Welcome to the panic room
Where all your darkest fears are gonna
Come for you, come for you
Welcome to the panic room
-Panic Room, Au/Ra
May 28th, 2010
New Mexico, Earth
Stars. That's all I can see. The vast rainbows of the galaxy blur through my vision, as I tumble towards Midgard.
Then everything's black.
I land face first in a pile of dust and dirt; I push myself up and wipe the dirt from my face. Suddenly, bright lights are shining in my face and voices are yelling. I stumble to my feet and yell out, "Thor! Thor!"
There's a loud groaning and I see a figure stumbling around a few feet away from me, whilst three other people try to help him. "Astrid! Astrid, is that you?", he calls out.
"Yes, obviously it's me!", I shout, making my way over to him.
He clasps my arm and calls out, "Hammer? Hammer!"
"It's not here!", I tell him.
"Yeah, we can tell you're hammered. It's pretty obvious.", one of the three other people scoffs.
"Oh my god, Erik! Look at this!", a woman gasps, crouching to the floor, "We have to move quickly before this all changes."
"Jane, we have to take them to the hospital.", a man says, as Thor walks in circles, searching for his hammer, and I just wobble around.
"Father!", Thor yells.
"He's not coming, Thor! He banished you!", I shout, shaking his shoulders.
"They're fine, look at them.", one of the women says.
"Heimdall!", Thor yells to the sky, "I know you can hear me! Open the Bifrost!"
"Hospital.", the woman finally agrees, "You go, I'll stay."
Thor pulls me behind him and walks over to the man, "You. What realm is this?", he asks, "Alfheim? Nornheim?", he lists.
"New Mexico.", one of the women says, shining a bright light in Thor's eyes and aiming a red dot on his chest.
"You dare threaten me, Thor, with so a puny a weapon?", he taunts. There's a buzzing and he shakes, then falls to the floor.
"What have you done, wench?", I yell.
"Wench?", she snorts, before turning the dot to me and sending me to the floor as well. Darkness overtakes my vision and the last thing I see is the stars twinkling in the sky above me.
When I awake, bright lights shine above me and a man hovers above me. A thin itchy blanket is laid on top of me and I'm wearing some strange blue smock. In my left arm, there's a transparent tube with a clear liquid running through it.
"Oh, you're awake. We're just doing an IV drip.", the man says.
I let out a loud scream, "Thor!", I sit up and pull the tube from my arm, which sends an aching pain shooting through my arm.
I let out another scream and clutch my arm, "You shouldn't have done that!", the man yells.
"Why am I in this bed? I am of Odin's palace, I'm not some courtesan!"
The man tries to push me down onto the bed, so I give him a firm shove backward, sending him crashing into a metal cart of what looks to be tiny torture devices. More people in blue uniforms come rushing and begin trying to restrain me. I punch some of them in the face and kick others in the stomach. They yell out things, something about security, but soon they're scattered in crumpled heaps around the room.
I run for the nearest door and break out into a long corridor.
My head frantically darts from side to side, golden locks bouncing as I do. Hearing yells from a room to my left, I bolt in that direction, assuming that's where Thor is being held captive.
As I pass a room a few doors down from the one I was just in, I see Thor through the window in the door. He has a dozen men and women in blue gathered around him and his face is pressed against the wall, as he yells, "You're no match for the mighty-", he's cut off as he falls to the floor.
I gasp and burst into the room, tossing a few of the people in blue to the side, "How dare you treat the son of Odin, the would-be king, as such?", I shout. I fall to my knees before his limp, unmoving body.
Thundering footsteps move toward me, and hands grab my shoulders, shackling my hands behind my back. They pull me up to my feet, yelling in my ears, but I tune their words out. I can sense Thor's heartbeat, like a drum pounding in my head. He's alive- that's all that matters.
Without putting up any sort of fight, I numbly let them haul me up to my feet. They drag me through the brightly lit corridors, my feet stumbling as I try to walk. As they do, a realization hits me:
There's no way for Thor to get home. He's stranded. Nothing will ever be normal again.
A message from the author:
Hope you all had a good week! Remember to vote and comment! See you all next chapter! (;
- Hannah xoxo
Word count: 853
Date published: June 26th, 2022