Duality : Book 1 of Codex Elysium

Chapter 34 (edited)

Chapter 34

Hel stood up and angrily swiped a tear from her eye. The headless body of Janus lay motionless on the table. Grief turned to rage and thoughts of revenge. Those druids will pay for this! But first, Loki must be given a proper burial. Hel ordered the Passus to pick up the body, then she led them through the city towards the cemetery. Laying Janus/Loki to rest in any old grave wouldn't do for Hel, she summoned over a hundred Passus to the grave yard and set them to work. They cleared out all the old graves and removed all the headstones, only once it was all cleared out would Hel allow Loki's body to be laid to rest.

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Eva woke with a start, she didn't know what had disturbed her sleep. Rolling over, Eva found the other side of her bed cold and empty. Cursing Jason's name, Eva got up and began to dress. Almost every night was the same routine. Almost a month had passed since the reforming of the Temple Druids and nearly every night Jason vanished. At first Eva was paranoid that Jason was cheating on her with Cassie. They had this deep bond that went back years and Eva was jealous of it, plus there was the fact that Eva just really didn't like the girl. Every night Eva crept down the hallway to Cassie's room and looked in, nearly all the time Cassie was alone. There was one night when Eva almost lost it, she had found another person in bed with Cassie but it turned out to be Alexia. The two girls were closer than sisters, they did everything together and it seemed they even enjoyed each other's closeness as well.

Jason was always to be found sitting alone up on the observation tower, he would always be staring off into the darkness at one part of the ruined world or another. At first Eva had sat in silence with him, then she had tried talking things through with him but she always got nowhere. In the last week Eva had given up on checking Cassie's room, now she headed straight for the tower and she came equipped with thick blankets to wrap around them both. Although Jason always sought silence and solitude he never once told Eva to leave. He accepted the blankets and allowed Eva to snuggle up close.

As she climbed the spiral staircase, Eva was determined to give Jason a piece of her mind. How long was this going to go on for? For once Eva would love to wake up and find Jason lying next to her, to be able to snuggle up in his arms. Just as Eva reached the trap door a voice stopped her in her tracks, it was Jason's.

"You are always following me around! Wherever I go, you are there. Why? Why do you constantly haunt my footsteps?"

Eva's temper flared, was he practicing a speech for her? She certainly didn't haunt his footsteps. She only followed him around because she was concerned about him, because she cared about him, because she loved him.  With rising fury Eva placed a hand on the door handle but then froze as Jason went on.

"You were even there at my execution, did you enjoy it? Was it good for you? Did you find it funny as my head rolled around on the floor?"

Eva was confused, she certainly hadn't been to any execution, and she gasped in shock as realization dawned on her. Had he been beheaded? Is that how he got here?

Understanding came crashing down on Eva like a ton of bricks. If Jason had suffered a violent death and then woken up in this hell world, it was no wonder he wasn't coping. Eva had thought her own death was bad and she had spent just over two years trying to forget about it. She cautiously opened the door a crack and peered through.

"I always believed you were a messenger, that you were a sign from Odin that he was always with me. You gave me the strength to believe in myself, to face anything the world could throw at me. Even as that axe came crashing down on my neck, I believed in you, I thought that Odin was right there with me and ready to guide me to the summer lands."