The Dream
Song: Gasoline by Halsey
You switched off the TV and turned to look out the window while sitting on your leather couch. The picture was saturated by a concrete jungle. Chicago. The long buildings and vast opening above the lake always reminded you how small you were. Was there more out there than what met the eye? You were never alone in this city but somehow the loneliness always crept up. The loneliness was silenced by the thought of how small you were in your one-bedroom apartment on the Northside. There had to be more out there.
Your phone buzzed reminding you that your group project needed your attention. You needed to go work on the presentation and add your figures and graphs. The topic your group picked was Marvel. You added a graph that reflected the ticket sales of their newest movie, Thor: Ragnarok. They were doing well for themselves. You wondered how they came up with such ingenious ideas, characters, dimensions, worlds. Whatever their secret was, you had wanted to know.
After practicing your presentation, you closed your laptop and decided to take a nap before your boyfriend got back from work. You headed to your bed. You snuggled into the black sheets and took in the aroma emitting from your pineapple candle. You loved pineapples. They always brought about a content feeling from you. You tried to keep your apartment as upbeat as possible. The city got dreary at times, your boyfriend was always at work, and the nightmares. Oh, the nightmares. You always had a vivid imagination and your nightmares reflected it. Keeping the house happy with pineapples was a futile attempt at keeping the nightmares away. You fell asleep within minutes of hitting the pillow.
You woke up on the damp floor of the forest. The smell of morning dew was faint. You stood up collecting your thoughts as to how you got there but this proved to be useless. You started walking but with every step you took the forest got darker. The leaves on the trees turned to a glowing green. You stopped your steps and looked up. Your eyes met the strange shade of green on the leaves and one by one they began to fall. As each hit the ground around you, it turned into a puddle of gold. You were surrounded by little gold drops around you within seconds. You noticed that the scent in the air changed to a strong forest mint smell. It was crisp and cold. The gold puddles began to move and slid to form a giant one in front of you. You tried to back up but noticed your shoes had been covered in the abnormal phenomenon that glued you in place. Instead, you fell back to the dark, cold floor on your butt, knees bent. A figure emerged from the gold puddle standing straight and tall. The gold melted off the figure revealing a man. Actually, a god. It was Loki. He kept eye contact with you through vibrant and glowing green eyes. You started to breathe quickly and heavily. He leaned forward a bit and a single sentence emerged from his lips: “I’m coming.”
You woke up to someone shaking you awake.
“(Y/N), wake up.”
Your eyes fluttered open and saw your boyfriend, Zack. “I’m awake. Sorry. I fell asleep.”
“It’s fine, are you okay? You were whimpering in your sleep…”
“Yeah, I’m good,” you said as you got up to get some water and make dinner. You thought to yourself you needed this presentation to be over. Clearly, Marvel had taken over a good portion of your thoughts. It seemed to be awakening your dormant feelings for the villain of Thor movies. You were obsessed with Loki a few years back but then the demands of adulthood made you push those feelings aside. You felt silly loving a character you knew was the product of imagination. You began to blush as you started cooking. Having this dream slightly embarrassed you. You were too old to be dreaming about Loki.
“Hey, babe, I thought we could go to the movies tonight. I know how much you loved the new Thor and I thought it could help with your school project. Did you want to see it again?” Zack asked.
You felt your cheeks flush at the thought that Zack brought up something you had just been thinking about. “Um…you know I think I should just stay home and practice for tomorrow. That was a good idea, though. Maybe we can see…” You trailed off with your sentence noticing a strong scent. You looked down to remind yourself you were making tacos, but the smell was vastly different from cumin and chili powder. It was a familiar smell: crisp mint and fresh rain.
#
The next day arrived and you were rushing to get ready for your project. Zack had already left for work. You were brushing your teeth while picking out your shirt. You wanted to theme your clothes in accordance with your project. You took out a shirt that had the comic book version of Thor and Loki dueling. It seemed a tad immature for university, but it fit the theme. After you were done brushing your teeth and changing your clothes, you started to leave your bathroom that was around the corner from your living room. The smell of mint from your toothpaste was permeating.
As you walked out you got a glimpse of someone standing in your living room. You had only taken a few small steps. You heart started racing and tired to figure out a play to escape the apartment as you slowly stepped back into the bathroom hoping the man didn’t see you. Your irrationality took over and you peered around the corner with just your eyes. The man in the middle of the room made eye contact with you. Your eyes widened in disbelief as you saw who it was. Loki.
Was this a joke? Where are the cameras? Did they really get Tom Hiddleston to do this? What the actual fuck is going on? There was a slight smile on his lips as if he heard your thoughts. You stood back into the bathroom fully. You gathered your thoughts as best you could and took a step out to handle this the right way, the adult way.
You had no idea what you were doing but continued anyway. With shoulders back and head held slightly up, you walked out of the bathroom. After three steps you were fully in his view. “Hello,” you stated with a somewhat shaky voice. Without moving your head, you looked around the room for a hidden camera.
“I am Loki…of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose.” He replied with no readable expression on his face. His voice deepened at certain sounds and this excited you reminding you of your fangirl days.
You looked around obviously confused. “Okaaay…I’m (Y/N) ...of Midgard.” You waited for his response in suspense, so it could guide yours. You were still waiting for the cameras to emerge.
He finally broke his expression with one you could read. He smiled but kept his lips tight after you spoke. “I don’t make habit of introducing myself in this way, but that is what you humans expect of me.”
You slowly took a step forward. Playing along you answered, “Well to be honest, I expected more of a Stuttgard response. More along the lines of…”
“Kneel.” He interrupted, but matched the end of your sentence. His smile was gone.
Your voice became even trying to control the situation. “Yeah, ooookay. That’s not happening. Where are the cameras? Very funny.” You gave a fake, slight smile looking around.
“Cameras?” His eyebrows furrowed, and he tilted his ear toward you to show his confusion not taking his eyes off you.
“Yeah, this isn’t funny anymore,” you said as your eyes continued to search but your legs frozen.
Looking openly annoyed, he started to take some slow steps toward you until he was within arm’s reach. “I’ve lost patience for this senseless exchange. Do I look to be in a gaming mood?”
You now reflected his annoyance. “No, but I’m not going to…”
You stopped. In a flash instance you felt his hand around your lower neck just above your collar bone. In an effortless force, he slammed you against the wall a few feet behind you enough to startle you into reality. Your eyes got big as his wicked smile became more pronounced. His eyes deepened to an almost black color. You were close enough now that the reality of the situation became clear. That was not a wig, those were no contacts, and that fresh mint that cut through all your senses was not a perfume. The god of mischief stood in front of you. There was no mistake about it.