The New Girl - A Loki Fanfiction

Chapter Eight

She didn't know exactly where she was going. Frankly, she didn't know whether or not the destination she sought was physical more so emotional. Maybe it was all twisted and contorted into a mental shape she couldn't quite configure, but she knew she had to get there. Fast.

It was a half hour walk to the park, and that was with taking the short cut through the words and past a farm, both, to Vi, equally as frightening. In the woods were shadows, voids with limits, and unmarked mazes that created an invisible labyrinth, and creatures she's never even dared to imagine, for if the student t school were what she deemed as exotically alien compared to what's she's been taught to believe as ordinary, then who knows what the forest was concealing from her? And the same went for the farm: what creatures exactly were there, for "farm" can just as easily denote a housing for dangerous creatures just as it does for the domestic. And a farm in the middle of the forest never ends well; is that why it's seldom there?

But she didn't necessarily have a choice. Each car engine she heard driving close caused a fear and dread so great that it reminded her of the accident, of what she tried to put farther and farther away in a locked drawer of her mind only to be constantly reminded of every time she looked out the window, took transportation, saw the house, saw her face.

Saw Elaine's face.

She gently traces the scar along her jawline.

The sky was getting darker, a dark haze settling as she trudged through the dirt paths, trying to avoid the poison ivy along the way. She had never gotten it, so she didn't know if she was immune or not. But she always thought of them as mysterious, misunderstood plants that filled people with so much dread they would overlook how interesting and beautiful they were, so much potential lost to the fear of being hurt. And sure, right now she was acting like a hypocrite, but goodness knows she would have to explain the day's course of events to her father if she came home with a rash, and that's something she had no patience or tolerance to handle at the time.

Wait, what was that?

Ever so silently, as Vi walked across the rocks, she heard a twig snap. Her blood ran cold, the fight or flight turning into a freeze, a stand-still making her eyes instantly water and her controlled arms go into a tremble, as if the beginnings of a thunderstorm. Vi wanted to turn around, but her neck had stiffened, as if hit by a tremendous force and in need of still healing, and her airways tightened, as if they had swollen up to a close.

You have to see what's behind you. Slow motions, it might jump. Don't panic.

Which was exactly what she was doing on the inside.

Have you ever tried to run underwater? Now imagine you holding a baby elephant while trying to do the same feat. That's how Vi turned her head and body, so slowly and at the same time so agonizingly, she could feel her heart crumbling into a tiny ball. It was reliving the past years all over again, the never-ending pain resurfacing time and time again.

She expected to be face to face with something with multiple razor-sharp teeth and varying body parts waiting and working together to see how exactly she was spend her last seconds. Vi's life flashed before her eyes once more, only a bit extended as to details and a bit faster as to the length of time as the first time it happened. But much to her surprise, she was still standing, still breathing, and her heart rate dropped at the sight.

It's just...a deer.

With a newfound comfort and confidence, she goes to turn back, only to have her pulse skyrocket, tipping her to the point of almost having a heart attack. Her scream is muffled by a cold hand, the whites of her eyes taking up half her face as she's coaxed to calm down.