"Loki... I'm here."
Loki turned his head and saw his beloved mother, Frigga, smiling at him with her arms wide open. Oh, he had missed her so much, and all he wanted was to run and envelop her in his hug, but doubt was raging inside him.
"But... you died... They saw you being murdered".
"You were supposed to have died, too, son."
Loki's doubts vanished in an instant, and he rushed towards her, right into her open embrace.
"Oh, son, you've always been so foolish." His mother's voice echoed in his head –it sounded so much like her, yet so different at the same time. His body never made contact with hers, for the moment his hands reached out to her, she slowly began to fade away until she was gone like dust in the wind.
Loki woke up, his whole body pitching forward, screaming aloud. He looked around him and some seconds passed before he realised that he had been dreaming. He turned his eyes to the door. Brilliant! This certainly echoed down the entire hallway. Well done, his inner voice mocked.
"Shut up," he grunted to himself silently.
"Are you alright, sir?" the voice of a guard was heard, and only then did Loki realise someone had opened the door and come in. Loki looked up at him sternly. "I heard a sound in the corridor. I think your chamber was the source, and I thought something might have happened," the guard continued.
"No, I'm fine –everything is fine. You can be excused," Loki said and gestured to the guard to leave, and the man obeyed.
Loki lay down again. This was a lie. You're not fine and you'll probably never be.
"Oh, shut up," he growled.
"I didn't say anything". This time it was Thor who had spoken, and who had just entered the room. Right. Thor's chamber was right next to his. Great.
"I was talking to myself. Close the door."
"To yourself? Anyway, I heard a scream," said Thor, shutting the door.
"Yes, it was me. And a guard heard me screaming too, and he'll tell Odin, and you know what follows."
"But why did you scream?"
Thor approached Loki's bed. "Nightmares," Loki replied with a sigh.
"How's your arm?"
Loki rolled up his sleeve. "A tad better."
"Come to have some breakfast."
Loki was about to answer –to refuse, actually, because his stomach had turned to knots– but then the door opened and Odin appeared on the threshold. Loki pulled his sleeve down quickly.
"What are you hiding there, Loki?" the Allfather asked.
"Nothing that Thor is unaware of. And you should have knocked."
Thor nodded when Odin turned to him, and then Odin looked back at his adopted son.
"The funny thing," mocked Loki, "is that you always trust Thor and never me."
"That's not the point!" Odin yelled.
"That's my point. That's my whole bloody point!" How hard was it for this man to understand? He was supposed to be a perceptive king –why wouldn't he understand that? "But I don't think that you came to discuss our opinions."
"A guard told me that he heard a sound from your room. A scream!"
"Of course he did."
"What do you have to say about this?"
Loki's face had an ironic expression on it. He moved his head and shrugged. "News spread fast."
"Who was screaming?"
"Will you be pleased if I tell you?"
Odin groaned angrily. "Yes"
"It's so obvious, though... The truth is almost always the simplest answer, yet no one seems to believe it until they cannot doubt it anymore." Loki got out of his bed. "Once you told me that, if you hadn't taken me in, I wouldn't be here to hate you. But, the point –my whole bloody point– is that, if you had really taken care of me, I wouldn't hate you. The scream you heard was mine, father. It was the sound of lonesomeness."
And then he felt it –the strange, alarming warmth on his arm and the itching on his wounds. It must have been some movement he made...
"Is that blood on your sleeve?" Odin asked as if he had found proof that Loki was lying.
The God of Mischief looked down at his arm and let out a bitter burst of laughter. "Oh, that," he said. "Oh, that's just-", he rolled up his sleeve. "That's just some self-inflicted damage made by my desperate self – nothing to worry about. It's not that I'm torturing someone in here or anything –I'm just cutting myself– you can go on with your life pretending that nothing happened."
Odin didn't say anything; he just stared at Loki's wounds.
"But it's almost funny how you claim that I always cause pain to everyone," he continued, hiding the wounds, "but you forget to think that others may have made me hurt too."
"Are you a fool? Your actions brought you to this situation!"
Loki turned to Thor. "I told you he would pin it on me."
Odin opened his mouth, but a guard entered the room in a fuss.
"Damn, nobody in this palace knows how to knock?"
"My king", said the guard, "the Casket of Ancient Winters... it's gone!"
Odin turned his face towards Loki. Oh, come on, seriously?
"Can you please go?" Loki asked the guard.
The man left, closing the door behind him. He stared at Loki, and then he opened his mouth to speak up, but the trickster beat him to it.
"You really think it's me, don't you?" he asked without expecting a response, and he didn't get one. "Look, let's just characterise me," he said then and began pacing around Odin. "I am a desperate, self-destructive, suicidal, weak excuse of a prince who has lost the meaning of life and has no purpose. Why exactly would I steal the Casket or have anything to do with its disappearance?"
"How can I be sure this is not one of your tricks?" Odin asked angrily.
"You can't," Loki replied. "Only I can. But you can trust me."
Odin remained silent.
"I trust you," said Thor.
Loki turned his face towards his stepfather. The latter said nothing. "Let's go to the relic room."
He doesn't believe you, his inner voice said as they walked across the corridors, and he'll never trust you.
Odin opened the door of the room and the three of them –Loki, Thor and Odin– stood in front of the spot where the Casket of Ancient Winters used to be. "The guards?" asked Loki.
"There," said Odin, showing him two bodies placed next to a pillar. Loki approached them and frowned.
He sat on his ankles and observed the bodies. He attempted to find a pulse, but he didn't manage to find one. Their necks were covered with ice burns. Loki's fingertips touched them.
"No way..." Loki stood up and took a step back.
"What is it?" Thor asked
"It is worse than I thought. This is very bad..."
"What is very bad?"
"This is Nesdlithod's job. Consider us officially screwed up."
Confusion was still captured on Odin's and Thor's faces. "Who's Nesdlithod?" asked Thor.
"Oh, that," Loki said with a strange look on his face and his eyes sparkled. "Laufey's son. Or, as you've probably guessed, my long lost brother."
....
Hey! Well, this is the 5th chapter as you can see. For the ones who don't remember, the Casket of Ancient Winters is this:
Also, the name "Nesdlithod" is an anagram! You can try to find it –if you are hardcore fans and like this kind of stuff, I don't think you'll need much time.
As always, if you find any errors (grammar/vocabulary), don't hesitate to let me know! Also, tell me your opinion about the chapter in the comments and vote if you wish!
Take care. ♥