Midnight Eclipse (Paranormal Viking Romance, Completed)

Chapter 17: Everything Is a Mess

Greenland, Present Day

Having been treated to a warm shower and a bowl of spaghetti with tomato sauce (but without seal), I feel less like a cavewoman and more like myself. Still far from an alluring vixen though. Since my own clothes are dirty from the trek, I wear sweatpants and a hoodie from Mikk's closet. I must have dropped my backpack, with spare clothes inside, outside the cave. I can't even remember doing it. And my phone still lies cracked on jagged rocks.

I'm really a mess right now. I have nothing and no one. Except for the man who just cooked me a bowl of spaghetti and borrowed me his clothes.

While eating, I told Mikk all about my encounter with the Viking man forgotten by time and cursed by nature. But there are gaps in my story, as I've purposely avoided telling him why I was leaving his parents' house so early this morning.

Those gaps line up like a parade of elephants between us as I utter the last words of the impossible saga. "And that's how I ended up here," I conclude, stringing the last strand of spaghetti around my fork.

From his position on the kitchen sofa--not next to me and not even right across, but rather diagonally positioned--Mikk nods. "I'll come with you there tomorrow," he promises. "Hopefully, we can find it again. It's not safe for you to walk around these shores alone. People disappear out there, never to be seen again. The lands take them, whole cloth. No remains are ever found."

I swallow the spaghetti piece. "You think you can keep me safe?" I attempt a small smile.

"I'll do what I can," Mikk replies, not returning the smile. "I know a fair bit about the dangers out there at least, and how to avoid them."

The room falls quiet as we both try to avoid mentioning one of the many elephants in the room. This one is particularly insistent-- bouncing up and down while trumpeting to get our attention--as the clock nears nine p.m on the wall. It's the question of where I will sleep tonight if we're not going back to the cave until the morning.

I don't want to leave, as this is the only place I feel at home on this island, but my head is too scattered to tell any more truths right now. I know only one solution.

"Do you have anything to drink?" I ask. "Something strong, I mean. I think I need it after the day I've had. To be brave enough to tackle tomorrow."

Finally, he smiles back. "I think I got just the thing." Rising from his chair, he gestures for me to follow upstairs. "Come with me."

Soon, I sit down on the floor in the big room on the upper floor, as there is nowhere to sit but the bed, and sitting there feels like one step too far. Surrounded by bright colors and heightened emotions of Mikk's painting, my frayed nerves are soothed. I start to believe in my own experiences. Because why wouldn't impossible things be possible in such a place of wonder? There are glaciers on this island that have been frozen for thousands of years, so why wouldn't the same forces be able to preserve a man through the centuries as well?

Folding his legs to sit down next to me, although not too close, Mikk presents a bottle filled with comforting amber liquid, retrieved from one of the shelves lining the walls. Whiskey from the looks of it. The bottle clinks as he puts it, together with two square tumblers, on the wooden floorboards. "You think this will do the trick?" he asks.

I pick up one of the tumblers and hold it out for him to pour into. "Looks like exactly what I need." I down the strong brew as soon as it lands in the glass. It swirls into my belly like fire, loosening my senses and dulling my brain.

Raising an eyebrow at my swift drinking speed, Mikk pours himself a drink as well and downs it just as quickly.

"You just left," he says, a veil of hurt draped over the words. Apparently, he's unable to ignore the parade of elephants any longer. Liquor has a tendency to do that. "I thought you said you wouldn't run again."