Eagle (A Loki love story)

Chapter 78

House chapter

Once the coast was clear, I headed to the overlook to the living room, exited the vents, and set up a tripwire there. When I glanced down, I saw a soaking Loki speaking quietly with Pepper as he ruffled his hair dry and patted his clothes as best he could.

"You don't have to let me, I just think it would be a good idea."

"You're very practical. And only people inside it would be able to let others in?"

"Only those who know where the door is."

"Alright then, go ahead." The square area around the carpet shimmered but nothing changed. I knew Loki had done something, I just wasn't sure what.

"The door will be here, but try not to touch anywhere else. Doing so will make the mirror visible for a few minutes." I snuck back into the vents, not wanting to get caught like Loki had. I set a second tripwire on the window side of the other sitting room and once I finished, I checked the map again and was shocked to find nearly the entire bedroom hallway on the ground floor lit up in green. Curious and with nothing else to do, I snuck over to take a look.

Loki was a genius, the hallway had a slight curve to it so he had placed several mirrors along the walls, angled just so that when I was leaning into the wall as a cover, I could see the other end of the hallway, along with who was hidden around the corner. Of course, there were a few pockets someone could hide in. This would be optimal for our paintball war later.

"Mira!" Someone hissed. I turned to see Loki's reflection in one of the mirrors. Wow, that really worked. I went to him.

"Get ready, I am about to put the balls down."

"Ready." Loki's hands became framed in green mist and all of a sudden, I found myself trapped where I was. Multi-colored ball-pit balls had materialized on the floor, all the way up to my waist. There was a thud somewhere in the house, followed by a couple screams.

"Ok, everyone to the sitting room." Loki projected his voice around the house.

By the time everyone was there, Loki and I were sitting on the back of the sofa.

"This was Mira's idea so I indulged her. I have no idea what she's got planned." All eye turned to me.

"Ok, uh, I saw a couple videos like this on YouTube and I thought it looked like fun. So, when Loki and I first came here, he had me hide around the house and that was fun for awhile but I didn't think it would be as fun with all of us. So, I've added a bit of a challenge. All but one member of each team is going to hide around the house and the others are going to look for them. The ultimate goal will be to find everyone on the other team. Every time you find someone on the other team, they have to come back here and wait but every time you find someone on your team, you take their place and they look. Does that sound ok?"

"I'm up for it." The others shrugged or nodded in agreement.

"What are the limits?"

"Anywhere there's balls. So not in the stairwells or bedrooms. And no magic. Does that sound fair?"

"It sounds like it'll take awhile, but then again, more triumph for us when we win!"

"Oh, it's on now! Team huddle!" Two small groups formed on opposite sides of the room to decide who would search first. As it happened, it ended up being Rose and I.

"You will have two minutes to find a place to hide. Go." There were loud waves of balls shifting as everyone went their separate ways. But by the time Pepper's timer went off, the house was totally silent. It was actually kind of eerie. The first place I went was the upper floor, opposite of Rose. The only sound in the house was me wading through the balls.