A/N – Greetings, adventurers! Welcome back to another exciting chapter – almost on time. I'm done with school! Yay! Which means I'd like to really get some make-up progress done on the stories here. I'm aware it's been a while for the others; school came first. With that said, I'd like to thank you all again for being awesome, super, mega-cool, best readers ever.

X

Chapter 17

Hiccup got himself a cup of fresh coffee, taking his time, and joined James at the table. Astrid sat down beside him. She looked the tiniest bit worried, apprehensive, maybe. Hiccup understood; he felt the same way. On the table were two dozen or so pieces of hand-made paper. On each was tiny, scribbled words in English; the scrawl covered every inch of the paper. Hiccup squinted, but the writing was too squished, to tiny for him to read – if it was really English and not a conglomeration of whatever language James spoke.

"Like I said," James said, motioning to the paper, "it's complicated."

"Is it safe?" Hiccup said.

"I don't know," James said. "It sounds simple enough, but there is a lot that could go wrong. We'll have to do everything exact."

"Okay," Hiccup said. He took a long drink from his coffee. "Did you take these notes yourself?"

James nodded. He shuffled them seriously. "The book the ritual comes from is ancient. One wrong tumble and it's in several pieces. I'm not risking taking it through airport security. Good thing, too. I saw the way they toss luggage about like it's full of air. Besides, the book weights about…oh, I'd say fifty pounds or so. Like I said, it's a big book. I didn't want to cause a stir with it. It's written in a dead language, so I thought it safer to bring my own translation."

A ritual in a dead language to bring back a dead girl. Sure. Okay. Why not.

"Okay," Hiccup said. "What do we have to do?"

"First, and this part is important," James said, he met Hiccup's eyes, "we need a location. It needs to be dark, quiet, and away from anything that might disturb it, like animals or people."

Hiccup looked to Astrid and she looked blankly back at him.

A dark space that wouldn't be disturbed…

"Like a bathroom?" Hiccup suggested. "I don't use the one downstairs that much. The window is small, we could cover it with foil."

"One wrong move," James said. "Should the foil fail, the ritual is ruined."

"The cellar," Astrid said beside him.

Hiccup glanced over James's shoulder to the cellar door. It was dark down there, and quiet, and as far as he knew he didn't have a rodent problem.

"What did she say?" James twisted to see what Hiccup saw.

"The cellar," Hiccup said.

"The cellar would work," James said. "Windows?"

"No. And there haven't been animals as far as I know. I didn't see any droppings when I was down there."

"However, then there is the problem of the container," James said. "We need some kind of container big enough for a person to fit into…think of it like a womb for a grown human, like a large bathtub or some similarly shaped thing, unless you feel up to digging a hole in your basement floor."

"It's a dirt floor," Hiccup said.

"Oh?" James said, glancing up from his notes. "That'll do, then. And we can fill it back up when we're done."

"How do we know that this won't create some sort of portal in my basement?"

"That's not how portals work," James said simply. "They're much less complicated and less focused. If this thing creates a portal, I will shave my head and eat my own hair."

Astrid scrunched her lips, and said, "Disgusting."

James glanced at Astrid, eyebrows raised. He blinked a few times before he said, "That is how sure I am. Then, if it goes well, there is the matter of the water.

It needs to be clean water. Not tap water or water from the stream. We'll need to filter it and then boil it. After that, well, I can't really explain it fully, but I will take care of some extra precautions after that step."

"What kind of extra precautions?" asked Hiccup.

"Mostly of the protection sort," James said. "Runes to keep out anything that we don't want to come nosing around, like stray spirits. Don't you worry, Hiccup. It's nothing vile or evil. I won't destroy your house. If I do mess up, I'll build you another one with my own hands."

Hiccup swallowed. Fishlegs had been right about it sounding like something the frauds would cook up. Yet, the back part of his mind tease about the reality of it, the truth strung between the fat lies and inflated stories. Hiccup was glad, then, that Fishlegs hadn't stuck around. If something did go wrong, he didn't want Fishlegs to be in trouble, too. Maybe he should write letters to his family just in case it did go wrong.

"And then there is the matter of the bones," James said. "Her bones, to be exact. We'll need all of them. Every single bone."

Astrid shifted beside him. She said, "Luckily they're all out back, isn't it?"

"You mentioned the family graveyard," James said. "She's there?"

"She is," Hiccup nodded.

"Good," James said. "One of us can see to the bones while the other is working with filling the container. Once we've her bones, we put them into the full container. Once the bones have been added, no more water can be added; the book made that very clear. Don't ask me why. After that, we let the bones sit for a short while, an hour or two. Then, we need a personal item of hers, or two, even three. Something that she is familiar with."

Hiccup thought, but he hadn't spent much time in Astrid's bedroom. There had been so many people in and out of the house since her death, there might not be anything of hers left in the room.

"I can find something," Astrid said, looping her arm around his.

"It needs to be a strong connection," James said. His eyes lingered on Hiccup's arm. "Something emotional."

"Like Eret's letters?" Astrid asked. "I used to read them over and over and dream of living in the city."

"If you think they'll work," Hiccup said.

"Whatever it is will be used in the ritual," James said. "You will not get it back."

"It's a price I am willing to pay," she said. "I hadn't look at them since. When I showed them to you, that's the first time they'd been out of their hiding place since I died."

"Okay," James said, reading on. "The next ingredient is blood."

"Blood?" Hiccup choked.

"Not like a sacrificial blood, a small amount will do," James said. "But, here's another tricky part. It needs to be from a loved one."

"You," Astrid said without hesitation.

"I'll use mine," Hiccup said. "How much?"

"Not much, nothing that will send you to the hospital," James said. "Less than the blood donations take. Unless you are… what is it? Anemic?"

"I'm not," Hiccup said, nodding.

This ritual was sounding more complicated by the second.

"Then the body steeps for three days," James said.

"Three days?"

James nodded. "I'm not sure what it is about the three-day rule. Even Jesus went by it. But, we let the body steep, completely undisturbed, for three entire days, down to the second."

"Then…" Hiccup said.

"It's done, I think," James said. "The book said no more about it. It did warn, however, that it is possible for another spirit to hear the call from the womb, that's what it calls the container, and so once we start, it's best for Astrid to stay close by it. Right beside, until it's complete."

"For three days?"

"I spent a hundred and thirty six days waiting for you, Hiccup," she said, then added proudly, "Another three won't kill me."

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Hiccup asked her.

"I am if you are," she said. She hugged his arm. "I'm with you, Hiccup, no matter what."

He nodded, and said to James, "Alright. We'll do this."

"Then we should waste no time," James said.

X

Hiccup and James spent the rest of the day working. They outlined where the container, the womb, would be in the basement. They moved the wooden plank floor and dug through packed dirt, clay, and rocks. It was backbreaking work that felt never-ending, but at last they'd finished. James carved something into the bottom of the womb, a symbol that Hiccup had never seen before.

"What is that?"

"It's protection against spirits looking to do harm," James said. "It works, trust me."

The longest part came in the filtration of the water. The store-bought water filter trickled the water out. One saucepan at a time, they boiled the water. By the time they had enough water in the womb, midnight had past.

"We shouldn't wait long to gather the bones," James said. "Do you have a torch? Or, what do you call them… flashlights. And we'll probably need a hammer."

"Somewhere," Hiccup said.

James held the flashlight and hammer, and Hiccup carried the shovel; he asked Astrid to stay inside. He didn't want her to see what he was about to do. She had, and sat on the bottom stair in the foyer where she could not see them when they carried the bones inside.

They walked down the sweeping, weedy lawn to the family graveyard. Hiccup found Astrid's grave, and with a sickening plunge in his gut, he sank the tip of the shovel into the dirt above her. The shovels of dirt didn't get easier to toss aside. With each one, he got closer to her, until, at last, the shovel struck the wooden coffin.

Struck with sudden fear at the act, Hiccup paused.

"Do you want me to take over?" James asked. He'd been studiously holding the flashlight.

"N-no," Hiccup said. "This is something I need to do."

James didn't argue.

His shoulders ached. His hands ached. His legs felt like sand. Slowly, Hiccup uncovered the rest of the simple wooden coffin. James handed him the hammer, and Hiccup soon found out why. Astrid's coffin had been nailed shut. With his shaky hands, he pulled out each nail in the light of the flashlight, until each one lay to the side.

It was done.

Hiccup heaved a breath and pulled the coffin lip up.

Astrid lay inside, or, her bones did. Her bones wore the same blue dress her ghost wore, only the real dress had faded and started to deteriorate. Puddles of ghostly white, stringy hair lay around the bare skull.

"Hiccup?" James asked. "Are you doing alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," Hiccup panted. He couldn't catch his breath. "It's just… seeing her like this… it reminds me that she'd dead."

James didn't say anything.

One bone at a time, they carried Astrid into the cellar until her skeleton lie, reassembled, beside the watery womb. They washed their hands, and then, one by one, Hiccup lifted the bones and placed them into the water. Strangely, the bones directed themselves to the bottom of the womb, as if they knew where they needed to go. He didn't point it out or ask James; he was too tired to ask.

All the bones had been placed into the womb. Hiccup was too tired ask questions. He and James walked back upstairs and again, washed their hands. Astrid sat on the top stair with her chin on her knees. At the sight of Hiccup, she sprang to her feet.

"Oh, Hiccup," she said, pity filling her eyes. "You look awful!"

"It's hard work," Hiccup said. "Remember when I said it would be easier if I'd been born in your time? I was wrong. I'm not made out for manual labor."

She smiled and walked with him into her bedroom. They needed something of hers. Astrid looked through her things, just in case she'd forgotten about things, but they decided on the letters; she had forgotten about them and they stirred an emotional response. Hiccup walked the box of letters down to the cellar. This time, Astrid walked with him. James was standing beside the womb with a pocket knife in his hand.

"Are you ready?" James asked.

Hiccup nodded, feeling a tight knot form in his gut.

Hiccup knelt beside the womb and slowly dropped the letters, including the box, into the water. The water began to hiss. James held out his hand and Hiccup gingerly set his arm into his grip.

"Here it goes," James said, and he brought the knife to Hiccup's forearm. With one, quick, clean slice, a cut appeared along his arm. James pushed the dull side of the blade into his arm and tilted it so that the blood would run onto the wide blade.

Hiccup had kept his eyes closed. He felt the burn, the sting of bloodletting, but knew from his experience in giving blood that it would hurt a lot worse if he looked. He heard a splat and opened his eyes; James and tossed the blood on his knife into the water. He let go of Hiccup's arm.

The water hissed again, then again, and then it began to bubble.

James held up his finger to his lips, and held up the number three. Three days. They had to wait a full three days.

James and Hiccup walked back upstairs, but Astrid stayed in the cellar. Hiccup looked behind him as he started up the stairs. The last thing he saw was Astrid sitting beside the womb, watching it roil and boil.

Back in the kitchen, James dabbed antibacterial ointment on Hiccup's arm and wrapped it.

"She feels the pull," James explained. "That is why she stayed. It's good. She will be there when the vessel is ready. She will be the closest spirit. It must be strange for her, to be so close to her body and yet not be inside of it. It's nothing we could imagine."

"No," Hiccup agreed. He was too tired to say much else.

Hiccup was too tired to wonder what he was going to do for three days while he waited. With his wound wrapped, he dragged himself up the stairs and into the bedroom; he didn't care how filthy he was. Laundry would give him something else to do that next day, but right then, as he fell into bed in the same clothes he'd worn to dug up Astrid's grave, he didn't care.

All he wanted was sleep, and he didn't have to look too far.

X

Laundry. Dishes. Sweeping. Refill the hole in the backyard. Clean the master bathroom. Organize the closet. Dust the office. Work on book.

Hiccup tried his best to stay busy while waiting for the three days to end. He found it hard to keep his thoughts preoccupied when Astrid's bones were boiling in a womb underneath his feet. He was afraid to walk too loudly, in case he disturbed it.

He couldn't concentrate on the book. However, on the second day, he found his anxiety lessened. He prepared his current outline to be sent to Heather, but he didn't want to send it until after the three days. He didn't want Heather calling or coming out to check on him. Instead, he rough drafted a few of the chapters to see how it worked.

It worked, at least to take his mind off Astrid. Instead, he focused on her life. On the hauntings. On the rumors of the house. He put it all into words to make his readers understand how important the house had become to him, why he'd gone so far for this ghost.

All around him, the house moaned as if it knew of the impossible dark arts going on inside of it. Floorboards creaked. The roof sighed. Doorknobs jingled. Cabinet doors swayed. Wind-like hisses and whispered seemed to follow him from room to room.

Hiccup drank half a bottle of wine in order to be able to sleep on the second night. He woke up slight hungover, but by noon he felt just as anxious. He and James took coffee on the porch and talked for a while, which he was glad for – it took his mind off things. they talked about the paranormal, mostly, and about the things which had brought both of them into the field. James had an interesting life, the finer details of which he left out. It would seem that wherever he was from was ripe with ghosts, ancient and new.

James asked, "Have you noticed the spike in activity?"

Hiccup hesitated to answer, then nodded. "Yeah. I kept seeing shadows move out of the corner of my eye, and groans and moans and whispers."

"That's why Astrid needed to be closest to the womb," James said. "If she doesn't make it to her body in time, well, I don't know, but it won't be good. The runes only do so much."

"What if she doesn't make it in time?"

"Then that means another spirit will have taken it," James said. "We'll have to kill whatever comes out of the water. Because the womb was targeted toward her, no other spirit will have been able to enter it cleanly. It will taint the project."

That night, Hiccup couldn't sleep. That night, the third night, they would know. Everything they'd done would be to fruition. While he waited, he worked on the fictional book he and Astrid had talked about. He would show her the outline in person, next time.

That night, about the same time they'd left to let the body steep in the dark and quiet, they reentered the cellar.

The womb bubbled viciously, spilling inky water onto the dirt around it. The globs of water snaked back into the womb like tentacles, without leaving a trace of its presence on the dirt floor around it. The sight wiggled his insides like black, watery tentacles fingered his organs.

That didn't bother him the most. Astrid, who'd been sitting beside the womb last he knew, was gone. Hiccup looked around the small cellar, but she was gone. His heart plummeted into his shoes. James looked nervous, too.

Just then, as his panic rose to the highest, the water stilled.