"Loki."
"Thor?" Loki looked at his love with great relief. They were in the purple field of flowers, only unlike past dreams with Thor where the sky was blue, now it was red and the flowers were menacing. Thor sat beside a campfire and there was something roasting on a stick. Thor rose from the rock on which he sat and pulled Loki into a full embrace.
"I did not think I would see you again." They hugged each other hard for a long time before letting go.
"Thor what is going on? Why haven't I been able to dream about you? And what are these creatures doing to the people that have come into my home?" Loki asked.
"I want to escape this place, but I can't figure out how. Every time I think I get close, I wind up back in the desert watching Ernie die all over again."
"But what has been keeping us apart?"
"The dark man."
"Thor who is the dark man? Is it Maywood?"
"He's the one that manipulates the children. They have to do what he wants. The children don't like hurting people, but he controls them. The children try to help me when they can. Sometimes they get punished for doing so. "
"Why is the dark man collecting people?"
"I don't know."
"Thor, how is it that you are trapped here?"
"I wish I knew. I've missed you so much Loki. I feared I would never see you again or worse, that you would be trapped here like the others and forced to do the dark man's deeds."
"To what end though?"
"I don't know."
"You have to know SOMETHING Thor!"
"I try! I cannot think or focus in this place, except when I think about you or Ernie. The people I love are the only things that let me keep a coherent thought."
"How is it that you were able to get to me the other day? How did you know I needed help?"
"An angel came. She was beautiful. She guided me through that dark place to you. I usually only see her when I'm watching you. She follows you around the house."
"How is it that you can watch me?"
"Like this." Thor pulls out a disk from his pocket. At first Loki thinks it to be a pocket watch or a make-up compact, but it is actually a compass. Inside the compass, was a mirror. He opened it up and an image of the kitchen appeared, though it was currently unoccupied. "It guides me where I want to go….except it doesn't work when I go in there." Thor pointed at the black mansion sitting in the distance. "It points me in all the wrong directions, but the angel was able to show me the way to you and restrain the beast."
"What does she look like?" Loki's voice squeaked, knowing what the answer would be.
"She has bleach white skin, like the children, you know when they aren't transformed into monsters. Do you know her?"
"I think she's my mother. Is she here now? Can I talk to her?"
"I don't think so. I've only seen her in this dark world that one time. One of the children told me that they saw here once but that is all."
"Where else have you seen her?"
"In the library. It is where she goes to rest when she is not following you."
"The library. Her ashes are on the mantle. You said she was seen by one of the children...was that when he tried to pull Joseph in through the mirror?"
"What mirror?"
"The mirrors Thor! The mirrors! Think back Thor. Five years ago you walked in through a mirror and you never came out! What happened?"
"I don't… I don't know. He keeps me here. I didn't mind so much in the beginning but I want to leave now. I want to be with you. He keeps me here but I don't know why. He's breaking the rules. He tried to break them with you too." Thor sat back down on the rock and pulled the stick from the fire. It was beginning to burn. It looked like some kind of charred rat. Thor picked at it before taking a hearty bite.
"What rules? What are you talking about?"
"Only the guilty can be held here." Thor said around a mouth full of roasted critter.
"What are you doing?"
"Eating. The children bring me ground hogs, squirrels, and sometimes quail. This is just a rat but pickings are always slim in winter."
Loki awoke to the sound of his alarm going off. He'd set it the night before as a sort of failsafe just in case his dream was something he couldn't handle. He curses himself for his own ingenuity. Loki picked through the memory of his dream. It had been vivid and full of information. If only it had lasted a few more minutes. The end of the dream got his attention the most.
"Why would a dead man need to eat?"
XxXxXxXxXx
Loki's hands trembled as he gripped his rosary. It was so out of place in the Lutheran church in his community but he did not care. Christmas was less than two weeks away and he needed the comfort of God to give him courage to face the evil dwelling in his house. The spirit of Leslie Maywood was trying to collect his soul and keep Thor imprisoned inside that hellish version of the world.
Reverend McDowell came up to the pulpit to speak. The choir behind him was decked out in their Christmas extravaganza best. The church did not have a whole lot in the way of decorations but what it did have was beautiful and filled with much cheer.
"Let us speak tonight about the reason for the season. In this day and age when Christianity is under attack, denigrated for past crimes throughout history, let us remember why Jesus brings light into an otherwise dark and scary world." The Reverend began. Loki listened quietly with the other parishioners.
"…because human life had no value. The Romans certainly did not view human life as a sacred thing. Here on this continent Christianity spread like wildfire when it was introduced. Why? The Incas and the Mayans worshipped gods that required human sacrifice for appeasement. They also required flagellation and the people would often cut themselves and offer up their own blood to their god as a sacrifice. Now imagine what it must have meant to someone living in a world like that. A world where your neighbors had their beating hearts cut out of their chests to please God. A world where you were expected to inflict wounds upon your person to please god. Then one day a Christian missionary comes and tells you about Jesus. You see for the first time the image of a God that chose to suffer and bleed for YOU! You see, he is called the lamb for a reason. God sent down his only son to suffer and die, because he was meant to be the last person ever to die for the sake of pleasing God. Because God loves all of us in equal measure and doesn't want us to kill each other in his name. Now naysayers will point to the Crusades...and well…all I can say to that is … Oops." Loki and the other parishioners chuckled.
"Obviously the organizers of that particular event forgot the first lesson of the lamb. And for all the terrible things done in God's name both in Christianity and all the other world religions, faith in God serves a purpose in our daily lives…"
The Reverend continued his sermon but Loki lingered on the point about the value of human life and human souls. Loki couldn't help but wonder if God was trying to tell him something through the words of the good Reverend and what that message could be.
XxXxXxXxXx
"I can pawn all my jewelry. That'll get us another million dollars. Would that be enough to cover it?" Pepper asked her husband.
"The Litmans and the Morgansterns both put in calls to cash out their accounts this afternoon. I only have a few business days to cough up $24 million or the feds will show up at the office to investigate."
"Then we use the money from my jewelry to live off of. If we leave town now and move someplace with a low cost of living we can make that last the rest of our lives. They'll try to hunt us down but if we lay low and move to a country without an extradition agreement we will be okay."
"Like you would be happy living in some third world shit hole the rest of your life. No. We need money. We need a shit ton of it and we need it now."
"You can't do this. Not again. Please Tony. He's such a sweet boy."
"We may not have to. I just need that damn…THING! Loki needs to give it to me but he keeps dragging his feet!"
"Tony, I don't understand. It's just a glass sphere full bones and herbs. It can't be worth that much. I mean, is it some rare archeological artifact or something? Why do you think it is so valuable?"
"It just is! It'll fix all of our problems. I just need to get my hands on it."
"Give Emily a chance. I told her what she needs to do. She'll play along. She'll get the money for us." Pepper sounded desperate. Even she didn't sound like she believed it.
"How much? A couple of million dollars? Loki is easily worth $35 million and probably more since the kid lives like a monk and put his money in an unmanaged index fund. God damn smart fucking kid."
"We don't even know if he's done up a will yet Tony."
"We have four days to figure this shit out or we are fucked."