Stalker
A week had passed since Emilia ended it with Aaron. That week was filled with tears, romance movies, ice cream, and the most violent voice mails that he had ever sent her. He had sent her letters. He had came knocking at her door at various times of the day, night, and early morning. She refused to go back to him.
Sarah had stayed with her the first few days before her parents started demanding for her to come home and "take care of those rats." Sarah's 'rats' were actually two little chihuahuas named Tito and Michael.
She's a huge Jackson 5 fan.
Sarah, of course, put up a little fight. She was afraid to leave Emilia alone with the crazed, abusive, lunatic named Aaron running around Emilia's building.
"Sarah, I will call you every night at eight sharp. I promise. Now will you please leave before your parents start calling me too?"
Sarah rolled her eyes and sighed, "You have a deal, Em. I will text you!"
"Better not, my inbox is full from Aaron." Emilia waved her ringing phone in the air.
"Block him, Emilia!" Sarah dropped her bags onto the floor and put her hands on Emilia's shoulders, "If you don't block him, you'll eventually give in and answer him! And don't say you won't because I am your best friend and I know you." Sarah gave her a stern look when Emilia opened her mouth in protest.
Emilia sighed, "Okay. Fine. Before you go, I'm doing a random magic show down on the corner of Angel Street tomorrow. Would you like to see me in action?" She wiggled her eyebrows up and down.
"I wish I could," Sarah frowned, "But my grandma is coming down for the weekend."
"Oh, alright. Tell the folks I said hi!"
Sarah gave her promise that she would and left the apartment.
Emilia sat down on her couch and looked around at the mess she had made over the week. Empty Ben and Jerry canisters, dirty spoons, and movies were spread out all over the coffee table. There were numerous blankets just scattered around on the floor that were for Emila to sleep on.
Ever since she was little, Emilia had to sleep in the living room when she felt scared. Maybe it was the way that she could see more of the apartment or maybe it was the fact that there were no doors in the way if she needed to sprint some where to get out of the clutches of a predator.
Emilia started cleaning her mess while putting her phone on speaker, listening to the voicemails she had recieved.
"Listen, cunt, you fucking pick up right now!"
"Emilia, you NEED ME!"
"(laughter) There's no way, no way you can avoid me!"
"Emilia... baby... please. Please talk to me."
"Hello, Emilia, This is Pepper Potts from Stark Industries in New York. If you could call back at 555-2435, that would be fantastic, thank you."
"EMILIA, I WILL SLIT YOUR-"
Whoa, what?
Emilia stopped the voice mails and stared at her phone. Stark Industries? As in Tony Stark? Why on Earth would they want to talk to her?
Emilia's blood ran cold. What if they knew about her magic and wanted to experiment on her?
Emilia gulped and dialed the number.
"Stark Industries, this is Pepper Potts, how may I help you?"
It took a few moments before Emilia could speak.
"Hello?"
"Oh, yes, sorry," Emilia chuckled nervously, "This is Emilia Mack, you called earlier?"
"Oh, yes! Emilia! It's nice to hear back from you. See, Tony is having a convention this weekend and, being the random guy he is, he wanted a magician and you came highly reccomended."
"H-How is that even possible? I've never done a show on an actual stage before..."
"I'll take it from here, Pep," A male voice popped up over the reciever and Emilia started getting really nervous, "Listen, Mack, I happened to see your show last weekend. You know, the one where you stole innocent peoples' money?"
Emilia's breath hitched. How did he know it was her?
"Here's the thing, Emilia, it's not hard to find a girl with a name like yours who does magic. Seriously, who spells Emilia with an 'E'? Anyway, You're going to go to the airport tomorrow at 10 A.M. and load onto my private jet."
"I can't go tomorrow," Emilia finally found her voice, "I'm doing a show here."
"No can do, Mack, convention's tomorrow. Either you come, or the police will know exactly where you are. See you tomorrow."
The sound of a click was enough to let Emilia know that she had no choice. She was going to New York. To preform. In front of thousands.
"WHAT THE FUCK." Emilia screamed and fell onto the couch. A black cat had jumped at her face, knocking her phone onto the ground.
"Have you been here all fucking week? What the hell?!"
The cat jumped up onto the newly cleaned coffee table and started purring and staring at her, acting like it didn't just try to murder her. Emilia sighed and laid onto her back.
"I don't even care any more." The cat jumped onto her belly, knocking the wind out of her, before laying down and kneading his paws into her shirt.
"You're lucky," Emilia grumbled, "You're a cat. You don't have to worry about finance, the police, or magical powers that people aren't supposed to even have. And to top it all off, a millionaire philanthropist is threatening to throw me in prison if I don't do some stupid magic tricks for him."
Emilia didn't even realize that she was petting the cat until she became quiet.
"Your fur is really soft... what conditioner do you use?" It took three seconds before Emilia started laughing. She was laughing when her phone rang and was laughing when she picked it up.
"Hello?" She giggled.
"Why the hell are you laughing?" The angry voice of Aaron came through the phone, "Is Sarah there? Are you... are you cheating on me?"
The laughter and color drained from Emilia.
"Aaron. We're not together any more."
Aaron chuckled, "Sure we're not. You can pretend you don't love me all you want, but at the end of the day, you'll come back."
"Bye." Emilia hung up. As soon as she did, he called her again. She put it on silent.
Very few moments passed of abrupt quietness before Emilia started sobbing.
She cried for Aaron. She cried for her parents. She cried for herself.
Hell, she even cried for that stranger that kept showing up.
The cat started meowing and nudging at her face. "Stop it." She muttered. The cat responded with licking at her tears.
"Aw, come on! Cat tongue!"
Emilia pushed the cat off and wiped the tears and snot from her face rather unattractivley. Emilia glanced at the cat suspiciously, "Are you hungry? You must be hungry. I'll go get some cat food," She paused for a second, "And a litter box. You better not have been pooping on my carpet, you little shit."
Emilia got up and went to the bathroom, wiping away the remainder of her make up. "Fuck my life."
Changing into a tank top and some sweats, Emilia locked the door of her apartment and went to her car, driving to the nearest store.
Walking through the aisles, she stopped dead in her tracks.
"Why the hell am I not kicking that feline out?"
Grumpily, she went to the aisle that said 'Animal Supplies'. Looking at the food, she had never realized how many flavors cat food could come in. A paled and reached over her shoulder and grabbed a blue bag that said 'Surfin' Turf'.
"Here, try this. It's what my cat usually likes." A smooth voice came from behind her.
Spinning around, Emilia spied Loki. He looked rather dashing this evening, his long hair slicked back and his random suit.
"Um, thank you?" Loki stared at her intently, as if waiting for something. What was he waiting for? Emilia didn't know.
"Well, good bye." She awkwardly turned to walk away, but was stopped when his soft hand clasped onto her shoulder. Emilia tensed as he gently turned her around.
"You have bruises."
Emilia cocked her head to the side in confusion before following his gaze to her arm. It was a handprint bruise from when Aaron had grabbed her.
"Oh," She laughed it off, "I'm used to it."
He stepped closer to her, causing her to take a step back, only to find that she couldn't due to the shelf in the way.
"That's not something a lady should be used to."
Emilia laughed nervously, a shiver running down her spine as he pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear.
"You know, I forgive you." He said, "For humiliating me in front of so many people."
Emilia didn't know if she felt more creeped out or turned on from this guy. Loki had to have followed her here. And to her college.
Was he stalking her?
"L-Listen," She tried to speak clearly, "I don't know what game you are playing at, but you better leave me alone."
Loki laughed, smiling broadly, "There's the Emilia that I met."
"Unhand her!"
A very beautiful woman came charging down the aisle with a sword and... Was that armour?
Loki backed away from Emilia, the smile still on his face and his hands in the air. "Nice to see you too, Sif."
And just like that, He disappeared. Emilia couldn't speak. Loki... had the same magic? Her mind was about to explode.
"Idonea, we need you in Asgard! Please, come with me!"
'Sif' grabbed onto her arm and started dragging her to the doors.
"Wha- Hey! Hey let go! EXCUSE ME!"
Siff tensed and turned quickly, "We don't have time to- AAAGH!"
Emilia squeezed the trigger of her key-chain pepper spray and made a run for it. Running out to her car and unlocking it, she shoved the key into the ignition and got the hell out of there.
About half way to her apartment, Emilia felt something cold and sharp against her throat. She slammed on the breaks and felt a prick from the knife. Her breathing got heavier but stopped completely when a voice from the back seat spoke.
"Go to your apartment, Emilia."
"A-Aaron? Wha-"
"DRIVE!" He screamed at her. Emilia squeaked and immediately put her foot on the pedal.
Whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck.
That is all that Emilia could think until she got to her apartment. Turning off the car, she tried to reason with Aaron, "Listen, Aaron-"
"Shut up and get out of the car." Emilia whimpered as she felt the blade knick her again. He removed the knife and they got out of the car. Putting the knife to her back and grabbing her shoulder, Aaron shoved her forward.
"Walk."
Emilia knew it would be useless to try to reason with him. She had been with him for almost six years and knew him very well.
They walked up the twelve flights of stairs and she unlocked her apartment. Aaron shoved her in and slammed the door behind him. Emilia slowly made her way from the ground until he kicked her hard in the side. She fell down and coughed.
Not again, she thought, not again.
But he kept kicking her. When he got tired of that, he got on top of her and started punching her every where except the face. A habit, she guessed. Just when she was about to pass out, a furry thing jumped at Aaron's face, clawing and biting it.
Screaming from surprise, he fell onto his back. Aaron tried to throw the cat off but it had a firm grip on his head. After several yanks, the cat flew off of his head and Aaron got up. With a terrified look on his face, Aaron started backing up. The cat hissed and sprinted at him. Before the cat could even get to him, Aaron bolted out the door, barley closing it behind him.
As Emilia couldn't force herself to stay awake any longer, and passed out to the feeling of a cold hand on her face.
Emilia awoke slowly, her body aching every where. Turning to her side quickly, she threw up into a trash can that was put there just seconds before she woke up. After spitting out the bad taste, she slowly sat up and gripped her stomach.
"Fuck."
Standing up, Emilia found herself in her bedroom, dressed in very comfortable pajamas. She knew that this was not the place that she fell asleep at, but at this point she didn't care. Looking at the clock, Emilia kicked her ass into high gear, whether it hurt or not.
It was 9:30.
She had thirty minutes to get ready and drive to the airport.
Emilia put on some jeans and a Marilyn Monroe long sleeved shirt before dragging out a suitcase. Emilia guessed that she'd be there the whole weekend so she packed several clothes and bathroom supplies. She opened the trunk into her closet and pulled out her ridiculous stage outfit. Under the mask, top hat, and long jacket was a black corset, a black bow tie, black panty hose, and some black underwear that she just bought to cover her private parts.
Slamming her suit case shut, she dragged it to the bathroom with her where she brushed her teeth and threw her hair up into a pony tail. Who has time for make up? After a few seconds, she gave in and put on some eyeliner.
Grabbing her keys, cellphone, and wallet, she ran out the door and locked it. It was times like these when she wished the elevator worked. Each step she took, her rib cage screamed out. Something was most definitely broken in her body.
Shoving the suitcase into the back of the car, Emilia high-tailed it out of there, basically breaking every traffic rule that was ever written. It paid off though, when she arrived one minute 'til ten. Grabbing her suitcase, she ran inside the Airport, looking for anything that said where she was supposed to go. Her prayers were answered when she looked to her left and saw Tony Stark himself holding a sign that said "Magic Mack."
... Clever.
Emilia made her way over and nervously shook his hand, "M- Mr. Stark, it's a pleasure to meet you. I didn't expect you to be here yourself."
"I'm not very predictable."
Tony pulled Emilia under his arm, "Why are you wearing a long sleeved shirt? It's hot."
Emilia relaxed when she realized it was a rhetorical question and they entered the jet.
"Wow."
"I know."
Tony's egotistical answer was justified. The interior was red and gold. Every part of this jet shouted 'Iron Man'. Tony was instructing a flight attendent to take Emilia's bag to the back of the plane while they got situated. Emilia sat in a seat and Tony sat in the seat across the aisle.
"So, how did you do it?"
Emilia broke out of her inspection of the jet, "Do what?"
"Rob those people."
Emilia stared sternly at Tony's face, "A good magician never reveals her secrets."
"You see," Tony uncrossed his legs and turned more towards her, "I don't believe it was really magic. I tried to figure out how you stole the money from my wallet by yourself and I have come to the coclusion that you actually weren't by yourself. I believe that you and that guy... Loki, was it? Were a team."
The way Tony said Loki's name made Emilia believe he hated him with the fire of a thousand suns.
"No, I had no idea who that guy was! Everyone just looked at him so I had to pick him. That is how this business works, Mr. Stark."
"Please, call me Tony."
"Tony," Emilia breathed in deeply, wanting him to understand her innocence, "That guy is actually really creepy. He..." Emilia didn't know why she did it, but she leaned in closer and lowered her voice to a whisper, as if Loki could hear her, "He's been following me."
"Following you? Any idea why?" Tony's interest in the subject seamed to shoot through the roof.
"No idea."
But she kind of liked it.
"Allfather," Sif kneeled, put her fist onto her chest, and bowed her head, "I have some great and some very bad news."
Odin looked down at the fair maiden warrior, "What is it, Sif?"
"I have located Idun's daughter."
Everyone that was in that room sighed and gasped from releif. Idun was currently in the infirmery, barely able to breathe.
"That is wonderful. What is this bad news?"
"Loki has escaped." Sif stood up.
"And he knows where Idonea is."
