A little advice: No matter how hard school is, don't sacrifice ketchup flavored chips to any god, you might regret it.
I'm Melinoe, average high school student in Hungary, trying to survive The Big Exam™ every senior fears: the matura. If you fail...
The thing about our friend group is that we can't be serious for extended periods of time. After the ritual we decided to visit the playground, and spent the next hour on a swing, eating the chips and discussing that the ritual made both of us hungry. I was already wondering whether there is instant ramen at home or I'll have to buy some. So, we forgot about the whole marriage thing.
On my way home my headphones stopped working.
"Oh, that's just great..." I mumbled.
I spent the rest of the journey letting my thoughts wander. That's when I remembered the unofficial engagement. "She should meet me to discuss the details of the wedding" was all I thought, then let the topic go again.
"Hey, mom, sorry for staying out late, Pat and I played with fire." I said as soon as I arrived home. I took my shoes off and stepped inside.
"Did you commit arson?" I heard her voice from the living room.
"Nah, we're good."
"Okay, then."
I spent the evening fixing my headphones and ignoring homework and other responsibilities. I studied all day at school, I need a break, am I right?
When I looked in the mirror the next morning, I had to cover my mouth with my hands to stop myself from screaming. I bit down on my palm really hard until the urge to yell was gone, then I stepped closer to the mirror to check one more time whether what I see is really what I think it is.
There were some sort of Scandinavian runes on my left ribcage. I rubbed my fingers over them, but it didn't feel like marker or pen ink. I tried to remove it with water, soap, rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, nail polish remover, dish soap, and even a combination of these, but nothing happened, except my skin turning bright red and hurting like hell.
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I copied the runes onto a piece of paper so that I could decipher them later, because I definitely had to bandage that up.
After treating the wound I caused with my stupidity, I went back to my room, and looked through my bookshelf. Once I bought a book on Scandinavian mythology, and it included the runes too. Of course, Googling it would have been an option, but the book was cooler.
It was written in the so-called elder furthark runic system, the traditional viking runes. I found the chapter I needed very quickly and looked through the runic alphabet.
The first letter was H.
The second was E.
The third L.
I swallowed hard as I felt my stomach throb and my heartbeat increase. I barely even had to look for the letters, because they were easy to guess.
Hela Odinson.
I've got Hela's name written on my body.
I slammed the book shut and threw it across the room, as far from me as possible. It opened as it landed, exactly at the chapter about Helheim, the Scandinavian Underworld. A full-page drawing of Hela smirked at me.
