Hurricane

Chapter 2: A Bit of Research

Finally, after going over the events of her dream that night over and over in her head, Chelsea climbed out from under the covers and walked over to her desk where she kept her backpack on the floor and propped up against one of the legs of her desk. She began to rummage through it for her binder and after she pulled it out, she opened it and quickly wrote on one of the pieces of paper stuffed in there the name of the man who was currently haunting her dreams.

Loki of Asgard…

Now why the hell did that name sound so damned familiar? Chelsea knew that she had heard of it before, but she just couldn't really place it. She knew she had heard it a long time ago and yet she couldn't remember who had mentioned it to her in the first place. Perhaps her father knew. It was probably a long shot, but it was worth a try.

So, after Chelsea got dressed and ready for the day she left her bedroom and wandered into the kitchen to grab herself a bowl of cereal. Her father was standing in there in his pajamas currently working on making a cup of coffee. After quickly making herself a bowl of Cap 'n Crunch, she sat down at their small table and took a bite before looking to her father.

"Hey uh dad?"

"Yes honey?" He turned to her with a pleasant smile on his face as he began to stir in his favored amount of sugar into his mug.

"Uhm…This might be a little weird, but do you happen to know anything about a uh, Loki? Or a place called Asgard by chance." She shoved another spoonful of cereal into her mouth and watched her father sit down in front of her. He had a sort of reminiscent smile on his face as he gazed into the dark liquid.

"Yeah, actually. Your mother, when you were just a little girl, used to tell you stories about these ancient Gods before bed. She believed that those Disney fairytale books were a load of crap and she wanted to tell you stories that she truly believed were real." He took a sip from his coffee. "I used to watch her tell you these amazing stories at night and you were so fascinated by them. You never wanted to fall asleep in the middle of her stories, you made sure to soak in every last word before sleep took you."

"So…How did mom know about this place, Asgard? And the stories; where did she get them from?" How could she have totally forgotten about the stories her mother told her as a child? She certainly remembered that it was always her mother that tucked her in to bed and wished her goodnight, but the stories, Chelsea could vaguely remember them.

She grew a bit sad then as she thought about it. Her mother was gone, and some of the most precious memories Chelsea had of her were gone too.

"She grew up with them herself actually. Her parents used to tell her the same stories when she was a child, so she was brought up believing that Asgard was a real place and that Thor and Loki were once truly powerful Gods."

Chelsea almost giggled aloud at that last part. They were once truly powerful Gods? More like they still are! Well, as far as Chelsea knew it was Loki that still existed and yet this was all on the assumption that these dreams of hers werent just dreams, that they were actual encounters with the real Loki of Asgard.

Her father took another sip of his coffee. "How come you're asking me about this? I'm surprised you don't remember."

She truly wished she did. "Yeah, me too actually. I don't know, I had a sort of weird dream last night and I guess the name just popped into my head and well, it all makes sense now." Chelsea smiled at him and quickly finished the last of her cereal. She was lying of course. It still didn't really make sense and she absolutely hated that last night's dream had to end the way that it did when she was just about to ask him why he was bothering her in her sleep. He was definitely toying with her, there was no doubt about it, and he was enjoying every minute of it Chelsea was sure.

"Well, thanks for the info dad. I should get going, don't want to be late for my math test." She rolled her eyes at the thought of her upcoming test in second period but smiled none the less and kissed her father on the cheek. She grabbed her backpack where she left it on an empty chair and walked to the back door. "Bye dad!"

"Bye, honey. Be careful!"

"So, how did you math test go?" Sadie asked as soon as they sat down at their desks and got ready for their third period English class.

"Ugh!" Chelsea let her face fall into her backpack and groaned. "I think I bombed it." She lifted her head to look at her friend. "Yeah, I'm sure I totally bombed it. I mean, I always tend to get really bad grades on my tests in that class anyways, so it would really be no surprise that I failed this one as well."

"Ohh, math isn't that bad and I am sure you did just fine." Sadie smiled.

Chelsea glared in her direction. "Easy for you to say."

"Yeah, I suppose you are right." Sadie giggled and ran a hand through her dark hair and shrugged her shoulders. "Numbers just come easily to me. I could tutor you, you know."

Chelsea laughed. "Yeah right! We have tried that before and it clearly didn't work. I just have to accept the fact that I will never be good at math and numbers and that's that! I just have to hope and pray that I pass Algebra this semester."

"Yeah, it was definitely a godsend when you passed it last semester."

"No kidding." After everyone was seated, their teacher began the lecture and once again, Chelsea's mind was lost to the apparent 'God' that was haunting her dreams. His name was Loki and he was from Asgard and apparently her mother used to tell her all kinds of stories about Asgard and its princes when she was a child. Maybe that was why she was having these dreams; that it all stemmed from her mother's stories. And even though that seemed like a good possibility, Chelsea felt that that might not be the reason as to why Loki was visiting her and why he chose her out of all people. She knew that there was definitely something else going on and she hoped that she could get to the bottom of it soon.

Chelsea sighed as she twirled her pen around in her fingers. Their teacher had stopped lecturing the class and had finally passed out their assignment and even though the sheet of paper was placed in front of her she did not feel like doing anything. She didn't care about reading a few passages in the book they were assigned to read for the class and then answer the questions that were typed onto the sheet of paper. None of it mattered to her when she had a very pressing issue that she needed to take care of. God how she couldn't wait until school let out so that she could walk to the city library and see if they had any books on Loki.

"Hey, Sadie?" Chelsea began after a few minutes of staring blankly at the sheet of paper.

"Yeah?"

"This may seem a little strange, but do you happen to know anything about an ancient God named Loki? I guess he lives…ah…Lived in a place called Asgard…?" If the shoe was on the other foot and someone had asked her the same question then she would have thought it very bizarre too, but her friend didn't seem too put off by it. In fact, Sadie appeared to be interested in the question and perhaps glad that she could be torn away from their class assignment.

"Loki? Oh! I know about him! Yeah, he is known as the Norse God of Mischief. There have been quite a lot of crappy films that were made that had Loki and Thor in it. Oh! And there is also a very weird Australian television series that features Thor and Loki too. It actually just premiered on the 7th of this month." Sadie's eyebrows creased together when she finished, wondering why Chelsea was asking her such a question. "Why do you ask..?"

"Uhm…" Chelsea continued to fiddle around with her pen and bit her lip as she tried to figure out a way to tell her about the dreams she has been having without sounding too crazy. "Well…I don't know…I just, I've been having these really strange dreams lately and honestly they are really distracting."

Sadie chuckled lightly and nodded her head. "So thats why. I've actually noticed that you have been a bit distant lately…So what happens in these dreams?"

"Well…For three nights in a row it started out with me standing in a dark room and after trying to find my way out for what seems like forever, there is this sudden green and gold mist floating about the room. And then he begins talking to me and laughing and Sadie, this guy's accent...He has an English accent and his voice is deep and just…"

"You have to be kidding me." Sadie giggled. "This is amazing!"

Chelsea rolled her eyes and suppressed a grin at Sadie's excitement. "Well, after that for four nights it didn't happen which was frustrating because I wanted to find out who the hell this guy was. So, last night I ended up having the dream again and this time I took control and demanded that he show me who the hell he was."

Sadie grinned and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. "Did you get to see what he looked like?" Chelsea nodded her head and proceeded to explain to her what Loki looked like down to the very last detail. After recalling his features and what he looked like, Chelsea was surprised at herself by how much she remembered. Well, she would have to blame that on how very vivid these dreams were, especially the last one that she had. Normally she couldn't really remember such intricate details of a dream, but in these ones she could and that alone had her feeling rather suspicious.

"Wow….Just, wow." Sadie giggled again, a huge grin plastered on her face.

Chelsea flushed with embarrassment and ran her hand over her face. "You must think I am insane right now."

"No! Of course not, I find this entertaining actually." She laughed. "Man…I wish I could have dreams like that. You should consider yourself very lucky! Hell, if I knew any guy who went to school here that sounded anything like this Loki guy, I would have jumped them already."

Chelsea chuckled lightly and shook her head. "Sadie!" Chelsea exclaimed, playfully hiting her friend on her upper arm. "That's definitely not my endgame. Besides, they are only dreams anyway. The guy can't possibly be real."

Sadie shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, you're right. But, you can certainly dream right?" She grinned and winked at her friend, her pun not funny in the slightest. No, definitely not.

Chelsea continued on through the day like normal, or, as normally as possible. The thought of Loki possibly being real was plaguing her mind and was making her terribly anxious. Which that was absolutely absurd! The logical side of her brain told her that these were just dreams and that there was nothing real about them. But then the other side of her brain, the side that was naturally curious about things, the side that tended to day dream constantly throughout the day – even before these dreams had started – told her that maybe there was a very slim chance that there was something real and substantial about what was going on.

Yet if all this was real, then what? What would the endgame be? How long would this go on for and would Chelsea even want it to stop now that it has started? Unfortunately, those questions would have to be answered at a later date. Right now, however, Chelsea was on her way to the public library to do a bit of searching around to see if she could find anything on Norse Mythology and if there was anything that mentioned Loki.

Upon arriving at the library which was actually located just down the street from where she lived, she sent a quick text to her father, telling him that she was going to be a little late in coming home and then went straight to the mythology and religion section which was near the back of the building. She wasn't sure where exactly to start, but she figured that anything that mentioned Norse in the title would be as good as any.

She scanned the shelves of books before her, thus far only finding things about Greek mythology and different religions of the world. But finally, after a few minutes of searching she found a small section in the very back of the aisle against the wall. With a sigh of relief she began to pluck a few books off the shelf. One was titled 'Norse Mythology: A guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs' By John Lindow. As it appeared from the summary there was a great deal of information about everything there was to know about Norse mythology and its Gods. Chelsea picked that one out and tucked it under her arm while she went through the others that she pulled from the shelf. She skimmed the summaries of most and found that some didn't catch her eye like the first. But then she came to the last one and her heart nearly leapt out of her chest at the title.

" 'Loki, Why I Began the End' by Maia Jacomus." Chelsea whispered quietly to herself. She flipped open the book and read the first page and discovered that it was written in Loki's point of view. He was telling the story of what happened to him starting at the beginning.

She continued to read onto the second page when a sudden cold breeze blew over her right shoulder. She froze on the spot and lifted her head from gazing down at the words on the pages, her eyes wide and fixed on the shelf in front of her. There was a presence standing directly behind her and there was a slight buzzing in her ears. The air behind her was suddenly cold and she could only imagine that someone was standing directly behind her and there was no doubt that that someone was Loki. It was the same feelings she had from her dreams.

The cool breeze blew over her shoulder once again, rustling a few strands of her hair and Chelsea gasped and spun around to see that there was no one there. The aisle was empty of anyone but her and there were no windows near her and even if there were windows, they most definitely were not open. It was still February and it was still a bit cold out so who would open a bloody window anyway?

Chelsea took in a deep steadying breath to calm her nerves and to slow the rapid beating of her heart. She turned back around to face the bookshelf in an attempt to ignore the cold presence that she knew was there with her. She continued to scan the books on the shelves and plucked a couple more from the collection, vowing to ignore the cold chill the best she could but after ten more minutes of searching and scanning the summaries on the backs of books, Chelsea grew tired of being watched and hovered over and rushed out of the mythology and religions of the world section and headed straight for the checkout counter. She breathed a sigh of relief when the pressure in the air around her shoulders had finally left, however, she still felt as if she was being watched from a distance and she decided that she most definitely did not enjoy that feeling.

Later that evening after eating dinner with her father, bathing, and finishing up the last of her homework, Chelsea opened up one of the books she had checked out at the library. She had no plans on staying up all night reading, so she quickly read a few passages and skimmed over some of the boring parts. Some of the stories made her laugh, particularly the ones that spoke of Loki's mischief. There were plenty of pictures that were illustrated in some of the books and there were even a few of Loki himself.

Chelsea had giggled to herself when she saw the first one of Loki. Really? Red hair? Surely that had to be a joke because when Loki had revealed himself to her that one time he had jet black hair, not red. She continued to look through the books for the next forty five minutes and found that all the other pictures of Loki she found were of him with red hair and not black. It was quite strange, but perhaps that was proof enough for her that this was all in her head, that the dreams weren't of any importance. They were simply just dreams.

Yawning, Chelsea took a look at her clock on the wall beside her desk. It was almost midnight and she was dead tired. So, with that being said she shut off her table lamp and crawled into bed.

She dreamt of Loki again that night. It started out more or less the same as they usually did, except this time the green and gold mist floated about the room until it settled against a wall and dissipated, revealing Loki standing there, leant up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. His form nearly startled her, but she reminded herself that this was all just a dream, that it wasn't real despite the intense detail on his armor and his horned helmet.

Chelsea tried to speak, wanted to, but was unsure of what to say. Thankfully he spoke up first. "So, I see you have done some research…" So, it was him then standing behind her in the middle of the book aisle? But, how could that be? The library was old…So maybe it was haunted all on its own somehow. And though that would be a more or less logical solution, the more she thought about it the more complicated it seemed to be. It would be so much easier if she would just accept that Loki was real and that these dreams just weren't a product of her suddenly overactive imagination.

But, she continued to deny it as she shrugged and responded to him. "Maybe, what of it?"

Loki shrugged his shoulders as well and pushed himself from the wall and took a step towards her. "I am only commenting and am mildly curious as to what you have found."

"None of that matters though. You're fake, the stories are completely fake and the authors definitely couldn't have been around all those years ago when you guys were apparently real. You are nothing but a figment of my imagination and that is all."

"And that, my dear, is where you are so terribly wrong. Regardless of the stories you've read, I am Odin's youngest son, not his brother. Thor is my brother and he is the biggest oaf I have ever had the displeasure of being related to. I have been around for many centuries and after so many centuries you tend to get bored every once in a while. This is why I came here to your realm and happened upon you. And I must say, you have captured my attention. I've been thoroughly enjoying this." He grinned down at her, the grin only widening when she glared up at him.

"So that is why you are here? To fuck around with my head, make me believe that I am crazy?" My God, did he have to be so tall? His height – he had to be at least over six feet tall - only seemed to add to his demeanor, his façade. If he had been an inch or two taller than she was – and she was only about five feet and four inches - then he wouldn't be so intimidating, or attractive for that matter.

"Ooo, such language. You are feisty." He confirmed with a chuckle, his pearly white teeth showing and his eyes crinkling at the corners. Chelsea decided right then that despite the cruel way in which he laughed, she still admired it. It was ridiculous really, she shouldn't admire a dangerous man's cruel laugh, shouldn't admire the way he gazed upon her as he did so and she most definitely shouldn't welcome the fluttering of butterflies she felt in the pit of her stomach.

Chelsea gave a frustrated groan and turned around, her back facing towards Loki. "Just leave me alone! I don't wish for any more encounters from a fake God." Loki's sudden laugh came right behind her, his breath surprisingly warm against her ear and oddly arousing. His deep voice, however, was even more so. "Just wait, you'll see." He laughed once more and that's when everything went hazy and the dream faded, leaving Chelsea awash of emotions the following morning.

PREVIEW!

Needless to say he made his presence known to her and she was growing even more frustrated by the day and oh, just look at how much fun Loki was having! It was a glorious dance and Loki was slowly becoming a bit obsessed with trying to find new ways in which he could 'torment' his little test subject.