Down the Shrinking Hole

by Jamie Ott

  “Hey, Starr,” answered Becky, a girl they rescued from the street, back in NYC. “Let me get Shane. She’s been wanting to talk to you; she’s been really upset.”

  A moment later, her voice came on. She said, “Hey, how are you?”

  “I had another vision. Hundreds more are dead. Did you see it?”

  “We all saw it. Marla is doing okay, but Mica is another story. Hearing the cries of dying vampires, day and night, isn’t doing her any good. She’s locked herself in her room, and won’t come out.”

  Upon being turned, a person experienced an increase in their natural abilities. For Mica, this meant a supernatural ability to hear things from far away.

  “When are you coming home?” she asked. “We’re scared.”

  “I know, but don’t worry. You’ll be fine. No one will touch you, I promise. Credenza’s wants me to trust her, and she can’t get that by killing the people closest to me.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “Denmark, actually, that’s why I’m calling. Can you put Mot on the phone? I have a question.”

  “Look, maybe it’s time to accept that Valhalla doesn’t exist.”

  “Put Mot on the phone, please.”

  A moment later, his husky voice came through the speaker.

  “Yeah?”

  “I have a question. It’s strange, but I want you to answer anyway. What can you tell me about Valhol?”

  “Well, it’s the hall for warriors, but that’s about all. It’s just some myth about heaven.”

  “Hypothetically, if a person were to claim it were a lost territory, where do you think it would be?”

  “Uh, everywhere, I think.”

  Starr was stunned for a moment.

  “What?” she asked annoyed. “Look, just answer the question. I don’t have time for games.”

  “Hello, I did answer you. It’s not my fault if you’ve got a thick skull. That region has only recently been calm. But back then, there were a lot of changes to the Earth.”

  Silence ensued a moment.

  Slowly, she began to understand what Mot meant. It certainly would make sense as to why she’d been following a trail that led her aimlessly everywhere.

  “Okay, I get it, now. What if a person wanted to locate the largest chunk of Valhol?”

  “What a ridiculous question,” he said. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask a historian or something.”

  A few hours later, she packed her bag and flew to Copenhagen.

  By ten ‘o’ clock she touched down on the upper level of a parking garage. She walked down several flights, and then checked into the adjoining hotel.

  The city was just as cold as the north, except misty with salt-tasting air.

  After dropping her bag off, in the room, she chanced another pair of blue contact lenses, and then walked down to the lobby and got directions to the Royal Library.

  When she first entered the Met sized building, she stood about, wondering where to start.

  From the ceiling hung many signs, but unlike other countries she’d been to the last few months, she was unable to decipher these words. It was known that these languages shared their roots with English, but Danish must have had other influences over the millenniums.

  Her confusion must have shown on her face, for a friendly guy in a blue suit approached.

  “You’re not from here, I can tell. Can I help you?” he asked in nearly perfect English.

  He looked familiar to her.

  “Have we met before?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  Briefly, she told him she was looking for maps.

  She followed him to a large section of laminated rung up books.

  “What kind of map are you looking for?”

  Quickly, she made up a story about doing a research paper about the theoretical location of Valhol for class.

  “An exchange student who doesn’t speak the language? Hmm…”

  He browsed up and down the aisles; Starr followed.

  After a few minutes, he stopped in a section with particularly large laminations. He pulled down a green one and tilted his head, signaling her to follow him.

  They walked over to a large table, where he pulled back the pages. He looked at the keys a second, and then flipped the pages a couple more times.

  Finally, he said, “Ahh! So, in that time, Valhol was the center of the world – before we knew better. The peak where Valhol was located was a large part of Europe,” he said as he circled a large area with his finger. ”But then the Earthquakes happened, breaking off a large part of Scandinavia.” He made slashing movements to the coastline of Denmark. “Some parts of it drifted and others parts crushed in together. Pieces of this place could be everywhere.”

  He looked up at her, and said, “Hypothetically, for your homework assignment, if I were you, I’d look more to central Europe. If it were real, most of it was on its own plate; even if it were on a fault line, it would be nearly impossible for it to divide, without a volcanic surface.”

  Old Acquaintances

  Chapter 3

  It felt much nicer to be in the lower latitude. The air was still deathly cold, there, but the sun was less direct.

  She’d been circling central Europe for hours. Every inch of her skin and clothes were iced over.

  When she emerged from an enormous cloud and looked down, she saw a large mountain. From far below, she sensed something or someone familiar.

  Tired, she decided to take a break.

  Starr landed on a low incline. In the distance, she sensed a mass amount of people. Following her instinct, she walked down the incline and around a large boulder: In the distance, a large lift carried a lot of people further up the mountain.

  She looked down from where the lift came, and saw a tall dark lodge. It sat in the middle of a snowy strip.

  Carefully, she walked down the jagged snowy incline.

  The town was tiny. To her left, a number of homes were scattered throughout the mountainous plain. When she looked right, all she saw was miles of gray sky that seemed to touch the ground.

  She stepped onto what would have been a sidewalk, if it weren’t covered with a foot of snow.

  Starr inhaled deeply; the air was fragrant with burning wood from various fireplaces in people’s homes.

  A large plow slowly rode up the street. As she looked into the shops with her mind, she saw many people. Some were buying souvenirs, while others rented snow gear and ate meals.

  In a bar at the end of a street, locals smoked and drank vodka as they watched some sports program.

  At the opposite end of the street, of where she stood, was a row of wood cabins. Inside, she sensed families spending time together – and even caught the faint aroma of hot chocolate being served in one of them.

  She walked left, to the lodge.

  As she pulled back the door, the warm air, from inside, rushed at her face, making her skin buzz.

  The log walled lobby was lit with a warm yellow light. Across the room, an enormous fire crackled in a five foot high fireplace.

  Scattered throughout, people read newspapers and books, as they sipped mugs of coffee and other drinks the lodge staff brought out to them. All across the walls hung horned animal heads and family portraits of the locals.

  Deciding she liked the feel of the cozy mountain town, she decided to stay the night.

  The room re emanated the spirit of the rest of the lodge. With log walls and a deer head mounted above the head of the firm, comforted bed.

  She dropped her bag on the bed, pulled out a change of clothes, and then returned to the lobby.

  Starr smelled food coming from the back. She followed the scent and found herself in the lodge restaurant.

  Inside, its mahogany walls were dimly lit by soft lamp lights. She picked the emptiest section of the bar, and ordered a chicken soup and a coffee.

  The warmth, after being in the stone cold all morning, made her extremely drowsy. Her cold hand
s throbbed as she wrapped them around the hot mug, and lifted it to her mouth.

  Just when she thought she’d fall asleep while sitting up, someone came and plopped down next to her.

  “Starr! I saw you walk in.”

  With heavy eyes, she looked right, and said, “Emil? What are you doing here?”

  “Me? I live here. What are you doing here,” he asked with a smile.

  “Wow. Uh, to be honest, I don’t know.” She leant over and whispered, “I was flying and the cold was getting to me, so I decided to stop for the night.”

  He lifted his chin and mouthed the word ‘Oh,’ silently.

  “You’re in Grindewald, my hometown in Switzerland. Remember? I invited you. Now, I’m sad because I thought maybe you were here to see me.”

  Starr didn’t know what to say. She sensed something familiar about the place; it must have been him.

  “Why do you wear sunglasses inside?” he asked. “It’s so rude.”

  Her eyes still very cold, she hadn’t bothered with a new pair of contacts. She leant over, again, and looked at him over the top of her glasses.

  “V’hat happened to your eyes?” he asked.

  When she wouldn’t say, he urged her to sit in a booth, where they could talk privately. Once seated, she told him, briefly, about Sestin and her mission to find Valhol.

  “So, what now?”

  “Well, I gotta keep looking. I just know that I need to find it. It’s what Lucenzo is trying to tell me,” she stood and stretched. “Well, I’m gonna call it an evening. I’m gonna head out early tomorrow.”

  “Well, no! You just got here,” he said in a higher pitched voice. “Tomorrow night is my family’s annual snow barge. You must stay; it will be fun.”

  Although she knew she should have refused, she really wanted a break from the cold.

  The next morning, Starr’s inner animal woke her with a light growl. It had been a couple of days since she’d had blood.

  Trying to ignore her red thirst, she made her way down to the restaurant for eggs and coffee.

  It wasn’t long before Emil joined her.

  “I was wondering when you’d get up. I think I will take you to the mountain today.”

  Then a small lady approached the table.

  “Starr, this is my mother.”

  “Hi, it is so nice to meet you,” she said with a smile.

  Then she turned to Emil and said, “I’m gonna need you at the restaurant today by 2 p.m. Ralf has gone home for a week.”

  “Okay, Mom.”

  “Does your family know about you?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “I’m thirsty. Any good places to hunt?”

  After breakfast, Emil took Starr to the garage located in the back, where the lodge’s snow mobiles were parked. He took her past the locals homes, and down the other side of the mountain until they reached a large forest.

  “Now, this forest is enormous. You should keep your eyes and ears peeled at all times. Even with our extreme abilities to perceive, a bear, or even a pack of wolves, might sneak up on us and takes us by surprise. All it takes is one chance to rip out your throat, and you’re down. It happened to a buddy of mine, and he was even older and stronger than I, but the wolves still managed to carry him off. By the time I found him, they’d separated his arms, and were eating him alive. We didn’t know if vampirism can transfer to animals, so we had to track them down and kill them all.”

  They stepped off the snow mobile and walked into the barrage of trees.

  Although she could see nothing, for miles, she heard things in the trees. Winter birds and some squirrels, and other little animals that stayed awake through the year.

  But she was hungrier than that. She wanted something bigger.

  She stopped for a moment and deeply inhaled the air. Emil was right; there were real predators in the forest.

  This was gonna be fun, she thought.

  After half an hour of roaming, they spotted foot prints in the snow.

  Emil recognized them, immediately.

  “What do you think?” she asked.

  “Pack of wolves.”

  “That’ll do: One for you, one for me.”

  “Yes, just be careful and quick about it. Grab the animal of your choosing, and then run. The others won’t come after you: It’s in their instinct to let the weak fall.”

  They followed the trail for another half hour. Finally, they happened on a bald spot where they spotted the wolves nestled in with one another; trying to keep warm.

  “How do we do this? Surely, they’ll see us and take off.”

  “Starr, are we vampires or what? Do you think they can outrun us?”

  They counted to three and then bolted into the clearing. The wolves looked up, and then turned and ran.

  Starr and Emil chased them into the other side of the forest.

  Emil was surprisingly fast, so were the wolves. She knew they were faster than humans, but never expected they could still outrun her as a vampire.

  He was catching up to the pack. He leapt forward and grabbed a bushy gray one by the tail. It yelped as it rolled over, and then tried to run but couldn’t.

  Emil dragged it back, jumped on top of it and broke its neck.

  Starr kept going until she caught up to the brown one that ran beside Emil’s wolf.

  For a moment, she hesitated wondering how she was going to do this. She didn’t want to jump on her front and land in the snow just to catch its tail. What if she missed?

  So she jumped onto its bushy back, causing the animal to buck, but she wrapped her arms around its neck and held on tight.

  Instantly, she regretted this move, for the animal kept running, as though she weighed nothing.

  Starr clamped her muscles down hard, making it difficult for the wolf to keep up with the others.

  When it realized it was losing the pack, it turned and attacked her, sinking its teeth into her cheek and forehead, making her scream out.

  Blood ran into her eyes, blinding her.

  The wolf lunged for her throat.

  Starr released its neck, and closed her hands around its muzzle, forcing its jaw to clamp shut.

  A second later, Emil jumped on the wolf and wrangled it to the side, long enough for Starr to roll over on her fours and drain it.

  After, they looked at each other and laughed.

  “Oh, Starr. Your face is so messed up. We should just stay here and wait for it to heal. Oh, wow,” he said, wiping tears from his face. “You’ve obviously never done any real hunting.”

  “I have, too!” she laughed. “I’ve caught plenty of deer.”

  “That’s all fine, but, out here, you take what you can get, and especially at this time of year. You might not see a deer for many miles. Our forests aren’t small, like the U.S. which are nearly depleted, rumor has it.”

  “Not all forests are chopped down; we got a few.”

  As they laughed and talked, they dragged their wolves to a boulder where they sat down, skinned and gutted them.

  “MMMmmm…,” Starr said, as took an apple sized bite of her wolf’s warm liver.

  “My favorite part, too. It is good, ja?”

  “Ja!” she said.

  When Emil declared her face as presentable, they tied their wolf furs to the snow mobile and rode back to the lodge.

  Starr wanted to wander in and out of the shops, but Emil dragged her to the local tannery to get their furs treated, and then to the rental shop where Emil insisted she get a snow suit and snow board.

  That afternoon, they took the lift further up the mountain.

  As they jumped off, Starr felt heart pound, as if it suddenly came to life.

  “Did you feel that?”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She did a 180 turn, and saw an enormous mountain with a peak that disappeared into the clouds.

  “I feel something about that peak.”

  “Please,
Starr, you’re not gonna find Valhol here. We’re hardly central Europe.”

  “What?” she asked incredulously. “I thought the Swiss embraced the idea of a ‘central’ identity?”

  “Starr, it’s nothing about labels. Valhol is a myth. You need to go home and be with your friends; they need you to protect them.”

  “Emil, I appreciate your concern, but I know what I’m doing. Besides, who else is gonna stop Credenza? By doing this, I am protecting them.”

  “Let somebody else take her on.”

  “Emil, sooner or later, she’ll be coming for me. I need to be prepared. The way to do that is to get to Valhol.”

  Distastefully, he shook his head and looked away.

  Starr said nothing, but made a mental note to come back and inspect the mysterious mountain.

  Starr found that she disliked snowboarding. No matter what he tried to teach her, she continued to fall without reprieve, leaving her legs bruised up, and ripping a hole in her rented snow suit.

  When noon came, he excused himself for a shower, a change, and lunch before his shift at his family restaurant. Before he left, he made Starr promise to meet him on the street barge at 11 p.m.

  After he left, Starr shed her gear and flew to the peak. Up and up she tried to go, but the peak seemed to go so high that the pressure of the atmosphere felt like it was crushing down on her chest.

  But how was that possible? She’d flown even higher than that, before.

  Miffed and confused, she stood at the base of the mountain, looking up. Her dead heart leapt several times. She grabbed gasped and grabbed her chest.

  Somehow, her body was telling her that there was something different about that mountain.

  Like a hover craft, she levitated further up the mountain base, keeping close to the ground. This way, the weight of the atmosphere didn’t crush down as painfully.

  The higher she got, the quicker her heart pounded.

  This was it; it had to be, she said to herself.

  By early evening, she’d made far above the township of Grindewald. She knew she needed to go back and get ready for the party. This disappointed her. Still, she felt exhilarated, for the first time in months.

  Starr flew back to Grindewald, landing just behind some trees that obscured her descent. Then she walked back to the lodge, and then back to her room to get ready for the party.

  About nine ‘o’ clock, she started drifting off to sleep, so she decided to check out the barge early.

  For a moment, she got the feeling that someone was following her. She stopped and turned around.