Gorgeous Nightmare Ch 2

I relaxed in my bedroom and watched TV after dinner. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with all the newness and decided to put off unpacking everything until tomorrow. Suddenly, I heard the elevator chime. I hopped off my bed and walked to the living room to find Jane standing just in front of the elevator.

"What's up? I kind of wanted to be alone right now," I told her, yawning and hoping to prove to her that I was tired.

"Are you all right? You ran off after dinner pretty quickly," she pointed out. I sighed.

"I'm fine. I just don't feel like explaining everything about my past because I've spent a long time trying to shut it out, which is nearly impossible to do with a perfect memory," I said, "but I'll be fine. I'm going to bed because I'm exhausted from moving. I'll see you in the morning." Jane looked at me like she had something on her mind.

"Okay. Have a good night then, Emma," she said quietly and left. I didn't mean to hurt her feelings by not telling her anything; I just don't feel comfortable talking about personal stuff with people I don't know very well. I collapsed on my bed and fell asleep almost the second my head hit the pillow.

Loki watched Emma fall asleep via a projection of himself. He waited a while to be sure she was deep asleep before teleporting to just outside Emma's bedroom window on Stark Tower. No one could know he was there; everyone thought he was on Asgard paying for his crimes. He looked through the window, wondering how heavy a sleeper she was. It wouldn't matter much; it would just make the job easier if she didn't wake up and see him first. Loki teleported himself into Emma's bedroom, where she had fallen asleep on top of the covers in her casual clothes – a black skirt with calf-length tights and a gray and black striped three-quarter sleeve top. Loki padded around the floor silently, looking for anything he could to gather information about Emma. He looked at all the boxes until he found a few that just said "Miscellaneous" written in sharpie on the side. After opening all of the boxes and going through them, he found something he knew would be useful: Emma's diary. Loki thumbed through it, noticing that it seemed to be filled with mostly bad memories. He smirked. Perfect. All things that will be useful in breaking her mind and spirit so she will join me, Loki thought. This was exactly the kind of thing he needed.

Silently walking back to Emma's bedroom after hiding her diary in his coat, Loki pulled out the syringe filled with a tranquilizer and crept up to her bed. Loki froze as Emma turned over in her sleep. He breathed a sigh of relief and plunged the syringe in her arm. He tossed the syringe on the floor, picked up Emma's limp body, and teleported both of them to his hideout in Asgard. When they arrived, Loki had only a few hours to come up with a way to prevent Emma from using her powers. He fashioned a cage out of magic that would suppress Emma's powers and placed her inside. Loki breathed out and sat down on the couch in his underground haven. He had done it. He had kidnapped one of the Avengers without getting mown down by the others and the Avengers would never be able to find Emma here. Pleased with himself, Loki decided to read through Emma's diary to see what he could use against her. There had to be a wealth of knowledge he could use. It appeared to be a diary kept since she was eleven. Loki flipped the pages until one entry caught his eye:

April 10, 2010

Dear Diary,

Today…I don't even know if I can talk about it. It was horrible. But I know that writing it out, no matter how painful, is the best way for me to forget about stuff – I hate having a perfect memory. I tried to use my time traveling abilities to save a friend from dying – I told them not to get in the car and drive because they would crash the car and die due to drunk driving. Instead, they got in the car with four other friends and one of the friends was drunk, too. They all died in the car accident that followed. I don't even…it's my fault. It's all my goddamn fault. I should've let things happen the way they were meant to. I'm a fuck up with weird powers who ends up causing more problems by trying to help people. I don't belong in this world and I'm definitely no hero. I don't know what to do because I don't have anyone to talk to about this…I just wish I was a normal teenager whose only problems were boys and acne. I hate my life…

Loki noticed that the page was wrinkled as if it had been wet in spots at one point. Emma probably cried while she was writing this entry, Loki thought. He started to feel bad for her when he came to his senses. No, he would not feel bad for anyone. Her feeling bad for causing the death of people meant she was as weak as everyone else. Sentiment was a weakness Loki could not stand at all. It made people so vulnerable and Loki enjoyed not caring about anyone except himself. It was the only thing he liked about himself, though he would never admit it that it was the only thing he liked. Emma was pathetic for caring about a few human deaths that would mean nothing. Loki continued to read the diary and found more instances where Emma was deeply depressed because she had caused more problems by trying to fix one. He could see that she felt like her powers were a curse and she hated having them. Loki knew he not only had to break Emma but make her see that her powers were the best thing about her. That way she would want to use them.

Loki smiled as he watched Emma sleep on the floor of the cage. He hadn't thought to put a bed in; he wanted to see if not sleeping in a bed would break her faster from not being able to sleep very well. Loki closed Emma's diary and walked over to his bed, placing Emma's diary on the nightstand before shutting the light and going to bed for just a few hours.