Violent Daylight: Chapter 3

Loki woke in a cold sweat. He winced as the pain he felt on the sand still flared through him. As he slowly hauled himself up to a sitting position he began to inspect his surroundings. He glanced down at his injury and saw the bandage wrapped around it. A scowl broke out on his face. Injuries were a sign of weakness and there was nothing he detested more than weakness. The light blared into the room, obnoxiously announcing the arrival of the new day. He squinted as it shone straight into his eyes.

The sound of soft footsteps behind him caused the wounded god to turn around. The girl who had first seen him was padding into the small kitchenette area, her brown locks flowing messily down her back. Loki cleared his throat, wanting his presence to become known, looking forward to making the girl uncomfortable again. He noticed that she was more wary of him than the other woman was, most likely due to the fact that the other had his oaf of a brother to protect her. Unfortunately, Thor would easily be able to fend Loki off here on Midgard without his magic.

Darcy pulled open the door to the fridge and sighed happily as the cool breeze blew all over her, providing a small relief from the hot weather of Puente Antiguo. She scrunched her face as she saw nothing of interest to eat and closed the door again. She then spotted a ripe granny smith apple sitting on top of the fruit bowl and snatched it up. She didn't know why but she had always preferred the green apples over the traditional red ones. Sure they had a slightly more sour taste but she had been more partial to that than the sickly sweet taste of the common apple.

She started to walk out of the kitchen and back to her bedroom when she saw two bright emeralds peering over to her, a look of smug satisfaction on the face they were embedded in. She took a sharp intake of breath and dropped her apple at the shock of the god of mischief staring at her. Seeing his smirk widen at her reaction to him she meekly bent down and retrieved her apple. As she was about to return to her bedroom, the part of her brain that had always got her into trouble started working in overdrive. Pushing past her better judgement, she strode over to the couch where Loki was sitting and sat on the coffee table facing it.

"So tell me something, God of Mischief" She emphasised his title, making it sound as sarcastic as she possibly could "What happened to you to turn you into such an ass?" Her lips curled up into a smirk similar to the one on his that was fading quickly. She saw his eyes turn cold and her heart started racing. All her instincts told her to run away from the dangerous situation but she didn't move. An awkward silence hung in the air as neither of them spoke, they just let the question linger.

Loki gritted his teeth at the unexpected question from the strange girl. His mind raced with a million snide comments he could make, his natural defense for questions he didn't wish to answer. He then decided the best way to stop her from inquiring about him or trying to understand him was to make her believe that he wasn't worth saving, that he wasn't worth her pity.

A menacing grin swept across his face as he stood up from the couch and loomed over her. "I am sure I don't know what you mean." He started, gearing up to make her leave "You, on the other hand...oh I can tell all about you. You put on this bravado act so no one can see that you are just an insignificant child. The one who was always second best, the one who never got what she wanted." He laughed a humorless laugh "Don't think that you are even worthy of my time. You are nothing and I will treat you as such."

He could see tears brimming in the girl's eyes as he exposed her. Making her feel all the pain that she had been suppressing with cockiness, so no one would see her as she really was. Weak. A thrill swept through his body as he held all this power over her. It had always been this part he had enjoyed the most. Not the physical battles but getting inside the enemy's head and exploiting their deepest fears.

Darcy shot up and struggled to keep in her tears, threatening to spill down her face at any second. It had been so long since she had felt those emotions, those of being not good enough, never good enough. She pushed past Loki as she desperately tried to hide in her room, to cry and cry and let everything out before locking it up again and putting on the brave face she knew all too well.

She strode halfway to her room, trying to seem as confident as she could when a thought hit her. She spun back around and saw Loki watching her leave, she could see the deep pleasure he was taking from watching her break down. She took a sharp breath in as she prepared herself for the wrath she would surely receive from the comment she was screaming internally to say. "That sounded like it said more about you than it did me. I've read all the books and heard all the stories from Thor. It isn't me you were talking about just then, it was you. You, the younger brother who could never compare to Thor. You act out for attention because, really, what else can you do? You are the insignificant child." By this point she had moved back over to the god, her face right in his as she tried her best not to be intimidated.

"Don't think that you are better than any of us because you're not. You will always fail if you keep going like this. Because the villain always fails. That's just the way the world works. Get used to it and stop taking out your bitch fits on everyone else!" Darcy could feel the anger emanating off him. His fists were pulled into tight balls and were trembling along with the rest of his body. Darcy knew that this was a dangerous situation but she couldn't bring herself to move.

Loki didn't know what to do. For once in his life the master of words was speechless. This girl had done the one thing he loved to do to others. She had reached inside him and found everything he felt deep inside and bared it for the world to see. He pushed everything that was coming to the surface, all of the unwanted feelings, back down to pit inside of him and plastered a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"What is your name?" He asked, his voice smooth like velvet, making Darcy more uncomfortable than when his voice was filled with anger. "Darcy" She answered, peering into his stone hard green eyes, trying to tell what he was feeling, if she was in danger. Loki let out a tiny chuckle that lacked any humor but was filled with his bitterness. "Well, Darcy, you mustn't believe everything you hear."

Darcy was so taken aback by his unexpected words that she took a step back and surveyed him fully. Loki was a closed book, bound so tight by pain that she didn't think even he knew where he ended and his menacing facade began. Darcy didn't know many things but she did know that she was determined to figure him out. The child of the darkness so lost that even he didn't know what was light and what was darkness anymore.