Danielle Kiel had been one of my best friends since high school. She had gone off to college and gotten a job as an editor. How this chance meeting occurred was beyond me. I craned my bruised neck to see her. She wore a long emerald dress with gold cuffs. Her brunette hair cascaded down her shoulders in loose curls. She looked beautiful, but I hardly recognized her.
I watched her closely, expecting her to be an enemy of Loki’s, the bitter brother of Thor. Maybe she had been captured too. But, as I watched her, it seemed she was quite the opposite of enemy.
“Loki…this is my friend. You can’t do this,” Dani, as I had always called her, pleaded with Loki.
He was no longer blue and his eyes had faded into a vibrant green. It softened his features, almost handsomely. The way he gazed upon Dani confused me. There was a softness in his eyes. All the anger had melted away.
“I am truly sorry, Danielle. My anger got the best of me again,” Loki answered.
“Promise me you will not harm her,” Dani said, taking his hand.
“I promise, but she must stay here as a prisoner. It is the only way.”
“Let her at least stay in my chambers.”
“Take her your chambers then,” Loki ordered, turning to me with disappointment in his eyes, as if he wished to harm me.
“Thank you, Loki,” Dani said before rushing to my side. She put her hand on my shoulder. “El…it’s been so long.”
“Yeah…I’m sorry…you have…”
“Shh. You’re too weak to speak.”
Slowly and gently, she helped me to stand and guided me deeper into the aircraft. I had so many questions for Dani, but I was too weak to ask them. She brought me into a small room and laid me on the bed.
“You won’t be bothered in here. Get some rest and I’ll get you some food,” Dani said as she left. The questions I had scratched at my throat, but I refused to labor my lungs anymore.
The pain wracking my body allowed me no sleep, so instead I wallowed in my self-pitying thoughts. The aircraft shuddered and lifted off the ground. The ascension was swift and smooth until I was sure we were breaking through the atmosphere.
I had to grip the sides of the bed to keep from falling off. It was like riding a roller coaster with no wind to tug your hair back. After the violent shaking ceased, my body went from feeling extremely heavy to extremely light.
I gripped the bed harder, afraid that I would float off. My stomach twisted and churned until I had to gag up what was left in my stomach over the floor of the bedroom. I felt bad messing up Dani’s room. I wondered how I was able to breathe through the whole ordeal. The air in the spaceship must have been adaptable…even for an earthling.
Getting used to feeling like a floating sheet of paper was difficult, and deprived me from sleep even more. Hours passed without any sign of Dani. My stomach felt like an empty pit, but food wasn’t on my list of wishes.
I wished to know where Grace was…if she was alive. I wished I could be held by James, and tell him how I really felt. Now…I may never get a chance.