Freja was mad. Steaming mad. Smoke would have been coming out of her ears if this was a cartoon. She marched through the mall, searching for a specific store. Yesterday, this "Lukas" and Mathias had exchanged numbers! It was like they were best friends suddenly. And Freja hated it.
"He's MINE," she growled, storming through the hunting supplies store. She picked out a new bear trap. "Mine!"
She drove over to the Bondevik household and parked. It was dark outside... perfect. Freja killed the lights on the car and slipped quietly out the door. She wouldn't close the car door until she got back inside.
Freja maneuvered the bear trap in the walkway, and it fit perfectly over one of the stepping stones. Hopefully Lukas wouldn't notice until it was too late.
Emil slipped out the door quietly, into the cool air of breaking dawn. He tugged his jacket closer around him and sighed, watching his breath condense into steam. A morning walk would clear his head. Hopefully then, he could go back to bed and get some more sleep. He had been up late texting Leon and Lili over Discord. One step, and then he heard a snap. Curious and mildly alarmed, Emil looked down... and saw blood. So much blood.
Then he felt the searing pain roar its way up his leg, and he screamed.
Lukas was out the door before his brain even processed Emil's scream. He heard that sound, and immediately something snapped inside him. Emil was curled up on the lawn, arms wrapped around one leg. Lukas felt his stomach lurch as he realized Emil's foot was inside the bear trap, but Emil was several metres away from the trap itself. The jaws of the trap had cut his foot off .
Hyperventilating, Lukas called emergency services and then Mathias.
Emil was in the hospital half an hour later.
Mathias was in shock. He heard Lukas's distressed voice as if over a long distance. The world was closing in on him, choking him slowly. Not Emil. Not Emil!
He asked his girlfriend to drive him over, and she silently agreed, but there was anger in her gaze; Mathias couldn't fathom why.
On the drive, Freja remained silent. Mathias wiped his eyes and tried to calm down. His nerves were frayed, and he kept picturing the teen in a horrible state.
When they arrived, Lukas was cleaning the blood off the stones with a hose. Mathias ran over, and before Lukas could react, he was being enveloped in a warm, strong hug.
"Oh, Lukas..." Tias mumbled.
Lukas tried to reply, but a sob rose in his throat and he buried his head in Mathias's shoulder. Tias held him close and murmured soothing noises in Danish.
Freja stood to the side, fuming. How dare he. Mathias was supposed to not care!
Lukas glanced over, and saw the rage and contempt on her face. Something clicked in his brain.
"You," he said. "What's your problem?!"
Mathias stepped away. "Huh?"
Freja scowled and snapped, "You. Need to get away. From. My boyfriend."
There was a long silence.
Lukas burst out laughing, and Mathias gave him a concerned look. "Freja, now is not the time to be posses—"
"That's hilarious!" Lukas exclaimed. "You absolute awful human being. Can't you see I need Mathias?! Do you not know what just happened to my little brother?!"
"It was supposed to be you," she muttered.
Mathias, who was just about to interject, snapped his mouth closed.
Lukas froze as well.
Freja realized she must have spoken louder than she realized, and took a step back towards the car, her eyes widening.
"Freja," Lukas said coldly. "What do you mean, it was supposed to be me?"
She didn't answer.
"I find it rather suspicious that a bear trap was found outside my house just after I asked "your" boyfriend for his number. Don't you?"
Freja snarled. "Shut up."
"Freja," Mathias said, bewildered and alarmed. "Did you set a trap for my friend?!"
She stayed silent.
Lukas felt rage swell inside him. There she was: the woman responsible for Emil's missing foot, the reason he was in so much pain, and the reason he and Mathias couldn't be together. His vision turned red at the edges, and he lunged at Freja, tackling her to the ground.
She screamed, and it only fueled Lukas.
He punched her face once, twice, and tried to do it again before Mathias was pulling him off.
"LET ME GO!" Lukas roared. "LET ME AT HER—"
"I'll take care of Freja," Mathias growled. "Lukas, get in your car, I'll drive us to the hospital in a little bit."
Lukas obeyed, fury raging beneath his skin. He sat in his car and watched Mathias and Freja talk in rapid, angry Danish. Mathias looked like he wanted to punt Freja to the next galaxy, but he held himself back.
Freja spat at him and turned around. She climbed in the car she had driven her and Tias in, and turned and drove away.
Mathias climbed into the driver's side of Lukas's old car.
"What happened?" Lukas asked numbly.
"I broke up with her."
"You should have beat her up."
Mathias was silent for a while. "No," he finally said. "I wanted to. I still want to. But I promise to never harm my significant other physically, no matter how badly they mess up."
"Hm." Lukas was silent for the rest of the drive to the hospital.
