Hellbent

by Tina Glasneck

  Freedom wasn’t a necessity, just a philosophical term of endearment.

  Landing on my feet like a blessed cat, I broke into another run and leaped to the next building, which I needed to scale even higher.

  “It’s about time you got here,” Verdandi said. She dropped the piece of wood she was carving,, shoved it into her pocket, and blew her purple and black bang out of her heart-shaped face.

  I collapsed next to her.

  “Are you heading to the protest about the government overspending and the defunding of student loans? I don’t know what the department is thinking,” she said, and tossed me a bottle of clean water. I guzzled it down.

  “Beats splunking, right?”

  “Is that because of the millions spent for a space vacation, instead of ensuring that―I don’t know―the next shipment of sorghum comes in? Everything is done for bread and circuses.”

  “Where’d you pick that up?” she asked.

  “Professor Hudson’s class. Soon education and knowledge will be locked in an ivory tower and available only to the elite, while the impoverished have to rely on the internet.”

  “Just last night the news depicted the scene of a small protest, but you saw that on the TV in the Commons’ Hall, right?”

  I nodded. The university’s digital news ran twenty-four-hour news cycles. Who could miss it? They enjoyed nothing more than to keep us informed of partisan news. I couldn’t figure out, though, if it was to serve as fodder to make us revolt or to keep us to heel.

  “Time is running out. Your spark will soon become active, Sif, and you will no longer be able to just freely move about. They will find you.”

  Seems like every hero’s journey had a call to action. I guess this was it.

  Verdandi sighed and shook her head. “No, we have to move on our mark tonight.”

  “Shit, we haven’t even cased the place.”

  “Yes, but we just have to upload the virus so The Chemist can link into it.”

  I stuck out my hand. The Chemist often asked us to scale office buildings so Verdandi could do something or another inside of the offices. Maybe it was modern-day hacking, uploading viruses, I didn’t really know. I didn’t know his real name, or even what he looked like either, and none of it mattered. The only thing I knew was that his money provided a cushion I’d normally not have.

  “Give it to me, and I’ll do it.”

  She smiled. “Tsk, tsk. You think I will let you try the impossible alone?”

  “I’ve been trained by the best,” I smiled.

  “Yes, but unlike me, you can die.” She crossed her arms and gave me what I thought must have been a motherly look. I couldn’t remember what mine must have been like.

  “You are not immortal,” I deadpanned. There weren’t too many ways to kill elves, but a simple digital search on the dark net might provide some options.

  “Close enough. My kind has seen how this world has changed under this new domain. There is a disconnect, where people know nothing besides what they are told. They are no longer curious, ask no questions, and have no voice.”

  “And you plan to stop that with a digital virus?”

  Verdandi didn’t answer me. This wasn’t the time to have a heart-to-heart. I knew it when the light on top of the antennae’s tower began to blink. Time was up.

  “Time to jump.”

  I watched her leap over the edge, and leaped, too.

  Chapter 12

  Sif

  Verdandi eased the window’s latch up and silently slid the pane to the left. With a hand cupped, she puckered her lips and blew in some white dust. I’d like to think it was pixie dust, but whatever it was made sure to show the red laser lighting.

  I pulled on my headband light and noticed the large room. It didn’t look like an office or even an entryway into what should have been the mainframe.

  “Did you count the windows correctly?” I asked.

  “I’ve followed this to the letter,” Verdandi said.

  “Interesting that the window is left unlocked but the lasers are on?” I remarked and wrinkled my brow.

  There were no desks, chairs, and computers in this office. The only thing that was in the room worth noticing was a marble-like pedestal encased in glass and a rock with purple amethyst inside it.

  “And what are you supposed to upload this to? There’s nothing here.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe it’s just human error.”

  The Chemist didn’t make any mistakes and this was beginning to feel like too much of a coincidence for me. If I could deliver this, then I could get what I needed to survive the night.

  My skin began to itch.

  My stomach growled. Hunger that the last bit of stale popcorn hadn’t eased.

  “You need to focus when we take these assignments, Sif, or I can’t keep doing this.”

  “I won’t be able to eat if I don’t take these assignments, remember? Don’t you think I’d rather be able to do anything else than just languish in the gutter begging for any scrap others are willing to cast to me?”

  The dark room should have been a quick in and out, so Verdandi could upload the virus, but something tickled along my spine as if eyes were watching us.

  “Psst,” I said to get her attention.

  “Shh, I can feel an energy here, but you should not be able to distinguish the call of this from any other simple object,” she chastised.

  The air vibrated around me and, like a drum’s treble, my heart beat in time, beckoning me ever closer.

  This wasn’t about a virus to be uploaded, but something else that lurked here.

  Its power caused my ears to ring like someone was playing a shrill guitar.

  “Sif,” Verdandi called after me.

  My eyes began to well with tears at the longing that called to me, like the forgone kisses of a lost lover, wisps of a memory once cherished, the laughter of a child I could never call mine.

  A slight breeze carried a moving chant in it. It tugged and pulled me, and my feet followed its commands.

  Freedom. It screamed it to me, knowing my name better than I knew it myself.

  “What the hell?” Verdandi called after me. But my feet moved of their own accord across the room toward the large glass case. I reached out to touch the glass.

  “No,” Verdandi said, “It’s not something you need to touch.” But it was too late.

  I punched through the glass and gripped the grayish rock with the amethyst in it. The alarm blared.

  It weighed almost nothing, and I was entranced. Memories crashed into me and raced me back to the beginning of the world. The amethyst began to move and crawl, breaking out of the rock’s shell, and inched up my hands bypassing my fingertips, until it bored its way down to the veins in my wrists.

  Energy I’d never felt soaked inside of me as if I’d gripped a hot lightbulb in my hands but couldn’t let go.

  I threw back my arms and surrendered to this which stirred my soul as a bright purple and blue fiery light closed in around me. I inhaled it, becoming one with this power.

  I saw the golden fields of Asgard filled with bounty and in the distance, as I walked along the winding road, a large building towered over the others. The city’s gates were open to me and the armed guards walked along the red granite streets and nodded in greeting as if they knew me. Laughter hung in the air like sweet ambrosia—so thick that I could taste it on my lips. My skin soaked in the sunlight and warmth, but it did not burn. Instead, it filled my stomach with such richness, a glory of goodness that I’d never known in a dark world. It was better than the magic I’d recently tasted. I felt its primordial call, something ancient.

  You are the key, and the key is inside of you. I heard an almost angelic voice declare. If I’d believed in out-of-body experiences, this would have been it.

  I watched as the amethyst I held melted onto my skin and was quickly absorbed. Its heat, akin to warm oil, washed over me, filling me.

  You are chosen, dear Sif of Casca
dia. Night will fall; you must not. The voice drifted away.

  I came to with Verdandi tugging at me and calling my name.

  “What the hell happened?” I asked.

  “You tell me! We have to get out of here before the guards come,” she said.

  “What about the virus? We won’t get paid if we don’t deliver.” Unlike Verdandi, I needed those rations. My stomach rumbled as if prompted.

  “I think that went out of the window with your thievery. I thought you were smarter than that.” She stared at me. “What is up with your eyes now? They’re blue and purple.”

  On unsteady feet, I hurried behind her back toward the open window, which she silently closed behind us.

  “Separate ways.”

  I could hear the anger in her voice. In all of my time working with Verdandi, I’d never done anything so stupid. I didn’t steal. I’d never done anything to place us in peril.

  Until tonight.

  I watched her climb farther up the building until she disappeared from my sight. She’d left me to my own devices.

  Lightning rolled across the sky, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood to full attention.

  Before I could leave, I took one last fleeting look. On the floor lay the shards of broken glass, the rock was truly gone, and my skin now had an odd shimmer—a magical shimmer. I swallowed my panic.

  They’d come after me now for sure!

  Chapter 13

  Sif

  No, no, no. What had I done?

  Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw the sick, the ailing, and the dead. I watched as women and children were led to their deaths, while men were worked to their demise. The world I knew had been wiped out, to be replaced by a government I couldn’t recognize. It had been forty-eight hours since the incident with Verdandi.

  Everything made me jump, be it the telephone’s ring, an email’s ping, or an unexpected knock. Paranoia wrapped its black wings around me and held me captive.

  After hours of blowing the whistle at the Roller Derby, which gave way to waitressing at the Rolling Dirty Bar & Saloon, I dropped into bed shortly after three. Whoever thought roller skates were good idea for delivering beverages in glasses to tons of inebriated people had never been in a bar. Sure, the drinks were delivered in record time, but it did nothing to stop me from smelling like a brewery.

  “You stink,” Chi said and rolled over on her side. “Go shower, at least,” she said.

  The thing about sharing a dorm room is that there is no privacy. I only had four hours until I had to get up again and start my parkour training. Yes, adventure waited for no one, not even sleep.

  But Chi was right. Nasty alcohol needed to be rinsed off. I’d spilled a good amount after crashing into a patron or two—but, in all fairness, they should not have been standing in the aisle. Once again, who designed a bar where the wait staff wore roller skates?

  I hurried to the shower and allowed the steam to give me pause. I didn’t have time to think. Thinking could only bring up things that I wished to repress. If I closed my eyes, I might still remember.

  I dipped my head under the hot spray. To survive, I needed a thick skin. Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone in.

  Under the spray, the tears I didn’t know I needed to shed began to mix with the water. My sobs I bit back.

  And then the water pouring over me wasn’t enough and I backed against the tile wall and slid down, allowing it to pool around me.

  As my tears fell, the water level began to rise. Instead of draining away, it rose like steam, upward. Droplets became a large stream, and that changed to a deep red.

  I backed away at the sight of the blood-red shower, pulling the curtain with me, until the sink’s edge bit into my back. Hands came from behind me, reaching from the other side of the mirror to wrap around me.

  “Some are baptized in water, but you will be baptized in blood,” a voice rumbled.

  I screamed and sensed only darkness.

  Chapter 14

  Sif

  “Where are you taking us?” I asked. “I need to make it back to the table.” I followed Chi, Kristen, Ola, and Emili through the dealers’ room, where vendors of comic books and other geek memorabilia waited for hungry customers like us to come to purchase unique convention wares. The dealers’ room never failed to impress, be it the line of T-shirts with snarky slogans on them or medieval replica swords.

  Verdandi hurried to my side. “We need to talk, Sif,” she said.

  “Hi, Verdandi, you could at least pretend to be polite,” Chi said. “What is your problem?”

  “We don’t really need to do this here,” I said. The tension in the air seemed misplaced. Verdandi wasn’t her usual perky, sassy self. Instead, something like fear seemed to be behind her usually thoughtful gaze. She gripped my arm. “It’s about the other night.”

  “Give me a moment, okay.”

  “Well, we are here for you, but we can wait over there,” Chi said and pointed at a set of chairs.

  I waited until they were out of earshot and grabbed Verdandi’s arm.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “Something is off. Whatever you did, some bad men are looking for you.”

  “And you brought them to me here?”

  “I don’t have a lot of choices in this whole thing. All I know is you need to get out of here.”

  “And go where?”

  “I don’t know, but they want whatever you took.”

  She ripped her arm out of my grasp and raced away.

  “That’s one way to make an exit,” Chi quipped. “What did she want?”

  “Just to let me know that shit is about to hit the fan. Apparently, bad guys are coming for me,” I sighed, eyeing the exit doors.

  “You can’t leave now,” Ola said. “We have so much stuff planned.”

  “Yeah, but if bad guys are coming after Sif, our superhero costumes don’t necessarily qualify as a way for us to escape.”

  I shook my head. As long as I was in a group, I’d have a chance of survival. If I was caught alone, I could be done for.

  “No, we aren’t running away or ruining the night. We’re safe in a group of people.”

  “You sure about that?” Emili asked.

  “Of course. Together we survive.”

  “Since we’re here, might as well have some more fun. Let’s get back to our itinerary,” Chi said. “Don’t worry: you’ll be back in time for the costume contest.”

  We were dressed in our Comic-Con outfits—me as punk rock-looking Amazonian—bracelets and all. I was accompanied by a league of badass heroic women, including Chi as an elven archer.

  In the corner of the room, one seller had set up privacy screens that resembled true walls. The exterior appeared like the outside of a small mom and pop’s shop, roof and all, and a bright sign hung that said, Madam Petulia Tells All. The Welcome sign was lit up.

  “I don’t know about this,” I said with a pause.

  “You are the adventurous one,” Emili giggled.

  Chi took my elbow. “Don’t worry. It will be fun.”

  Fun is relative, like tattoos and tequila.

  Before I could dig in my heels, Chi and Ola pulled me forward and pushed me through the beaded doorway. Myrrh incense filled the air, wafting and swirling around us, while chanting music played in the background.

  Stepping across the threshold, my stomach clenched, tears welled in my eyes, and I swayed a little on my feet.

  “You okay?” Chi asked.

  I nodded and walked farther into the shop. The esoteric surrounded me, from Wiccan scythes and tomes, to New Age dream catchers.

  How could all of this be in this little tent?

  I looked around and behind me and still saw the dealers’ room outside.

  “Don’t worry. It’s not like this woman is going to tell you something you don’t already know,” Kristen said.

  She was the cynic among us, for sure. Everyone had their
own role, their own place. They knew where they fit—I didn’t, and I had to learn how to navigate it.

  “Are you all seeing this?” I asked.

  “It’s just an illusion. Go with the flow,” Ola said.

  When the woman appeared, she moved forward wearing a colorful dashiki that flowed around her. Her twists of hair hung long behind her.

  “Chi, you are right on time,” she said and then smiled welcomingly at me. She eyed me as if she knew who I was.

  What had I done?

  Her table was set out with runes and colorful clothes, and an array of jewelry, hair pins, letter openers, and other oddities.

  “And this is the one who is seeking her adventure and a date with Thor?” She said it aloud, and I turned and looked at everyone.

  At the mention of his name, the ground shook and lightning crashed loudly, and I could hear thunder rolling in from the dealers’ room.

  “Come. Come. It appears that the gods are ready to hear your request.”

  Madam Petulia snapped her fingers, and an assistant pushed forward a cake shaped like a … well it had a long shaft and a heavy two-part base. On the symbol on the base implied enough to let me know if was supposed to be a large Mjölnir, hammer-shaped cake.

  In unison they all began to sing Happy Birthday, off-key, except Kristen who sang like a sweet chickadee.

  We all began to laugh, and I clapped my hands, struck by their generous surprise. “Wow! Y’all did this for me?”

  “Of course, couldn’t let your Asgardian-themed weekend go to waste—although I’m still not sure how Wonder Woman fits into it.” Kristen said.

  “Well, she has to be related to the gods. If she takes off her bracelets, she becomes a berserker.”

  The girls laughed and normally I might have, too; but three men holding a struggling Verdandi appeared suddenly in the tent. This was not part of the birthday surprise. One was bulked up as if on steroids, and his companion’s bulging pockets warned me about the weapons in his possession. I could feel his intention.