Chapter 3

Astrid sat in her bathroom, tears stains left on her face, a bruise forming under her eye, cut lip and a smack mark on her right arm.

She had been sitting in there for an hour until her mom startled her by knocking on the bathroom door.

"honey, are you in there?" her mom, Ingrid, asked.

Astrid quickly but quietly moved closer to wear the toilet was.

"um.. I'm going to the bathroom mom!" she answered.

"oh okay sorry. ... are you alright though?" she asked.

"yes mom, I'm fine." Astrid felt bad lying to her mom, but she didn't want to worry her.

"okay..." Her mother quickly left and went back to her room.

Once Astrid heard her mom's bedroom door close, she moved to where the mirror was and looked at the damage that was caused.

The damage made by her father.

She washed her lip and put some heal cream on the bruise and went to bed.

Throughout the days, it only got worse.

Her father kept getting drunk, and so he would hurt her and with her mom working night shift at the hospital, Astrid was left all alone.

She didn't want to talk to Hiccup about it, even though he had texted her a million times for the past four days. She just couldn't tell him.

Hiccup was worried about Astrid. She hadn't responded to any of his texts or calls, he had a really bad feeling about this.

He had asked his parents on what to do but they just said that she was probably busy and to stop worrying. So he left the subject alone, but that feeling in his gut never left.

Astrid sat in her dark room with the tiniest bit of light seeping through the door that was slightly open. She was listening. Listening to her parents screaming at each other.

They had been going at it for an hour now. Astrid couldn't take it. she had a new bruise on her right check, one on the back of her left hip, and a few scratches on her arms. Her eyes were full of tears, streaming down her face. She quickly lied down as she heard her mother coming upstairs.

She pretended to be asleep as her mom checked on her. She kissed her goodnight and left back downstairs to go back to work. Her father had passed out from the alcohol and Astrid really needed to get out of the house.

So she called Hiccup.

"Hey Astrid. What's up?"

She took a ragged breath "hiccup...I-I need to tell you something..."

"are-are you okay? Wh-what's wrong?"

"can i come over?... I really need to see you."

"ok I'll see you in a minute i guess..."

"thanks."

She grabbed her phone and put it in her back pocket, put on her shoes and hoodie and quietly crept downstairs. She opened the door and ran as fast as she could. She ran to Hiccup's house.

She knocked on the door and he quickly answered.

"hey...what's wrong?" he asked

"can we talk in private?" she asked quietly. Since his parents were close by, she needed to be alone to tell him this.

"yeah sure...let's go to my room."

They quietly walked up to his room and sat on his bed. That's when he noticed the bruises.

"I have things to tell you that i don't want to." She said

"what's going on... you can tell me." He said softly

She explained everything that she was dealing with and she had balled her eyes out. Hiccup held her the entire time, rubbing her back, kissing the top of her head and telling her everything's going to be alright and that he's gonna fix it.

"hey... it's ok...your safe now. Safe in my arms." He said trying to calm her down.

He helped her lie down, took her shoes off and put her phone on his night table. He tucked her in, under the covers, gave her forehead a kiss and said "I'll be right back."

He left to go tell his parents about what happened and asked if she could stay over. They immediately said yes and that she could stay for as long as she needed.

He went back upstairs and laid down with Astrid, she cuddled up to him, with his arms safely around her. Letting her know that she was protected from anything that would try to hurt her.

She started to cry again and he kissed her head.

"shhhh... it's okay...don't worry ...he's not going to hurt you anymore. I'm not going to let him...I'll protect you." He said softly. She calmed down and slowly started to fall asleep.

His parents came in, to come check on them and valka sat on the side of the bed beside Astrid, while Stoick sat beside Hiccup.

Valka rubbed Astrid's back. "I'm so sorry Astrid,...you can stay here for as long as you want okay. Were gonna help you with this...I'm going to go call your mom so she knows what happened and so she knows your here . okay?"

Astrid nodded her head and both the parents left.

While Valka called Ingrid, Stoick called the police.

Astrid was finally going to have a nice sleep without having to worry about anything. While she was safe in Hiccup's arms and he softly sang to her.

"just close your eyes,

The sun is going down,

You'll be alright,

No one can hurt yu now,

Come morning light,

You and I'll be safe and sound."