Chaos was taking over New York. As Caleb and Mímir ran through the streets, they had to change directions again and again. Over the past hour, they had seen civil unrest, looting, and doomsday preachers warning about the end times. They had even run into a mob shouting that changed people were harbingers of the apocalypse, sinners being punished by God.
As they were running along Borden Avenue, Caleb slowed down and came to a stop. They had chosen this route expecting it to be much less crowded. The event that transformed part of the population happened a bit after 8 p.m., so he thought maybe this area, filled with warehouses and workshops, would be less chaotic. He was partially right. They saw a couple of cars here and there, but it seemed mostly empty. He took out his phone. Mímir looked at him curiously. The elf tried calling Evan several times, but none of the calls even connected. His internet connection was dead too. He knew he had no time to waste. Ellie could be in trouble at that very moment. He was trying to figure out the shortest route.
“I didn’t spend enough time learning the map of the city,” he grumbled as he turned toward Mímir.
But the wolf wasn’t paying attention. His whole body was tense as he raised his head and sniffed the air again and again. Caleb furrowed his brow and watched his friend for a few seconds before he slowly stepped closer.
“Buddy? Is everything okay?” he asked quietly.
Mímir looked at him and stared toward the entrance of a narrow street between the industrial warehouses. Caleb scratched the wolf’s neck and started jogging that way. After about twenty feet, he smelled it too. The thick, metallic tang of blood filled the air. As they turned the corner, he knew where it was coming from. A white bus stood on the side of the road. He saw the blue logo of the New York City Department of Correction on either side of the back door. He froze. He took a deep breath and walked closer. The side door was open. Caleb slowly stepped closer and turned on the flashlight on his phone.
The driver was sitting in his seat, dead. His head was turned unnaturally to the right. Someone had twisted his head far beyond its natural range, tearing the muscles in his neck. There were two other bodies. He slowly moved around, careful not to touch anything. He didn’t see any firearms. One of the guards had his throat torn out.
“Jesus Christ…” he breathed, then he slowly exited the bus.
He looked at Mímir. The wolf was watching him, tilting his head curiously to the right. Caleb shook his head and took a few photos.
“We’ll report it when the mobile networks grace us with their renewed presence,” he said, and when the wolf squinted at Caleb, he shrugged. “What? Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
They jogged back to the intersection and took a picture from there. He looked around for a street sign but couldn’t see one, so he typed a note into his phone saying, “Borden Ave and Whateverthefuck Street.”
That was when he heard footsteps. Someone was running toward him. He looked toward the approaching person and saw a woman, maybe mid-to-late thirties. Long black hair in a swaying ponytail, pale face, panicked expression, wearing a surprisingly fancy pantsuit.
“Do you have service?” the woman asked breathlessly.
Then she saw Mímir and stumbled backward, pressing her back against a nearby truck.
“Don’t worry, he’s friendly. He was a cute dog a few hours ago. He is still a cute dog. Just… apparently way smarter now,” Caleb said, petting the wolf.
“He can’t… stand on his hind legs?”
“No, he can’t,” Caleb said, frowning. “Why would he?”
“There was one… Listen. I need to call the police.”
“Ma’am, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have knife-ears. My dog is a wolf. The whole city is in chaos. Phone lines aren’t working. Whatever you want to report, it will have to wait,” Caleb said, although he knew the feeling of helplessness.
“But they will hurt them!”
“Who?”
“The armed men! We were celebrating a successful project, and suddenly five guys turned up. Two of them were monsters, and they had weapons. They brought a sixth one with them, but he was wounded. They won’t let anybody go. I slipped out…”
“Look, ma’am, this sounds terrible but as I said, nobody will come to help. Maybe the armed men are just scared and confused because people see some of them as monsters…” Caleb said as he started to walk away.
“At least tell me where the closest police station is!” the woman yelled after him. “My daughter is in there! She’s only twelve, for fuck’s sake!”
Caleb stopped. He closed his eyes. He breathed in, breathed out. The wolf beside him nudged his side with his nose. They stood there for a few seconds, listening to the mother’s short, panicked breaths, then slowly turned back toward her.
“Okay…” he said quietly. “Tell me everything that happened.”
“What? Why?”
“Because no police officer is going to stumble onto this by accident. The whole city is in shambles. They’re trying to keep up with the reports. If we can’t call them, they won’t magically turn up,” he explained.
“They have guns.”
“I have a wolf. And I am a lot stronger now. As my favorite superhero always said, with great power comes great responsibility.”
The woman looked at him dumbfounded. Then she took a step forward. Her eyes were wide.
“Are… are you serious?”
“Yes, ma’am. But I still have places to be. So tell me everything you know.”
The mother pointed down the street as he walked closer.
“So, we’d just wrapped up a huge project. We’re a small company, about twenty people, plus we had a few guests. Actors who worked on the ads, directors, makeup artists. Nobody who knows how to fight. We were alone in the building. Then a few people fainted. Then the purple smoke came.”
“And some of you changed.”
“Yes. Four in our group. One has dark gray skin and horns. Two have become like you, just shorter and frailer, not muscular, and one is a guy with completely white skin, but he has bluish metallic cracks all over his body. Also there are two children. One is my daughter, the other is a ten-year-old boy.”
“Okay. Now, let’s continue with the attackers.”
“Getting there,” she said quickly, realizing that she was rambling. “I was out front having a cigarette. When I went back upstairs, I saw those… strange people from the office doorway. They hadn’t seen me yet, so I stayed out of sight for a few seconds. One of them is in really bad shape. He is on the couch. My coworkers were trying to help him with the first-aid kit. They were held at gunpoint. He was covered in blood. The group is led by a guy who’s almost eight feet tall. He has these rocks growing from his shoulders.”
“Of course…” Caleb said with a sigh, massaging his temple.
“What? Do you know him?”
“Not him. His kind. He will be a tough nut to crack. Okay, what about the others?”
“There are two normal men in green shirts and green pants. A guy who looks like a child but has a beard. His hair isn’t blond, though. It’s more like a really vivid yellow. And he has pointy ears. And finally, the wolf-man. He’s as tall as you are and walks on his hind legs. He has thumbs and wears the same ripped green clothes as the others. But he is not really acting like a man. It’s like he’s deliberately playing the part of a wolf.”
“Playing a… wolf?”
“When I saw them, he was crouching on a table, snarling at everyone. I work with actors a lot. I am a manager. I see things. It may not be useful but… he is clearly a man playing a beast. So after a few seconds, I slipped back into the stairwell and ran.”
“Which building?” Caleb asked, looking down Borden Ave.
“The old Blanchard building. Top floor. Nobody else is in the building. It’s on the corner of Borden Ave and 21st Street, but the building has entrances from 51st Ave too.”
“Where was the exit where you escaped? Could we use it to go in?”
“I’m not sure. I… I think so. It opens toward 51st Ave.”
“Okay. You will stay here. Try to call 911 every five minutes. If you see anyone driving by, stop them, tell them what happened, and ask them to go get help.”
“And you?”
“Well, me and my friend are going to infiltrate the place and run a rescue mission,” Caleb answered.
He didn’t wait for an answer. He started jogging in the direction she had indicated with Mímir following close behind. As they went, Caleb caught the stench of blood again and again. They reached the corner of the building and stopped in front of it.
It was seven stories tall, with rusty fire escapes zigzagging up the facade. Caleb waved to Mímir, and they crossed to the other side of the street. They slowly circled the building. The Borden Avenue entrance was closed, its rolling gate pulled down. The entrances on 21st Street and 51st Avenue were in the same state.
“They’ve locked the exits. Maybe they’re expecting the police,” Caleb said quietly to Mímir, as they returned to the intersection at the northwest corner of Blanchard Building. Some windows on the seventh floor were lit. What looked like the western part of the building was only four stories high. From the street, the place looked like one continuous block.
Caleb looked at one of the fire escapes running up the lower four-story section and thought for a few seconds. He glanced at the wolf next to him with a worried expression.
“I don’t think you can come up there with me, bud.” He scratched the base of the wolf’s ear. “That thing would definitely collapse under your weight.”
Mímir nodded. Caleb patted his back, then walked to a car, climbed on top of it, careful not to set off the alarm if it had one, then jumped up from that and grabbed the ledge of the metal stairs and hoisted himself up. He started climbing as quietly as he could. He was on the third floor when he looked down.
Mímir stared up at him, then turned around. He ran toward the nearby pedestrian bridge, jumped on top of the overhead truss frame, leaped from steel beam to steel beam and disappeared from Caleb’s eyes.
“What on Earth are you planning,” he murmured. He climbed one more flight of stairs while looking around for his friend, then used the ladder to reach the roof.
A few seconds later, he spotted the wolf on the elevated expressway, which was now packed with abandoned cars, beyond the pedestrian bridge. Apparently, once traffic had locked up, people had started abandoning their vehicles. Mímir bounded across the abandoned cars, using them as a runway. He cleared the gap between the expressway and the neighboring building, landed on the rooftop without breaking stride, and accelerated again. At the far edge, he launched himself across the second gap, over 51st Avenue, and landed beside Caleb, skidding on the loose gravel covering the roof.
Caleb stared down at the sixty-foot gap Mímir had just cleared between the neighboring roof and the roof beneath his feet.
Only standing on that rooftop did Caleb realize the two structures weren’t truly fused. A narrow gap split them apart, hidden from view at street level. The adjoining structure, whose roof they were standing on, stepped upward in two sections: four stories on one side, six on the other.
“Well, this is a problem.”
Mímir walked over to him and nudged his hand, then looked at the far end of the rooftop, where the structure rose another two stories. Caleb jogged across and tried the door leading to the roof but it was locked. He looked back at Mímir and shrugged.
The wolf stared at him, and Caleb somehow got the distinct impression that his companion was disappointed in him. Then Mímir started running again and jumped up the two floors, getting onto higher elevation. Caleb stared up.
“And what the fuck am I supposed to do?” he asked the wolf in a loud whisper. Mímir jerked his head toward the higher roof as if telling Caleb to follow.
The elf stared up in disbelief, then backed away from the wall.
“I swear to God, if I faceplant into the brick wall, I will NOT give you treats for a month,” he grumbled, then he started to run.
He was suddenly very aware of every muscle in his thighs. He felt unstoppable. When he felt close enough, he skipped forward, planting both feet side by side, then pushed himself off with all his might.
He suddenly rose into the air. Flailing with both arms and legs, he expected to make it halfway up the wall at best, maybe high enough to grab a ledge, but instead he soared upward in a perfect arc and landed hard on his side next to Mímir. He jumped up immediately, staring down at the two-story drop where they came from.
“Okay, at some point we’re going to have to talk about how strong I’ve become,” he said to the wolf, who turned around, cleared the fifteen-foot gap, and landed on the next roof, one story higher. Caleb followed, now with much more confidence. They were on top of the seven-story Blanchard Building.
Looking around, the elf immediately spotted two skylights with light pouring through them from below. They moved silently toward the skylights to see what was happening below.
Most of the office was dark, illuminated only by a large work light near the center of the room. The hostages were gathered in one corner of the office space. A man lay on the couch, naked from the waist up, his chest wrapped in hastily applied bandages. Next to him stood a tiny humanoid figure. His vivid yellow hair fell messily to his shoulders, and his beard was the same color. Close to the frightened group, two figures were pacing: an ordinary man in green prison clothes and the wolf-man, who wore only ripped green pants and kept sniffing the air around the hostages. A bit further away, another human man was sitting on a table in a similar green outfit, while a troll was leaning against the wall, wearing two prisoner shirts as a makeshift kilt.
“What a lovely bunch…” Caleb murmured to Mímir, then started looking for weapons.
The two human men each had a pump-action shotgun. The troll was unarmed, while both the wolf-man and the yellow-haired gnome held pistols. The latter had two.
As they continued watching, Caleb quietly tried to open the skylight. It opened only an inch, but that was enough for them to hear what was being said below. Then the wounded man’s eyes suddenly opened, and Caleb found himself staring straight into them. He quickly pulled his head back and Mímir followed his lead, but still, they could hear a terrified scream.
“What is it, Newman?” asked a deep, rumbling voice that Caleb assumed belonged to the troll.
“There’s something on the roof!” the man answered.
“Calm down. You’re seeing things!”
“I swear to God, Rockford, there were two pairs of eyes, one red and one yellow! They were glowing!”
“Come on, Newman, you must be hallucinating,” a third voice said, sounding normal and human.
“I became eight feet tall. Jackson is covered in fur. That bitch has horns. Anything is possible.” A second of silence followed. “Okay. Ramirez, go up and check it.”
“Why me?” asked the earlier voice.
“Because I will break your neck if you don’t.”
Caleb looked around. He saw the rooftop entrance nearby. He pointed at it and Mímir nodded. They walked quietly toward the door, careful not to disturb the gravel beneath their feet. They stopped on both sides of the door.
“I will take him down. Don’t intervene unless you have to,” Caleb whispered to Mímir, who looked at him with a frown. “Hey, I’m not sure you can use those teeth non-lethally!”
The wolf answered with an offended snort, but stepped back. Then they heard the sound of footsteps from behind the door. As soon as it opened, he saw a man glancing directly at him.
He moved fast as lightning. He reached in, grabbed the man’s shoulder, and squeezed harder than he meant to. He heard the sickening crunch of his collarbone and the man screamed in pain, but he didn’t have time to think about his actions. He didn’t want to hurt him that bad, but he didn’t really know his own strength. He yanked the man outside, throwing him several feet across the roof. The shotgun clattered onto the roof between them.
Caleb rushed to the man and got on top of him. He pulled his hand back and punched him in the temple. He held back too much. Ramirez looked up at him with cloudy eyes. The elf punched again, this time a bit stronger. The man groaned.
“Come the fuck on!” Caleb grumbled and his fist connected one more time with the prisoner’s forehead.
Then he stopped moving. Caleb checked the man’s pulse, holding his breath, scared that he went too far. The guy was still alive, but unconscious. He quickly pulled off the prisoner’s shirt, ripped it into strips, and tied his wrists and ankles. He knew they had heard the yell downstairs.
“John McClane never made this mistake in Die Hard. Fucking hell…” he muttered under his breath as he looked at the firearm lying on the ground.
Evan had taught him how to shoot a pistol, and he wasn’t particularly good at that either. Even with his new strength, Caleb didn’t trust himself to handle a weapon like this. He at least knew how to empty it. He worked the action repeatedly until no more shells came out, then returned to the skylight and glanced in while Mímir stood guard at the door.
“He’s not coming back,” Rockford said. He walked over to the hostages.
“Should I go up and check?” asked a new voice, rough, gravelly, almost animalistic.
“No, Jackson, nobody goes up to be hunted one by one. We are not idiots.”
“Then what?”
The troll looked around, then stared at the skylights. Caleb pulled his head back to stay hidden.
“Okay, you mongrel!” Rockford bellowed, his voice shaking the glass next to the elf. “I will give you five minutes to come down here and show yourself! After that, I’m gonna start executing these fucks.”
Caleb held his breath for a few seconds. He needed an idea, or his rescue mission would turn into a bloodbath. He glanced back inside and realized his biggest tactical advantage. He went back to Mímir and looked into his eyes.
“I will take you down to their floor and then come back here. I will drop in through the skylight. When the light goes out, you go in. The main targets for you are the human with a shotgun and the wolf-man. I will take care of the gnome first, then the troll. Okay?”
The wolf nodded. Caleb silently opened the door and propped it with the unconscious body, then they silently descended. He opened the door on the seventh floor for Mímir, then looked around. He found a small hook beside the seventh-floor door and used it to hold the door open. Beyond the open stairwell door was a short hallway ending at a glass door that led into the office.
“Don’t rush in until you hear the commotion, okay?”
Mímir answered with another small nod. Caleb rushed back up, picked up one of the shells he had ejected, and loaded it into the empty shotgun. He walked over to the skylight he was looking through earlier.
“Here goes fucking nothing…” he whispered to himself, then took a deep breath and jumped.
He dropped through the skylight. Glass shards cut into his legs and face. He was aiming for the coffee table beside the wounded man. While falling, he raised the shotgun and pointed at the only light source in the room. He knew the plan was reckless but he didn’t have time to come up with something else. Before his feet even hit the table, he pulled the trigger. The weapon let out a deafening boom. At the same time, he squeezed his eyes shut and reached for the strange way of seeing he had discovered in Tony’s apartment.
He heard screams from the corner and felt the coffee table collapse under his impact. In that strange, inverted vision, the darkness vanished. Bodies became flat shapes and silhouettes. He could see everything. He figured Rockford and Jackson could probably see in the dark too. He wasn’t sure about the gnome beside him, who was already reaching for the pistols at his hips.
“Sorry, buddy!” he said to the gnome as he raised his leg.
He saw the panic in his eyes. The gnome was already raising his weapons when Caleb’s foot slammed into his chest. The kick sent the tiny creature flying across the room and into a bookshelf. Caleb spun around. Caleb’s eyes widened. He underestimated his strength again.
He saw Mímir crash through the glass office door and sprint toward the man with the shotgun, the fur along his back standing on end. The prisoner probably only saw the pair of yellow eyes speeding toward him. Rockford roared in anger, the wolf-man let out a deep, guttural growl.
He saw the wolf-man raise a pistol toward Mímir while the troll lunged at Caleb. Time seemed to slow down. The elf ducked under the enormous fist, went past Rockford, reached down, grabbed a piece of the shattered coffee table and hurled it with all his strength, aiming for the outstretched furry arm.
The piece of wood embedded itself in Jackson’s forearm. He yelped like a wounded dog and looked at Caleb. He wanted to rush toward the wolf-man, but a huge hand clamped down on his shoulder.
“You are mine, little asshole!” Rockford growled behind him and Caleb felt his feet leave the floor.
The office spun around him as Rockford hurled him toward the same bookshelf the gnome had crashed into. His back slammed into the shelves, and sharp pain tore through his ribs as several of them broke. His eyes closed involuntarily. As he opened them, he saw Rockford lumbering toward him, his tusked mouth curling into an ugly grin. Behind Rockford, the man with the shotgun lay on the floor. Mímir stood over him, staring at the wolf-man, who had dropped his pistol and was now crouching low.
For a second, Caleb wondered if this would be the new normal from now on. Monsters of myth squaring off in office spaces. He fought against the pain as he stood up. Then he suddenly felt something strange. The ache subsided and he physically felt his ribs moving back into place.
He didn’t have time to wonder as Rockford drew his arm back.
“I’m gonna pummel you into a paste, boy!” he snarled but Caleb dodged to the side, spun and kicked Rockford’s elbow while the troll’s fist was still buried in the wall behind the ruined bookshelf.
He heard the joint crack and Rockford let out a painful roar. He pulled his arm free, and Caleb saw it hang uselessly for a second before it popped back into place with a nauseating wet crunch.
He glanced to the side and saw Jackson hanging on Mímir’s back. The wolf-man bit down, his fangs finding Mímir’s neck from behind. The direwolf let out a yelp, then rolled onto his back, crushing the changed prisoner under himself.
Caleb stared for too long. Rockford’s fist connected with his face, breaking his jaw. He flew across the office and crashed into a workstation while the hostages screamed in terror. He stood up slowly. Suddenly, the lights snapped back on. Pain lanced through Caleb’s eyes. He squeezed them shut and dropped to his knees. When he forced them open again, the office looked normal. Rockford stood beside the light switch.
“This was futile from the start. I heal without even thinking about it. I’ve seen wounded long-ears. Your kind is fragile, even if you are tall,” Rockford said as Caleb slowly stood up. He tried to answer but his jaw was broken.
“You see? I will break your bones one by one and you won’t be able to…”
The word caught in the troll’s throat. Caleb felt his jaw moving by itself, finding its original place.
“What the fuck are you?” Rockford asked.
“A mystery…” Caleb answered, then lunged forward.
He didn’t hold back at all. His fists hammered into the troll’s chest like bursts from an assault rifle. Every punch broke a bone. He felt it. The troll was grunting in pain each time. Then he drove his fist into the troll’s chin, sending him flying into the wall.
Caleb looked at Mímir. The wolf-man lay unconscious under him. He turned to the hostages. He saw them watching in silence. Some of them pointed phone cameras at him. He looked at them dumbfounded.
“FUCKING RUN ALREADY!” he yelled at them. “I will hold him back.”
The group started to move as Rockford slowly climbed through the hole he had made when he crashed through the drywall.
“So what will it be? Two regenerating freaks hitting each other until the sun comes up?” he asked with a strange grin.
“No. My plan is to leave.”
“You won’t. I will not allow that.”
Caleb moved toward the door. Rockford jumped in front of him, cutting him off. Mímir moved to help, but the elf held out one hand to stop him.
“You don’t heal. I do. Stay back!” he instructed the wolf.
Rockford grinned.
“Oh, then I’ll break your pet’s spine first,” he said with a chuckle.
Caleb felt like something moved inside his chest. Suddenly, the plan to run felt like an offense. He felt his features twist into a snarl and even Rockford looked surprised. Mímir started growling but he didn’t move forward.
Then Caleb lunged forward. He moved faster than before. Rockford’s eyes went even wider as Caleb closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye. Then Caleb ducked to the left and used his momentum to drive a devastating knee into Rockford’s abdomen. Rockford’s feet left the ground, but Caleb didn’t let him fly away. He grabbed the troll’s wrist, yanked him back, and drove his right fist into the same spot. Then he seized Rockford by the head and smashed him into the floor before he could fly out of reach. He backed away, regaining control.
The troll slowly got on his feet. Two of his tusks had snapped off. They hit the floor, and fresh ivory immediately began growing from the broken stumps.
“What kind… of monstrosity… are you?” Rockford asked, then leapt forward.
The elf was too stunned by what he had just done, so the troll managed to grab Caleb by the throat and drive him to the floor. His huge fists started hammering down into Caleb’s face. He felt his nose break, his jaw shatter, his skull crack. But every injury began repairing itself almost as soon as it happened. The pain flared, then vanished.
Then he kicked upwards with all his strength. Rockford crashed into the ceiling. The elf rolled onto his stomach to pull himself away but Rockford landed squarely on Caleb’s back. He felt his spine break, then mend itself immediately. The pain was excruciating. The troll grabbed him by the hair and lifted his head. Suddenly Caleb felt Rockford’s massive forearm locked around his throat.
“Maybe I can’t break you, but you must need air!” Rockford growled.
There was no mocking in his tone, just pure desperation. Caleb couldn’t breathe. Mímir started barking, visibly wanting to intervene but the elf raised his hand to enforce his earlier order. He knew that if the wolf jumped in, Rockford could maim him permanently. His fingers clawed at the air, as he moved his arm around to find something, anything that could help.
The world around him started to blur and slowly darken, his lungs were burning, his throat hurting from the troll’s chokehold. Then he touched something. His hand found a power cord trailing from one of the ruined workstations. He yanked it with what little strength he had left. The jagged metal tore through the insulation, exposing the copper conductors inside. He dragged the damaged section closer and pressed the exposed wire against Rockford’s forearm.
Rockford bellowed as he stumbled back. Caleb felt the electricity course through him too, but he could finally breathe. He rolled onto his back and sat up, still gripping the cable, then pushed himself to his feet. The troll looked at him with pure fury in his eyes.
They lunged at each other at the same time. Caleb crashed into the troll and wrapped his free arm around him. Rockford grabbed the wrist holding the cable, trying to keep the exposed end away from himself. Caleb drove his knee into Rockford’s chest again and again. Eventually, the repeated blows caused Rockford’s grip to loosen for a fraction of a second. That was all Caleb needed.
Caleb forced the exposed end of the cable past Rockford’s guard and jammed it into the troll’s mouth. Rockford’s roar cut off as his jaw snapped shut around the cable. Electricity tore through both of them as they remained locked together. Caleb’s heartbeat turned into a violent flutter, then seemed to vanish altogether. Somehow, he remained conscious. His own scream seemed to fill his skull. Caleb stared into the amber eyes and saw the light leave them. He struggled to open his hands, to release the troll but he couldn’t.
Then, suddenly, Caleb felt a new kind of pain. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mímir clamp his jaws onto the fabric at his shoulder. The direwolf jerked his head violently and tore Caleb free, flinging him across the floor. Caleb rolled across the floor and lay there. The wolf hurried to him and started licking his face. He turned onto his back and hugged Mímir’s neck.
“Thank you, old friend…” he whispered.
With the help of the wolf, he slowly stood up. His body was still in pain. He rushed to the power cord and pulled it out of the socket, then hurried to the prisoner. He knelt down next to him.
“Hey… Hey!” he yelled as he shook Rockford’s enormous shoulders.
There was no answer. Caleb nervously slapped the troll. He checked his pulse but couldn’t feel anything. He wasn’t even sure if he was checking the right place. He pressed his hands on Rockford’s chest and started pumping. He went harder. He felt his sternum crack. He knew that CPR could cause this so he didn’t stop.
“Come on, you fuck! Don’t make me a murderer!” he said but his voice wasn’t angry.
He was pleading. Mímir watched him and started to whimper. Caleb continued for minutes. Then he collapsed on the chest of the enormous creature. He started sobbing. He closed his eyes, but still, he could see the light leave Rockford’s eyes. He cried, then straightened his back and screamed at the ceiling, tears rolling down his cheeks.
The sound that came out of his throat wasn’t Caleb Monroe. Wasn’t the elf. Wasn’t even human. The sound shook the building. Mímir walked up to him and nudged his side. The elf looked at the wolf and buried his face in his friend’s fur.
“I killed him…” he whispered.
Mímir pushed him, licked his face, then the wolf nuzzled his head into the crook of Caleb’s neck. Caleb slowly stood up. They gathered the escaped prisoners and tied them up around Rockford’s body, then he looked for the weapons and packed them into a duffel bag he found in the office, and placed it inside the stairwell to the roof.
“Let’s find Ellie,” he said to Mímir.
Mímir led Caleb onto the roof, then to the edge of it and looked down. On the street, the hostages were hugging each other, talking still, then one of them looked up and started pointing upwards. Caleb looked down at them.
“He won! The red elf won!” Somebody yelled.
“Not red! His eyes are crimson!” somebody added.
Caleb wasn’t basking in glory. He was looking for something specifically and he found it. The mother was hugging her daughter and both of them were crying. He nodded, then turned and started running. Instead of retracing their route across the six-story section, Caleb jumped straight down to the four-story roof below. From there, they took a running start and jumped over to the neighboring building, then onto the expressway.
Caleb stopped and looked at his hands, then back at the buildings they had come from. Mímir turned toward him and barked twice, sharply and started running to the north.
Caleb’s mind became empty as he followed his companion. He climbed, jumped, and landed on 21st Street. As they ran, they arrived back into more populated areas with people roaming the streets, changed and unchanged people alike. Then at the corner of 21st Street and 44th Drive, they jumped up onto a one-story building and continued by hopping from building to building.
Caleb realized how his body changed. For the first time in his life, the two hundred pounds of excess weight that had once held him back were gone, and his muscles were ready for every movement. He was in control. He felt light, agile, nimble, precise. He felt free. As they reached 44th Avenue on top of the buildings and he saw Mímir jump over the more than sixty feet gap, he didn’t think at all, he just followed the wolf’s lead.
As he reached the highest point of his arc, he yelled out in absolute joy. For one second, he didn’t care about anything. He didn’t forget, but for a few seconds, he allowed himself to feel completely unburdened. As they landed, Mímir stopped and looked at him, then raised his head and let out a mighty howl. When he finished, he looked at Caleb expectantly.
“What?” the elf asked, then Mímir stepped to him excitedly and nudged his chin upward with his nose.
“Oh, no, no-no.” Caleb laughed nervously.
The wolf stomped and nudged his chin again. Caleb sighed, then took a deep breath and let out a long howl, trying to mimic the wolf’s triumphant announcement. Mímir joined in, and they howled at the sky together. When he stopped, he looked at his friend.
“The pack sings together, huh?” he asked, then scratched Mímir’s head. The wolf nodded, his eyes bright with joy, and continued running. Caleb followed him as they turned toward the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.
In Manhattan, the chaos seemed even greater. Here, they stayed at street level and headed north on foot. They avoided a large crowd shouting that changed people were monsters. Then Mímir suddenly looked up, glanced at Caleb, wagged his tail excitedly, growled once, and began running at full speed, sometimes leaping from one car roof to another. Caleb followed, knowing that this reaction could mean only one thing. Mímir had caught Ellie’s scent.
The wolf led him to the corner of East 75th Street and Lexington Avenue, where Mímir slowed down and headed east, sniffing wildly. Caleb stayed close behind.
“Find her, buddy! Find her!”
Finally, near the entrance to an underground parking garage, he spotted Ellie’s car wedged between two buildings. They both ran over, then froze. Peering through the windshield, they didn’t see anyone who looked like Ellie.
The unconscious woman was wearing Ellie’s coat. Her long red hair was shaved on both sides, exactly the way Ellie wore hers. That gave Caleb pause. His own transformation had erased his beard and completely changed his hair. He himself no longer had a beard, and his hair had been completely transformed as well. Her skin was bright green, like an orc’s. Her jawline was strong and prominent. But her shoulders were narrow. No tusks protruded from her mouth. He gently pushed the car aside to reach the driver’s side door, then opened it and carefully pulled the figure out. He reached into her pocket. Her wallet was in the same spot where Ellie kept hers. As he flipped it open, from the photo on her driver’s license.
At first glance, she looked like an orc, but not quite. Her build was wiry and lean rather than bulky and heavily muscled. She had to be around five foot eleven, taller than she used to be, but still nowhere near as tall as most of the orcs Caleb had seen so far. For a moment, it occurred to him: what if Ellie was different, just like him? Then he remembered the differences he’d seen even among ordinary elves.
Mímir whimpered beside him, and Caleb quickly checked her pulse. He sighed when he felt it, then sat down carefully, gently cradling Ellie’s head in his lap, and patted her cheek.
“Little Fox? Hello?”
Her eyes suddenly flew open.