Jet Black Heart

“Thank you, please come again soon,” I said as the last customer of the day left. The diner was very busy today.

“Well, Rose, I say it’s about time to close up!” Jessica cheered as she put the last of the dishes in the sink. No doubt I was going to be the one washing all of those.

“I do believe you are right, Jess,” I replied. I walked over to the stereo system to plug my phone in. I put on “Rejects” by 5 Seconds of Summer.

“You always play this song,” Jess fake complained. I know that she likes this song as well. She always sings it when she does not think that I am around.

“Hey, it’s my day to play music. You can play your music tomorrow night,” I told her as I started to wipe down the tables.

“So now I have to suffer because of your love of Michael Clifford?” Jess sighed dramatically.

“Do not talk about my future husband in that tone of voice,” I glared at her.

“Well, speaking of hot guys…”

“Ha! You think he’s hot too!” I interrupted

“ I never said he wasn’t,” she rolled her eyes, “Anyways, did you see the new interview with Tony Stark? He looked so sexy talking about clean energy and stuff.” Jess had a dreamy look in her eyes.

“Ew, no. I did watch it, but I did not find him sexy.” It would be quite weird if I was attracted to him. I do understand where people like Jessica come from though.

“Come on, he’s a hero, smart, rich, what’s not to like about him?” Jess started to sweep the floor.

“It’s not that I don’t like him, he’s a great guy, but I just do not see him like that,” I responded as casually as I could.

“Whatever, I’m going to marry him someday,” Jess leaned on the broomstick, looking off into the distance.

I grimaced on the inside, “Isn’t he dating Pepper Pots?” I smiled to myself, I had always liked Pepper.

“So? they’re just dating. I can always change his mind,” she winked at me as she finished sweeping.

“Can we please stop talking about him.” I threw my rag into the sink. I always started to get depressed whenever we talked about Tony.

“Whatever, you have bad taste in men, anyways. Who was that guy you dated last year? James? Jason?” Not this again…

“Jake,” I sighed.

“Yeah, Jake!, I did not like him.” She started splitting up the tips.

“I know you tell me all the time,” I wish she would just drop this.

“I mean, he was hot! Had nice abs and everything.”

“Jess..” I sighed, I really just was not in the mood tonight.

“But he was such an egotistical jerk! He was always talking about himself and always putting you down. It was awful.”

“I get it, horrible mistake.” I rolled my eyes. “Ow!” I hissed. I was so worked up that I hadn’t been paying attention. I accidently cut my finger with a knife I was washing. It was pretty deep too.

“You okay?” Jess asked as she started to walk over.

“What? Yeah I’m fine, the water is too hot,” I said hurriedly, hoping she wouldn’t see my hand. I ran it under the faucet, noticing it was already healing. By the time Jessica was next to the cut was gone and all the blood was washed off. I sighed in relief. That was too close.

Jessica looked me in the eyes, “Are you really okay? I mean, you just seem really on edge lately.”

“I’m fine. I suppose I’m just stressed. I still haven’t heard back from med school,” I said as I finished the dishes.

“You’ll get accepted, Rose. You were one of the top students in our class,” Jess rubbed my back.

“Thanks, Jess.” She pulled me into a hug, then handed me my tips.

“Well, I need to go. My mom is going to pay me to watch Sarah for the night,” She said as she grabbed her purse.

“Isn’t she 15? What does she need a babysitter for?” I asked.

“Who cares? I’m getting paid to sit around and eat my mom’s cooking.”

“So you’re just going to leave me here by myself? I can feel the love,” I said as I put my hand over my heart dramatically.

“You know I love you Rosey!” She said as she kissed my cheek.

“I might love you too, if you didn’t call me Rosey,” I glared at her.

“Whatever, see you later Rose!”

“See you, Jess” I said as I opened the cash register. I pulled out the money and started counting it. I suppose we did pretty well tonight. I was just putting the money into the lock bag when I heard the bell above the door ring. I quickly looked up and saw someone that I had not seen in a long time.

“Agent Barton? What are you doing here?” I asked. He looked different since the last time I saw him. He looked… well not good. His face was pale and his eyes were sunken in. Speaking of his eyes, they were a bright blue color, very eerie.

“Ms. Stark, I was sent here to make sure that you’re safe. There is an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. on the loose and we are afraid he may know about you,” He said in a very monotone voice. Agent Barton was acting very strange. The last time I saw him, he wasn’t this cold. He was actually quite nice to me.

“What would this man want with me?” I asked.

“We’re just taking precautions,” He replied.

“Okay, well I am just about ready to go home so…” I said as I closed the register.

“I’ll walk you home then, Ms. Stark,” He said as he looked around the diner.

“Okay,” I said nervously. I grabbed my purse and started walking towards him. As I approached him, though, I slowly start to feel and immense energy emanating from him. I realized that I needed to get away from him, fast. The energy inside of him was dark. It did not feel good at all.

“Wait, I forgot to put the money in the safe,” I blurted out quickly. I really did forget to do that, so I suppose it was a good excuse.

“Hurry up, the longer we’re here, the more danger you could be in,” he looked me in the eyes. I had to stop myself from shivering. The look in his eyes was haunting. They were so empty, it’s as if someone had taken his soul out of his body.

“I’ll be quick,” I said as I moved towards the cash register. I quickly grabbed the money bag and opened the door to the back. I tossed the bag onto the kitchen counter and continued out the back door. As soon as I made it out, though, someone put their arms around me and poked me in the neck with something. I could feel a foreign liquid start to flow through my veins. My vision slowly started to blur as I saw someone approach me.

“How did you know she would try to escape?” The man holding me asked.

“I knew that should would sense the power of Loki’s staff.” I recognized Agent Barton’s voice coming from the figure in front of me. His eyes were the last thing I saw before everything went black.

'Who’s Loki?' was the last though to go through my mind.