The Changeling

by Victor LaValle

Apollo approached Jorgen Knudsen. “He’s your boy,” Apollo whispered. “He believed that the troll wasn’t our burden but our blessing. That we had to go back to the old ways, before we abandoned our traditions. When we were great. He thought maybe things had been going wrong from the moment Nils refused to sacrifice one of Petra’s children. The troll brought us to these shores, and it could save us again. That’s what he believed. We could channel that monster’s power into our own deliverance. That was our right, our heritage. That’s why we came to America! That’s why we worked so hard. But to do that, we had to return to our origins with whole hearts. So he took it upon himself to honor the pact, as it was meant to be. He did exactly as Nils had done one hundred and ninety years ago. I admired his fortitude.”