Loki's Cell

I wake up in the back right corner of a group cell with a bunch of other girls and a couple boys. I am the last to wake and the last thing I remember is waking up this morning. Everyone is angry and scared. With first glance I assume it is because we are in jail. I don't remember how or why I am here. Neither did any of them I learn after asking some questions. Kidnapped? Did someone find out about what I did? I get up and investigate closer, looking over the whole room and every person. I see that everyone's clothes are dirty, ripped and just destroyed. We all look like we might have lived on the streets the last month. Except this one pregnant girl. I look myself over and find a note in my pocket. "It wouldn't hurt you to truly smile, the world doesn't hate you and you do have friends. You're beautiful, unique and worthy of love and care, just accept it. Despite your mental quarrels and trauma, you are a good person doing the best they can. Forgive yourself and give the same kindness to yourself that you give others. Don't seek validation through others, live as if no one is looking." For a moment I feel an emotion I can only describe as love for the writer. But fear takes over and I am angry too. Who is this kind writer? Who put us here in this cell?

Why are we here? How the fuck are we here? Just as the anger is reaching a boil in us all, what we assume is our captor appears from a door on the other side of the cell. In walks a tall, slender, long dark haired man. He has bright green almost serpent eyes. He smiles. In that moment, I am pissed but it is hard denying he is beautiful and appears harmless. "Have you figured it out yet?" He scans the room and fans his hands out in front of him, implying "Do you know why you're in this cell?" but then when he reaches me in the back he locks onto me. I feel naked in his gaze. Not like the embarrassed, "oh he's undressing me with his eyes" naked. But naked like he can see right through my skin and read every little part of me like a book. My whole life, every mistake, everything that makes me angry, sad, etc. It freezes me in place, I am afraid to move, as if he might see more if I do.

Everyone else is angry, shouting at him, cursing at him, but he is unaffected. He even fucking laughs. "You haven't figured it out yet, I see." He half smirks, scans the room again and once again locks onto me. Then he simply turns and leaves just as swiftly as he entered.

We, all dumbfounded, look at one another. The boys are the first to speak up. "This is BULLSHIT!" The girls chime in, "yeah, this dude must be a creep and now we are all locked up!" In immediate seconds, the cell is a riot. I walk into the middle of them and yell, "Everyone shut the fuck up! THINK." All eyes fall onto me. "He asked us if we figured this out yet. We must be here for a reason." Everyone scoffs, "this isn't a damn hollywood horror movie. We don't have to be here for a reason, this creep just wants us here to play with us." I shake my head and grin, "okay sure, this isn't cinema. But people aren't just put in a cell for absolutely no reason. There must be a "why" no matter how conscrewed. His "why." So let's figured this shit out and MAYBE he will let us go." Upon saying that last part, one of the boys opens his mouth to say something. Before he can, I speak, "and if he won't let us go upon playing his game,we will figure that out when we get there. We outnumber him. We have to stick our heads together and THINK." Everyone starts collectively gazing around the room. No doubt looking through any nook and cranny for a way out. But before everyone could disperse, I remember the note. "Hey! Did anyone else get a note? Everyone frantically searches themselves. Everyone finds notes and also find that their clothes have been defiled. Marked on, cut up, some sort of messed up. I find that everyone is affected except the one pregnant girl. She is silently huddled in the back left corner, almost didn't know she was there. One of the boys spitefully struts towards her, "why isn't she all fucked up? No note? Nothing? She must be in on it!" I make my way towards him and push him away from her, "you have some nerve to threaten a pregnant girl. Why, HOW, would she be in on it? She's just as terrified as all of us, probably more so considering she's carrying a child. Now back the fuck off and think with your head, not your fists, you man child." He steps back but he obviously isn't convinced. I look around, " she's the only one scotch clean. She's also the only pregnant one. There's some significance to that but WHAT?" We all look at each other curiously. One girl speaks, "man I can't think straight. I'm so tired. It feels like we've been here for days." I think to myself, we very well could've been here for days. There is no window. Only white dirty concrete walls, no way to tell time change. There are two toilet stalls on the back left of the room. A single sink and mirror. The pregnant girl had just been huddled underneath the sink moments ago. Or was it hours? Anyway, upon inspection of the mirror, it is the only truly clean spot in the room. The mirror looks brand new for fuck sake. But that isn't all, at the top of the mirror, a simple command is written in what could've been green marker, "LOOK." I intuitively know that is significant but I couldn't click it all together. I turn around and address the group, "Let's all rest our minds so we can think clearly and figure this out." Everyone shuffles their feet and silently agrees. Some group up, or couple up, to sleep on one another. I planned on sleeping alone on the concrete floor but something called to me. I see the pregnant girl, she has to be at least eight months pregnant, laying on the floor alone asleep. This deeply angers but also saddens me. I quietly make my way over to her. She is ironically curled into a fetus position. I gently caress her cheek, she startles awake. I whisper, "hey, it's okay. Lay in my lap." I lean against the icey wall and put my legs together in front of me. She half sits up looking at me, fear seeping out her pores, oceans in her eyes. My heart breaks for her, how distraught she must be. "Don't worry, I don't threaten pregnant women like G.I testosterone over there. A pregnant woman doesn't deserve to sleep on a hard cold floor alone." She crawls the three feet over to me and lays her head on my thighs. She whispers, "thank you." I rub her back, "you're welcome. Now rest" I lean my head back onto the wall. The cell is dimmly lit, I glance over the room and see that all are sleeping. But something stirs in me, keeping me awake. Just as my eyes started to flutter shut, I hear our captors voice whisper in my head "rebirth."

I wake first, "good, I have time to think alone." The pregnant woman is holding my hand, still asleep. "Rebirth" my mind practically screams it. I think back to my note. It is peculiar, written as if he knows me, the dark part of me too. My eyes dart to the mirror. The word "LOOK" practically shoots at me. "Holy shit. This IS a rebirth. He wants US to be rebirthed. To LOOK in the mirror, accept what reflects and live as our true selves. Surely that's what this means considering the note, unscathed pregnant girl and obvious mirror demanding you to LOOK. Our clothes must be fucked up because he wants us to look past our appearance and into ourselves. Or maybe I've read too many books and I'm romantizing this.. but the letter matches what I think so what else could this mean?"

Moments later, the single door of the room creaks open. In walks the same man. Everyone's head shoots up like a chicken hearing a feed bucket. Without a word, he opens the cell door. Nobody moves. Is it a trick? "Well, don't everyone run at once," he sarcastically says. He whistles and pats his legs like he is calling dogs, "come on, let's go!" Everyone except the pregnant girl and I start to rise, one of girls is already standing in front of the cell door. "How do we know this isn't some trick? We didn't solve your riddle or whatever the fuck you want to call this." He smiles and shakes his head, "silly girl, none of you fools did but she did." He points at me. I am shocked to say the least. All eyes fall on me once again and I feel my heart hit my stomach. How the hell did he know that I figured it out? I have not said a word to him. Either way, it doesn't matter, everyone is already pushing to get out the door. The pregnant woman stirs on my lap. I say to her, "Hey, it's time to go. We can leave." She mumbles, "huh? He's letting us go?" She sits up and I rise to my feet. I reach for her hand to help her up as the last of the group is heading out. She waddles towards the door but stops to speak to what was our captor, "thank you for not hurting us." She doesn't wait for a reply, she is already gone. Now I am alone with him. He smiles at me and looking deeper I can see he wanted to be alone, "I knew you'd figure it out. Did you learn my lesson?" I furrow my brow, "how did you know I did?" He caresses my cheek and clicks his tongue, "I know lots of things." Still confused I say, "why did you let everyone go if I was the only one who figured it out?" He slightly turns, puts a hand to his chin and looks up, as if deep in thought and then swivels towards me smiling, "you were the only one who cared to know anyway." He shrugs his shoulders and then grabs my hands. "All the others simply wanted to leave. They saw the small picture, you saw the big one" I nod and smile, "okay, if you say so. I think I'll be on my way now." I pull away from him and open the single door, I am blasted with bright sunlight but I am only one foot out the door when I feel a hand cover my mouth and a sting before everything tunnels to black. Again.