Darkness. It surrounded him; seeping in through his skin, to slowly feast upon his soul.
How long had it been? How long had he been stuck within this limbo. Neither here. Neither there. Remembered only to be forgotten just as quick. Had he really been that bad? A year, a month somewhere in between?
And yet the Universe had gone on without him.
He had faded from their thoughts. Had he really mattered in the first place? Or had he just been a name to mention in passing… They said the moments between life and death, that they wasn’t mean to hurt. But it was all he’d ever felt. The same hollow emptiness he’d felt all his life. But here in this place, this abyss of darkness; the veil between life and death…There had been no hope for him to cling too. No salvation. And so the emptiness had fed. Ravaging upon his heart. His memories and his soul.
No one was coming. It had been too long.
And it didn’t matter anymore. He had screamed in frustration and he had wept his despair into the silent darkness. Begging, pleading into the emptiness around him for someone to miss him. Miss him long enough to come find him. And there had been moments when he had been sure he heard the whisper of voices approaching. Yet as quick as they had approached, they had faded! It had felt like they were mocking him, giving him false hope, only to remind him as the darkness ebbed into silence once again; of how completely alone he really was!
Oh what an irony it was…to miss the craggy rocks and ice of Jotunheim. The freezing winds; and how they had howled through the cracks of his decaying fortress. To miss the cold as ice stone as his fingers would drum in silent contemplation upon the armrests to his throne. And in that moment, he knew he would give up everything. He would give up what little hope he had left, that someone, anyone, was ever going to find him… He would give up his pride that hadn’t forgotten and he would trade it all… for one last bargain.
“Fafnir…”
Loki whispered into the darkness and it felt strange to hear his voice. He had forgotten so long ago what it sounded like. And yet still the silence mocked him.
“Fafnir….this is my bargain…”
Silence…. Deafening silence. It roared ever louder upon his ears until it felt as his darkness around him all but trembled with the noise and within the noise came fire. Its light so bright it burned with life, like the eternal flame…
And Loki smiled….for the bargain he had pledged…had been accepted!
It was then, in that moment, he felt himself falling………
He felt a hidden wind rush caressing past his body. The way it pulled and tugged upon his hair. Yet it shielded his eyes from the pulsating flames of brightness that followed his downwards spiral. He felt his arms, his legs flaying, pulled upwards with force of his fall and he had no control… While all about him shadows of branches began to form, twisted and barren of any leafs they emerged tugging ripping at his clothes like gnarled hands as he rapidly fell through their grasp. And he knew where Fafnir was taking him… It was the crossroads. The hidden heart of the pathways between all realms. It was where everyone, everything existed all at once and yet not at all. A gateway to ones subconscious. Ones choices, ones thoughts, to their mind and their memories. All stored within the passageways of their realms in an endless maze of dimly lit doors….
He had no recollection of his landing. Just the fall and the brightness of the sun as it loomed overhead. Had it always been this bright? ‘No’ a voice whispered in his head. ‘Run!’
Slowly he looked about him, taking in the vivid green of the grass, its sweeping plains and he knew where he was. He knew the moment he began to walk, began to run, the decaying red brick buildings would rise up once around him. And for a moment he wondered, who could have possibly built them and when. How?
“Run!” Again the voice in his head commanded him… ‘Focus. Don’t let them find you!’
It made his heart lurch… fear rose like bile in his throat and he felt himself obey. The ground was soft beneath his feet. It coaxed him forward and for a while, for a moment it seemed he ran so fast that he could fly. It felt as if his feet barely touched the ground; yet all the while he was aware of the sun overhead and how brightly it shone… He was aware that it was growing brighter.
Up ahead the decaying red brick building loomed. He wasn’t sure when it had appeared, and yet it was there! Tormentingly close, and yet so far. Why was it taking him so long to reach it? Why was he barely moving when only a moment before he’d been flying? In panic he looked down to his feet. They were sinking into the lush green grass, trapped by tiny beads of light that clung like dew to each narrow green strand...
They stuck to his boots like glue; like the sticky strands of a spider web and with every stepped he forced himself to take, they spread. Delicately entwining themselves higher, tighter until they encased his feet.
He felt like he was the fly, waiting to be devoured by the spider: the ever looming brightness of the sun!
‘NO!’ the voice in his head screamed and instinctively he reached out his arm and grasped at the air, willing; for the door handle to red decaying building, to appear within his hand as he closed his eyes.
And as he felt the smooth cold and worn hardness form between his fingers grasp; he turned it. Prising free his feet from his entrapped boots to lunge forward as the door within his mind opened.
The ground was hard, cold concrete. It slammed against his body forcing his eyes open as he twisted; kicking at the open door behind him to slam it shut.
Scrambling to his knees, he forced himself forward, up to run.
Dirt, dust, it coated him. He could taste its dryness in his mouth, feel it across his face and under his feet as he made his way down the long dark passageway. His heart was beating fast. So fast he felt it pounding within his chest. Quickly he risked a glance behind him, to confirm what he already knew. The door way had vanished. The light had not yet found a way to follow him!
It had been too late to seep in through the open door yet he knew it wouldn’t be long. That in a moment it could be in here too….He had to hide. To save himself. To disappear…
The corridor went on forever, with sub-tunnels branching off in all directions; lit by tiny lights that would flicker like warnings above the endless doorways that lined every wall. Quickly he began to undress, discarding his clothes to the floor as he ran stumbling into the walls and using them to stop his fall.
Up ahead he could hear it. The unmistakable sound that he was getting close. That soon, he would come face to face with the cost of his bargain and as he rounded a corner in the passageway a single door stood open.
Its entrance gaped like an open mouth beckoning him forward by the soft and mournful sobs that echoed out through its entrance.
Intrepidly he paused in the doorway, reaching out to clutch upon its steel frame; reading himself for what he would see inside.
The broken and grimy windows upon the far wall held no light, yet still he could clearly see. He watched as two small children played. Identical in so many ways; the way they clapped their hands together, crossing their arms in front of their chests. Clapped their hands together again; before clapping their hands with each other. It was strange- for when they touched it was hard to distinguish where one child ended and the other began. It was almost as if they merged to become just one and all the while they softly chanted to each other…
”Miss Mary Mack, mack, mack,
All dressed in black, black, black,
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons,
All down her back, back, back…”
Forcefully he turned his gaze away and looked at the small blue child crouching huddled in the corner, and he remembered a time when only this child had dwelt within this room. He stepped closer. Battered and bruised the child rocked back and forth, hugging his knees in a comfort for his solitude. For the loneliness he felt, even when surrounded by others.
Suddenly the safety of darkness began to glow warm.
Like a crack in the sky of night its brightness began to spread. The light, that blinding light which would trap him… Which would devour him whole… It had found him!
Instinctively he reached down to grasp the small blue child and lifted him up; pulling him close against his body, and wrapped his arms tightly around his small and frail frame; before turning, looking for somewhere, anywhere that he could flee!
She still stood there….at the wall.
Her fingers still bloody from her endless picking peeling at the faded paint. He felt himself pause, and step closer wanting only to touch her. To reach out and take her hand in his. But the light was growing brighter, it reflected off of her pale skin, mirroring in her milky eyes the darkness of the hole she was digging within the wall…..
He could not wait. He could not linger a moment more. The blue child needed him, he felt his icy touch upon his face as the child lifted his hand placing it upon his cheek and he turned to look down into the child’s eyes.
He knew them. He had seen them all his life and now he had to forget them. It was the only way he could save himself. It was the only way he could hide.
Conceding he let the child’s hand guide his gaze back to the wall; the slowly growing hole of darkness that the young girl had been picking at the faded paint to revile….. And he stepped closer and closed his eyes. He could feel the light getting stronger, any moment it would be outside the open door. Any moment its tendril like flames would seize upon the child in his arms…
He took a deep breath, wishing he had but a moment longer, and stepped into the hole in the wall………….
-----------------------------
I ached. I hurt. I didn’t know why. My mouth it felt so dry like it was filled with dirt. Groaning I stretched out and exhaled against the pain. My head was thumping and I hadn’t even opened my eyes.
’Had they got me? Was I dead? Where was the baby?’Immediately I forced my eyes open and pushed myself up onto my knees to frantically look around me. He was there, I spotted him almost immediately. He was wrapped in an old blanket; still sleeping. I groaned softly, and stretched trying to ease the stiffness from my body.
It was cold, so very cold and where were my clothes. Slowly I let my gaze travel around me. The room was bare, except for the graffiti that covered a far wall. Its colours had faded over time and in places been replaced by grime. I glanced down to the old mattress on which I’d been laying. It too had seen better days.
Stiffly I climbed to my feet and hobbled over to the knapsack I spotted perched upon a pair of boots by the door. I knew it belonged to me, I just didn’t know how. Like I didn’t know how I’d got here or why I was naked. Or where in hell I even was!! I could feel the panic rising in my chest, the way it seeped up to my throat…I felt sick It as so hard to breath,‘The baby! The baby, look at the baby! Breath, you have to breathe, you have to protect him! They will be coming; you can’t let them get him, BREATH!!’
I stumbled towards the door way not willing to take my eyes from the sleeping bundle for more than a moment and dropped to my knees. My fingers felt numb as they frantically tried to open the bag and discarded the contents onto the floor. Quickly I grabbed the t-shirt. It looked like it had definitely seen better days as had the jeans I pulled over my hips. No socks. Why were there no socks? It didn’t matter, I didn’t need them anyway!
Quickly I pulled the boots onto my feet and knelt scrambling to shove the strewn contents to the bag back inside it. Pausing only as I looked upon the baby’s feeding bottle. He needs food. He’d be waking soon. Whose baby was he?
“God! God help me! Why can’t I remember” I wined desperately and reached up hitting myself hard over and over again upon the side of my head. It stung, but it didn’t help me. It didn’t give me any answers. They, if I was going to find them, they waited outside of here.
Slowly I let my body sink back against the door and looked at the baby, trying to steady my breathing, my racing heart…. The answers to it all, they waited where the light was free to hunt for me, for the baby.
They waited where I needed to go, to get the baby food.
He knew she was in pain. He knew that within her soul a war was being waged. Once again she'd caught him with someone else. Once again, in the bed they shared. Once again, he had managed to both "give her space" and "make her feel she was at fault". Once again, through tears she begged him not to leave. She told him that she would do whatever she had to do so that he would never have to look at another woman. Then she had taken him in her mouth, and this time taken it to completion. All the while he held back the chuckle, but not the smirk of victory. She only knew about one of a baker's dozen. There were far more fish in this particular pond than she could ever imagine.
[A Possible Now]
"This class will increase your understanding of Norse Mythology. There will be no textbook, you simply will purchase and read assigned readings in Snorri Sturluson's 'The Poetic Edda'."
[A Fragment Of A Dream]
"In shall I go | into Ægir's hall, For the feast I fain would see;
Bale and hatred | I bring to the gods, And their mead with venom I mix."
Loki's melodic and enchanting voice reached through the ages into the sleeping man's mind. The dwarf, a con and swindler. If only touched by Loki's spirit then his the future would be.
[A Hidden Past]
He hid amongst the livestock at night. Exhaustion brought with it a greater pain than he ever believed possible. Hunger and thirst ripped at him, he could take out a small one, drag it to safety and light a fire. Who was he kidding? The damned animals were bigger than he, and if he was to be honest for even a moment he was far too tired. He needed a weapon. Not the kind the cruel knights used as they taunted him. No, his wit was his broadsword. But how best to use it to turn their victory into a defeat so bitter they would never again wish to dine at his particular table.
"What must I do?" he said not really speaking even to himself. What must he do indeed? Why had the Gods given him so stunted and deformed a body? Why had man used it for torture at their amusement? Why could the women who possessed so enchanting a beauty only seen in him the troll? What must he do to capture the power for himself?
It was once said - ' Reality is an illusion, albeit a very persistent Illusion.'
Was it Einstein, who first uttered those words....Or was it Eldir, the Fire-stoker. The faithful servant of Egir and Ran....
Or perhaps it was your own conscience trying to tell you....Trying to remind you that,
the past. The present and the future, they all exist at once.... That the distinction between them, is only a stubbornly persistent illusion....
Far below the world. Beneath the ash tree, Yggdrasil, Loki had ventured. He was more then what they gave him credit for. More then what the other Gods of Asgard, or the Titans, the Eternal's who had sprung to life within the minds of the feeble Midgardian's believed or understood him to be.
They thought they could banish him. They thought they could kill him. Drive him into the empty void where all memories fade and each smile, each whispered word once spoken, is soon forgotten.
They did not know. How could they....
A hundred lifetimes he'd walked alone within the Wells of 'Uroarbrunnr'. A hundred lifetimes he'd fill his mind with their secret knowledge. With discovering the secrets. The hidden pathways between realms. Between time and space itself.... An endless ocean of doors.. An endless ocean of possibilities. Of memories, past and present. Things that had been, or were yet to come. And always when he had thought he has seen them all, When he had thought to have explored every passage, every possible scenario. Every dark corridor and every war torn decaying brick of his own existence, ahead there would be a corner. A corner where the light from a grimy window pane only illuminated the unknown. A thousand more possibilities. A thousand more outcomes. And a thousand more lives which were, and would be interwoven within his own.
There was a place. A place most never knew existed. A place that only few minds could truly fathom....that its possible existence could be real..
A well from which all life, all possibilities sprung, where darkness and light,: What was sought to be good or evil dance together in harmony. Where there was no past. There was no future. Only the defining moment of the present. It was the greatest secret the 'Norns' guarded. And it was the greatest secret Loki had ever discovered!
He wasn't sure how long he'd stood there looking at the newly ajar doorway. It didn't matter if it was a year, a day or even an hour. In this place, it was all only a moment. A moment to inhale a breath into your lungs and exhale it nice and slow..
A moment for his brow to furrow as his lips curved in a grimace, with half cast resemblance of a smile.
So many doors he'd entered.
So many doors of promising possibilities, and yet so many doors with their endless scenario's, always brought him back to 'Uroarbrunnr', to wander further within its shadowed and murky depths.
How many times had he told himself 'this one will be different'. How many times had gone there searching for the true meaning for everything. Searching for something he still could not fully comprehend - WHY.
Calmly, unperturbed by what he might find, he reached out. A gentle touch upon the door and it swung open.
At first he'd always taken a deep breath, fearing that the mass of swirling shadowed memories, pictures, illusions of past or future would fill his lungs; choking away his life with the endless scenario's of the soul within's existence. Now he knew better.
Now he knew, that his access to these doors was granted by the wielder of the soul within. That with their random thoughts in passing, of his name, of him, they unbeknown gave him their permission. That they were and always would be the secret behind the gift of immortality, the ruse to never truly die, that he had bargained for with Hela.
And as he stepped into swirling life force, the doorway faded behind him. Replace by memories across time. They played out like an endless sea of images before him. All existing in unison like the froth of foam upon a wave as it crashes against the shore.....
-He saw the soul. It's gluttonous ego swelling with self pride as he claimed his victory over the woman knelt before him. He knew about the notches in the mans belt. How the dominance upon these women's life's made him feel stronger. More important in the world around him. He knew they shadowed, hid the mans true feelings. The mans true fears for they fears Loki too suffered.
It was a way within the swirling mass of ciaos and despair that surrounded his soul to seek and obtain validation.
It was a way for the man to step out from the shadows of his dull and monotonous life and shine...
-He saw the man sleeping. He witnessed the fragment of his dreams, the sound of his own voice as it spoke calmly within the souls subconscious...
"In shall I go | into Ægir's hall,
For the feast I fain would see;
Bale and hatred | I bring to the gods,
And their mead with venom I mix."
-He felt the pain, the conflict of a 'hidden past'. The scars of being cast out. Of being different. The sadness, the loneliness and anger it brought with it. The desire above all things to be accepted. To belong. To claim a vengeance upon those whom had sought to point a finger without just cause except for their own pride. For what was truly a monster, or what was ugly?
For years he had endured the fable of a monster.
A frost giant, like the Asgardian's would tell their children about to scare them...
And yet Loki had seen himself within another memory, that he, his people had been created from Ymir. The Jotunn's, they were then know as... Not the slanderous term of 'Frost Giant.' That they had in fact been deemed as most fair and beautiful amongst creation once....
And as the image faded, entwining with another.... A Midgardian class room. Its desks lined like solders in a battalion. Row after row with the years of battle, of learning etched into the grain of their solid plastic tops. He heard the Teachers voice echo in his ears....
"This class will increase your understanding of Norse Mythology. There will be no textbook, you simply will purchase and read assigned readings in Snorri Sturluson's 'The Poetic Edda'."
And as within each memory, each moment the soul sought to share within time; A shadow began to form, growing in depth and density, liken to an illusion of water upon a sunny day or a rainbow after a storm filled sky.
It whispered back into the prideful man's mind, (the soul who slept; He with the stunted, deformed body. He who sat at his desk, listening to the words of his oblivious Teacher's)
"Bethink thee, Eldir, if thou and I
shall strive with spiteful speech;
richer I grow, in ready words
if thou speakest too much to me."
And from that illusion of water, that bestowed upon rainbow of hope, Loki stepped forward to greet them with a devious smirk-
"I know about your nuclear weapons. I know about your launching codes and I did promise that I come with glad tidings of a World made free from the Xenomorph...."He paused smiling broadly at the stunned room of Unite nations delegates..
"You see...I could not care less about Midgard's fate!... And I no longer feel obligated to rule you!....But my Brother...."
Pausing Loki grimaced
"He is sometimes a little slow to let go of hope. Hope that your mewling little race can somehow be saved... Which leads me to be in this delimar.....I had thought to eradicate you all... Be done with the problem once and for all; which I'm sure the galaxy would eventually thank me for....
Or should I just eradicate the state you call California, it is, after all where the infestation of the Xenomorph has began...is it not..... "
No one moved. No one uttered a single word... Instead their stared like meek and frightened little rabbits back at him.
"Well then..." Loki admonished, the irritation evident with his voice, as he shifted his stance impatiently." I guess I will just have to get them myself!"
Instantly he turned ,in one swift motion: stepping forward with his left leg and extended his left arm, fingers outstretched to wrap around the top of the North Korean Ambassadors head.
Grasping the top of his scull tight Loki slammed the Ambassadors head unmercifully down onto the table before him, and closed his eyes.
The memories of the North Korean Ambassador, filtered like running water through Loki's mind. Like the blood from his broken nose, spread in a growing pool upon the table and as the Ambassador began to choke, forced to breath in his own blood, like a sieve Loki filtered through his thoughts.
Straining away the futile purpose of the mortal mans monumental moments until he found what he was looking for- A much desired code!
Abruptly Loki released his grasp and stepped back smiling with disarming glee as he announced triumphantly to the room.
"It's seems I have now acquired what I needed! Though before I thank you for your somewhat begrudging co-operation....Let me leave you all with a little something to sate your endeavors to try and to out foil me! "
Calmly he spread his stance and slowly, brought his arms, in unison up at his sides. Momentarily he paused, tilting his head in reflection and let the smirk of glee etch wide across his face; before extending his hands upwards and stretching his fingers wide...
Instantly a stream of ice began to flow from his fingertips. Cascading in a dance across the room to sear the walls, the floor white. As it twisted. Weaving and writhing its way up around each of the Ambassadors as they tried to flee; encasing them in their own solid ice sarcophagus's.
Again Loki paused. Taking a moment to relish in the new found silence...
"Now I must say..." He applauded himself smugly... And continued "This is more like it....Now where was I...Ahh, yes! That is right!"
Calmly he stepped forward, reaching for the closest phone upon the table before him and intently dialled forth a number.
The voice that answered...was foreign. It held no doubt to obey, to set motion the command which was given as Loki dictated the series of codes needed to endorse a full military strike upon the state of California!
Loki's brow lowered in malicious glee as he replaced the phones receiver back to its cradle and turned calmly strolling from the room.
The first stage of his plan, had gone perfectly! The second, Well that was now only just going to begin....
There are many portals between realms. Passages in space of time that can if discovered allow one to travel effortless and with ease in secret to any given location they might deem to desire....
It was a well known fact. One that many had spent their wholes lives hoping to discover. A single one to prove what they theorized, what they knew in the deep seated abyss of their minds to be true!
Yet there was only one Asgardian who knew them all!......
The street was empty, a Ghost town or so it seemed, like in an instant the world had changed. Been sent into ciaos by some strange catastrophe which had swept across the town of Mont Nido in California. It was almost like a soothing, invisible breeze of destruction!
Cars still ran, their engines purring upon the streets . The sounds of radios, music blared from a empty café, the only signs that a struggle had taken place: the upturned tables and chairs.
Tenaciously, Loki made his way down the deserted street. It wasn't hard to tell where his Brother had been. The thick cloud of smouldering debris left by the remains of a ransacked and shattered building : the way street before it was upheaved in its war torn state.... It was not if obvious, a good a place as any to start his search...
Intrepidly he made his way through the ruins. Pausing, to look upon the remains of a Xenomorph. Thor had been there! The way it was splattered... Loki knew the wraith of his Brothers hammer, Mjlonir anywhere! Slowly a smirk etched across his brow and he paused for a moment to reflect upon where his brother was now.
The subtle sound of moving rubble.. It drew Loki from his thoughts. At first he thought its was the debris settling.. But as it echoed up from beneath a collapsed floor again, he wasn't so sure...
Curious he calmly made his way over to the gaping hole and leaned forward to peer into its depths below.
"Well now.....I didn't expect to find this...." Loki announced drawing out his words in unrepentant amusement, as his gaze locked upon the near naked form of Kendra and the creature that laid on top of her...
" Tut...tut...A Vampire....really!...." He chuckled in obvious disdain. "There is no conceivable excuse for the obvious bad taste that you, Midgardian's seem to have!... Perhaps I should thank you both. For it is no wonder my Brother has left you to your own devices.." He scorned maliciously down upon them as he raised his hand palm forward. Fingers stretched wide; emitting a blast of black ice to rip across their bodies and seal frozen within its deadly steel like grip.
"Perhaps that will cool yous off..." Loki smirked. Adding as he turned, walking away..."At least until I find my brother anyway!"...
Not a single Midardian, called out....not a single Midgardian peered out from behind a closed window down at Loki, as he continued down the street.
Had the Xenomorph's spread their seeds this quickly...
Was it possible that it was too late?
That the North Korean missiles he had directed to wipe the state of California from the face of Midgard were already too late to the other States in this country...
Midgard! It was a hopeless cause for a fool! A cause that would inevitably end in doom to any whom pledged themselves with honor and protection to it...
He just had to make his Brother see this......The error of his ways....
