The Web of Loki

by Carla Reighard

  Chapter 7

  Present - Wednesday

  As Ingrid and Hilde began walking to school, Bjørn and Stein joined them.

  “What are you doing here?” Hilde questioned.

  “Stein and I thought of a way to get out of school so we can start making plans for our trip.”

  “We can’t skip school without getting into trouble.” Ingrid realized too late that her worries were going to be a non-issue when they left Tuntre.

  “It will take a week of not showing up for classes before the teachers go to our parents to see why we haven’t been going to school. That gives us a week to plan what we need and how we’re going to enter the Beyond before we get caught.”

  “Freya’s gown, why didn’t I think of that; Bjørn, you’re a genius! I should have known you would come up with something because you are the master at getting around the rules. Even though I hate that paper is scarce, it works out for us because there won’t be any notes going home to our parents about our absence. No one wastes paper for that kind of stuff.” Hilde smiled like she was a fox in a hen house.

  “But where are we going to go so that no one sees us and tells the school on us?” Ingrid asked.

  “We’ll go to the skating rink!”

  “That idea was mine, not Bjørn’s,” Stein added shyly.

  “So Bjørn is rubbing off on you. That’s good, because we need bad boys for what we’re about to do.” Hilde winked at Stein and he gave her a sheepish grin. Ingrid felt a pang of jealousy only because she assumed both boys would be in love with her friend before this was all over.

  The group made sure no one was nearby as they took the path opposite of school and their homes. The skating rink was far enough away from town and no one would be there during the day in the middle of the week. Also, staying outside more than inside would give them a good idea of what they were going to encounter on their future journey.

  Bjørn started a fire for the group to huddle around, and Ingrid got out the book that was written for her. She assumed Loki was in the Beyond, or even past it, because the author of the journal told her to leave the village. But before they risked their lives to search for him, they needed to learn everything they could.

  Ingrid read the journal to her friends aloud from the beginning:

  “Whoever finds this book, please bring it to Ingrid Hansen, the girl with the web-shaped scar.

  Ingrid Hansen is both the cause and cure for the Web that plagues Tuntre. We won’t be rid of the lethal thing until she leaves the village, finds Loki, and has him put a stop to it. The only problem with this is that Ingrid’s memories have been erased, along with everyone else’s in the whole village. I write this before my memories are deleted as well. I know all of this because I’m Loki’s brother.

  Dear Ingrid,

  I purposely put this in the pages of a book to hide it from Loki. Since you borrow every book from the depository, I assumed you would eventually find this. I will write as much as I can, but my memories are fading quickly.

  Loki used your fears to create Tuntre. Although what you experience here seems real and can physically harm you, it isn’t real. Loki used your stories, insecurities, and the nightmares you wrote about to toy with you here. I discovered his plot and tried to stop him, so he punished me by putting me into Tuntre with you also. Find Loki, and destroy the book.”

  Ingrid stopped reading. “That’s all. He didn’t write anything else.”

  Hilde grabbed the book from Ingrid. “That can’t be true! There has to be more!” As she flipped through the book to the blank pages, what Ingrid had already told her was confirmed. “Why didn’t he just bring it to you?” She asked Ingrid.

  “Maybe he was afraid Loki would stop him from telling Ingrid the truth, so as he explained, he put it where a book worm would find it – the book depository,” Bjørn suggested.

  “He had time to know her well enough to figure out that she liked to read but he couldn’t just tell her what Loki had done?” Hilde asked.

  “It did say her memories were erased, so she wouldn’t have listened to him if he seemed to be a stranger. She reads books so that was a surer thing,” Bjørn speculated. “So the journal really isn’t much use to us. We’re basically on our own to figure out who Loki is and how we can force him to get rid of the Web. That book only managed to make us confused.”

  “So what do we do now?” Stein asked.

  “I still think Loki is somewhere outside Tuntre. This letter basically said this world isn’t real. I say we have to find him in the Beyond.” Ingrid suggested, though she didn’t want to force her friends to do anything dangerous.

  Bjørn jumped in confidently with a plan. “I say we look for this Loki in the Beyond, as Ingrid said she was going to do. We know the biggest obstacle is the Web itself. We also know we can’t touch it because, well, Ingrid’s face is proof that isn’t a good idea. Of course, we’ll use the forest entrance that the Sacrifice volunteers use, but after that, we don’t know what to expect.”

  “We should have knives or axes with us. We can use them to chop wood for our fires, prepare animals for our food, fight off any enemy, and cut through the black threads,” Stein added.

  “Do we know if the web can be cut? I always imagined the strings were similar to a spider’s web. I’ve run into a spider’s net and, while it doesn’t really break, it does stick. It is hard to get off your skin. My mom told me that she had to wash it off my face when I ran into it.” Ingrid explained.

  “I don’t think it is the same as a spider’s web and it probably doesn’t react to metal like it does to skin. Maybe we will have to do a trial run before we are ready to leave.” Stein suggested.

  “When will that be?” Hilde inquired.

  “I think we need to leave at the end of this week. We’ll be gone before we can get in trouble for not going to school.” Bjørn suggested.

  “I’m going to use my special occasion paper to tell my parents where I went.” Hilde spouted off. Tears began to form in her eyes, and Ingrid knew she was going to miss her family.

  “Me too.” Bjørn added.

  “I won’t. My parents will eventually find out from town gossip, but they don’t really care.” Stein had a stoic expression.

  “That can’t be true,” Hilde protested.

  “Yes, it can, because my parents will feel the same way.”

  Bjørn changed the subject abruptly. “Take as much food and other provisions as you can without your families noticing. Since you have to be able to carry whatever you bring, make sure it isn’t too heavy of a load. I’m certain we will be able to capture small animals in the forest to eat also. Let’s just hope that luck is on our side.”

  Ingrid wondered why Bjørn didn’t allow any more to be said about her and Stein’s home life, but perhaps it was counterproductive to worry about something no one had any control over. They may never see their families again, so it became a moot point in the end.

  Chapter 8

  The Beyond

  The week spent planning their trip into the Beyond went by in a blur. She had tuned out anything her parents had said; all her thoughts had been on the mission to save Tuntre. Though the unknown path into the Beyond had created new terrors in her head, she had long been accustomed to the feeling. Fear was the norm for everyone. Ingrid couldn’t imagine living in a world that felt safe or free from harm, but to one day know that feeling had always been her wish.

  Ingrid wondered if the people of Tuntre would be able to handle a place without the Web. How could anyone be unbound to something that they had lived with since they were born? Even negative things can become like a second skin. Ingrid had wished there would have been a way to take away her scar; otherwise her face would always be a reminder to the town of their past horror, even if they escaped it.

  Then she thought about the mysterious book claiming that what they had been experiencing in Tuntre wasn’t real. What exactly in Tuntre wasn’t real? It said Loki used her fears to make thing
s; did that mean only the terrible things were fake? That seemed impossible, but what if the Web and even the Beyond were just created by her imagination? Her friends didn’t really discuss that part of the letter because it didn’t make any sense. A world that felt real but wasn’t had gone beyond their comprehension, so they had brushed over those details and tried to work on what they could understand.

  Each of the four friends waited for their families to fall asleep before they slipped out into the dark. Even though the Web connected rooftops of houses and it was the dead of winter, there were small patches of moonlight between the gaps of the threads. It wasn’t enough light to walk around Tuntre without lamps, but it was adequate for each of the four teens to leave their homes unseen. They, of course, had to light the lamps to guide them outside the town to the opening in the Web that they had hoped would be their entrance into the Beyond.

  Ingrid saw her friends waiting just outside the Beyond next to the place that those who volunteered for the Sacrifice used. She was feeling both regret and thankfulness for letting them in on her plans to leave Tuntre; they too would be risking their lives, but she knew she had a better chance of survival with her friends by her side.

  They all stared at each other, and were obviously reluctant to admit that their hearts were racing and that their palms were sweaty despite the bitter cold. Ingrid was worried that her heart would give out from being forced to thump too fast in her chest before she even got inside the forest. She tried to hide her desire to turn around and run back home to hide under the covers by using a little humor.

  “Glad you all could make it tonight to this momentous occasion in my life, but where are the ceremonial drums? I demand we have some drum pounding and blood splattered on our faces.”

  “Freya’s gown Ingrid, you can’t really be joking at a time like this!”

  “It beats the alternative of running home and forgetting the reason I wanted to do this in the first place.” Ingrid just knew her heartbeat was louder than anyone’s.

  “None of us want to go into that forest but I say we just go for it. Jump right in and don’t think about it anymore.” Bjørn’s voice sounded shaky from either his fear or the cold – maybe both.

  “Yeah, let’s do this!” Stein yelled in a whisper to avoid waking anyone up from the village.

  “Don’t forget to keep your lamps high and your axes ready to chop. In fact, let me have the first whack at the Web,” Bjørn suggested.

  They all walked slowly into the opening of the Beyond. Sounds and smells began to change gradually. It didn’t take long before the tendrils of the Web blocked them from moving forward. Bjørn used all his strength to swing his axe down hard onto the threads in front of him. They split apart easily, so he didn’t really need to use so much vigor at breaking it. Another bonus was that the Web wasn’t sticky so it was easy to clean off from his blade. Bjørn made sure there were no pieces left behind on his axe just in case it came in contact with anyone’s skin. They all knew what the nasty stuff would do if it touched them.

  They proceeded forward and realized that though the Web had connected most of the trees in the Beyond there were sections they didn’t have to chop away. They walked in silence as they maneuvered the obstacles the forest presented to them. There was the Web itself they had to avoid, but they also had to walk around or through a lot of undergrowth on the ground. They had to be careful where they stepped to avoid any unseen hazards, so the process was arduous.

  Sometime during the hours they spent trudging forward, Stein suggested that they eat just a small portion of their dried meat and drink water from their pouches. They had already taken an inventory before their journey of what food each of them had managed to steal from their own family’s storage. Then they evenly divided it among themselves so each person had the same portion of dried meat and bread. That way, if somehow they got separated, they would all have the same advantage at survival.

  Ingrid wasn’t sure she would be able to eat as her stomach lurched at the putrid smells that came from the Web. Though Tuntre was surrounded by the thing, it was never as near to her nose as it was now.

  Stein saw her hesitancy and said, “You need to keep up your strength. I know it stinks around here, but that can’t stop you from eating. If we face any dangers, we need to be at our strongest to fight or avoid them.”

  “Goddess, I’m starving! I don’t care what it smells like in here.” Hilde scarfed down her dried meat hastily.

  “Don’t eat more than we planned on having at each break or you’ll run out too soon.” Stein cautioned.

  “Yes, Daddy,” Hilde said sarcastically.

  “Don’t give him so much grief, Hil. We chose him to be the food monitor. Maybe before the day is over, we’ll run into an animal we can eat.” Bjørn always strived to keep the peace.

  They all ate their allotted portions, which took about a minute – maybe more for Ingrid –and then they proceeded to keep moving. They didn’t want to stop for a real break until they could see the moon again, which would let them know it was evening. Then they would have to start a fire because the temperatures would be too cold to bear.

  If the odors weren’t enough, Ingrid’s nerves were on edge at every sound that she heard. Sometimes it was a stick breaking under someone’s shoe, and other times it was the strange creatures that seemed to lurk around every crevice. Ingrid’s muscles tightened in preparation for something to jump out at them at any minute.

  “Freya’s gown, this place is creepy.” Hilde broke the long silence that had developed.

  “I know. All the hairs on the back of my neck are sticking straight out.” Ingrid didn’t want to admit that she also envisioned all kinds of beasts from the nightmares that she had during restless nights of sleep. She added, “Does anyone else feel like we are being watched by strange animals?”

  “Yes, but I hope some of them are edible.” Bjørn joked.

  “I just want to make it clear that neither Ingrid nor Bjørn are that funny. Stein, you’re probably better off not even trying to make me laugh, because their attempts are making me irritable.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it,” Stein mumbled.

  They all had their axes out and ready to cut away at the Web even if sometimes it wasn’t that near them. No one wanted to take the chance of having it touch their skin. Since they had the extra layers of clothing to keep protected from the outside temperatures, it was unlikely their exteriors would ever make contact with the toxic entity, but they weren’t taking any risks.

  It seemed like they hadn’t made much progress with the slow pace they were taking, but just when the repetitive motion had started to calm Ingrid’s nerves slightly, a strange sound approached them quickly. Ingrid saw in her mind the creature that she thought would make the odd clicking noise and it was only a matter of seconds before her imaginings became real.

  A spider the size of a small Tuntre cottage skittered rapidly towards them. It had eight hairy legs that were able to go a far distance in a short amount of time. Its red eyes looked like they were trying to burn them with their glare. Hilde screamed and Ingrid froze.

  Stein took his battle-axe and chopped rapidly at the gargantuan arachnid’s hairy legs. Bjørn helped Stein beat off the beast with his blade. Hilde held her axe with zeal. She seemed eager to get a piece of the action, but she couldn’t get as close to the thing as the boys had. Ingrid cowered away as far as she could without losing sight of her friends – she feared being alone in that horrible place. Ingrid’s friends tried to avoid the creature’s pinchers that seemed large enough to take off one of their heads. This made it impossible for any of them to get close enough to kill the beast.

  When it became clear that they weren’t going to win the battle, Stein yelled, “Run!”

  He futilely sliced in the air with his axe to keep the behemoth distracted while the rest of the group ran. Bjørn led the way as he quickly cut a path with a knife through the Web. The forest wasn’t fully blocked off by the Web, but
they weren’t running as quickly as they would have in a wide open space. They were fortunate that their blades sliced easily through the Web’s poisonous strands. Ingrid turned her head to see Stein barely escape as he sprinted towards her.

  The enormous fiend battling her friends had reminded Ingrid of something she used to have nightmares about. Ingrid had dreamt of a gigantic hairy spider weaving the prison around Tuntre – she had even imagined that whenever it was hungry, it would suck the blood out of each of the villagers. Ingrid didn’t think that the monster they had dodged was the creator of the Web, the thing from her dreams, but regardless, it was a formidable enough opponent; based on its large size, it had obviously had no trouble winning other fights.

  “Good grief! We need to find a safe place to rest. I don’t think any of us can go on much longer,” Stein spoke, out-of-breath.

  The group had been running for a while to put distance between themselves and the creature. Ingrid noticed that the black strand Stein had pushed behind his ear was dampened. Even in these cold temperatures, the flight for their lives had made everyone sweat.

  Ingrid panted between her words, “I agree, but ‘safe’ is probably not the right word for what we’ll find. We may never be able to truly rest until we escape this hostile environment.” Thinking of the worst case scenario had always come easily for Ingrid; now was no different.

  Ingrid’s heart raced, her legs felt wobbly, and her throat burned from the exertion of running in the frigid Norwegian air. She hadn’t been much of an outdoor enthusiast before she had gone on this dangerous journey. Her muscles were weak and not up to the physical strain, but she refused to let that stop her.

  Her friends, on the other hand, did a lot of athletic activities. They may have been a little breathless from their recent encounter, but Ingrid was sure they didn’t feel every muscle in their body screaming out like she did.