Mia Darien - Good Things

“I’m holding up,” she replied. It was as honest as she intended to be.

He didn’t reply right away, like he was trying to figure out how to say whatever he wanted to say next. Either it would be some awkward question about Tom’s condition, or...

“Do you know when you’ll be coming back to work?” He took a straightforward approach, which suited him better. He simply was not a man prone to empathy or subtlety, but neither were traits that helped one succeed in the business world.

“I just need a few more days,” she sighed. “Isn’t Nancy managing alright?”

He grunted softly. “She’s fine, but you’re better at the job.”

That was only because she was the only secretary there who knew how to organize things in the way her boss preferred, and he didn’t like having to deal with people who didn’t know all of his systems and idiosyncrasies.

Work just wasn’t a priority for her right then, and she couldn’t force it to be. She had something more important to take care of. “I just need a few more days. I promise, I’ll be back to work soon.”

He grudgingly agreed and hung up without saying much more.

Jesse shook her head as she parked on the street outside the public library. She pulled the folded piece of paper out of her purse and went in, using the computer to pull up where all of the books she needed were. She took them down one at a time, bringing them to one of the long wooden tables in the center.

Open books and more handwritten notes. Once they were all put away, she had her paper scribbled over on both sides with notes being written in every direction. She emerged from the library with a single reoccurring theme, but she couldn’t know if it was the answer.

Could it really be that easy?

On her notebook were the words “blood oath” and they were underlined several times because she had found it come up in several different sources. When mortals wished to gain the attention of their deity, they took an oath marked in blood. The gods of the north took such things very seriously.

She also knew that they would not be kind if they didn’t feel she had summoned with good purpose.

When she got home, she found the apartment hotter than she liked. The heat made her choke up as she crossed the room and returned to her computer. Opening it up, she spent all of her time until dark researching blood oaths. Being that it was the internet, she had to spend a fair amount of that time avoiding websites about “vampires.” Searching for the word “blood” was apparently very risky.

Once it was dark, she closed the computer and moved to the window. She looked out over the cement jungle she lived in, and knew that this wouldn’t do. Seeing the lights across the city, she took a moment to ask herself what she was thinking. Did she really believe that she could summon a god ? She believed that the gods existed and that a believer could call upon them, but she had never known anyone to gain a response. At least, not a response in as much as she needed.

However, this was 2016. It was not the days of battle and blood, not like it used to be when the gods walked the Earth at their strongest. Did anyone truly make proper blood oaths when they called upon their gods? Did they understand what it took?

Jesse hoped she did. Her life depended on it, because if she lost Tom, she lost everything.

She had to drive outside of the city just to find a small tract of forest. Her purpose was so intent that the shudder she’d felt when climbing into a car didn’t touch her now as she pulled onto the side of the road along the trees. She was pretty sure that, technically, it was private property, but not anything that anyone would come out to in the middle of the night. Not believing anyone would go in looking for her, she felt the most she risked was having her car towed and she was willing to risk that.

Shutting the doors and locking them, she stuffed her keys in her pocket. Everything else had been left at the apartment, because she wanted to be as little burdened as possible.

Jesse walked resolutely into the midst of the little forest until she was out of sight of both the road and the city’s skyline. It was dark and that amplified the faint chill in the air, making her pull her jacket closer. When she felt she was secluded enough, she pulled out the pocket knife that was the only other thing she carried with her.

She unfolded the blade. This wasn’t exactly something she was good at. In her adolescence, she hadn’t been a cutter. In fact, getting injured was something she generally worked hard to avoid. She knew that this, however, was her first test. It didn’t matter what she wanted or what she was good at, it was what she had to do.

As she pressed the tip of the blade to her palm, she winced. Finally, she just had to shut her eyes and let the blade slide down her skin, hoping she didn’t cut anything important. The blood ran hot and free, sliding down the wrist of her upheld arm. The strange, thin pain made her feel slightly lightheaded but she opened her eyes.

She squeezed her hand into a fist and let her blood drop onto the Earth. “I call upon Odin the All-Father, the god of wisdom and poetry and warriors. I call upon him with my blood to pledge myself to him in exchange for a boon of life and death. Please, hear my call.”

The blood tapered off until it stopped, and nothing happened. Jesse let out a long breath and dropped her hand. What really had she been expecting, she chastised herself. Of course Odin wasn’t going to show up just because she called. He was king of the gods, not a taxi driver.

Turning around, she shrieked and fell back on her ass.

Somehow, she had stopped being alone in the trees and she had never heard a thing. She looked up at the figure of a large man who had been standing a breath away from her, and she’d never heard a thing . Her eyes roamed from his boots up to his head, taking in quickly that he had to be well over six feet tall, almost as broad through the shoulders, with long blond hair tied back low, a blonde beard, and...

...a patch over one eye.

Jesse felt all of the air sucked out of her lungs.

“All-Father,” she breathed the word, feeling her heart skip every other beat.

“You sound surprised.” His voice was low, rumbling like mountains shifting against each other, but also amused as one brow rose. Swallowing hard, she saw that he was wearing...a suit, a dark suit with the shirt open. “Did you not call me in blood?”

“Y-yes, I did,” she said, swallowing her heart back down into her chest as she forced herself to get back up. Her gods did not ask for groveling but for strength, and she had already shown more weakness than she should have. Once on her feet, she pulled herself up straight and tossed her hair back over her shoulder. “Yes. I did.” She forced herself to be calm, even as her throat began to seize up for what she wanted to ask. “My husband hangs on the verge of death, in a coma. His brain is swollen and bleeding. I can’t lose him.

“They can’t do anything. I see that in their eyes, even if they won’t admit his. His life is...” She paused, realizing just how true her statement was. “His life is in the hands of the gods, and I want to weight the scales. I’ve called for your help.”

“You all do,” he replied, not angrily but resignedly. “You humans always call on us most when you are in need of something.” Locking his hands behind his back, he began to walk around her in a slow circle. He was so intimidating that she had to fight to keep her knees from audibly shaking. It wasn’t just his size, although that was considerable, but the aura he radiated that tried to push her to her knees. She wouldn’t let it. She didn’t turn to follow him with her gaze, because to her, that would show fear.