Fantacy Woods

Chapter Four Gunnar

"Oh my Gods, what have done? FUCK!" I can hear the curse bouncing off the walls. The empty space makes every sound echo. I walk to my kitchen grab the whiskey bottle from the top cupboard. I break the neck of the bottle and take a big swig.

"Cousin," a familiar voice shouts.

I spin around to face the voice, I now know it is my cousin Erik. "How long have you been following me Erik?"

Erik is my only cousin. He is a few inches shorter than me, and about half as wide. We have the same jet black hair and black eyes. And that's where the similarities end. I haven't seen him in five mortal years(one year in this mortal realm lasts only one day in Fantacy), so his presence catches me off guard. 

"I have been watching the portal door for five suns waiting for you to come back to Fantacy. What I never could have predicted was you bringing that mortal girl into our world."

"She's no mortal, I believe Anja sent her to spy on me," I reply harshly.

"That is impossible cousin, because that is why I am here."

I am so furious with his response that I throw the broken neck of the whiskey bottle at his head. Erik uses his power of speed to dodge it. Erik puts his hands up to show he has no intention of hurting me. "Calm down Gunnar," he says in a soft, soothing voice.

"Do you know why I left our home?" I shout.

"Did it not have something to do with the mortal girl you were courting?" Erik prompted his voice still soft.

"So my mother kills Elizabeth, the love of my life, right in front of me and you still blindly follow her?"

"If you think about it," Eric says, "it makes a lot of sense why she did what she did."

"How could you say that?" I yelled. "My timer led me to her, and now look," I show Erik the new set of numbers on my arm. "This is what happened the moment she died. And now I don't know what the fuck they mean!"

"Everyone knows that the numbers bring great change."

"22 years, 11 months, 16 days, 1 hour, 32 minutes and 9 seconds! For all I know this could be the countdown to my death."

"Stop being so dramatic Gunnar, the numbers never killed anybody." Erik interjected.

"Don't you remember Alvis?" I take another swig of whiskey. "The dwarf was 342 years old when his first set of numbers ended. He turned to stone exactly as the numbers reached zero. One day before his wedding ceremony Erik. One day."

"And since then, we plan all ceremonies for before the timer ends not after."

"How many people do you know that have had more than one set of numbers?" I question him.

"Gunnar, you need to calm down. For all we know these numbers could bring you another Elizabeth." Erik's voice remains soft and soothing.

"I can't talk about this anymore. You need to leave. I'm heading upstairs. I have some shit to take care of."

"Your words have become crude and corrupted since you ran like the coward that you are."

I grab the bottle of whiskey and start back upstairs to where I dropped the logs. This seemed like as good a time as any to get the door reinforced.  And an excellent reason to hit something, hard.