Chapter 1

I die

Now you've probably just read the title and now you're thinking, gee Alex, that was really irresponsible, you shouldn't go killing yourself. But before you go judging me, I didn't kill myself, I got killed. And with that I'll start from the beginning.

"Hey mister, hey mister get up" somebody said, a white light shone in my face. I cracked an eye open, it was still dark and frankly quite cold too, the bench underneath me was dug into my back and the blanket wrapped round me didn't cover most of my body. But hey, as it was more than most the others had.

"Hey kid, get up" the voice said form above me, I opened both my eyes, the was park deserted around me except for two people, one of which was shining a flashlight in my face and the other was standing a few feet away hands on her hips and looking tough and scary, to me she just looked stupid. I looked her up and down, I noticed that she wore a police uniform, I looked over to the other one, and he too wore a police uniform, I decided to do as they asked, the cops round here could be pretty rough. I moved from lying down to sitting upright, all the while my sheet rustling as I did so.

"you can't be here" the guy with the flashlight said, I took my arms out from under my sheet and rubbed my eyes, he still shone the light into my face.

"the park closed hours ago, you're trespassing" he said again, I nodded blinking away my grogginess and putting my hands in front of my face, finally he put the torch away

"hey, you look familiar, do you mind if we take you back to the station to ask you a few questions" he said, at that I knew I couldn't do the usual apologise and walk away. If they took me back to the station, they would find out who I was, and if they did that, they would take me back, and I couldn't go back.

"stand-up" the guy said, I complied. I got off the bench leaving the blanket. No point taking it with me, it would just slow me down. The woman came over and pulled something from her belt, Handcuffs maybe? I didn't know. Nor did I care, partly because I had just vaulted over the bench and was pelting down the path.

"Hey kid, come back here!" I heard one of the cop's shout behind me, I didn't care, I just ran. The soft slap of my shoes on the ground followed me up the path, I could hear the cops perusing me, shouting as they went. I looked forwards and noticed that there was a wall. I ran full pelt at it, jumped, grabbed the top and pulled myself up. I rolled over the top and fell down the other side. Very graceful I thought to myself, luckily the floor on the other side was dirt and grass, so it didn't hurt too much. I rested a few seconds then got back up again and off down the streets. They would be after me soon. After another half an hour of running through the Boston streets I slowed down to a stop. I had managed to find m wat to the Luxury mansions and skyrises. I liked being there, it was like looking into another world, the building reaching up to the sky, the bright lights, the blaring music. God what it would be like to have money. I didn't stay there too long, they don't like the homeless here, well more than any other place. I kept walking, there was only one place that would be open at this time that would allow me to stay there, it would take me a while to get there, but I had nothing else to do. After another hour of trudging through the cold Boston streets I got to the place I was looking for. I stood in front of a large food court with about twenty tables and chairs. They were all empty, probably because it was about six in the morning and anybody with any sense would still be tucked in bed. Over on the far side there was a counter with a kitchen behind it. I walked over to the counter and waited, eventually, my favourite person walked over.

"hey Alex, how you are you?" Amir Fadlan owner of Fadlan's falafel said as he walked over, he had a grin on his face, I hadn't seen him in a long time, and it was good to see him too. He was pretty much the only friend that I had, yeah, I had a sad life.

"I'm good, you" I replied

"yeah, I'm good, I haven't seen you in a while, what have you been doing?" he often asked me this, and I gave him the usual answer

"nothing special, you?" he grinned and raised his hand, on it was a piece of jewellery I had never seen before, there was a bronze ring wrapped round his fourth finger.

"oh, my, god, you're getting married?" I said in a high-pitched voice, it kind of sounded like I was fangirling, and to be honest, I kind of was. His grin grew into a proper smile that reached his ears as he dropped his hand down.

"tell me all about it, when did this happen" I said, again fangirling obsessively over the to be married couple.

"I'll tell you in a minute, you look hungry do you want food?" he asked, my stomach answered for me in a loud growl

"yeah, the usual please" Amir nodded and walked off back into the kitchen. I waited at the counter and read the menu splayed above the counter, it advertised all sorts of meals, most of them including falafel (obviously). A minute later he came back with a brown paper bag, he stepped round the counter and headed to one of the tables, I followed him and sat down opposite him.

"tell me everything" I said. I had known Amir for a long time, about three years now, it wasn't like we had always been friends, but ever since I had become homeless, he had been the only person I could rely on. He would give me spare food and on occasion, if I was lucky, he would give me a whole meal. This being a special occasion, I got a full bag of falafel, I dug in. the flavour exploded in my mouth, it was like I hadn't eaten in days, which of course I hadn't. after a few seconds of shoving steaming hot spheres of goodness into my mouth I looked up. Amir sat their hands on the table, back straight and a smile on his lips. I composed myself, sat straighter and tried to wipe the stray falafel from my lips.

"so, when is the wedding?" I asked, I knew that Amir had been betrothed to a Samirah Al-Abbas for a long time, but now that they were getting married, it came to me as a shock

"it's today actually" he said, my jaw dropped, and he must off have found of fount it funny because he let out a laugh.

"your joking, why are you here, shouldn't you be getting ready?" I asked him

"people will always want food, and the wedding isn't until eight this afternoon" he said with an edge of excitement in his voice

"you want to come?" he asked, once again in the last minute my jaw dropped. and I stared at him. Never ever in my life had anybody shown such an act of friendship and kindness, not even my parents.

"I-I would love to" I said still trying to get over the fact that somebody would want me to do something with them. Let alone let me go to their wedding.

"great! The ceremony is at seven" he said, by ceremony he probably meant the after party, the actual wedding would be a Mullah going over to their house and marrying them, but still, it was cool to be invited to something.

We chatted for another few minutes but then Amir had to go back to the kitchen otherwise he would be behind on the orders later. I sat there for another few minutes eating the remaining falafel. The first few people started to trickle through the shop now, all on the morning rush to work. If only I could get a job, but alas, people don't like my kind. After a while I got up, put my seat back and walked out. yet another day of looking through dumpsters and walking ahead. After walking through a few streets, I got to the first dumpster. Just like all the others it was a dirty shade of green, this one though had a spray-paint symbol on it, I didn't know what it was, it looked like, well I didn't know how to describe it, my mind threw up a random name, Pertho, I had no clue how that related to me, so I ignored it. I opened the lid to the dumpster and propped it against the wall behind it. I looked inside, there were a few food caddy bags that had split and a garbage bag, nothing special, I was about to close the lid to it when something caught my eye, I reached in and picked it out. In my hand was a slightly scuffed can of spam, I checked it for any entry's, but nobody had yet opened it, I slipped it into my pocket, it would be a tasty meal for later. I walked on, the next dumpster was a while away, and I didn't have anywhere to go, so I went slow. I looked into all the shop windows, some had cakes and coffee, some offered tech others offered bread and other bakery products. I was just walking past a side ally when something caught my eye. There was a man stooping over something, it looked like a child. I would have just kept on walking, things like this happened all the time, and most likely I was just going to get myself hurt or killed. But I didn't keep on walking, instead I turned my direction and started to walk towards the man. I heard a muffled scream emanate from the child and I quickened my pace. As I walked towards them I noticed what they were doing to the child, he was kicking it, and by the looks of the child he had been doing so for a while.

"Hey, get away from him!" I yelled at him as I ran towards him, he turned towards me and grinned

"Another one, I am lucky" he said, he was unusually large for a normal person, his muscles showed through a thin shirt with the message Magnus is to suck and weep. That wasn't the only weird thing about him, when I got near him, the whole area seemed to heat up, and his skin was black with red crakes splitting through it. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't human.

"fight me instead of beating up a small child" I yelled at it, the thing grinned at me in a way that made me want to run away

"alright then, come fight me puny mortal" it bellowed, puny mortal? Was that meant to be an insult or just a categorisation, probably both. I reached down into my trouser pocket and pulled the garrotte wire from my them, I got each handle in my hands, the thing started to lumber towards me, I walked backward calculating how I was going to take it down, after a few seconds I decided. It took another step towards me, but this time I didn't go back, it kept walking, I stayed still. I wondered if it had a name. I asked.

"hey big man, what's your name?" I yelled up at him, clearly it would take too much brain power for it to walk and talk, so he stopped walking and talked instead.

"I am Surt, all powerful fire giant, hater of Magnus Chase, killer of Freyer, destroyer of worlds!" he bellowed. When he stopped talking he looked confused, probably because I wasn't there any more, I had run under his legs, climbed onto his back and was now wrapping my garrotte round his head. Yes. I had a glowing gold garrotte wire, get used to my life. Surt didn't thrash or cower or run away, which was the usual reaction for being strangled. Instead he reached back over his shoulder plucked from his back, it seemed almost effortless as he swung me over his head, and then proceeded to throw me at the ground.

I had felt pain before in my life, pain of cold, pain of starvation, pain of being attacked, pain of having nothing and no one. But this, this hurt worse than all of those, the pain infiltrated my mind in every spot and I screamed but no sound came out, I was sure that every bone in my body was broken, my lungs were crushed, I couldn't feel my legs, and I was pretty sure arms shouldn't look like that. The only part of me that wasn't broken or shattered was my right arm, which only seemed to be dislocated. I reached out to my garrotte which was only a few feet away, I couldn't reach it. I gritted my teeth and pulled myself forward with my good arm. I could feel my consciousness slipping, the edges of my vision going dark. No, I thought, I am not dying like this, I reached out again to my garrotte, I grabbed it, looked at Surt, he had gone back to kicking the child, obviously done with me, I flicked my wrist, the garrotte flying towards Surt, I wrapped round his right hand, I pulled, and the hand came clean off. Surt screamed and whipped round to look at me,

"bye bitch" I muttered, I flicked the garrotte again, this time it wrapped round its neck, I pulled. Surt's head came off, and my head fell to the ground. My body ached, the black edges to reality came back, but this time I let the cold in. there was no coming back from this. But I didn't care. I would finally be at peace with the world.

First of all, I'm just going to say that it's good to be back, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, there's been shit at school happening and I haven't had much time to write, but anyways, thanks for reading the chapter, it's probably going to be a new series that I am going to be running alongside the prom, but anyways, this is just a pilot so tell me if you want more, and if so, I promise the next chapter won't be half as shit as this one. Anyway, all the best, see you in the next one!