5 Midgard is not my home

'Midway upon the journey of our life,

I found myself within a forest dark,

For the straightforward path has been lost…"

Dead lay scattered making the ground bloody. It was sweet death, a death of revenge. A man who was probably a little alive was breathing its last. I counted his breath and up-down of his chest. Twenty-three breaths escaped from his mouth. Twenty-Three for each year he lived in this world before he died by my sword. I showed no mercy to the hundred bodies that lay scattered. It was my revenge and I had it. It was the revenge that I craved for but instead of it making me happy and relaxed it just made me crave for more. Nothing more could be done. I knew it. I watched as all the men's internal organs were burnt when a piece of coals was shoved in their mouths. I watched as my pet crows took out their eyes from their sockets. Nothing more could be done and yet I wanted more. My anger took hold of me and I started mutilating the body of the twenty-three-year-old man with the couter of my armor until he was nothing but pulp. Blood covered my face embracing me in its warmth.

"That's enough Ryan!" a deep voice sounded behind me. "Your revenge had been avenged," Merlin said these words of wisdom. He was wisest of all my comrades but I was in no mood of stopping. His wise words irritated me and I slapped him hard on his cheeks with my gauntlet that blood spilled from his mouth with a white tooth that came flying on the gore-filled ground. I went back to my job of mutilating the already mutilated face.

I wanted blood, death, and gore…the more I got it the more I craved.

"Stop Ryan! Please stop! We have looted enough…its time for us to go back ." Bill voiced his opinion this time.

"Why? Are you feeling sad that this man died? Or this woman whom I have mutilated and left for my precious birds to eat? They are NPCs anyway !... This world is a game !... Every shitty thing I do here will make no FUCKING difference in my fucked up world!" I shouted on top of my lungs, my voice a break between man and boy. I was sixteen then.

"Ryan! This world might be a game to you but not to us. We are your comrades, not your marionettes! We might leave you if you continue to treat us like shit." Merlin said.

"So what! What can you do? We are Frithjof 'Thieves of Peace' together. Even if you try to leave me you have a heavy bounty on your head. People will eat you like scavengers."

"Ryan we do not want to part with you as our leader. It is just that…"

"Just what Bill?... Just what! You are led by a brat half the age of you and call yourself a man!"

"Ryan! Cool your head down. We will meet you at the Tavern." Merlin said. He turned towards the bill and announced. "Gather the bodies and light the fire. Take the mead and the horns ."

"Ryan!" Merlin shook my shoulders as if trying to take me out of my lucid dream. The anger still burning inside I hated how Merlin looked so knowingly.

"I understand how are you feeling. Staying in the road for long, killing people, and looting especially at your age can make boys violent. But you need to calm down. Burn away your anger."

"You will not understand me !... You cannot! …Midgard is not my home it is yours. These people are yours, not mine."

I ran away from them. Leaving the aftermath for them to clean up.

The grey sky swelled with monsoon-laden clouds will soon turn the cold atmosphere colder. I was waiting for the sun to shine today.

Since how many days have I been playing this game?

I don't remember.

It just arrived via a courier one day, a DVD for my old broken television set. I just happened to be free that day so I started playing this game 'Legends of The Old Norse-Midgard'.

I looked at the orb that I was grabbing when I was thrown into this world. Its crimson glow radiated numbers 2/7.

"*Sigh* after two days I need to go back to the hell hole again !"

The game came with a policy…One can only stay in this world for seven days which would amount to only one hour in the normal world. The orb would take two days to charge for the player to return to the game world again.

I thought a lot about this game…its policy and the world. And I concluded making this a stress buster.

"They are characters! Fucking NPC in this Viking rip-off! Even if I kill hundreds and thousands of them nothing will happen !" I shouted.

"For you player…For you we are characters but this is a real world." The voice of a woman sounded from behind. I turned back in surprise.

"Who are you ?" I gulped down my saliva nervously, the woman looked past her prime, she had white hair that seemed to be not washed since a long time ago. Dressed in a coarse kaftan, and big leather boots that seemed to be too oversized for her. She wore kohl, covering her eyelids, the bridge of her nose till her upper lip. Her green eyes shone with a hint of craziness in them.

"Frejya.."