Loki's Downfall

III

Finally Thor leaves and I begin screaming at Loki. "Fraud! Liar!" He, as Odin, spins all around to see who was speaking. With the staff he's holding he can only hear me. I keep yelling, "You despicable excuse of a God! Show yourself Loki!"

Now he begins pacing for his chambers, not Odin's chambers, but obviously Loki's. I follow him, yelling the same thing the whole way. As soon as he gets into the room, he slams the door shut behind him and becomes Loki again. He still searches all around the room. "Who's there?" He demands.

I'm hovering over him at first, but I sink to his level, suddenly hit with the reminder he doesn't remember me. "I'm a spirit, Loki. You used to know me...use the staff. You know where I am..." I speak in a much softer tone now.

Loki is looking right at me now. He does know where I am, and rather frantically he raises the staff and shoots a ray of light in my direction. The light isn't dangerous, it's to reveal my shape. I can feel myself warm up, and as I look down I can see my hands begin to glow. I'm still almost completely clear, but now I'm golden, I can be seen.

I glare at Loki, who looks dumbfounded to see me. Literally scared. He stumbles backwards, nearly dropping the staff. I don't know why he's acting so shocked. He's seen many horrifying things in his lifetime, ghosts shouldn't be one of those factors. "Who are you?" He asks, as if he already knows. I shake my head as I speak. "My name is Serena. I don't want to tell you the story, I want-" I say my words so quickly that I slur them, but I can't finish anyway because Loki cuts me off.

"Serena." He says joyfully, almost relieved for some reason. The tone surprises me, and my face goes plain blank at him. He raises his free hand, pointing at me. "I do know you! I mean truly I don't but...I dream about you...most every night!" He tells me excitedly.

I sigh in relief and smile myself. So he does remember me! Barely, but that's enough! He looks me up and down and walks around me. "I never know what those dreams meant...now here you are!" He says, looking into my mostly transparent eyes again. "Why do I dream about you? Who are you?" He asks again, gentler this time.

I've been trying to tell you! You won't let me finish a sentence! I make a quick decision...and I lie. "I'm...a friend of your mother's." I tell him with a sigh. He looks disappointed and confused with my response. "Since Frigga had a proper and royal burial, her spirit was fully released. She cannot roam the realms in this state, so she instructed me to look after you."

Half of that wasn't a lie. Frigga really can't do what I'm doing, she can't speak to anyone or thing living. But she never told me to watch him, either.

Loki smiles his same old devilish smile and looks up at the walls for whatever reason. "Frigga picked one hell of a guardian angel." He commented. I nod. "You have no idea." I reply with as much attitude as I can muster, because I suddenly remember the reason I'm here to talk to him.

"You're pretending to be the king, Odin, your father. Why?" I demand. His smile fades and he gestures around the room. "Would the people accept me otherwise?" He asks overtly, and I answer right away, involuntarily raising my voice. "The people, Loki..." I lower it as soon as I realize the volume.

"They think you are dead. You're supposed to be dead." I explain, as if he didn't already know it. He keeps his eyes on me as I begin to walk around him. "What is in life that you could possibly still want? Why are you even doing this?!"

"Are you an angel of light," Loki suddenly cuts in as he turns his head to still see me behind him. "Or one of darkness?" He finishes. I sigh, knowing what he means. I'm only discouraging him. Maybe it's because I really do want him dead...so he can be with me again.

"That's a fair question." I reply, "Now ask it to yourself. But wait, you're no angel either way." That makes him turn towards me. "All I ever wanted was-" he starts defending himself but I cut him off. "You don't know what you want anymore, Loki. And even when you did, your desire was unrealistic. You wanted to rule over everything without being vexed or defied." I point out. He has no comeback for it.

"I'm not asking you to kill yourself Loki. I'm just asking you to change what you're doing." I tell him. He huffs, "There's no changing anything now. If I reveal myself to anyone now it'll cause an uprising. Pretending for half the day isn't as awful as being condemned every day of existence." I sigh and look at the ground, figuring that would be his answer. "You already are, you're just hiding under another skin." I mumble, and Loki looks to me as if he's about to order me to speak up.

"Mother!!" I hear a new voice interject from afar. Oh no. It's Luka, Loki's son.