The Misadventures of Loki and Strange

Chapter 12

Strange moved from room to room, searching not only for the reaper but for the straying soul and any devices to help with the faux haunting.

He couldn't hear any commotion going on in the hallway to hint that Loki was having any luck, but he didn't have time to dwell on that, he just had to put what little faith he had in the God to practice.

At least until he could help.

He had a growing theory that it would be best for him to go directly to the master bedroom to stop the commotion, but he wanted to be sure that the stray soul wasn't lingering anywhere that could cause anymore potential danger should someone, not at all hinting at Loki, act brashly and simply turn the device off.

They didn't know how it worked nor what harm merely powering it down would do while someone was lingering as a spirit.

"I hope they made their money's worth," he mumbled to himself.

Turning towards one of the closed doors, Strange prepared to head inside but found himself pausing, something catching him off guard and holding him in place.

Something felt off, uncomfortable even.

As it something invisible were attempting to feed off his power and drain him, like a parasite that wasn't named Loki.

Frowning, he moved away from the door to stand on the opposite side of the hall just as a panicked shriek came from the room and a young woman came barrelling through the wooden block, eyes wide and face pale, even by a ghost's standards.

"Help me!" She cried, racing towards Strange.

Even in her current state, the resemblance was obvious between this woman and the painting that had supposedly been haunted.

It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

"Hey," he called to her, holding his hands out in front of him, "hey, calm down, it's okay."

She froze for a second, chest heaving despite her currently having no need to breathe as she stared at him with widened eyes.

"You can see me?!" She yelped, making Strange flinch away from the high pitch ever so slightly. "You have to help! There's something here!"

"I know," he said with a glance towards the closed door, "you summoned this."

"We have-"

"Yes, unknowingly, but you and your friends did."

"How do I stop it? I'm too young to die!"

Strange resisted the urge to roll his eyes and make a snide remark, feeling as though that would make him no better than the God in the other room.

"It's simple, we need to find the item that controls this, put you back into your body and turn it off."

"I'm scared."

"As you should be, but trust me when I say that right now, following my advice is your best option."

She looked over her shoulder in a panic, the air turning icy just as a stampede of footsteps came from the opposite side of the hallway, intermingled with a mixture of voices talking in rushed tones.

The front doors swung open with hinges that creaked horrifically and then just as suddenly as the noise has risen, silence descended over the house.

"Great, that's one less problem to worry about."

"'Thank you, Loki', oh, don't mention it at all, not an issue."

Strange turned towards the God as he neared, looking smarmy and proud of himself.

"So," he continued before anyone else could get a word in, "shall we end this before a Reaper decides our souls are the ideal finisher to his meal?"