Burdens

Chapter 3

It's been a night since my incident and already my face was plastered all over the news. That whole day I spent staying inside Loki's apartment and watched the news. Not one channel didn't talk about the story of the Ice Witch; it was the only thing that seemed to be on. News reporters related me to past events, like Iron Man, the incident in New Mexico, and even the Hulk. Questions of whether I meant harm or protection were the main topic of each story. I froze Loki's couch that day. I turned on the T.V. the next day, but there was neither a speck nor mention of me anywhere. It seemed as if it never happened or I even existed. Every morning I woke up alone in the apartment with a nice breakfast on the dining table. Loki left a note the first day saying he was at work and wouldn't be home until around 10 am. During the day it got pretty lonely, but his copious amount of books served me company. He seemed to have books about everything, yet there was so much in them I did not know or even heard of. I ran across a botany book and sure enough the water beet was in there along with other exotic plants. Apparently they are only found in Scandinavia.

One book in particular caught my interest, a book about the Norse Gods. It was unlike any of the other books in Loki's miniature Library; this book was completely ruined. Words were crossed out along with some of the pages missing. Odd words filled each page, particularly Odin's and Thor's, words like "kerling", "lodinkinni", and "meinfretr". I asked Loki about it that night, but he brushed it off saying he found the book in that condition. The book disappeared the next day and my suspicion of this man grew.

It has been a week of sitting around Loki's apartment and being useless. I was tired of sitting around so I decided to surprise Loki when he got home. I wanted to clean the house (even though it was visibly spotless), but the cleaning supplies were nowhere to be found. So I moved on to the next best thing, providing dinner. The idea was great at first! But the only problem? The man's fridge was completely barren except for tea and ingredients for salad that I had been eating for lunch each day. One would think he would have more food, but then again I rarely saw the man eat and if he does it's very little.

The only way I could make dinner was to go out to the grocery store and the idea made me groan. I went out though, because it was for showing Loki my gratitude. I took the emergency money he gave me, put something suitable on along with gloves and shades, and then went out into the frightening world of the public. Everything went fine until I was a block away from the grocery store. I noticed a woman in all black was following me. I ignored it at first, but she followed me into the store and through the veggies and fruits. Now here I was, in the bread aisle this mysterious woman.

The tall red headed woman approached me. Her walked screamed predator; it made my stomach turn.

"Elsa, I'm going to need you to come with me." The woman's voice was calm, yet almost sounded a little bored. Without a word, I took off running. I ran straight out of the store and into the streets, the woman followed close behind. I could feel frost form with every step I took. Every corner I turned, she followed. It was only when an arrow struck the ground in front of me I stopped.

I fell back from the shock and landed on the hard ground. Ice started to creep on the warm asphalt as I looked back. The woman held a gun pointed straight at me. My hands shook as the moved quickly to remove my gloves.

"You make any attempt at freezing me, my buddy up there will shoot you down" The woman spoke, monotone yet still threatening. I looked up to see a figure of man pointing a bow and arrow at me. I slowly picked myself up from the ground with my hands still in their gloves. My whole body quaked in fear and parts of it stung from my fall. "Get into that building, now."