'mon, it's Peter."

He mentally congratulates himself as Thea takes the phone from his hand. "Hello?" she says in a barely audible voice.

Max walks out of the room, smiling.

Peter's voice is slightly scratchy, "Thea? Hey, hey Thea, what's going on?"

Thea twirls some of her hair absentmindedly around her finger, "Nothing." She hears the congested sounds of city traffic in the background, and the bluster of the wind. "Are you on a roof?"

She can hear the smile in his voice, "I am."

There's a short pause, probably during which Peter is just really excited that Thea is actually talking to him. Then, he says, "So, er, it's great to hear from you, Thea. It really is. Jack and I have been really worried, you have no idea. And bored. Did I ever tell you how bored Jack gets in the summertime? You don't want to know."

This is met with silence, so Peter hastily switches tactics. Evidently, he hadn't been expecting to talk to Thea at all, and is trying to formulate words, "Um, so, we really miss you here in New York. Not just Jack and me. I've been by Stark Tower a couple times, and let me tell you, it is boring. Everyone is always gone except for Tony and Bruce, and I think Bruce is heading back to Nepal or wherever the heck he was. Nat and Steve and Sam went back to Europe, I'm pretty sure. Clint's somewhere in the country. So... is it okay if Jack and I start calling you more? And we're thinking about heading up to Boston one day."

"Why?"

Peter knows this is a danger zone- Thea doesn't want any help, and unfortunately, having fun falls in that category. Hastily, he says, "Yeah, and I mean, the heat will be nice. It's chilly up here already, even though it's the end of August."

"...Okay," says Thea quietly, evidently still not quite eager for this, "Um sounds good, okay."

Peter can sense that she is about to hang up the phone, "All right, sounds good, it's a deal then?" Without waiting for a response, he says, "And I'll text, you, okay? And if Jack texts you, would you do him a favor and respond? He's freaking out over here."

"Is he there?'

Peter sounds hopeful. "Er...nah, he just left. He was over for dinner."

"Oh."

"Well, I'm going to let you go. But text me, okay?. Let me know if you need anything."

Thea clearly knows that Peter is quitting while he is ahead, but decides not to point it out. "Okay. Bye."

She hangs up the phone with a click and then goes back to staring at the bedding.

*

"Bloody hell, why'd you tell her I was gone?" demands Jack. He is sitting on Peter's bed, in sweatpants and a t-shirt that bears a British flag and says "I'M LEGIT". His suitcase is on the floor, closed, and Jack is looking stonily up at Peter, who is leaning against the door. Peter had just descended from the roof.  

Peter throws his phone on the comforter next to Jack. "Because I figured she barely wanted to talk to me, so maybe she just didn't want a horde of people raining down on her."

Jack rolls his eyes, "I'm her best friend!"

"So what? You should've called her."

"I couldn't, you know that," states an annoyed Jack.

"That's because I, unlike you, have the Calen's home number programmed in my cell phone, so I, unlike you, could make the phone call."

"Come off it," says Jack, "And I want food."

Peter rolls his eyes, "Aunt May won't be back until ten, but I think there's some meatloaf leftover from yesterday."

Jack shrugs, and then says, "What happens if this doesn't work, if Thea is still depressed and everything?"

Peter sighs, "It won't be from lack of trying."

*

28 August 2014

Well, today sucked.

Thea doesn't exactly yell or scream anymore, which is both fantastic for my eardrums-slash-patience and bad for my sense of hopelessness. Now, she just looks at you silently, as if you don't exist and she's seeing into some sort of ethereal world. She doesn't exactly stare into your soul, but she makes you feel soulless.

Today was different. In the middle of the day, when I was downstairs watching baseball and working on some charts for Clint, I heard her begin to scream. Naturally, I ran up the stairs and found her in her room, crouched like a cornered cat, screaming like a banshee.

~Nobody's POV~

"Thea!" exclaims Kyle, his footsteps thundering as he runs towards her, "Thea, what's wrong?"

It's like he's not even there. She just keeps howling, silent tears running down her face. The sight is pathetic, and Kyle's generally toughened heart softens with remorse.

He's about to say something else, but that's when Thea screams, "I KILLED HER!" She begins to go in a frenzy of misery, kicking and crying, and Kyle realizes he has to do something.

Grabbing onto her, he holds her close to him, against his soft gray shirt and toned chest, pinning her arms to him. She resists, and there's a brief tussle, but in the end, Kyle finally says loudly, "Thea, stop it, stop it, you're going to kill yourself!"

"GOOD!"

Something runs cold in Kyle's blood, and before he realizes what he has done, he has slapped Thea's arm. Not anywhere near as hard as Loki had, but still hard enough to cause Thea to stop struggling in pure shock.

"Hey!" snaps Kyle, "You're going to listen to me, okay Thea?"

She says nothing: she just looks at him.

Kyle is out of breath, "I know, I know you're really upset and I absolutely understand, but you need to understand that it wasn't your fault!" When Thea opens her mouth, he talks over her, taking her face in his hands, "It wasn't! It was all Videl. It was all Videl, and he's gone. You won't ever see him again. You know that, right, doll?"

She doesn't say anything, which Kyle takes to be affirmation.

"You can't want to hurt yourself, okay?" says Kyle, his blue eyes boring into her. He shakes her slightly. "I said you don't want to hurt yourself!" His jaw is clenched tight, "Do you realize what that would do to me? Listen to me! Do you understand how much that would kill me? I would be destroyed if I lost you! You're like my baby sister, you know that! What do you think Max would think? And Jack! Think about Jack, would you want to do that to him? And Peter's already lost his girl six months ago- Do you want him to lose the sister he never had?"

Thea's lip is trembling, and she sniffs, trying to stop crying. Kyle pulls her face forward so that her forehead is touching his, "Value your life more than you do. You're a beautiful, beautiful little girl, Thea, inside and out. You hear me? There are people that love you, that care about you nearly more than they care about anything else in the world. You reached the soul of the soulless murderer of Manhattan from two or three years ago! You're not alone anymore. You have a family! I know you don't always want one, but you do, Thea, baby you do."

Her face has calmed somewhat, and now, she's looking at him, still miserable, but now she nods. "I....know..." she whispers.

One side of Kyle's mouth comes up, in a tiny smile, "Now you and I are going to go outside and ride some horses, and we're going to have fun. Actual fun. Sound good?'

Thea nods again, and Kyle swears he can see the tiniest bit of a smile on her lips as well, "Okay."

 *

That night, after Thea is in bed, and after Max goes upstairs to do some office work (surreptitiously checking on Thea at the same time), Kyle goes through some of the papers that Max had brought back with him. Sitting down at the kitchen table, he reads one of the letters and then sighs, putting his forehead in his hand. He doesn't have much time to think though, because suddenly, the telephone begins to ring shrilly.

Getting up, he snatches the phone off of the receiver, "What is it, Clint?"

He listens for a few seconds, "Yeah, I got it." Another pause. "Absolutely not. I've got this under control, and you can tell those inconsolable bastards that..." Pause, "Fine, fine I got you, I know, Clint," he runs his fingers through his messy black hair, "Damn it Barton, fine, I'll write...fine, fine, okay." Kyle leans against the refrigerator door, rolling his eyes upwards to the ceiling, "Yeah, well you see the problem is Thea doesn't really want to talk to anybody, so, you know, I'm in a bit of a difficult position at the moment." Pause, and then Kyle's tone turns from snarky to annoyed, "Clint, I got it, I know. And I don't want any Asgardian...Clint, I said I'd write, do I need to say that again?" Pause. "Okay, okay, whatever. Yeah, I'll tell her, but he might as well know that she won't call him." Pause. "How about, to make him feel better, I'll steal her phone and text him." Pause, "It was a fricking joke, Barton, would you please cut the negativity." Pause, "Yeah, yeah, bird boy, I got it...yep, okay, bye."

Kyle tosses the phone on the counter, drawing the attention of Lucy, the German Shepherd, who is lying serenely on her pillow in the corner, "Don't look at me like that," says Kyle, affectionately rubbing the dog's head. Lucy licks his hand and then settles back down on the pillow.

Kyle sits back down at the table dejectedly. He re-reads the letter, rolls his eyes, and then takes out a separate sheet of paper and begins to write a lie.

Everything's under control. Thea's doing fine, and I don't need you to tell me what to do. She chose us, like it or not, so Max and I are helping her. That's all there is to it. And if this isn't your number one for your list of priorities, then screw you. Go bust some Asgardian pillars if it makes you feel better.

Kyle tosses the sheet of paper aside, so that he can (attempt to) remember to fax it over to Tony the next day. A few hours later, of computer work for Clint and Tony, Kyle gets up, turns off the lights, and heads upstairs- Lucy trots up after him, her tail swishing.

The letter that had ruffled Kyle so much remains on the table, to be found the next morning by Max, who would scold his brother for leaving it out for Thea to possibly see.

Kyle,

Do not make the idiotic mistake where you think that I do not know what is happening. I saw her when she saw the death of her sister. I saw her on that table, cut up. I saw the deadness of her eyes. You had best heed my words- if she doesn't get better soon, my brother and I will take charge, whether you like it or not, and whether she likes it or not. I have more important things to do than worry about a half-deranged thirteen year old child.

Reply quickly, or the next letter will come in person,

Loki 

-------------

You may have noticed that the Calen family is now in Boston (or right outside of Boston anyway). Reasons for that later, but no, that was not a typo. There's a link for the house in my bio, if you want to check it out. 

Thank you for reading! Please VOTE and COMMENT! :D 

Love, 

Sierra