Andromeda

Odin waited for Anna while she bathed. She allowed herself only a few minutes in the water to soak away the abuse her body received during the orgy, ever conscious of him standing above her, waiting. Like her Valkyrie guide the day before, he gave her a hand up climbing out of the pool.

“Am I dead?” Anna asked as Odin offered the black dress, draped across his arm, freshly cleaned and pressed. “I don’t feel dead. I feel like I have a real body. I think you just abducted me. First Uri, now you. I’m not all that beautiful. Why me? What is it with guys anyway? Always, always, stealing me off for themselves as a plaything!”

“Slow down,” Odin said. “You’re not even asking the right questions.” He handed her the black shoes, silk stockings, and arm length gloves. For some reason Odin wanted her to look like she did the night she died, if that indeed is what had happened to her. Maybe he just liked her in that dress.

“What are the right questions?” Anna asked.

“Let me show you something,” Odin sighed. “Look down upon Earth.”

“How?”

“Look with my vision.” Odin stroked the side of her face with the back of his finger. “Relax, focus, and you will see.”

Anna’s view of Asgard faded. She then saw an ambulance navigate London’s nighttime streets. Her view changed, and she watched the scene unfold inside the ambulance cab. She, Anna, was the center of attention. Paramedics were furiously trying to keep her alive.

“Stay with us, love!” one of them yelled. “Don't you give up!”

Liudmila sat in the passenger seat, eyes red from crying.

The vision evaporated as suddenly as it came. Anna was back in Asgard again.

“Is that happening now?” She grabbed Odin’s arm to steady herself.

“The word ‘now’ doesn’t mean the what you think it means. Time is a funny thing. Gods do not see time linearly like you mortals. Time is just another dimension to be navigated. I exist in the day of Vikings as I am in the far future where we Gods battle the evil Frost Giants, a battle in which we ultimately die.”

“You know everything that’s going to happen?”

“I do.”

“You will die in the future?”

“I did say that. It will be during the time of Ragnarok when evil wraps its tentacles around the throat of humanity.”

“So, if you know all this, why would you allow yourself to die in the future?”

“Although we have almost limitless power, we do have limitations. Limitations you can’t possibly fathom.”

“Then what’s the point?”

“The point, Anna? Are you asking me why do we even bother to live if the future is preordained? No surprises? Just awaiting our inevitable downfall?”

“I suppose,” she shrugged.

“For you mortals, life and time aren’t laid out before you.” Odin turned from her and became somber.
“You don’t see that everything is fixed. You keep on struggling pathetically under the illusion of free will. It’s so fantastic to watch you, so immense are your toils and so futile. I see this, lifetime after lifetime.” He turned back to look her in the eye. “And your struggles to live are what sustain us.”

“Is that what I’m supposed to be doing now, struggling to live?”

“I would if I was in your place.” He changed back to his usual flippant tone.

“And am I?” she asked. “Struggling to stay alive?”

“Your body is clinging to life. But, you’re not in your body.”

“Are you telling me I have a choice between living and dying?”

“Very good!” Odin said. “Don’t worry. Most mortals in your place are even slower on the uptake.”

“Fuck you,” she hissed. “If you want me to live, you shouldn't have shown me these pleasures Asgard has to offer for all eternity.”

“Anna, you don’t want to die. Look at your life. You’ve spent too many years as Uri Konstantine’s sex toy. He kidnapped you as soon as you started your career. Once you managed to free yourself, you’ve been trying to rebuild your life. But habits and conditioning are hard to break. MI6 was no help to you, keeping you under their thumb. And let’s not even talk about Liudmila, the woman you once despised most. Remember you swore one day to extract vengeance upon her? Now look — she’s the only friend you have left.” He paused. “Whatever happened to that sweet revenge you were going to extract on her for nearly raping you that first day in the General's service?”

“I was looking for the right moment. Then after I was made governess, revenge became less important.”

“Funny, Liudmila thinks you've taken your revenge on her many times over. But she said nothing because of the awe she holds you in.”

“No, I don't believe it.”

“You never asked,” Odin said. “Did you give up your will to live along the way?”

“No I haven't. And I don’t want to die now, either.” She wiped a tear away from her cheek. “Odin, let me live!” She found that she was pleading.

“You would rather give up the pleasures of Asgard?”

“Yes!” she said, now crying.

“That’s good to hear.” Odin took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “But whether you live or die is up to you, not me. I can only guide you.” He took her by the hand and led her away from the pool. They walked down a winding path. Soon the trees disappeared and they found themselves on an open tundra.

They were no longer in Asgard. Somewhere along the path, they had crossed another one of those holes in space and time.

“Where are we?” Anna asked.

“A place called Niflheim. This is where those which are not worthy spend eternity. I have something to show you.” He pointed with a nod of his head. Up ahead on the desolate steppe, a place too bleak to be anywhere on Earth. There lay some smoldering wreckage. It was too far away for Anna to make out the details. Black soot rose from where a fire had once burned out of control. As they walked towards it Anna could better see the twisted structure. Splintered wooden beams, blackened by fire, rose towards the sky like perverted spires. Once they crested the last rise, Anna saw it was the wreckage of an airplane, its nose buried into the frozen tundra and its tail pointed to the sky.
As they approached the wreckage, Anna saw it was a World War II era Soviet fighter. A red star was painted on a panel that the fire hadn’t destroyed. Odin led her on a slow walk around the airplane.

“Here lays a Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov, a LaGG 3,” Odin said. “It was no match for the German Messerschmitt that shot her down.” When they almost made a full circle around the spire, Odin stopped and looked down. Anna followed is gaze. The charred body of an airman lay in a pool of body fat, once melted, now congealed upon the tundra. Anna gasped. She turned away, almost retching.

“Anna, be strong.” Odin put his arms around her shoulder. “I want you to take a look again. Take a good look.”

Anna tried to do as she was told. She turned and looked at the grizzled remains of the pilot.

“Who was that?” she asked.

Odin pointed to a headstone. Either Anna hadn’t noticed it before, or it hadn't been there. In cyrilic letters it read: “Lieutenant Julia Konstantine, 1917 – 1941.” There was a Soviet Star etched above the name.

“That’s Julia, Uri’s lost wife!” Anna shrieked. “I ate dinner with her my first night in Asgard.”

“Did you tell her you killed her husband?”

Anna’s face turned white.

“Did you tell her you stabbed him in the heart once he was already down?”

Anna turned away from Odin. She turned away from the charred body and the wreckage. She threw up then fell to her knees.

“Stand up,” Odin said. He helped her to her feet.

She saw he had a chalice in his hand. “Water,” he told her. “Clean your mouth out. And, blow your nose.” He handed her a silk kerchief after she took a drink. “Come, there’s just one more thing I have to show you here. After that, we shall leave this desolate place.”

They walked ten paces away from the wreckage. Anna hadn’t noticed until now that the ground was frozen with Odin's magic insulating her.

“Do you see anything?” He asked, looking down at the ground.

“No.”

“Use my vision again.” He gently touched the back of his forefinger against her temple. “Look down,” Odin said. “Look just below the surface.”

Anna looked upon her old master, General Uri Konstantine, buried in the frozen mud. “Oh no!” she gasped again. “What’s he doing here?”

“This is his hell,” Odin said. “He did not earn a place among the Fallen Worthy. He is damned to spend eternity here in this frozen mud.”

“Why are you showing me this? Did I send him here?” Anna took a step back.

“Ask yourself, what did he do to you,” Odin bore his gaze into her as if he were dissecting her soul.

“He, he, you know what he did!” Anna stammered. “But does he deserve this kind of punishment?”

“What would be a more appropriate punishment? For you to throw a hissy-fit and deny him his blow jobs for a week? No, he’s here because he kidnapped you and made you his sex slave. Is that true?”

“Yes. But...”

“But?” Odin waited for her to continue; only, words wouldn’t form for her. Finally Odin said, “Had he lived longer he may have, and I stress the word ‘may’, have earned redemption.”

She stared at Uri frozen in the ground. Frozen mud filled his mouth, filled his nostrils, and choked him in his throat. Root tendrils had started growing under his eye lids.

His fingers were locked forever in a clawing motion as he tried at one time so desperately to break free of his hell. It occurred to her, that just as she was rejuvenated every time she bathed, he too was being kept whole in order to feel the pain of the frozen tundra with every nerve-ending of his body. And there was no way out for him.

“Is he to be frozen here for all eternity?”

Odin nodded.

“Is he aware? Is he in pain?”

Odin nodded again.

She stared at him. She didn’t know what to say. Was he deserving of such a cruel hell?

“What are you trying to do to me?” she lashed out at Odin. “Why are you showing me all this? Yes, it’s true, he kidnapped me and two other women and made us his sex toys. You are right! He deserves to be here!”

“Is that what you think?”

“Yes!” Anna said a little too adamantly.

“I don't believe you.” He took her by the fingers and led her away.” Come.”

“Where are you taking me now?” Anna asked, shaking with a sudden chill. Anna didn’t know if she should cry or scream. Just then, she could do neither.

“No place you haven’t been before.” Odin took her arm and together they stepped through a hole in time. “But now you will see things with open eyes.”

… to be continued …

Look for more Erotica, Science Fiction, and Fantasy at @joe.nobel
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