Fahrenheit 451
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“No…”

 

The word was all that I could think.  This situation could not be happening.  My mother, threatening to destroy the coastline.  Loki, here in the Library. Dozens of innocent bystanders at his - her?  Their? - disposal. And it’s all my fault.

 

Leanne stopped her mad cackle and looked down at me.  Down? Why am I on the floor? Somehow, without even thinking about it, I had collapsed to my knees.  “Oh, you should SEE the look on your face right now! Oh, hold on a second…” A purse that was strapped over her shoulder materialized with a snap of her finger, and she plucked a smart phone out of it.  She turned it on, turned around, and took a selfie with me behind her. I should have stopped her - I should have done anything, really - but my body simply sat there limply. I had been fighting non-stop for half an hour, but suddenly the will to fight had fled me.  I had lost.

 

A young boy, maybe ten years old, placed a hand on my shoulder.  “Um, miss? Are you okay?”

 

My head could barely turn to look him in the eye.  Everything seemed to be in slow motion, and my movements were sluggish even by those standards.

 

“Monster!” cried Arey, drawing her sword and charging at Loki.  Arey thrust her sword at Leanne’s lithe form, but Leanne deftly dodged aside.

 

“Really, now?” she laughed.  “I think in the present company, that word has lost all meaning.  Aren’t we all jötnar?”

 

I watched in horror as Loki kicked Arey in the spine.  There was a loud snap, and Arey fell limply to the floor, her back bent at an angle that no living person could achieve.

 

The seriousness of the situation seemed to finally become clear to the humans all around us.  Screams of panic and horror erupted in my ears. Still, I could barely get my body to respond.  What could I do? I had failed so spectacularly. Fear and defeat had paralyzed me.

 

Astveig, however, would not give up so easily.  Her hands lit up as she worked her magic and a bolt of energy zipped at Loki, who took it right in the chest but simply shrugged it off.

 

“Hmm, that kind of tickles.  You’ve gotten better at that since I last saw you.”  Loki then leapt at Astveig and plunged a well-manicured hand into her abdomen.  Thick, red blood oozed out both Astveig’s front and back.

 

“No!” I screamed.  My voice had finally returned to me, but apparently my vocabulary had not.  More people continued to scream around me.

 

Loki turned back to me, using a handkerchief she’d pulled from her purse to wipe the blood from her hand.  “No? Do you have any idea how long I’ve been planning this? Such painstaking efforts deserve a little more praise, I should think.”

 

“Arey was right,” I managed to choke out through my tears.  “You ARE a monster.”

 

“Come now,” she said.  “Maybe you’ll appreciate my efforts more once the show begins.”

 

Show?  What was Loki plotting?  Apparently she had seen the puzzlement on my face, because she added, “Oh, what?  Didn’t they tell you I’m also a god of fire?” With a sinister grin that belonged more on Fred the barber than on Leanne’s face, she cast motes of flame about the library.  All around us, the stacks ignited, and the Library of Sigurgeir was doomed to become little more than a cave full of ashes.

 

Finally, the leaden feeling in my legs eased and I got to my feet.  As much as I wanted to destroy Loki right in that very moment, I knew I had to get the humans to safety.

 

“Ah, my Bride, are you ready to make things official?” Loki sneered.

 

I activated the portal device, sending it directly to my backyard, the only other place I knew how to activate the portal device to.  “Coming, ‘honey,’” I said over my shoulder. Turning to the panicking humans, I pointed to the portal. “Go. I will deal with her.” Like people fleeing a burning library, they all crowded through the portal.

 

The fires burning all around me now flooded my vision.  They were no longer just fires burning the library down.  They were the fires within my very soul, the rage I felt at the loss of my… my FRIENDS.  My sanctuary. My mother. Everything.

 

I approached Loki, each step driven by the seething hatred I felt for the Trickster.  I proffered my hand. “I am ready for my wedding now.”

 

Leanne’s face smiled that smug smile of victory.  She reached down to take my hand, but immediately recoiled as soon as the skin made contact.  “Damn!” she cried. “… Hel. You’ve sworn yourself to Hel.” The smug satisfaction on her face gave way to fear as she realized I was now her own walking hunk of kryptonite.

 

“You have taken EVERYTHING from me,” I told her.  “You stole my life. You turned my own mother into a superpowered mass murderer.  You’ve killed my friends. You’ve destroyed the one safe place I had in the entire universe.”

 

Before I could do anything, a hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around.  Billie had come through the portal. “We have to get out of here.” His voice was a soothing sound in this burning chaos.  I realized he was right. I couldn’t be picking a fight with Loki in this fire.

 

But I also couldn’t let Loki leave without knowing true fear.  I turned back to her. “Don’t think this is over. When I am done with you, you will beg me to let you die.”  I followed Billie through the portal and collapsed into the lawn, sobbing.

 

All around me, humans looked at me with a mix of confusion, horror, and sympathy.  I didn’t give a flying fuck what they thought. In less than an hour, everything about my life that I could hold onto had been destroyed.  I had finally begun to come to grips with my transformation, and everything I thought I could hold onto was torn away from me in less time than it takes to bake a cake.

 

Billie was busy to my left attempting to calm the peoples’ fears.  “I assure you, sir, the authorities have already been contacted. Paramedics are on the way, and we’ll get you on your way home soon enough.”

 

I wanted to scream.  I knew Billie was just trying to prevent an already bad situation from getting any worse, but I wanted to tell him that no, things would not be okay.  Astveig and Arey were dead, and it was all my fault. If I had just taken the humans to some place else. I could have portaled them to my house. Why didn’t I?  Why didn’t I just bring them here in the first place?

 

The thoughts circling round and round in my head were finally interrupted by a gentle hand on my shoulder.  I looked up into Cat’s sympathetic eyes. I tried to tell her what had happened, but my voice just caught in my throat.  Nevertheless, she embraced me as though she knew what had happened, and I continued sobbing into her shoulder.

 

The moment was interrupted by a gentle cough from Billie.  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Nidhoggr’s avatar is still out there, stomping around.”

 

“My mom,” I said.  “It’s my mom.”

 

Cat looked incredulous.  “Your mom?” she gasped. “I knew she was crazy, but this…?”

 

“I don’t know how, exactly, but Loki got to her,” I explained.  “Somehow convinced her that by becoming an avatar of Nidhogg, she could get her family back.”

 

“… And Loki used that opportunity to get into the Library of Sigurgeir,” Billie finished.

 

Cat pushed away from me, a look of horror blooming on her face.  “Then, Astveig and Arey…?”

 

I steeled myself before I could start sobbing again.  I had a job to do. I had to stop my mother before she could do any more harm to anyone.  I got to my feet. “Where is Fenrir?”

 

“Here,” came that familiar growl in my mind.  I saw the giant wolf limping up behind Billie.

 

“How is your wound?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.  Emotions were my enemy, as always.

 

“It is healing.  I’m not ready to fight yet.”

 

I nodded.  “I don’t need you to fight.  I just need a ride.”

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