Hurricane

Chapter 3: Uncertain motives

After their last encounter together, Loki had returned to Asgard with the final decision to use this young mortal woman as his own personal test subject for his magic. He had nothing else better to do now that his brother was getting all geared up and ready to go for his upcoming coronation as Asgard's future King; which happened to be something that he didn't wish to think too much about for many reasons he would rather have left unsaid. He just needed a bit of a distraction from all that was going on back home.

As soon as he made it back to Asgard, Loki sauntered into the palace's large library and began searching for more spell books – as if he didn't have enough piled in his chambers already – and even a few choice Midgardian anatomy books. Mortals were considered weak creatures when compared to the Aesir men and women and Loki firmly believed that they were incapable of greatness; that any sort of accomplishments a Midgardian made paled in comparison to that of an Asgardian. So, Loki needed to play it safe when it came to testing Chelsea.

Chelsea was a very peculiar mortal girl. When he first came upon her he hadn't really planned on doing anything with her in the first place. All he was doing was practicing a bit of telepathic magic and suddenly Chelsea was there, her aura shone brightly and something called out to Loki and he wasn't going to play deaf to it. He honestly wasn't expecting any sort of reaction to come from anyone, but he was pleasantly surprised when he found Chelsea.

When he came to her that first night she was completely open, her guard was down and she was practically lying there for the taking so to speak. He knew she had some sort of abilities – even if they were small – and he wanted to figure her out. After the first three nights he saw a growing curiosity blooming within her as he watched her. She was definitely very perceptive and constantly day dreaming. Her brain was frequently working, the gears turning and turning around inside her head. She was intelligent and not just in the conventional sense. By simply watching her Loki knew that Chelsea was open to other worldly possibilities. He eventually confirmed it one night as he went through her journal and read a few passages about how she just knew that there had to be something more out there, that this world and everything it offered was nothing compared to what the universe could offer. She eventually mentioned that she had no idea what she was talking about and chalked it up to being that it was almost five in the morning on a Saturday night. Loki had chuckled lightly at that.

During the day when Loki would watch at her at school from the back of the classroom he found that she tended to gaze out the window and just stare at nothing in particular. Curiosity got to him one day and he stepped closer to her, observinb her. He saw something hidden deep within her blue eyes, something almost unearthly. She desired something; something she feared could never grasp and though Loki didn't know what that something was, he figured that perhaps she didn't know either.

After the third visit Loki decided to test something out, so he stopped visiting her and there was a definite change. She seemed a bit more irritable and a bit fidgety during class as if she were anxious to just get home already and end the day. It was quite entertaining to watch actually, to see a mere mortal grow frustrated because of a simple recurring dream that only lasted three nights. Surely there were many humans out there who experienced the same sort of thing.

As the days went by, Chelsea continued to grow more anxious, especially when it came time to go to bed. He watched her from the corner of her room as she climbed into bed and laid down on her back and simply gazed up at the ceiling, in the dark, and hoped that maybe she would have another visit. Loki knew that she wanted to figure it out, to confront him, he saw her write it down in her journal!

Finally, though, after four nights he returned to her and this time he truly did manage to piss her off. It was quite entertaining fooling around with her like Loki did and it wasn't until after the dream had ended that he knew he was going to spend a lot of time doing just that.

As Loki continued to scan through the books in the library he thought about the simpler observations he made whilst following Chelsea around whenever he had the time. She was a beautiful blond haired, blue eyed young mortal woman who was much shorter than himself. She lived with just her father and surrounds herself with a small group of friends and yet she favors Sadie out of all of them. So, aside from her open-mindedness, she was pretty much your average high school senior who had clearly captured Loki's interest. Something he didn't think was possible.

After a bit of looking around and scanning the books he had plucked from the shelves Loki headed back to his chambers to get everything in order. There wasn't a whole lot that he could do with Chelsea at this moment in time, this all was still very fresh and well, she was still a very weak human girl and so anything that he did decide do to her could indeed cause some damage. So, with that being said, Loki had decided to simply gauge her reactions to his presence from here on out, to see if she could eventually use this interest in otherworldly things and sense his presence without him having actually doing anything. It was all he had so far, later on though he could take it a step up.

For the next few weeks he made Chelsea believe that she was being haunted, made her think that she was being watched and followed. He had recently found that life after death seemed to be a very interesting topic amongst the Midgardians, and as it appears, many tend to immerse themselves into learning about the paranormal and considering Chelsea shows an interest in that sort of thing, well, what better way than to get to her than to make it out like she is being haunted personally?

As the days went by he made sure to follow her around almost constantly, watching over her, creating cold spots and just freezing up the entire room she was in. He would move things around in her room while she was in there, toss things off of her shelf, he would knock on the walls, blow air into her ear. If she spoke to people over the phone he would make the line go to static and sometimes it would eventually kill the phones battery power. Needless to say he made his presence known to her and she was growing even more frustrated by the day and oh, just look at how much fun Loki was having! It was a glorious dance and Loki was slowly becoming a bit obsessed with trying to find new ways in which he could 'torment' his little test subject.

"So, what was it that you wanted to talk about Chelsea?" Sadie asked as she took a sip of her mocha. It was the weekend and they decided to take a day to hang out and do some shopping. First order of business for the day was to meet each other for coffee at the local café in downtown.

"Sadie..?" Chelsea began, holding her cup tightly in both hands and gently playing with a loose corner on the sleeve protector. "Either my house is seriously haunted or I am going insane." Her friend nearly burst out laughing at the unexpected topic starter.

"You're kidding right? Why do you think that?" She took another sip of her mocha while she waited for Chelsea to answer, the blonde hesitating for a moment. "C'mon Chels, I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything."

Chelsea sighed and after her little moment of hesitation she finally mustered up the courage to bring up the subject and tell Sadie what had been happening. "Well, you remember me telling you about the dreams I have been having, right?" Sadie nodded her head. "Uhm…Well, things have gotten weirder since I told you about them. "

"Like how?"

"Like…Things are being moved about in my room while I'm in there. Something was messing around with my necklaces that I have hanging on my shelf, things are being taken right after I use them and they are put in a completely different place. Sadie, I made my bed yesterday morning and when I came back in to grab something, my whole bed was a mess. Like I didn't even touch it."

Sadie's eyes widened at that as she sipped on her coffee. This was definitely strange indeed, especially considering nothing of the sort has ever happened before in Chelsea's home. "Do you have any idea on what it could be..?" She asked, setting down her coffee and leaning her elbows on the table's edge.

Chelsea simply shrugged her shoulders, her gaze fixed on the straw in her cup. "I don't know what it could be, but I have a terrible feeling…"

"Hey…" Sadie reached out and set her hand down on her friend's forearm. "You are not going insane. These sorts of things happen to normal people. Maybe you just went somewhere a bit out of the norm and brought something home with you without even realizing it."

"That could be, but I don't know. I certainly didn't go anywhere that I wouldn't normally go to, as far as I can recall."

Sadie furrowed her brows a bit in deep thought as she sipped a bit more of her coffee, chewing the straw between her teeth as she did so; a habit she tended to do more often than not. After a couple more brief moments a sudden thought came to her and she nearly shot up in her seat. "Hey! Do you think it could be this Loki guy you have been telling me about?"

Chelsea's eyes widened at the question. It almost made her heart skip a beat just thinking about it. It was a fear that she has had these past few weeks, a fear that she hadn't wanted to really acknowledge, and now that someone had voiced it as a possible reason, it somehow made it all that much more real to her. Her fingers continued to play around and tug at the frayed ends of the slip cover. "Uhm, I don't know. I mean…It could be a possibility, but even so it just sounds crazy!" Chelsea had thought about it for a brief moment; what would be worse: having an actual ghost haunt her, or having Loki being the one that was behind all of it?

Sadie giggled and shrugged her shoulders as if it wasn't that big of an issue. "So, I have a question."

"Hm?"

"Is he attractive?"

Chelsea nearly sputtered and she coughed on her coffee. "What?!" She could feel her skin heating up, the heat of it working its way up her neck and around her ears. Her face was clearly red and there was no way she could hide it.

"Oh c'mon Chels! Is he attractive or not?" Sadie laughed.

"…Yes. But he's not real, he can't be. Besides, the pictures in the books depict him as being a red head and this guy's hair is pitch black." Chelsea took a big gulp of her coffee, her eyes focused on the table's surface as she tried her very best to will away the blush from her skin.

"You know what you should do?"

"What's that?" Chelsea looked up at her friend seated across from her once she deemed herself a bit more composed.

"You should start drawing again. I want to see what this guy looks like."

Chelsea's eyes widened again at that. "What? No, Sadie, it's been years since I've last drawn anything substantial." She shook her head furiously. "I can't just…No, it would be too weird." It definitely would though. She could just imagine it now; she would be seated at her desk with her pencils and pens strewn about as she attempted to draw Loki from her memory. She could probably do it as it wouldn't really be that hard considering artistry was a common trait in her family. But, if she really did try drawing Loki she could only imagine the tension she would feel hanging over her shoulders, as if she were being watched, scrutinized. Hell, she could almost feel it right now and she had to roll her shoulders a few times to shake off the feeling.

"Why not?! I'm sure it's just like riding a bike. I really want to know what your little incubus looks like." Sadie grinned around her straw.

"Sadie!" There she went blushing like a mad woman again. Sadie knew just how to pressure a person and Chelsea knew that if she didn't agree to this then she was only going to be nagged at again in the future. It was probably best to just do it. "Ugh, okay fine! I will try to draw Loki, okay? But I cannot guarantee that you will see it finished."

Sadie was buzzing with excitement, a large grin plastered onto her face. She gripped her cup of coffee tight in her hands as she nodded her head. "That's okay! I can't wait to see what he looks like." She winked at Chelsea as she took a sip from her cup and Chelsea sighed, the corner of her mouth pulled upwards only slightly.

When Chelsea left her home that afternoon to meet up with Sadie for coffee, Loki decided to remain behind. He had watched her as she quickly got ready before rushing out the door. As it appeared, she would be gone for a while so that gave the God plenty of time to do what he had been planning on doing for a few days now. With Chelsea gone he could now easily go through her belongings in hopes that he could perhaps find something, anything, to aid in his current endeavors.

Loki had found great entertainment in his actions these past couple of weeks. He found joy in making Chelsea squirm and question her own sanity. It was all just a bit of fun, something to pass the time, but Loki felt that it was about time to up the ante so to speak. He needed to find something of Chelsea's that had some sort of great sentimental value to her. And since he wasn't quite sure what to look for, he figured that the best place to start would likely be her journal she kept in a drawer in her desk.

He had seen Chelsea write in the book almost every night, jotting down all of her thoughts and events of that day. It was the best bit of insight he could get without going to Chelsea in person. He couldn't just go straight to her and ask question after question. It would make her suspicious and it would surely give away his plans, even though he was a bit uncertain about what he wanted out of this in the end. Loki couldn't risk it.

So, without further hesitation, Loki pulled open the drawer that he knew housed the notebook. He pulled it out and flipped it open, scanning through the pages. At closer inspection he found that the notebook was almost completely filled up and he knew that if he were to read every single page from the beginning it would take him quite some time. He didn't have that sort of time, especially considering he had the mind to go through many more of her possessions and search out her closet. It was a bit invasive, sure, but Loki didn't have the mind to care.

Loki continued to skim through the journal, quickly skipping over what was written in the beginning and turning page after page, his eyes scanning the words and looking for anything that would give him any sort of clue. He was getting closer and closer to the end of what had been written down so far when something did finally catch his attention. First he noticed the entries where Chelsea would talk about him and the dreams she was having, and then he found an entry where she talked about how she had asked her father about him. Loki continued to read on and he found out that Chelsea's mother used to tell her bedtime stories about him and Thor and Asgard. Apparently her mother had grown up with these stories from her own childhood.

How strange. Loki had already made the observation a long time ago that she lived with only her father, but now he was curious. Where was her mother? Why didn't she live with both of her parents?

Loki closed the journal and set it down on the desk. He scanned the room, looking for anything else that might catch his eye, but nothing did. Not right at the moment at least. Maybe he didn't have to do a thorough job at going through her things. Perhaps he had all that he needed at this moment or now. He could always come back at a later date and finish the job, besides, by now Chelsea was probably getting ready to come back home and he needed to be gone before she did.

So, with that decided, Loki made one last brief once over before vanishing completely from Chelsea's bedroom. He would visit her again later that night while she slept, and maybe then they could actually have a true conversation.

PREVIEW!

It was then as Chelsea was running for her life that she heard a very strange sort of hum off in the distance that was accompanied by an even stranger pulse of energy. She had no idea what the hell it was, but for whatever reason she knew that it was beckoning to her, telling her – without actual words – to come towards it. Well, if whatever it was helped her find a safe place then she was going to take it.

The creature was gaining on her, she could hear it snarling and growling loudly as its feet pounded into the earth behind her, its hot breath blowing down the back of her neck.