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A/N: Once again I'm updating sooner than expected. It's great to finally have some free time to write after so many busy weeks, and I feel too inspired to spend this time to make up for lost sleep...

The story has just begun.

4. The Bond

~oOo~

It was the third time Thor was ringing his brother. Loki had been supposed to come back from school more than two hours ago, but he hadn't, and his mobile phone was either turned off or was somehow out of coverage area, which Thor found odd, unless the battery of his brother's mobile phone had run out. This time the blond decided to leave the voice message, asking his little brother to ring him back as soon as possible, just in case he was wrong about the battery.

He tried to concentrate on his homework (the penultimate year in High School was quite challenging*), but his eyes, time and again, travelled towards the mobile phone on his bedside table, as if looking at it would make it start playing the classical piano tune, the one that always played when his brother rang him from his own mobile phone. Thor wasn't really worried, but Loki had promised to be home right after school. If he had any extra lessons or some other plans, he usually informed Thor or their parents about it; and since their parents were away, Thor was in charge. If Loki, for some reason, couldn't use his mobile phone, he used a land line phone in school.

Almost two more hours later, Thor decided to drive to school, find Loki and give him a good scolding for suddenly deciding to be so irresponsible. It didn't look like the younger one's usual antics that could very-well be an attention-seeking behaviour. Thor had already rung to a couple of Loki's classmates and friends, but they had long come home and had no idea about any extra lessons, nor did they know about Loki's whereabouts. Thor was a little worried and a little angry. But his anger disappeared and the feeling of concern and uneasiness settled down in his heart as soon as he entered the school and the caretaker, who was busy cleaning the floor of the entrance hall, assured him that all the pupils had long left, and nobody matching Thor's description of Loki had been among those who had left later than the majority of the other people; at least, as far as the man could remember.

Looking lost, Thor was sitting in his motionless car, thinking of where else he could try to search for his brother. Loki had a few friends, mostly his classmates, and the blond had already rung all of them; they knew nothing.

~oOo~

Loki kept sitting at the door curled up, almost paralysed with fear. His mind refused to go numb, but he couldn't tell how much time he had already spent here. It felt like many hours. The tiniest noises of the old building sounded ominous in the hollow silence and made Loki curl up even tighter and stop breathing for several moments with his heart stuttering in his chest. He felt like he would never feel safe and sane again, even if he was let out immediately. If at first he couldn't stop screaming and crying, now he was afraid to make a sound; the irrational fear of someone or something hearing him and coming to him, attracted by any noises he made, was making him still and mute, like a piece of furniture. He absolutely didn't find it hard to ignore his limbs that were begging to be stretched and his entire body that wanted him to, at least, change its position. He didn't care about it. In order to find at least a tiny bit of comfort, he was trying to think about his family. He was sure Thor had already started looking for him...

Another tiny noise of an unknown origin snapped him out of his thoughts, even though he hadn't been really immersed into them as his brain was constantly on the alert mode.

Some more time of this mental torture had passed, and Loki's mind started to shut down again, becoming blank... before he suddenly heard footsteps. They were somewhere outside, but they weren't outside the door that Loki was pressing himself against, so he couldn't imagine where the sound was coming from. And when he heard the noise that resembled the sound of an opening door, the white-hot fear burned his exhausted mind, restarting it together with the panic. He heard the footsteps again, and this time they were right here, in this room, bothering some tiles that were no longer stuck to the floor, as far as the sound allowed to conclude. Loki's eyes widened and his heart sank. Someone was right here in this morgue, in this very room... His hair stood on end and all the blood seemed to be rushing away from his head very fast, almost making him faint. It nearly made him fail to hear the quiet metallic squeak and something that resembled a faint splash of water. For several moments he could hear the rolling noises that probably belonged to some old pipes inside the walls. There were more footsteps... and breathing, slightly wheezing.

But when all noises had stopped all of a sudden, Loki wasn't fooled. It was there. He knew it, he felt it. It had somehow entered the morgue, feeling the presence of a victim. He failed to hold back a loud sob that escaped him before he knew it, and his heart nearly stopped in terror. There was some brief fussing in the darkness, but then it became unbearably silent, and Loki instinctively knew that it was watching him. If it hadn't seen him before, for some miraculous reason, he had definitely given himself away now. Now that there was no point in holding back any longer, he started weeping openly; his brain was only faintly registering the feeling of tears running down his face, though, because all senses were overshadowed by the acute, cold, insane dread that was eating him alive. Maybe people who were about to be killed (who knew that they were about to be killed) felt something similar to what he was feeling right now.

The footsteps were approaching, and Loki started to hyperventilate. No, no, no! He didn't want to hear it, he didn't want! He firmly pressed his hands against his ears, closed his eyes (which didn't make any difference in this pitch darkness) and started rocking back and forth. 'It's not real... It'snotreal... It'snotrealit'snotrealit'snotreal...' But even with his ears being closed he heard some muffled click and through the thin skin of his eyelids he saw some flash of light. But he kept sobbing with his eyes and ears firmly closed. There was some light, but not the type of light that would've made his terror go away. It looked evil and red through his eyelids, so he shut his eyes even tighter. What if the denial would make it all go away? It couldn't be real, after all. But then... it touched his cheek with its cold hand and Loki went rigid in terror. No sobs escaped him any longer, because even breathing seemed impossible. It had never touched him before, he had never felt its presence this close...

It smelled like something burning. He could hear its disgusting laboured, wheezing breathing. It touched him again, caressing his face and then his hair and shoulder. He was stiff under its exploring hand, but his body was sometimes flinching involuntarily. He could feel it inhaling the smell of his hair; its hand found a way inside his coat in the front and it was touching his chest, though the fact that Loki was so tightly curled up didn't make it enough room for a further exploration. When the touching stopped for possibly a couple of minutes, Loki knew it was watching him, but he couldn't make himself open his eyes, in case he would somehow be able to see it, which he knew he wouldn't be able to endure. He was just sitting there with his eyes closed, hyperventilating and feeling that he was probably having the last few moments of his life.

When it put him onto the very cold floor, he was hardly even realising what was going on, lying on his side, still curled up defensively. It was touching him again, now even more intimately. His brain started working somewhat properly at some moment and he realised that he was no longer wearing his coat, and his shirt was unbuttoned. The cold hands were touching his naked skin and were trying to uncurl his body. He tried to protest, but it was stronger. His mind once again went blank for enough time for it to undress him completely and resume its explorations. When Loki became aware of what was going on, panic made him start writhing and desperately moving away from the unwanted touching. And then he accidentally saw it; and it was something he never would have wanted to see in his life. It had one single eye in the middle of its face, the eye was small and orange, glowing in the dark, and its glowing allowed Loki to very faintly see that it was surrounded by the grey, misty face, very slightly illuminated by the orange-red light of the eye. Loki closed his eyes shut in an unimaginable terror, his body shaking with loud sobs. The monster existed and it seemed to be much more material than Loki had ever imagined. All the assurances of the doctors, all the assurances of his own logical mind, that the darkness, which he was so terrified of, was uninhabited, all of it had been a cruel mistake. It was inhabited... And it was so real that he absolutely wasn't ready for such kind of reality.

The creature leaned down to him and licked his face, then his neck. The cold of the room was unkind to the wet skin exposed to it. The monster's hands were pawing at him hungrily, sometimes stopping and pinching him, making him whimper or cry out in pain. It licked Loki's tense stomach and sucked on the smooth, pale skin. It was touching, licking, pinching and smelling him all over, like a hungry beast it was, making Loki try to recoil from everything it was doing to him. He never stopped sobbing. When it opened his legs and moved his knees up to his chest, he was startled by the dark, satisfied groan it emitted as its wet tongue slid between his buttocks. He couldn't tell what distressed and disgusted him more: the sound or the action itself, but he didn't care, because its intentions were becoming clearer and clearer with each passing second.

Before he knew it, he was turned onto his stomach, the cold of the floor was almost shocking against his skin, and the creature sat down on his thighs. He felt its wet member starting to press into him. That broke his stupor somewhat, and he tried to move away. The sudden hit on the back of his head deafened him and made his forehead collide with the hard, cold floor. The creature used the moment of his shock to penetrate him. He whimpered in pain, too shocked to scream. The agony shot through his spine; his strained limbs were shaking uselessly.

The creature was mocking him. His ears felt stuffed from shock, but he could hear it mocking him, even though he didn't understand its demonic language. Its muffled, low, guttural voice sounded triumphant. The monster was delighted. Of course, it was... It had got Loki now. All these years of escaping it, and now it had got what it wanted, though in his worst nightmares he couldn't have imagined that it wanted this.

As it started thrusting into him, Loki was in so much pain, he thought he was being torn apart. Moments of light-headedness alternated with moments of agonising awareness when he in full measure was feeling it raping him, fucking his naked body into the hard, cold, tiled floor, taking his innocence, sanity, and probably even his soul, away. His body was out of his control; he heard himself emitting cries of pain, felt tears running down his face; but, at the same time, he was almost resigned. He was soon to be dead, he was sure about it, and he almost wanted it to happen sooner.

When the monster finally came inside him and pulled out, growling contentedly, Loki was lying without moving; his used, hurt body was still shivering, though. Semiconscious and mentally overloaded, he wasn't sure how much time had passed before the creature started touching him again. Out of the corner of his vision Loki saw its glowing orange eye again and closed his eyes, unable to look at the creature any longer. Once again it smelled like burning. Its hand moved along the youth's slender body. And then Loki suddenly screamed, startling himself. His mind wasn't following until he felt the hot, excruciating pain in the small of his back. The creature burned him and perhaps the white-hot iron felt the same way against skin. The monster wasn't going to just kill him, no; it was going to torture him first.

The following nightmare seemed to have lasted for hours, Loki couldn't tell. Holding him down, the creature pinched and burned him again and again, making the shrieks and screams tear out of him; and though his stuffed ears muffled everything, he could hear his own noises of terror and agony reverberating from the cold walls of the abandoned morgue. When his throat was too sore to produce any more sounds, except for some quiet wailing, the monster stopped the torture, just to inflict the other one: it entered him again, for a few moments making the already hurt body become stiff like a statue.

Eventually, Loki unconsciously managed to detach himself from his own body, at least for the most part, letting the creature finish with him before it would kill him; not that he had a choice. 'I'm sorry, Thor... I'm not going to Denmark with you to see how you win the competition...' Tears once again escaped his eyes, but he wasn't aware of them.

~oOo~

Thor, desperate and seriously worried now, was driving about the town, often stopping to ask chance passers-by if they had seen Loki, describing his brother or just showing Loki's picture that he had in his mobile phone. People just shook their heads, looking at worried Thor with genuine sympathy. Only one woman said that she had seen someone who resembled Loki in the small park not far away. But when Thor got there, he saw the stranger, who didn't have much in common with his Loki, except for the hair colour and the dark-grey coat. The young man was happily chit-chatting with his friends. Thor sighed. He was considering ringing their parents, but what could they possibly do from a remote continent? He would only make them worry, nothing more. Once again, he rang home, hoping that Loki was there, but nobody answered.

When he was back in his car, his mobile phone suddenly started ringing and he nervously answered the call without even looking at the display.

"Loki!"

"Umm... Thor... It's Sif," the confused female voice replied.

"Hi, Sif..." he muttered, failing to hide his disappointment. In any other situation he would've been glad to hear her, but he'd expected his brother to ring him and tell him that everything was fine.

"What's wrong?" the young woman asked, now worried, too.

"I can't find Loki. He should've been home long ago. No one knows where he is and his phone is off..."

He explained the situation. Mostly he just wanted to share the burden of his heart with a friend; and she was a good friend. Being a good friend, however, she decided that listening to him wasn't enough. She asked him where he was, told him not to go anywhere and ended the call without explaining herself.

About fifteen minutes later Gunnar, Sif's father, arrived there, driving his police car. Thor had thought it was a little too early to call the police, but he gladly accepted the help of the one who knew what to do; he was a sergeant, after all. Gunnar asked him several questions. He asked if Thor and Loki had argued, if there was a possibility that Loki was angry or upset with him. He asked about all possible places where Loki could've gone after school... There were a lot of questions, but the man was a professional, so Thor believed that everything that he was being asked was important.

Gunnar took Thor with him, making the younger man leave his own car. They visited several Loki's classmates, but no one had any information about the missing boy. Sif rang Thor and her father several times to enquire about their progress, but they had nothing to tell her so far.

~oOo~

Loki knew that the creature was almost done with him now. It had won. The boy's head was hit against the hard floor and severe pain shot through his skull. He knew he was wailing, but he could no longer hear himself. The ringing silence was the only thing he could hear now. He felt nauseous, his insides churned in panic at the thought that his short life was about to be taken from him. It was not an end anyone would've pictured for them. Even mentally resigned to forthcoming death, no one could deceive the instinct for survival. 'No, no, no! I can't die! Please, I don't want... Mum...' The next hit of his head against the floor interrupted his blurred and chaotic thoughts, and the pain was gone at once... If there was a grain of awareness left in him for a few more moments, he would've been thankful that his torture was over and he could no longer feel anything at all.

~oOo~

As they had left the house of one of Loki's classmates and headed back to the police car, Thor realised that everything was unnaturally quiet around him, so quiet that he couldn't hear his own breathing or footsteps. It was confusing. But then it was forgotten, and he stopped on his tracks as he suddenly saw his little brother standing on the pavement, about twelve metres away. At first Loki almost didn't move at all, but then he smiled at Thor sadly. With his chest tightening almost painfully, the older brother weakly and tentatively smiled back at the pale, quite blurry figure. But before the blond young man had a chance to approach his little brother and say how worried he had been, embrace the lean body tightly, and maybe scold the boy a little, Loki disappeared with a blink of Thor's eye. The blond blinked several more times to make sure it had been only a vision, and he knew that it had really been nothing but one; a hallucination that was just a product of the strong emotional attachment Thor felt towards Loki; just a product of his worried mind. But, unconsciously, Thor pressed a hand to his anxious heart, his breath hitched in his chest. There, in his heart, something was torn, and he felt that something terrible had happened to Loki.

Gunnar distracted Thor, putting a hand on the younger man's shoulder and asking if he was well. Thor, who could hear again almost normally, nodded automatically, though he didn't mean it at all. Only when he was in the car he realised that his entire body was shaking violently, as if he was having a severe fever. He felt cold and alone. It hurt, but he didn't know where exactly it hurt. The older man suggested him to go home and calm down while the policeman was doing his job, but Thor decidedly refused.

He would've given anything for a proof that his heart was wrong and Loki was fine, but deep inside he already knew that things would no longer be the same.

* In Iceland young people usually finish High School in twenty or so. Thor is almost nineteen.

A/N: Don't forget to take a good look at the wonderful picture for this story, drawn by talented Silver Jackie!

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