The pair stood side-by-side in front of the cavernous maw, it's dark opening clogged with listless bodies shuffling in and out, their paths random and veering. Loki blinked and wondered, not for the first time, how his cute, adorable and deceptively devious little mortal endured in the face of such a task. But endure she did. For Darcy Lewis was nothing if not courageous. A stab of worry coiled somewhere in his chest but he pushed it away, the bothersome thing. He turned his head and smiled at the girl next to him. She returned his smile; his smile that was skillfully hiding any trace of worry the task before them might bring about.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked again, allowing her the opportunity to back out. He was certain she had to force herself to not roll her eyes at his inquiry, if the smirk on her lips was any indication.
"For the millionth time, I got this. If I didn't know you any better," Darcy continued, "I'd think you were stalling." She squinted her eyes up at the tall prince in mock inquisition. "Are you stalling? Are you…scared?"
Loki let out a laugh, covering the nervousness well. "I am afraid. Yes. Afraid that you have confused me for someone else." Loki said this with well-practiced arrogance, casually flicking some imagined lint from his shirt. "Had I known this trip was going to ignite a character attack against me, I'd've let you come alone. A sweet and tender morsel for the wolves that await inside."
"Aww, you do care!" Darcy gleefully wrapped her arms around Loki's side and squeezed.
Loki gave her another smile, Darcy's joyful manner momentarily easing his mind. "In the smallest measurement possible, my dear." Darcy gave him another squeeze before letting go. "Do you have the list?" Loki was ready to get this over and done with. He'd heard the stories. Where they were to venture today was unlike any other he had known. When Darcy had mentioned it last week, he found himself easily offering to come along. Since her new employment with the SHIELD organization, Darcy had become quite the world traveler. Well, worlds traveler, now that she'd been to Asgard. And she could be quite fearless when it came to adventuring away from home.
Darcy dug into her pocket, pulling out a folded and crumpled scrap of paper. She opened and smoothed it as best she could. "Got the list," she said, displaying it unnecessarily. "Ready to do this thang?"
Loki half-bowed and extended a hand towards their destination. "After you."
"Oh, sure. Let the girl go first. Whatta gentleman," Darcy smirked, leading the way.
Had he known the scattered hoard outside was any indication of what was inside, Loki might have reconsidered this idea. He trailed closely behind Darcy, ready to lend any assistance if it was needed. He prayed it was not. He wasn't entirely sure how he would fare against this 'scientifically undocumented sub-species', as Darcy liked to call them. She had given him a few pointers before they'd arrived to ensure they both returned home unscathed.
Number one: stay focused. Get in and get out. No sense in dawdling, it could only lead to problems with the following rules. Number two: don't let them touch you. This was part of the 'scientifically undocumented' part of Darcy's warning. No telling what germs and diseases were abound on the bodies that ambled around them. And number three: do not, under any circumstances, make eye contact. Darcy claimed that the creatures that dwelled within had an unnatural distance to their eyes, as though no spark of life was left and they were on auto-pilot. She had punctuated this description by shivering and proclaiming how "creepy" it was.
With these very specific rules noted, Loki followed Darcy through the maze they had entered. It was obvious there was some sort of order that had been intended by those that had built the place. It was grid-like in its fashion, though some groupings of lines ran perpendicular to others.
Darcy moved fluidly through the rabble and Loki noticed how she kept to her own rules; moving purposefully with her arms held close to her body and her eyes mostly pointed downward. She consulted the list from time to time, passing items to him to carry.
They easily walked to where Darcy knew the next item on their list should be. How she knew where she needed to go, Loki didn't know. He thought to comment on it, but decided that might break rule number one. This was Darcy's mission, so to speak, and Loki would respect her leadership.
Not knowing exactly what was on Darcy's list, but knowing that the list was short, Loki surmised they must be close to the end of their task. Turning down another long row, Darcy stopped halfway down. She tipped her head to the side and scrutinized the small containers in front of them. Loki tried to follow where Darcy's gaze was searching but couldn't pinpoint exactly what she was looking at, her blue eyes flicking rapidly. She muttered a curse.
"What's wrong?" Loki asked, eyeing a pair of slow-moving creatures that passed by and quickly looking away lest they look toward him.
Darcy waved a hand frustratedly and growled, "It's not here! Ugh, this figures!" She continued searching for what she was looking for; grabbing items, quickly looking closely at them and roughly putting them back.
"Well, is it totally necessary to have right now?" Loki was getting a little anxious in their present location. He noticed that more of the haggard and listless forms were congregating near where he and Darcy stood and her sudden, though quiet, outburst might have been attracting them. He tried to swallow away his nervousness but it was getting a bit too crowded for him, and Darcy's rules echoed in his head. If they stayed where they were for much longer, rules two and three were bound to get broken. He wasn't sure what would happen but he was pretty sure he didn't want to find out.
Darcy retorted back sharply, "Yes, it's necessary!" Her annoyance overshadowed her own instructions and Loki tried to calm her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"I meant no offense, my dear. It's just…" Loki's statement went unfinished as he saw something come towards him. Slowly, a festering and scabbed limb reached toward him. He froze in place, unsure of what to do, his eyes pleading with Darcy for direction, brows creased with worry.
Keeping eye contact with the prince, Darcy leaned back just a bit, somehow understanding what the limb and its attached brain were after. Loki followed the motion, leaning back and away from the offending appendage, allowing the gangly hand with its broken, yellow nails to reach just beyond where he stood. The hand fumbled for purchase, meaty fingers curling around one of the containers Darcy had been looking at only moments before. As the hand withdrew, there was a grumbling sound coming from the creature's head. The sound was grating to Loki's ears, like sheet metal being dragged across cobblestones and the odor that was forced his way was akin to burning, sun-ripened trash. The fiend gave what sounded like a chuckle and sauntered away.
Loki and Darcy both let out a breath. It would have been comical in another situation, but Loki felt the need to press Darcy to end their trip. While their interactions with the locals had been minimal, he did not want for such another close call. He gave her a look and hoped it was suitably pitiful.
Darcy, seeing the beginnings of a full-on pout in front of her, sighed and shook her head. "Geez, such a drama king. All right, all right. We can go," she said, shooing him back towards the way they came. Loki smothered his gleeful exclamation, not wanting Darcy to know how relieved he was to be leaving the wretched place.
Darcy led the way back to where they had entered but when she failed to turn for their exit, Loki called out to her. "Isn't the way out this direction?" He could see the glow of the midday sun, silhouetting the bodies of those near the entrance.
Still walking forward, Darcy said over her shoulder, "Yeah, but we can't just walk outta here with that stuff. Gotta pay the piper, man." The message was a bit cryptic for Loki and he looked longingly at their way out before following after Darcy.
When he caught up to her, she had taken place in a line behind others. Dutifully, he held her items until she plucked them from his arms, passing them to be inspected, he assumed, before they left. Once he was free of his burden, Darcy looked at him sharply and reminded him with a quiet hiss, "Don't forget the rules." A gave her a short, solemn nod and they moved forward.
Looking anywhere and everywhere except at the figure across from them that was intent on handling Darcy's things, Loki was mentally counting the steps until freedom. He could see the exit from where they were. So very close. A nudge on the arm awakened him from his reverie and Darcy tipped her head, signaling that they were ready to go. "Let's blow this popsicle stand," she quipped, collecting the bags her items had been placed in. The joy at hearing that strange, Midgardian phrase made Loki smile. And in his sudden, unabashed joy he looked right in the eyes of the person who had checked out Darcy's things.
To freeze a Frost Giant is no easy task. And yet, here he was. Frozen solid, unable to move, unable to speak, caught in the gaze of this creature. The dark brown pools of its eyes told of a tale so bleak and sorrowful, Loki could think of nothing to match it's equal. His own memories of being lost in the void paled in comparison. The skin around the eyes crinkled and the lips drew back in a grimace, attempting to portray a visage of kindness. The blackened and gapped smile leaked out a stench that drifted toward him like a fog. A guttural sound bubbled up from an unfathomable place and, strangely, to Loki's ears it sounded like, "Have a nice day."
Still caught in the creature's snare, he felt an insistent tugging on his arm. He forced himself to blink, to break visual contact and only then was he able to shake himself awake and away from the trap he let himself get caught. In that split second, the thing in front of him, that had so easily pulled him in, was now looking elsewhere. Eyeing for another victim, no doubt, and Loki wasted no more time getting away.
Back in the safety of Darcy's vehicle, Loki felt he was truly free and let himself enjoy the sensation. Darcy settled herself in the driver's seat, clipping her seatbelt and starting the car. Loki found himself staring through the windshield where he had just come from. And still there were figures moving in and out, some moving quickly but most moving slowly as though their lives had already been drained of all purpose, so what was the hurry? Clearly he could recall that same feeling, buried in the brown eyes that had pulled him in. He was startled again by Darcy's snapping fingers, bringing him back to reality. "Hey! You okay there? Thought I'd lost ya for a sec right there at the end."
He gave her a weary but genuine smile. "Yes, I was caught a bit unawares. She seemed so normal at first," Loki commented on his interaction.
"Yeah, those soulless creatures'll suck ya right in if you're not careful. That's why I got the rules."
"I'll be sure to follow them more closely next time." Darcy nodded at this, pleased that her god-slash-BFF had made it out relatively unscathed. He shook his head in wonder, huffing a laugh. "I really don't know how you do it, Darcy. And you say you go nearly every week?"
"Yeppers!" she exclaimed, driving the car out of the parking lot, deftly avoiding a stray shopping cart. "It kinda sucks, but Wal-Mart really does have the lowest prices around."