~ Chapter 9 ~

"Loki? Thank God you are alive! Where are you?" One of her hands came up to push away her blond hair that was fallen into her face in heavy bangs.

For a long moment there was nothing but silence on the other side before a voice came through.

"Who am I talking to?"

A man's voice.

Thor didn't know what to say, cold dread trickling inside her like water. This wasn't Loki.

"I'm Victoria. Who are you and what the hell are you doing with my little sister's phone?"

Another lengthy silence before the man started to talk again. "Um... I've never used something like this before so I don't know but are you close to the dark haired girl?"

"Loki? She's my sister. Where is she?" Please say she was alive.

"Um... can you come to the shelter on the outskirt of town?"

"You mean Hope's Shelter?"

"Yeah!"

"I'll be there in 10 minutes." and she hanged up the phone just as she jumped out of bed. Literary.

34 minutes later she pulled up outside the homeless shelter where a dirty and bearded man stood waiting for her. The Engine hadn't even stopped before Thor jumped out the door, taking the car keys with her and walked right up to the man. Her bright hair a mess and she hadn't bothered much with her clothes, just a pair of trousers and a jumper, not even bothering with socks before she put on a pair of high-heels which had been the first pair of shoes she could reach.

"Um... are you... um... Victoria?" the old man asked slowly, not sure what to think about the beautiful woman in front of him.

"Yes. Where's my sister?" Thor demanded without regards to manners.

"Um... I see how you... um... are sisters. You are both... um... so pretty." the man said with a smile, not taking to heart the rude attitude. "This... um... way."

He walked confidently into the shelter with Thor hot on his heels. The inside was a stale smell of unwashed people and the mingling smell of hot food. There were a small area with tables that was full with homeless eating while they minded their own business. Others sat or stood around the place, waiting for a clean shirt or bed roll. The walls full of pictures and encouraging posters and words. Like the bad version of a kindergarten where the teachers didn't seem to care so much.

Eyes lifted as the man lead Thor through the rather crowded place, her beauty drawing the attention rather than the new arrival of another person. Thor couldn't help but peek around, she hadn't really thought about how many homeless their city had, since she hadn't seen any.

There was a room beyond the toilet area which stank worse than a dog house, making Thor wrinkle her nose in disgust. Then came a doorway that lacked a proper door. Inside was a few people, some coughing while sitting on the floor while an elderly woman walked around to them. There was only one bed, if it could be called that, on the floor and as soon as Thor could see the face-

"Loki." she rounded the bearded man in no time and fell to her knees the moment she was next to the bedroll, ignoring the pain shooting up her legs.

The pale face was drawn tight as the cover was pulled down to her waist. A tank top was pulled up up, revealing a bandage over her stomach with a patch of cotton that was slightly pink. The dark tresses lay around her head as the swallow breathing was the only indication she was still alive.

Thor's hand's came out to touch Loki's face, trying to understand that this was real, before she bowed her head down like she was saying thanks to a mightier power.

With a heavy grunt, the man sat down next to Thor. "Girly was lucky. Um... Henry found her... bleeding... uh... we don't have much but we did our best."

"Why didn't you take her to a hospital?" Thor asked without raising her head.

"Hospitals don't like us. Um... we take care of our own... and girly is special to us."

This earned a peek of blue eyes. "Why?"

The man, despite smelling unwashed, and a beard that look like a birds nest, smiled fondly at the sleeping girl. "Girly took care of us for so long. Um... most don't even look at us but... um... Girly was different." He pulled his shirt tighter around him.

The weather had been bad for a few days when Loki looked at the man leaning against the wall in a ragged jacket as people walked by without caring. The old man looked up at the unusual attention and saw a young girl, maybe junior high age, who was looking at him with curious eyes.

Without a word she walked around the corner and the man thought that was it. He fought down the hunger his stomach was complaining about and tried to go back to sleep.

Suddenly a big brown bag fell into his lap, disturbing and startling him. He looked up to see the same girl with green eyes and black hair standing before him again, still not showing any expressions on her face.

"Eat." she simply said as she pointed at the bag.

Hesitatingly, he opened the bag and had a cloud of fresh bread waif into his face. He looked at the bag and saw that it was from the bakery around the corner.

"It's not poisoned so don't hold back. You must be hungry, right?" the girl knelt down in front of him.

"Um... why?" he asked, not ready to accept charity so readily. This had to be a trap.

"Why? Hmm..." the girl looked down at the ground before looking up again. "Because I felt like it."

Gingerly he took one of the steaming buns, still fresh from the oven, looked it over and secretly marveled that it was hot in his hand. Biting into it, he was assaulted by the taste that he almost choked. Ignoring the pain he ate it whole in three bits before reaching in and taking another and consumed it in a similar fashion.

"I'm glad." Loki smiled gently at the man as she continued to simply watch him eat her gift.

"Whenever she saw one of us she would go get something for us, um...be it food or clothes. Word got around about... um... a pretty angel, and all...uh... saw it as a blessing of good luck. Um... Because we are... uh... outsider, we are used to being ignored. Even hurt at times." he reached up and scratched his head through his cap. "So... that is... um... when Henry found Girly hurt... we... um... we all pitched in to take care of her." he licked his lips, not used to talking this long. "Lucy over here has... that is... um... nurse experience. So we brought her here and... uh... everything we could find." Finally he met Thor's blue intense eyes, confident enough to look at them. "We don't have much... but if it weren't for Girly, many of us would be gone now."

"Is that so." Thor said, suddenly tired from the stories she was hearing. So much she didn't know about her little sister. So much Loki had done for others but got nothing in return. How little did she actually know about her sister?

Thor's hand sought out her sister's, and Thor brought it up to her face, placing it almost reverently against her cheek. It was cold. Much colder than she remembered.

It was all she could think about before tears gathered in her eyes, and fell silently down her face.

So very cold.

TBC & Concluded In The Next Chapter.