Working Title : Loki & Annie

Chapter five

Annie walked on her knees closer to Loki's head. She knelt beside him, looking down at his little face, feeling the horror growing inside her mind all over again. No freaking out, girl, just keep it together. "Okay, okay, um, okay. This is real and, you're real. I'm real. So, um." Annie closed her eyes. Idiot. "Great job, now that we've established that fact." Opening her eyes she looked back down.

"So, Loki, I'm Annie. And your brother, Thor, uh, not that you don't know his name but, I don't know, maybe you have more than one brother. So, it was Thor who brought you here and left you with me. He went to go, uh, get you some help. Because, you need help." Annie nodded. "Yeah, way more than I can give you."

Her eyes  were finally able to begin to see all the other wounds, the damage on his face and she pressed her lips together. "Son of a bitch." The words were muttered. "Sorry, sorry, not you. That was inappropriate to say in front of a little kid, I know. It's just that, this isn't normal for me. None of this is normal."

Annie pushed herself to her feet and grabbed the wash cloths from the end of the couch and took them to the kitchen sink. She let the hot water run for a few moments, it took time to heat up, then soaked them. She wrung them out then came back to kneel by Loki. Taking one she carefully reached out and touched the side of his forehead. There was no reaction.

"Okay. So I'm just going to try and clean you up, just a little." Annie's hand moved in tiny strokes, her head leaned closer to get a better view of her work. "We'll get you cleaned up, get all this, dirt, off your face and then I can see how handsome you are." Annie's lips quirked. "Maybe you prefer cute? I can tell, you know. You just look like a cute little kid."

A sob came out of her mouth, Annie dropped her head to the couch. She pressed her face into the fabric and forced herself to not cry. Lifting her head she sniffed and smiled, "Sorry about that. I swear, I'm usually not one of those females who cries. I like to think I'm pretty tough." She took a quick breath.

She cleaned a wider spot, pale white skin appeared. "But damn kid, I'm not anywhere close to being as tough as you. Sorry, cuss word again, sorry. But, all this horrible," Annie swallowed back the waver in her voice. "Horrible stuff done to you and look at you. Still right here. Still alive. And you're going to get better. You are. And then hopefully your big brother is going to kick the ass of those who did this to you. And no, I'm not apologizing for that word. I hope Thor does a lot worse." She cleaned a stubborn spot of blood. "Besides, that's not really too bad of a word. I'd let you say it. Maybe." Annie smiled slightly as she cleaned a wider patch on Loki's forehead. "Aw who am I kidding. I'd probably let a cute kid like you get away with way too much."

 Annie continued to talk about random and unconnected subjects for the next hour as she  carefully cleaned Loki's face. She gently cleaned up into his hairline where she found his hair gritty from the filth embedded in it. She wondered if his long hair would need to be shaved off, it was matted like dreadlocks. He reeked from the utter dirt and of the sickness that she knew he had to have raging in his small body. 

 She wiped at his closed eyes, wiping away dirt that nearly sealed his eyes shut. She revealed long black lashes that sat against his bruised flesh. She cleaned blood trails that had run up his face rather than down. He had been upside down when he had gotten those injuries.

"I swear, if I ever meet these bastards I will kick their balls into the back of their throats so they choke on 'em." She wiped the trails clean, "Sorry, that whole sentence was wildly inappropriate. Doesn't mean I wouldn't do it though." She gave a shaky laugh. "I'm willing to be pretty violent for you, kid. I usually toss bugs outside rather than squash them."

She had a pile of soiled cloths in a pile on a towel by the time she had Loki's face to the point where she stopped. His face now would be considered the dirty face of a child who had played hard outside all day. But it was shockingly clean from what it had been before. Except around his mouth. That she hadn't touched. She couldn't. It left the difference obvious.

She had turned the lights on to see better and now she stood stiffly, staring down at Loki. She had very purposely not pulled down what she realized was Thor's red cape to reveal any more of Loki's body. Now that his face was clean the individual injuries could be better seen. He had been struck repeatedly and by different things. Some injuries were cuts caused by something thin while other bruises were obviously slaps because she could see the outlines left by several fingers. Annie was surprised at how angry she was when she realized that Loki's face was actually too small to take an entire hand print.

Now she slowly reached down and grasped the edge of the cape. The fabric was surprisingly dry on both sides and warm. And soft. Really soft. The first thing she saw was the collar around his neck. Annie's eyes widened. "What the hell?" She whispered. Kneeling back down she gently reached out to hesitantly touch it. Nothing happened. It was metal, it looked like a snakes body and she turned it to see where the snakes head was. At Loki's neck a small trail of blood appeared from under the collar and ran down towards his back. "What the hell?" 

She reached down and was only able to slip her pinky between the collar and Loki's neck. Carefully she ran her finger along the underside then flinched and pulled it back. She stared at the bead of blood on her finger. "It just never stops." She wiped the blood onto her pants and slowly continued to pull the cape down.

Annie's breathing sped up as she saw the continued bruises on his shoulders. They were so thin they reminded her of featherless baby bird wings. She could see more handprint bruises around his arms. As she revealed his chest she stopped. She could see injuries coming around from the back of him to encircle him. She leaned closer to examine what type of wound it was. "What is this?" She had no idea what- suddenly she reared back. Images from movies flashed in her mind. These were whip marks. And they went around him because the whip had wrapped around his tiny little body.

Annie dropped the cape and raised both hands to press the heels of her palms into her eyes. She pushed hard, hoping the sparks would erase what was burned into her minds eye. She turned in a slow circle. She dropped her hands and grabbed the cape and pulled it free, exposing the rest of Loki's body all at once. Like pulling a band aid off at once.

"Fuuuuuck!"