The Stories of Our Heroes

Cause of My Death: Being a Party Pooper

Magnus' POV

"You. Have. To. Be. Friggin'. Kidding. Me." I banged my head against my pillow with every word I muttered. It did nothing to block out the noise from downstairs, though.

It was a week after New Years, an entire seven days, and Valhalla was still partying. And the residents here sure do know how to have a good time. It was fun for the first twenty-four hours. Drinking, music, the occasional maiming. We counted down and watched the ball drop. It was pretty awesome.

But when the party just did not stop, that's when I started to get a little irritated. Fortunately, my hall mates weren't big on eternal partying either, so the five of us hung out in the corner and kept to ourselves; a few of the guys who died in some Viking war were rallying teams to play Let's Viciously Murder Everyone Who Isn't Having A Good Time.

"How long does this usually last?" Alex asked Mallory exasperatedly.

"Depends. One time it... well, people were still hungover in February."

"Please tell me you are joking," I groaned.

So anyway, there's a wicked party. I was just contemplating climbing the World Tree and taking a day trip to Muspellheim because it had to be more pleasant than this, when a dwarf and and elf landed in my atrium.

"Perfect timing," I told Blitzen when he and Hearthstone walked over to me. "Now you can make me some earmuffs to block out the sound."

It's very loud, Hearth signed. I almost nodded my head, but then realized what Hearth had just said... er, signed.

"Sorry, he's extra sarcastic today," Blitz told me.

What makes you think I'm being sarcastic?

"I noticed," I replied. "But seriously, about those earmuffs-"

BOOM! A noise that sounded like wood splintering, followed by a crash, cut me off.

"WHY WON'T THEY JUST GIVE IT UP ALREADY?" Alex screamed and march into my room.

"Did you just break down my door? There's a thing called knocking, you know," I said grumpily.

Then TJ and Halfborn appeared in my room.

"Why are you all here?" I demanded.

"We came to make sure Alex wasn't beating the snot out of you," Halfborn responded, sitting down on the couch. "We heard a noise and we were worried about you, Maggie." Alex smiled snugly. I rolled my eyes.

"How much chocolate do you think it would take to bribe Hunding to shut down the party?" I asked no one in particular. They all just shrugged.

"What did I miss?" Mallory said, walking through my broken door.

"Oh great, now we're all here," I moaned.

"Now, everyone is here," Samirah announced from behind me.

"Why?" I demanded again.

"I came to see what was going on here, but obviously the party is still raging." Sam plopped down next to Halfborn and Mallory sat on his other side. Hearth and Blitz sat on my bed, and TJ and Alex sprawled out on the floor. I decided that maybe I didn't mind having them all here.

We were all silent for a while, listening to the muffled chaos from below. Then a noise like a stampede flooded our hallway.

"PARTY POOPERS!" a gruff voice screamed. "WE'RE COMING FOR YOU!"

"I just remembered," Sam rushed, standing up, "that I still have Calculus homework to do." Then she disappeared.

Hearth couldn't hear the voices, but he felt the vibrations and grabbed Blitz's arm.

"Well, we gotta go," Blitz told us and the two of them made a dash for the World Tree.

The five of us left just froze as vikings swarmed my room. I almost summoned Jack but didn't. He'd probably agree that we were party poopers. I felt a spear run through my chest and the last thing I thought before I died was that maybe the party would be over when I woke up again. But I doubt it.