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| Image: Valhalla Rising |
I gasped for breath, clutching my abdomen. I summoned as much strength into my arm as I could, raising my gun level with Grimm’s chest and firing as steadily as I could. The hammer clicked impotently into the cylinder and my hope of survival rapidly diminished.
“Or maybe they were your bullets,” he mused, opening his right palm spilling unspent rounds onto the linoleum floor. “Sometimes I forget. Not often, mind you. And certainly not this time.” He gingerly walked to my side, his footfalls the only sound I could hear over the rush of my heart beat, and knelt down beside me. He looked down menacingly, his one eye penetrating my soul. Then, he smiled and flicked me in the forehead. “Don’t be so serious, Silas. Hah! I like that. Serious Silas.”
This son-of-a-bitch had the nerve to—
He grabbed my hand, pulling it away from the bullet wound and I saw… Nothing.
There was blood all over my hand, but my body was intact. No holes. No scars. I ached fiercely from my gut at the throb of my broken bones echoed that pain.
“What the hell is going on here?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Weren’t you paying attention? Nothing is as it seems. No matter how you look for the puzzle it stands right before you: completely invisible.”
“Who are you?” I shouted.
“I told you, I’m Grimm. Grimm today, Grimm tomorrow, Grimm till the end of time! I’m always Grimm, though sometimes I’m spiteful and cunning and ruthless too,” he said.
I lay there rubbing my forehead. “What is the question I need to ask for you to give me a straight answer?”
“Ah straight to the point, Serious Silas. I can appreciate that.” He stood up and offered me a hand. I gave him a straight look.
“You expect me to just stand up?”
“I do.”
“With your help?”
He nodded.
“With a broken leg?”
He scoffed. “What a silly barrier to hold you back.” He clapped several times in an odd syncopated rhythm. As he finished, cool air swept down onto my arm and leg. I looked to see that both casts had been split neatly down the center. I gritted my teeth and gingerly extended my leg, then my arm. I felt like I could sleep for an entire year and my body cried out with the punishment it had been through but it looked as if my broken bones were mended. He offered his hand to me again.
I took it, pulling myself upright before retrieving my towel and wrapping it around my waist. He took a seat on the chair, leaning it back on two legs, hands clasped behind his head stretching his legs out on the corner of the bed; leaving me with no place to sit but the floor. I elected to stand – a man’s gotta posture to his surroundings.
“There are things at work that require someone of your, shall we say… talents,” he began. “You see I —”
“How am I not dead?” I burst in. “This is at least the second time, in as many days that I can remember, that I should have died. Yet here I stand without as much as a fucking scratch. You appearing outta nowhere. Demon dogs and sadistic bitches carving their name into my ass. What the fuck is going on with me?”
“My, my, my you have been busy since last we spoke haven’t you?” he said with the same relaxed posture. “It’s not surprising you haven’t puzzled it out yet, but I hate spelling it out for people.” He stared back at me as if waiting.
“Humor me.”
“You can’t die!” he said, as if wanting nothing more than to spell it out for me. “Imagine, a mortal who cannot die. It’s so novel, isn’t it? Take a moment to breathe it in. You must truly feel blessed,” he said.
I looked down at him doubtfully. He returned it with expectance.
“I can’t die.”
“Technically.”
“And you did this?”
“I may have had a hand in it,” he said, dismissively. “Though that brand on your neck may have short circuited the initial intent.”
I quickly clapped my hand over the scar at my neck and turned back toward the sink, feeling self-conscious and concerned about my exchange with Sigyn. After a moment a cleared his throat.
“There’s a package I need to recover, but certain obligations prevent me from taking position of it directly. You are the only person who can retrieve it for me.” He said.
I faced him. “What are you? Some kind of Alien? A wizard?”
“Maybe both,” he said, “but definitely neither.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“The world is full of contradictions, boy. You’d best grow accustomed to them if you’re to work for me.”
“And now I’m working for you?” I said skeptically.
“Again, not my initial intend but certain forces have prevented me from compelling you. Suffice it to say I can be quite… convincing.” There was a dull ache in my belly as I thought about the gun shots from earlier. “Besides,” he said cheerfully, “this arrangement will be mutually beneficial. I’m the only one who can lift the curse!”
“I’m cursed now.” I said with a flat look.
“Of course you are! You can’t die.”
Frustrated I said, “You just said that was a blessing!”
“I said you would think it was a blessing.”
This was easily the most frustrating, convoluted, conversation I had ever had. I slipped down, pulling my legs into my chest. I stared blankly onto the floor. “And I'm supposed to get a package for you?”
“Simple as that.”
“And if I don't?”
Blinding pain shot into my entire body. Suddenly I was back on the hospital gurney. Shattered pelvis, broken bones, bloody face and all. My back arched as a blood curdling scream came to my lips. As the fire in my belly pushed the air from my lungs, blood gurgled from my mouth. I gasped for breath and took in nothing but the blood.
Grimm appeared above me, a maniac straddling a broken man. His one eye twisted into a snarl. “If you don't, my boy, this will be the most pleasurable experience you have for the rest of your very, very long life.”
I screamed again, the sound filling the room, echoing in my ears as the most excruciating sensation I'd ever felt ripped my body up and down. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, it was gone.
I opened my eyes and I was back in the motel. Sweat covered my body and the towel doing nothing for my modesty. The dull ache was ever present but Grimm was gone. I pulled myself to my feet and checked the room one more time, just to be sure.
“Where do I even start” I shouted, not really expecting an answer, then a knock came to the door. I wrapped the towel around myself and tucked the gun behind my back before answer it.
“Is everything all right in there, sir?” he said. “I could hear screaming all the way across the parking lot.”
I opened the door with a smirk on my face wearing nothing but the towel and sweat sheen on my body. “What? You've never had a patron who liked rough sex before?”
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