Red Room

RR23 Malenkaya

The town Natalia found herself in was small, but packed to the brim with people. It was no wonder James had decided to stay here, it was too easy to blend in. From a phone she stole, she was able to plug in the coordinates to get to a closer point where he was last seen. It took her longer than expect to get there due to the crowd of people, but eventually, she found the store she was looking for. Her plan was to blend in and look for him in case he returned. This store was one of the few in the town that sold a variety of goods, and would be a popular spot for out of town people like James.

Every half hour, Natalia changed her position so that if anyone was watching her, she wouldn't seem so suspicious. As she sat on a bench opposite of the store, a man stumbled from the edge of the crowd and fell onto her. Roughly shoving him off, he murmured what she thought was a quick apology and hurried off. It only took a few seconds for her to realize that he had shoved a note into her jacket pocket.

The note was written on a napkin in black ink, the handwriting familiar.

Meet me here in 3 hours.

It had to be a message from James. She crumpled up the napkin and shoved it into her jeans pocket. Since he had found her and obviously couldn't meet yet, she decided to find a room to get a shower and some rest. She couldn't remember the last time she had slept. She was exhausted and needed to be on the top of her game. James was a different person in this time, and she wasn't sure how they were supposed to act towards each other. Since her memory wipe, she had no idea what was going on.

Thanks to a gentleman's 'donation', Natalia was able to pay for a gun and some knives from a pawn shop, and a cheap room. She was now on the third story of a rundown hotel that overlooked the busy streets below. She got a quick shower and changed into some clothes she had stolen not too long ago, her others were still covered in blood.

As she towel dried her hair, she heard a board creak outside of the bathroom door. She placed the towel quietly on the floor and listened. For a few moments, she heard nothing, but then the bed creaked. There was someone in her room. Not fearful, she threw open the door with a dagger in her hand ready to throw, but there was no one there. She walked to the middle of the room and scanned it. The door was still locked and everything looked the same, except for the corner of the bed. The sheets were slightly rumpled and she knew it wasn't from her since she hadn't touched the bed yet.

The breath on the back of her neck scared her.

"Malenkaya," the voice whispered. She whipped her head around to find herself staring into bright green eyes. She had not heard that word in years, and the sound of it brought tears to her eyes. Sudden emotions took over Natalia as she covered her mouth to keep from crying in front of this man but it was no use. Spilled tears ran down her face and she started to crumple to the floor, but he caught her, and held her close.

Trust, she had complete trust in this man. She knew that the word he had used was only shared between them, and though she couldn't remember the memory that went with it, she knew it was because of him, because of Loki. He was protecting her from something, he had taken the memory.

She cried in Loki's arms. For two minutes, she cried and the only thing that made her stop was the realization that she had been crying a lot lately, and it started to make her mad; she really needed some sleep.

"Why does that word make me feel like this?" She looked at Loki's worried face and saw the sadness behind his eyes. He hesitated, and she got up from the floor. She wiped her eyes and walked over to the bed to sit. Loki walked over to her and sat on the edge. She turned her body towards him and sat cross legged.

He reached over and tucked a stray lock of red hair behind her ear.

"Don't," she said. "Answer my question."