Not My Apocalypse (7 page)

As we were eating, Joshua asked if I wanted to come with him to a volunteer event that morning. “We’re doing some outreach work for the homeless, providing them with a meal and connecting them with programs that can help them get off the streets.”

“No, thanks.” I gave Mew-Mew a piece of sausage and he gobbled it down. “Not that I’m like, opposed to it or anything. On principle. But I’m really not good with people.”

“Come on, you can give it a try,” Joshua urged.

“No, seriously. I’m bad with people. Like disastrously bad.” I hoped I didn’t have to get explicit and tell him that people got seriously hurt or dead when I tried to interact with the general public. My cultural education was enough to make me understand intellectually what it would be like to be a regular person, but emotion always got the better of me when I went out into the human world. “I lived a really isolated life until I started running away. I don’t have a lot of patience and I’m terrible at small talk. Really, it’s best if I just stay here.” I’d traded one prison for another. “Unless I’m vulnerable if I’m not near you?”

Joshua shook his head. “My house is protected. No demonic forces can get inside, whether I’m here or not. The house would have been trashed or burned down a long time ago if it wasn’t.”

“So I’ll stay here then.” I gave Mew-Mew another sausage. “If you want to go for a walk later, I’d like that. Or go to the store or something, I’m okay with that kind of stuff.”

He gave me this sort of sad look, like he felt sorry for me. “Sure, we can do something when we get back from volunteering.” He finished his last bite and stood to clear his plate. “We’re volunteering again tomorrow, at the children’s hospital. Do you think you could handle that?”

I thought about all those sad little kids, dying of cancer or some other horrible disease. “Do you heal them? Healing the sick is your thing, right?”

“I don’t have my full powers yet, but I do what I can. Sometimes I can heal them, and sometimes I can’t.”

He was coming into his powers just like I was, but instead of trying to teleport and making it snow in the dining room, he was trying to use his powers to heal people. I probably wasn’t meant to help people, more like kill them. But then again, I’d brought Mew-Mew back to life. “Do you think… I could heal people?”

Joshua tilted his head a little as he considered. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“Don’t say that. You don’t know what kind of disasters I’ve created. But I do want to. Try.” I had an honest desire to do good, to help those poor little kids. Plus it would be a great
fuck you
to my father. Healing the sick instead of corrupting people? Fuck yeah.

“Then we’ll try tomorrow.” He smiled.

His mom patted my arm. “Joshua is right. You do have good in you. I’m sorry I judged you yesterday. It’s not for us to judge.”

“It’s okay. Everybody judges me.”

***

While they were out, I asked Mew-Mew to let my friends know I was okay and that I was hiding out in Joshua’s house. I wanted to know if any of them had gotten in trouble for us interfering with the Norse gods. With Mew-Mew gone and no one else in the house, I turned to my old friend, TV. Joshua only had basic TV and I had to figure out how to adjust the reception. What did they do without TV? I flipped through their DVD collection, which wasn’t that big, and found a movie I liked. I sat back and waited for them to come back.

For lunch I had to fend for myself since they were still out at the volunteer event. Mew-Mew wasn’t back yet, either, but I took a look through his eyes and he was traveling through the grass in someone’s yard. Still looking in on my friends and not in trouble. He’d get back to me once he found all of them. I wanted to hang out with my friends instead of being stuck here. I made a sandwich and settled down for another movie from their small collection.

I felt a little lonely, but it was also incredibly peaceful here. I didn’t have to worry that Satan would show up any minute and I didn’t have to worry about my mom or Ken demanding this or that from me. I didn’t have to worry about my lessons. The paranoid fear that I was wrong about being safe here got quieter and quieter. If Satan hadn’t found me by now, he wasn’t going to.

Around two o’clock they came home, chatting about their day. Joshua asked if I wanted to go for a walk up to the store with him. I was more than happy for a chance to get out of the house. Just before I stepped outside, I asked him again if he was sure Satan wouldn’t be able to find me if I was with him.

“He might be able to find you, but he won’t be able to hurt you or take you away. You’re under my protection,” he said.

I hated that. I wanted to be able to protect myself.

We were about a block away when he turned to me and said, “I talked to my dad last night.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I talk to him all the time, especially just before bed.” His expression turned wary. “He’s not happy about me letting you stay at my house.”

Fear squeezed at me. “Is he going to make you kick me out? Can he do that?”

Joshua put a hand on my arm. “No, he can’t. I have free will. I explained to him why I’m letting you stay. He still wasn’t happy, but he told me it’s my decision. I’m sure he thinks this will end in disaster. He’s absolutely sure you’re evil and you’ll oppose me, if not now, then in the future.”

“Well if you have free will, then so do I. I don’t have to do what my father expects of me. I sure as fu—I sure don’t want to.”

“I know. That’s why I’m defying my father and letting you stay at my house.”

That just made me feel guilty. “Thanks.”

Chapter 6

We had dinner together. I even set the table. It was so incredibly motherfucking wholesome I could hardly stand it. The only thing missing was a father, and maybe a cute little sibling and a dog. Joshua and his mom loved each other, they really did. I’d only seen this through a screen, a distant kind of life that I’d never have and always ached for. It was easier to take when it was an abstraction, just something on TV. But this was right in my face. It made me feel horrible and good at the same time. I was an outsider, but I got to sort of play house for a while. They were really nice to me and I was on my best behavior. We played board games after dinner and I wondered if I could ask to stay longer than a few days. Maybe a few weeks, or a few months. Maybe forever.

Mew-Mew came back to give me a report after dinner. I went up to my temporary bedroom to see him in private and he gave me the lowdown. Mew-Mew had talked to Emily, Colin, and Elliot. Colin reported that Stefan had gotten an earful from his dad and Thor about how Ragnarok was inevitable and he shouldn’t try to stop it. He pointed out to them that although it might be destined to happen, it didn’t have to happen right now. If he could delay it, he would. There’s a lot of fatalism in that family. Almost as bad as mine.

Mew-Mew let them know I was fine and where I was staying. Everyone was shocked, as expected. I mean, I was still shocked I was here. That night I went to bed debating if I should ask to stay longer and wondering if they would mind. It was just so nice to be around a family, even if it was just the two of them, that actually loved each other and did all that wholesome family shit. And oh yeah, I was supposed to go to the children’s hospital the next day and try to help sick kids. Honestly, I was looking forward to that. Sort of dreading it too, but still looking forward to it.

That all went to shit in the middle of the night. I woke to a tapping at my window. Mew-Mew was already up, hopping off the bed. I followed him to the window and pulled back the shades. There was a raven tapping his beak against the glass. Ravens were messengers, so I was a little nervous as I opened the window, hoping it wasn’t bad news. “Stefan needs to see you,” the raven said. “He’s on his way. Does your protection reach to the backyard? He wants to talk to you there.”

If he was coming to see me in the middle of the night, then it wasn’t good news. I would have to risk going out into the yard and hope Joshua’s protection wasn’t just on literally the house but on his home, which would include his tiny backyard. I crept downstairs with Mew-Mew at my heels, hoping I didn’t wake Joshua or his mom. My heart hammered as I went out the back door, wondering if I was making a big mistake and Satan would swoop down and grab me as soon as I stepped out of the doorway.

I walked a few paces across the grass, looking in the shadows for Stefan. After a few minutes he appeared. He’s lucky. He’s got a pretty good grasp of teleportation. It might take him a few tries to get somewhere, but he did get where he wanted to go eventually. I’m so fucking jealous of him. He’s been trying to teach me how to get better at my own teleportation, but my power is spotty. Stefan has an easier time of it when his raven goes there first like it just had. His raven is sort of like Mew-Mew is to me, although Stefan’s raven mostly lives wild and runs errands and messages for him.

“What is it?” I asked him. I was still cringing a little, waiting for my father to show up. I had to keep from glancing around, looking for him. It’s not like I wouldn’t feel him the second he showed up.

Stefan looked a little pale, even in the darkness. “Fenrir just broke loose.” His voice shook.

I about shit a brick. “Oh fuck.” Sköll eating the sun was bad, starting-down-the-path-to-the-world-ending bad, but this was worse. Fenrir breaking loose was farther down the chain of events that led to Ragnarok. In fact, if I remembered right, it was just before the big battle. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“Yeah that’s the right word for it. We’re fucked.” The raven flew over and landed on his shoulder. It made him look very Goth.

For a minute all I could do was stand there and feel sick. Then my stubbornness reared its head again. “No. No we’re not. We stopped Sköll from eating the sun and now we’re gonna stop Fenrir from eating your dad.”

“How the hell are we supposed to do that? Even the gods can’t stop him. Fenrir is going to eat Odin and then Vidar kills him. That’s it. No one else can stop him. It took three tries to get a fetter strong enough to hold him. We’re just a bunch of teenage demigods and we don’t have any weapons.”

“Then we’ll go
get
weapons, like last time. Do you honestly want to sit back and watch your dad get eaten and watch all your relatives get killed? Not to mention the rest of us. There’s an awful damn short list of people that survive Ragnarok, and I didn’t see your name on it. Mine either.” I paced on Joshua’s tiny patch of lawn. “There’s got to be some kind of weapon that can stop Fenrir.”

“Not even Thor’s hammer can stop him.” Stefan shook his head.

“Then we’ll go looking for weapons from other pantheons.” I kept pacing, back and forth, back and forth. “We need to get the others and figure this out.”

“If you leave, your father will be able to find you,” Stefan pointed out.

“So fucking what? This is the end of the fucking world we’re talking about.” And yes there was a quiver of fear in my stomach at the idea of leaving the safety of Joshua’s house, but I couldn’t hide out while the world ended. “Hey, maybe he’ll help us. Joshua, I mean. You go get the others and we’ll meet at the cemetery in New Orleans. Saint Louis Number One. It’s strong enough to keep me at least a little shielded, and chances are if my father was looking for me he would have checked there already, so it might be a while before he checks again.”

“Alright, I’ll go get them. How long until we meet?”

I had to think of how long it would take me to talk to Joshua, hopefully convince him to come with us, and get to the cemetery so I could use the portal to Saint Louis Number One. “Two hours.” That should be enough time for Stefan to get the others too.

“Saint Louis Number One in two hours. We’ll be there.” And with that, both him and his raven disappeared.

I hurried back inside and went to Joshua’s room. I hesitated a little before leaning down to shake him. It felt weird to be in his bedroom while he was sleeping. Maybe I didn’t like the idea of seeing him when he was so vulnerable. I was supposed to be his mortal enemy and shit. I shook him until he opened his eyes. “Sorry to wake you, but we’ve got a problem.”

He sat up and turned on the bedside lamp. “What kind of problem?” He rubbed at his eyes.

“Fenrir is loose.”

He blinked at me. “Who?”

“The wolf that’s going to eat Odin.”

He blinked again.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You don’t know Norse mythology?”

He shook his head. “I know there are other gods out there, but I don’t interfere with them and they don’t interfere with me.”

Uh oh. This was gonna be a hard sell. “Ok, CliffsNotes version. Fenrir is a huge wolf that’s been tied up for who knows how long, and a prophecy says that one day he’ll break loose and eat Odin. That’s the head of the Norse pantheon and my friend’s dad. When he eats Odin it sets off a huge battle between the Aesir, the Norse gods, and the giants, and the battle is so huge it ends the world.”

“Oh.” He looked more awake now. “But you’re supposed to help the devil bring about the end of the world. The Norse gods don’t cause Armageddon.”

“Yeah, but a battle that ends the world? Sounds familiar doesn’t it? This is worse than Sköll eating the sun, and that would have started the end of the world, too.” How many times was I going to have to prevent Ragnarok? Maybe it really was inevitable if it was still going to happen despite what we’d done. “Same pantheon, and they’re at it again.”

He frowned a little, studying me. “You’re going to stop it again, aren’t you?”

“Fu—I mean, of course I am. And I want you to help us.” I’m not sure what he could do, but he had to have some kind of powers that would be useful against a huge, divine wolf. “It’s the end of the world. You don’t want that to happen.”

Now he looked wary. “No, I don’t want that to happen, but I’m not sure about fighting Norse gods. I don’t want to get involved.”

“So you’d rather let Ragnarok happen?” I tried to keep my temper in check. “You’re not on the list of survivors for that war, so you just might end up dead along with the rest of us.”