Trust No One

Chapter 27

Astrid's POV

"Hey Astrid, have you seen the news?" Heather asked, waking me up.
She was in my house. Again.
"Look Heather I don't appreciate you coming here and waking me up like this," I groaned.
She frowned, and repeated,
"Have you seen the news?"

I rubbed my eyes, muttering tiredly,
"No how the hell could I have seen the news if I have been asleep this entire time? I don't like, get up at five am, watch the news and go back to bed do I?"
"Well I don't know. Anyway. I think it's Hiccup. He went and killed a ton of people and then left again. Very mysterious."

I jolted myself awake when she said his name.
"Hiccup? Really?"
Heather turned on the TV on on the wall:

Breaking news:
An attack on 3 PartyPlace Road has caused multiple incidents and left over 100 dead. Witnesses that survived (few) are describing the killer as an 'ink monster', which the police have found confusing. It is thought witnesses were traumatized by the experience, resulting in hallucinations and memory confusion.

Heather pressed the remote button again and it turned off.
"See? Pretty sure that was Hiccup."
I was staring blankly at the screen.
"Hello? Astriiiiiiid?" Heather said, waving a hand in front of my face obnoxiously.

Was that what he was talking about? 'The Void Demon'? Apparently it had the Sorrowstone for its heart. Great. So like a living and breathing hive of sadness, basically.
My phone buzzed and, leaving my daze, I picked it up, ignoring Heather's comment:
"Ahh. You haven't frozen. I thought then you'd turned pixelated and the game had crashed."

+8211629286937

Meet me at the Yew Tree. At 9am.

I glanced at the clock: 8:47. Diverting my attention back to Heather, who was flicking through every single TV channel.
"Hey I need to do something. Can you like... leave?" At this Heather returned my gaze, replying cheerfully,
"Yeah yeah ok I'll go so you can go see your boyfriend. Just don't die, ok?"
"Mmm hmm," I answered, giving her a 'really?' face.

My phone buzzed again and at first I thought it was Hiccup telling me to hurry up. But I checked the time: 8:56. So, checking my notifications - which are literally shown next to the time I just checked so I should've already seen the message - I realised it was someone else.

~Mathias

Get here now. The Yew Tree. Heather's boyfriend is here.

I froze when I read the message. Mathias hated Hiccup. But Mathias thought he could beat anyone as a tier 83. What he didn't know was Hiccup's lack of mercy.
Activating my ability, I boosted myself to travel a lot faster.

Mathias' POV

I cannot believe she lied to me. She told me he was dead. I believed her.
Here I was taking a walk along the river and I see this guy in a black leather jacket, black trousers and leather boots that went halfway up to his knees. His hair was messy and auburn, and his hand (I couldn't see the other one) was covered in a bloodstained leather glove. Now that I think about it, everything he wore had some blood on it.
But it was when he turned around that I recognized him. That cold, heartless, unforgiving face. Those poison green eyes. Those old scars.

Now I was watching him, and I think he had noticed me. As if to prove it, he suddenly looked at me, and stopped leaning against the wall of the local pub. I walked over as casually as I could.
"You're Hiccup, aren't you?" I asked, unable to keep the threat out of my voice.

"And you are Mathias. Go home kid." He replied, looking into my eyes emotionlessly.
I came closer and, overcome with rage, swung at him with an ability-powered punch. I put a dangerously high level of fury-power into it. Probably at a tier 67 out of 100 (only Max tiers could do 100).

There was a satisfying crack as I hit him on the cheek below his eye. He stumbled backwards, blood dripping onto the floor.
Without any warning, I felt dizzy and it became harder to breathe. I used a defensive spell to stop it, but it still slowly drained my power. I started choking then.

He looked me in the eye and what I saw actually scared me. I saw wars. Death. Violence and mercilessness.
"Look buddy," he began in a cold tone, "I don't understand what I did to offend you this much, but you should never have come here." And he prepared to finish me off, which was the first thing he'd actually physically done and I was already going to die. How?

"STOP!" Someone shouted behind me. There was a distant sound of quick footsteps, but then I passed out.

My vision went BLACK.