A/N: Halloween again and I couldn't resist the opportunity to deploy paranormal investigator Hiccup Haddock once more. Of course, there are no more spooky lighthouses in need of exorcism but a spooky house, some mysterious murders and a century-old wrong should keep him busy. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon. Rights remain with Cressida Cowell and Dreamworks.
Brief reference to family names from 'Interesting Times' by Terry Pratchett. The man was a genius. RIP.
Apologies to Vala 411 for Astrid's qualifications.
-o0o-
1: The House of Thor's Ridge
It was foggy in Berk. In fact, around Halloween, it was always foggy in Berk, the cold and precipitous island in the United Archipelago that seemed ground zero for Viking-style beards, head bludgeoning contests and gross muttonheaded stupidity. It wasn't even a decent, picturesque fog: no, it was a clammy cold fog that got into your bones and made your feel like someone was walking over your grave.
Sheriff Snotlout Jorgensen hated Halloween. He had made it very clear to everyone who asked him and especially his muttonheaded assistants who were determined to try to add some Halloween cheer to the station house. He had so far removed six pumpkins, three ghouls, some bat-shaped bunting and three 'hilarious' skeletons that had been hanging from the roof but which caused everyone to have to crawl into the front office for fear of being accidentally kicked in the face by a rather sharp fake skeletal foot. Of course, Halloween had been fun as a child, when pumpkin pie and sweets from Trick or Treating played a large part in the celebration but as Sheriff, the holiday had lost its lustre the previous year when a young lad had been horribly murdered, leading Snotlout and his idiot deputies Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, along with his cousin, his cousin's fiancée and his cousin's business partner to be trapped inside the horribly spooky lighthouse at Raven Point with a raging spirit and a lot more fire than was strictly necessary. That had led to the answer to a decades-old murder and a horrific tale of serial child abuse, abduction and murder that had caused Snotlout unwanted attention for about six months as Berk struggled to salvage its reputation.
Of course, Hiccup had swanned off back to his architect's practice on Dragonia, the main island, with his gorgeous girlfriend Astrid and his geeky friends Fishface or something similar, leaving Snotlout to field the flack. The fact he had only taken up the post about eighteen months earlier and no one had vanished during that time had protected him from most of the criticism though his father, uncle, other uncle and grandfather had been solidly in the firing line for their incompetence over a period of decades in completely missing the disappearances. It had caused the Mayor-Hiccup's father and Snotlout's maternal uncle-to institute a 'root and branch' overhaul of the police department. Though what horticulture had to do with his competence as a Sheriff eluded Snotlout. It had meant that Snotlout and his entire department had been sent on multiple course, retraining and mentoring by a senior officer from Dragonia. Commander Throk had been a harsh taskmaster and the fact he was visiting for his monthly appraisal just put Snotlout in a worse mood.
And then, of course, there was the obligatory missing persons call. It was coming up to Halloween so the youth of Berk-who seem imbued with the same amount of self-preservation as a chicken walking into a slaughterhouse-decided to stay in various dangerous locations. Old stone formations, haunted rotting houses, old lighthouses, Viking burial sites, the graveyard, the Cove… wherever they could manage to put themselves in danger of freezing, drowning, being hit by falling masonry, collapsing buildings, wild animals, maybe supernatural threats…
"How many?" Snotlout asked grimly, driving up towards Thor's Ridge and the old 'haunted house' that was the last stated location of the missing Juniors.
"Three," Gustav Larson replied, making notes on his clipboard. While Snotlout was short and stocky with slicked back raven hair and cool blue eyes, Gustav was a skinny ex-teen (he had turned twenty the previous week) with spiky black hair, grey eyes and boundless enthusiasm. For some reason, he idolised Snotlout and was modelling himself on his hero…though, as Snotlout noted, he was slightly smarter and worked his ass off. In the last year, he had completed six online courses including forensics, fingerprinting, psychological aspects of criminology, ballistics and poisons. Snotlout was in danger of feeling outsmarted. "Egil Jonsson, Gertrude Kalla and Elf-face McSweeney."
"McSweeney?"
"Old long-established Viking name," Gustav replied, deadpan.
"What kind of name is Elf-Face?"
"The kind you get when your parents are hippies and think cannabis is more essential than food," Gustav commented, the snarkiest Snotlout had heard his deputy.
"Really?" Snotlout hummed, chewing on his cigar.
"Her sisters are named Star, Ayuvedi and Thorn while her brothers are Gilgamesh and Bryan."
"Bryan?"
"He changed his name legally from Asteroid on his eighteenth birthday," Gustav said grumpily. "My parents smoked a lot of weed around the time I was born. My full name is Moon Nirvana Herne Gustav Larson. And my sister Ingrid is actually called Gaia Aether Leilani Ingrid Larson." He shrugged. "Basically we're named after our grandparents since those are the only sensible names we had." Snotlout stared ahead as they headed up the road towards the old house silhouetted against the mist, the edges blurred. He really wanted to point out that he came from a family where your name ended in -lout if you were male and Moon was quite a good name, if you compared it to Hedgelout, Griplout or Slimelout. Or his newest baby cousin, Pilelout.
"We're here," was what he actually said. The SUV pulled to a halt, the crunch of the tyres on gravel loud in the clammy silence. Snotlout glanced over at the compact car, parked by the boarded-up window in what had presumably been a large reception room.
"At least we know they came up here," Gustav offered, glancing at his clipboard. "That's their car. The Registration…" Jamming his hat on his head, Snotlout clambered out of the SUV before Gustav could demonstrate any more now efficient he was and walked towards the house, craning his neck to inspect the magnificent Victorian building. There had been something about a fire over a hundred years earlier but whoever had rebuilt the place had done a good job…until it had been abandoned. Rumours of ghosts clung to the place and no one was willing to buy the beautiful mansion because of it. The ground floor windows were all boarded up but the upper floor windows were intact and for a moment, Snotlout thought he saw a face which pulled back from the window…and then he blinked. There was nothing there. He was just imagining it.
"Come on," he said grumpily and headed for the front door. He had his Master Key as well as a set from the Realtors, Sven's Viking Homes, so he walked boldly to the front door and pushed.
It opened soundlessly, not even the creak that he had been expecting that seemed customary for any spooky place on the eve of Halloween. A part of the Sheriff felt cheated but as he walked in and stared at the three shapes huddled in the middle of the magnificent entrance hall, a few feet in front of the spectacular sweeping staircase, he realised that the lack of a creak was the least of his worries.
"Call the Mayor, the twins, the Coroner, an ambulance and my cousin," he groaned as he turned and headed for the door. The entire room was pristine except for the three charred shapes, huddled on an untouched Persian rug, that had once been three Junior students at Berk High.
He needed a smoke.
-o0o-
The Ferry docked half an hour early and the sleek, dark SUV made its way up the new road to the main level of the town and the Police Station. Parking up, the three people inside clambered out and stretched.
"That was a rough journey," the blonde commented, shoving her sleeves up to her elbows and stretching with an audible crack. Dressed in combat boots, combat fatigues, a baby blue vest top and brown leather bolero jacket, she looked ready for action. The fact she had a lithe, athletic body, a beautiful face with big blue eyes and pink lips topped by a leather headband restraining her casually braided golden hair meant that there was precisely no chance that she wouldn't turn heads but she only had eyes for the driver. Dressed in brown leather pants and jacket with a rust red open-necked shirt and a messenger bag slung over his shoulder, the man was tall and lanky with bright green eyes and tousled auburn hair.
"Yeah-being confined to the car due to the rough weather was pretty tough," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. His sharp-jawed face was lit by a smile as his fiancee grinned at him.
"You think your cousin will have realised I am yours yet?" she asked him playfully.
"Precisely no chance, Milady," Hiccup Haddock-architect and part-time paranormal investigator-replied. The third member of the party-Finlay 'Fishlegs' Ingerman, a husky man with pudding bowl blond hair and braided horseshoe moustache-groaned.
"Can we go in?" he asked. "I need coffee."
"We all need coffee," Astrid, the blonde woman agreed. "Though the side-order of clumsy flirting is less than welcome. And anyway, it looks like rain." Hiccup squinted at the grey sky.
"Well, it snows here nine months a year and rains the other three so that's a fair bet," he conceded as they walked into the building.
A lanky shape leapt out at them wearing a skeleton mask followed by another wearing a green-skinned witch mask.
"SURPRISE!" they yelled.
"Gah!" Hiccup managed, recoiling but Astrid was quicker. Shoving Hiccup back, she punched the witch in the face, spun and slammed her booted foot into the skeleton's chest and then followed up by throwing the witch across the room, to slam into a desk laden with plastic pumpkins and bats.
"OW!"
"What's happening?" Snotlout snapped, emerging from his office with a pissed-off look on his face. He had just finished speaking with the third set of distraught parents and comforting bereaved relatives gave him a headache. The solid presence of Mayor Stoick Haddock had helped-though not as much as Snotlout had hoped because ultimately, it was his responsibility.
"The twins decided to try to jump out on our supernatural investigators dressed in stupid halloween masks," Gustav said from the photocopier. "I was hoping they would be staked or shot with silver bullets."
"We heard that, Mini-Snot!" the 'witch' protested from behind the desk. A very dishevelled Tuffnut emerged. Long blond dreadlocks framed a long face with wide eyes. "And we do not appreciate your feeble attempts at humour."
"I would guess neither did she," Gustav retorted, gesturing to Astrid, who had her foot on the 'skeleton's chest and was glaring down at the lanky shape with fat blond braids.
"Yield or I will throw you out the window," Astrid growled, a sharpened stake suddenly in her hand. Ruffnut ripped her mask off.
"Hey! But okay," she protested, raising her hands in surrender. Breathing hard and scowling, Astrid took a step back and allowed the deputy to get up, casting suspicious looks at the fierce blonde.
"She'll be better with coffee," Hiccup suggested. "The kitchens were closed on the ferry due to the bad weather so we're all caffeine deprived. It makes Astrid very grumpy…" There was a rush and the twins and Gustav all immediately offered the blonde cups of black coffee. She graciously accepted one from the youngest deputy and left the twins to supply her friends. Snotlout groaned.
"Just once, it would be nice for my team to act like adults…or at least, not elementary school kids," the Sheriff commented and then offered Hiccup his hand. "Cuz. I am so glad to see you."
"Me too-though so sorry in these circumstances," the auburn-haired man replied, shaking his cousin's hand. "And sorry about the muttonheaded twins…" Snotlout leaned closer.
"Boy, she really is fierce," he commented in a low voice. "Are you okay, cuz? She's not…like this…you know…upstairs…?" Blushing so fiercely that he thought he would catch on fire, Hiccup gave a yelp.
"Snotlout-never even think about Astrid in that context again or I will allow her to kill you," he said shortly. "And she's not only an expert at unarmed combat but she could dispose of you and they would never find the body." Snotlout looked unimpressed.
"Really?" he said cynically. Hiccup smiled, seeing his fiancee perch primly on the edge of Gustav's desk and sip her black coffee.
"Well, she has an online degree in Forensic Science and has taken several courses in Archipelago Geology," he pointed out. "Means she knows how to kill you to leave no clues and where to hide the body." Snotlout paled and retreated to his office.
"I think we need to get on with this briefing," he said, trying to scramble his dignity again. Hiccup followed him into his office with Astrid and Fishlegs a step behind. Gustav and the twins sat on the low bench to one side as Snotlout closed the door and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"We have had three deaths," he began. "Three seventeen year old Juniors from Berk High. They headed up to Loki's Leap, the old house on Thor's Ridge, for the night on the 29th. Their family confirmed they received the last communication from them at 8:12 pm. When they didn't return and there was no response the next morning, we were sent up to investigate." He sighed.
"Take your time," Hiccup murmured. The Sheriff sat back and sipped his tea.
"They were all dead-lying just in front of the bottom of the stairs. Each one was horribly charred and burnt-as if they had been in an inferno. But there was no sign of any fire, either there or upstairs-yes, we did check!" he added irritably as Fishlegs opened his mouth. The husky man went back to making copious notes.
"Cause of death?" Astrid asked quietly.
"Smoke inhalation," Snotlout confirmed. "The burning was after they had died."
"Anyone else there?" Fishlegs asked.
"It's very isolated but traffic cameras caught nothing," Gustav reported.
"Anything on the cell towers?" Hiccup asked.
"Nope," Ruffnut replied. "In fact, the kids' phones vanished from the network around nine in the evening and no one has found them yet. There is no signal to trace at all."
"Very weird," Tuffnut added. "All their personal effects had vanished as well. Only the car remained."
"Interesting," Hiccup murmured. "Three bodies burnt with no evidence of heat or burning anywhere else, no one else was there and their cellphones are missing." He looked over at his friends. "What do you think?"
"The house must have history or the kids wouldn't have gone up there," Fishlegs mused. "I'll do some digging."
"As soon as he has some research, we need to go up there," Astrid added. "I'll check who owns the house and if they have any ideas…"
"It's a family-the Jacobsens-who moved away from Berk years ago," Snotlout told her helpfully. "They haven't been answering my calls." The blonde smiled.
"I'd like to have a try, all the same," she murmured. Hiccup gently brushed his hand against hers and nodded.
"I have every faith in you," he reassured her. "I'll scope for electromagnetic phenomena. If there was a powerful spirit at work, there would be an effect on the local grid if it attacked these children." Snotlout groaned.
"We're already the child murder capitol of the North," he explained, resting his head in his hands. "Your Dad and I have been trying to convince people that Berk is a safe place to come. This will really not help."
"Only because you couldn't mention the ghost last time," Hiccup pointed out. "This time, we'll set up detectors, scanners, cameras…we'll get you some evidence so that you can show people what went down."
"Ghosts-yeah," Tuffnut said with enthusiasm. "There could be a lot of tourism if we had actual proof of ghosts!"
"Yeah-I'd come here to see them," Ruff added.
"Muttonhead-you already live here," her twin told her with a roll of the eyes.
"That just makes it a cheap trip," Ruff retorted, undaunted.
"What can I do?" Gustav asked enthusiastically. Hiccup gave a smile and looked over at his cousin.
"You know, I have a job for you," he said. "Come with me, Deputy Larsson…"
-o0o-
Sitting in his car in front of the house, Hiccup was perplexed. There had been a surge on the Berk grid at 8: 58 the previous evening and another at seven in the morning. Three circuit breakers had tripped in the hospital, which was how it had been noticed and old Gothi had reported seeing flickering lights from up on Thor's Ridge just before dawn. But when he had Gustav had set up the detectors, they were recording nothing. Nil. Nada. Absolutely zero. Which in itself was completely weird since a settlement as old as Berk inevitably had some background activity from all the deaths, murders, invasions and simply the sheer weight of a thousand years of religious and other history. But the dials were all glued to zero-despite the detectors checking out on the tests.
Gustav was eager to please and willingly helped the older man out. Hiccup winced at the thought: he couldn't get his head round the concept that he was 'the older man' when he was literally still under thirty (he'd turned twenty-eight on Leap Day this year…or technically 'seven' which Astrid hadn't let him forget for a month). But the young deputy was exhaustingly enthusiastic so Hiccup sent him round to check the sensors again while he sat by his computer and scanned the information Fishlegs had sent him. There was a one hundred and thirty year old police file-which was worse than useless, since Sheriff Poxlout Jorgensen had seemed unable to type coherently or even spell. The papers had been little better-the Berk Chronicle mentioned the tragedy in passing because there had been a large sheep auction the previous day. Fortunately, thirty years earlier, an enterprising reporter had investigated the century-old mystery and this article was thorough and replete with detail and especially pictures. Reading it twice, he stared at the faces of the protagonists and wondered what had really happened. The fire and deaths had been blamed on the new-fangled electricity supply that the owner, Karl Stenersen, had installed the previous Spring but the reporter had done some digging and it seemed the fire had started in the attic before the entire house was consumed.
That makes no sense, Hiccup through, frowning. Fire moves up, not down. And for the whole house to burn when the first fire was supposedly in the attic means…it was no accident.
So why did the teens get involved. Something went wrong with the plan of whoever set the fire.
He got out of the car.
I don't like this, he admitted silently as Gustav ambled back towards him. He could hear cars approaching and knew that the twins would be bringing Astrid and Fishlegs up. It was time to go inside and something at the back of his neck was telling him not to go. A cold shiver ran through him and he sighed and turned to the two SUVs. Snotlout emerged, looking tired with an unlit cigar clamped between his teeth.
"You know that Astrid wouldn't ride with me and the twins wouldn't allow her to ride with them unless Fishlegs was there to protect them," he sighed. "Sometimes I feel like I'm running a daycare centre. Anything on your fancy sensor doohickies?"
"Nothing-not even normal background," Hiccup said, watching as Astrid clambered down and walked confidently towards him. The twins were cowering until she was clear and then they relaxed while Fishlegs was also peering at his phone.
"Have you seen these readings?" he exclaimed, scuttling forward in a manner such a large man should not be able to achieve. Hiccup grinned.
"I know!" he agreed, and smiled enthusiastically. "The suppression of normal background and the resonance in the lowest bands strongly suggests…"
"Geeking of the highest order," Astrid sighed and checked her supplies of Holy Water and salt. She glanced over at Snotlout. "Look-I'm engaged to Hiccup and getting flirted with really annoys me. You know better but you tried three times in the Police Station. He's your cousin and because you asked, he dragged us halfway across the Archipelago. No hesitation, maybe a bit of moaning but he never considered for one second not helping you out. Can't you for one day treat him with the same respect he shows for you?" The Sheriff stared at her in astonishment and then his shoulders slumped.
"I…er…" he mumbled and then sighed. "Look-there's no one like you on Berk. Seriously. And I flirt with everything because…well…I'm lonely." He shrugged. "I mean, my dog Hookfang is okay company but…"
"Hookfang? Oh my Thor!" Astrid sniggered. "He sounds like he desperately needs the doggy dentist!" Snotlout chuckled.
"Oh, he's way beyond their help," he admitted as the twins stared at them suspiciously.
"She's lulling him into a false sense of security before she pounces and attacks the poor sap," Tuff muttered. Ruff nodded.
"We need to watch her," she said suspiciously as Hiccup and Fishlegs walked up, still swapping facts. "She seems a little edgy…" But Tuff frowned at her.
"You remember her last year?" he asked. "She picked li'l Hiccy up bridal style and carried him up the Lighthouse! And she was badass against the ghost."
"So why is she more protective this year?" Ruff asked suspiciously. "Something's not right. Her reaction was completely over the top."
"Well-you can ask her," Tuff told his sister plainly. "My back still hurts where she threw me over the desk."
"See?" the female twin asked him pointedly, her grey-blue eyes narrowing as she inspected the athletic blonde. "Trust me, brother-we need to watch her." But unconscious of their whispering, Astrid turned her brilliant smile on her fiancé, watching him grinning, his emerald eyes flashing in excitement as they shared some other thrilling item of data or theory. Astrid really wasn't so well up on the science and statistics but she was efficient, brave, hardworking and had done everything possible to be of use to Hiccup in his paranormal ventures.
"Any clues?" Snotlout asked, patting his pocket for a light and then thinking better of it, instead tucking his cigar into his breast pocket to enjoy later.
"Electrical surges at the time all contact was lost with the kids' phones and again shortly before dawn, a few hours before they were found," Hiccup reported.
"But the readings around this place are the lowest I have ever seen," Fishlegs continued. "No electromagnetic or etheric radiation. No motion. The temporal readings are reading…nothing." He frowned. "This place is like a hole in space, time and dimension."
"That's good, right?" Snotlout hazarded.
"I would guess no by his expression," Ruff commented, seeing Fishlegs's jaw drop.
"In fact, the only way we can investigate further is to go in," Hiccup added. The deputies all stared at the house, still swathed in fine tendrils of fog, the dark and foreboding clouds almost brushing the roof and concealing the jagged Berkian mountain peaks above.
"Why is he suggesting we go into the scary murder house on a foggy, spooky Halloween?" Gustav asked, his voice a little higher than usual.
"You weren't with us last time, were you?" Ruff asked dryly. "We raised the exact same thing."
"Though of course, no one paid any attention to our timely warning and we all nearly got killed," Tuff added.
"Your point?" Gustav squeaked.
"Just putting it out there," Tuff replied.
"Again," Ruff sighed as they all walked into the mansion of Loki's Leap.
The moment they arrived into the wide hallway, the shadows clustered in the corners and the grand staircase sweeping up into the gloom. Astrid slowly turned through 360 degrees, her eyes seeking for threats while Hiccup and Fishlegs played their devices over the room.
"Nothing," the husky man murmured. "I see what you mean. It's below the normal background rate of Berk." Hiccup frowned and slowly turned through a full 360 degrees again.
"All bands," he murmured and then glanced at his phone. As he watched, the bars on the signal display slowly vanished. "Astrid?" She glanced up them pulled out her own device.
"What the Thor?" she mouthed. "Three bars…two…one…NO SIGNAL?"
"Does anyone have any signal?" Hiccup asked urgently as everyone checked their phones.
"Nope?" Snotlout said.
"Me neither," Gustav put in.
"Nada. Nil. Zip. Nyet…" Tuffnut added.
"Levels rising exponentially," Fishlegs announced, frowning. "Mainly higher frequency."
"And ultra low," Hiccup frowned. "Static and humidity rising."
"So I see," Astrid commented, as both the twins' hairs were sticking up like a halo.
"OW! I shocked myself!" Tuff complained.
"Door! Now!" the blonde woman ordered, turning. But they hadn't taken two steps when the doors slammed shut.
"Perfect!" Snotlout groaned, hammering on the wood. It was like hitting rock.
"These levels even exceed the ones we had on Raven Point," Fishlegs said, a note of worry sounding. "And that was a very angry spirit."
"This one seems even more angry," Hiccup muttered as static began to flash off the old fixtures and fittings. The group huddled together. "Any suggestions? I'm open!"
"You're the expert!" Gustav said, a hysterical note entering his voice.
"Chill, mini-Snot!" Ruff reassured him, wrapping a companionable arm around his shoulders. "You weren't with us last time. This is nothing to worry about."
"You mean apart from the fact that last time you were trapped in a Lighthouse that eventually burnt down?" Gustav asked wildly. Snotlout stood away from the group and drew his gun.
"Stand back!" he announced and poured the entire magazine into the door. But when the noise of the shots finally faded, the bullets were lying undamaged on the ground, a foot in front of the Sheriff. Eyes wide, he stared at the floor then at his gun.
"That's weird…" Tuff noted and crouched down to pick up one of the bullets. "Hmm. They're stone cold."
"Levels off the scale!" Fishlegs whimpered. Astrid grabbed her vials of Holy Water and lobbed them around the group but instead of smashing on the carpet, they hung gently rotating in the air. Undeterred, she grabbed a heavy silver cross from her belt and held it up with both hands, almost like a warrior wielding a sword before a battle. Her expression was determined.
"Pater noster, qui es in caelis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in caelo, et in terra…"
she said, her voice level and calm, the words ringing through the room. Hiccup stared, seeing static crackle around her-and then she suddenly jerked, her azure eyes wide before she vanished.
"ASTRID!" he yelled and jerked towards her. But just as instantly, the static surround the rest of the group and Hiccup felt as if he was being lifted up, swirled around and then pulled apart.
And then he knew no more.