Arg, this chapter took forever. I know there's some cliché moments here, but I couldn't think of a better way to writer them - could be my lack of creativity at the moment, though. We're also getting REALLY close to the end. There's one more chapter, maybe two.
Again, I want to thank ALL OF YOU for reading and reviewing and enjoy this story. I honesty thought about not writing a sequel, because let's be honest, they're hardly ever as good at the first. With the expectation of How to Train Your Dragon, of course. And Night at the Museum - the second was totally better than the first. But that's just my opinion. But, let's get back on track - onward!
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Chapter 15: Miss Me?
"What are you doing here?" Astrid demanded.
Through the darkness she could see his shape, tall and skinny, but his voice wasn't his. Hiccup's metal leg clanked against the stone where as his boot was muffled.
"I came to help you, darling," Hiccup said, a twist on his tongue.
"No," Astrid said with a shake in her head, without taking her eyes off of him. "What are you doing here? Richard."
He came to a stop, eyeing her curiously, a furrow in his brow twitched and his lips twisted in an understanding smile. He let out a short laugh, "How long did it take you to figure it out?"
Astrid hissed, "Longer than I'm proud of." It was shameful to admit. The guilt swelled in her throat. She wasn't sure of the exact moment she realized that Hiccup wasn't himself. She inhaled, trying to feel bigger than she was, and held it in.
"What gave it away?" he smiled.
"Hiccup's eyes are green." Astrid said plainly. His reaction was humored that he'd missed something so trivial. "And he talks with compassion, self-consciousness, and a selfless determination. But you…don't. You talk like the proud, selfish, arrogant jerk that you are."
He smiled. Hiccup's lips curled and for a moment he had that charm that she loved so much, but as soon as she saw it, it was gone.
Astrid had believed Hiccup dead. When she caught sight of him on Johan's ship she didn't care if it was too unbelievable. He was there and that was all she had cared about. She knew it seemed off. Something had been different. She knew. She knew, but she didn't want to believe that anything was wrong. Hiccup was there, sleeping beside her every night, keeping her safe and warm, promising to stay, and she didn't want to argue with that.
But then it became hard not to notice the difference. Her time on Johan's ship was spent mostly asleep, in a turbulent spirit world. It happened every time Hiccup had touched her, asked if she was alright. It was a forced trance and at the time she tried to ignore it.
He had spoken little to her, but what he had said was wrong. His voice was wrong. Hiccup spoke to her, not at her. It was in the way he looked at her. Hiccup always had a certain shyness when he looked at her. When she would catch him staring he would shrug his shoulders and look at the ground, like he'd been caught with a hand in the cookie jar. He would try and shrink into himself when he was unsure. He was unsure a lot. But this Hiccup wasn't.
Hiccup had sudden become very sure of himself. When they sat in Lydia's home Astrid knew that she couldn't ignore it any longer. It wasn't Hiccup. It wasn't his voice. Those weren't his eyes. But…she had known that voice. When she closed her eyes and listen to him, she could see his smug face, standing in that shoddy tavern on that gods forsaken island.
But she hadn't wanted to think about it, because if Hiccup wasn't Hiccup at all, then that meant that Hiccup was…
"What happened to Hiccup?" Astrid demanded. It was itching at the back of her mind. She wanted to know but was equally afraid to hear the answer.
"He's not dead, if that's what your asking." Richard shrugged, making Hiccup's shoulders fall naturally into the gesture. "I'm not entirely sure what happens. He's more…hibernating."
"What?" Astrid asked, dryly.
Richard looked at her, annoyed at her ignorance, and huffed. "It's a trick I've perfected over the years. I borrow a body, and when it gets old and useless, or I find one I like better, I can jump. Not having a body anchoring your soul down is nice, you should try it. These meat sacks of bodies grow old, get stiff and creaky. This way I can stay young, spry, and attractive for as long as forever."
He was using him? Astrid caught the curse that burned in her throat. "What happened to Hiccup?"
"Your concern is touching." Richard said lowly. He added, "Your persistence isn't. But, if you must know, I found him on the deck of that blowhard Berserker's ship. I'd wanted revenge, all along, mostly on you, because it was your whore's deceit that ruined me, and then there lands Hiccup, literally at my feet. It must have been a sign from the gods."
"Revenge? That's what this is all about?" Astrid asked, between anger and astonishment.
"Of course." Richard said like it should have been obvious. "I know, my excuse is overused, but it's timeless. Revenge turns the world. The spirit world was thrown in to chaos, I saw my chance, and I took it."
"But where is Hiccup?" Astrid demanded. Richard had taken several steps and stood only a few away from her. At her question his brow tightened and his fists clenched.
"He's still in here. I can feel him." Richard said quietly. He put a hand over his chest. "Whether or not he is aware, I don't know. He may be in some kind of spirit hibernation or be completely aware of everything I'm doing, seeing what I see, feeling what I feel.
There was a twinge on those last words that made Astrid's hair stand on end.
"I, for one, hope that the latter is true." Richard said. He didn't give Astrid time to question him. "Because then he will get to witness your death, and his, my, own hands. He'll wallow and guilt and have to live with it, until I let him die."
"Hiccup doesn't wallow." Astrid spat. He did, but that wasn't the point. "He's strong. He won't let my death deter him."
"You truly think that?" Richard crossed his arms. "Because as I recall he couldn't live without you. He was so distraught that you were gone that he sought out means to bring you back. That sounds like wallowing to me."
Astrid's fists clench tight, her teeth gritted, her pulse quickening with hate for this horrible monster of a man.
"And that was an accident." Richard only further explain, "If he could see his hands around your neck, feel your pulse under his fingers, see the light fade from your eyes, feel your skin go cold," he took a shuttering inhale, "Just imagine what he'd feel."
Astrid felt a shiver but force herself to remain still. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of falling for his threats. Nonetheless, there was a darkness in his wide eyes that sickened her. It churned her stomach in unpleasant waves unlike any spirit could.
"And with you gone and the veil closed, I can stay here as long as I want, living through others, forever." Richard said, arms out wide.
Astrid had to think of something. The darkness in the chamber was thinning, the malice weakening, slowly returning to the pit on the other side. The other girls stood to the side, looking as worried as she, and watching whatever unfolded with uncertainty. She looked around, for anything, but all around her was stone.
"Are you going to try and fight me?" Richard laughed. "I admit, in this body you'd probably win, but do you want to? I mean, would you beat up the man you love in order to win? That's low."
"You want to talk about low? You're using Hiccup like a meat shield because you know that I wouldn't hit him." Astrid stomped. "That is low."
"True, but you're supposed to be the better person, right? It's expected of me." Richard half-laughed.
Astrid glared at him. What a piece of work. "You're a monster."
Richard shrugged. "I do what I can to survive." He looked at her with a raised brow, eyeballing her up and down, his eye lingering a little too long on her stomach. "And you are thinking of fighting in your state?" He shook his head in mock disapproval.
Astrid took a step back. His stare was uncomfortable. In reflex, her arms bent over her stomach, creating a protective shield. She glared back at him.
Richard laughed. "You know, you're not the only one that can sense spirits. And, because I can sense, Hiccup does to."
Her breath caught in her throat. Richard thrived on that hesitation, revealing that bit of uncertainty that she had been trying to hard to hid. His smile widened, a wicked intent, as he said, "I take it that Hiccup didn't know?"
She clutched her shirt in her fists. "No."
She had known for a while. At first she had denied that anything was amiss, which was starting to seem like a recurring problem. She had started to notice subtle changes about two months ago. But it hadn't dawned on her until those two months had passed without blood that she knew something was wrong. She confided in Ingrid, who knew the answer immediately, she was with child. Then she could feel it, a tiny spirit, thriving inside her own.
She'd meant to tell Hiccup. But Ingrid had insist that she wait. The first few months were always full of doubt, and there was a good chance that the blood would return. So she waited. But then the spirit world was thrown into helter-shelter, and the Berserkers appeared, and the time was never right. And then…
"Just think how it'll feel to murder both of you." Richard whispered, like he could barely contain his excitement.
"You're a monster." Astrid seethed. "You deserve nothing less than hell's lowest pit."
Richard sneered. His hands flinched, his knees bent, and he lunged to close the space between him and Astrid. The shadows swirled with him and blew up like clouds of dust. Richard grasped Astrid's arm and her other curled into a tight fist. She brought it up but just before it collided with his jaw, she saw Hiccup's face, and hesitation settled in.
Her fist hit him but not nearly as hard as it could have. It didn't have the effect that she'd aimed for and immediately regretted that moment of weakness. Richard took the advantage and tightened his hold on her. He shifted his weight and yanked hers, sending her careening to the stone floor. Her back smacked onto the floor and the air was pushed out of her on impact.
Richard pinned her to the ground. Her hand was free and this time she didn't falter to sediment. She socked him as hard as she could and for a moment it deterred him. But it only lighted a hatred in his eyes, a dark desire. He reached back into the darkness that swirled and it surged around his palm with a dark energy. He brought his fist back and slammed it into her chest.
She didn't know what he'd done, but it burned. The dark energy that had engulfed his hand was gone and crawled underneath her skin, into her veins, and like poison it seared through her limbs, into her fingers and toes. It left her gasping for breath, grasping at her chest, trying to pull out whatever he'd impaled her with.
She was distracted and the sudden present of hands at her throat caught her off guard. Richard pushed her back down to the stone, Hiccup's hands clutching around her neck, the pressure of his fingers and palms increasing as he leaned over her, using all of Hiccup's weight. She couldn't breath. She could feel the pulse stop at his hands, the lack of air burning her lungs, the lack of blood burning her head.
She lower her eyelids and let her limbs go limp, pretending to loose consciousness. Just as she'd hoped, his grip faltered, his shoulders relaxed. She twisted her legs, grabbed hold of his shoulders, and shifted her weight to throw his balance off. He still had a hard grip on his arms but she was pinning him down, keeping his hands at bay. If Hiccup had been stronger, he could have pushed her off, and he seemed to know that. His face was twisted in a angry grimace.
His head was dangerously on the edge of the pit. She didn't know that they had gotten so close to it. Just beyond his hair the darkness and malice swirled. It rolled along the surface like fog on water. She could feel the spirits underneath them, almost hear them. They were in the pit, just behind the thinned veil, waiting, watching.
A wild idea formed. It terrified her. It threatened to rip out her heart worse than it already had been. Astrid cringed. She didn't see any other option. Where he'd hit her hurt, ached, like her entire body was being dissolved from the inside. She didn't have a lot of time. She was the only one that could deal with Richard. She was the only thing in his way.
She shifted her weight, just so, and Richard took the bait. She quick pushed herself to her knees and jumped to her feet, still in the crouching position as Richard jumped up. His feet had barely touched the ground when Astrid threw herself at him, her shoulder colliding hard with what could have been a hipbone.
Richard lost his balance and stumbled backward with the impact. Astrid stumbled, and somehow, though she didn't fully understand how, fell onto the edge of the pit and stayed there. Richard, however, wasn't that lucky. As he realized there was no ground to catch him, his eyes opened wide, fear taking hold, his mouth opened in a shout that fell on deaf ears. His hands, Hiccup's hand, reached out in a desperate attempt to cling to anything. He briefly grasped her hand but it wasn't enough. His nails left scratched as he slipped.
She wanted to reach out to save him, pull him back up, but she knew that it wouldn't help. He wasn't Hiccup. Hiccup had died, she told herself as she watched him vanished into the darkness. Hiccup had died in the fight. The man that the pit had swallowed hadn't been him.
But those thoughts didn't help. She was frozen, part of the stone, watching the darkness for anything, a miracle that somehow Hiccup was perfectly fine. But she knew, she knew, that he wasn't. She pushed herself up onto shaking arms. Her entire body felt like water, half frozen and stiffening, cold and unfeeling. Tears welled, a heavy balloon pushed the air from her lungs, and she fell apart.
She cried. Tears ran down her cheeks and fell off her chin into the pit. For a moment, a brief moment, she considered throwing herself in after him. Esol had appeared at her side with a hand on her shoulder.
"Astrid?" she whispered.
She sat back on her heels. Her chest heaved and her eyes felt puffy and heavy. She wanted to lie down, to pull a blanket over herself, and hide there for the rest of her life. She could die there, decay and rot, leave her bones to dry to dust and blow away.
No.
She couldn't do that.
She was Astrid. She didn't wallow. She…had to be strong. She was a warrior.
She stood and wiped the tears from her eyes. She must look pitiful, and ridiculous. She staggered back from the pit. She didn't want to see it. She didn't want anything to do with.
"Are you okay?" Esol asked.
Of course not. Astrid swallowed, breathing deeply, "I'll be fine. Come on, we need to finish this."
Astrid, hardened, walked back to the ceremonial floor. The other girls slowly followed her, watching her with curious and wary eyes. They resumed their previous stances and together exhaled whatever they may be feeling. Astrid had no problem with expelling emotions. Right now, she didn't want to feel anything.
The ritual began and the darkness shifted. Astrid danced as she remembered it. This time there was no interruption, and the ceremony came to an end, and the veil was closed. Just like that.
"We did it." one the girls said, almost a whisper.
Astrid put on a glad face but she couldn't share in their happiness. She reminded herself of the island she was saving, those people sitting by Lydia's hearth, of the lost spirits she was helping. She had done a great thing. She had helped many.
But…at what cost?
"Come on, I'm sure they need help up there." one of the girls said. Astrid was nudged, and she followed the girls back toward the stairs to the temple. She gave the chamber one last look but the pit had dissolved behind shadows.
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NO! Such a heart-wrenching place to end the chapter - I know. I may have done it on purpose.