A/N: So, this is my first story on here, hope it's not too bad. I can honestly say I don't write stories with the idea of posting them online in my mind. But, I thought, what the hey, can't hurt. Maybe someone will like it. I have no idea why I decided to start with a horror/suspense story, since my favorite genre is hurt/comfort, but I got the idea for this on Halloween and it sorta stuck.

Warnings: violence, gore (not persistent), torture, language, scary stuff (hopefully :D), copious amounts of Loki-whump, other potentially trigger-y things that I'll warn for when/if the chapters come around. Check out my profile page if you'd like to get a feel for what this story might have in store. Nothing too bad the first few couple of chapters.

This chapter is from Tony's perspective (which is why I thought it was more of a prologue), but the entire story is Loki-centric. Points of view will change between characters; a dotted line will indicate this.

Enjoy!

Ex Nihilo

Something was tapping on glass. Or knocking? Tony Stark's jerked his eyes open, wondering what the hell that sound could be. He was laying on something soft. A bed? Nope. A couch. My couch. He lifted his head slightly. In my tower... The coffee table was to his right and beyond that, the sky-high windows.

Hm.

The tapping was coming from there, he was sure of it. He had only just noticed it, but it seemed that the tapping had been going on for hours, as though someone were attempting to awaken him with the noise.

But there was nobody there.

Hm.

He sat up, looking around. The tapping had stopped and now the room seemed too quiet.

He ruffled his right hand through his hair and threw his legs off the side of the couch, his shoes meeting the floor with a muffled thump. He looked down. The sound shouldn't have been muffled. He hit the floor with the heel of his foot. Thump. Too quiet.

He shook his head. Weird.

It was still daytime outside, but it was overcast. Tony stood up and moved to the window, slowly taking note of his disturbingly muffled footsteps on the concrete flooring.

He looked down again. What the hell.

He needed some coffee. Yes, coffee would fix. Coffee fixed everything. But what time was it? He looked down at his watch, 1:42. And why is it so cold in here? he thought.

"Jarvis?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Why's it so damn cold in here? Turn up the heat, will you?"

"Of course, sir."

Tony stared out the window, suddenly remembering the sound of tapping. What was it? A bird? It didn't seem likely.

The sky was overcast but there seemed to be a strange sort of fog settling over the city. Fog. Ugh. He hated fog. He stared at a building in his line of sight. Hm, strange. There were no lights on. He looked at another building. There were no lights on there, either. He glanced at another building, then another. Nothing. No lights. It was the middle of the day, sure, but it was still dark enough that people would still turn on their lights. His own lights were on, after all.

Then he glanced down at the street, his forehead touching the glass.

What. the. hell.

There was no movement. Nothing. No one on the streets below. He rubbed his eyes, shook his head. Need to stop drinking, Tony. He looked again. Nothing. Silence.

"Jarvis?" He ignored the nervousness in his own voice.

"Yes, sir?"

"Where are all the people? There's, there's no people..." He pointed down toward the street with a finger as though the AI could see.

"Yes, sir."

"'Yes, sir'? What the hell does that mean?"

"I am at a loss to explain it, sir. But there appears to be no one on the streets below, nor anywhere else in the city."

"Come again?" Stark replied quickly. His heart beating rapidly against the arc reactor.

"My scans of the immediate area show no signs of life."

"No signs of- what? What happened?" Tony put both hands on the window to get a better look but immediately drew them back. The glass was ice-cold. "Jarvis, I thought I told you to turn up the heat!" The room actually felt colder.

"Yes, sir. I have, sir. However, the temperature appears to be decreasing rapidly. There may be a glitch in the building's environmental controls. The temperature is now twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit."

"Twenty-two?!"

"And the temperature is continuing to fall. Perhaps you should find some-"

"You know what? I don't give a damn about that," Tony practically yelled to the ceiling, "just..." he thought for a moment, still staring out the window. "The internet. Check the internet, maybe there's something-"

"I have been trying, sir."

"And?" Tony was becoming impatient. There was a pause.

"I have been unable to connect to the world wide web."

What the hell, Tony thought. His mind was racing, trying to come up with a logical explanation. Was there something wrong with the servers? Or was there something wrong Jarvis? A sudden idea popped in his head. Pepper. No... Pepper was on a business trip. Phone. He felt around in his pockets for his cell phone, then began searching the immediate area when he didn't find it. Where the hell's my cell? He looked on the coffee table, the couch, the floor next to the couch. He sighed while crouched down next to the couch. Where did I leave it?

He stood up, still thinking. A sudden panic begin to creep in. Should I suit up? No. He needed more information. There was a surveillance room several levels down from here, yes. Maybe there's someone else in the building. He considered asking Jarvis, but there was a chance that his AI was malfunctioning, so he decided to only trust his own eyes.

He didn't want to look outside again. He didn't want to see the empty buildings, the silent streets. The grey haze that invaded every corner of his vision, he ignored, pushing it to the back of his mind and labeled it, for the moment, unimportant. But the truth was, he didn't know what to do with any of it. Panic and fear were snaking up his spine, and he wanted nothing more than to ignore them.

There was only one thing on his mind right now: find someone. Anyone.

.

The elevator ride down seemed longer than usual, but he had run into no trouble and the room was waiting for him, quiet, humming with technological solemnity. The glow of the myriad of screens welcomed him when he entered, awaiting a master's touch. Each screen was split into multiple smaller screens, each one flipping every few seconds through the hundreds of cameras scattered throughout the tower.

Tony resisted the urge to tell Jarvis what to do, and instead opted to use his fingers to find what he was looking for. What am I looking for...

As the screens continued switching between their designated cameras, Tony saw what he was afraid to see: nothing. No one. There appeared to be no one anywhere in the tower.

He caught a glimpse of a couple of cameras outside and took control of the screen so it would stay there.

Nothing.

No one.

What's happened?

It wasn't just that there weren't any people. There weren't even any cars. It was as though the entirety of the cities residents had decided to pack up and take a vacation, and with their cars, too.

He shook his head, then allowed the screens to return to their normal function.

Movement.

Out of the corner of his eye, there was something moving on one of the far screens. Something dark- the scene changed, showing a blank hallway. Dammit! Tony quickly typed on the keyboard, bringing up the previous screen. Wrong hallway. Room. Room. Aha!

He squinted at the screen despite his vision being perfect and the screen large. What in the- The corridor was unfamiliar, or perhaps too familiar since every damned hallway in this damned building looked the same. He would have scolded himself for getting lazy on that point if he wasn't transfixed by what he was seeing. The lights on the screen were dimming, and a sort of darkness had gathered at the center of it. Slowly, the darkness changed, twisting and morphing into something vaguely resembling a form- a person, so it seemed. Two blurry legs and wavering arms, although the central mass was still mostly formless, too large in the now darkening corridor. Blackness followed it like a mist as it walked, its gait unnatural and broken, as though it had never walked before. It moved, slowly like a ground fog toward one end of the hall, then stopped when it reached a door. That door's familiar. An arm stretched out, or something like an arm, then it opened the door without touching the handle.

Wait a second.

He typed a few keys, the screen changed to show the room the darkness- or whatever it was -had just entered.

Tony froze.

He saw the darkness, lingering by the door. And there was a man. A man standing in front of multiple screens inside the room. He couldn't avert his gaze. He couldn't stop staring. He couldn't breathe.

The darkness moved, glided, across the floor, toward the man with the dark hair, the soft glow of an arc reactor peaking from behind his dark AC/DC shirt.

Tony wanted to move, to do something. But he couldn't, he could only stare, his entire body frozen in fear, shock.

Turn around! Turn around! his mind screamed, but he just couldn't.

The darkness was so near the man on the screen. It hovered at the center of the room, as though surveying its surroundings. Then a black tentacle-like arm reached out, slowly, slowly out toward the man. Tony's heart seemed silent, he could only hear a high-pitched whine- all around, surrounding him. The world was fading away...

A loud bang burst passed the permeating whine behind him. Reflexively, Tony turned around, his stomach jumping into his throat.

Tony was sure he hadn't just screamed like a little girl. Nope. No way. He certainly hadn't. But if one were to check the security footage, they would prove him wrong.

There was nothing there- well, no darkness. No black creature, or misshapen dark-mist tentacle-arm reaching for him. But, there was something else. Something standing in the doorway, staring at him.

"What...in the nine circles of hell are you doing here?!" yelled Tony.

The figure stood for a moment, form shaking, then without a single word or acknowledging motion, promptly fell forward in an undignified face-crushing slump on the floor.

A/N: So, whaddya think? Feel free to review if you'd like.

I'll update sooner if there is a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter, otherwise I'll try to update once or twice a week. Oh, and I'm kinda OCD about grammar, so if you are a fellow grammar nazi, feel free to let me know (even something small like there/their/they're). But if you do, please PM me instead of reviewing with the errors, it just seems weird for some reason. On the subject of PMing, I love talking to people, so feel free to contact me about whatever you'd like!