Uninvited

Chapter 1

I Feel You

Summer.

It had already begun, and she could tell it was going to be a long one. The June sun was beating down on her with a vengeance, even in the partially shaded spot she had found to sit. She shifted sluggishly on the sidewalk, inching to the side to find a cooler spot. The sensible thing would have been to go back inside, even if the air conditioning did only make a small difference. The only thing stopping her was, well, once she thought about it, she didn't honestly know. She had just felt restless, staying in the house all day. Of course she had only been home for a few weeks, but each day the restlessness grew worse and worse. She knew it would only continue. She groaned at the thought. She already felt like she was losing her mind. She had reached the point of imagining things. She had imagined a few nights ago that someone was watching her, but she knew she was alone. Her mom and her brother were both out of town and would be for some time. She also got a prickly feeling once in a while, like someone was near her. Yes, Kennedy was already facing the possibility that she would lose her ever loving mind before the summer was over.

Absentmindedly she fingered a thin silver chain that was hanging around her neck. Draping from it was a silver swan half an inch in diameter. She felt the abnormally cool metal and looked down at it, rubbing the pad of her thumb over it. For some miraculous reason it was always cool to the touch. She had been sitting outside for nearly fifteen minutes in one-hundred-and-five degree heat and yet the small metal swan wasn't the least bit warm. She closed her palm around it, enjoying the coolness. Holding it reminded her of her mom, who she was sure must have given it to her. The story was that she'd had it since she was a baby, and surely her mom had been the one to give it to her. She sighed. Her mom had been out of town for almost a week on business. Her brother was also gone, visiting his girlfriend.

Which left Kennedy there, sitting in the shade and wondering what she was going to do with herself. She was waiting for her friend to come over, but she wasn't expecting her till around seven that evening. Kennedy snorted at the thought of her friend, Erin. If there was anyone who could make her feel less abnormal, it was her. Erin understood her warped, off-color sense of humor like no one else did. Erin was also the one she could always count on, could always fall back on.

She had been beyond relieved when Erin burst through the front door at a few minutes past seven. If anyone else had been home they would have been appalled, but Kennedy was so used to having her around that she had told her before there was no need to knock. Only if she was the only one home, of course.

"I come bearing gifts," Erin said, smirking. Kennedy looked at the pile of stuff in her arms and shook her head. She really shouldn't have been surprised that Erin had brought it over—the one movie that the two of them had watched countless times and could never grow tired of. She also had a box of popcorn bags.

"You had a bad day, I take it," Kennedy asked, knowing Erin must have needed to de-stress.

The "look at all the fucks I give" expression on her face made it clear enough. "Work was hellish today. One of the kids has an ear infection and his genius parents decided to drop him off at daycare instead of taking him to the doctor." She walked into the dining room and set down the box of popcorn with a huff. "And of course, he didn't feel well and was having a bad day, which indirectly caused the rest of the kids to have a bad day, if you get my drift," she added sarcastically. "Let's just say I debated bringing margarita mix with the popcorn."

Kennedy nodded and laughed to herself. "I would have been perfectly fine with that."

"I know you would have. You, being the one person I know who shoots tequila like it's kool-aid, would have loved to watch me slowly drink myself stupid with only a few drinks." Kennedy merely shrugged, smirking. "You make me sick."

"I can't help it that I have high tolerance, which, I can thank dear old Dad for," Kennedy said, picking up the movie case and grinning. "Are you ready for this?"

Erin quirked a brow. "I'm always ready for this."

Half an hour later found the two women in a state that would have led anyone else to believe that Erin had actually brought the margarita mix. The two were lyiing on their sides, each on separate sofas, laughing to the point of wheezing.

"Wait…wait!" Erin yelped between laughs. "Did you just see that puppet?"

Kennedy was massaging her jaw, which was aching from the laughing. "Which one? The lady with the big hat?"

"Nooooo! Okay, toss me the remote," Erin said, leaning over to catch it as Kennedy tossed it to her. "I'm rewinding this. You have to see this guy's face." She rewound it to the exact spot and pressed play. "Okay, now watch the guy back there with the big glasses. To the back-left." The moment they both saw him laughter peeled from them, causing Erin to collapse onto her side again.

Kennedy was wheezing so hard that her stomach was starting to hurt. She sat up, holding her abdomen and taking a deep breath. She was thirsty.

"You want anything while I'm up?" she asked Erin, pointing over her shoulder to the kitchen.

"Nah, I'm good." Erin rolled onto her back and laid her head back against the armrest, taking a deep breath once her giggles wore down. Movement in the corner of her eye tore her attention away from the television screen, drawing it to the hallway, which opened up into a corner of the living room. That's where she had seen it. There was nothing there though, not that there would be. She dismissed it and looked back at the movie on the screen, letting out a chuckle at something idiotic one of the characters had done. It was nagging at her though, whatever had caused the movement. She peered back at the hallway, not being able to shake the feeling that something had been there. But nothing was. The hallway light was off and none of the bedroom lights were on, leaving the hallway dark save for the subtle light that was shining into it from the living room. She stared curiously at the spot where she had detected the movement but told herself she had imagined it. She rolled her head back and looked at Kennedy from upside down as she came back out from the kitchen, singing an embarrassingly poor tribute to a Def Leppard song. Nobody else was there. She knew that Kennedy's mom was out of town at a business conference, and Connor was away visiting his squeeze. 'My eyes are tricking me. It's probably my damn allergies acting up again,' she thought, still trying to rule out seeing anything. She was staring at the empty hallway again (or at least, she hoped it was empty) when Kennedy sat down with her drink in hand.

Kennedy looked at her curiously. She followed her gaze to the hallway before turning back to her, one of her brown brows arching. "Dude, what are you looking at?"

"Huh?" Erin said distractedly. "Nothing. I just thought I saw something," she answered, sounding withdrawn.

"In the hall," she asked, pointing at the hallway.

Erin blinked. "Yea. I thought I saw somebody, but that wouldn't make any sense. I'm just crazy."

"You probably just saw the ghost," Kennedy suggested nonchalantly, taking a sip of her soda. This remark resulted in being pelted with popcorn.

"Man, shut up."

Kennedy grinned in a way that would have made the Cheshire cat crawl into a hole and hide. She dusted the popcorn off of her lap, only popping a few pieces into her mouth, and dropping it into a waste basket before returning her attention to the movie. Erin did the same once she'd stopped glaring at Kennedy, but her focus was still on the dark hallway. She had seen a shadow there. As much as the reasonable side of her mind was telling her she hadn't, she knew she had.

After the movie had long since ended and the two friends had finally wound themselves down, Erin left to go home, still feeling uneasy about what she had seen. Kennedy waved as she watched the black Toyota back out of the gravel drive and roll down the street. Turning off the porch light she closed the door, leaving the black night behind it. The temperature had finally dropped a little outside and Kennedy sighed, enjoying the cool night air against her back before the door closed. She shuffled back into the living room and turned on the stereo sitting in the entertainment stand.

10:30 p.m., the clock read.

She could feel the tiredness in her body from the day but she wasn't sure if she could sleep just yet. She grabbed a broom and swept up the remnants of the onslaught of popcorn Erin had attacked her with. Then she swept the remainder of the floor, partly because it could use the sweeping and partly because it would kill a few extra minutes. By that time the clock read 10:37.

She slumped down onto the couch, picking up the remote. She turned off the stereo after hearing the same three top forty songs she had heard earlier that day and turned on the television instead. Flipping through the channels, all she found this late in the evening were reruns of Family Guy and some low-budget knock-off of Cheaters. 'How does someone produce a low-budget knock off of a show that's already low-budget and low-quality to begin with?' she thought. With a quick, impatient exhale she chose a news program to leave it on and dropped the remote onto the couch. As the news anchor droned on and on about the latest political scandal, Kennedy decided the nightly news just wasn't going to hold her attention. Not that it ever really did. She exhaled again, wishing her brother hadn't planned his week away during the same week her mom was gone. She plucked her cell from her pocket and typed a text to send to him. He was normally a fairly fast texter and a pretty reliable responder, so when she didn't get a reply after more than five minutes she figured he must have already been asleep. Or busy. She shook her head roughly, knocking out the thoughts of what he might have been doing to keep busy.

10:55p.m.

She could have gone to bed then, but she still didn't feel like she could actually sleep. Her eyes roamed around the coffee table before her, looking for anything of interest to look at or fiddle with. There was the usual: yesterday's paper and a newsletter from her brother's student council committee. There was also a thin, worn gray binder sitting under the newspaper. Kennedy picked it up out of her mounting boredom and opened it, instantly intrigued. It looked like her mom had drawn out part of the family's genealogy, but it only showed the most recent generations. Her eyes roved over the names of her aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents. She found the branch where her parents were coupled. She blinked, squinted, looked at the paper curiously, then blinked again.

Only her brother's name branched out from her parents'.

She could see where another branch, her branch, had been drawn in but later erased. Her hand reached up on its own and cupped the swan hanging from her necklace as she studied it. She could faintly see where Kennedy McGavin had been tentatively scrawled down, erased, and written again. There were heavy smudges, like her mom had hastily erased it again afterward.

More than anything else she felt confused. Why was her name half erased? She frowned. Since her mom was clearly still working on it she brushed it off. It was still a work in progress, after all. Maybe the lead on the pencil she had been using was dull. She felt her head beginning to ache and shut the binder without giving it much more thought and turned off the lights and the television as she left.

After sleepily changing into a loose and slightly ragged t-shirt, brushing her teeth, scrubbing her face clean and pulling back her bedding, she collapsed. She laid back, adjusting her pillows beneath her head until they were just right. She then turned off her bedside lamp. But just before twisting the small knob she glanced around the half dark bedroom, letting her eyes inspect each corner and each inch of space. Halfway through her inspection she realized how ridiculous such a notion was, that there would be a need to check that she was alone. That was Kennedy, though. Paranoid that she was always in some degree of danger. Always wondering if there was someone in the shadows, watching her—someone she couldn't see but could see every move she made. It wasn't just the summer blues that made her feel that way. She laughed, shaking her head at her own foolishness and turned out the lamp.

With the room now shrouded in darkness she let out a contented sigh and rolled onto her side, holding a corner of her plush pillow between her hands. This was her favorite way to lie. It was the most comfortable. All was quiet save for the occasional faintly rumbling car as it passed by on the street. She could hear the night's usual symphony singing her to sleep: crickets, toads, locusts, and a melodic gust of wind here and there, rustling the leaves like tiny bells. It was all so soothing that Kennedy felt herself being lulled to sleep when suddenly her entire being became shockingly alert. She opened her eyes and pulled her knees up, curling into a ball. It felt like someone was in the room. She reminded herself that she was at home alone. Yet it was there, the feeling that she wasn't. It was almost tangible. She decided that she was just having a spell of rattled nerves about being home alone. She chided herself for letting her paranoia get to her again. Her imagination was getting the better of her. Still, she felt creeped out. She rolled over and turned her back to the room, pulling her blanket over her head and trying to think of anything besides the presence she swore she felt in her room. Luckily for her, sleep soon claimed her, relieving her of her discomfort.

A/N

Here's the first chapter to the fic. I'm excited to post more of it and I'm even more excited to see what you guys think of it. Honestly I'm not sure how my adaptation of Loki will be received but I guess I'll have to let you guys decide that for yourselves. You'll see him soon enough but it will be a while before he makes a full appearance. However, I promise that if you stick with me, you will get plenty of Loki.

I should mention that this fic takes place before Thor. I have plans to make this into a 3 part series (before Thor, during Thor, and after Thor-Avengers) but I guess that will depend on how the story itself goes.

I should also mention that I'm taking some liberties with the Norse myths. But hey, it's fiction, right? It's all for fun. :-P

Anyway, I hope the first chapter didn't run you off. Leave me a review and let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Rhythmic5