30 Days of Hela – Work

When you work with or for the Gods, you tend to do work for them. You never know where it comes from or what it might entail, but know that it will always happen. While I am not an expert on what divine work looks like for other Gods, I know what some of my Gods tend to look for. Loki tends to want me to put people in their place, sort of like a karmic hammer or social justice. Nidhog expects me to recycle things, strange I know, and when I don’t follow her rule I pay for it in other ways. Doing Hela’s work tends to fall into two distinct categories; compassion and death. Interestingly enough, they sometimes fall hand and hand.

This is what transpired this evening:

I have recently begun a new career as a delivery driver; much like UPS or USPS. I have made deliveries to this particular house several times and know that the owner is in the process of rebuilding his lawn. I have noticed that there have been ribbons of duct tape lying around the yard, and I just assumed that he was being lazy or making a mess. Today I discovered the reason for the duct tape. Dropping off my deliveries, I found two of the ribbons with garter snakes trapped within them. They weren’t moving so I assumed that they must have already passed away. I walked away from the house and that’s when I felt Hela’s melancholy, almost begging me to go back.

So I went back. It isn’t very often that Hela asks me to do something on the spur of the moment. Looking down, I discovered that one of the snakes was barely moving and when I checked the second one I learned it was also still alive. I checked closer, and saw that the tape was slowly pulling them apart with scales and flesh pulling away from when they tried to escape. I was horrified and disgusted, but now knew what Hela needed me to do. They were suffering and they were dying a very slow death. Something that no one should be put through. I looked around and found the closest heavy object, and took a deep breath. I could feel Hela very close to me, holding me while I brought the tool down and quickly ended their suffering; a suffering that might have lasted hours or even a day or two.

I had given them a compassionate death. Quick with no suffering, because they had already suffered enough. Now I’m just waiting for Loki to force his way in, someone deserves a swift kick of Karma.