The Black Cat

Chapter 23: Breathe

I felt so awake in this other world. But I knew I wasn't. Even it was real, I shouldn't have been able to breathe. Under the water, I slowly swim through the sea, the clear waters swallowing me whole. Sirens same by, looking at me with seductive eyes. I float onto my back in the deep as a merman swims to my submerged body. His dark hair, devilish green eyes and mint tinted skin allure me. His webbed hand gently grazes my chin. "A true work of art," He whispers as his dark green tail goes to touch my feet. He moves in closer as I begin to panic, the water slowly beginning to drain. The air touches my skin as my eyes flash open in the real world.

Loki is just as close as the mysterious merman was, his body on top of mine. But the darkness of the room made it seem unreal until my eyes got into focus. I'm breathing heavily, trying to catch my breath. I felt like a dead person come back to life. There was a heaviness on my chest. Instantly, I try to move but find myself unable to. It was like I was frozen. "What are you doing?" My mouth only moves, my voice not coming out. "What I was trying to do earlier," He speaks as he looks me dead in the eye. I try to move again, but it's no use. I'm paralyzed. I've had sleep paralysis for the longest time, thanks to an uneasy mission in Belgium, and now it was becoming something worse for me. It came and went as it pleased and out of all the times it could have happened, it decided to right now. "It's not worth fighting now, isn't Tagan?" Loki pesters. I can only glare.

He leans into me, his hot breath steaming my face. I see he had removed the blanket from on top of me and I still couldn't move. My eyes begin to tear up as I see there is no way out of this. His lips touch mine and it felt so wrong. I wanted Steve here to save me, to get Loki off me and have him tell me I was okay. Loki's hand wanders down my body and I still am unable to move. My body had failed me, the body I had trained for so long to protect me, to harm enemies, had shut down and stopped doing the one thing I needed it to do. How ironic.

As Loki starts to remove clothing, my finger twitches and just as I had lost hope, I can move. The paralysis' effect could last from minutes to hours and this time, I had lucked out. Loki's crotch was in range of my knee and as he moves up to me again, I knee him right there. He yelps and falls off the bed and I grab the lamp next to the bed and hit him in the head repeatedly. "This is how you treat a god if that is how you treat a lady," I sneer as I kick him in the stomach. "Alright, alright," He coughs out, "I'm sorry!" I stop and look down at his frail body on my floor. "I don't believe you," I seethed. I take the lamp one last time and hit him in the head again and knock him out. "Light's out, princess," I comment. With all my strength, I take him by his feet and drag him to the closet and put his unconscious body there. Closing the closet door, I take a moment to think about what had happened.

My mind instantly goes back to college. The night it all went wrong. I remembered it so clearly. I was walking with him after a party, we were tipsy. He pulled me into an alley saying it was a shortcut back to my dorm. He lied to me. He...

I hear Loki groan from the closet and I bang my hand against the door. "Quiet," I order. I crawl back into bed and fall back asleep, trying to forget what had happened tonight.

~''"~

I wake up to the sun shining right in my face, which wasn't appreciated. I stretch, the paralysis leaving me alone for now. I grab my phone and I tense, seeing it was 1:45. Steve was going to be at the airport at 2. "Shit!" I exclaim. I refused to show up in my pajamas. I got on some black jeans and a t-shirt and checked myself over in the mirror. Yeah, I looked gross. I very quickly slapped on some makeup and checked again. It was better. I grabbed my keys and walked out the door, eyeing the picture Steve put up again. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach again. Dammit Jackie, you're doing it again. I knew I couldn't be getting so into this. Not after the last time. I refused to. I couldn't. I would hurt him if I really did get more into this. But I think I'm 9 dates too late for that. It was too late for me to forget that this was happening.