Mortal Gods

Chapter 2 (Aidan)

A long silence fell over them...

"Who the fuck is Aegir?" Henry exclaimed.

"How would I know? Maybe it's in the book."

I immediately started to browse the book to find some information about Aegir.

While I searched, Henry just stood there looking at me with an amused expression. It was kind of pissing me off.

"Aren't you going to help me?"

"Or..." Henry said, dragging out the word while he took his phone out of his pocket. "We could just use the internet, you know, like normal teenagers do."

I looked at him a little sheepishly. "Yeah, whatever. We don't even have wifi down here."

"You know what, let's go upstairs to grab some food because I'm hungry as fuck, while I search for this Aegir."

"You know Henry, sometimes you're not as dumb as you look."

"I can't believe you're only noticing that now."

"Don't be a smartass."

When we came upstairs, we noticed it was already dark outside.

"Have we really been down there for so long?" Aidan asked.

"You know what, while you are preparing something to eat I will google Aegir. Knowing your wifi it will take ages anyway."

I glanced at the clock in the kitchen and noticed it was seven in the evening. On a normal day, my dad would've been sitting on the chair in front of me with a cup of coffee in his hands, because he was the kind of person to drink coffee at night. Now, of course, the chair was empty, and it gave me a funny feeling in my stomach. I couldn't help but feel like Henry and I were wasting our time here, while we could be looking for him. But where would we start? We had to figure out what the hell was going on with the basement, because I just knew it was all connected.

Opening the fridge, I was disappointed to see it was close to empty. Seemed like we would have to eat the leftover pizza from the day before. I put the remaining four slices in the microwave just when Henry gasped in excitement.

"I found the bastard", he exclaimed. Then, he started reciting an article: "In Norse mythology, Aegir is a sea... jötunn associated with the ocean. He is also known for being a friend of the gods and hosting elaborate parties for them." He paused and frowned in confusion. "Okay... What the fuck."

"Is that really the only meaning?"

"Well it's also an exoplanet. So unless you deem it doable to go to outer space, I'd say we're back at the start."

A disappointed silence fell over us. Henry nearly dropped his phone when the beeping of the microwave interrupted it.

"Jesus", I cursed and I took out the plate that was supposed to be dinner.

Henry and I sat down and each grabbed a slice. "Bon appetit", Henry said mockingly.

We ate without speaking, going over everything we'd discovered that day. Nothing made any sense. If anything, I'd found out my dad had some weird obsession with gods and mythology. Nothing that had anything remotely to do with a sudden disappearance. Maybe I had put too much trust into Henry. He did tend to overreact whenever something bad happened. He'd probably been distracted by his phone the moment dad disappeared.

I dropped my last slice in defeat. "Henry", I said. I sounded exhausted. "I really think we should just call the cops. We should have done it ages ago, right when we realized-"

"What are the cops going to do, Aidan?"

"I don't know! Isn't it their job to deal with this kind of stuff? What the hell are we going to do, then? Play detective and get absolutely nowhere while my dad might be- he might be-" I couldn't finish my sentence. I felt like crying and I felt desperate but most of all, in that moment, I kind of hated Henry. How he never took anything seriously. He was the kind of person that would see a house on fire but wouldn't do anything about it, just say something like "Relax, it's going to be okay". But obviously not everything would eventually be okay. People got kidnapped and never returned. Cold blooded murders happened everyday. "Just forget it. I'm going to go to sleep. You can keep doing this shit, but tomorrow morning I'm calling the cops."

"Aidan-" Henry said, but I'd already left the kitchen. I fell down on my bed and waited until the tears finally came. When they didn't fall, I fell asleep instead. I didn't hear Henry again. He must had fallen asleep on the couch, too embarrassed to share a room with me.

That night I dreamed about my life before my father disappeared, how Henry and I used to play on my PS4, how my father and I talked about how our day was and about my father, looking at me with that proud look when I had good grades or did something special. It gave the happiest feeling I ever experienced. I missed him. But I knew without any doubt that I was going to find my father and save him.

The next morning I smelled bacon.... The sun was already shining.

IS IT ALREADY THAT LATE?

I threw the blanket from the bed and rushed downstairs. Henry just stood there with a smile on his face and a frying pan in his hand. Just seeing him standing there like my grandma made all my worries go away.

"I hope you're hungry," He said, "because I made too much for me alone."

" Thanks, bro, and I'm sorry that I reacted so harsh, it isn't your fault that my father is- is gone."

"It's alright, I know I would react the same way."

"Sooo, when are we going to call the po-"

I saw flashes of a room with my father in it, his hands were chained to a wall. He was bleeding and he seemed unconscious. I heard a voice out of nowhere.

Aegir, Aeggggir in Argir.

And then everything went black.