Page 10 of Midnight Sun

“Please don’t call Hrafna. It was just a prank.”

“Explain that to him and in English please,” Finn growls, gesturing to James before he cancels the call.

“I'm sorry, Mister…”

“Arden,” Finn supplies.

“Oh God, you're James Arden?”

James pulls down his sunglasses.

“Yes. Does anyone mind telling me what’s going on?” He doesn’t sound as angry as Finn expected him to be. Instead he seems weary, tense. Finn takes a step closer and bumps their shoulders.

“I was hired to pick him up and drive him to the abandoned village in Selatangar. I was told to put this on and throw him out there.”

The boy fumbles something from the passenger seat and shows it to them. It’s a mask showing a creepy version of a ram. Finn feels anger boil in his chest at the thought of James being trapped in the back of a car with someone wearing this disturbing thing.

“And it didn’t occur to you that this is illegal?” Finn spits out.

“They said it was a prank! Thorfinn, I swear. They said it was a test for the actors of Hrafna’s new movie, and I mean–it’s known that she does some tough shit.”

James flinches and tenses up some more. He turns to Finn, anger blazing in his eyes.

“And how does he knowyourname?”

Finn blinks.

“Everybody knows Thorfinn,” the boy chimes in. He regains some confidence as Finn’s focus leaves him and he eyes the two of them with new-found interest. Finn can’t help but chuckle at James’ disbelieving face.

“I’ve a YouTube channel which happens to be rather popular in Iceland.”

“You haven’t seen his videos?” the boy cries. “Man, you should see him fight!”

“Oh.” James’ gaze travels from the boy back to Finn. He seems overwhelmed by the whole situation, and Finn can’t blame him.

“Show me your passport,” Finn orders the boy.

“What? Why?”

“I want to know your name and who ordered this so-called prank.”

“I don't know them! We texted!”

“You agreed to abduct someone because of some text messages you received?”

“It’s not an abduction! And I often do deliveries on demand. That's not uncommon.”

Finn has a vague idea what kind of deliveries they might be.

“I’m calling the police.”

“No,” James says.

Finn stares at him in disbelief, as does the boy.

“It was just a bad joke. I don’t want to waste time dealing with the police. There’s nothing they can do, anyway.”

“Thank you,” the boy says and tries to get into the car. Finn stops him with a hand on his sleeve.