Drengr
A dark wood, a dilapidated cabin, and an old man with one eye.
Jahns said something about semicolons and wrote a couple sentences on the board. Jess looked around the class. Chase was asleep in the back, as usual. Kara and Jorge were scooching together closer than they should, but Jahns either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Probably the latter.
She glanced out the window, watching the leaves spiraling down in the cool air.
She pulled her phone out when she felt the buzz. It was Logan.
-what time we leaving
She glanced over at him on the other side of the room. He grinned, holding his phone under his desk.
-around five
-its 45 minutes away
Logan texted:
-bro got us booz, lol
She texted back:
-milos coming
but didn’t send it at first, gauging his reaction. Might as well tell him now. She sent the text.
No response. She glanced up at the board after she heard the word “quiz.” She jotted down what Jahns had on the board — colons, semicolons, commas, some other shit she didn’t care about; had to keep up the GPA to get into Michigan.
Logan was at the door waiting for her after class was dismissed.
“You sure Milo wants to come?”
She crossed her arms over her books. “Yeah, I’m sure.” Nothing more.
Logan shrugged. “Just want to make sure he can keep up.”
“That’s stupid.”
He looked like he wanted to say something that was going to piss her off. “Fine. Do we have to pick him up?”
“I’m bringing him. We’ll get you around five.”
He nodded.
They walked down the middle of the hallway, underclassmen scrambling to get out of their path. Logan ‘accidentally’ bumped a few in the shoulder, offering a smirky ‘sorry’ each time.
Jess saw Milo wandering over to her car, a book open in front of him. He almost didn’t see Chase Reynolds run him over with his daddy’s Mustang.
“You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“What do you mean?” Milo said.
She rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”
She got into the driver’s seat and Milo dropped his backpack on the passenger floor before plopping into the seat, book still in hand. He held his hand between pages as a bookmark, and he cracked it open again after shutting the door.
“What you reading?” She already knew the answer.
“Just some myth stuff.” He didn’t look up. She could see part of the title — something like Völuspá Code or something.
She started the car and pulled out, navigating the frantic insanity of the Kennedy parking lot.
“Like what myth stuff?” She didn’t want to be interested, she didn’t want to give a shit about mythology and stupid fantasy bullshit.
“Poems about Norse myths.”
“So some Thor stuff? How much is he like Chris Hemsworth?”
Milo looked up from the book. “Oh my God, for real? He’s just a pretty boy slab of meat.”
Jess laughed. “Yeah, he’s pretty.”
“The real Thor would be nothing like that. He’s not a superhero.”
Jess turned out onto Eureka, flooring it to zip in front of a black Honda with tinted windows.
“He hits bad guys with his hammer, right? Sounds like a superhero to me.” She grinned sideways at him.
“First, he’d have red hair and a red beard. He’s not blond.”
“Doesn’t seem like a big difference.”
Milo was mock-disgusted. “It’s a huge difference! It’s about the symbolism. Red, fire, rage, you know?”
“So he’s a pissed off god with a hammer. Feels like there’s a dick joke in there somewhere.” She shrugged, enjoying the teasing.
“Hilarious.”
“No, seriously. If it’s all symbolism, seems like a guy who whacks people with his hammer might just be throwing his dick around.” She smiled mischievously. “Who knows what he might do with that thing.”
“I’m pretty sure Thor doesn’t masturbate, if that’s what you mean.” Milo was fake-outraged.
“He has a penis, doesn’t he?”
“Everybody with a penis doesn’t masturbate.”
“Said every male ever.”
Milo closed the book, a wicked grin of his own spreading. “How about Logan? He’s a male.”
Jess pulled up to a red light. She turned to Milo. “He doesn’t need to.”
Milo blushed, and Jess laughed. The light turned green, and the car sped off.
Jess stopped the car in Logan’s driveway but kept it running.
“You mind getting in the back?”
Milo rolled his eyes. “I guess.”
“I’ll be right back.”
They both got out of the car. Jess headed toward Logan’s door; Milo got into the small backseat of the scuffed-up Mazda3. As she reached the porch, the door opened, Logan framed in the doorway with a case of Coors Light in his hand.
He paused on the porch, staring over at the car.
“Jess, do we really have to bring him? He’s such a dork.”
Jess narrowed her eyes and folded her arms, taking a small step towards him.
“Look, I’m tired of having this fight. Milo is my friend and he’s coming. If you don’t like it, you can stay here, but whatever you decide, just shut up about it.”
Logan gritted his teeth but only said, “Fine.”
Jess uncrossed her arms, and they walked to her car. Once in the car, Logan turned to Milo in the backseat and nodded noncommittally.
Milo nodded back but said nothing.
“You know how to get there?” Jess said.
Logan had his phone out. “Yep. About 45 minutes.”
Milo leaned forward. “Can I pick the music?”
“No way, man. Passenger seat picks.”
Milo sighed and leaned back into the seat. Logan reached over and placed the beer on the back seat next to Milo. “Make sure it doesn’t shake too much.”
Milo stared at the case for a few seconds but said nothing.
The landscape was flat until it wasn’t, Irish Hills drawing closer, true to its name. The road became more winding and uneven. Jess sometimes couldn’t see around a curve or hill, and the sun was nearly down. Headlights from the opposite direction made her squint and grip the wheel a bit tighter.
“So what is this place?” Logan asked.
“It’s an abandoned park from the sixties. It’s got statues of dinosaurs and stuff. My dad went when he was a kid.”
“Dinosaurs, eh?” Logan turned and glanced at Milo. “Sounds like it’s right up your alley.”
He waited for a reaction and turned back when he didn’t get one. Milo flipped him off behind the seat.
“It’s been closed for a long time, but it looks like a cool place to explore.”
“Are we close?” Logan asked.
“You tell me.” She pointed at an overgrown parking lot up ahead, contained within wobbly chain-link fencing. The head of a long-necked dinosaur peeked out from the trees, and as they pulled to the side of the road, they could make out the shape of the body.
“Is that like a brontosaurus or something?” Logan asked.
Milo spoke up. “Apatosaurus. Brontosaurus was only real in the Flintstones.” He smirked.
Logan looked back and frowned. “What the fuck is the Flintstones?”
Jess pulled the Mazda over to the abandoned parking lot. There was no way for the car to get past the fence, but she drove up onto the grass and parked behind some trees growing in all directions. Milo was out last, crawling out from the small backseat.
“Hey, grab the beer.”
Milo saw the beer on the backseat and sighed. “Do we really need that?”
“Yeah, we need that.” Logan’s tone was sharp. “Wasn’t that the whole point?”
“I thought the point was to explore a cool old place,” Milo said.
Logan stared at him for a second. “Look, will you just grab the fucking beer?”
Milo weighed his options before climbing back into the car and grabbing the case. Logan had a hand out, but Milo set it down on the ground next to the car and walked toward the fence.
“What’s his problem?” Logan said it just loud enough for Milo to hear.
“Come on, don’t start a fight.” Jess put a hand on his arm. “Let’s just check this place out and have some fun.”
“I’m not starting a fight. I just don’t know why he has to be such a dick sometimes.”
Milo was walking along the fence line and gave no indication he had heard anything. Jess reached down and pulled a beer out of the pack and handed it to Logan. He reluctantly smiled and took it, cracking open the top and taking a long swig.
Milo had wandered a little further along the fence and called back. “Hey, there’s a spot we can get through.”
Milo pulled part of the fence away from the post, creating a gap big enough for them. They ducked through and stood on the edge of the parking lot. Weeds sprung from every crack in the asphalt, some of them taller than Logan. There was very little continuous pavement left — what hadn’t been subsumed by nature was being broken into smaller and smaller bits by the elements.
The welcome center was 1960s A frame construction boarded over with multiple no-trespassing signs. The plywood covering the front was decorated with a curious mix of artistic graffiti, swear words, and lewd drawings.
Jess slid her arm around Logan’s waist. “If we go that way,” she pointed with a nod, “we can see the dinosaurs. There’s an old train track that winds around the whole park.”
They walked past the apatosaurus, still mostly intact, craning their necks up as they passed.
“There’s something over there,” Milo said. It was getting hard to see in the fading light, especially at the edge of the tree line. Milo got his phone out and turned on the flashlight. “Come on, let’s go check it out.”
Logan drained the rest of his beer in one gulp. He was about to toss the can onto the ground when Jess gave him a look.
“What? We’re literally in a field of garbage.”
“Can you just put them back in the case?”
Logan seemed to ponder this before getting another beer out and placing the empty can back in. “Happy now?” he said, not as rudely as he could have.
They ventured deeper into the overgrown trees, Milo’s flashlight making the woods feel like a dark tunnel. They passed a headless T-Rex lying on its side, feet akimbo, a triceratops minus the horns, and a mammoth so degraded it looked more like a huge brown lump.
“So what is this,” Logan said. “A prehistoric turd?”
“It’s a mammoth,” Milo said, without the pedantic trace he had before. Jess thought he seemed like a little kid, exploring these ruins with inspired awe.
Logan drew closer to the triceratops, examining it with the flashlight on his own phone.
“Looks like these were fiberglass.” He pointed at the stringy residue where the horns had broken off. He pushed on it and it wobbled. “Pretty light. A few guys could probably carry this thing.”
“We aren’t carrying any dinosaur statues,” Jess said.
“Not today, anyway.” Logan smiled.
“Some seniors from Saline stole a few of these and put them on their school roof,” Milo said.
“Seriously?” Logan bent down and tested the weight of the triceratops. He lifted it a little. “That is an awesome prank.”
Jess went further into the woods. “Hey guys, check this out.”
The path was mostly overgrown, and they had to duck branches and dodge bushes, but they could still follow it. They paused at the next statue.
A fiberglass tree stood in the center of the path, about twenty feet tall with two branches upturned like a man with his hands raised. It had a door — gray painted wood set into the base, a keep-out sign fixed to it at eye level. The branches came up like a crown, or antlers, or something that hadn’t decided what it was yet. Two pale shapes on the trunk caught the light like eyes.
Milo stepped forward and put his hand on the door.
“I wouldn’t,” Logan said.
Milo looked back at him. Then he opened it. His flashlight found the curved interior of the hollow tree. Massive spiderwebs filled the corners, the reflected light illuminating them perfectly. Fat-bodied spiders sat at the center of orb webs while large hairy wolf spiders peeked out from funnel webs down low. Graffiti covered every surface — swear words, names, declarations of love, a surprisingly detailed drawing of a dragon eating a tree.
Milo squatted and aimed his light at something low on the wall, beneath where somebody had written Ozzy rules! in red marker.
“Hey.” His voice had changed. “Come look at this.”
Jess ducked inside. Logan stayed at the threshold.
“What is it?” Jess asked.
“Right there.” He brushed his fingers against the wall. “Feel that.”
Jess put her hand where his had been. Under her fingertips, almost imperceptible, something carved. Not graffiti. Older than graffiti. Deliberate in a way the spray paint wasn’t.
“It looks like runes,” Milo said quietly.
Logan peered in from the doorway. “I don’t see anything.”
Milo looked up at him, then back at the wall. He said nothing. Jess felt the shapes again under her fingers and said nothing either.
Outside, the night had gotten darker than it should have.
Once past the tree, the woods became thicker. It was impossible to see anything without their phones, and although they could illuminate the path, the cascading shadows caused by three phone flashlights made it seem like the only points of light in a vast, inky blackness. They walked along a rough path that became rougher and less defined with every step. They hadn’t seen any dinosaurs or statues since they passed the tree.
“I don’t think we’re in the park anymore, guys,” Jess said.
“It’s like ten acres,” Milo said. “There’s no way we’ve gone that far yet. Maybe we’re in a spot without many statues.” He sounded unsure.
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Jess pointed her light at the forest around them. The trees looked taller in the shadows, more massive.
Logan called up a map on his phone but frowned after a minute.
“What’s wrong?” Jess said.
“Nothing. Stupid map won’t load.” He moved his finger on the screen, pressing and swiping, but his expression didn’t change. “Not getting a signal.” He glanced up at Jess. “No cell service out this far?”
Jess and Milo both tried their own phones, but aside from the light and home screen, they couldn’t access anything.
“That can’t be right,” Milo said. “We’re only 45 minutes from home. We should have cell service.”
All three tried their phones again with the same result.
“At least we have light,” Jess said. “Maybe we should go back.”
They began walking in the direction they had come. The going was slow through the tangled undergrowth they hadn’t noticed on the way in. They had walked for about a half hour deeper into the woods before the tree, so they weren’t far — but after an hour of walking, they couldn’t find it.
“I think we’re lost, guys. We didn’t pass this before.”
A massive dead tree blocked the path. Its branches fanned out in all directions, making it impossible to pass. The trunk was so wide that Jess and Logan together could not have wrapped their arms entirely around it.
“This tree is fucking enormous,” Logan said.
Milo ran his hand along the trunk. “It’s too big. It doesn’t fit here.”
“So what now?” Logan spun slowly, pointing his flashlight around him. All the trees looked enormous. “Just go around it?”
“I remember seeing a golf course close by. The woods don’t go past the park, so if we just go north, I think we’ll hit it,” Milo said.
“Perfect,” Logan said. “Which way is north?”
Milo pointed his flashlight at the sky, but all it did was illuminate the knotted tangle of branches above them.
“Let’s keep going that way.” Jess pointed in the direction they’d been headed before they turned around. “We’re bound to hit the golf course or something, and then maybe we’ll get cell service back.”
After another hour, they still had not found anything.
Jess’s mouth was dry and her stomach rumbled. Nobody had eaten anything since lunch. There were snacks and drinks in the car, but they had no idea when they might find their way back to it.
“My battery is really low.” Logan turned his light off and the forest became instantly darker.
Jess and Milo checked their own phones. Both frowned.
“You turn yours off,” Jess said to Milo. “We’ll just use mine.”
Milo touched the screen and his light went off. The darkness grew thicker.
“It is really fucking dark in here,” Logan said. “And it’s getting cold.”
Jess could see her breath in the immediacy of the light. “Let’s just keep going. The golf course has to be close.”
After another hour, there was still no sign of anything other than the oppressive woods surrounding them.
“I think we’re lost,” Milo said. He anticipated a ‘no shit’ from Logan, but Logan said nothing. His eyes were wide and he was shivering.
“Does 911 work if there’s no cell service?”
Jess hit the numbers, then shook her head slowly.
“What are we going to do? I don’t want to die out here,” Milo said.
“Listen,” Jess said. “We’re going to be okay.” She was shivering too, and her empty stomach continued to rumble. At least it was a distraction.
“We need to find shelter.”
“Where? We’re in the middle of the woods.” She hadn’t seen Logan rattled before. It was unnerving.
“Let’s walk a little further just in case. If we don’t see the golf course, we can find someplace to wait until morning.”
“Morning? Are you kidding?” Logan was more agitated.
“Hey, man,” Milo said. “It’s going to be okay.” He looked nearly as agitated as Logan but was keeping it together a bit more.
Jess took Logan’s hand. It was ice cold. “We’re going to be fine. I promise.” She stared up into his eyes.
He calmed down and nodded but didn’t say anything. She thought she saw moisture in his eyes.
Milo saw the cabin first.
They hit a clearing and could finally look up at the night sky. There were more stars than Jess had ever seen. She scanned for the Big Dipper but couldn’t find it.
There was a faint flickering light in one of the windows, like what an oil lamp might cast.
“Look!” he said, pointing, a huge grin of relief on his face.
Jess didn’t smile, but she felt a huge weight fall away. She hugged Logan — more for him than for her — and they made their way to the cabin.
It was dilapidated, one window, one simple door, a gray wooden structure that looked like it had been there for decades or more. The smell of damp mold permeated the air. Jess approached the door with the two boys behind her and knocked hard three times.
No answer.
She knocked again, harder. If someone was there, they had heard it.
The door remained closed.
Jess turned back to the two boys, seeing a mixture of emotions — fear, relief, hope — then turned back to the door. She grasped the handle — she noted it was a handle, not a knob — and turned. It opened easily.
The smell of burning oil and something else — something ancient — hit them immediately. Animal skins hung on the walls, not decorative but placed on hooks, to be taken down when needed. A small round table that looked homemade along with one chair, also homemade, stood in the middle of the one-room cabin. An old-fashioned oil lamp burned low on the table, and the air was filled with haze.
Milo and Logan tried to enter, but Jess held a hand up and scanned the room first. Satisfied it was empty, she dropped her hand and all three entered, shutting the door behind them.
The cabin was cold, but not as cold as the woods outside.
“Hello?” Jess said. “Anyone here?”
“Nobody’s here,” Milo said.
Old tools leaned randomly against the walls, but otherwise the cabin was empty.
Logan grabbed an animal skin off the wall and put it around his shoulders. Milo and Jess did the same. They stood around the table, warming their hands on the heat from the oil lamp.
Milo and Logan had their backs to the door, but Jess was on the other side of the table, facing it, waiting for it to open.
“Whoever lives here is probably going to be back soon. They wouldn’t just leave a lamp burning,” Jess said.
“We’ll just explain that we’re lost. They won’t be mad,” Milo said.
His hands warmer, Logan walked over to a corner and reached down.
“Check this out.” He hefted an old sledgehammer with a rusted head. “It’s got weird writing on the handle.”
Milo stepped forward and took the hammer. He held it closer to the lamp and leaned in.
“This is really weird,” he said. “More runes.” He held it out in both hands for Jess and Logan to see.
“Why does it have writing on it at all?” Logan asked.
“I don’t know. But it looks really old.” He ran his fingers across a few vague indentations.
Jess reached over and brushed her fingers across it. She could see very faint marks carved into the wood, but feeling them made them more real.
“What does it say?”
Milo laughed. “I don’t speak Futhark.”
Logan and Jess looked at each other.
“That’s what the runes are called. The Futhark.”
Logan said, “Well, what the Futhark do they say?”
“I told you I don’t know. It’s kind of weird, though. I mean, you wouldn’t just put runes on a tool or something. It has to be something important.”
“It’s just a sledgehammer, man,” Logan said.
Milo scowled at him, but he didn’t react.
Jess pointed to the corner. “Put it back. We don’t want to piss off whoever lives here.”
Milo paused to look a bit more closely but set it down in the corner after she gave him a look.
The wind whipped up as the door opened.
A man stood on the threshold, the light from the lamp just making his features visible. He filled up the space where the door had been, his head nearly brushing the top. His hair and beard were long, and what they could see of his face was lined with wrinkles that looked like they had been earned. He didn’t speak.
Milo took a step backward, but Jess and Logan didn’t move.
“Um, hello,” Jess said. “We were lost. We saw your cabin.”
The man did not speak or move but simply stood there and stared.
“We’re really sorry, but our phones wouldn’t work and we didn’t know what to do.”
The seconds stretched as the man continued to stare. Jess reached down and grabbed Logan’s hand. He was shaking. Or maybe she was shaking — she couldn’t tell. She opened her mouth to apologize again and ask if he had a phone, but she stopped short when he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
Jess looked at Logan and then at Milo. Both boys’ eyes were wide.
The man spoke, a voice like a corpse dragged across gravel.
“You have read me.” He stared past Jess and fixed his gaze on Milo.
Milo’s jaw dropped, but he didn’t respond.
The man continued staring and blocking the door. There was no way for them to leave without getting past him.
“We’re really sorry, sir. We can leave.”
The man turned his head slightly and stared at her, unblinking, but remained silent.
Logan squeezed her hand and then dropped it, taking a small step forward.
“Hey man,” his voice sounded strong, but Jess could hear the faint tremor. “We just needed to get out of the woods. We can pay you if you want.”
The man turned his gaze on Logan but remained silent.
Everything was still.
“We don’t want any trouble.” Logan paused, waiting for a response. When none came, he glanced at Jess and then back to the old man. He stepped toward him with his hands up. “If you could just let us out, we’ll go.”
The old man reached out like a snake striking and grabbed Logan by the throat, dragging him close to his face. Logan gasped and tried to pull the hands away, but they were like iron. Staring into the old man’s face, he noticed that he only had one eye. The other was an empty socket, wizened and caved in.
“Logan!” Jess yelled and ran forward. The old man backhanded her and sent her crashing to the floor. She put a hand to her face and propped herself up on one elbow.
The old man threw Logan backward. He stumbled and fell, wheezing and holding his throat.
The old man reached down and grabbed the sledgehammer by the door. He looked at Milo.
“You know the runes.” It was a statement.
Milo nodded once, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.
“You know the hammer.”
The old man took a step forward. Logan scrambled backward, still on the floor. He bumped into Milo.
Jess inched back. “Don’t hurt him. Please just let us leave.”
The old man glanced down at her, his look less accusation than surprise.
“You have not read me. You are not like these two.” He stared at her for long seconds, seeing more than what she showed the world.
Jess shook her head in confusion.
Milo spoke up for the first time. “The runes. You’re . . . you’re Thor, aren’t you?” His voice was barely a whisper.
The old man held the sledgehammer in both hands and took a step forward. Milo and Logan inched backward until they met the back wall.
“Thor. I knew that name. Once.” It was like a memory that had returned.
Milo took a hesitant step forward, hands up and out in front of him.
“We are sorry we intruded.” He spoke carefully and slowly, as if he feared what might happen if he said the wrong thing.
“We can pay tribute,” Milo continued, taking another hesitant step. “I know the rituals.”
The old man did not move or respond, his gaze fixed.
Milo took another step and another, tentative and slow, hands still out. “Please don’t hurt us.” He stopped just beyond arm’s length. He ran through a ritual in his head, something he remembered seeing in the Elder Edda, something about praising the storm because it brought life.
The old man took a step toward him. “You do not have drengr,” he said.
Milo furrowed his brow, but only for a second before the hammer crushed his head. He fell to the ground with a wet thud.
“Milo!” Jess screamed.
The table was between the old man and Logan, who was still huddled up against the wall. With one hand, the old man flipped the table aside, sending the oil lamp crashing to the floor. Flames licked the wall instantly, but the old man either did not notice or did not care. He covered the distance in two steps and again grabbed Logan by the throat, holding him against the wall, feet only just brushing the floor.
He brought his face close to Logan’s, narrowing his one good eye and searching for something in the boy’s face. He frowned. “You have not read me. You are empty.”
Logan tried to break free, but the old man’s grip was iron. With one casual turn of his wrist, he snapped Logan’s neck and released. Logan collapsed in a heap.
“No!” Jess screamed. “Logan!”
The old man turned.
Jess pushed herself up and ran to the door, grabbing the handle.
“Hold.”
Jess froze. She heard slow, heavy footsteps behind her, followed by the old man’s hot breath on her neck. She was finally able to turn, her back to the door. The old man towered over her. She closed her eyes and turned her head, waiting for the blow.
“You have not read me. But . . . you. You are the one with drengr.”
She opened her eyes the slightest bit. The old man still stood there, but he did not swing.
“You will serve me.”
He reached over with an open hand. Jess flinched, but the door held her in place. He touched her forehead with his palm and whispered something in a language she had never heard before.
The old man dropped his hand, still ignoring the flames now consuming the cabin. He stepped back.
Jess turned and opened the door, holding it for the old man. Her eyes were blank, but she saw everything. A wall of giants. A vast plain from horizon to horizon. A wolf that blotted out the sun.
The old man walked out of the door.
Jess followed. She did not glance back once at the burning cabin where her friends’ bodies remained.
