Proving Innocence
Disappeared
This is already the third chapter. Enjoy!
Last time Jack had come back from picking up pizza totally in shock. I knew something really bad must have happened but he just won't tell me. After that I decided to let it be for the moment. We went to bed and slept. When we woke up it seemed nothing had happened to him, so we just got ready headed for school.
I lock the door and check if it is really locked. It is still dawn so it is quite hard to see. A cold, fierce wind is howling around us and toying with our clothes. The freshly fallen snow beneath our feet crunched every time we placed our feet to take a step. I have to lift my feet high above the snow or I would probably fall face-first in the snow. We continue like this for a couple of minutes and I really want to try to question him about yesterday, but I can't seem to find the courage to do so.
Suddenly my already limited sight is blocked by someone's hand and I fall in the snow, yelling in surprise, and pulling the other person with me.
"Gotcha." I open my eyes and I am met by a couple of eyes looking at me.
"Astrid!" She laughs at me and rises to her feet and pulls me up as well.
"Hey Hic. Hey Jack." He gives a small nod in response.
"You scared me to death."
"You look pretty alive to me for a death person." She says while brushing her blond hair out of her face.
"Thinking you're being funny?".
"Knowing I am funny." I roll my eyes at her and she knows she won. I remove the snow from my pants and coat before I start to walk again. She and Jack both take a little sprint to walk next to me.
"So, Jack. I though you lived at the other side of town."
"I do, but I came over to Hiccup yesterday to celebrate his birthday." He says.
"You did?" She looks at me and rises an eyebrow. I give her a warning look and look at Jack. It seems he is oblivious and I sigh. "What did you do?"
"I took him to go ice-skating with me."
"But he is horrible at ice-skating."
"Well thanks a lot." I say unamused.
"I think you can say he is a disaster." Jack says smirking.
"Why not mock the cripple?"
"Because it's fun." Astrid answers. I pull my hood over my head and put my hands in my pockets. They laugh at me and we continue walking.
We turn the corner of a street and there it is, right in front of us. Tall and proud, the worst place on earth for teenagers: school. It is a big building where it is rather easy to get lost. We walk up to the main entrance and get inside.
"I'll have to got this way. See you at lunch?" Jack says. Since he is one class higher then we are we don't have any classes together.
"Sure. See ya!" He turns left and walks away. Astrid and I continue to our lockers at the end of the corridor. I unlock my locker and get my first books out: maths and history.
"But Hic, yesterday, what did you do with Jack exactly?" She asks as she gets her own books out.
"Could you just shut up about it."
"No, that's impossible. So you'd better start." She says smiling mischievously.
"Nothing happened. We just went ice-skating, that's all." We put our books in our backpacks and head for our class.
"You know just as well as I do that it's not just something."
"I never should have come to you to help me with figuring out what it was."
"That was stupid of you. You should have known better. But now I'm here to help." She says as she throws her arm over my shoulder.
"please don't help. There is always someone getting hurt when you help. Mostly me!"
"You're just a big baby." We enter the classroom and we get some looks from some people who think we're a couple. We used to be, but it just didn't work out so we decided to be really good friends. At first it felt awkward when they would stare at us. Now it doest affect me any more.
"Leave this big baby alone okay."
"You first have to tell me what happened." She says stubbornly.
"Will you let it be when I tell you?" She nods. "Okay, I was in my room when Jack came in. He told me to get ready to leave so I did. When we were outside he blindfolded me and told me to get on his scooter. I did and he rode us to some kind of forest. He lead my to some clearing in the middle of the forest with a big frozen lake." The teacher came in and put her stuff on her desk.
"Everyone, sit down and get to work. When there are any questions come to my desk and I'll try to help." We all went to our chairs and started to work.
"Psst. Hiccup." Astrid says while poking my flank.
"What?" I whisper.
"You have to continue."
"We skated for a while and returned to my house. That's it. Nothing left to tell."
"Aaaw. You say it's nothing but it so is something."
"You said you would let it be if I told you."
"I lied." She said shrugging her shoulders.
"You know it's weird Astrid. He is a guy. So am I. It's probably nothing. It must have been my mood at the moment or something." She rolls her eyes.
"Come on. Hic, this is the twenty-first century. It isn't weird anymore."
"It is for me."
"Mister Haddock, could you be silent please?"
"I'm sorry ma'am. We're just discussing an exercise." Miss Krega returned her attention back to the papers in front of her.
"Just get over it Hic."
"I don't even like him that much. I only felt that way once." She looks at sternly. "Or twice."
"Hiccup. I know you're lying. I can tell by the way you always look at him. It's okay if you don't know it yourself yet, but I do." I sigh and look at my textbook like the answer is written in it.
"What if you're right. Then we know. Yeay." I give a sarcastic cheer.
"Then you'll just tell him."
"You think it's easy or something." I let me head fall on the table.
"It is easy. Believe me." She puts a hand on my arm
"Last time I believed you, you lied to me!" She snickers a bit.
"Hiccu~p. Work along. Why do you always have to be so stubborn?"
"It's an occupational hazard." She gives me a playful punch on my arm which still hurts.
"Be serious. This way nothing is ever going to happen."
"That's the whole idea." I say still laying on the table with my head.
"If you don't tell him, I will." She says crossing her arms.
"You wouldn't." I say shooting up.
"You know I would." She says boldly. I sigh and let my hand support my head.
"Fine." I give up into getting her to stop about it.
"That's settles then. During lunch you'll talk to him."
"Why so soon?"
"Because then you can let it rest."
"But what if he doesn't take it the right way, or if he tell everyone, or if he just ignores me for ever?" He start to rant about the possible outcomes.
"He is you're friend. A really good friend. He won't let you down. And if he does, you got me." I rise an eyebrow.
"What are you planning to?"
"I'll kick his ass, hard." She smiles devilishly while she rubs her hand together. It actually makes me laugh and Miss Krega gives me a look. I apologize and look at Astrid who is trying really hard to hold her laugh back. We sit there for a couple of seconds before the bell rings. We both can't hold it any longer and we start to laugh like idiots.
We grab our stuff and head for the next class. Geography isn't that bad, but with a teacher as boring as mine you'll wish you could just disappear at that thought. Speaking is off-limits so Astrid and couldn't continue our conversation from earlier. When class is over we head to the cafeteria. We order our food and sit at our usual table to wait for Jack. He has PE before lunchtime so it always takes him some more time to get here.
"Where do you think Jack is?" Astrid says after she almost is done eating and Jack still hasn't arrived.
"I don't know. Maybe he is still at the gym?"
"He should have been here already. You didn't text him to not come here or something, did you?" I rise my hands in the air as if it proves my innocence.
"I don't know where he is either." Astrid stands up from the table and grabs her stuff and tray. She walks to one of the trash cans and throws away her leftovers. She walks back and stop in front of me.
"Are you coming?" I get up and throw away my leftovers as well. And run to catch up with her.
"Where are we going?"
"The gym." We walk through the corridors in direction of the school's private gym. We go through the door into the huge place. I spot the coach at the other side of the pitch, and we walk over to him.
"Hello coach."
"Hello Astrid, Hiccup." The man is huge. He has some massive muscles and it seems he can crush me with just one finger. "Is there is something I can help you with?"
"We wonder if you know where Jack is."
"Jack. Let me think. No, I don't know. During class he suddenly felt nauseas so he went to the bathroom, when he didn't return I just assumed he went to the nurse. Anything else I can help you with?" We look at each other and then look back at the coach.
"No, that was it. Thank you Sir." I say
"You're welcome. And now you have to leave. I want to eat." We walk away from the gym through the corridors to the nurse's office.
"Did you notice anything about Jack this morning. Did he eat something bad?" Astrid says.
"He ate the same thing as I did, and I don't feel weird or something Maybe he ate something different when we arrived at school or something." We make our way to the nurse and knock.
"Come in." A gentle voice says. I open the door and walk in with Astrid right behind me. "Oh, hello Hiccup. How's you leg doing? I haven't seen you in a while, which usually is a good thing." She says smiling
"Hey Thiana. Good, it doesn't hurt anymore and it doesn't bother me as much as it used to." I say smiling back kindly to her. She is a kind woman. She has short colored hair and brown eyes. She is in her mid-twenties and she helped me a lot when I lost my leg.
"That's great to hear. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"We want to know if Jack has been here today."
"Jack who?" she asks confused.
"Overland. Jack Overland." She shakes her head and turns around to the computer.
"Not that I can recall, but I can look it up for you." She ticks something on the keyboard and scrolls a bit. She shakes her head again and looks back at us. "He hasn't been here in a really long time."
"Okay, thank you for helping us." I say
"You're welcome Hiccup. Have a nice day. You too Astrid" We walk back to the corridor and walk to our lockers.
"That was pretty weird, don't you think?" I say as I open my locker again.
"Where could he be? Is this some kind of disappearing trick or something?" She leans again he locker and stares to the floor in front of her.
"He wasn't at the gym and he wasn't with the nurse." Out of the blue I spot Jamie, another friend of Jack. "Wait, maybe Jamie knows."
"Hey Jamie!" I say as I catch up with him.
"Oh, hey Hiccup. What's up?"
"Have you seen Jack?"
"No. He was suddenly gone during PE. He even left his stuff in the locker room. If you see him can you give his stuff to him. I have to go now." He pushes all Jack's belongings in my arms before running of. I manage to hold it together and walk back to Astrid. She looks weird at me when I reach her.
"What happened to you?" She asks
"Jamie didn't know where he was either. He told me he left his stuff in the locker room and somewhat forced me to take them over because he has to go." I say as I try to get all Jack's stuff in my locker.
"Wait, we haven't tried to call Jack yet." I smile at her.
"Astrid, you're a genius."
"Can you repeat that while I record it?" I roll my eyes and take my phone out of my pocket. I am about to select his contact as I remember something and put my phone back.
"We can't call him."
"Why not?"
"Last night he used my phone to call his mom because his battery died." We both sigh.
"This is getting weirder by the minute." Astrid says.
"Last night. Maybe this has something to do with last night."
"What do you mean?" She asks confused and we start to walk to our next class.
"After we got home from ice-skating I ordered some pizza while Jack went to pick them up with his scooter. When He returned he was totally in shock. He told me something about some men and and knife. It was really incoherent so I couldn't understand him. But now I think this must have a connection with that event. Otherwise it would be a really big coincidence."
"You could've told me that a bit earlier. That must be it! We should call the police." Astrid already had her phone in her hand
"No!"
"Why?"
"Last night I wanted to do the same but Jack really didn't want to. It must be because of a good reason." She puts her phone back in her pocket.
"But what should we do now?" She asks
"I think we have to do a little of our own research until we think we need help. Maybe nothing happened and his mom picked him up because he had to go to the dentist or something and he just forgot everything. He can be clumsy sometimes."
"You're right we'll just have to wait and see." The day goes on really slow, but eventually the final bell rings and everyone goes home. The last hour of the day Astrid and I have separated classes and we meet again at the lockers.
"Hey Hic." She says as she walks to me. "Heard anything from Jack?" I shake my head.
"No. Have you?"
"Neither."
"Ready to be doing some research then?" I am feeling how the adrenaline is starting build up.
"Where do you plan to start?"
"I thought about the boy's locker room. What about you?" She nods
"Sounds like a good idea to me. But, ehm, it is the boy's locker room. A locker room for boys, and in case you didn't notice. I'm a girl." She says gesturing to herself.
"Believe me, I noticed. There is supposed to be no one in there for the next thirty minutes before basketball training starts."
"We got no time to loose then, let's go." We run to the gym once again. I push the door and it opens. Lucky for us it wasn't locked. We sneak inside and close the door. We look around and see the coach is in his office and we spot the locker rooms. We make our way to them and enter the the right one. The lights are still on and we close the door behind us.
"You search in that part, I take that one." We both start to look for hints. I look on top of the lockers under the benches, everywhere I can imagine. I do smell a weird send which I can't place at the moment. I'll figure it out later.
"Hey Hiccup, come here, I found something!" I walk to Astrid look at what she is holding. It is a small box with a little paper on it. It says: for Hiccup.
"That's Jack's writing! Open it." She searches for the opening opens the small box. In the box there is a small pendant of a black dragon and clear blue and white snowflake.
"It's beautiful." Astrid says.
"Is it, for me?" I ask cautious.
"The note says it is."
"Could you keep it with you. I think I will only loose."
"Sure." I take a couple of steps to return to the searching when suddenly the light turns off. I can't see a thing. I can here some quick footsteps over the ground.
"Hiccup," Astrid's voice sounds scared. "are you touching my hand?" I shiver before I answer.
"No..." Suddenly Astrid starts to scream at the top of her lungs. After a couple of seconds the door opens and the light is turned back on. The coach is standing and in the doorway. Astrid is sitting on the ground with her hands in front of her mouth. I immediately walk towards her and sit down next to her and try to comfort her a bit. She grabs my arm with a lot of strength and it starts to hurt.
"What is happening in here!?" The coach asks? I look up and he looks down at us. "Well? Speak up!"
"We were looking for something I forgot." I say. It isn't a complete lie.
"What happened to her." He gestures to Astrid with his head.
"I don't know. One moment we were searching, the next moment the light went out and she started to scream." I look at Astrid. "Are you okay?" She looks back at me and blinks a couple of times.
"I think I okay again." I help her to her feet.
"What happened?" I ask curious and the coach looks at both of us.
"The moment the lights went off I felt someone pulling at my hands. At first I thought it was you but when I asked you, you weren't and I started to scream. It released me and and then the light went back on."
"We'll find it out one day. It probably was just your imagination playing tricks on you. Why don't you go home and rest a bit." He holds the door open for us and we walk out. We continue to go to the exit. I look back once more to see the coach is calling with someone. We keep going to the exit and once we're outside I feel myself releasing a breath I had been holding. I look at Astrid and can tell she feels the same.
"How are you doing right now?" I ask after a while.
"Better. This was the first time I have been scared this much." she admits.
"You're mind can play some nasty tricks on you." She stops walking and I stop as well. I turn around to face her.
"Hiccup, it's wasn't just some trick of my mind."
"How do you know that?" When my mind is,or isn't, tricking me I never notice it until someone points it out to me.
"The box. I was holding the box in my hands and I don't have it anymore. I checked the floor before we left but it wasn't there anymore." It begins to dawn to.
"So we lost the the pendant?"
"No. Right before the lights went out I took it out of the box because the box didn't fit in my pocket." She puts her hand in her pocket and pulls the pendant out. Now is the first time I notice it is a necklace.
"Astrid, for the second time today, you're a genius."
"It's nothing. If my pockets would've been a little bit bigger I never would've taken it out." She hands me the necklace and I examine it closely for the first time. I notice the black dragon is very similar to one of the dragons I once drew. I think it is made of onyx. The blue and white snowflake
resembles the snowflakes Jack always draws everywhere and I assume is made of aquamarine.
"It really is beautiful." I say
"Do you think Jack got this for you?"
"I don't know." I just keep looking at the pendant.
"You should wear it. Come one I'll help you." Astrid took the necklace from my hands and got behind me. She clicked the lock together so it wouldn't come of. She got back in front me and looked at it.
"It looks good on you." I look down and see it resting against my chest. I lift it up and put it under my shirt. I usually don't care about what people say, but I am not in the mood to answer questions about how I got it.
"It does look expensive you know. I wonder what I costs."
"Please stop. It makes me feel bad when I know it costs much." I sigh.
"What are doing tonight?" Astrid asks after we have been walking in silence for a while.
"Sleeping?"
"Haha. Shouldn't we be looking for Jack or something? Or check at his house? Maybe we can find something in the stuff Jamie gave us. We got time enough."
"Tonight's going to be long I guess."
"That's why I'm staying." I rise and eyebrow at her.
"I can't remember I invited you." I say mockingly.
"I can't remember I ever cared." She shot back. I start to snicker and we continue to walk to my house. When we arrive at my house I see there are a lot of cars in front the house. I quickly walk to the front door and see it is already open. I push the door further open. We walk inside to be see something I hoped would never happen.
I hoped you all liked the third chapter. I hope you will continue reading this story till the end. For now I can only queues you liked it, or you can say you liked it (subtle hint).
Write y'all next time
Kylono
