Chasing the tesseract

Chapter 7

Pacing back and forth across the room, I get lost in my thoughts as I wait for Loki and Thor to arrive. Stephen is sat at the table, watching me as I walk back and forth from the library door to the end of the table, his eyes never leaving me.

"Pacing back and forth isn't going to help." he mumbles as I stop pacing and turn to him, glaring at him. He stands up and walks around the table towards me, placing his hands on my shoulders and looking me in the eyes. "Calm down Abi, we'll find her."

"And what happens when we do?"I ask, staring into his eyes as mine begin to fill with tears. "She's the goddess of death Stephen. Do you think it's easy to defeat her?" I ask bluntly. "She can easily kill us all. I won't drag you into this." Lifting his hand, he places it against my cheek and smiles.

"You aren't dragging me into it. I'm walking into it voluntarily." Closing me eyes, I shake my head as a small smile appears on my face.

"You really don't have any sense of danger do you." I chuckle as I look at him. His smile widens as he watches mine do the same.

The door bursts open and I turn to see a wet Thor and Loki walking through. Hanging their wet jackets up, they shake themselves off before coming across to where me and Stephen are.

"Abi. Stephen." Thor sits down in a chair at the table as Stephen takes his hands off my shoulders. "We came as fast as we could. What's going on?" Me and Stephen exchange a glance, as Loki takes a seat.

"She's back." I say confidently as I take a seat next to Stephen. My hand shakes and Stephen places his own on top of it, calming my nerves but doing nothing to stop my heart pounding. In fact, I swear that as his warm skin collides with my cool hand, my heart actually stops. Why is it that I hate this man yet care for him at the same time?

"Who's back?" asks Loki, his eyes drifting to Stephen's hand on top of mine. Stephen quickly retracts his hand and I turn away, trying to hide the rose tint to my cheeks.

"Your crazy psychotic sister." says Stephen as he looks directly at Thor and Loki. Turning to face me before looking at Loki, Thor shakes his head in disbelief.

"That's not possible." Thor continues to shake his head as he stands up, pacing back and forth across the room. "Abi banished her."

"I know what I saw Thor." I say, my voice steady and stern. "It was definitely Hela." He stares at me, looking for any signs of doubt on my face. Staring back at him, I show him that I'm dead serious.

"Why would she come back?" Loki interrupts, causing me and Thor to turn to face him. Oh, he's not going to like what I'm about to say at all. He loves that tesseract.

"She wants the tesseract." Loki's eyes grow wider as he looks at me. All I do is shake my head before turning to Thor.

"Why would she need the tesseract?" he asks. I turn to Stephen, waiting for him to explain that I have no clue because I'm not doing that. Thor would ridicule me for not understanding.

"That's what we're trying to figure out." explains Stephen, sensing that I was waiting for him to speak. He opens the book laid in front of him to the page on the infinity stones and there in the center of the page is the tesseract.

"Wait, we're?" Me and Stephen nod as Thor points back and forth between us. Crossing his arms, he raised an eyebrow. "Oh so you two get along now?"

"That's not important." I say, crossing my arms and glaring at Thor until he looks away. "What's important is finding Hela and the tesseract."

"Why doesn't Abi use her powers to track them?" Loki whose been quiet this whole time stands up, walking across to me.

"Why didn't I think of that?" I mumble as I stand up too, stepping away from the table and into an empty space.

"Because I'm the smart twin. not you." I raise my eyebrows at Loki who just chuckles as I roll my eyes. Yeah right. Him smarter? That's not possible.

"Shut up Loki so that I can concentrate." I hiss as I close my eyes and imagine the tesseract. After several moments, my eyes begin to glow a bright green shade as my powers kick in. At first the image is unfamiliar to me, and slightly blurred but as it focuses, I recognize it instantly. It's an arena with 24 tributes standing around and watching as the clock above a cornucopia ticks down the seconds. One girl catches my eye. She has dark brown hair that is pulled back into a single braid and wears a blue rain coat. Following her eye-line, I noticed weapons and food bags scattered across the field. The image disappears as I am brought back to our reality. Well, that was interesting.

"Stephen, we're going to need them books now." I say as I collapse to the floor, only to be caught by him. My head feels faint and my knees are week as he sits me down on a chair. Our eyes make contact and a spark flies in the room.

"The one's on reality shifting?" He asks, his eyes not leaving mine. I shiver as the warmth leaves my body. It's freezing in here. Did someone leave the door open? Noticing how cold I am, Stephen pulls of the cloak of levitation, wrapping it around my shoulders. Hugging it around my body, I stare at him, our eyes meeting as I smile up at him.

"If you two are quite finished with whatever that is." Thor points between us both as we break eye contact, both our cheeks flushing pink as Stephen steps away. "Why do we need books on reality shifting?"

"Because I found the tesseract." I say looking directly at Thor as his brows furrow. Oh, nobody's going to like this. Especially not the Ancient One.

"And where is it?" questions Loki as his eyes narrow. Looking him in the eyes, I take a deep breath before explaining.

"It's in another reality."