AN-***Loki wasn't touched by the frost giant on Jotunheim when he went with Thor and his friends (a scene in the beginning of the first Thor movie). He doesn't know he is adopted, yet.***
REMINDER: Pay attention to the title and name of each chapter! They give away small hints and important notes of each chapter itself.
Chapter 2: Resting on Your Laurel
"WAAAKE UP!" My mother called throughout the entire house.
I groaned and stumbled out of bed like a zombie. Four hours of sleep due to twelve hours of studying for finals. I had crammed so much information into my brain, that surely it would explode. But it would be worth it when I got that 'A'.
Finding my way to the kitchen, I sat down at the counter in front of the plate of breakfast my mother had prepared for me moments earlier.
"Are you excited, sweetie?" my mother asked me, placing the fork on my plate and taking the pile of flash cards out of my hand. I nodded sleepily as she flipped through the cards to quiz me.
My mother and I lived together alone. My dad left when I was little and she had raised me all by herself ever since. She stressed the importance of education, wanting me to have a better life for myself than the one she had, but allowed me to choose what goals I wanted. She was everything to me and helped me study through all of my tests—one of which I had today.
Today was my AP college microbiology exam. I was still a senior in high school, but my high grades allowed me to enter college a year earlier and duel enroll in both schools.
"What is the medical term for high blood pressure?" Mom quizzed.
I stabbed a piece of egg with my fork and answered, "Hypertension."
"Correct. Spell the name of the lung infection caused by the inhalation of very fine volcanic ash," she countered.
"P-n-e-u-m-o-n-o-u-l-t-r-a-m-i-c-r-o-s-c-o-p-i-c-s-i-l-i-c-o-v-o-l-c-a-n-o-c-o-n-i-o-s-i-s," I mumbled around a mouthful of pancakes.
My mother scowled and flipped the flashcard over. "Pneumo—what?"
I swallowed my food and smiled at her. "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis," I replied.
"I'm just gonna go ahead and guess that you're correct, because I have no idea what you just said," she laughed. I giggled and finished scarfing down the rest of my food. I then thanked her and ran down the hall to get ready for school.
After dressing and applying my makeup, I tied my long dark hair up in a ponytail. I checked the mirror once more. Cool, grey eyes looked back at me from the reflective glass. My skin was pale and my lips and cheeks blushed a soft, shell pink. Jet black mascara accentuated my naturally long lashes.
I grabbed my backpack, hugged Mom, and ran out the door as she called out a final, "Good luck!"
We only had one car that Mom used to drive to work at the office. Her work was located on the opposite side of town so she didn't have time to drive me to school in the morning. I didn't mind. The walk to school was only two miles and I liked the trek through the woods to reach my destination. The college was two more blocks westward from there.
I could have walked the sidewalk route, but that was a four mile hike across paved streets and through noisy neighborhoods. The forest surrounded my neighborhood for acres upon acres in all directions and the land belonged to nobody in particular. It wasn't private property, so I used it as my own personal sanctuary. I had tied a red ribbon around a single tree trunk every tenth of a mile to mark the small hike. That took a few tries, but with Mom's handheld GPS device for her car, I had managed to map out the journey last year. Now, I'd never get lost.
"CABG," I tested myself. "Coronary Artery Bypass Graft."
As I strolled through the airy woods, the only sounds for miles were my voice and the distant chirping of bird calls.
XXX
I smiled cheerfully as I made my way home through the woods. I had finished my test and there wasn't a question asked that I didn't know. My high school classes were a breeze and my two extra college classes weren't too much of a challenge today. I celebrated by checking out some books from the library on my way home.
By the time I stepped into my personal forest to hike home, it was already after dark. I had browsed the bookshelves for far too long, but I wasn't worried about it. Southern Indiana was a safe—at least in my area for sure. I'd rarely been out of town, so I wouldn't know. If anything, walking in the woods here was safer than being on the streets at night.
I took out my mini flashlight from my backpack in order to see my ribbon tree markers. More than halfway through my hour long stroll, I was deep into the forest and surrounded on all sides by acres of woodland.
The wind picked up strength and I smiled, inhaling the sweet, earthy air. My smile quickly changed to an irritated frown when the wind changed from a breeze into powerful windstorm. My ponytail fluttered out behind me. Leaves flew all around and whipped against my face. A startled gasp escaped my lips as a twig snapped from a tree nearby and whipped against my cheek, scratching it. I touched it with my hand and pulled away to see a dark liquid on my fingertips.
Blood.
"What on earth," I breathed out. How could the weather change this severely in such a short span of time?
Just then, a bright light burst through the night sky. I held my arm above my face to shield it from more flying debris as I watched. Dark clouds were illuminated by green and gold flashes of lightning. The beam shot down from the clouds and struck the earth. A loud boom shook the area, like lightning. My hair lifted slightly, responding to the static and I heard tiny crackles of energy zing through the air.
A shock wave rippled through the trees and the impact felt like it was just a mile away. Spooked from the loud noise of the event, I fell backwards and dropped my flashlight, hearing it shatter upon a stone. I was immersed in darkness. Screaming out in alarm and fear, I scrambled up onto my hands and knees, and shot up from the forest floor. With nothing but moonlight to guide me, I began to run the rest of the way home in the black night..
I tripped twice and my hair was ripped free from my ponytail, spilling dark tresses in front of my face. Stumbling blindly without my flashlight, it took me twice as long to reach my yard.
Out of breath, I leaned forward to rest my hands on my knees. Mom wouldn't be home until eleven, late. I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed in the woods. How would I explain it to her? I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and looked up to the front porch and gasped.
There was a man laying on my doorstep.
A naked man.
The man looked tall, but built of lean muscle. He had his shoulders and the back of his head leaning against the door while his torso and legs were on the welcome mat.
"The hell?" I cursed in alarm, "Who are you? I'll call the police!" I got no response.
I cautiously walked towards him, keeping my eyes away from his exposed nakedness and trying to see if he was armed. Was this stranger dangerous? Hehe, stranger danger, I joked to myself.
Brushing aside the humor and my blushing nervousness at seeing my first naked man in front of me, I studied his face. He was pale, and his hair was dark—darker than mine. While my hair was a deep, dark coffee color…his was jet black. His hair was longer than most men's around here, slightly brushing against his shoulders and neck like a shadowy cape. His eyes—well, I couldn't see what color they were. They were closed. Was this dude sleeping on my porch? A drunk and disorderly man that got so intoxicated he stripped off al his clothes and passed out someplace? Seems likely for a college student.
Maybe he was a fraternity boy that was dared to go streaking after a few too many beers?
My gaze wandered, tracing the lines of his body. Past his strong shoulders and toned arms to his lean, built stomach. As I walked closer and studied him, I discovered a large gash on his side. Blood pooled underneath his still form.
He wasn't sleeping. He was unconscious.
Hurt.
Dying.
I rushed to his side in an instant. "Oh my God!" I yelled, noticing the large puddle under my shoes as I knelt by his side. I looked from the gash to his face, and then back at the wound. I couldn't just let him bleed out on my doorstep! He could have a family. A name. He was somebody!
Pulling him onto my lap, his head lolling to the side, I used my left hand to stem the blood flow and my other hand frantically searched my pocket for my keys.
"Please don't die. Please don't die. Please don't die," I whispered worriedly as I unlocked the door, shoving it open.
"I…wont…" came a weak mumble from the man in my grasp.
I gasped, startled, and looked down at his face. Electric green eyes peered up at me, framed my the jet black hair. I let out a shaky breath and spoke for the first time directly to him.
"I need to get you inside the house. I need to help you, but you're too heavy for me. I'll need to drag you over the step into the living room and it'll hurt…but you'll be okay." I smiled in encouragement. He nodded once and I braced myself. Hooking my grip under his underarms, I pulled him towards the house. He groaned, cursing loudly. He kicked at the floor—weather from the pain or because he was trying to help, I don't know. The action resulted in pushing his body back and aiding in getting him over the threshold. But once we were inside, he went slack.
"No no no no no," I mumbled. He can't die. Not under my watch. I had to stop the bleeding just enough to buy time for an ambulance to arrive. Grabbing the roll of paper towels from the kitchen, I wrapped the absorbent paper around his torso until they ran out. Running to the phone, I tried to dial 9-1-1.
"No!" came a loud shout of protest from the other room.
Alarmed, I dropped the phone on the kitchen counter with a thud. I had only pushed the '9' before the strange man interrupted. "What? What's wrong?" I called back to him, picking up the phone and rushing to his side. His eyes were narrowed in pain and slight annoyance.
"I'm just trying to call for help. You need to get to a hospital. I'm not gonna call the cops or anything—I swear! I was just kidding before," I explained. "Just let me call for help."
He shook his head, determined.
"Then I'll just call them once you pass out from blood loss!" I shouted angrily.
'Surprised' doesn't begin to cover how I felt when he snatched the phone out of my hand and crushed it in his grasp.
"Why did you do that!?" I cried out. Never mind the question of 'how' he managed to smash a phone to pieces with one hand.
He gasped in pain, breathing shallowly. "Don't…call. Just…h—help." The remains of the phone fell from his grip as he faded into unconsciousness once more.
I huffed out an exasperated breath and tossed the broken phone back on the counter. I needed a new plan. I grabbed his upper arms again and decided to move him to my room. Dragging him through the house resulted in leaving a blood trail on the hardwood floors. The trail led through the living room, hall, and ultimately into my bedroom.
I ran back down the hall and grabbed some towels. Laying them all across my bed, I managed to get him on the mattress with a great deal of effort. My bed was a queen size mattress and his feet hung off the ledge still. God, this dude was tall.
Lifting the paper towels to inspect the wound, I frowned. I needed our first aid kit from the hall closet. Running out of the room once more, I returned with supplies. I might not be a medical professional yet, but this was my first chance to actually help someone and I was going to do my damned best. I'd patch up this stranger first and ask questions later.
Laying out the supplies next to him, I suddenly thought of covering him up. I grabbed a blanket and tossed it over his crotch and legs. Blushing at the short glimpse of his well endowed body, I brushed that aside and focused on his injury.
Removing the now red paper towels, I prodded gently at the wound to inspect it further. I heard a stifled groan come from his mouth and I looked up at him. "You have a five inch long laceration on your abdomen. It isn't deep, but you've lost a lot of blood. You'll need sutures to stitch it closed. I can do that…but it'll hurt like hell."
He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing heavily, and then reopened them before answering. "O…kay."
I poured an antiseptic on the wound, making him curse loudly at the burning sensation, and threaded the needle from the first aid kit. The first suture through his skin was pretty bad. He kicked and screamed loudly.
"Please pass out, please pass out, please!" I murmured, trying to continue on with the sutures as his thrashing increased the flow of blood from the wound. I hoped he would lose consciousness soon, for his sake and mine. After the fifth tiny loop of thread, I finally got my wish.
Either from the blood loss or pain, I don't know, but he was out of it quickly.
I finished stitching a row of twenty-one sutures and taped gauze over the wound. I knew how to hand sew pillows from my sewing class in sophomore year a while back and now it had come in handy to save a life—hopefully.
After spending two hours cleaning up the mess and bleaching the floors until there was not trace of blood, I checked in on the sleeping stranger. He was exactly the same as I left him earlier. I risked taking a quick shower in order to wash the blood and dirt away. Changing into pajamas, I tossed my old clothes in the wash and turned on the cycle.
Now my house no longer appeared to have had a murder occur in it. The mess was gone.
Exhaustion swept over me. The adrenaline and shock of the situation had worn off and now I felt like an empty battery. Popping back into my room, I looked down at the sleeping man.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
Poor guy.
I sat down next to him on the queen size bed, kicked off my shoes, and checked my watch. Mom wouldn't be home for a few more hours. What was I going to tell her?
I never got the chance to think up an excuse because I fell asleep, exhausted, just a foot away from the injured stranger.
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