In the beginning there was darkness. There has always been darkness, and there will always be darkness. But in the beginning another force was created, light, and all of its aspects with it.
Most people believe that you are always either in the darkness or in the light, but only some know of another force. A force of chaos and confusion in the twilight, not quite darkness, but not quite light either, the pain in between.
OOO
Loki desperately looked into the eyes of the all-father, who was not his real father; the idea still stung tears into his sorrowful eyes. He had failed; he had lost the throne, his father's approval, and everything he'd ever known. All he wanted to do was to rid Asgard of Jotunhiem and its wretched monsters. He did this with the thought he could prove himself worthy son to his father, and prove that he was an equal to his brother Thor. The tears welled up even farther. He was so desperate just for that one moment of triumph, the moment he would no longer be mocked, no longer seen under the shadow of Thor. But now everything had been stripped away from him.
Now he dangled by the end of Gungnir, the great scepter of Odin, Thor only a few feet above him. They hung off the edge of the now destroyed bridge, the debris from the Bifrost were plummeting into the void below. He clung to one desperate thought, the thought his father, after all he had done, could still forgive him, could still accept him. This was his last chance. His voice was shaking and his whole body was trembling in exhaustion, he mustered enough strength to plead, "I could have done it father!" He chocked back a sob. "I could have done it!" He waited half a second to catch his breath again, on the verge of bursting into tears. "For you, for all of us!" Loki cried this last defense with every ounce of emotional strength, tears welling up in his eyes even further. He felt one drip down his face. Time seemed to freeze for those few seconds, waiting for the small chance of approval, of being revived. He was holding back another sob; it was getting so much harder to control his emotions. Loki was wondering how long this terribly agonizing moment would last, how long it would torture him. "No, Loki," Odin said, with an expressionless look, but his tone gave away everything.
Loki's heart dropped into his stomach, he could not believe that in two words, the last thing he craved was forever stripped away from him. He was an empty shell, nothing but empty echoes of a false life rung through the barren place left by his soul. He was completely speechless, he knew there was nothing he could say or do to even remotely gain what he had just lost. He was broken, dead, nothing. He had no will, no strength, nothing. He felt as if he would just shrivel away into the wind, and the emptiness consumed him.
He looked into the eyes of Thor; he couldn't even recognize his own brother, who had been his only friend. Thor always could see right through Loki, no matter how hard he tried to hide his emotions Thor always found him, always knew what he was feeling. Thor had always been a nuisance, always stealing everything, but only now did Thor show reluctance. Thor's eyes widened, he could see the emptiness, and that Loki was no longer willing to go on anymore. He saw panic string through those glowing ice blue eyes. "Loki-"
The God of Mischief allowed his hand to slip down the staff slightly, testing his only strength left. "Loki, No!" Thor exclaimed, his eyes welling up with tears. Loki could not stand it any more, he wanted to leave this all behind, and he was ready. He slowly released the grip of his hand; each finger released slid him further down, more tears streamed down his face. He took one last look at the familiar stars that surrounded the Asgardian skies. They had always been there to comfort him when things weren't going right, when someone had irritated or mocked him, or when Thor was off on some adventure he was not worthy for. Thor choked a sob, and gave a last begging puppy eyed look. Loki looked up, then slowly closed his eyes. He leaned his head back and took a last shivering breath, one last tear streamed down his face, as he released his hand from the staff.
"NOOOO-" Thor screamed a dreadful, painful cry of loss. The sound was quickly cut off by the howling wind of the vortex below. He felt weightless, free. He felt the tension of the vortex climax as he reached its dark empty mouth. He opened his eyes just as the vortex closed, as he saw a last small section of the stars fade away, and then there was darkness.
OOO
She slammed the locker closed, angry and humiliated, and slung her backpack across her shoulder, nailing the bitch Taylor that had ruined everything and knocking her off balance. "Ow! Oh, come on Liz! Learn to take a joke!" Taylor said between her gasps of laughter. Not even looking back at her Liz shoved a narrow path through the laughing crowd that had gathered around her, the faces around her were still crying tears of laughter at her arrogance and stupidity.
Shoving and pushing as fast as she could, she hastily tried to get away from the situation, that horrible and embarrassing moment. Even her best friend didn't give a second thought of helping her and laughed along with the crowd at her humiliation. She now had nothing and no one who would respect her again. Some of the teachers were even smirking and giggling, what little of a social life she had was stripped from her.
A boy shoved her, laughing even harder as she was knocked onto her face, her bag slipped off her shoulder and slid about a foot away from her landing space. She had obviously bruised her ribs and her arm in the viscous attack, she grunted as she slowly rose to her knees, feeling around for her backpack. As if my humiliation wasn't bad enough she thought. She spotted her backpack and reached for the nearest strap. Before her hand could grasp it, another hand had grabbed it and snatched it out of her reach. She was furious. She didn't understand why they felt the need to do this. She didn't understand why they couldn't just have enough of this humiliation for once, and just leave her alone to sulk in her failure, but instead make it worse and worse.
She flew onto her feet and whipped around to face the arrogent person who had just done this, they had made a mistake of pushing her so far. Tears welled up into her eyes, and she closed them to hold the tears into her eyes. "God dammit! Give it back! Haven't you had enough already!?" She screamed into the crowd. She opened her eyes to see not a teenager, but a man in a suit. But not just any man, the principal.
Her mouth dropped open in astonishment; this was the only way that this situation could get worse. "I-uh..I…" Liz stuttered, unable to speak. She was looking around at the astonished faces of her peers, and she heard a snicker further back, probably Taylors. The tears welled up and spilled over her eyes, she could not believe that everything could just end like this. "It's alright Elizabeth, here's your bag, just go on home. We can talk tomorrow," He said, giving her a sweet reassuring smile. He turned to the crowd, and his face turned into a very dark expression, he was going to regain control. "Every single last one of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves! Tyler, my office, NOW! As for the rest of you, GO HOME!"
Everyone scrambled over each other to escape the head masters wrath. Liz joined the mad run, trying to find the nearest exit so she could run home. It was the only safe place. She finally spotted the east doors of the building and slowly pushed her way through the crowd to her freedom. She slammed through the doors, the cool and crisp mid autumn air sending a delightful sting onto her dampened face.
Liz ran, and ran, and ran until she was completely out of breath and the tears came dumping out of her eyes. She usually rode the bus, for it's a long walk back to her house, but she didn't want to think about being on the bus with all of those people. A chill ran through her bones as she caught her breath, she wrapped her arms around her shoulders and shivered. She slowly picked some of the silly string out of her hair, she had forgotten about it. The confetti had blown away in the wind, and took some of the humiliation with it. She had forgotten her jacket in her locker, but she didn't want to see that locker again, she didn't even want to go out in public again.
Taylor was one of the most popular girls in her school, and she basked in her power and glory. She could get any guy anytime of day, she had at least five guys around her 24/7. The only girls she talked to were her mindless zombie copy cats that swoon over her perfection. Everything about her was perfect, and she felt only one could possibly compete with her beauty, Liz.
Taylor knew everything about everyone in the school, not a single rumor escaped her evil clutches. She had recently heard about Liz, and her new crush, it was almost too good to be true. She was good friends with this particular guy, and he was willing to do anything for her, and the horrible and evil ideas hatched in her brain. She already had Liz's only friend on her side, so she told her to spread a rumor that this guy was interested in her, and to personally tell Liz all of this "big news". She talked to her crush and told him to play along with the rumor, and at the end of the week to confront her. Liz could not believe in all of this, she was absolutely shocked and happier than she'd ever been before in her life.
The day finally came when her crush confronted her, Liz was overwhelmed with fear and froze as he pretended to act nervous and court her. But with her full attention on the boy, Taylor had snuck behind her with her stupid posy, and attacked her with silly string and confetti guns. They burst her ears, and even one of them started bleeding. Everyone saw, and she was forever ruined, it was the final straw for her.
She did not know it but the only reason that Taylor ridiculed her was so she could stay on top, Taylor was fueled by the fact Liz had not taken her place, and she was still the best. Taylor died highlights into her light brown hair and straightened it to perfection, she caked on foundation so Liz would not see her freckles and blemishes, she starved herself and ran all the time to keep herself in perfect condition, and she constantly caused a new problem to keep all attention on her. Most people knew this, it was easy to tell, but everyone was so afraid of her power that they just worshiped her instead.
Liz on the other hand, was entirely different from all of those giggling zombies; she did not worship anyone, not even God. She could not stand the fact of having to follow along in everyone else's footsteps and put up with their injustice, there for she was seen as an outcast and was ridiculed for her different ways. Liz had naturally white hair that rolled onto her shoulders with only a simple brushing every now and then. She had dark blue eyes and she never wore make-up, she never really wanted to. She was very athletic and had fast reflexes, so there for she had a fairly toned and muscular body.
Liz hated her hair; she thought it made her stand out even more like a freak, so she always wore some sort of hat. She couldn't wear make-up because it irritated her skin, she did not mind though; she wasn't trying to make anything about herself stand out. The only time she had tried to put make-up on was with her mother, when she was still alive. Liz thought she looked like a clown, and then the hives broke out and she couldn't even go to school for a week. Liz always wore baggy shirts to hide her upper body. She could not stand herself at all.
Her mother was very kind to her, and told her she still looked beautiful even with her angry swollen hives. She was also very beautiful, her father loved her so much, and with her everything was perfect. But then came the day, the day of the accident, the day life as she knew it changed forever. Her mother was killed in a flash flood over a bridge. It was a weak, worn down old bridge, and a large storm had been brewing all day, flooding a lot of the area. There was so much rain the dam broke up river, sending large amounts of water everywhere, and every stream and tributary filled at an alarming rate until of the city was flooded. Her mother was at a weak spot in the bridge, and the water collapsed one of the pillars, sending her plummeting into the water, they never found the body.
Her dad couldn't take the pain of the loss, he was too selfish to think of the support his own daughter needed, and only consumed himself with his own pain and endless sorrow. One morning Liz woke up to the sound of her aunt sobbing at the table, only to find her father had disappeared entirely. Her aunt did not talk to her, only acknowledged her existence with a nod as she made her meals. She has never found her father's whereabouts, even when she has hopelessly looked for the cowardly man, but with no avail. Liz had known no comfort since then.
As Liz walked home everything was silent, not even a car or bird, just the whispers of the chilling wind of the threatening winter. She was shivering violently, with at least a mile to go she tread on ahead, not even bothering to look at the world around her. She didn't care anymore. Her eyes were red and puffy and her checks were crusty and stinging, the wind only making it worse. She had run out of tears for now, but she knew they would come back as the images from the horrible day would haunt her in her sleep.
She longed for the little comfort she used to have, her best and only friend since kindergarten. She longed to hear her voice or to laugh with her was the greatest joy in her day. Now only empty echo's bounce around, sending painful throbs of the terrible betrayal and disgrace she has been shown, she truly has no one now. The idea of this sunk her heart into her stomach, she didn't know why she still bothered to trust, love, hope, or even live anymore. A little part of her heart, now almost completely deteriorated, still had hope. It still thought one day everything would be right and happy again. That she would find her father, her aunt would come out of her sorrowful shell of silence, Taylor would finally get bored with her, and that she could finally get a good night's sleep.
That little part of her kept her walking down that street, kept her diaphragm pumping air in and out of he lungs, kept her away from the knives, guns, pills, kept her eating and exorcizing, and kept her strong heart beating. Even after all she's been through she still has enough self strength, built by her mother, to move through life. But even though most people would see her as strong, courageous, and bold for these aspects, people forget that the pain is still always there.
It still haunts her every dream. It still burdens her heart and keeps her from loving anything, and it still weighs a heavy burden on her heart. She has to live with it every day without comfort or pity from anyone, and that is the worst pain of all.
OOO