A Whole Bunch of Loki's

Am I Beautiful?

(I love me some Kuchisake-onna, very much the inspiration for my Halloween make-up in that pic.

Yes, this was purely for my own self-indulgence.)

Loki awoke with a searing headache, his eyes pulsing and impossible to keep open due to the pain.

He let out a low groan and attempted to shift in his seat, only to be stopped by the tight binds tugging at his wrists and digging into the skin at his wrists.

Letting out a low curse, he hung his head and waited for the pain to ebb just a bit while cursing Thor's name for dragging him into this situation.

His brother had caught wind of disturbing news, apparently people around the realms had been going missing in a pattern that was undeniably repetitive over the years and the one responsible had reached Asgard.

Asgardians had started to go missing, few staggering back terribly shaking and making claims of a woman from Helheim itself being the one responsible for their tattered clothes and cuts across their bodies.

Wisely, people had taken to packing up market stalls early and heading into the comfort of their own homes just as the day started to darken.

Communities kept tabs on one another and ensured that each and every person was as safe as they could be until this looming threat could be dealt with.

Thor had taken it upon himself to investigate the happenings around Asgard, daring to ask those affected anything he could that would help him get closer to the finding the one responsible.

Loki had been dragged into it, as he was for many of Thor's hairbrained schemes, but chose to go in a more knowledgeable approach.

It had taken a bit of reasoning, but Thor agreed to wait until Loki had traversed the realms that had already had encounters with his horror to garner as much information that could be useful during their search.

Upon returning to Asgard, Thor approached Loki with talk of a victim returning with minor injuries who wanted to talk to them about her experience and Loki jumped at the chance.

Despite his initial hesitance, Loki was enjoying the investigative part of this little mystery and he was eager to follow the clues.

Unfortunately, this eagerness is what led to him being tied up in some unknown place.

When going to speak to the victim, he had been jumped and promptly overwhelmed with a few good blows to the head that knocked him out cold.

"They were willing to sacrifice you."

Loki started at the voice that interrupted his flow of thought.

He instantly regretted the decision to open his eyes again as the light seemed blinding and everything around him was blurred.

With strained eyes, he slowly lifted his head and looked across the room to see a blurry figure moving to and fro.

Loki squeezed his eyes shut then reopened them and blinked rapidly in hopes of clearing the fuzzy vision, at least enough for him to make out if they were doing anything menacing or simply dancing to a tune inside their own head.

"I'm sorry?" He mumbled, his words slurred as he struggled to talk around a tongue that felt like lead.

"The people," the soft but husky voice continued, speaking louder than before, "they were going to sacrifice you in hopes of stopping the disappearances."

"Of course," he sighed, wincing as he tilted his head back, "and why are you attacking people?"

"Compulsion, nature, take your pick."

Staring at the dark ceiling gave Loki's eyes a chance to clear and, though his head was still pulsing, he found that he could move it without feeling a stiff pain.

Tilting his head back down, he saw a woman leaning over a worn table that was topped with a series of terrifying looking instruments.

Her hair drooped over her face and her brown trench coat flapped as she moved.

"Compulsion? So what, you're a realm roaming serial killer?"

Her head tilted so that she could look towards him, but Loki couldn't see her face.

"No, the compulsion of a monster."

"Even a monster can control their compulsions."

"What do you know of a monster's compulsion?"

"More than you would think."

There's a metallic scrape as she reached behind herself and pulled something off of the wooden table, something that he wasn't entirely sure he wanted a reveal of.

She turned fully towards him and started to stride over, her trousers scuffing and the heels of her boots clicking against the stone floor.

"If that's true, then you'll understand why I must do this."

Loki glanced to the thing in her hand, noticing a partial gleam from the lights above them that bounced off of the remaining silver parts to the otherwise rusted or at least discoloured blades of the scissors she was carrying.

"Do what exactly?"

One of her hands rested on the back of the chair he was attached to as she leaned closer, her dark hair falling away from her face enough to show what many would class as a beautiful woman were it not for the long, jagged slits that ran from the corner of each mouth to her cheeks.

"Tell me, Loki," she said in a low, almost sultry voice as she raised the blade of the scissors and ran the rust on the clasped metal scratch his cheek as it ran down, "am I beautiful?"