Standing on the edge of the pavement, Loki scanned the street until his eyes landed on the familiar name on the signpost that stood in front of the entrance to the tube station.
'Whitechapel High Street.'
'Damn! Why didn't he tell me when I had to arri-'
"You're here. Good."
The glassy voice that had now been ingrained into Loki's mind startled him from behind as he felt stick-thin fingers wrap around his shoulders.
Loki jumped, scared, but when he realised that the man was not going to do anything else, he spoke while turning around to look at the man's face.
Except the words he was going to say got caught up in his throat and left him with an almost inaudible groan.
"Huh?"
The man had a white full-face mask covering everything about it and his hands had white gloves that covered all his fingers.
A thick black overcoat with its collars up covered his body and black pants and shoes covered everything else.
'Why didn't he look so protected when he met me!?'
Loki's overactive imagination sent him spiralling into a variety of worlds that made him believe things as mundane as, 'Perhaps he's so protected because it's cold outside.' to things like, 'Maybe he has to be so dressed up because he needs to protect himself from leaving behind any pieces of evidence when he captures his murder victims.'
"Follow me."
The man's muffled voice was enough to send shivers down Loki's spine and he followed the man with his little legs with as much speed as he could.
"What are you doing?" The man asked after stopping suddenly on the road.
"What do you mean!?" Loki asked back.
"When I told you to follow me, I meant for you to keep a little distance from me, not stick to me like a tree hugger!"
"..." Loki became appalled at the creative cursing but then shuddered and ran back a few steps away on the street, making sure to maintain a little distance from the man, as he continued following him.
Loki tried his best to memorise the pathway the man was taking, but after a truly distressing number of turns, Loki was left lost and his only sense of direction came from the sun that was still high in the sky.
Soon when the sun reached its apex around noon, Loki found himself coming to a stop after reaching a rather rich neighbourhood. Standing along the fence of one of the houses he kept watch to see the man go to the door of another.
Loki carefully watched the man and saw him fiddling with the door lock. It soon gave way to an open door and Loki saw the man vanishing inside after turning to give him an imperceptible nod from across the street.
'What did he go into that house for?'
'Home invasion?'
It wasn't long before Loki saw the man coming back out of the house and with a slight nod he indicated for Loki to follow him again.
'He isn't carrying anything in particular. What did he steal?'
'Something small that can be stuffed into his jacket?'
'Gold and jewellery?'
As Loki followed the man again, he soon found himself in a rather decrepit part of London where Loki had no doubt he would be shanked if he walked at a slow pace or waited at a corner for too long.
Reaching a run-down shack, Loki saw the man trade a bag that was stashed inside his jacket with the man behind the counter and after a few seconds, he received a bag which he picked up and began to walk away from the shack.
'Is this a drop-off point?'
As Loki followed the man, he found himself revisiting familiar streets, but before he could fully keep track of the man, he had vanished after reaching a turn.
"Boo."
"EEKK-mufffffff!!!!"
Loki screamed like a girl but midway found his mouth being shut by uncomfortable and coarse gloves that bound his lips.
"Shh… It's me."
The words didn't comfort Loki very much as he felt fear once again with his overactive imagination convincing him that the man could teleport and use magic like him instead of the logical conclusion that he just took a shortcut to appear behind him.
Loki looked at the man with wide eyes but the man just knocked him on the head and caused him to shut up in pain.
Loki complained with his eyes but the man ignored him and asked him a question instead, "Did you see what I did today?"
Loki nodded.
"Good, because it'll be your turn tomorrow."
"..?" Loki looked at the man with wide eyes to indicate his surprise but the man had none of it and just spoke with a bland tone, "Be grateful that I'm not asking you to do it without showing you how it's done."
"Be ready for tomorrow. Same time, same place as today. I will give you our destination when you arrive."
Loki tried to complain but before he could turn around and speak, the man walked away and blended into the crowd pulling off a Batman disappearing act.
'What the hell!'
'Am I Robin now?'
'And why does he need me to do this anyway?'
'I'm sure he isn't physically disabled or anything like it, so what's the issue here?'
'Damn, I'm worried now.'
'Did he have a previous helper? What happened to his previous helper?'
'Did he shoot him in the head?'
'*sigh* I didn't even earn any money today. I should pickpocket someone on the bus. I don't know how many days it'll take for me to earn money the new way.'
'It is better to have a backup just in case.'
Loki walked home after pickpocketing on the bus by using magic and bought burgers and fries from WcDonalds on the way.
'At least my little angel's smiles are still the same.' Loki thought as he looked at Elane running towards him with a happy smile and picked her up.
After they finished their lunch and Elane fell asleep, Loki shifted through the entire day inside his head to try and learn about his new job.
'Won't I need to know how to pick a lock tomorrow?'
'Well I can try picking the locks inside this house today, but where do I get the tools to pick the lock?'
Loki left the house and searched around for scrap metal that was suitable to pick locks and found a few options but none seemed perfect, even so, he did not blame his tools and began to pick the locks in the home.
'I need to get better by tomorrow.'
'I don't know what other irrational things he might request of me.'
'Maybe he killed his last sidekick because he didn't know how to pick a lock.'
'Damn…life is unfair.'