Astrid stared at the blank sheet apathetically, feeling the words swimming before her in one blurry mess. She had been preparing for this exam for weeks in advance but the moment the clock on the wall started ticking off, she found herself unable to as much as lift up her pencil.

Everything suddenly felt so trivial and meaningless.

This exam would determine whether she would qualify for medical school but it was only the theoretical part, which anyone with great discipline and determination could cram themselves through. It didn't measure other more essential skills such as whether someone wanted to become a doctor to help the greater good or just to fill up their own wallets. Whether they would treat their patients as something broken that needed to be fixed, or as something of immeasurable value that the world could not afford to lose at any cost? Not matter how significant or small, poor or rich.

Astrid glanced at the clock again, fifteen minutes had passed by and she done nothing but stare into thin air while her fellow students scribbled away as if their lies depended on it. If Astrid wanted to she could easily catch up and finish just in time. She knew all the answers to every question.

The clock on the wall ticked. Minute after minute passing by, never to return. Only moving onwards until there was no time left.

Astrid closed her eyes and suddenly imagined herself as an old woman, at the brink of death. This would be it. After this last breath, she would cease to exist. Her life naught but a waste because she chose never to live life as she desired, never got to decide for herself what she had wanted in the time she had been given. No, not given. Burrowed. How lucky she was to have even existed at all and she never realized it. Not until she was out of time.

With a deep exhale, Astrid snapped her eyes open, and for the first time in her life she could see beyond herself.

In a moment of sheer spontaneity, she raised up from her chair.. and then walked away.

The voices around her were muffled sounds and flashes of blurred colors.

The only thing she could do was move forward.

She kept walking, losing track of time and space, not stopping until she reached a familiar house. It was then she noticed for the first time how rapidly her heart was beating.

What had she done? How could she do something so stupid? What was she thinking? She had just walked away, from everyone and everything. And it was strangely... liberating.

Astrid rang the doorbell of the Haddock mansion, holding her breath as she braced herself to see her grumpy boyfriend's adorable face.

But there was no answer.

She waited another ten minutes and then slowly turned away. What was she to do now? She needed to see Hiccup, for him to tell her everything was going to be okay. She needed him. Where was he? Why wasn't he answering his phone? Maybe she should check their spot.

As she began walking away, a Mercedes-Benz pulled up in the driveway. Astrid halted as she saw a morose looking Stefan step out, seemingly in a hurry. He didn't notice her at first, not until she spoke up.

"Sir.." she greeted him nervously. "D-Do you know where Hiccup is?"

Stefan simply stared at her with sad eyes, and that's when Astrid knew something was seriously wrong.