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I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL!! THAT MEANS SUMMER WRITING SPREE, AND ALSO THAT I'M A SENIOR!
Chapter Forty-Three
~Thea's POV~
I storm away from the beach, each step feeling like a furious drum that keeps vibrating through my entire body. I push through crowds, not even bothering to be polite about it, and nearly burn off some surfer's hair when he gives me a nasty look because I accidentally knocked into him and made him drop his precious board.
Videl, stupid, damn, selfish, stubborn, argumentative, murderous BASTARD. Every bad word I can think of, I think-shout it at Videl's name. Or think-scream. Or think-howl, or think-shriek.
We had been in Costa Rica for a month, and I was just starting to get a good feeling about my life, even those it's obviously screwed up, and then Videl had to ruin it! Now I know that I mean literally nothing to him, and that he's just trying to look after me because of some stupid thing he has against Loki, and I don't even know what that is.
As I stalk past the hotel, deciding to bypass the idea of going back to the room because Videl and Angelique will look there, my golden necklace hums against my skin rapidly, causing Jack's dolphin necklace to rattle against my neck. I don't pay it any attention, but continue walking, turning onto the street.
It's a small street, then the town square, not paved, with a couple small stores and restaurants centered around a fountain of some historical leader, I don't even give a damn who it is. I walk around tourists, Spanish-speaking natives, dogs, chickens, and squealing children in an absolute rage, clenching my fists and breathing like a provoked dragon. Which is applicable because the tips of my fingers are beginning to burn slightly with my tempted flame.
I walk under a covered tunnel, which, above me, doubles as a bridge that the townspeople use to walk their animals across, or just another way to get to the beach. Under the bridge, it's cool and quiet, with half a dozen crates thrown around, some with overripe or rotten fruit still spilling out from them.
I nimbly climb up on top of one of the larger crates, leaning my head against the cool wall and looking up at the tunnel's ceiling. Closing my eyes, I concentrate on taking deep breaths, trying to calm myself down.
No matter how hard I try, I can't get Videl's hateful words out of my head. I feel sick just thinking about them, and even sicker when I remember what I had said to him. I don't feel sorry. But the one thing that had shocked me, and still continues to appear in the back of my head are the tears that were plastered on Videl's face. Videl, actually crying? And why was he crying about Leah? He didn't care about her at all, he had killed her in cold blood. He had tortured me. He'd never apologized for anything that he's ever done to me, not anything. For what freaking reason had he been crying?
I think about Loki. Had Videl been right? Is the Loki I had known before Neidra not really the real Loki? Is Neidra's influence more of a beacon than a blockade?
My head spinning, I sigh, leaning against the wall, and begin playing with my fingers. Thankfully, the burning in my fingers-and the necklace- has stopped, once I had gotten control of myself. I'm not shaking anymore either, and my breathing isn't as ragged. Maybe at last, I've become the master of my emotions.
As soon as I think that, I know that I'm wrong. Because the place where my heart should be is just a dull beating, and a pit in my stomach only adds to it. I know what I'm doing, because I've seen Loki do it before: I'm hiding my feelings, and letting anger bubble through me, flattening all other emotion.
It makes me feel stronger, but it makes my heart feel weaker.
I pull back my hair in a tiny bun at the top of my head. My hair has grown, not ridiculously, but faster than I had been expecting it. Now, it's nearly to my shoulders, although it's still chopped and messy. Angelique had guessed this was because of my Asgardian blood- it helps rejuvenate everything about me quicker than humans.
At that moment, a sudden shock of a realization goes through me. I'm not human. Like Videl, like Loki, like Thor, like the Imeldi, I'm no longer human. It makes me feel alien. I guess technically, I am one.
Tilting my head back, I look at the square. People are milling around, and I fully expect at any time to see Angelique and Videl appear, looking for me. I'm probably freaking them out right now, running away. I'm sorry. I'm probably freaking Angelique out, not Videl. Videl's probably doing some stupid Velah happy dance.
Quickly tired of thinking about thisI look back, to the other end of the tunnel. Beyond the bridge is a small garden, with more assorted buildings, these ones mostly shops, all stucco and tan, with palm trees swinging, and red barrel roofs. There's some graffiti on the building closest to me, but it's in Spanish, and I'm not that great at Spanish, or any language. Or school. Or life.
Trying to block my depressing thoughts away, I begin watching the people coming in and out of the shops, trying to figure out something for my eyes to do besides stare at the ceiling or the ground. Some people, mostly tanned natives, carry wicker baskets and wear either colorful clothing faded t-shirts. Others, mostly sunburned tourists, carry beach bags and wear swimsuits or shorts.
At that moment, I see him.
He's coming out of a shop selling small, glass-blown antiques, his head up and alert. I notice him mostly because he's wearing all black, and long pants and a plain black shirt that would look ordinary had it not been my father wearing it. His hair is longer now, past his shoulders, and extremely messy.
A pang of sadness mixes with my more strong pang of terror. He's heading in my direction, in the crowd of people, and there's nowhere to hide in the tunnel.
I don't have a choice. I dive down behind the crates just as he enters the tunnel. I suck in a breath, my heart hammering in my throat. Loki is taller than most of the people around him, and out through the wooden slats of the crate, I can't keep my eyes off of him, feeling sickening dread as he walks towards me...He's going to find me, and kill me at any second...I don't have my dagger...
He walks right past me, into the square on my left, still looking around. I think I might faint from relief.
But I don't have time to faint, and I know it. I have to somehow get to the hotel to get my stuff, or at least get to Videl and Angelique. I realize that this is why Loki probably hadn't been looking behind old crates for me- he's expecting to find three people, not one person hiding behind overripe fruit. That's the only reason I can think of him bypassing a perfectly good nook for a fourteen year old girl to tuck into.
Unless Neidra has affected his brain, and he's not thinking straight.
I push the thought out of my head. I can't think about what or how Loki is thinking. I need to get out of Costa Rica alive.
I wait until Loki walks inside the butcher's shop at the far corner of the square. Then, I jump up, running to the other side of the square, where the market is.
I duck down right under a barrel of bananas right as Loki walks out from the shop. He heads along the buildings, which is extremely unfortunate, because he's walking towards the hotel, which means he's blocking my path.
I'm thinking hard, which means I'm not paying that much attention, which also means that I don't have enough time to duck before Loki walks out from a flower shop and spots me.
The panic that I'm feeling escalates, and I trip backwards, then begin to run as fast as I can. Looking over my shoulder, I see that Loki is in pursuit, and I feel like my heart is in my throat. I have a good two-hundred foot start or so, but I know for a fact that he's much faster than me.
"Get out of my way!" I shout at passersby, and I push through a crowd. My size is a benefit here, because I can squeeze through small places.
I turn into an alleyway, where overflowing garbage causes my nose to reek. A dog tied up to an iron post barks and lunges at me, and I yelp, leaping away and turning away down another alley.
Only seconds later, I hear the dog bark and hear its chain rattle, which means that Loki is right behind me. I'm approaching a fork, and I can either run to the left, towards the rainforest, or right, towards the hotel and the beach.
Working quickly and still running, I summon the energy in my fingers and think about one thing: me. Opening my eyes, I see that I'm now running alongside a double of myself. Pointing my hand towards the left, I head towards the right. My double is slower than me and, looking behind me, I don't see Loki, which means that he'll follow my double to the left. Hopefully.
I tear down the alley, breaking back into the edge of the square, and run as fast as I can towards the hotel. I run into the same barrel of bananas that I had been hiding behind and trip. The barrel comes crashing down, and the yellow fruit spills out. The fruit tender begins to yell at me in rapid Spanish, but I don't even have time to give him an apologetic look, because Loki has just emerged from the alleyway, his terrible silver eyes boring into me. He hadn't fallen for my trick.
I run into someone just as I am running up the hotel steps.
"Thea!" exclaims Angelique, grabbing my arm, "Wha-"
"No, Angelique, we have to go!" I shriek, trying to pull her away. She looks down the steps and into the square, and in seconds, sees Loki. Her eyes widen and she begins to push me into the hotel.
Loki's dagger comes flying through the air towards us, and I push Angelique aside, and, concentrating as quick as I can, I send the dagger into the bushes underneath the stairs.
Angelique leaps up, but Loki is faster. He begins to run towards the wooden steps, his eyes wild, and screaming, I fling my hands forward.
Flames erupt from my finger, making a barrier of inferno between us and Loki. I hear him shout- he must have been burnt- but I'm busy trying to yank Angelique up.
She scrambles to her feet, and I push her towards the back steps that lead to the beach, our feet thundering on the wooden planks. I can hardly breathe.
We emerge at the beach boardwalk, and Angelique shouts, "VIDEL!"
I see Videl at precisely the same time he sees me. He's standing at the edge of the pier, and I see the dawning of recognition, and then panic, as he sees Loki right behind Angelique and me.
I'm so busy looking at Videl, I trip on an upended nail and fall. I hear my head crack on the plank, and hear Angelique scream and Videl shout, and the unsheathing of a dagger from behind me.
"LOKI!!" I'm desperate, because I know I'm done for, "NO, STOP, THIS ISN'T YOU, PLEASE LISTEN TO-"
And then, someone pushes me out of the way, and I roll, slamming into the railing at the same time I hear Angelique scream again, this time with pain, and I feel warm blood on my shoulder.
Jerking up, horror hits me as I see Loki yanking the dagger from Angelique's arm, and she collapses on the ground, covered in blood. Loki looks furious- he had been meaning to strike my heart.
Shouting, I leap forward, and Loki makes a grab for me, but Angelique pushes me, and again, I fall, her blood still dripping down my skin.
And then, I'm thrown backwards as a chute of light shines around me, and when I open my eyes, Loki and Angelique are gone.
"NO!" shouts Videl, skidding to a stop next to me, kicking up dust in my face.
Staggering, I sit up, wheezing.
"Angelique," I groan, clutching my head. I can feel blood on my forehead, and I know it's my own, and not Angelique's.
"What did you do!?" he shouts, waving his arms around frantically, "You just let him take her! He's going to kill her, at best torture her!"
"I couldn't help it!" I yell back, trying to ignore the pain and the guilt, "I tried, but she pushed me out of the way!"
"Well, this could have been avoided if you had just not been a complete brat in the first place, and hadn't run away!"
"Well, this could have been avoided if you hadn't been an ass to me!"
"It could have been avoided if you weren't such a daddy's girl!"
"It could have been avoided IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH A DAMN MURDERER!"
"You provoked the Imeldi!"
"I DID NOT, THEY PROVOKED ME! THEY KILLED MY PARENTS AND POISONED ME AND MY SISTER!
Videl, shaking with rage, finally snaps, "FINE. FINE, this is all bloody my fault, and you're perfectly innocent!"
"I DIDN'T SAY THAT, BUT I'M MORE INNOCENT THAN YOU!"
At that moment, my head gets thudded as a white wing smacks it at the same time that the other one smacks Videl.
"WAIRUA!" Videl and I shout at the same time.
Wairua alights on one of the boardwalk posts and glares at both of us in turn with his amber eyes. He then turns to Videl and hoots.
Videl waves his hands around again. I've realized that he does this when he's extremely frustrated. Then, he shouts, "What's the point!? She's probably already dead, and Loki will be back here any second to finish what he started!"
We are beginning to attract the attention of beachgoers around us. Videl and I don't care.
"What's he saying?" I demand.
"You shut up, Thea Fossil!"
"That's not even my last name!" I shout back, secretly wondering what my last name really is.
"DO YOU THINK I GIVE A FRICK!?"
He doesn't exactly say "frick".
"Well, if you're going to be rude to me, then at least-"
I'm interrupted by Wairua hooting and clacking his beak in an extremely annoyed manner, flapping his wings threateningly. Videl and I shut up.
Wairua hoots again, swiveling back to Videl.
Videl sucks in his breath, and then hisses, "Fine. Fine. Five minutes to find her."
The snowy white owl hoots one last time, and then takes off. Spinning in an abrupt circle, he vanishes in a puff of black mist.
"Here," snaps Videl, throwing me the backpack that had been on his back. He must have gotten it from where I had thrown it next to the hammock. He grabs my hand and yanks me up the boardwalk, towards the hotel.
In a furious voice, he says, "Wairua is going to find Angelique, and we are going to get everything that we need. If she's not a rotting corpse at this point, then we are going to go get her, and you're going to listen to whatever Wairua or I tell yo-"
"I don't speak owl," I say in a surly tone.
He throws me a nasty look, "And if Angelique is a rotting corpse, then you will be joining her funeral very quickly as an equally rotting corpse."
Based on his furious voice and the force at which he is dragging me, I half believe him.
He's still holding my hand. It's trembling.
Videl pushes me into the hotel room so vindictively, I actually fall to the ground. Not bothering to help me up, he walks into the bedroom. I hear him begin to throw clothes around in his backpack.
I run into the bathroom, gathering up every toiletry that Angelique and I (and Videl) have collected over the month. My entire body is shaking. I feel like I might throw up.
I don't have the chance to hurl my guts because at that moment, I hear a thundering whoosh, and then hear a hoot. My hands full of toothbrushes, cleanser, and brushes, I run back into the bedroom to find Wairua sitting on the bedpost.
Videl is slightly calmer as he throws random crap in the backpack, "She's in Neidra's house. She's alive, but she's being tortured."
"What?!" I wail, tossing the toiletries in the bag Angelique had gotten from the market the other day, "By who?!"
Videl looks at me, and he looks at me half-sadly, half-triumphantly, "Loki."
Okay, well, now I feel like I got hit in the head with a coconut. Or a bowling ball. Whichever is heavier. And more painful.
I don't have much time to get my belongings ready, but I do manage to get it all, darting through the kitchen and around the bedroom, stuffing things in my backpack. In less than two minutes, Videl and I are in a whirlwind, but we're ready.
"Let's go," I say, trying to keep the tightness out of my voice.
"Thea, hold on," says Videl, taking my wrist. I look at him. His eyes look sick with worry. "If this is going to happen, then we need to work together, and very carefully. We're practically going on a suicide mission, and I don't want anyone else to get hurt."
He reaches up and touches the cut on my forehead, which is still throbbing painfully.
"Fine," I say, pulling away from him. I can still see the remains of the tears on his face, and I don't want to, "Now we need to go."
Videl nods, and then looks at Wairua. The owl clicks its beak and then vanishes in black mist.
In another second, Videl and I do the same.
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