Hi, guys! Before I even start writing this chapter, I should probably explain why I didn't get started before. I went out of town for the weekend, and I hit some serious writer's block when I got home for reasons I won't try to explain, but I will say this: Tuesday was just one of those days when I just felt lousy and got NO housework done. I just felt like trash all day. I started to feel better towards the end of the day, but I wasted all the time I could have spent writing. Don't ask why, because I actually don't know what that was all about. I just had a lousy mood day. Then Wednesday (the day I started writing this chapter), I was out of the house all day, and when I got back it took a while to get settled. So I'm about to write the chapter right now.

Actually, before we get started, I wanted to take the time to respond to some of the reviews I got.

DragonLover07: As the first of those who wrote reviews on this, I'd like to thank you for letting me know you like it. This gives me some encouragement to go on with!

SoundwavesGirl273: Well, here you go! It's here!

Anonymous Guest: I don't even remember why I made them twins. I guess it just seemed like a good idea, and ever since Heather was a part of "Riders of Berk", I've thought of her as part of the "Dragon Riders crew". She actually plays a huge role in my Dragons deviation plot series (Dragons of Berk), but you'll have to wait until the third story, which may take a while to start.

Another Anonymous Guest: Well, the anecdote wasn't the first thing on my mind when I started rewriting this story, but I thought about it and decided, because of my experience, to put Hiccup into a similar situation. All I really did was change the outcome. I do appreciate you mentioning it, though, because I was a bit nervous when I put that up, and I tried to cover my anxiety with the happy beginning to the concluding author's note. Then again, I do have a tendency to explain myself for things that don't always require an explanation.

That's all I can respond to right now. Enjoy the chapter, and I'll see you in the next one! Keep an eye out for the next chapter of Dragons of Berk.

4:00 PM

Friday September 2, 2016

Hofferson Residence

When Astrid got home, she took out her phone, opened the Messages app, and noticed it was still on the text that Hiccup had sent. Unable to help herself, she read it. Hi, Gobber! It's Hiccup. Do you have any spare black ink for the 3D printer somewhere? I might need some for my dragon project. Reply on my regular cell number. Thanks! Just that short text message was enough to kindle Astrid's curiosity about Hiccup even more. Luckily, Heather had given her his number, but she decided not to text him yet. She had another friend to take care of.

As she walked into her bedroom, her pet bird Stormfly squawked from her cage and said, "Hello!"

"Hello!" Astrid replied. "How are you?"

"How are you!" Stormfly replied. "Pretty bird!" It was true. Stormfly was pretty. Her feathers were sky blue with gorgeous gold accents. When Astrid let Stormfly out of her cage, she put the bird on her shoulder and walked back downstairs to the kitchen, where she unloaded her backpack. Her mother was preparing fruit for her to eat.

"So, how was school?" Karen asked her daughter.

"Better than I expected," said Astrid. "And I made a new friend."

"Really? Who?" asked Karen.

"His name is Harry," said Astrid. "Harry Haddock."

"What?" Karen said. "I can't believe you said that! He's the police chief's son, isn't he?"

Astrid was shocked at her mother's reaction. "Mom, why are you concerned about that? Have you even met him? If you'd seen him today, you wouldn't be saying that. He knows more about this DD person than either of us."

"And what makes you think that?" asked Karen.

"He knows DD is a serial killer who's been killing police for years," said Astrid. "Can you imagine what it's like for him to watch his father leave every day, knowing it could be the last day he sees him alive? I was never prepared in that sort of way at any point."

"That lousy chief hasn't been able to catch this scoundrel!" Karen yelled.

"Mom, I can't believe you!" said Astrid. "DD's been investigated in other states, too! New York, Florida, Texas, and so on! Nobody has ever gotten close to truly identifying him, so I don't know why you're putting all the blame on Chief Haddock!"

"Where did you hear this?" asked Karen.

"I Googled him on the way home," said Astrid. "You knew about him, didn't you?"

Unable to reply, Karen went back to washing the dishes in silence.

Astrid then realized Stormfly had been sitting on her shoulder the entire time, staring between Astrid and her mother. She let the bird off her shoulder and emptied her lunchbox in the kitchen before scooping the bird up again and taking her to the living room to study the class syllabuses.

Meanwhile

Heather opened the garage door on the way into the apartment, allowing Hiccup to ride his bike into the house without stopping in front. As he got off his bike, he said to Heather, "I never thought she'd be so nice to me."

"What did you expect?" asked Heather, closing the garage door behind them and dismounting her bike.

"I don't know," said Hiccup. "I guess I thought she would be rude to me, like everyone else is. Everyone always asks me questions about things I don't have much control over. I look severely underweight and, besides that, I'm afraid to go to school with shorts on, even though it's so warm."

"Because of your leg?" asked Heather.

Hiccup nodded. "I'm so self-conscious about it."

Heather thought for a moment. "Maybe if people saw it, they would have more sympathy for you."

"Maybe so, but then Snotlout would make more fun of me," said Hiccup. He was taking his shoes off to go inside.

"Then that would make him look bad," said Heather. "Have you ever considered that?"

"No," said Hiccup. He entered the small room to walk up the stairs to the apartment's living room. Heather soon followed to find Hiccup cradling his kitten Toothless. "Hi, buddy," he said, scratching the cat's ears. "How you doing?" The kitten mewed and Hiccup put him down to fill a small bowl of kitten milk in the kitchen. Before long, Toothless was taking his small sips from his bowl. Hiccup emptied his lunchbox and almost offered to empty Heather's as well, but saw that she was already doing so. He then plugged his phone into an outlet on the kitchen counter to charge it.

Before long, their mother came down the second flight of stairs that led to the bedrooms and bathroom. "Hi, Mom!" said Hiccup and Heather in unison.

"Hi, kids!" said Valerie. "You can expect your father to come home early tonight."

"Why?" asked Hiccup. "Should we be worried?"

"No," said Valerie. "That won't do him any good. He's been under a lot of stress."

"Does it have to do with the investigation into Hofferson's death?" asked Heather.

"It has everything to do with that," said Valerie. "Maybe he'll talk about it when he gets home, which should be right about now." She looked down at her watch, which read 4:07.

As if on cue, Scott Haddock entered the room from the stairs to the garage. He was a tall man with a muscular build, red hair, and a thick red beard. He put his gun on the coffee table next to his favorite chair and sat in it, barely acknowledging the children. An awkward five seconds passed by before he finally said, "Hey, kids. Sorry; it's just been a stressful day. I didn't get enough sleep last night."

"No, you didn't," said Valerie. "You got four hours at most. You spent almost all night studying the case files."

Scott tried to defend himself by saying, "Comparing the MO to that of other serial killers, looking at the crime scene photos, searching for anything that could help us catch this monster quicker! And that Hofferson woman … she doesn't understand why we can't catch him. This killer leaves no clues. It's as if she believes we're magic."

"You mean his wife?" asked Hiccup.

"She's been such a prick to me ever since the investigation began," he said. "I haven't met her expectations."

"Don't let her get to you," said Valerie.

"She's been getting to me ever since we started suspecting DD," said Scott. "There's nothing I can do." He paused for a moment. "There's something else. Motive. That's the other thing we can't seem to pin down. We have the means and the opportunity with which to work, but no motive. Can we just talk about something else? I want to forget all of this while I'm home."

"I guess this is a bad time to mention that I met her daughter at school today?" Hiccup said/asked. He intentionally used an asking tone because he wasn't sure what his dad would think.

"What?" Stoick said. "You met Astrid? So Karen wasn't joking when she said Astrid would start school today."

"When did she say that?" asked Heather.

"She walked into my office last night while Janet and I were having a discussion about the case," said Scott. "She was visibly upset. She demanded an update on the investigation, but I had little to offer. She even went as far as to question DD's existence because of our lack of a mugshot for him. And then she mentioned her daughter going back to school today. She said something about not wanting her to fail the ninth grade just because of her father's death."

"Ouch!" said Hiccup. "Dad! I can't believe she's putting this on you."

"That's not the worst part," said Scott. "We're running out of leads. This may go down as another cold case, just like all the others with this pattern."

"You mean whoever did this, DD or not, might walk free?" Valerie asked.

Scott nodded. "This is, by far, the worst case I've ever seen from this serial killer." A moment of sad silence went by before he asked Hiccup, "What's Astrid like? I've never actually met her."

"She's a very nice person, but when we got to the topic of her dad, she started to get visibly upset," said Hiccup. "I told her who you think it is, and she said she'd never heard of him. I guess her dad never told her about him because he didn't want her to be afraid."

"And is that what you told her?" asked Valerie.

"Yeah, and then she said that not a lot of things scare her," said Hiccup. "I told her that we're all afraid of losing people we care about. I think she understood. When we all walked out of the school, Stanley took a jab at me about my leg and how I 'can't play sports'. Astrid talked back to him in my defense."

"Stanley asked her whether she was dating Hiccup," said Heather. "Said she could do better. He even flexed his arm, and guess what Astrid did."

"What?" asked Scott.

"She punched him," said Heather.

Valerie started laughing while Scott said, "Wow! I didn't expect that!"

"Neither did I," said Hiccup. "That's the first time any of my classmates have stood up for me in such a bold way. Well, besides Heather, but she's never punched anyone."

"I just have one question for you, Hiccup," said Scott. "She didn't seem bitter towards you in any way, did she? I'm afraid of her mother's anger rubbing off on her."

"She only seemed to get mad when the topic of her father's death was brought up," said Hiccup. "Otherwise, she seemed very sweet."

"That's good," said Scott.

"Do you have any homework?" asked Valerie.

"No," said Hiccup. "I think we start getting homework next week."

"Great!" said Valerie. "I'll just start dinner."

Almost immediately, Hiccup's phone buzzed. When he checked it, there was a message for him from an unknown number. When he took it off the charger and checked it, he read the message silently:

Hi, Hiccup. It's Astrid. Heather gave me your number. Can we hang out tomorrow? I just want to talk. I know this is sudden, but I can't think of anyone I'd want to talk to about this besides you, especially after today.

"She wants to hang out tomorrow," said Hiccup.

"Does she?" asked Heather. "Wow! That was fast."

"She says she just wants to talk," he said, "and she says I'm the only person she wants to talk about it with."

"About what?" asked Valerie.

"Her father, I guess," said Hiccup.

Valerie thought for a moment. "Well, your dad has work tomorrow and I have to go shopping. Maybe it would be okay if she came to hang out here tomorrow."

In reply to Astrid's text, Hiccup typed, Sure. Is 10:00 AM okay?

As soon as he sent the text, Astrid replied, Any time is a good time.

Hiccup: Great! See you then!

Astrid: See ya!

"She'll come at ten tomorrow," said Hiccup. He barely heard his mom saying something along the lines of "great" because he was puzzled at Astrid's message. He now knew what kind of toll her father's death had taken on her mother, but he was becoming increasingly concerned about Astrid's relationship with her. Perhaps Karen Hofferson didn't mean to be cruel, but Astrid made it sound like she didn't want to be at home. While Valerie cooked dinner, Hiccup continued to text Astrid.

Hiccup: Is something wrong?

Astrid: Nothing serious.

Hiccup: You call grief not serious?

He instantly regretted that message and followed it up with, Never mind. We'll talk more tomorrow, okay?

Okay, said Astrid.

Hiccup locked his phone and said, "Heather, can I talk to you for just a minute? In our room?"

"Sure," said Heather, following Hiccup upstairs to the small bedroom they shared.

As soon as they were in the room, Hiccup said, "I think this has something to do with Astrid's mom. What if she's become cruel to her, too?"

"You think she's afraid of her? Why?" said Heather. "I mean, it's very concerning, but I can't imagine what it must be like to feel the way she does."

"I'm afraid their relationship is breaking over this," said Hiccup. "And it's all because of this … monster."

Heather sighed. "Just wait until tomorrow," said Heather. "I'm sure you'll talk it out with her." She grinned. "Besides, I think she kind of likes you."

Flabbergasted, Hiccup was about to ask why she said that, but Heather left the room without saying anything more. Still, Hiccup remained concerned.

9:40 AM

Saturday September 3, 2016

Hofferson Residence

As silly as it was, Astrid had a phone mount on her bicycle's handlebar. It was a gift from her father from the previous Christmas. He'd given it to her because her bicycle was her primary mode of transportation since both her parents worked, and she sometimes needed directions to go to some places. On this day, she fed Stormfly, made her own breakfast, and taken more smack talk from her mom about her choice of friends. She was finally ready to go, and Hiccup had sent her his address. She typed "214 Groundhog Street" into her phone and started receiving the directions. She kicked the kickstand up and started pedaling towards the route.

Fifteen minutes later, she arrived at a small town home with a garage on the ground floor and two extra floors upwards. She located a bike rack close by and locked her bike there. She walked up to the front of the house and rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, the speaker next to the bell crackled to life and a woman's voice came through.

"Is this Astrid Hofferson?" the voice asked.

"Yes, ma'am," said Astrid.

"Come on in." The speaker went silent.

The door clicked and Astrid opened the it to find a flight of stairs, a door to the garage, and a wall mounted key hook set. Seeing the numerous sets of shoes, she took hers off and walked upstairs. As she climbed, she saw a door. She climbed to the top of the stairs and, somewhat hesitantly, pushed the door open.

Quick Author's Note:

I hope that was worth the wait. I'm sorry I took so long. It's actually Saturday now, and it's late. I will point out, though, that I modeled Hiccup's house after a community/town home. You know those multi-family homes that a lot of people live in because they can't afford to buy a single family house? It's a similar situation to that. In this instance, the Haddock family can probably afford to live in a single family home, but this will be factored in later in the story! I intentionally left the discussion between Hiccup and Astrid out and saved it for the next chapter. So, I'm sorry if this is short. I think it's actually shorter than the last chapter I did on this, but I still don't have LibreOffice completely figured out yet. This was all written and edited in the LibreOffice format, not in the Pages format I'm used to. Besides, how could I abandon you guys! I just HAD to get this up tonight. Again, keep an eye out for the next Dragons of Berk chapter, and I'll see you soon!