“Pretty please,” Armmie said in a baby voice. “Don´t you wanna be one of us? Fully and completely?”
I´ll never be one of you, Freya thought. They were starving for mortals, the beginning of summer being high season. During the colder months only brave or dumb mortals would jump into the river, but they were few and never enough to satisfy the god´s appetite.
“Just back off, all right, you floozy murderers.”
“So hostile,” Dasha muttered and Freya bit the inside of her cheek. Perhaps she was hostile but she truly hated this. Probably because unlike the others, her way into immortality had been a bit different than theirs…
Freya climbed up into her favorite oak and picked up the wooden comb that she always kept in a little hollow within the tree. She started brushing her long, red hair and counted the strokes, everything to distract herself from what was going on.
Twilight had come, spreading a dark sheen over the lake and Freya could already hear the mortal chattering and laughter. A truck stopped, not too far away from the shore and music blasted through the open windows. Four young men in their early twenties jumped out of the car, two of them with their arms around two other women.
Freya threw a quick look at the god´s and they were already licking their lips but they still remained unseen for the mortals.
“Goody, they brought some competition,” Dasha said haughtily, referring to the women because god´s naturally disliked anything that stood in the way between them and their victims.
“As if it matters,” Cass smiled, flinging her brown locks back. “But their dates sure are gonna wish they took them dancing instead.”
The god´s shrieked with laughter again at the inside joke, the sound of it muted to the humans. When the mortals opened cans of beers and the two boys started kissing the girls, the god´s went to work. Of course the first victims were the two other young men who awkwardly drank their beers, watching their friends with envy.
“Don´t worry,” Dasha whispered. “You´ll get yours.” She opened her mouth and started to sing, a seductive lullaby and it didn´t take long until the other god´s joined her, everyone except for Freya.
“I´m feeling drunk.” One of the guys dropped his can. “Did you spike my beer?” He jerked his head. “You hear that?” he said. “It´s coming from the water.”
He stood up as did his friend. The rest of their friends were too busy with exploring each other to notice what was happening. In an instant the two guys removed their shirts and shoes, leaving them on the shore, walking towards the river with glazed eyes.
“Going for a swim so soon?” one of the girls asked with a smile, but it died quickly. “Hey, what´s wrong with them?”
“They´re calling for us,” the guys said and took clumsy steps forward.
“Very good,” Cass whispered. “Now, come closer.” Powerless the young men walked further and further into the water. They gasped and their eyes filled with lust, when they saw the beautiful women. Shakily they reached out their hands for their touch. One of them stared as mesmerized on Dasha´s black hair and the god´s smiled with euphoria and embraced them, holding them hard.
The guys looked like they had gone to heaven, not knowing they would be pushed beneath the surface right about…now. Their arms flailed but Freya knew it was useless. The god´s bodies were slippery and the young men had no choice but to accept their own deaths. Chaos erupted on the shore, their friends running around, crying in fear.
“Help them,” one of the girls screamed. “They´re drowning.” The other guys rushed into the water, all to the god´s delight.
“Please help them,” the girl kept shouting.
Oh, honey, Freya thought. I wish I could. She brushed away a single tear when the girls tried to help as well but Dasha quickly took care of them.
“Dance, little girls,” she whispered. “Dance.” The girls looked at each other in horror when their arms and legs started swinging back and forth in a frenzied dance. It looked just as painful as Freya knew that it was and for a second she had to close her eyes. I hate this, I hate this.
“Freya,” Armmie said, holding up one of the men as an offering. She had wrapped her blonde hair around his throat, like a snare. “This one is yours, if you want him.”
Freya could see the silent pleading on his face, because he was too terrified to speak.
“You take care of him,” Freya answered, her voice surprisingly steady. She started braiding her hair and Armmie shrugged, pushing the man below surface and laughed with glee when he struggled. And then he stopped fighting, his pulse and heartbeat decreasing.
When the god´s were finished with the men, they looked like they´d just had a nice meal. There was a saying that when they river was satisfied, so were they. Dasha reluctantly broke the dancing spell ans as the girl´s eyes streamed with tears, they took each other’s hands and ran back into the forest.
Freya knew what was going to happen with them. They would end up in an asylum just like they always did. She flung with her legs back and forth and stretched her shoulders. No use in crying over spilled mortal lives, she thought. But perhaps because she had been a mortal herself ones, she mourned over them and started singing a song she remembered from the old days.
“Raving river, here she goes again,” Dasha cursed in annoyance but Freya ignored her. She sang until her heart felt lighter and just when she was about to climb down, she noticed someone watching her by a tree across the river, as if hypnotized by her song.
He had to be well over seven feet tall, dressed in a steel grey armor that still somehow looked flexible and a white sable coat over his shoulders that went all the way down
