The huge weeping tree stretched far into the sky, reaching even taller than the buildings around it. The trunk was as thick as a small house and the branches almost dusted the ground, light pink flowers floating in the air beneath them.
Getting a sudden rush of energy, Johan rushed forward- only for Sloth to stop him.
"What?" Johan asked, pushing the hand away.
"Mementos." Sloth said coldly.
Johan paused.
He carefully looked around, and that’s when he noticed them.
Slight shimmers in the air.
Mementos were vivid memories made from extreme emotion, creating a visual representation of a memory that affected the environment in the spot where they lived.
Simply said. If you passed through the shimmering mist you would experience the memory as if it was your own.
Even simpler said. It was a bad time.
Johan scowled at the wall of mementos in front of them. They stretched all the way from left to right, creating an impassable barrier.
It was where the crowd had gathered.
Johan cursed, he really didn’t feel like reliving that day.
"Look for a path between them." Sloth said, suddenly serious. Johan looked around carelessly. With how big the crowd was, he didn’t even need to look to know there was no way through. Even if they got through the first layer, there would just be more waiting. He had been there, he knew how packed it was.
He sighed in frustration. They were so close! Now they had to go all the way around-
Suddenly an idea hit him.
He looked up, his eye catching on a pole sticking out from the roof of the building to the left. He raised an eyebrow.
"Not necessary." He decided quickly and grinned at Sloth. Gleefully he let his red ribbon unwrap from one of his forearms and threw it into the air. It wrapped around the pole again and again, until Johan could pull it taut with his hands. With a last look at Sloth he launched himself into the air.
Adrenaline rushed through his veins as he flew through the air, his hair whipped around as he flew up past the pole, then down, his feet hitting the roof tiles with practiced ease.
He looked over the edge of the roof, feeling giddy. Sloth was staring up at him, usual lethargic expression changed into a deep frown. Giggling like a child, Johan grabs the pole in a tight grip.
Sloth visibly recoiled as he saw the ribbon fly back towards him and Johan laughed as he pulled him into the air- and started running. The roof got slippery as his feet crushed the plant beneath them, and he watched as Sloth swam through the air, almost floating. Like a very tense bird. With a laugh Johan swung around in the air, and jumped off.
He pulled the ribbon taut and sent Sloth straight over the mementos. The ribbon unwrapped from his other arm and he quickly caught himself from plummeting into the ground, instead landing softly on his feet just past the mementos.
A thought crossed his mind and with a mischievous grin he let go of Sloth, ribbons coming to wrap back around his arms. Johan heard a gasp and he watched in amazement as Sloth used his powers.
Sloth’s eyes glowed blue and suddenly the air turned dry. A puddle of water gathered on the ground, just in time for Sloth to plummet into it, landing hard on one knee in the puddle which immediately disappeared.
Sloth jerked his head up, still in a crouch, eyes wide and angry, the blue glow quickly fading away as his lips pulled into a sneer.
"Ah, don’t look so indignant.” Johan huffed. “It worked didn’t it? And we didn’t even have to look for a path!"
Laughing, he started walking to the tree.
"You have changed." Johan froze, laughter catching in his throat. He felt an old bitterness crawl through him. He clenched his fists.
Sloth knew nothing.
He threw a look over his shoulder, smiling condescendingly. "We are not friends. Keep your opinions to yourself." Sloth’s face twitched at that, looking taken aback, but Johan didn’t care.
Really, what did he expect? In the entire time they had known each other they’d never talked more than twice. He didn’t get to judge Johan.
He started walking again and after a moment footsteps started following him. He untied the shovel from his belt.
Johan paused, eyes catching on something.
"A...spear?" Johan cocked his head to the side in confusion. There was a completely embedded spear stuck in the bark of the tree. The shaft broken in half and the spearhead so deep that Johan could barely even see it.
Behind him he heard a sharp intake of air, quickly cut off and followed with a small cough. He glared back to see Sloth staring at the spear, obviously trying not to appear suspicious.
He was about to ask about it when Sloth suddenly surged forward and ripped the shovel from Johan’s hand, only to forcefully push it against his chest.
"Get to work." Sloth snapped.
Johan felt exasperated. It wasn’t a surprise they were hiding things from him…but to be so open about it!
"What’s with the spear-"
"Get to work." Sloth repeated, interrupted him. The taller man glared down at him, suddenly towering. Johan’s eye twitched.
"Of course." He grit out, smiling through his teeth. Yeah, of course he wasn’t going to get an answer.
The closer he got, the more suspicious he felt as both old and new wounds were visible in the tree. He looked over at Sloth, an uneasy feeling rising within him. Was he really helping, or was he plotting something else? Really Johan shouldn’t be trusting any of the damn sins, but at this point it was too late to turn back.
Sloth had walked up to the tree trunk and was examining the spear.
Johan shook his head, there was no time to think like that. Getting Note and Signe out was the first priority. He took a good grip on the shovel and-
CLACK- Johan staggered back, his body vibrating with the force the shovel had hit the rock-hard ground and sprang right back into him.
For a second he didn’t know what had happened. Then realization hit him.
It was winter! He groaned.
"Can you do something about this?" The sound of the shovel hitting the ground had caught Sloth's attention who shot him a dry look and then kicked the ground as if to check if it really was that hard.
"Guess so." He said flatly. He stretched his arms and yawned. Then he rubbed his bloodshot eyes before opening them wide, the glow reappearing and he reached out an arm.
Suddenly the earth beneath them moved.
Johan looked down in surprise.
"Back off." Sloth ordered and Johan easily complied, not wanting to get pulled under.
Sloth clenched his hand into a fist. The dirt moved all at once, like a flinch, and a deep creaking came from the tree. Sloth let his arm drop. Eyes fading back to black.
"Your turn." The taller man sat down against the tree, knees drawn up. "Dig." He pointed unhelpfully at the ground.
Johan stared. "That’s it?" Sloth nodded, slouching further down the tree and effectively dirtying his clothes.
Johan waited. A moment passed and Sloth didn’t do anything.
"...Right." Guess he was done for the day then. He idly wondered if Sloth would fall asleep now.
He watched for another moment before stepping onto the newly ‘shook’ ground- And yelped as his foot immediately sank down to the ankle and he almost face planted forward into the dirt, just barely managing to catch himself on the shovel. Johan ignored Sloth’s amused snort.
"Ok, yeah. This works." He mumbled approvingly as he got up and waded through the dirt closer to where the hand had appeared in his vision.
Digging when the dirt was so soft went quickly. He wasn’t sure how far down the roots had pulled Note underground, so after a couple meters he crouched down and started scooping with his hands. He didn’t want to accidentally maim the guy before he even got back to life. A new wound or even a missing limb on top of somehow reviving didn’t seem like the best idea.
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Not long after, he felt it. He snatched his hand back as if burnt.
He froze.
Through a small gap in the dirt he could see pale skin. For a moment all they could do was stare. Then he took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart, and slowly started wiping the dirt away.
A pale face appeared in front of him. A single swipe was enough to clear his eyes. Closed, thank the Jotun.
Suddenly he was pushing back tears, choking back a sob. Emotions surging forth without warning. What the hell? He leaned back where he knelt, assumingly straddling the corpse of his old friend through the dirt.
He shook his right hand far away from himself, nauseous at what it touched, and brushed hair out of his eyes with his left.
Sloth, who actually had dozed off against the tree when Johan started digging, suddenly appeared over the hole. Johan glanced at him but quickly looked back down, hiding his face beneath the shadow of his hair. He quickly gathered himself and started clearing away the rest of the dirt.
It didn’t take long before Note’s chest and arms were uncovered.
Without hesitating, Johan tok a hold of Note’s arm with one hand and the back of his neck with the other and started pulling him free, using the shovel to hack apart the roots still holding him down. Luckily the roots didn’t seem to mind that Johan was digging out their maker.
Finally he managed to get the upper body leaning over his knee, and stopped to catch his breath. The body- Note, he corrected himself- had deep grooves in his skin from where the roots had pulled him down. Johan gently let his fingers run across one, luckily it hadn’t broken the skin.
He didn’t care to look at the chest wound yet.
"Help me lift him out." Johan said. Sloth nodded, not saying a word.
"Yeah, okay." Johan mumbled to himself, then took a deep breath and heaved Note free the rest of the way. He groaned as he lifted the body up as high as he could. Johan wasn’t weak, not by any means, however, lifting the dead-weight, hah, of a grown man straight out of the ground was not easy! Despite years of being dead and buried underground, Note didn’t seem to have lost any weight!
Sloth dropped to his knees, grabbing Note’s arm and easing the weight on Johan. They worked together to push and pull him out of the hole.
Johan threw the shovel over the edge and climbed out after them. Getting on his knee next to where Sloth laid Note down. He let out a relieved sigh when he couldn’t find a pulse. They got him out in time.
For a long moment he stared. Despite the violent death, Note's face was calm.
Note painted quite the picture, laying there in his ruined black robe barely hanging off of his shoulders, not covering any of his chest despite the light, black fabric still being tied tightly around his waist.
A deep red slash-wound ran from his collarbone and almost all the way down to his hip, straight across his heart. Johan looked away. He pulled the ruined robe back in place over it. He didn’t want to look at it.
Johan swallowed and looked away. Sloth stood leaning against the tree, staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face.
Well. One down, one to go.
He got to his feet and looked over to the tree. This would be the hardest part. If he remembered correctly, which- at least for this particular memory- he one-hundred percent did. Signe should be pretty much directly beneath the trunk of the tree.
It would probably be too hard to dig down right by the tree, so he trudged back to the hole he already dug and jumped back in. It wasn’t too far away from the tree anyways, he would just dig towards it.
After a while Johan was starting to hit the thickest roots and was more hacking than digging when Sloth suddenly appeared leaning over the hole again.
"Get out, I’ll do it." He ordered.
Johan frowned and turned to give Sloth a disbelieving look. "Seriously? I just did everything." He waved a hand at the mess of roots he was just hacking into.
Sloth just glared at him, "Just get out."
Johan snorted and turned back to the roots. If Sloth wanted to help he could have done so earlier.
A hand grabbed the collar of his cloak and pulled him harshly into the air. Johan yelped, barely managing to keep his balance on his tiptoes, one hand came up to hit at Sloth’s. He was almost pulled out before Johan got a grip on a root and held tight. He whirled around, glaring-
-and promptly froze. That look on Sloth's face…
What..? Johan followed his gaze.
Oh. That’s why.
In between the dark wall of dirt and roots, a tiny bright spot had appeared. Pale, white skin. He sighed, couldn’t Sloth just use his words for once?
He rolled his eyes and slapped Sloth’s hand.
"Right. Let go of me and help me up properly." He let go of the root and looked up. Sloth met his eyes with a sharp glare but Johan just raised an eyebrow as Sloth’s eyes thinned unhappily and looked away. The hand on his cloak let go, and the second his feet touched the ground again, Sloth grabbed his arm and helped him out of the hole, then immediately jumped in.
Johan peered down at Sloth. The white spot turned out to be an elbow, and Johan winced at the tightly wound roots digging into the skin. That would not feel good later.
Johan watched Sloth. His skin was even paler now as he carefully removed the last root holding onto the arm, letting it fall limply out in the open, a deep blue where the roots had held. Sloth shuddered and gently took a hold of the hand while seemingly mindful to keep his back to Johan as he moved to dig away more dirt.
As much as he wanted to stay and watch, Johan sighed and went to lay down next to Note. Sloth could use some privacy to deal with his emotions.
"Four years, huh? And that guy is still ridiculous." He mumbled to Note, propping himself up on his elbow and shaking his head at the unresponsive face. "If you could see him now…God, he’s still following Signe around like a little puppy. A stupid, tall, annoying puppy."
As far as Johan knew Signe was Sloth’s first friend. But if he cared so much, why did he help kill her?
Johan spent a few moments just taking in Note’s face. With one hand he swept away some of the soft hair covering his eyes. Note had never liked having hair in his face. It was kept just barely long enough to keep in a tiny ponytail, though this wasn’t the first time Johan had seen it down.
With a sigh he flopped back down, arms folded under his head as he talked. "Well, you’ll probably wake up soon so I guess you'll see it then."
The sky was still completely dark, no sun in sight yet, only stars. In the vision Note had dug himself out at dawn, so they should still have a while left. Enough time to get Signe and get out of Heaven. Johan listened to the sound of roots snapping and fabric rustling from where Sloth was working. The only other sound came from the wind rustling the branches around, sending flowers down around them and lulling Johan into a fake relaxation.
He suddenly felt very tired, the last day’s activities catching up with him now that he had some time to sit down. His limbs felt heavy as he laid there, sweaty from digging and legs burning from the hike with Frey.
A sudden gust of wind sent pedals floating lightly down at them. Idly, Johan reached out and picked one out of the air before it could land on his face.
He snorted softly and turned it over in his hand.
He turned his head towards Note.
Red eyes met purple.
Johan froze. His eyes widened.
For a moment nothing happened. They stared at each other with mirrored expressions of shock. Then the purple eyes started glowing, Note’s eyes scrunched together in pain, and his mouth fell open in a soundless scream.
Johan felt like his breath was punched out of him and within a second he was on his knees, leaning over Note's convulsing form.
"Sloth! Get her out, now! We have to go!" He yelled as the ground beneath them started shaking and roots shot up from the ground, whipping violently around.
Shit, what was he going to do?! If he didn’t do anything they’d get discovered!
"Note, hey Note. You need to calm down, if you do the whole earthquake thing we’re going to get killed!" He gently patted Note’s face, trying to smooth out the scrunched lines on his face. Note’s back arched off of the ground and he let out a loud yell. Johan scrambled to cover his mouth.
"Shit, this isn’t working. Oh shit, oh shit-" He panicked.
"Knock him out!" Sloth's voice suddenly yelled from behind Johan, shuffling sounds intensifying as he sped up his work at getting Signe out.
Knock him out, yeah that could work. Wait, how did you knock someone out? Wait, no! He wasn’t going to knock his friend out right as he woke up from the dead! What if he went back to being dead?!
Trying his best to hold Note down, Johan threw a glance over his shoulder. Sloth was making his way out of the hole now, a small woman held tightly in his arms. Johan stared, his grip on Note faltering for a second as he looked at her. Like Note, she looked exactly the same as the day they had died. The only difference was the colossal amount of blood painting almost the entire front of her white dress, red.
Her long, green hair dragged on the ground for a second before Sloth finally got out and grabbed it, rolling it once around the arm supporting her neck to keep it out of the way.
At least she was still dead! Johan focused his attention back on Note who had finally stopped screaming. But the ground was still shaking, getting worse and worse. Note’s eyes were glowing and unseeing. Johan yelped as one of his hand holding Note was whipped by a root.
"I told you to knock him out!" Sloth ran over.
"I can’t do that! He just woke up!" Johan yelled. The situation seemed bad, yes, but imagine the distress Note was going through already, it would only get worse if he got knocked out!
"He's going to attract attention!"
Johan glared back. He knew that but-
A root hit him and he was thrown.
Johan landed so hard on the ground that he bounced, breath pushed out of him.
He dry heaved into the ground as he clutched his stomach. “Fuck-” He gasped out.
Then he heard a loud thud.
The ground stopped moving. Johan’s attention snapped to Note. His heart fell.
Sloth was standing over Note, a fist in his hair and the world stilled. Tension drained out of Note and he fell limp.
Johan stared in horror. Did Sloth just kill Note?
“Are you ok?” Sloth asked, as if nothing happened. Note’s chest rose.
“I’m fine.” Johan finally said, his side aching. He struggled to his feet and went to check on Note. Sloth made an irritated sound behind him. "He's just sleeping."
Johan turned to snap something back but Sloth just kneeled down next to him and moved Note’s robe to the side.
"Look." Johan followed his eyes.
"It’s healing itself." Johan breathed out and watched in amazement as the wound started knitting itself together from the inside. It was almost like one side was reaching out and pulling the other into place. That must have been why Note was reacting like that, it definitely looked like it would hurt.
Johan looked over to Signe, still laying still in Sloth's arms. A deep gash went across her throat but Johan couldn’t see any of it from how Sloth had propped her head up on his arm.
Johan stared in wonder. He had never seen anything like it. It should be impossible.
For a long moment they just watched.
“We should leave.” Johan decided. They had been there for too long, it was getting more and more dangerous by the second and they still needed to go back through the city to get out.
Sloth nodded and got to his feet, Signe held tightly in his arms. Johan crouched closer to Note and put an arm behind his neck. He was just about to move him when he heard it.
A yell in the distance broke the silence and Johan's head snapped in the direction it came from. A light came from around the corner and he could hear the thundering sound of dozens, if not hundreds, of feet hitting the pavement.
For a second his heart stopped beating. Then it started pounding.