Hellbent

by Tina Glasneck

  “It’s not like there’s a test you have to complete. A requirement of a certain score. No one is going to come here and ask you if you have a geek badge or brand. You are what you are, and, to be honest, I think we’re all just trying to figure out exactly what that is. Oh, isn’t that special.” Chi chuckled.

  The Southern meaning of that statement went a lot deeper than just the usual nicety. It was a backhanded insult covered in Southern genteelness, and even though Chi laughed about it, she meant that she’d had enough of my falling down the Norse mythology rabbit hole.

  That’s what college was supposed to be about—discovery. “What? Seems to me we’re all trying to find a label,” I said.

  “I just wish they would have shown Lady Hel the way she’s written about,” I muttered. My shoulders sank as I realized that the cannon of the story had been contaminated. You are such a stickler for the Eddes.

  “You okay in there, Sif? Are you listening?” Chi called from another aisle of stadium chairs. That had been the final showing for night, and an empty theater meant the evening shift was almost over, besides the small thing of taking out the trash.

  “Yeah, sorry about that. Just wondering about the runes.”

  “Here we go again,” Chi said. We’d clicked, right after she’d hung up that Loki poster. Of course, on my side of the room a large poster of Asgard rested.

  “You’re on trash duty.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said. I shoved the large bin of trash out of the theater and toward the large dumpster behind the building. The night sky shimmered and twinkled.

  “We are all made of star dust, made of magic,” I whispered. My words were carried away by a slight breeze. I waited for a sign, and, as on every night, the wind did not move, the thunder did not come, the ground did not shake. Night after night I’d prayed for Thor to come to Midgard. He’d help me, and give me the courage to change this life that was so broken.

  I waited for a sign, and nothing came except the theater’s back door opening and Chi calling out. “You ready to go?”

  I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets, feeling the crumpled letter. I pushed it deeper into my pocket. “Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

  Once in the lobby, Chi raised her hand, signaling to Ola and Kristen. Listening to their chatter, I crinkled my nose.

  “Why are you turning up your nose?” Ola asked and straightened the pink beret that she liked to wear. It was her signature look, for sure. “Did you hear the news about the wall, too?”

  Over the last few months, politicians from both sides of the aisle argued its legality, while an untested politician sought to fulfill his campaign promises. Germany had the Berlin Wall, China had the Great Wall, and here in America, I didn’t know what we’d call it? Maybe the-wall-that-stopped-animal-migration-leading-to-extinctions-but-did-nothing-about-human-migration-crime-rate-or-drugs-wall-of-shame.

  “The wall is the beginning of the end,” Chi said.

  “Yeah, the ribbon cutting was today,” Kristen said. She tossed her chestnut brown hair over her shoulder. “And all I could think about was who would show up for that? I mean, that money could have been used to pay off all of our student loans, feed the homeless, and provide shelter.” Her rich Southern dialect made her words sound sugary sweet, although her inflection did add a little acid.

  “Come on, Sif, chime in. I can’t believe we’re repeating history,” Ola said.

  “You know what they say: Our brains are hard-wired to see factions for our own survival.” I shrugged. “Even the gods do this.”

  My vision shifted and therein I saw what made no sense: A flame falling from the sky down to earth. Like runes cast, five images appeared: A flash of a male face I couldn’t recognize, crumpled paper, a lock, more fire, and raw green eyes.

  I shook my head and waited for it to clear.

  I didn’t want to spend the night talking about politics, family history, and pain, and how much better the world might be if a different politician had won the Presidential election, or how much we’d lose by our choices.

  “Back to the movie.” Chi cleared her throat. She fluffed her brown microbraids while eyeing a man in dark leather stalking by. Sure, if you had a love for the alternative rock-guitar player types, he was cute enough.

  “We’ve discussed this film multiple times, and my argument remains. There are many interpretations and reinterpretations of Norse myth, and on one hand, they’ve taken creative license with the original text,” Ola said. “Yet, on the other, they’ve opened up this mythology and made it interesting to others who are not like me.”

  “More special effects would be awesome—”

  “Yeah, but that’s not the target audience,” Kristen said. With her marketing major, she seemed to look for marketing trends everywhere. “This is not about worthiness and which god shall be summoned here to earth, this is about a visual representation and reimagining to bring those new to this mythology into that world. It’s a visual invitation to learn more.”

  “I’m not a stickler though,” I said, “I mean, you have to know that because they live in another world, they are practically aliens. They could appear as varying degrees of shimmering light.”

  “A shimmering god?” Kristen chuckled.

  “Why not? Their skin could shimmer like the brightest of diamonds or gold sparkles. This is a mythology, a Nordic mythology, that has roots that go back to the Bronze Age and Mesopotamia. Plus, there is nothing that says Asgardians are Scandinavian. They can be whatever you want them to be. One day when we meet the Martians or any other life form, we’ll finally understand that panels, YouTube videos, and racist rhetoric discussing imaginary pigmentation are ludicrous.”

  Ola patted me on the back, a sign of comfort. “Plus, I learned in Professor Clemmons’ class that the Thor we are seeing and the one from the comic strips were based on the African deity, Shango.”

  “Comparative religion is talking about comic books and pop culture?” I asked.

  “Yeah, makes for an interesting debate for sure. You’d love that course, I tell you.”

  “Yeah, I’m a geek like that,” I said.

  “We have another surprise for you,” Kristen said.

  “You three are acting like the three Norns, the weavers of destiny.”

  I chuckled at that and followed them outside, after taking one long last look at the image of Thor in a glossy life-sized poster pose. “You think if I asked for the cardboard cutout in the foyer again, they’d give it to me?” I asked.

  “You asked last time. They said they can’t do it quite yet.”

  To be honest, nothing had happened quite yet, as if time was a bottomless entity. But sooner or later it would run out, and then destiny would strike.

  Hmm, maybe today was that day of destiny. Maybe today was the day I’d get some answers.

  “If nothing else, I have tons of stuff to dream about,” I whispered.

  “Yeah, six of them,” Chi said, and laughed.

  Abs are a good thing, especially when they come with such a handsome face.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a falling star, and made a wish: hope. The worst thing in life to have is indifference.

  A loud boom carried.

  “What the hell?” Chi said.

  Whatever this was, it had begun.

  Chapter 7

  Sif

  I’d never seen us jump in my car so fast. We headed toward where we thought the meteorite might be. My hands shook the closer we got to the source of the boom, while the girls chatted about what it could be.

  “Why are we doing this again?” Emili asked in a loud yawn.

  “Because, who doesn’t want to see the asteroid? Don’t you know about the treasure—?” Kristian began.

  “And history?” Ola chimed in.

  Even if they hadn’t needed to go see it, I knew it still would have called me to come. In the back of my skull I felt its pull.

  Through the dark winding back roads, farther and
farther away from the urban sprawl, we finally found an area throbbing with flashing lights and barricaded. The police were blocking all access down the road. Directed to the side, I noticed a crowd of onlookers forming.

  “Seems like it brought out the crazies,” Emili said.

  “You know you’re also talking about us, right?” Chi said and pointed to the crowd. “Sif, isn’t that your friend, what’s-her-name?”

  Chi pointed to a woman I knew, Verdandi, who stood at the barrier, observing everything happening in the distance.

  “Couldn’t you just have taken us back to campus? I’m pooped,” Emili whined.

  “Well, if you want to miss out, you can always shut up and go to sleep here. Gah, you and your complaining,” Chi snapped.

  If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that Chi and Emili didn’t like each other, but they’d been friends since high school and often bickered like sisters—be it about clothes, guys, books, music, heck, even what movie they were going to watch. Since we were all suite mates, I guess it too made sense, but then again, we all had that bickering talent.

  I pulled the car over and parked it.

  “You go,” Chi said, eyeing me looking in the direction of Verdandi.

  I tried not to hurt Chi’s feelings, but no matter how she hid it, I knew she really did not get along with Verdandi; and Verdandi always said that Chi hadn’t come into her calling yet, whatever that meant.

  Away from the girls, I meandered my way through the growing crowd of onlookers, until I was at Verdandi’s side. Small in stature, she waited closest to the barrier, as others towered over her. Her purple hair streak affirmed to me that it was indeed her.

  “Didn’t think I’d be called out here,” I said.

  “Why? The one rule is when I call you come, right?” She laughed. “I’m always where the gods destine me to be. The prophecies to change the world don’t happen during business hours. To tap into the light, oftentimes you must dance in the dark.”

  Have you ever met someone and seemed to just click; as if you’d known each other forever? I’d met Verdandi what seemed like ages ago. Shortly after I’d carried my green army duffle containing everything I owned into my dorm room, Verdandi had come over with a smile. She’d eyed my meager existence. My walls were bare. There was nothing that said home—and I’d already unpacked everything, except the twenty-dollar bill that I had stuffed in my jeans pocket—the money that would have to last me until I found work-study employment.

  She’d invited me to her room, which, in comparison, was an oasis. It had the pleasant smell of those expensive mall candles; the walls were covered in motivational quotes written in perfect calligraphy on colorful papers and canvas, while Scandinavian runes cast blessings over her doorway. Her bed-in-a-bag seemed to come with everything one needed for a small apartment—including matching towels, rugs and shams, and I didn’t even know what a sham was.

  She had the adulting thing down, for sure.

  First impressions lie, though.

  I don’t know how long we stood there at the barricade waiting for a snippet of information to be covered over the radio, for the officers to engage with us, for the neo-pagans to finish their chanting in our ears. But all that was placed on hold when a black SUV rolled up to the barrier and passed through.

  Verdandi’s cell phone rang. She answered and walked away.

  She was full of secrets, for sure.

  Whatever she needed to say, it didn’t take long. She returned to my side and tapped me on the shoulder. “I need you to meet me tomorrow on our spot. I have to do some recon tonight.”

  Our spot happened to be on top of the tallest building in downtown Richmond, and the way there was straight up the exterior wall. And I knew what that meant. She’d received a job, and I didn’t need to know the details. Only thing, I was responsible for was accompanying her there. I didn’t get paid to ask questions.

  Verdandi worked for some strange people—and I never knew what their end game was. For me, it all came down to the money. College was expensive, and even with these extra jobs, I was struggling to keep hold of it all.

  Back in my car, I collapsed onto the seat, finding comfort in the headrest that didn’t move. I found the girls all doing their own thing: Ola and Kristen whispering about something or another, Chi staring at her phone’s screen and Emili snoring in the back.

  “What did the soul-sucker say?” Chi asked.

  “You really hate her,” I said,

  “I hate what she’s made you into. Around her you don’t have your own mind,” Chi said.

  “I’ve never crossed the line. The only thing I do is climb. She does the rest.”

  “Hope the cops believe you when you get caught.”

  I started the car, put it in gear, and bit my tongue. Talking about Verdandi would only lead to an argument and right now, all I felt was drained. There was no fight left in me tonight.

  “So, did you see anything from your vantage point?” I asked.

  “Just some men carrying some big box,” Ola said.

  “Yeah, she took a picture of it for you, too,” Kristen praised.

  Ola handed me her phone and I glanced down at the image. As she said, the picture showed two men in white contamination suits carrying a large box-shaped container, on the side of which was the logo of a Nordic knot-work with the runic H in the center.

  “I know what you are going to say,” Ola began. “I thought the same thing when I saw the rune.”

  “Fill those of us in who are not taking Scandinavian studies,” Emili said.

  Ola laughed. “Do you really want to know, or will you say that I am crazy for even knowing this stuff.”

  “It all depends what you are going to do with it. Who knows, you might grow up and become a famous vlogger.”

  “That came out of left field,” Kristen said.

  “Yeah, well, I am just waking up. So, what is this rune?”

  “It’s the sign of destruction.”

  Chi hit her leg. “Oh, that is great. So, we don’t even have to know what is in the box to know that it is meant to destroy us all?”

  “It only means that this is a time of testing, right, Ola?”

  “It could also mean what I just said. Whatever they have found could destroy us all.”

  I felt the slightest shiver run down my legs, like ice cubes dragged after sharp nails, and I knew Ola felt it, too. Our gazes met in the mirror, and her face took on a blueish tinge of magic, an image I shouldn’t have been able to see.

  “Let it go, Ola,” I said and watched as the distress eased away. But no one else noticed, I assumed. Uncomfortable, I turned on the radio and the heat.

  “What about you?” Chi asked. “Anything exciting happen?”

  “Nah, tonight was a bust. Not even sure why I wanted to come out here.” I couldn’t shake it, no matter that the conversation shifted to something else. The image seemed almost burned in my mind.

  I’d asked for a sign, but I never thought the gods would give me the warning of destruction.

  Chapter 8

  Sif

  “You don’t seem so excited to be here today, Sif,” Emili elbowed me in the right side and plopped down in the seat next to me.

  A new semester back at the wonderful Cascadia University, and although I was happy to be back, and for the routine of college life, I also looked forward to some peace, direction.

  I would have been a lot happier if there was a little bit of thunder to keep my nerves from being on edge. I couldn’t shake it today. It was like the feeling I had when it was my birthday and I was wondering if someone was going to jump out of the birthday cake.

  “I don’t know, something feels off today,” I said and pulled my notebook from my book bag and placed it on the desk before me. This was to be my last period before I could dash out and have some fun. “I’m supposed to be meeting up with Verdandi tonight.”

  “Another one of your nightly rituals? What are you searching for this t
ime?”

  “I’m always searching for Asgard,” I joked.

  Emili shook her head. “If you keep that up, one day you’re going to find more than what you’ve been looking for.”

  People dealt with change in different ways, but for me, I’d been living this life, always different, a woman with neither a home nor a real family, and feeling off. In the Midwest, churches lined every corner. Everyone had their place, but not me.

  “I’m headed to speak with Madam Petulia today if you want her to read your cards.”

  I remained silent.

  “You know Fridays are always this way. Next semester, let’s make sure that we don’t schedule something for Friday afternoons. It should be against the law to have to take an elective at this time.”

  I chuckled at that. I’d wanted to take Intro to Norse Mythology. After all, I’d been having enough weird dreams filled with Elder Futhark runes. None of them made sense, and to be honest, I just wanted to decipher them all.

  But of course, to explain that would be too much like admitting my secrets, and I just didn’t do that very well.

  “Uh-oh, have you met the professor’s new teacher’s assistant? I hear he’s a hottie,” Chi said and took a seat on my left.

  “You would decide to do this class based on the appearance of the docent.”

  “I’m just the greatest connoisseur of handsome men. I mean, when I close my eyes, I like to see a handsome guy there. Makes it a lot easier to daydream in class than if they are cranky.”

  Cranky was her PC word for everything that was unappealing to her—because no one could use an -ism because everyone could be cranky.

  I snickered.

  Rumor had drifted around the campus of a new TA in the Scandinavian Studies department. He was supposed to be a girl’s fantasy—piercing steel-gray eyes, rich coal-black hair, and a physique that a girl could imagine being pressed against. I sighed at that.

  It had been a long time since I’d had even the inkling of desire for a man, ever since Quincy. I shook my head to be rid of those thoughts. Quincy was surely sowing his seed across Europe as he’d made a list of the brothels he’d wished to visit, at least according to Harley. When we’d all decided to head off to college, Quincy had got a batch of doubt. I’d wondered if his crotch scratching had more to do with something he’d caught than second thoughts about higher learning.