A New York Secret

Chapter One

The New York City sky looked dreary and gray as Emily shifted in her spot at a crosswalk, surrounded by a large group of people, all going the same direction she was. She rubbed her gloved hands together before she cupped them around her face and blew into the fabric, hoping to make herself warmer by doing so. The multiple sounds of crunching slush and ice sounded as the light changed and they were all able to cross the street, making Emily bob and weave around people so as not to bump into anyone as best as possible. Once she was safely across the street she adjusted the dark green scarf she wore around her neck and kept her head ducked low as she turned into one of the many entrances of Central Park.

She always enjoyed her weekly walk through the park, no matter the time of year. It made her happy that the cold weather tended to make the park less crowded than usual as she continued to walk her favorite path that would lead her to a large empty field of grass that held her favorite shade tree. When she got there Emily's brown eyes lit up at the blanket of snow that sparkled and shimmered on the ground, untouched by others trampling through it. When she eyed her spot under her tree, she made her way to it and cleared a space from the snow, so she could sit on the ground comfortably. Once Emily was curled up on the ground against the side of the tree, she pulled a book from her knapsack and began to read. There's nothing like spending the first couple of hours reading under my tree after a whole week at work.

Emily got lost in the pages of her book until she noticed she kept sniffling from the cold and was wiping her nose against her heavy coat, which made her loop up to see the sky had turned to twilight. "Shit!" She growled as she bookmarked the page she left off from and stiffly stood as she shoved the book into her bag. "Davis is going to wonder where the hell I am." She made her way back to the path when a flash of white light made her shield her eyes. "What the hell was that?" She looked around, blinking black spots from her vision when she noticed there was a huge circle in the field that was now completely free of snow and in the center of it, lay a man wearing green and gold.

After a few long minutes, Loki staggered to his feet. He was badly bleeding from a wound in his side, but he couldn't think about that right now. They will be right behind me... was the thought that drove him forward. He kept looking over his shoulder and ended up colliding with something. The force was enough to knock him down in his weakened state. His vision blurred, but as it cleared, he started to see that it was a person he had run into.

Emily's eyes widened at the sight of the man that seemed to be wearing some sort of medieval armor. "Are you alright?" she questioned, slightly panicked. "You... you're hurt."

"Watch where you're going!" He snapped, but when he tried to stand he staggered and fell to his knees. Curse my broken magic... he silently sighed, then tried to stand again.

"Let me help you." Emily reached out and held the man by his elbow and helped him to his feet. "You need to go to a hospital."

He tried to pull away from her, but that pulled at the injury in his side and the pain nearly dropped him to his knees again. "No... hospitals." He managed to tell her. "Just need... to rest..."

Emily looked around and searched the area they stood in, before she took a deep breath. "I'm going to regret this, but my apartment is only two blocks away. Do you think you could make it?"

"I don't have much of a choice." He admitted, and set a very slow pace as he started to walk. He pushed himself to go faster, but his body couldn't handle it, no matter how hard he willed it to.

"It's not far," she encouraged as she moved to hold him against her side, taking part of his weight. Damn he's heavy! Emily huffed as they exited the park and made a left, glad that the throng of people had thinned in the early evening due to the cold.