Loki -2021-2021 ✦ Fresh

“To 2021,” he said to the void. “The year I learned to stop running. The year I learned to stay.”

October. Halloween. A child in a cheap Loki mask knocked on his apartment door. Trick-or-treat. Loki had no candy. He gave her a dagger. Her mother screamed. Loki turned the dagger into a chocolate bar. The child grinned. For one perfect second, Loki felt like a god again—not of mischief, but of small, impossible kindnesses. Loki -2021-2021

August was quiet. He read all of Shakespeare’s tragedies in a single night and laughed at them. “You call this suffering?” he muttered. “I invented suffering. In 2021.” “To 2021,” he said to the void

That was the pact of 2021: love without possession. Halloween

In June, he found Sylvie. She was working at a McDonald’s in Oklahoma, 2021. She was happy. He did not disturb her. He ordered a cheeseburger, paid with a gold coin that shimmered into a dollar bill, and left it uneaten on the counter. She looked up as he walked out. Their eyes met. She did not run after him. He did not turn back.

He left before Thor could ask his name.