[ chapter eight ] uncanny valley

GRASS BLADES SCRAPED THE PALMS of Nicholas' hands that were freezing before. The breeze was still chilly, yet there was still a bit of warmth hiding in the vortex that was drifting around, giving a lift to the leaves that were lying down, writhing with drought.

"That was close," Nick mumbled. A loud yet painful sigh came from Nicholas's blue lips that gained back their saturated rosy color.

The pain coming from the open wound was nothing compared to someone clutching his snow jacket so tightly that he forgot to breathe. He was trying to get back on his feet, as he felt the safety of this place compared to the freezing maze, however, he was stopped. Unfortunately, he got it all wrong.

"What were you thinking?!"

His chest tightened and his pupils shrank in terror, thinking it was the beast ready to cut his throat. But observing the icy blue eyes and medium-length hair, also knowing that Loki was his friend, was a relief, until he lifted him up slightly by his jacket and put a dagger dripping in fresh blood onto his neck.

"Wait what?"

The cold blade was touching the bare skin of his throat, ready to slice it anytime. It felt like touching an icicle as the blade was sticking to his flesh, making it red and irritated.

Nicholas was paralyzed, unable to make a single move as he was scared of his own life since someone who ended the lives of millions of people was standing right in front of him, trying to stab his back (neck in this scenario) as a traitor.

"Where did you hide it?!" Loki raised his voice even more. He released the grip, and then he loosened the zipper on his snow jacket a little to see if the monster was there.

"Wha-What are you talking about?" Nick asked softly, afraid to gulp, trying to push Loki away because he was ticklish.

There was nothing. Loki was quiet as if he didn't recognize him at all like he was staring at some monster this whole time.

Leaves were descending, imitating the number of people who died in the same way, or that were just thoughts in Nicky's mind. His brain was telling him to use his abilities to run away, however, his body said no. He couldn't make a single sound or beg, only the sorrowful and terrified look in his eyes was trying to reach the deep ends of Loki's lost soul.

"That thing! You! You almost killed us!" Loki shook with him.

Loki's usually still hand was trembling since he was convinced that he was possessed by the creature. He was biting his lips in hesitation as his eyes were trying to search for something that would tell him otherwise. His eyes were all watery, reflecting all the bad thoughts like a crystal clear marble.

"Oh no, you ate it, didn't you?"

"Wha-No! Who do you think I am?"

All Loki saw was a scared little boy, unable to make his own decisions, nothing more, nonetheless, in the snowfield, he was someone else — a person that he hadn't had the chance to meet yet. Dark yet so anomalous aura radiated from him that he couldn't describe it in words properly.

"I don't know! That's what I am trying to figure out! To me, you're a boy that doesn't know the consequences of big fights and is who's suspiciously too good at hiding monsters," Loki mumbled.

He grabbed Nicky's jacket even more tightly but for some reason the outwear stayed in his clutch, feeling the inexplicable weight loss as the fabric dissolved in a dark mass, "Come on! Tell me thy secrets!"

"Huh?" Loki pondered and then he received a hit in the back that created a wave in his body, knocking him down to a puddle of mud.

"You did not!" Loki exclaimed in shock as the palms of his hands became dirty, the same as his shirt that started to imitate the color of a mud cake. He exhaled loudly, attempting to get back on his feet.

"Don't tempt me, you little prick, or I will rip your spine out from your weak body and—"

"And hope for a tree to grow out of it?"

"What?! And you're telling me that I say nonsense! Why would you ever think of that? Oh-" Loki froze as he observed the tree trunk that Nicholas was talking about.

"Why is there a skeleton?" Loki queried again, finally standing. A green glow outlined his body to clean the mess on his clothes. He pointed at the stuck human skeleton overgrown inside an oak tree. Both of them came even closer to the tree, expecting to find out the mystery behind it but there wasn't any to uncover.

"Why do you keep still accusing me?"

Loki shut his mouth.

"I don't know but stylistic-wise, it looks sick," Nick nodded like nothing happened, holding the dagger its blade brushed a little his neck as he was lying completely pacified on the ground. 

Loki's eyes widened as he didn't even realize that his precious Asgardian dagger was stolen.

He looked at him suspiciously, retreating back his dagger that later on vanished by his touch. His touch remained subtly imprinted on Nicky's bloody palm. Taking a short glance at the open wound it seemed like it started to heal itself with indigo flickers suppressing the pain.

"How are you doing that?" Loki questioned him, reaching for his head to see it closely. He appeared startled, caught up his hand shivering. His eyes broadened as the wound was completely healed.

"My dad is a surgeon," Nick explained with shrugging shoulders. Simply there wasn't anything to explain, as his powers could make him fully healed within a second. In fact, he didn't pay attention to it as it was natural.

"Aha, sure, that explains everything," Loki uttered, still in shock, putting his hands on his hips in disbelief, "You'll be surprised but I know what surgeons do, and magic isn't part of it."

Loki thought that he would tell him something else. He wasn't that stupid to recognize magic. The boy stared at him silently until he changed the subject as soon as he heard odd noises following a movement.

"Look!" Nicholas pointed in the distance, where these eerie trees pathed a way that zigzagged up the hill. The trees suddenly appeared as he didn't notice them before. Their leaves fluttered in the wind and chirped as the souls of those who were trapped in the trunks told each other stories.

Loki sprang forward a little to touch the tree bark. The bark was really thin, he realized that when it disintegrated as he stroked it. Fortunately, these skeletons that were stuck inside the trunks weren't made of real bones, the trees were only shaped like that.

They both looked at the alley made of trees when a sign popped directly from the ground. The dusting of dirt revealed writing on it.

"Welcome to New Salem," Loki and Nick read aloud.

NEW SALEM, HERE WE COME.

This endearing town was located in the dale of the highest mountains in this unknown area. Because it was based in the lowlands, everything closer to the valley was gleaming with greenery, although the outskirts were perfectly muted and blended with the dead autumn.

Nicholas rejoiced quietly as he spotted the first houses in the distance. Roofs of New Salem's houses were crooked with walls painted black or other shades of gray. These terraced houses with wooden details formed a beautiful transition. Those that were further were lighter, creating an illusion of casting a shadow. None of those houses was perfect, one of them had no door and people were walking through the walls to get into it.

They were walking through the walls.

Nick stuttered, not realizing that he passed through a barrier that slightly shifted and straightened back. He got startled a little bit when he noticed a blast of violet light affecting the barrier as Loki stepped in.

"Woah," Nick expressed whole-heartedly as he perceived Loki's new outfit. There was no dirt on his snow-white shirt anymore, in fact, he didn't even have a shirt. A lime green tunic with golden details had a texture of snake scales from which light was reflecting in endless shades of green. He wore an emerald green coat with a white ruffled collar and his dark slicked-back hair was contrasting with a gold headpiece.

Nicholas was in awe, automatically checking his own clothes but that hasn't changed. He wanted to ask about it, yet his mouth shut as someone bumped into him. A man dressed in vibrant red smirked while his eyes struck him even though they were hidden under a blue hood. His low-key face terrified him, the same as the symbol of an eye molded on his chest.

"Watch where you're going, kiddo," Anthony Druid expressed with a distinct accent.

"My apologies," Nick mumbled and looked to the ground. Loki got him out of this uneasy situation by grabbing his arm and pulling him aside. He didn't even have the time to look around the town and now he was standing behind a house with Loki shrugging.

"Looks like New Salem is inhabited by villains," Loki uttered.

"The best of the best!"

"How do you know?"

"Not trying to brag, but, I've seen myself about six times," Loki beamed.

"See? There I am," he pointed at a tall green muscular being running down the street. His footsteps rumbled so much that one dealer's stall at the black market fell apart like a castle of cards.

"Again?! You gotta be kidding me!" the stallholder yelled, raising his fist at Hulk Loki.

"For how long are we supposed to be here?" Nick questioned, indirectly pointing at the tempad they used a few minutes back.

Loki nodded, trying to reach the pocket of his TVA uniform jacket to realize that his outfit had changed by entering New Salem. His eyes widened, attempting to find at least a different pocket where the tempad could relocate.

"So?"

Loki concentrated so much that he didn't even realize that a group of weirdos had gathered around them.

"Whatever you're looking for in that coat, I'll trade it for seven rings. Seven deadly rings!" a skinny figure in a cloak suggested, trembling similarly to his voice.

"No thank you," Loki uttered.

"I can offer you a Mjolnir. I'm not worthy but its price is, trust me," an old woman tried to smile nicely, but a spider came out of her mouth.

"I have an updated version of the Darkhold!" a man shouted in the distance.

Loki didn't pull anything out of his pocket, which the group didn't like.

"Screw that! He's broke!" the skinny figure muttered angrily and with a hand gesture forced others to return back to their stalls. Two of them again pushed Nicholas which made him a little sad.

"I know it's awkward but I swear I had it just a second ago," Loki declared to calm Nicholas down because he looked stressed. He patted him on the back when they went forward together. 

Nicholas was trying to duck as he was trying to avoid crashing into a wall that almost met his face. Luckily as he pointed out before, they walked through harmlessly.

When Loki touched him again, electrifying tingles coming from the tips of his fingers overwhelmed his mind with the following emerald surge of energy forming a vision concealing his eyesight.

Viridescent rays connected an image. He recognized a figure, its shadow was an embed of a rusty stone wall. A tall silhouette fluttered within its opacity as the figure went down the spiral stairway while flipping through a book. Loki was looking at the figure from above, monitoring its every move, noticing a golden orb coruscating on the book cover. All of a sudden he became light-headed as it seemed like the staircase was endless — it created an illusion of a time spiral counting down the remaining minutes.

The dizziness faded away as his position changed. Finally standing on solid ground, getting to see the figure performing some sort of ritual, which became sharpened in a flash. Loki stepped forward, thinking that his steps would interrupt the one that stood in front of him, but nothing happened as if presence didn't matter, was beyond matter perhaps.

The book closed loudly as an unexplainable glimpse of light started to dazzle at the other end of the hall, shining through the murk. It pulsed and then burst into an eruption of vivid colors filling up the space of the sanctum's basement with galaxies. Loki froze as he perceived a being whose head was flaming the rest of his body was disguised in the dim.

"I have an offer," Nicholas vocalized.

"An offer?!" Loki burst out unthinkably. A shock winced his hand out of nowhere, wholly taken away by the vision as soon as the green sparks faded behind his eyes.

Jazz music stopped as Loki interrupted the band, having them stare at him in confusion.