The End Foreseen

chapter three

Ana walks into the kitchen from the short hallway that leads to the front door and freezes, taking in the scene: me standing in the middle of the chaos, staring at my arm.

"Are you ok...?", she asks, the concern obvious in her voice. I look up feeling a little lost.

"Yeah…,” I mumble, still kind of in a daze,”yeah I think so." My heart is still beating like it's about to jump out of my chest. I begin looking around me, realizing how weird this must look to her.

She eyes me warily, then gestures to the mess. “What happened here?”

“I… uh…” I laugh awkwardly, dropping my arm to my side. “The dishes fell.”, I say with a slight shrug and weak grin. She smiles at me and shakes her head.

My mind was buzzing with all that took place since I woke up and I went to grab the broom off the wall it was leaning against. Suddenly Ana takes a sharp breath in and furrows her brow as she steps closer, her gaze landing on the burn. “What’s that on your arm? Did you do this to yourself?”

“No,” I say quickly, shaking my head, thinking about how to explain things.. “I didn’t. I don’t know what happened…” Everything was so peculiar and happened so fast that I am still processing it.

That's when I decide to just tell her what happened. I take a deep breath and begin to talk. I recount the events to her, my words tumbling out in a rush. She listens silently, her expression growing more concerned with each detail. When I finish, we sit in silence for a moment.

I could tell she wasn't sure what to say and when I couldn't take it anymore I asked, "Well, what do you think?"

Well,” she finally says, a small smile tugging at her lips. “I thiiiiiink I believe you. " she giggles a little, lightening the mood.

"Really?", I asked, surprised, "You don't think I'm crazy?"

She shrugs. “Oh, you’re definitely crazy. But I know you wouldn’t make something like this up. Besides…” She gestures to the burn on my arm. “That’s… not normal.”

She smiles at me warmly and I start to feel better about the situation. I thought she would for sure think I lost my mind and have me committed.

"Plus.", she adds," It's not the first or the worst crazy thing I've heard or seen today... I saw a man attack a woman at the salon earlier. He just stumbled in and lunged at her, it was like he wanted to rip her apart.”, she pauses for a moment, reflecting, before she continues,” I spent most of the day talking to the cops and getting tested by a hazmat team. They arrested him of course. The woman had to be rushed to the ER. They told me he had the new strain of COVID and that I needed to go home and quarantine myself just in case. Thankfully I tested negative for anything or we probably wouldn't be talking right now."

"Holy crap. What the hell is going on with the world?" I respond, the day's events weighing heavily on me. Ana sits down on a bar stool on the other side of the island and pulls out her phone while I grab the broom. My mind is spinning, replaying the strange woman’s words. “Beware of the signs.” I sweep up the shards of broken dishes while Ana scrolls through her phone, her forehead wrinkled in concentration.

“What does it mean?” she mutters to herself.

I glance at her as I dump the glass into the trash. “What does what mean?”

“The symbol on your arm,” she says, turning her screen toward me. “It looks like a bind rune—like multiple runes combined into one.”

I step closer to examine the image. “Bind rune?”

She nods. “Yeah, it’s a way of combining runes to amplify their meanings. But this one…” She gestures to my arm, her expression both curious and concerned. “It doesn’t match anything I’ve found exactly, so far.”

I look down at the mark, the burned edges raised and glowing faintly in the dim kitchen light. “Well let's break it down. What do the pieces mean?” I suggest.

She points to the image on her phone, explaining each rune. “This one, Uruz, is for strength and protection. Thurisaz is for defense and chaos. Ansuz represents communication or divine inspiration. Raidho symbolizes journeys, and Eihwaz… well, it’s associated with transformation and death.”

“That’s… a lot,” I admit, rubbing the back of my neck.

Ana looks at me thoughtfully. “It’s not random, though. Whoever—or whatever—did this to you knew exactly what they were doing.”

I force a laugh, trying to keep the mood light. “Great. Just what I needed—a magical tattoo I didn’t ask for.”

Ana smirks but doesn’t say anything. I can tell she’s holding back, probably worried about how much more I can handle.

“Well… what the hell does Völva mean?”, I wonder, giving a little giggle at the word, my childish side showing.

"Völva is the easy one, it says here that a Völva is a witch or seeress. So the woman must believe that that's what you are.", she tells me with a slight smirk. I give her a look of mild irritation. I've spent our whole lives denying any connection to the supernatural and she's always believed otherwise. Always trying to convince me that I'm special. But after what happened to my mom I could never accept that.

"Yea maybe there's something to what you say or maybe I've just finally lost it.", I say, giving her some way after all the years of pestering, "That's cool I guess," not sure how to respond to this randomness. I just wonder why and what it's supposed to mean. Did I really just get sucked into some supernatural mumbo jumbo or have I finally gone insane?

I suddenly feel claustrophobic and need to escape the house and get some fresh air.

'This is just too much', I think.

"I'm going to go get some air.", I announce, heading for my jacket by the door and slipping on a pair of sandals.

Ana frowns. “You sure that’s a good idea? After everything that’s happened?”

“I just need some air,” I insist, already slipping my arms into the sleeves of my jacket.

She doesn’t press me further. “Be careful,” she says as I step outside.

Whatever this is that's going on, whether I'm crazy or not, isn't something I can currently do anything about. I straighten up, my mind still buzzing with everything that's happened, and head out.