Andromeda, a novel by Joe Nobel, Part 67 -- Loki, for who he is

Andromeda

The scene changed again. Anna found herself on the street outside her flat. It was a pleasant, warm day, early in the summer.

“Odin, I know where we are. Something strange is about to happen!” Anna said.

“Nonsense, this is when he let you out for the first time. Look, there you are. See how confused you are. You can’t decide if you should escape or perform the errand he assigned for you. What did he send you to buy?”

“Bread. But listen. There’s going to be explosions. And I think it was Locket, um, I mean Loki — Oh, no! There he is across the street —”

“Anna, stay here, out of the way!” Odin snapped as he looked in the same direction. “What’s he doing here?”

They saw that wiry figure, with his hands in his trench coat pocket, casually walking towards the past Anna. Like before, she couldn't focus on his face, but this time around she knew who it was.

“You don't belong here!” Odin growled as he ran into the street.

Loki turned. He gave the sweetest, most innocent smile. Anna could see the smile, see it despite the fog around his head. But, now wiser and stronger, she didn't fall for his charming hypnotics.

And, neither did Odin. He didn't wait for Loki to speak. With a crack of thunder, an arc of electricity, brighter than the sun, shot out of Odin's pointing finger and hit Loki in the chest. Loki fell back against the building wall, but was only stunned for a moment.

He too, shot a bolt of energy back at Odin. By some power beyond Anna's fathom, Odin deflected Loki's shot and sent the energy scattering up to the sky. Anna covered her ears at the boom. No one else on the street seemed to notice. Pedestrians meandered between the two gods shooting bolts of energy at each other. A young mother pushing a pram strolled past Loki as he aimed his next bolt.

Only the two Annas noticed. Anna from the future watched the ensuing battle from the opposite side walk. Past Anna shrieked and dropped her loaf of bread and ran into the street to get out of the way of the melee. A truck, puttering along, belching black fumes, screeched to a stop, narrowly missing her. The driver swore at Anna, oblivious of the lightning charges flying around him.

When the past Anna made it to the other side, a stray bolt of energy hit the closest lamp post, sending shards of glass raining down on her. As that energy coursed down the iron pole to dissipate in the ground, some of it arced across at Anna. She shrieked in contorted agony, then fainted.

Anna ran over to herself. She knelt down and cradled her past self's head.

“What happened?” her past self asked when she opened her eyes. She seemed to be too dazed to realize who was tending to her.

“Relax, you'll be alright,” the future Anna said. She looked up to see Odin, now standing eye to eye with Loki. The two were yelling at each other. Anna could understand the Assier language of the gods, and this bothered her not knowing how she acquired this new knowledge so fast, especially since it took her many years in Uri's apartment to learn French, Russian, and Hungarian.

Odin said, “... then come back to Asgard and stand before the gods.”

“You joke, Allfather!” Loki laughed. “Let's drop the pretenses.”

“Then you admit your betrayal!”

“If you're just realizing that now, you are more naïve than I thought.”

Odin grabbed Loki by the collar of his trench coat and pushed him against the brick wall. Only, he didn't hit the wall. He and Odin fell through it.

Anna felt the tension of the gods dissipate and a calm return to the street. Yet, it was only she and her past self that noticed. Every one else on the street continued on their way as if nothing had happened.

“Anna!” Uri shouted.

Anna turned her head. The call wasn't for her, but for her past self lying in her arms.

He, Liudmila, and Aida ran towards them. “What happened to her?” Uri asked.

Anna, the future Anna, realized they were talking to her. They saw her! Would they recognize her for who she is? She let her past self's head rest back on the ground and ran off.

“Hey, wait!” Liudmila called after her.

But as Anna turned back for a moment, she saw the three of them were tending to their Anna. Uri lifted her in his arms and ran with her around the corner to their building's entry.

Anna realized she was alone. Was she abandoned in the past? Would Odin return for her? Would she be left here, a non-person, to fend for herself? This part hadn't been planned by Odin. No, he was surprised, too. She lived through this once, she should have said something, warned him. But one thing led another and she'd been confused and overwhelmed.

Anna crossed the street and walked down to where Odin and Loki disappeared. She felt the faintest traces of that god-like energy in the space around her. It was the same feeling as in the melee, and that same feeling of misproportion while the gods took her back in Valhalla.

She touched the wall with the tip of her fingers.

Only she didn't touch the wall. Her fingers fell through it, and before she could pull back, her whole body was sucked into a place beyond space and time.

The feeling of stepping through a hole in space and time got disquieting after she did it a few times in Asgard. It felt like she was pushed with a oomph in a direction that is neither vertical, diagonal, nor horizontal. As Anna fell through the wall, that strange feeling cascaded through her, multiplied a thousand-fold, and jarred her to her soul. It felt like she was falling through one space/time hole after another and somehow gaining speed in her free-fall. Where ever she was going, she knew it was far from her own world.

Anna tried to claw out, but there was no “space” around her. She wondered how long she'd be here, but the word “time” didn't apply to where she was.

When she landed, Anna knew it was in some place small. She didn't know how she knew this. She had followed a path of least resistance to get here; without knowing how she knew that either. She wasn't alone.

“Hello, sweetie,” a menacing voice spoke.

“Who's there?” Anna cried in the dark.

Then there was light, light all around her, a featureless, glowing wall in every direction. Anna couldn't tell if it was two feet or two light-years from her. She floated the center of a sphere and couldn't see who else was with her.

A laugh came from behind.

“Odin, are you there?”

“Odin is not here.”

… to be continued …

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