Punished gods [ENG]

#16 In The Dark Place

Loki opened his eyes, trying to recover from what had happened in the last few seconds. He sat down and looked around, where it was looking like a dark dump. He felt as if he were somewhere between reality and some crazy creepy dream. But the pain he felt inside his chest was so real that it confirmed only one thing - this is really happening. Sylvie sent him away again through some portal. Before, he could at least have comforted himself that she wanted to protect him or she being blinded by her revenge, but this was different and much worse. For the last few days, he had felt that Sylvie needed him, that their feelings were mutual and that they had converged in every ways. But at the moment, he was trying not to think about it at all, concentrating on how to get out of this damn place.

After he got up, he felt another pain, the one he had from a leg injury, he cursed in his mind and walked away as fast as he could at that moment. For a moment he wondered where he was, or when he was. But it only brought him to the question of how Sylvie could send him here. If Sylvie had the TemPad of He Who Remain, all this time. If other things could have been a lie too, maybe she knew how to use her power, was she able to create portals? Suddenly he wasn't sure about anything at all...

He wasn't even sure how long it took him to get to town. Well, some place like town. He certainly knew at first glance that this place would not be on Earth. Even though there were buildings around him and he could see the silhouettes of the figures from a distance, at close range he saw that they were just shadows like lost souls... Everything was very dark and gloomy, the lights of the lamps were rather symbolic and only helped to keep that the whole place is not in complete darkness. He wondered if it really couldn't be just a dream, he wished so much that this whole thing was just a dream from which he would wake up soon. The second option was that it was hell.

Loki kept walking through the dark town, and the tight feeling that felt made him exhale loudly, looked around, and he began to understand. Maybe it was his personal hell, because even though he was always so afraid of being completely alone, he was never as alone as he was at this moment. This place brought to the surface everything he definitely didn't want to think about. He shook his head and decided to hide in one of the buildings. After all, it didn't look like anyone was stopping him. He headed for one of the nearest buildings and used a dagger to break through the rusted lock. It wasn't until he held the dagger in his hand that he realized that it was the only thing he had with him, and at the same time it was the gift Sylvie had given him. He felt his heart pound again as he looked at the dagger.

Loki remembered Sylvie nervousness when she told him: "I'm giving you a dagger that's real... you know it's not just... imaginary... and I'll be glad if you pay attention to it..." she said a little timidly. He understood it as her clumsy declaration of love, that she remembered his metaphor about it so well and wanted to show him with her gift that her feelings were real, even though she was still afraid to tell him directly. Loki stared at the dagger in his palm, and only after a moment did he realize that his hand was shaking, angrily grabbed the dagger by the handle, and he kicked open the door. His leg ached greatly, but at least for a moment it dispelled other thoughts.

He limped inside and appeared in something like an old bar. There was a lot of dust, cobwebs and crumbling furniture everywhere. There were candles on the tables, and after a while he found matches. It was a small thing, but for a moment he was pleased that there was at least one useful thing. He lit a few candles and finally at least a little light filled the room. Outside the tables and chairs, there was a bar table in the middle of the room, and a large cabinet was made into a wall full of bottles, though they mostly looked empty and behind them was a large mirror. Loki had a second brief moment of light and went to see if any of the bottles offered some pleasing contents.

He took one half-empty bottle from the shelf, opened it, and drank straight from it. He expected it to taste disgusting, but he was surprised that the alcohol had no taste at all, it wasn't close to water and nothing else. Like drinking nothing. He sniffed at the bottle and found that the alcohol had no smell, and the next second he realized that he didn't really smell anything, no smell or unpleasant odors in this place, just nothing at all. "This place is definitely hell," he said aloud, and almost he was startled when he heard himself, he was beginning to feel like he was going a little crazy.

Loki walked around the bar and sat in a bar chair that made a squeaking sound, not sure how long it would last, but maybe he didn't care about another possible fall. He set the bottle in front of him, and even though it brought him no satisfaction at all, he drank again. He hoped to be able to forget, at least for a while, but his memories immediately began to return in a big way. But the first remembered the words of Sif, "you are alone and you always will be..." But then became even more painful words when he heard it from Sylvie, "oh god, you're so naive! Did you really believe that I could love you? That anyone could love you at all? You will never have anyone who can feel anything about you, you will always be alone!"

"You are right," he said into the void, "I guess I'm really loser if I can't stand it with myself," he said, and had to laugh, but it was a very unhappy laugh. He drank again and looked in the mirror in front of him, which was quite dirty, but he could still see himself in it. He remembered Sylvie's other words, "It should be unthinkable that you would miss me, it shouldn't be possible. If I'm you and you're me it shouldn't matter if I'm here or I'm not... You'd be with yourself every day, it wouldn't matter if I was here with you or if you were sitting here alone... you wouldn't lose anything if I leave." He heard her voice in his head as clearly as if she were standing next to him.

He shook his head and drank again, it was no longer just words, but memories of all the little things - little touches, when he grabbed her hand, intertwined his fingers with hers, hugged her, stroked her back, when she kissed him longingly, her dreamy expression and mischievous smile, moment when they danced together, when she taught him to drive a car, or when he held her in his arms while making love.

"That's enough!" He shouted at himself, picked up the bottle, and tossed it into the wall, where there were more bottles that immediately began to fall to the ground with an unpleasant noise, and the mirror remained crumbled and a few pieces ended up among the shards of bottles.

A surge of rage awakened his dark side in him and he immediately began to devastate everything that just came to hand, "why did you do to me, Sylvie!?" He shouted angrily, took one of the chairs and threw it out the window, "why did I believe you again!?" Turned over the nearest table, "why did I have to fall in love with you!? So why!?" His anger gradually turned to despair, he shouted so loudly and hoped that he might be relieved, but it only reminded him of Sylvie again. Loki just dropped to his knees and began to cry. He didn't want to, but it was stronger than he, "why you can't love me?" He whispered almost silently between sobs, hating himself for weakness for her.

Suddenly Loki remembered the dagger from Sylvie, pulled it out and looked at blade, for a moment he wondered if she had given it to him for completely different reasons, much darker reasons. "You could have done by yourself so many times," he hissed and looked at the dagger again. But suddenly he was fascinated by something he almost never expected, he heard someone's footsteps approaching him. After a moment, he looked up who's comming...