3: Fury, Fire and Vengeance
He had no idea how he knew-he suspected Haakon had been shown by Agatha-but he unerringly located the servants' stairs to the attic and sprinted up the steep flight, not even hesitating for a moment. It was dark and dusty but light was spilling under the door at the top. Instantly, he grasped the handle and pushed but it was locked. Undeterred, he slammed against it until the door finally gave way and he burst into the room.
The space was almost empty, a simple chair and trestle table pushed against the window under the gable, an oil lamp sitting on the floor where Agatha was slumped on her knees, a shape in the black of a maid crouched by her with a knife to her throat.
"Not a step closer," Cristina said.
Hiccup froze as she tugged Agatha's head back, exposing her pale neck and pressing the wicked edge of the carving knife into her skin. He raised his hands slightly.
"Put the knife down, Cristina," he said quietly. "There is no need for this."
"There is every need!" she spat, tugging Agatha's hair cruelly. The way she was moving suggested that the girl's hands were bound behind her back, her body sheathed in a long white linen nightdress that left little to the imagination.
It was oh so very hard to recall that she wasn't Astrid as well, that the ferocious soul of his lover was nestled quiescent within the familiar form. That this woman was holding a blade to the neck of his beloved.
"Why?" Hiccup asked her gently, trying to gauge how she was going to react. The face she presented here was very different to her maid persona.
"Because it should be me getting married, feted and cosseted rather than this plain little girl," she snarled. Hiccup frowned.
"I'm afraid I don't understand," he said calmly-because he didn't, not really. In Berk of this time, money talked and those without money or position didn't fare as well. It wasn't a surprise and it wasn't equitable but was it reason to murder all these people? Cristina bared her teeth at him.
"Don't lie to me-I heard my mother talking to you," she sneered.
"And I am supposed to understand?" he asked her calmly, watching her. As her attention focussed on him, the blade of the knife lifted slightly from her skin…and while Astrid would have been waiting to act, Agatha looked terrified.
"You know that the Master-Mister Perfect Stenersen-was sleeping with my mother even when he was courting and getting married to Dagmara the dull?" the maid spat, tugging hard on Agatha's hair. Hiccup could see the fear and hurt in her blue eyes but she seemed frozen. "When Mother became pregnant, he was making all sorts of promises-to protect his child, to raise them like the child of a gentleman, to see that he never wanted for anything. But when I was born a girl, all those false promises were forgotten. He spurned me and refused to acknowledge me as his. My mother remained in his service and all his promises were worthless because a girl could not inherit-so I was deemed worthless."
Hiccup knew his face showed disgust and the girl cackled.
"Yes-you understand the irony," she sneered. "Because the woman he had chosen as his wife was as close to barren as made no difference. They were married for eight years before she finally quickened-and this bitch was all she could produce. Not the precious, long hoped-for son. Just a weak and worthless girl."
"Except she isn't," Hiccup found himself saying, his voice even but edged with anger. There was a plea in Agatha's eyes now that spoke of her fear.
"No-she isn't," Cristina sneered. "Because she's legitimate. And a legitimate daughter can inherit-if she is married. So she gets love and acknowledgement. She learns the piano and painting and poetry and I scrub until my hands are raw and my knees are those of an old woman. There was no other child so Agatha is all he has. And he never thinks about his other daughter, the one he lied to and abandoned."
"Let her go, Cristina," Hiccup said gently. "This isn't going to achieve anything…"
"Isn't it?" she spat. "It will remove his precious heir. And then who will he have? Me!"
"And you know it doesn't work that way, Cristina," Hiccup told her roughly, his stomach rapidly sinking. "You're illegitimate. A bastard. There is no way he could ever adopt you-even if you weren't hanging for murder."
But she laughed, a shatteringly off-key sound that matched the wild hatred in her cerulean eyes.
"And who is going to turn me in? You? Oh, I'm so sorry. You remember your nice cup of iced tea? I'm afraid you'll be dead by morning. I…"
"Oh, you mean the poison?" Hiccup asked. "Yeah…I donated it to an Aspidistra. And I swapped the Port at Dinner. It didn't look too healthy."
She screamed, her face twisted in rage.
"Some of them will have sipped it-and the lawyer has already died so you haven't achieved anything!" she spat.
"What did you give them?" he asked her, his eyes locked in hers. He could feel static building, feel her anger thicken the air around them. Somehow, she was linked across the decades with her disembodied spirit and his sensitivity…which he had unexpectedly discovered doing the job…was warning him that she was losing her grip on sanity. Somehow, they were at a crucial nexus in history, a moment crucial to the angry spirit she would become.
"Prussic acid," she sneered, jerking Agatha hard and biting the knife into her neck, causing a slight trickle of blood to slide down her pale skin and stain the lace collar of her nightgown. "Daddy's precious girl loves her painting, loves all those beautiful blue skies…so plenty of Prussian Blue around. And the library has more than enough Natural Science books to learn how to make Prussic Acid from it."
"And you tried to poison me, the lawyer, all the male diners…you seem unfocussed," Hiccup told her.
"Not really," Cristina hissed. "You are right. He won't recognise me. I am his servant. And if his precious Agatha dies, the estate goes to a cousin, Ingvar Jacobsen. So if I can't have it, I'll make sure no one does. Not this little bitch, not him, not the cousin. I'll kill her and burn the place."
"And is this what your mother wants?" he asked her. "Killing all these people because you were let down by some dishonourable man who betrayed his illegitimate daughter and abandoned her to service. You would always be cared for here-just not as a daughter."
"My Mother is a bitter old woman, always harping on about how wronged we have been," she sneered. "He favoured Cook Helga and her husband Harild over us when he gave them the cottage that should have been ours. But I settled them. A nice cup of tea before they set off home tonight. Shame they'll never make it."
"The moment you kill her, I will break your neck," Hiccup promised her, watching the maid slowly rise to her feet, the knife pressed unerringly to Agatha's neck.
"Then I won't let her go-not until this house is an inferno," Cristina scoffed, gesturing for Hiccup to stand aside. "Move over there unless you like the sight of her bleeding…" Warily, he stepped aside, breathing hard. His heart was breaking at the thought that this insane vengeful woman would kill Astrid-his Astrid. The woman he loved…
"Then let me say one last prayer for the woman I love," he said and clasped his hands in front of his chest.
"Pater noster, qui es in caelis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in caelo, et in terra…"
Static thickened the air and sparked along the edge of the blade. Cristina blinked and jerked, the small shocks causing her to lift the blade away from the prisoner's neck. And in that moment, something cleared in Agatha's eyes and she shifted her weight slightly, head-butting the maid brutally. Staggering at the impact, the maid stumbled back, allowing the the nightgown-clad prisoner to scramble up and spin before a bare foot impacted viciously hard into Cristina's face. The maid slammed to the floor, stunned and the knife skittered away as 'Agatha' straightened up, chin lifted and shoulders back, her expression furious.
"Welcome back, Milady," Hiccup said with a sigh of relief. Astrid stared at him in shock.
"Hiccup? What the Helheim…?' she demanded as he scooped the knife up and sawed urgently through the dressing gown cord that had been used to bind her wrists.
"I'll explain later," he told her, taking her arm and hurrying towards the narrow stairs. "She wants to kill you, I'm not entirely sure her mother isn't in on the plot and it's high time this place burnt down."
"Why don't I have any shoes?" Astrid asked him bluntly, following him down the stairs at a canter.
"I think you were kidnapped from your bed by her," he said, glancing back up the stairs. There was a crash and the light had developed a more dancing, flame-like quality. "And I think it's time to escape. Help me wake the others up."
She grabbed his arm, fiercely.
"Hiccup-history says that everyone dies in this fire," she reminded him, her eyes concerned.
"Who knows what actually happened?" he asked her plainly. "Sheriff Poxlout Jorgensen did the worst investigation since Spitelout played 'eenie meenie' to determine which of three suspects had robbed a liquor store-despite only one of them being captured red-handed by three concerned citizens in the damned store!"
"Hiccup-if we get everyone out, we cause a paradox that could potentially destroy our own world," she told him.
"You've been reading the Paranormal Journal Problem Page, haven't you?" he teased her. She nodded, her eyes serious. "Astrid-we're here. So are Snot, Gustav and the twins. In the bodies of people who were supposed to die in the fire. If we leave them, their charred corpses will appear in the old house in Berk in the morning-and I am not letting them die if there is any way I can try to save them! The spirit altered history by moving us back in time…all I can do is try to protect the ones I love." He grasped her shoulders and stared into her eyes. "Astrid-you are in the body of Agatha Stenersen, the daughter of the house. I am Haakon, her intended. We both die here. But I'm not going back into my room and sitting there, awaiting my fate because history says I'm supposed to die. I have you to live for. I am not giving up."
She rose on tiptoes and kissed him gently on the lips.
"There's my Hiccup," she murmured. "You're right, my love. I'll take this side of the corridor and you that side?"
He nodded and they began urgently hammering on the doors, yelling 'FIRE!' There were grumbles and complaints but slowly, the inhabitants began to emerge into hallway, blinking and fastening various dressing gowns around them. Astrid was happy to see Fishlegs and Ruffnut, though neither showed any signs of recognising her, while Hiccup rounded up Snotlout, Gustav and Tuffnut. Both widows, Dagmara and Karl Stenersen emerged but the old lawyer, Anders Halvard, as well as the two other older men who had drunk the Port-Petter Eklund and Olaf Nielsen-were all dead and cold in their beds.
"What's going on?" Stenersen demanded.
"The maid Cristina kidnapped Agatha from her bed," Hiccup reported. "She tried to kill her. I heard footsteps overhead and investigated. Thank Odin, I was able to get her away. But the house is on fire. We have to get out." Astrid nodded.
"It's true," she said, staring at the people who were her 'parents'. She could still feel Agatha's emotions for them but the part of her that was Astrid was looking at strangers. "We must get out."
"Where is my daughter?"
The dark shape of Marit emerged from the staircase, her eyes glittering in the light of her oil lamp.
"I said-where is my daughter?" she snarled. Stenersen faced her but Hiccup jumped in.
"In the attic," he said. "There's a fire…"
"She tried to kill my daughter," Stenersen snapped. "She deserves whatever consequences she brings on herself."
"She is your daughter as well!" Marit shouted. For a second, there was silence before Snorri began to laugh.
"Preposterous," he scoffed. Stenersen gave the maid a scornful look.
"As if I would lower myself to be with a servant?" he spat.
There was a moment where Marit's face was filled with a looked that mixed shock and betrayal…before she snatched a knife from the pocket of her apron and slammed it directly into his heart. He gasped, eyes widening before he stupidly tried to grasp at the handle, sticking out of his body. And then his legs buckled and he collapsed to the floor.
"You can all burn in Helheim!" Marit screamed, smashing the oil lamp at the top of the stairs, a wall of flames bursting up and driving them back. As everyone stared, she pushed by, yelling for her daughter and vanishing up the stairs towards the attic. The crackle and roar of flames was much louder now.
"The servants' stairs," Hiccup urged them and ran off to the opposite end of the hallway, Astrid's hand in his. Glancing back, Hiccup saw that Fishlegs had grabbed Mrs Stenersen's hand and was hauling her along as the others followed. They found the concealed panel and cautiously made their way down the narrow staircase, then out into the kitchen. The kitchen door was locked, of course, but Snorri and Fischer broken it down using one of the trestle tables and the shocked guests glanced back as flames began to pour out of the first floor windows. The attic was already an inferno and, as they watched, the roof collapsed in. They withdrew further down the garden.
"Karl…" Mrs Stenersen whispered, tears streaming down her face. Casting Hiccup an apologetic look, Astrid pulled away and hugged her 'mother'. Hiccup scuffed his feet on the gravel, feeling helpless. The inferno had taken place, all his friends were alive and history was probably altered. So why were they still here?
"Obviously the local authorities will need to be informed," Fischer said, his voice cold and superior. "The scandal is unconscionable. No one will want to be associated with the family after this-no matter what is left." Snorri and his brother shook their heads and cast a scornful look at Agatha and her newly widowed mother.
"I am certain that neither my sister nor I would want to have anything to do with you," Tuffnut commented as Hiccup walked forward.
"I don't care," he announced, staring back at the burning house and then at the shallow hangers-on. "I will still announce my betrothal to Agatha not because of what dowry she has but because I love her. And I will endure whatever scandal comes to be with her. And I promise…I will always protect her." Astrid pulled away and ran into his arms, wrapping her arms around him.
"Love you, Babe," she murmured as he gently tilted her chin up and kissed her. There was a pause as the house collapsed with an enormous crack and roar and he felt the static wrap around them. A sudden wave of fear washed over him. Astrid's grip on him tightened as they felt weightless and disorientated…and then they hit the ground once more.
"OW!"
"Get off me, Butt-Elf!"
"Fishlegs…how much do you actually weight?"
"OhThorohThorohThor we're all alive!"
Astrid looked up, back in her twenty-first century clothing and saw Gustav desperately crawling out from under a panicking Fishlegs, Snotlout rubbing his head and the twins scuffling as Tuff tried to shove Ruff off of him. Hiccup was lying at her side, blinking rapidly.
"We're alive," she murmured as Hiccup sat up.
"Why?" he murmured.
"You changed history," she recalled. "They murdered six people…but died in the fire. But now, everyone will know the truth."
"How did we get back? Why not the instant we emerged from the building?" he murmured.
"You were pretty romantic when everyone else was an ass…" she murmured. "You promised to protect me…" His eyes widened and he stared at her.
"Everyone out," he yelled and the others, still grumbling, got up and ambled to the door-to find it opened easily. Hiccup grabbed Astrid's hand and they followed-but the moment the twins cleared the door, it slammed closed. And nothing they could do would budge it. Astrid looked up.
"It's not over, is it?" she asked, patting her pockets for anything of use. He pulled her back, seeing the static spark from the metal fixtures again.
"No," he murmured as the static whirled around them. "We found out why." She looked up into his eyes. "The article Fishlegs found never mentioned any servants-either missed or found. So they were never laid to rest."
"And thus are able to roam, unquiet and still full of hatred and vengeance." She looked up. "She's still here, isn't she?" He nodded, able to feel the surge of hatred, the air growing colder even as the static built.
"Why did she let us go?" he murmured. "I promised to protect you." Her eyes widened.
"What if she does what no one can protect me from?" she murmured and stared into his eyes. "Babe-I've got something I wanted to tell you…before we got called over here…" He shook his head.
"Astrid…I really wish you had…" he whispered. She stared into his eyes, suddenly unsure. The beautiful, fierce woman he loved was scared.
"I didn't expect…" she whispered.
"You know that a powerful spirit can possess…can use…can destroy…" he murmured, crawling to her side and wrapping his arms around her. "The younger and more vulnerable…the worse the possibilities…"
"I should have said," she murmured but he rested his forehead against hers.
"And I said I would protect you," he murmured. "In the past or the present or the future." Then he closed his eyes. "But I cannot prevent everything." He fumbled in the back pocket of his leather trousers and pulled out a silver cross. Her eyes flashed open.
"But it will harm…" she began but he pulled back long enough to loop it around her neck, grabbing her hand as she clawed at the chain. "NOOOOOO!"
"She's already here," he whispered, his eyes shining with tears. "I'm sorry, my love." She thrashed, sparks flying off her as she tried to get away. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her against him, one hand behind her head and the other resting tenderly over her stomach. Hating himself as never before, he began to whisper the only words he knew held any hope…
"Adjure te, spiritus nequissime, per Deum omnipotentem…"
Astrid screamed, the sound shredding his heart as he continued to say the words and he felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand up as the temperature dropped almost to freezing. He knew that he had enough symbols of protection about his person to keep the spirit away but he needed it out of its host first-hating the likely cost. Static arched from the metallic light fittings and then Astrid went limp in his arms as the ghostly shape of Cristina rose from his fiancee, her horribly burned face fixed in a grimace of hatred.
"You cannot protect her!" she roared. "You killed me, Haakon Hofferson. Now you will learn what it is like to have all your dreams dashed." She hovered over Astrid, who was limp in his arms. But he gave a thin smile.
"Your mistake, your big mistake, was bringing me back to my time," he told her, reaching in his pocket. When he had arrived back in the twenty-first century, he had found himself back in his own body-including his own clothes…and all the contents of his pockets and pouches. Deftly, he flipped open a small pill box to display the crumbled dust within. "Our special brew: Holy Water, Dust from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, pulverised rock from the catacombs under Rome and a few other herbs and minerals that you wouldn't even know…" He looked up into the spirit's face. "You know, I try to be kind, to understand that some spirits have suffered terrible wrongs and seek to defuse their anger and help them find peace…" He took a deep breath. "But you attacked my fiancée and our innocent unborn child, a child I didn't even know about until minutes ago. I did not wrong you: those who did have been dead for over a century. And if you had left things, we would have ensured that you had a decent burial and were allowed to finally rest." He jerked his hands and the crumbled dust hit the ghost full in the face.
And it stuck.
"You failed…" she sneered and then her eyes widened. Before his eyes, her translucent form began to bubble and dissolve, her ruined features melting and thinning until she finally dissipated, a hideous discordant shriek shattering any remaining glass and settling the carpet alight.
"I'm sorry," he said as he scooped Astrid up in his arms. "But whatever the time, whatever the situation, I will always protect Astrid. You had your time. You made it personal. I just made it final."
The carpet was roaring like an inferno as the residual energy washed across the room. The stairs were on fire, the bannisters flaming ferociously. Even the walls were burning. A second voice, the dark edge familiar as Marit's bitter tone, echoed amid the roaring flames but there was only a faint presence: clearly Cristina's anger had been much stronger. Ducking under the backwash and coughing in the smoke, Hiccup staggered up and stumbled away. But on reaching the door and trying to pull it open, it was still jammed.
"Oh come on," he protested as he paused, leaning against the door frame. Marit was cackling and the flames were roaring almost horizontally at them. But suddenly, he could hear the roar of an engine, rapidly approaching. Throwing himself sideways and trying to protect Astrid, he was just missed by a black SUV as it crashed through the doors. Snotlout hung out of the window.
"Get in!" he yelled and Hiccup scrambled up, scrambling into the back with Astrid in his arms. The Sheriff reversed out and screeched round, then accelerated down the hill with the second SUV containing the twins, Gustav and Fishlegs in hot pursuit.
"We need the hospital," Hiccup said shortly, staring into Astrid's ashen face. She seemed to be barely breathing, her skin cold…but a faint pulse fluttered under his urgent fingers. He wrapped his arms around her.
"Cuz-what the Helheim happened?" Snot demanded, though he floored the gas and pulled away from the second car.
"We went back in time, you guys didn't know who you were, I found out the owner of the spirit we felt and it attacked Astrid and I," he summarised. "Oh and we've burnt the house down again." Glancing in his mirror, Snotlout sighed.
"Gustav-radio the fire department. Loki's Leap is on fire," he ordered over his radio and sighed. "Maybe this time they won't rebuild the damned place."
"Just get us out of here," Hiccup sighed. "I'll explain everything later."
-o0o-
Everyone was seated uncomfortably on the standard orange plastic chairs of the hospital waiting room as the doctors and nurses treated Astrid. Even though he was her fiancée and next of kin, Hiccup was made to wait outside as they examined her and he was pacing ceaselessly, causing the others to groan. His father had come to join them, his huge shape out of place on the struggling plastic chair and his big face confused.
"What happened, son?" he asked worriedly, sipping his lukewarm hospital vending machine 'coffee'. Hiccup paced across to the door and back.
"Same old, same old," he said bitterly. "Called back to Berk to help some supernatural murder mystery, ambushed by a violently angry spirit of an unburied murderess, transported through time, foiled several murders, managed to get back home to find the spirit trying to take over our unborn child."
Stoick stared at him.
"You mean…you're…" he began.
"Probably not any more," Hiccup said quietly. "I used the thirteenth century cross blessed by the Pope and the standard exorcism verse but the spirit still fought me-why Astrid is so weak. In the end, I used the Powder." Fishlegs looked up and his face filled with awe.
"And did it…?" he asked.
"Melted her like acid," Hiccup confirmed. "Absolute last resort."
"And you used all of it, right?" the husky man said in a resigned voice. "Do you know how many times I got thrown out of the Church for trying to collect dust?"
"We can send the twins to get dust bunnies," Hiccup suggested. "They all owe us. Owe me."
"Owe what? And is it dangerous?" Tuff asked hopefully.
"Very," Fishlegs said in a stern voice. "We have a mission for you."
"We're in!" they said in unison. "It's much more exciting than policing on Berk." Stoick glanced at his son and reached out, grabbing his wrist.
"Son-she'll be fine," he assured him. "Astrid is a strong woman." Snotlout nodded.
"I'm sorry," he said honestly. "I never would have called you if I had known."
"None of us did," Hiccup reassured him and then looked back at his father. "What if this is it, Dad? What if she loses the baby-and we never have any more? Cristina was determined to make everyone suffer as she believed she had."
"Then you and Astrid will still have each other-and there are always options, son," Stoick murmured. "Don't bring sorrow on yourself before it happens. You are a decent and brave man who helped your cousin, prevented any further deaths and got everyone out."
"When the flames die down, you need to send a Priest in there to say prayers for Marit and Cristina, the maids who died during the original fire. They were never buried or memorialised and without that, there is always the risk that there could still be some anger hanging around the location." Hiccup sighed as Gustav locked his phone and looked up.
"I've booked onto a couple of extra course," he announced. "This has really opened my eyes to how much I don't know…"
"Thor help us," Snotlout grumbled as the doctor walked in.
"Mr Haddock?" he asked as Hiccup scrambled forward.
"Yes?"
"Your fiancée is awake and asking for you," he said. Shaking with anxiety, Hiccup followed him and found Astrid sitting up in a bed, swathed in a white hospital gown and almost as pale as the bed linen. But she smiled as she saw him and he raced to her side, unable to wait to feel her arms around him. For a moment, he squeezed her, feeling her strong arms crush him back before she pulled away and smiled.
"How are you?" he asked urgently and she smiled up at him.
"Tired," she admitted. "But I'm not in pain." She fished under the covers and handed him and small black and white photograph. Her lips tilted in a smile.
"Is this…?' he mumbled, staring at the image.
"Baby," she murmured. "He's still okay." His eyes trailed to the cross still around her neck and gave a sound between a sigh and a laugh.
"Oh thank Thor," he gasped and kissed her urgently. Then he stared into her eyes. "I can quit…we can quit…" But she leaned forward and kissed him again.
"I may be the first paranormal investigator on maternity leave but I am going nowhere," she told him firmly. "I've done a lot of work for this job and I'm not about to give all that up. You're the only person who could have got through what we did-and stopped any more kids being killed."
"I'm not proud of what I did," he murmured.
"You kept your promise," she reminded him. "If more people had done that, we wouldn't be here. Now I promise you…everything will be alright." He sighed.
"Promise?" he whispered. She kissed him again.
"You will keep me safe and I will keep Junior safe," she said and then she sighed. "Except from your family. Do we have to tell them?" He sighed.
"I may have let the cat out of the bag already…" he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry."
"I take it all back," she said. "When I get my hands on my stakes, you're a dead man!" But she was smiling as she said it and he responded as only a wise man would: he kissed her.
The End.
A/N: Thanks for reading.
A/N2: Vidar was the son of Odin and a giantess. He is considered one of the Norse Gods of Vengeance because he avenged Odin's death by killing the giant wolf, Fenrir, which had slain the King of the Gods.