The Disorder (Book 1)

Chapter 24

Something was terribly wrong.

As Loki sunk to the bottom of the pool, Aubrey stayed in control, her mind set on their destination. But halfway down, her mind wandered, and Loki's muscles tensed. Tremors shot through his body like earthquakes, and his last thought before they went unconscious was: oh gods, not now.

Loki's body involuntarily began to breath, searching for air but finding liquid in its place. Lungs filling with water, he sunk faster until he hit the bottom, where the actual Bifrost sat.

Never having transported an unconscious person, the Bifrost faltered, assuming that the house last shown in Loki's mind was where he wanted to go. But, without the destination clear in his mind, the Bifrost could not be exact. It sent him as close as it could, and that would just have to do.

Now, where they landed might seem extremely off, but the Bifrost has nine universes that at its hand. So, in reality, the exact opposite of town from their intended destination was actually a pretty good estimate.

Unfortunately, the middle of a busy highway is not a very good place to drop people off.

Loki rose from the ground as if he had floated to the surface of a body of water and landed in a wet, crumpled heap on the now solid asphalt. The soft roar of cars in the distance slowly growing louder and louder.

* * *

Aubrey woke with a gasp, sitting up so fast that her head began to spin. Blinking furiously as the world came into focus around her, she tried to recognize her surroundings.

She was in her room, the warm brown of the walls and the soft green of the curtains calmed her immediately. Her short, shallow gasps soon turned into deep breaths.

Shit! Loki thought, gods only know where I am right now...

But wouldn't you feel if something happened to you? Aubrey asked.

That's the thing. I don't know.

Oh...

Aubrey laid back and stared at her ceiling, where her Coldplay poster was hung because there was no more room on the walls. As she contemplated what she could do or say to help Loki, while convincing herself that she only doing so because wanted to keep her cover. That there was no other reason behind her frantic thoughts.

The door knob rattled, and her thoughts were interrupted. Her mom's concerned face appeared in the doorway, checking if Aubrey was still sleeping. When her mother noticed she was now conscious, she scurried into the room, hysterically waving her arms around.

"Oh honey, how are you feeling? I heard what happened at school. Oh, you probably don't want to talk about it. I'm sorry for asking, maybe we can talk about it later?" She prattled on.

Aubrey just nodded and looked up at her mom, seeing only concern and motherly love in her dark eyes. She had an enormous urge to tell her mom everything that had happened to her, to rid herself of the burden of all these secrets. But Loki had told her that she was teaming up with Odin. Aubrey couldn't see it; there was too much kindness in her face. How could she be in leagues with Odin, who was so cruel? Of course, she remembered how untrustworthy Loki was, and decided that he was lying about her parents, which only made her want to spill to her mother that much more.

With tears in her eyes, she stared at her mother in silence, unable to say anything for fear of losing Loki's trust. As if her mom was able to sense her stress, she wrapped her arms around Aubrey, and they held each other as they cried, rocking back and forth. They sat like this for what seemed like hours, slowly running out of tears, but continuing to find comfort in each other's arms.