章 1: Edda
"Wake up Bjørn, we are nearly there." My mother said, as she tapped my shoulder from the driver seat.
"Already?" I murmured as I pushed my wool beanie up to see.
"Yes. You've slept nearly the whole drive." My brother says from behind me.
I looked up at the rear view mirror with blurry eyes, where I could see my twin brother Magne, who was hunched over in the small back seat of the car.
"You snored the whole time too. Nearly drove us all mad." My younger brother Laurits said as he watched something on his phone, also in the back seat.
"As if you could hear it. I'm sure you haven't looked away from your phone once the entire drive." I said, as I saw the cords of his headphones in his lap.
He gave me an evil grin.
"These things are cheap and don't exactly have noise canceling in them to block out the sound of a rock grinder." He shot back.
I snorted at his reply.
"At least I don't fart like you when I sleep." I shot back with my own grin.
"I do not." Laurits said, raising a brow.
"Mmmm. Are you sure about that?" I asked with a smile.
Ever since we were young, Laurits had always been the most insecure of us, and any time I brought up something he was insecure about I normally came out on top of our little bouts of wit.
Which was surprising when you consider how much of a people person he is.
"Would you two quit it, we are nearly there." Our mother chided.
Turning back to look out the front windshield, I looked around at the towering mountains that surrounded us.
"It sure is pretty." I said, leaning forward to get a better look out.
"I'm sure you don't remember much of it, so it must be a whole new experience for all of you." Mom said as she turned the wheel around a bend in the road.
"We were eight last we were here, before we moved to Oslo. So I have a few memories…just not a lot." I said as we took another bend in the road.
"It's so pretty." Magne said from behind me.
"Yeah, it's not so crowded and cramped like Oslo." Mom said with a small smile on her face.
"It's good to finally be back home." I said, as I looked over at her.
The main driving factor behind us coming back to Edda was to have a fresh start…again.
When our father died, our Mother fell into a deep depression for some time.
As in a very long time.
She quite taking care of herself, and as a byproduct, us.
She found it hard to keep a job, as she would have annual bouts of her depression, which would set in like the cold of winter.
I knew it wasn't intentional, but at times Laurits and Magne had a bad habit of blaming her for all of their issues, which would just send her right back into it.
Although bad, I couldn't exactly blame them for it.
Our whole purpose of leaving Edda was to get away from the sad memories that were here.
But in the end, those exact memories only followed our mother, who found her solace in a bag of sweets, and a TV screen.
Those ten years were hard on us all as we dealt with our emotional turmoil on our own.
Magne turned into an introvert, while Laurits…I'm not too sure about him.
An extrovert is for certain, but at the same time he seemed to be able to always morph himself to the group's around him like a chameleon changes their color.
If I remembered correctly it was called being an Adaptive Extrovert.
And me…well, that's a tricky question.
For me I tend to be on the side of an introvert.
I won't try to talk to you, but if you talk to me, well, I'll talk back without an issue.
It's just that defining moment of if you talk to me first that will change how I act.
I snapped my fingers together.
"Reactive introvert." I said to myself with a smile as I remembered the name.
"What was that?" My mother asked.
I looked at her.
"Nothing, just talking to myself is all." I said with a grin, as I looked back out the windshield.
Taking another turn in the road, the first sign appeared on the side of the road.
"Edda. Population 7,003." I said as we passed it.
But before I could come up with a witty joke of how they would need to change the numbers now, the Town of Edda appeared before us.
"Would you look at that." I said with a smile, as a flood of memories came back to me.
"Yeah, What a shit hole." Laurits said from behind me.
"Language, young man." Mom snapped.
I turned to look at him.
"Yeah young man. Language." I said with a chuckle, as he frowned at me.
The town wasn't small, but it also wasn't exactly very big either.
Most of the buildings were on the older side, and looked like they could use some new paint.
"Oh, this really brings back some memories." Mom said in a somewhat sad tone.
Going down a steep hill, we finally entered the city limits.
I was glued to the window, watching the passing buildings and people.
"This looks like a comfortable town to live in." I said.
"Like the perfect Christmas movie set." Laurits said, causing me to chuckle at his words.
"True, but there's no snow. So possibly a fall movie set."
He smirked at me.
"Possibly."
As we chugged along in our old beat up car, we went through the center road of the town, which was right along Edda lake.
"Wha. Look at this hot rod." I said, as we slowed down behind an old man on an electric scooter.
My mother let out a sigh, as we patiently waited for the old man to cross the road.
"It looks like he might be having trouble." Magne said, as he leaned forward between our seats.
As we watched, the old man's motor seemed to die.
"Crap." I said out loud, as I knew what I would be asked to do.
My mother let out another sigh.
"Bjørn, Magne, could you go help him. I think his motor just died."
It was my turn to let out a sigh.
"Sure thing." I said, unbuckling my seat belt.
I had no issue helping the old man.
It's just when you have been stuffed in a tiny car for hours on end like sardines, all you want is to get to your destination, not help people.
I mentally slapped myself.
'He's an old man, Bjørn. The least you could do is help him.' I thought to myself.
'Hopefully when you're his age someone would do the same.' my brain continued to chide me.
Pushing open the door with a loud "creeak!" I stepped out.
As me and Magne did so, the creaking of the car's suspension was very audible.
Which was anything but new.
Me and Magne had many yet few similarities.
We were both big for our age, at about 6'2.
Magne was stocky, and had more of a blockie face.
While I was more toned, and had softer features.
We do have the same dirty blond hair and sea blue eyes though, so it wasn't too hard to realize we were twins.
Zipping my windbreaker up, I adjusted my beanie then turned to Magne who was just standing there looking at me.
"What…do I have something on my face?" I asked as I smiled wide at him.
He smiled as he moved his glasses back into place.
"You just seem to be in a good mood is all." He said with a chuckle as we started to make our way to the old man.
"What do you mean? I'm always in a good mood." I said with a laugh.
Being the first born son, I always felt that I needed to watch out for my younger siblings, but Magne in particular.
Laurits was fine anywhere he went, even though he might complain your ear off, he could adapt.
But Magne was a different story.
The amount of social anxiety he carried with him was enough I worried he might need to start carrying it all in a wheelbarrow wherever he went.
That, added with his ADHD and dyslexia was a terrible mix, causing him to be quiet and unable to make many friends.
No wait, scratch that.
He didn't make any friends.
So it was always just me and him.
Walking up to the old man on the scooter, I saw him pressing the ignition button repeatedly.
"Would you like some help?" I asked as me and Magne stood on opposite sides of the man.
The old man slowly raised his head to look at me.
The man looked to be in his late sixties and wore an eye patch over one of his eyes.
He didn't say anything, and instead started to press the putting again.
I raised a brow.
'must be senile?' I thought as Magne leaned down to turn off the scooter then back on.
"Here, try it again." He said, as the old man turned to look at him.
Pressing the ignition again, the small electric scooter came to life with a nearly silent "vrrrr".
"You might want to get the battery looked at." I said, as Magne stood back up.
"Last thing you need is for the battery to die somewhere and have to spend the night outside." I said as a joke, but the old man just turned his head to stare at me again.
"Right, well let's get you off the road." I said as I gestured at his handlebars.
Guiding him off the road, I heard the sound of a bell ringing in front of us.
Looking up, I saw an older woman making her way towards us from a store in front of us.
Coming close, the woman smiled up at me and Magne, who had come around the scooter to stand next to me.
"Ah, what nice boys the two of you are." The old woman said with a wide smile.
"Of course." I said with my own smile.
"We couldn't just leave him in the road." I added with a chuckle.
She smiled at us again as her eyes seemed to gloss over slightly.
'Oh great, another senile person. Doesn't this town have an old person home for these people to stay?' I thought, honestly wondering if this would be a daily thing.
Not that I had any issues with older senile people.
I was just ready to get home and was a bit moody.
Then doing something that shocked both me and Magne alike, the old woman raised her hands and ran them across our foreheads.
'definitely senile.' I thought before a cold chill like ice water ran down my spine.
I abruptly took a step back and away, not realizing I had grabbed Magne's arm and also pulled him away.
We stared at the old woman who stood there with a smirk on her face.
"right…well the two of you have a good day." I said before pulling on Magnes arm again as I started to make my way back to the car.
"What the hell was that all about?" I asked as we approached the car.
"I don't know." Magne said, as I let go of his arm.
Re-opening my door, I hunched myself back inside.
"Can we finally go?" Laurits asked. "I'm starting to cramp up back here."
"Yes" my mother said, as she turned the key to restart the car.
"Ververver!"
"Oh come on!" Laurits moaned in the back seat.
"It's probably the battery again." I said with a sigh.
"I think it's about to rain." Magne said from behind me.
And as soon as he finished that last word, it came down in a heavy torrent.
"Fuck." Laurits said as mom let out a sigh.
"Well…at least our windows work." I said with a chuckle in an attempt to lift the mood.
Mom looked over at me and smirked.
"The glass is half full not half empty." She said whimsically.
___________________________
Right…so I don't know about all of you, but the ending to the show "Ragnarok" was trash.
Over the past week I have been getting over a bad cold, which allowed me to re-watch the entire series.
And well I'm gonna be honest here.
What the hell?
I mean come on, for all but the last two episodes it's going great, then out of nowhere they dumped "it's all in your head Magne, it's not real so it's time to come out of your mind and into the real world." talk about some bullshit, and honestly a waste of time.
Sure some of you might have been okay with that ending, but I felt unfulfilled with it.
So…with it being one of my favorite shows, I have decided to change it.
And I mean I'm taking this story completely off its original trajectory.
Of course for a little while it will be the same, but after a certain point things are going to change…drastically.
I'm going to open a whole new can of worms in this story, Where the world will be greatly expanded.
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