Farid arrived at the jail and proceeded to have his usual appointments. After what felt like a short time, Dagur was brought to the room. Alvin seemed as frustrated as ever when he removed the handcuffs, but he did, then left.
"Keep this up and you might even break old Alvy's spirit," the inmate said, laughing.
Farid had an unreadable expression. Dagur could tell that the psychologist was in a more serious mood than he was usually.
"Did something happen?"
"I was hoping we could talk about Ansson."
The inmate's curious expression changed as a cold look crossed his face.
"Why? I'm not in here because of him."
"I didn't think you were. I saw his injuries and was wondering–"
"If I was responsible? Was that what you heard?"
"Yes, but as with everything else we've discussed, I'd like to know your perspective on it."
Dagur leaned back in the chair and stared up at the ceiling. He pointed and rubbed his chin.
"You ever notice the little cracks where the ceiling meets the walls?"
"I have."
Dagur pursed his lips and tapped his foot quickly. "They crack so easily. Kinda like bones sometimes. One wrong move and…crack." He looked down from the ceiling and tilted his head, looking at Farid. "Alvin was telling the truth by saying I did that to Ansson. It's a shame I'm stuck in solitary. I can't admire my handiwork hidden away like that."
"Do you mean that? That you consider it your 'handiwork?'"
"Why shouldn't I?"
"Why should you? What made you do that?"
"Because I could, Doc! Why else? It's boring here, so I decided to do something interesting."
Farid stopped writing notes and set down the notepad. A slight frown began forming.
"I'm having a hard time believing that. From what you've told me, you did stunts in high school because you were bored; you went after bullies because they were targeting Hiccup."
"What's your point?"
"That in the past, when you've been bored, you resorted to creating challenges. When provoked, you resorted to violence. So, was there a reason you attacked Ansson?"
Dagur frowned and brought his gaze to the table. Out of nowhere, he started smiling.
"I found out Fishy is a zoologist now. Isn't that cool?"
"It is nice. You're happy for him?"
"Of course. I couldn't think of a better career for him. Combining science with nature is a match made in heaven for him…you wouldn't happen to know what Hiccup is up to, would you?"
"I think our session should focus on you. We aren't given that much time."
"I bet Hiccup is an inventor or something."
"Dagur," Farid said, voice not unkind but firm.
The young man's smile fought to stay, but it eventually succumbed to the unhappiness Dagur was feeling. "We don't have to talk about Hiccup, but I don't want to talk about Ansson. Is there another option?"
"There always is, but I hope you'll be ready to tell me someday."
Dagur looked at him with an expression that surprised the doctor. This made him push more than he originally planned. He gestured to the entryway.
"Any inhibitions about speaking can be left at the door, Dagur. Nothing leaves this room."
This got to the young man and he seemed to be considering his next words. Before he could fully, the door opened and Alvin entered.
"It's not time yet," Farid said, keeping his gaze on Dagur.
"It is today. Routine check for the cells, so we need everyone in them."
The psychologist fought a sigh and refrained from sending the correctional officer a glare.
"Alright then. I will see you tomorrow, Dagur. I hope we can pick up where we left off."
As if on cue, the inmate's demeanor changed from hesitant to outgoing.
"See ya next time, Doc! Don't miss me too much."
He put his hands behind his back so that Alvin could put on the cuffs. The officer roughly attached the restraints and began leading Dagur out the room and towards his cell. Farid quietly let out that sigh and gathered his things before heading to his car. His thoughts surrounded a certain topic which he attended to as soon as he got home. Farid went to his laptop and began researching more about this "Heather" who Fishlegs had mentioned. From what Farid learned, she was a veterinarian. As the doctor dug deeper, he found that his confusion only increased. He could see no reason why Dagur would kill her parents. In truth, he could barely find anything about her parents. As far as he could tell, they lived simple lives. The mother was a stay-at-home mom and the father worked in a bank. He doubted their paths ever would have even crossed with Dagur's.
"What caused this to happen?" Farid wondered.
Looking through the articles surrounding the deaths, he felt bad for the family. He even began feeling ashamed of himself for what he was doing. Farid put a hand to the bridge of his nose.
"What am I doing?" he asked himself. "Am I really trying to prove this was justified? Senseless crimes do happen. This wouldn't be the first time and it won't be the last."
An image popped onto the screen of the trio. The adults were on either side of the little girl, each having a hand on her shoulder and smiling. They looked so happy. Did the reason this ended even matter? Was the only thing that mattered how it impacted those left behind? With these thoughts bouncing around in his mind, the doctor tried and failed to sleep. There were more answers to be learned in the morning. He had another appointment outside of the jail and hoped it would be helpful.
After a lengthy drive, Farid arrived at a landfill. A few turns back, he had started wondering if he had been given the wrong directions and these thoughts returned twofold. He was about to put his car in reverse and leave when he saw something on the top of a mountain of trash. This thing was soon shooting down the mountain at warp speed. Faintly, he heard the sound of excited cheering. When he squinted, he could see that he had been looking at two people with long, blond hair on a sled. As they neared the base of the hill, an out of place box hit the bottom of the sled and caused them to be airborne. Instead of provoking any feeling of alarm, this seemed to cause their cheers to become louder. They landed in a crash, buried from head to toe in garbage. Farid quickly got out of his car to see if they were alright, but they jumped up before he could reach them.
"Well, that's all for today, everybody," one twin said, holding a phone out in front of her.
"Next time, we might try burning trash!" added the other, getting in the frame. "There'll be a poll you guys can vote on to decide."
"Also, don't forget to comment any other ideas you have! Wildest idea gets chosen."
"Also also, if you haven't, don't forget to subscribe!"
The two put their backs against each other and began speaking in unison. "This has been Thorston and Thorston and you just got Loki'd!"
They stopped the recording and high fived each other, then noticed the live audience member. For a second, they looked confused, then remembered.
"Oh yeah, hey, Farid! Snotlout told us about you. We're Ruffnut and Tuffnut," one said, gesturing to his sister and then himself.
"It's nice to meet you," Farid said, struggling to ignore what he had just seen. "Th-the sledding, is that something you do often?"
"No, this one's new. One of our patrons suggested it," Ruffnut informed him.
Tuffnut started laughing. "As if we needed to be paid to try it."
Ruffnut joined in and they wiped away tears of laughter.
"Snotlout said you're talking to Dagur and asking people what they knew about him," Tuffnut mentioned, once their laughs died down.
"Yes, is there anything you remember about him from high school?"
"Loads! He inspired us!"
"Inspired you to do what?"
"This!" Ruffnut said, gesturing around them. "Same for Snotlout. He just took it in a different direction."
"Yeah," Tuff agreed. "Can't tell me Snotlout actually had the idea to become a stuntman on his own. He decided to go that route and we went with this one. More creative liberty this way. He has to worry about messing up a set, but we can destroy whatever we want!"
Farid paused for a moment, then asked another question. "Did you interact with Dagur a lot?"
"Not directly, but his reputation preceded him," Tuff said. "By the time we enrolled, we already knew about the legendary things he'd done. He was the only reason we ever showed up. When he was gone, school just wasn't the same, so we stopped going for a while. Then, it hit us." He emphasized this by pushing Ruffnut. "What if we took his place? The academy needed someone to carry on his legacy!"
"Only problem was, everyone was too scared of Dagur to ever stop him," Ruffnut added. "We didn't have that reputation, so the principal didn't mind expelling us."
"Yeah, we freaked out some students from time to time, but it was more in that 'don't accidentally get me killed' way than the 'please don't kill me' way it was for Dagur. Their loss, though," Tuffnut said, crossing his arms. "I bet the teachers fell asleep on themselves after we left."
"Did you ever see Dagur do anything you thought warranted his reputation?"
Devious grins spread over their faces.
"This one time, some seniors tried to give Fishy a wedgie. You should've seen them! They wound up dangling from their drawers on the basketball hoops. I still don't know how he got them all the way up there."
"Truly a man of mystery," Ruffnut said, a sage-like sound to her voice.
"Indeed," her brother agreed.
"What did you think when he got arrested?"
This caused a change in the twins. Their peaceful expressions turned upset.
"That it was a load of yak dung," Tuff revealed angrily. "No one even tried to figure out what happened. No offense to Heather, but no one knows anything about her folks before they adopted her."
Farid's eyes widened slightly. "They adopted her? I didn't see that part of the report."
"That's what I'm saying! No one wanted to look into anything. They just saw Dagur and assumed the worst. Same for us. They see a forest fire or some other disaster and assume we had something to do with it."
"Admittedly, we normally do, but it still hurts that they don't even hesitate to accuse us."
"Exactly. As far as we know, those two could've been serial killers and he was paying them back. Still technically a crime, but not a pointless one like the media's been trying to make it seem."
"It's even worse with his dad," Ruffnut stated, sounding frustrated. "Oswald might not even be dead! We don't know. No one found him. How do you have no body found and still charge someone with the murder? Anyone could've taken Dagur's knife and used it to slice Ozzy."
"Obviously, it'd have his fingerprints on it, but they could've worn gloves," Tuffnut pointed out. "The way we see it, people judged him too quickly. I'm glad you're talking with him and stirring stuff back up. Maybe you'll get somewhere with it. If you ever need help, count us in."
"That's good to know," Farid said thoughtfully. "I'll be going to talk with him again today. I actually need to start heading that way now. Thanks for taking the time to meet with me."
"Don't mention it! Unless you find something neat. Then you should mention that."
Ruffnut rolled her eyes and bumped her brother. "Tell Dagur we're rooting for him."
"Yeah," Tuff added. "He's not alone. Between you and us, I'd say he has a great team helping out."
"The best!" Ruff corrected. "Before you know it, everyone will see how wrong they've been about everything."
Farid smiled at them and wished them both a good rest of their day. He was not sure if he was as optimistic as the twins, but he hoped they were right. Whether or not they were, he had to admit that it felt nice to find other people who saw some strangeness in the circumstances surrounding the case. All he needed now was to really get to Dagur. He could share theories with the twins all day, but they would do no good if the inmate did not show signs of improvement. So, that would be the doctor's goal for the day–getting Dagur to really make the most of their sessions. After all, it was not as if he was going anywhere.