The Bounds of Hel

We sped on, Loki at the helm and me relaxing at the front of the boat. There was something innately pleasurable about being in motion over water, the waves bouncing you along, and the spay from the nose hitting you in the face. If I had known I would have enjoyed it so much I would have spent far more time at the ocean than I had in my time in Hel.

I didn’t know how long we had sailed before we slowed down. I felt the decrease in speed, and saw Loki take two glances at the control panel below his fingers.

“What’s going on?” I asked, worry catching in my voice.

“I am afraid, Autumn, that she’s aware of us. We’re about as close to the edge as we could get without detection.”

“Who’s aware of us?”

“Hel.”

“So the police or coast guard or whatever know we’re out here?”

“No, worse. Hel herself knows.”

“Why?”

“Because she saw me leave, and probably guessed I would return. She probably noticed the speed of the boat.”

“Are you worried?” I asked, worried myself. I was hoping that his answer would help me gauge the level of worry I needed to have.

He looked at me and smiled in a lovely way but blinked his eyes closed. “I’m not worried at all. We’re going to go a little bit slower to see if she ignores us for a while.”

“Say it with your eyes open!” I demanded.

He opened his eyes back up and I saw the flash of fear in them before he was able to tame it.

“It’s going to be fine.” he said slowly. “Nothing will happen to you.”



I didn’t have anything to say back. My heart had caught in my chest and I knew, despite what he had said, that we were in trouble.

Loki throttled the boat forward at about half the speed we had been going. Soon, on the horizon in a circle around us black dots began to appear.

I didn’t need to ask what they were. I wasn’t sure what they were called - patrol boats or Hel’s extreme coast guard whatever, but I knew that they were going to do whatever they could to stop us and there was nothing I could do in reply. Loki saw them about the same time I noticed them, but I knew that he had been tracking them for a long time before on the instrument panel.

“It’s about time...” he mumbled to himself as he stared at them. “Just a few hundred more kilometers.”

I saw him look up at the dots on the horizon and back down. I knew he was assessing the situation. His unspoken answer to that was to pull the throttle completely down and take off across the water, faster than even before. I could hear the vibrating noise get louder, and the boat shook, almost uncontrollably, as he sped through the waves.

I could see the boats behind us getting smaller and smaller, but the ones in front of us rapidly got closer, increasing in size until we were almost next to them. I could see the people in them, watching us come full speed ahead towards them.

Suddenly, Loki killed the throttle completely. 

“Here we are.” he said. “Jump off.”



“What?” I exclaimed, completely unprepared for this.

“I don’t have time to argue with you over this. Get off the boat.” he hissed.

“No way.” I said, looking at the cold, black water below our boat. I didn't know how deep it was and I had no intentions of getting off the boat without him. I could almost guess that he was going to leave me there to be fished out of the water by the people in the other boats while he sped off to wherever he came from. Of course he would leave me like that. I was nothing to him, just a duty.

I could see the boats coming towards us from all directions, the tiny ones behind us becoming bigger, the ones closest to us about a hundred meters away, halting in a circle.

“Stop where you are!” a voice came carrying across the water from the boats. “Do not do anything!”

I froze, ready to surrender, or give in.

“Autumn,” Loki’s eyes flashed angry and spoke quickly and lowly so no one in the nearby boats could hear him. “For god’s sake. Get off the boat. Jump into the water. You’ll be all right”

“No way.”

“Trust me.”

“How can I trust you when you brought me to this?” I said, hardly able to talk, sweeping my hand towards the boats quickly surrounding us. I had never been so scared in my life and it seemed as if each second was a minute long. The time for decisions was quickly wearing away.

Loki knew that better than I did so he strode over to me and held me with his arms wrapped around me and my own arms pinned to my side. He was wiry, tall, but completely in control of the situation, holding me so tight I could barely breath, much less struggle. I smelled the salt spray on the sweater he had put back on, and realized that I had never actually been touched by him before. It was strange, and uncomfortable, but comforting, too. I felt myself being carried across the boat, as if I weighed nothing.

The voice from the other boat carried across the water again. “Put the girl down!” it said, not unkindly. “Stay where you are.”

Loki had no intention of listening to them, and continued to make his way to the edge. Still holding fast to me he leaned down next to me, his face close to mine, his long hair falling in front of both of us, covering me like a shield in the war.

"Autumn," he whispered so quietly I had to strain to hear the next part. "When you hit the ground, run. There's only one direction. There's only one way out. But run until you're out of the tunnel."

"What?" I tried to question back but it was too late.



In one graceful movement he leaned over the edge of his beautiful boat and threw me overboard.