The Monster Within

Chapter 4

Loki’s P.O.V.

I sat on the cot, staring at the ceiling. I could hear footsteps overtop of me, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. I watched outside my cell patiently, almost wishing someone would come down and fill me in on what was happening. I looked at the metal cuffs on my wrists and almost used magic to go see what was happening. An illusion would be so useful right now. My fingers itched to use the long overdue spell. I snapped out of it when Thanos rushed into my mind. I put up defensive shields and focused on happy thoughts, like my most recent dream of the mysterious woman who loved me. After what felt like forever, I had Thanos back in his spot in the corner of my mind and the footsteps had stopped. 

“Mr. Loki?” Peter asked me, startling me out of a post-magic stupor. I looked at him with a dazed expression, not realizing what was happening. 

“Hello there Mr. Spiderling. What brings you to my cell?” I asked him pleasantly. He looked surprised at my words but set a tray through the electrical barrier. 

“I brought you supper. Sorry about the commotion. I had a friend over.” He said. 

“Oh, sorry, um, I’ll be back to my cell.” I said composing myself, realizing who I was talking to and our current situation. Peter nodded at me and turned to leave. I watched his retreating back and noticed something on my tray. I unfolded it and saw a drawing of me. It was just a pencil sketch, but it was beautiful. I carefully tucked it under my pillow and ate my meal. I sat on the cot and pulled the sketch out. I flipped it over and saw another sketch of me, but this was a silhouette of my side profile over me flipping my daggers. I had no idea how this artist would have seen that, as I have never done it on Midgard. But it was in full color, and my eyes were still green. I could almost see the countless hours spent on this drawing, but it was the beautiful scrawl in the corner that caught my eye.

“Brother, what do you have?” Thor asked roughly, pounding on the barrier. I looked at him with such happy eyes that even his expression softened. 

“Do you know an Aubri Williams?” I asked him. 

“No.” He said, without even thinking.

“Please! She drew this!” I rushed, holding up her picture.

“Brother, anyone can draw this.” Thor said, brushing off the odd feeling he got.

“Not anyone! It has to be an Asgardian because I don’t flip daggers while under mind control. I missed too many times. No Midgardian would have seen this. Please? Is she some noble that I have never met?” I begged of him. 

“There is no Asgardian who would draw you. It would be shameful. So, ask your new friend. Maybe he will know your secret admirer.” He said, walking away. I glared at his back and flopped back on my cot. I sat up almost immediately when I heard muffled yelling from down the hall. 

“You were supposed to find out why he used magic!” The Man of Iron yelled. 

“I forgot. He had something that belonged to Aubri Williams and he wanted to know if I knew him. It distracted me and my task slipped my mind. Honestly, it couldn’t have been too large of a spell. He didn’t even seem tipsy.” Thor yelled back. The two men walked over to my cell. 

“You have one chance to tell us what magic you did.” The Man of Iron said. 

“I reinforced my mental shields that are keeping me from killing you all.” I calmly explained. Both men were thoroughly confused. “You know, it stops the mind control. Unless of course, you want me to try to murder everyone again.” 

“That won’t be necessary. I didn’t know you needed to do that. Maybe Peter was right.” Stark said, musing something over and talking to himself. He then turned to me again. “So, what do these shields do?” 

“They keep Thanos from reentering my mind and taking control over me.” I said.

“How do you do that? Don’t spells go off of emotions? At least, that’s what Thor told me.” He said, pulling up a chair and sitting backward in it. 

“Yes, the spells do go off of emotions, and I need extremely happy thoughts to do this. I however shouldn’t use the same memory over and over otherwise he can find cracks in my emotions. I am currently running low, and I am using all of my magic to keep them up. So, I will eventually run out and try to kill you again.” I said pleasantly. 

“What are you using currently? Is there anything we can do to keep that from happening?” Stark asked me quietly. 

“I am currently using my interactions with the small spider and some dreams of my Kærasta.” I said with uncertainty.

“You have a Kærasta?” Thor boomed. “You, of all people, have a Kærasta?” 

“Yes, and so do you. You are just too blind to see it.” I said indignantly. 

“Peter is some of your happy memories?” Stark asked, ignoring the word he didn’t know. “Like, do you need to hang out with him more? J.A.R.V.I.S. please call down Peter and Aubri.” I looked up.

“Who is this Aubri?” I asked him. My question was answered when Peter arrived with a beautiful young woman on his arm. I looked at her carefully. Her seiðr seemed bottled up like she was suppressing it. What surprised me most, however, were the years behind her eyes. And the crazy in them. 

“Why were we called down here Mr. Stark?” Peter asked.

“Well, Reindeer Games said that he needs happy memories to keep himself from going psycho. And I don’t trust your friend in the tower alone while loopy.” He explained. 

“I’m not loopy. Just mildly dazed.” The girl said stubbornly. She crossed her arms over her chest and avoided eye contact. “And I want to go home.”

“Yeah, well, I haven’t gotten to do all of my testing yet. You woke up before I was done. And how did you wake up that quickly? Steve is currently passed out because I had to make sure the tranquilizer worked.” Tony said, running his hands through his already messy hair. 

I stared at the girl, sizing her up and determining her threat levels. I stopped when Peter glared at me. I looked back down at my feet. 

“Hello there.” The girl said, looking at me. “I may be overstepping, but why do you have one of my sketches?”