Chapter Text
Thor tried to shove the picture of the horrendous, bony face out of his head.
Was it a grin on its face? Or was it just a…maybe a picture? Some old houses have those strange pictures on their walls, those that have no other use, but to creep innocent people out.
He huffed, while walking in with another box, by now he wasn´t complaining about being the pack-donkey anymore, he didn´t admit it to himself, but he liked, maybe even needed the distraction.
Thor hasn´t taken a break for the last hours, in hope he would just forget about the fear that grabbed him. But whenever his hands were free from the weight of the removal crates, his fingers would start to tremble noticeably again.
The shiver that ran down his spine the moment he looked at the creatures face, didn´t pass. It sunk down deeply into his bones, chilling him from within and making him shiver at every small blew of wind.
When he felt the soft pressure of a hand on his shoulder, Thor flinched visibly and turned around with one quick movement, only to look in the soft eyes of his mother.
“Thor…I think you´ve done enough for today.”
He felt his stomach twitch. Maybe he had done enough…but what else should he do?
Go up there? Stay in the empty cold rooms, without being able to do anything?
He wouldn´t rob himself off his distraction, not now.
“It´s fine, there are only a few more boxes…then we have the main part inside.”
Thor couldn´t stand to look at the deepened frown his words drew on Frigga´s face and turned away to walk to the car again.
Way too soon he got finished though and there was nothing to do anymore.
Restlessly Thor paced around, what was supposed to be the living room. Living room…it didn´t seem like a place anyone could get comfortable into and the creaking sound every one of his steps drew out of the old wooden floor made his tension rise more and more.
It didn´t sound like simple creaking…the rang it got to his ear, was more of a mocking laugh, an amused giggle…it made him aggressive but his anger had no aim…if there was a person of flesh and bone to mock him, he wouldn´t care.
But it was the damn house itself, every dark corner, the tall walls and the dark old wood, everything so strangely gallant and eerie graceful…Thor suppressed the childish impulse to kick against one of the walls and balled his hands into fists to stop them from shaking.
Meanwhile Loki could hardly bring himself to remain in silence. The heavy tiredness that used to drag his spirits down in a tormenting way has faded and made place for sheer excitement.
One small appearance and Thor´s face that shone like the sun, has lost a bit of its natural glow.
What an honour, to be approved like that…
Loki currently watched him walk around the rooms and the restlessness in his movements brought a bit of peace to his mind.
He observed his victim from out of the walls, out of the corners and from he looked down at him from the ceiling. Loki
had become the house in some strange way, since he had no body to possess, no bones to hold him, no flesh to warm him and no skin to feel with, he learnt to use the house to hold his mind.
And he loved it, he gave him the freedom to express himself, his suffering in a whole new dimension, his body would never allow, sheer endless seeming creations of exquisite horror and tasteful terror..
When Thor seemed to relax and his pace slowed down a little, Loki let the wood under his feet make a loud cracking sound.
He had perfected those sounds in silence.
When there was no audience, Loki would make the house groan and creek, until he was sure that the notes would touch the right strings in a humans heart, to make it race with fear.
His effort payed off, when Thor jumped backwards and his eyes widened again. Loki couldn´t contain a giggle, which was to be heard in the creaking of the window-glass.
Fuck. Thor flinched, he must have stepped on an old plank…he shook his house and yelled.
“Damn dad, I almost broke in, this house isn´t fancy it´s derelict, for god´s sake!”
He heard an amused grumble from the other room. Sure. As if Odin Borson himself would care for a stupid thing like safety, or comfort.
Again Thor huffed.
“Which one is my room even?”
They showed him pictures of it of course…but he just waved it off, with a whatever. But suddenly he cared a lot…and strangely enough he cared if his parents room was far away…
Thor heard light steps and Frigga appeared with a smile playing around her lips.
“I knew you´d get interested, come on, I´ve spend so much time studying the pictures of this house, it´s like I know it.”
She smiled lightly and walked up the stairs, running her fingers over the railway almost lovingly, she didn´t even turned to make sure Thor was listening to her, or even following.
“That´s oak-wood, can you imagine it? This house has a real history, a personality, not like those new designer houses, that practically look like squares…every detail was chosen with so much care, if you look around closely there are so many beautiful things to discover. See, the flowers carved in the ceiling?”
Thor looked up involuntary, to see the thin petals of lilies and roses carved on the wood of the ceiling. For a short moment he found it beautiful as well, before he noticed the strings of dust, spun across the petals and suddenly they didn´t look graceful anymore, only out of time.
“Yeah mum, I knew you would like the creepy house, you´d like anything.”
He rolled his eyes and looked down again; the last thing he wanted was to trip on those stairs.
Tripping was an option indeed, because his body had tensed up as they went up.
Thor lifted his gaze and looked around. The second level made a strange effort to look homely, with the warmer looking wood and the walls that must have been painted in a soft green once-
The walls.
He looked up and down the corridors, but there weren´t any pictures anywhere, not even a strange pattern that maybe would seem like the contours of a face in a strange angle and the silent hope that maybe he was just looking at a horrible portray faded.
It must have been here, he didn´t imagine…or maybe he did?
But there wasn´t much time for Thor, to try figuring this out, because his mother already waited for him at the end of the corridor.
“Your room is right this way, honey, take a look.”
Thor shook his head and walked up to her with a sudden stiffness in his limps.
This was exactly the direction he had heard the creature crawl off to...