The festival was still going strong as they left the city. People were stumbling around, clearly drunk. A giggling group of girls in extremely high heels walked past them. Well, stumbled. One of them even fell over, shrieking as she face-planted right into the ground and was immediately dragged back up by the others, seemingly completely fine. Johan snortet at the sight, it was good someone was having a good time.

Johan and Frey walked in silence until they were out of the city. Frey was getting more and more twitchy as they walked, stopping and glancing at Johan every now and then. Johan could tell he wanted to say something, but he wasn’t going to push it.

They walked and walked. Johan wasn’t sure where they were going but he trusted Frey. By now they had already gone down the dirt road outside the city and left it to instead follow a walked-down path into the woods, all uphill the entire way.

They had just gotten to the bottom of a very tall mountain and Johan was eyeing the top when Frey finally broke the silence.

"What…did the hand look like?" Frey asked. Johan looked at him curiously and Frey hesitated before adding. "Like, were there any rings or moles or anything?"

Oh. He wanted to know who’s hand it was.

He looked at Johan expectantly, a painfully fake, aloof expression on his face but Johan could easily see right through it. Johan bit his lip thoughtfully. Before he died, Note had been Frey's best friend. They had quickly grown close in the short year they knew each other.

"I didn't see anything." Johan answered softly. It was true, there was nothing interesting about that hand. He watched as Frey seemed to hold his breath while waiting for the answer. "But there’s only two people under that tree and it was a male's hand."

Frey breathed out, turning his head away. “Oh.”

Johan let him have a moment, looking ahead of them instead. They had already walked for a long time, and looking at the path ahead, they clearly had a lot left to go.

"You'll need help up there." Frey declared after a long moment, as they started moving up the mountain path.

Johan froze. His eyes narrowed. Slowly he turned to look at Frey.

He was kidding right? There was no way Johan was bringing Frey with him around Heaven. That was just not happening.

Frey met his eyes straight-on, completely serious. Johan felt his eye twitch as his face drew up, displeased. Frey’s eyes scanned his face and he quickly continued speaking before Johan could even shake his head.

“You said there was an earthquake. The ground shook and you fell over, and then the hand came. You have to make sure the earthquake doesn’t happen. If they find out you’re in Heaven..” Frey sent him a wide eyed look and quickly shook his head.

Ok, sure. That would be bad. Johan could see that. He still crossed his arms.

“That means you have to dig out Note before he wakes up." Frey continued, matter of fact, and waved a finger at him. "If anyone notices you, you’re dead. Don’t act stupid, you need help. You can’t do it all alone and you know that." He swiped his thumb across his neck and mimicked dying.

"What would that even help with?" Johan challenged. Remembering those two's tempers it's not like he could stop it. When it came to powers, Johan didn’t exactly have the most useful ones for fighting. Though..? Which one of them could even create an earthquake? It wasn’t something he thought either of them could do, but maybe Note. Afterall, flowers lived in the earth so it wasn’t too far off.

“Under or over ground really doesn’t seem like it matters when someone is coming back to life.” Johan continued. Then froze. A chill went down his spine as realization hit him. “Back to life. Shit.”

He stood still for a second. That wasn’t possible. People didn’t just come back to life!

Then another thought hit him. If this went right, then they would be back. Both of them. As if nothing ever happened.

Frey seemed to read his thoughts. "It's never happened before. But maybe this is the way everything will fix itself. Life and Death coming back might make people start believing again.”

“What do you mean?”

“People are angry and their belief in us is disappearing. It seems like they stopped seeing the blessing in life the second they became prisoners in decomposing bodies.”

“I’m not surprised.” Johan said drily. People didn’t generally take kindly to their body dying with them still stuck inside it. It was nice to hear they were losing faith though. Maybe it would knock those deities down a peg.

Frey let out a laugh, a stark difference to his earlier somber mood. “I know right, can you imagine?”

Johan laughed.

“Ok, fine. You can come.” He relented. If he was completely honest, it would be nice to have someone to help him. Who knew what he would encounter once he got into the city.

“Me?!” Frey leveled him with a confused look. “No, I’m not going.”

“...what?” Johan stared at him. If Frey didn’t mean himself- Sirens went off in his head. “Then who are you talking about?”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Frey looked around sheepishly. “Uh.”

“Me.”

Johan froze in his step.

Oh, no. He grimaced.

For a second he refused to turn around. Apparently dealing with Frey wasn’t the worst thing he would have to do today. He eyed the ocean far beneath them. Maybe if he just jumped off of the cliff he wouldn’t have to deal with this.

He threw an accusatory glare at Frey then turned.

The man was taller than both of them, even with his lazy slouch. He was slender for his height, wearing loose black pants and a too big, also black, sweatshirt. His light blue hair looked like he hadn’t brushed it for years. That, together with the permanent apathetic facial expression he never broke, and the dark circles under his black eyes, made him look exactly the same as when Johan last saw him.

It was Oskar. Also known more commonly as Sloth, the ruler of the oceans and a part of the seven sins, the protectors of Heaven.

"Don’t worry, I have a plan." Frey laughed and patted his back reassuringly before running off to where Sloth stood, leaning leisurely against a tree. "Hey Oskar!"

“Pride.” His deep voice acknowledged.

Johan hesitated for a moment, but ended up following. Sloth looked him over with his half open, bloodshot eyes.

"Fate." He nodded at him and Johan pushed down his uneasy feeling and instead plastered a smile on his face.

"That's my title." He cheerfully replied. Yup, the title that didn’t actually mean anything.

His smile must have been a bit too fake because Sloth did a double-take when he spoke. He quickly schooled it into a pleasant smile as Sloth stared at him.

For a long moment Sloth leveled him with a bored expression, his eyes running over him before finally turning his attention back to Frey. Johan slowly let the smile go. He felt his hands shake ever so slightly in discomfort at being around Sloth.

Frey was one thing, he was almost comfortable in his familiarity. Johan would know the second Frey thought to betray him, but Johan didn’t know Sloth. He had never been able to tell what that guy was thinking and always felt tense before those pale eyes. The last time Johan had seen him was that day four years ago. Sloth had been in Johan´s house together with Frey. And later, helped drag Note onto the square.

Under his sleeves Johan grasped his ribbons, just in case.

Frey and Sloth seemed to have a silent conversation. Frey’s expressions were changing a lot, but Johan couldn’t see any difference in Sloth. It seemed Frey could though, because soon he huffed angrily and turned to glance at Johan.

“Did you get the shovel?” Frey asked Sloth. He nodded and gestured behind him to where a shovel was standing out of the ground. Finally Frey turned back to Johan. “This is it.”

He pointed and Johan followed to look back over his shoulder.

His jaw dropped. The edge of the mountain fell down to water, and hanging on for dear life above it was a thin rope bridge stretching on as far as Johan could see, disappearing into white fog on the other side of the fjord.

An entrance.

Entrances were really just places where the realms forged together. There were many of them and they were usually in places where humans wouldn’t easily stumble upon them. Deep cave systems and random spots in the forest, as well as some parts of the ocean were some of the known places entrances could appear. But it was completely random. Entrances disappeared and appeared all the time and there was only one that was permanent.

“Johan.” Frey started, and Johan turned back unhappily. “You’ll cross the bridge into Heaven and Oskar will help you get through the city and get Note and Signe back out.”

Johan eyed the bridge. It swayed gently in the wind, almost to create a comforting picture. Johan didn’t believe it.

“...Thanks.” Johan said hesitantly and pulled the shovel out of the ground. He glanced at Sloth but saw no sign of movement. He was about to go over to the bridge when Frey grabbed his arm. Johan let himself be pulled away from Sloth and the bridge, even as Frey slung an arm over his shoulder, pulling him down to whisper in his ear.

“I know you won’t believe me, but Oskar is safe, ok?” Frey said silently, making sure Sloth wouldn’t hear it. “Just take his help and listen to him. When you get back here we’ll figure the rest out.”

Frey was right. Johan didn’t believe him. It must have shown on his face because soon Frey gave him a look. “Oskar would never hurt Signe.”

Johan had thought the same once.

He didn’t voice his doubts.

“If I need help, why aren’t you just coming?” Johan asked instead.

“Oh. Uhm.” Frey blushed and avoided his eyes. He cleared his throat. “Well. I’m kind of...in the same position as you.”

Same position as him? Johan stared at him. “Why?”

Frey didn’t answer him, instead he turned around and started pushing Johan back towards the bridge. “We don’t have time for this, ok? We’ll talk when you get back!”

Johan eyed him thoughtfully. Should he say that the second he got Note and Signe, he would split? Didn’t Frey already get that? Maybe he was playing along for Sloth’s sake.

Well, whatever.

Back at the bridge, Johan stretched his neck to look down. It was almost a straight drop, hundreds of meters down to where water was clashing in big waves against the rocks at the base of the mountain.

Oh, he was not so sure about this.

He fastened the shovel to his belt, and with a deep breath he carefully took his first step onto the bridge. He yelped as it lurched forward under his weight and Frey yelled behind him as Johan grabbed onto the rope rail for dear life and the bridge rocked beneath him.

He cut off a gasp and managed to regain his balance. His ears got warm. For a second he let himself get familiar with how the bridge moved before clearing his throat.

“Come on.” He said to Sloth, trying to sound more confident than he felt. He turned back to the bridge and took a couple unsure steps forward before speeding up. It wasn’t as scary as it looked.

“Be careful! Don’t fall off!” Frey yelled after them. Johan ignored him and focused on watching where he was stepping. He could feel the bridge shake as Sloth stepped onto it.

It felt like an eternity had passed by the time they got to the other end and Johan’s legs were trembling when he finally stepped back onto solid ground.

There had been multiple moments where he thought he would die. The wind would pick up and send the bridge flying to the side, and then it would swing back and forth for a long time before it stilled again, another time Johan got too comfortable and almost stepped into the space between two steps, almost falling to his death.

“Put on your hood here.” Sloth said, making Johan jump. He hadn’t said anything as they crossed the bridge, there had been a comforting distance between them the entire way. “It was stupid of you to come here.”

Johan didn’t bother to glare at him, just pulled his hood up. “I know.”

“If you get caught-”

“I’ll be killed.” Johan interrupted. “I know.”