Chapter Ten: Snap

There was a pause as everyone turned to look at Fishlegs. He took a step back, fully expecting an enraged Hiccup to attack something when he knew where the next clue was hiding.

"A place where fish live is a metaphor. Your last name is Haddock, which is a kind of fish." Fishlegs began.

"And she isn't talking about a fin as part of a fish... she's talking about the person! Finn!" Astrid finished.

"Exactly. The next clue is at your house!" Fishlegs exclaimed, looking triumphant.

"But that's impossible. That's where the first clue was, that's... that's..." Hiccup suddenly crumpled the note and threw it at the wall. "She's following us!"

"No... Hiccup, we didn't go into the house!" Astrid said, her face ashen. "She knew we'd see the note on the door... it would distract us..."

"So this whole time..."

"I don't know." Astrid tried to put a hand on her husband's shoulder but he shrugged it off.

"And what the Hel does it mean a once happy family? Is Addie... is she..."

"We need to go." Stoick said in a low voice. "Just keep going and don't think about that."

"Let's go then." All emotion suddenly drained from Hiccup's face, leaving a blank expression.

Stoick leaned in to talk to Gobber in a low voice. "He's going to snap soon."

"You're probably right." Gobber replied, raising his eyes slightly as Hiccup shot out of the cave at top speed.

Stoick got on his dragon and Gobber mounted his. "This has got to end. We have got to make sure Adrianna's back safe."

"That's why we're here." Gobber replied before taking off with the others into the sunset.

Xxx

Hiccup very nearly kicked down his own front door the moment they landed, bolting into the main room. The moment he saw what lay directly in front of him, his heart stopped. On the table was an hourglass with no sand in the top half. Forcing himself to stay calm, he walked forward and picked it up. Unlike the first, it was portable. And, to his slight relief, he saw a note tucked under it.

"She was here." he muttered, slamming the hourglass back on the table as he unfolded the note. "We wasted our time running around Berk when this whole time, she was just leading us here!"

"What does the note say?" Astrid asked, stepping forward and trying to get close enough to her husband to reassure him in some way.

Hiccup tossed the note on the ground. "I'm not... I can't. Someone else open it."

No one made a move to pick up the note. Truthfully, no one wanted to get close to Hiccup for fear that he would take out his anger on them. Fishlegs finally decided to risk the repercussions and stepped forward to pick up the clue. He opened it and read out loud in a clear voice.

Congratulations, you've earned a night's rest
(Yes the sand has run out but this was only a test)
Don't try to find us when the moon's in the sky
Or, before the sun rises, your daughter will die
But when it does rise, you'll continue your work
The next clue will be somewhere public on Berk.
So rest with this comfort: your Addie is well
Will that continue? Tomorrow will tell.

"So she... she expects us to rest? While Adrianna is somewhere out there with a psychopath probably torturing her?" Hiccup slammed his fist against the table, his breathing ragged. "No... no, if I have to be out all night, I'm going to..."

"You're going to stay here. Trista won't hesitate to kill her if you disobey." Stoick interrupted.

"She's only three years old, dad... she wouldn't kill a..."

"She's killed younger." Stoick strode over to a chair and pulled it in front of the couch, motioning for them to sit down.

"No, we don't have..."

"We have all night. Sit down. I... I need to tell you something I should have told you a long time ago." Stoick motioned for them to sit down again.

Hiccup and Astrid slowly walked over to the couch and sat down. Astrid gently reached down and gripped Hiccup's hand, trying to do something, anything, to make him feel better.

"I didn't tell you this because I was selfish. I wanted to pretend it never happened. Pretend Trista didn't exist so that you wouldn't be burdened with that knowledge. But now, I know you will never forgive me. I ask only that you listen and allow me to keep helping you find Adrianna." Stoick explained. Gobber stepped forward and sat down next to him. "When I was born, I was the golden child. My father gave me everything I wanted, held back nothing. My mother was proud that she produced a strong future chief. But Trista... she was overlooked. The mistake. She was born five years before me. I once overheard my father talking to someone about how hard it had been to have another child. How he had feared that he would have to find someone else, a different family, to take over when he passed on. How the day Trista was born was the worst day of his life while the day I was born..." Stoick took a deep breath, trying not to sound emotional as he continued to speak. "I don't blame her. To be given no love, no attention your entire life, to have parents who blatantly favor one child over her... anyone would snap."

"Is that what she expects?" Hiccup asked, staring down at his and Astrid's clasped hands. "For us to just let Adrianna die so she won't... get in the way or something?

"That's exactly what she expects." Stoick replied.

"So we prove that's not true. We come after her. Once she sees how much is changed, how much we love Anna..."

"If we were dealing with someone sane, I would agree with you. But we're not. She snapped a long time ago and her banishment hasn't done her any favors. And with her hatred for me, I wonder whether she'll let Adrianna go so willingly." Stoick took a deep breath. "She proved at a young age that she is capable of killing her own flesh and blood."

Hiccup would have paled even more if he wasn't already white as fresh fallen snow. He felt his heart stop beating and briefly wondered if he would keel over and die with all the stress that had been pressing in on him all day.

"She's killed before?" Astrid asked, her hold on Hiccup's hand growing tighter. "Who?"

"Hiccup." The group's collective expression became very confused. "He was my brother. You were small as a baby but he was tiny. They named him Hiccup. And your mother and I named you after him."

"But I know all about the first two Hiccup Horrendous Haddocks... wouldn't that make me the fourth?" Hiccup asked, his heart now pounding in his throat.

"He died before the Welcoming Ceremony. So he never had an official name. But that was the one he would have had." Stoick's voice finally broke and he stared down at his lap.

"Trista was banished because she killed him the night after he was born. I don't know what happened but I saw the crib afterward. Blood everywhere, coating the bottom and on the sides. I know there wasn't much left of him to bury." Gobber continued, allowing Stoick to take a break. "Trista was banished but the damage was done. Your grandmother was never the same after that. She got sick and died about a month later. And from then on, it was forbidden to speak about Trista or about Hiccup. We were to go on like nothing had ever happened."

There was a long, painful silence. It was as if all the sound had been sucked out of the room, like everyone had gone deaf. Hiccup slowly lowered his face into his free hand, breathing deeply and quietly. Finally, Stoick couldn't handle the silence anymore.

"I know I should have told you..."

"Shut up." Hiccup muttered into his fingers.

"Hiccup..."

"I said SHUT UP!" Hiccup bellowed, hopping to his feet and stomping across the floor. "You don't get to talk to me, not one more word, not after everything you kept from me for all these years!"

"I know. It was wrong." Stoick slowly stood up and tried to walk over to his son. "I am so..."

"DON'T YOU SAY YOU'RE SORRY! You are WAY past that!" Hiccup pushed his father away, trembling with rage. "Don't you think I would have wanted to know this psychopath was on the loose so I could protect my children from her?"

"I wanted to protect you; I banished her twice and did everything I could to make sure she couldn't..."

"WELL YOU DIDN'T TRY HARD ENOUGH!" Hiccup picked up the hourglass, holding it up and aiming it at his father. He froze, his eyes widening in horror. "Is she still alive?"

There was no response. Stoick averted his gaze. He couldn't lie to Hiccup but he couldn't bring himself to say the words.

Hiccup decided to continue. "Are we going to go through all of this only to find out she's been dead this whole time?"

"I don't know." Stoick whispered in a barely audible voice, shutting his eyes tight and expecting the blow he knew he deserved.

Hiccup paused, completely speechless but making odd choking noises with his throat. Astrid's heart pounded and she prayed that he wouldn't actually strike his father. A few seconds later, he turned around and hurled the hourglass at the wall. It shattered, sending sand flying everywhere. He turned back to his father, a fire in his eyes that so few had seen before, that Astrid had prayed she would never see again.

"Because of your... your mercy, Adrianna has to spend a night with this psychopath." he exclaimed, not quite shouting but not speaking at normal volume either. "Alone... and who knows what she's thinking or feeling... well I know one thing. She's wondering where we are. Why we haven't come! And I'm stuck here because of this stupid note, trying to keep her safe but I can't! She could be killed any second and there's nothing... nothing I can..."

Hiccup slapped a hand to his face, his eyebrows pulling low over his eyes to help pull in the waves of emotion. He constricted his throat to choke it down, but a strangled noise emitted from it with each intake of breath. The room blurred and when he closed his eyes, he felt the tears streaming down his face.

He turned away from the group, resting his other hand on the wall for support. He felt his knees give out and he slipped to the floor, his body heaving with sobs he couldn't hold back. Arms wrapped around his neck and he felt Astrid pull him into her chest. Hiccup hunched over, his hands pulling his hair; Astrid held him on her lap, not trying to console him. He needed to cry.

Stoick had heard his son cry many times. He was a particularly restless baby and had gotten numerous painful injuries as a little boy. But never in his life had he heard his son, or anyone for that matter, cry so painfully, so full of anguish. He had to turn his head away as he gently waved the others out but most of them had already made the move. No one wanted to be there for that. But as they closed the door behind them and walked away, the sounds of a broken father's sobs would forever be etched into their minds as the most horrible sound a person could make.

All the fear and doubt poured into Hiccup's soul so much his chest hurt, making it hard to breathe. He knew that he was a failure as a father; his baby girl was in the wilderness freezing to death at the hand of a murderer and psychopath. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was a complete and utter failure. A burst of rage surged within him and he screamed at the top of his lungs, making Astrid grip him tighter.

"Shhh..." Astrid finally whispered when the scream died and he was left panting.

The door clicked behind them and she knew Stoick and the others were finally gone. No matter what Trista said in her note, she had a feeling that none of them would be sleeping well tonight. Not by a long shot.

Hiccup cried onto her lap for what felt like an eternity. Whenever it seemed he was calm, the torturous cries would start up again. But she never stopped holding him, running her fingers gently through his hair, wishing she could do anything to bring her baby and husband back.

Trista was ruining their lives. She kidnapped their baby girl, Finn was forced to stay in the home of another family to be safe, and Hiccup was losing all mental capacity. And she knew deep down that she wasn't far behind him.

Hiccup was finally left with hiccups, his back shaking with each inhale. Astrid brushed her hand on his neck and looked down at him. The expression on his face nearly made her cry; she had never seen her husband, her best friend look so broken.

The only thing that kept her from doing so was the burning anger in her soul for the woman who caused it all.

But she forced it away and tried to look at him. She didn't know what to say, but she felt she had to say something.

"We should get to bed..." she hated those particular words that elected themselves to pop out of her mouth.

Hiccup closed his eyes firmly, picturing Adrianna's face. Two tears streaked down his cheeks, but he made no sound. Astrid lightly wiped them away.

"It's going to be okay..." she whispered.

His breath shook when he opened his lips to reply. He looked down at the floorboards as he whispered, "H-how do you know?"

Astrid looked at him mournfully and put her hands on his chest underneath her to pull him up. He slowly sat up and stared into her eyes. "I don't. But I have to have faith that she'll be okay." Astrid whispered, holding his face close to hers.

Hiccup sniffed loudly and swallowed. "I want Finn."

"Are you sure that's a good..."

"I need to get a grip. Knowing he's safe on my watch will help me do that." he wiped his face with one hand, trying to dry it completely.

Astrid felt like arguing but the look of determination on his face made her pause. She knew that even if he couldn't be strong for her, he was going to be strong for his son. And perhaps Finn's presence would calm him down. True, their little girl was gone but they could still protect their little boy.

Xxx

The sun was setting as Snotlout and Heather walked the little Haddock boy to their house. It had been arranged beforehand that they would be watching him overnight and then dropping him off at Lotus' in the morning. They had a feeling that Hiccup and Astrid would be along to pick up their son that night. It's what they would have done, after all.

About an hour later, Finn was playing by himself and Heather was feeding Inga when they heard muffled shouting. Snotlout walked into the main room, an expression of confusion on his face. He knelt down next to Heather and spoke in a low voice so Finn wouldn't hear.

"That sounds like Hiccup."

Heather began to listen a bit more closely. The voice was unmistakable. Hiccup was shouting about something. It was amazing how much his voice carried considering how far their house was from his and Astrid's. Finn seemed oblivious to the noise. Snotlout and Heather silently agreed to act like nothing was happening. They were certain that he had never heard his father shout like that and now wasn't a good time to him to experience it for the first time.

After a few seconds, the shouting died down. It was quiet at the Haddock house for a few minutes.

Then came the scream.

"What was that?" Finn asked, his eyes wide with surprise. "Is daddy scweaming?"

"I don't know." Snotlout said very loudly to mask the noise. "Let's go play in the other room. I've got some berries there, we can have a snack."

Finn smiled and bolted after Snotlout. Heather was glad he was so good at distracting the child from the sound of his father's screams. But this meant that she was alone in the quiet room. And that's when she heard it. The most horrible, anguished sobbing she had ever heard coming from the Haddock house. She closed her eyes against the noise, trying to ignore it, to pretend she couldn't hear it. But the truth was, if she could hear it from this far away, Hiccup was probably so heartbroken that he had completely lost control. Without having to ask, she knew that Adrianna hadn't been found. And she prayed that the sobbing she was hearing wasn't because she had been found dead. She thought about that vibrant little girl, the one who had been so excited over Inga, who had hugged her husband the moment she thought he was unhappy... she couldn't be dead. Children so rarely died on Berk. To think that Adrianna would be the first in years... Heather shook her head. No. She wasn't going to jump to any conclusions until she knew anything for sure.

But the one thing she did know for sure was that something had broken Hiccup's heart completely. And whatever it was had caused him to make the most horrible sounds she had ever heard.

The sounds of the sobs finally died down after what felt like a long time. Heather felt like she was going crazy listening to it. Inga was finished with her feeding and had fallen asleep in her arms but she paid the baby no heed other than to gently rock her. She made a silent promise to herself that she would make sure that this would never happen to Inga. The sounds she heard were too terrible... she did not ever want to hear them again. Not from her own throat or Snotlout's... never.

After a long period of silence, she heard a knock at the door. She quickly straightened out her shirt and picked up her daughter, still rocking her so she would stay asleep.

The look on Hiccup's face made her want to cry. His face was redder than usual, he was still making quiet sniffing sounds, and there were obvious tear stains on his cheeks. She took a deep breath and decided not to draw attention to how awful he looked. She ushered them in and called to Snotlout to bring Finn out. The boy brightened up at the sight of his mother but one look at his father made his smile melt off his face.

"Daddy, what's wrong?" he asked, his eyes wide with concern.

"Come on, buddy, we need to get you home." Hiccup gently picked up his son and it was all he could do to keep himself from crying again.

"He was okay?" Astrid asked Heather, wringing her hands and praying that Hiccup could continue to stay strong.

"He was good. I think he knows something is up." Heather placed a hand on Astrid's back, trying to communicate just how sorry she was through that simple action. "I don't know what you should say but I think he deserves to know what's going on."

Astrid took a deep breath and nodded. She quickly hugged her friend and, as Hiccup walked out, Snotlout clapped him on the back a few times, attempting to comfort him. Hiccup looked over at him and nodded in thanks.

The moment the door was shut, Snotlout put an arm around his wife and she leaned onto him. "I can't even imagine..."

"I know." Heather kissed her baby on the forehead. "I don't even know what to do anymore."

"I don't think there's anything we can do." Snotlout replied, squeezing her shoulder more tightly than usual. "If they don't find her soon, everything's going to change."

Heather sniffed loudly but choked the tears back. "Everything already has."

Xxx

As they walked home, the Haddock parents were thinking about just how correct the implication in Trista's poem had been, how their family had been so happy not too long ago... but now those days were over. They could almost hear the sound of Adrianna's voice, her delighted chatting, her giggles, her singing... their house had gone from being a home to being a constant reminder of who they had lost. She haunted every inch of the house from her toys on the floor to the little fingerprints on some of the glass. There was a gaping hole in their family, a hole that could only be filled by their precious little girl.

Astrid thought bitterly that it was ironic that she felt like such a huge piece of her life was missing when she had spent so long not wanting to be a mother in the first place. Now she wanted more than anything to continue to be a mother to her baby girl. There was so much left for them both to learn. So much she wanted to teach her. A mother was supposed to teach her daughter how to ride her first dragon, how to throw an axe, all about the birds and the bees... there were some things only she could teach her daughter. Some things only her daughter could teach her.

Even though her anguish, she knew she couldn't begin to understand what Hiccup was going through. There was always something special between him and their daughter. From the moment he saved her from choking to death before she even had a chance to experience life, they were nearly inseparable. Astrid knew that if the situation was reversed, if it had been Finn that had been taken instead of Adrianna, Hiccup would be the one who had to hold it together because she would probably have lost her sanity by now. Not that she wasn't losing it anyway.

They set Finn on the ground when they got back to their house and were dismayed to notice that it was several hours before his bedtime. They didn't want him awake too early so they were going to have to find something to do with him until they could go to sleep. Both parents felt exhausted but their bright little son kept them from wallowing in their misery.

"Did you get Anna back?" Finn asked, sitting down on the floor with his new Deadly Nadder toy.

"No, buddy, we didn't." Hiccup choked, forcing himself to stay calm. "We're still looking for her."

Finn looked down at the Nadder in his hand and a few tears fell down his cheeks. "She hasta tome back. I yove she."

Astrid sat down next to him and began to smooth his hair. "We love her too, little man. She'll... she'll come back." a few tears leaked out of her eyes before she could stop them.

Finn looked up at her in horror. "Why you twying?" he asked, his eyes wide with fear.

"I just miss her." Astrid sniffed and wiped away the tears with the back of her hand.

Finn blinked and said nothing. After a few seconds, he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Astrid's neck as if knowing that she needed the hug. Astrid nearly burst into tears but she choked them down and held her son close to her chest.

"It otay, mommy. We find she." he said after a short while.

Hiccup's throat constricted at his son's sure voice. Tough, resolute. Just like his grandfather. The young man felt incredibly proud of his son who, at three years of age, was already taking this situation better than either he or Astrid could. He wrapped his arms around them both, shedding a few small tears himself. "You're right buddy. We will."

Xxx

Finn was finally put to bed after a few hours of quiet playtime with his parents. They elected to try to be lighthearted, or at least fake it, for his sake. It was the single most exhausting thing Hiccup or Astrid had ever done and they were relieved when it was finally time to put him to bed. They locked and boarded up his window so that no one would be able to come through and snatch him away.

"We should board up Anna's as well. So... so this can't happen again. When she's home." Astrid said as they shut their son's door behind them.

Hiccup nodded and swallowed thickly. As he stepped into his little girl's room, he felt like his heart was being repeatedly stabbed with every beat. He had painted butterflies of all colors around her wall as a surprise for her third birthday. She had squealed with excitement and hugged him so hard, she nearly squeezed all the air out of him. Her favorite of them was a purple one on her door, something she had told him very clearly a few minutes later. He had felt immensely proud of himself when he heard it because he had worked a little harder on that butterfly in particular. Purple had always been her favorite color and he wanted to make sure there was one that was especially beautiful. He looked up at the ceiling and remembered lying on his back and staring up at it with her, pointing to the little pictures in the wood. She had found several he never would have noticed, like the mint leaves in the left corner and the Gronckle with a long, puffy skirt right in the middle of the ceiling (they had laughed for what felt like an eternity at the mental picture it had sparked). Every morning he had looked forward to walking into this room to greet his little girl. Those days couldn't be over. He needed more time with her. She had taught him so much, made him laugh on his darkest days, and made him feel like the luckiest man in the world. He knew that if it had been Astrid or Finn who had been taken from him, he would be hurting every bit as much. But there was something about this particular pain that was unique to this situation. A part of his heart that only his Addie had filled that was crying out in anguish every second she was away.

"What was she wearing?"

A distant voice snapped him back to reality and he suddenly became aware of even more tears slipping down his face. When had he started crying? If Astrid hadn't spoken, the tears probably wouldn't have even registered. He hastily wiped them away, frustrated at himself for producing still more tears even after his outburst mere hours before.

Astrid was on her knees, picking up the crumpled articles of clothing she found. Adrianna wasn't a very neat child and her bedroom always had a fair amount of dirty clothes strewn around.

"White shirt, I think. With her vest. White pants too." he looked around and was somewhat relieved to notice that her boots were nowhere to be found. "She was so tired when I got her home, I don't think I took off her boots." he shut his eyes tightly, trying to remember what else she had been wearing. The mental picture of her on that wonderful Snoggletog Eve party swam in front of his eyes. "She was wearing her purple skirt."

Astrid gripped the shirt she was holding particularly hard. Adrianna loved that skirt. Trader Johann brought in copious amounts of colored dyes and, as a surprise, they had purchased some and made different skirts for Adrianna (and shirts for Finn) in the various colors. Both children had clothes in almost every color of the rainbow (Astrid had insisted that both twins would look terrible in orange and that Finn would never wear pink) but Adrianna wore the purple skirt the most. It didn't do much by way of warming her up but that's what her pants were for. The skirts were for show. And she loved to show them off.

Hiccup got out a few nails and boards and began to attach them to the window. As he pounded in the nails, fully aware he was keeping his son awake, he wanted to smash the hammer against the wall. What good did it do to board up the window now when they might never get the chance to protect their little girl again?

At long last, he was finished. When he turned around, Adrianna's room was spotless. Astrid had used her nervous energy to make it as clean as possible for her daughter's arrival. The stuffed Night Fury rested on her nightstand, almost like it was guarding the bed. Hiccup wished it had been there the night before. That someone had been there to see it happen, to wake them up, to save their baby... but now wasn't the time for regrets. He took Astrid's hand and together, they headed to their bedroom.

Xxx

Both Hiccup and Astrid managed to doze off several times that night. Neither slept for long periods of time and when they did, they were haunted by Adrianna's face. Every time Hiccup awoke, he got out of bed to make sure Finn was still sleeping in his room. By the next morning, he had checked on his son twelve times.

The sun finally peeked over the horizon and bathed Berk in what appeared to be a tauntingly beautiful morning. The snow glistened in the sunlight, begging to be played in, but no children would be outside that day. Hiccup and Astrid woke their son and carried him, half asleep, to Lotus's house. She placed him on her couch and he fell asleep instantly.

"You will find her." Lotus said, giving her daughter a tight hug. "Don't give up."

"I know, mom." Astrid whispered. "We're doing the best we can."

As the couple walked through the village, some of the early risers on Berk patted them on the back or encouraged them. They didn't act as though they had heard any of them. They didn't want mindless words, they wanted their daughter. Without discussing it, they both agreed that the Great Hall was probably the place mentioned in the note. There were guards at every entrance but they suspected that Trista could get past anyone she wanted, though they didn't know how.

The moment they opened the large, double doors, they knew their hunch had been correct. On the middle of the closest table was a single object. A dark liquid dripped off the edge of the table, making their hearts stop completely. They took a few steps forward and then froze.

They recognized the object as Adrianna's purple skirt. And it was completely soaked in blood.