Loki After Endgame: Cheating Death

Chap 25: Into The Dark

I put my hands on my hips and narrow my eyes at him, but he's so caught up in his thoughts, that he doesn't glance my way.

"She is referring to a place where dead bodies are disposed of." His words come out in an excited rush, "In these gambling dens, contestants would often fight to the death."

"How utterly barbaric." I mutter as he paces the room.

He continues excitedly as if he hasn't heard me, "And when someone was killed, they'd likely dispose of their bodies underground, in the old mining tunnels." He stops pacing and points to the corner, "Over there in the corner, there should be a hatch they used to dump the bodies. If I'm right, and I usually am; it will lead us to the underground mining tunnels."

He swiftly strides across the room and lifts the hatch, shattering the stillness with a loud thump.

The jarring noise makes me feel off-kilter, and a nagging sensation needles at the back of my brain. Something isn't right about this place! I stamp down my paranoia, it's just a creepy dead skull that's been turned into a planet, nothing to worry about.

"Just as I suspected." Loki grins mischievously, "This just got a whole lot more interesting."

I peer down the hatch, but it's too dark to see anything other than the shaft that drops directly downward. I swallow nervously, I do not like small, dark spaces. Loki tilts his heads and regards me curiously, "I don't suppose you're scared of the dark."

"I don't suppose you know what's waiting for us at the bottom." I retort.

His tone is patronizing as he grins crookedly, "Nothing my Little Witch can't handle, I'm sure."

Without waiting for a response, he leaps down the hatch and I watch him slide through, the fire in his hand illuminating his wild grin as he falls. I watch him fall farther and farther until his light disappears into the suffocating darkness.

"Here goes nothing." I mutter to myself as I conjure a flame in my hand and jump down the hatch feet first. As I slide down the smooth metal shaft, the first thing I notice is the pungent smell of decay and death. I plug my nose with my free hand as I slide and try not to think of what creepy things might be slithering around in the dark.  After falling for what seems like a long time, the ground rises to meet me and I immediately summon my shield around my body, slowing down my fall so that I gently float to the ground.

My feet hit the ground with a soft crunch, and I hold out the flame to take in my surroundings. The ground is no longer metal or soot, instead it's squishy, wet, and slightly crunchy.  I push down my nausea, we must be inside of the Celestial's dead brain. The only light here comes from my fire, and all I can see is that a dark tunnel made of the same sinewy material that I'm standing on stretches out before me. I feel that same strange tingling feeling from before as if something evil is lurking nearby. I shudder, something else is down here. I glance behind me back at the entrance of the hatch I just slid down, but Loki is nowhere to be seen.

"Loki?" I hiss, not daring to raise my voice in this eerie underground tunnel. Did something happen to him?

Suddenly I feel something large crawling up my back. I jump forwards, my heart in my throat and let out a blood-curdling screech. I begin shaking, jolting violently, certain that some sort of alien spider is scuttling up my back. My hands swipe blindly at my shoulders, until I hear Loki's distinct laughter from behind me.

"By the Norns, you are incredibly squeamish!" Loki croons between laughs, his eyes glinting in the darkness. "You should have seen yourself, dancing around like a monkey. If I'd have known you disliked spiders so much, I would have done this much sooner!"