Magnus Chase and the Wrath of Morpheus

Chapter 2

My Friends Decide to take a Nap on the Hallway

"Magnus, are you okay?" I heard Alex's voice from far away. "Magnus? I came in here to check on you. It's almost time for dinner. You've been sleeping for a whole day! When I came to see you this morning you were lying on the floor, sleeping. I wanted to get you so we could get breakfast together but you just wouldn't wake up. You were more than asleep. You didn't react at all. We were all so worried." I was confused. I didn't understand everything she said because I was still half asleep but the things I understood didn't make sense. Did I sleep for a whole day?

I groaned and sat up. I opened my eyes to see Alex's face looking at me. She looked worried and distracted. I tried to gather my thoughts to remember what had happened last night. I remembered that I had woken up in the middle of the night because I'd heard someone walking around in the tree. I remembered getting up and...

"We're not safe anymore here. That's what the guy said. And he wanted me to do something... He couldn't finish his sentence because somebody who's been following him had finally found him. At least that's what he said." I looked around the room. I was lying on the floor next to the tree. Some leaves and sticks surrounded me. The sunlight that fell through the branches and the leaf canopy touched my face and warmed my whole body. But I couldn't really enjoy it. The circumstances were too crazy. I thought that maybe fate would have the decency to spare me the trouble of saving the world. Maybe you think that saving the world is cool and heroic but believe me, it's just annoying. But that's another story.

"Magnus, what are you talking about? Do you have a concussion? Who was here? And why aren't we safe? Magnus this is a hotel filled with warriors. Nobody would dare to attack us."

All of her questions made my head ache. I looked at her and sighed. Even the craziest stories are easy to bare with Alex by my side. And even though she has some problems with accepting her emotions we finally came to the agreement that we were suited quite well for one another. She stood up and put out her hand. I grabbed it and pulled myself up.

"Listen" -I said- "I don't know who it was and what he wanted but it sounded like he had some problems. I don't know why he thinks that we're not safe here and I don't know who was following him."
Alex smirked: "So what you're saying is you don't know anything"
"Ha ha. But I do remember something: I heard a man. It must've been the guy who's been following the other one. He said 'Oh my dear furry friend. You thought you can escape. How wrong you were! Sleep' His voice was so deep and relaxing and it hit me with all its power. I don't know how that's even possible but I just couldn't resist and I fell asleep almost immediately."

Alex looked at me and I could tell that she didn't really believe me. She took a deep breath, held it and then breathed out again. "Well, whoever it was we can't do much about it unless he shows up again. For now, we should tell the valkyries what happened and have them on the lookout for anything that seems suspicious. Now let's get dinner. I'm starving."

Turns out fate didn't want Alex to have dinner because as soon as we got out of my room we found Mallory and Halfborn lying on the floor right at my doorstep. "Where they here when you came in?" I asked Alex. "Of course not!" She looked at me angrily and pushed Mallory. No reaction. She pushed harder. Still nothing. "What do we do?" she seemed stressed. I tried to think. "I'm going to look if TJ is alright," I said and went up to TJ's room. Even after banging on his door with both hands I didn't get an invitation to enter so I opened it and peeked inside: There he was. Lying in his bed, looking just as dead as Mallory and Halfborn. Just when I wanted to go back to Alex to tell her he started to mumble something. "TJ!" I shouted and ran up to his bed. "What did you say?"

With the same deep voice that would soon cause me nightmares, he started again: "I'm coming for you. You have no idea what's gonna hit you. Once you're all dead there's nothing that could stop me." He suddenly opened his eyes wide and took a rasping breath. "What are you looking at?" He said, now with his normal voice again.