Unlike Loki

Chapter 11

(Loki)

As the elevator opened, I stood to my feet and tried to keep my face calm. But my hands were clenched behind my back.

"What the hell happened to him?"

Damn.

"Oh. New guy is an idiot. He literally stuck his face through the cell. Then it grabbed him. I think it's fair to say he lost." I faked a laugh and shrugged my shoulders. If I had to talk like an insolent mortal one more time, I was going to break something. A neck perhaps?

"It's happened before. Randall, you and Pish take him to the infirmary. Then wipe him." The man in a lab coat turned and spoke to the two guards. When he did, I saw a young man with a tray of good standing behind him.

"Wipe him?" I asked. They weren't seriously going to wipe his a-

"Wipe his memory. He can't remember this. He wasn't even supposed to know what it looked like, much less let it touch him. His memory will get reset and he will get put into a different unit. It'll be like his first day all over again." Lab coat chuckled and put his hands in his pockets.

"What about me?" I pretended to be a scared man who was trying for bravery. If they ever touched me, well they would be dead before the thought even crossed their minds.

"Oh. You're fine. You know the rules. And you followed them. Enough said." He turned towards the boy and motioned for him to come forward.

The food on the tray was actual food. For mortals anyway. There seemed to be some sort of porridge, a bowl of mixed fruit, toasted bread with butter and some sort of purple spread, and a tall glass of water.

The doctor took a vial out of his coat pocket and took off the cap. He slowly poured the clear substance over the food. He was careful to use every drop. The liquid became impossible to find once it touched the food. You'd never know it was put there in the first place.

"What's that?" I looked at him with mild interest.

"Vitamins." The doctor smiled at me and handed me the tray. "Time for it to eat." And he pointed towards the cell.

I looked down at the tray and then back up at the doctor. I nodded my head and headed towards her cell.

************

(Anna)

So it was breakfast. I could smell the usual smell of sugared oatmeal, fresh fruit, and toast with grape jam and butter. I breathed a sigh of relief.

But then I felt it. My head began to swim and my breaths became shallower. The plate of food was set inside my cell.

What was happening?

Then I heard a distant voice, " I think something's wrong in there." The man sounded worried. But something was off about his voice. It made my head pound.

Then I heard Dr. Pine's voice. "Dammit. Not again." And the next thing I knew, he rushed into my cell.

When I saw the guard behind him, his image flickered, as if trying to decide between two people. One of them was large and bulky, with a round, handsome face and blond hair. The other was tall and slender, but obviously strong. He had long black hair and a pale, angular face. I could also see he had ice blue eyes.

The ice blue eyes.

I heard yelling, but I couldn't hear, couldn't breath. What was going on?!

"Breath dammit!" I felt Dr. Pine shake me hard. Then he picked me up and set me on the floor. I couldn't move. Why couldn't I move?

I couldn't take my eyes off the man standing in the doorway. He kept flickering. This man. The one who had tried to protect me in my dream, and then the one whose eyes, such beautiful eyes, I thought I saw lean over me as I lay trying to breath. And now he was here again. Or was he? Was I imagining him? Then he walked into the cell and knelt down beside me. He was so close. Surely he must me real.

His eyes were filled with worry. He was flickering less now, those ice blue eyes staying. And then he touched my wrist, ever so lightly.

And all seemed to freeze.

I couldn't focus, my eyes rolled around in my head, and when they settled back on the man, he no longer had those eyes. He wasn't the man. He was a guard. And he had anger in his face, in his eyes. I heard Dr. Pine say something, but my brain couldn't catch the words.

Then the guard raised the gun to my face.

My vision started to go black, I knew unconsciousness was coming for me.

But not before I felt a hand roughly grasp my jaw and a pair of sickly, slimy lips on mine, that swirled a tongue around in my mouth before attempting CPR.