The house was silent but for the soft whoosh of the fans. Shadows pooled in the rooms, and the only illumination was a lonely flashlight in Hiccup's room. Hiccup sat up in bed, using the pale beam to sketch on a notepad balanced across his knees. A black cat lay curled up against Hiccup's hipbone, only his ears poking out above the blankets. Toothless didn't move as Hiccup tapped his paper, malcontented, turning it back and forth. Only the gentle rise and fall of the blankets showed the cat was asleep and not dead. Hiccup scrubbed one hand across his eyes, which were ringed in dark circles. He frowned, frustrated with himself. The silence was absolute.

"What are ye doin' still up?!"

Just like that, the peace and quiet shattered.

Hiccup let out a startled screech like a pterodactyl and jumped. Loose sketchbook pages flew in all directions, and Hiccup scrambled after them in a flurry of long limbs, shoving what he could reach out of sight under the blankets. There was a faint screech, a thud, and a glimpse of a tail disappearing beneath the bed. "Dad!" Hiccup stuttered. "Ho-how long have you been standing there?"

Stoick's expression was somewhere between concerned and amused. "Not long."

"I was just, um…" Hiccup's eyes flicked around the room, looking for an excuse or an escape. "…Just, um…"

"Jus'…what?"

"Homework?"

Stoick's eyebrows shot up. "Homework?" A chuckle rumbled deep through his chest. "But tomorrow is Saturday." He bent to pick up one of the pages and turned it over.

Hiccup, seeing what he was doing, made a grab for it but missed. "No, don't—"

Too late. The smile on Stoick's face disappeared, and a horrified scowl took its place. Hiccup froze, heart pounding, guilt written all over his face. Stoick looked up at him; his face spasmed as he tried not show how distraught he was. "What's this?" he rumbled.

Hiccup rushed to explain. "Just a sketch! It's not important." He waved a hand, trying to seem casual about it.

Stoick wasn't reassured; his mustache twitched as he licked his lips, searching for words. "Ye sure it's jus' a sketch?"

"Yes!"

"Ye haven't started to see…" Stoick's voice faltered; he coughed. "…again?"

"No!"

"No, ah…" Stoick finally reached for the word they'd both been avoiding. "…hallucinations?"

A high-pitched, nervous laugh escaped Hiccup. "Haha, no, definitely not! I'm as safe and sane as ever." A pang of hurt went through his chest, but he gave his dad a big, fake smile and a thumbs-up.

Stoick grimaced, but let it go with a nod. "Good."

A few papers still littered the floor; Hiccup gathered them up before Stoick could look at them and realize they were all the same. "These are just doodles, dad, like when I'm bored."

They both started talking at the same time.

"Oh of course-"

"You know I would tell you-"

"I know you'd let me know-"

"-if I started to, you know… again."

"-if you were having trouble with…that…again."

They fell silent. Hiccup tucked the papers against his body, keeping the blank sides toward Stoick. Every single paper held sketches of the same figure, over and over again, at different angles, with different expressions, in different poses, a figure with feathery hair and bright eyes. "…so…yeah." said Hiccup, his voice faint. He couldn't figure out what to say now. He wanted so badly to be able to tell the truth. Impossible. There was no truth that a boy with The Seeing Eye could tell, and have believed, about what he saw.

Stoick broke the moment by clearing his throat and handing back the last paper. "So. I just came up to say good night, and-"

"Right, good night," said Hiccup too quickly.

"-and, you, go to bed soon."

Hiccup nodded fervently. "Yeah, I will."

"Okay. Night, son."

"Night, dad."

The door shut with a soft click, and Hiccup listened to the sound of his father's heavy footsteps fade away. There was the creak and groan of mattress springs down the hall, and Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief, rubbing at his temples. "Why," he said to himself. "Why does that keep happening?" Tufts of hair flopped into his eyes; he pushed them aside wearily. The exhaustion was clear on his face. He tucked the papers back into his sketchbook, then knelt and pushed the blankets aside to peer underneath his bed. "It's alright, Toothless. You can come out now. He left."

Two glimmering yellow spots appeared in the shadows - a pair of suspicious cat eyes gazing out.

"Come oooooonnnnn," Hiccup coaxed.

The cat unfurled himself and slunk out, mewing his judgement of the whole situation. Hiccup picked him up and let him claw his way onto his shoulder, where he sat neatly bunched up. He was big for Hiccup's skinny shoulder, but forced himself to fit, swaying every time Hiccup moved to keep from falling off.

Hiccup turned off all the lights. In the darkness, the warm glow of the street lamp outside filtered through the gaps in his window curtain, lighting up neat bars of pale orange on the carpet. Hiccup moved toward the window and twitched the curtain aside to peer through. Outdoors, everything looked calm, peaceful, bathed in deep blues and purples, but for the bright pools of the street lights. It was quiet.

Twitchy with anxiety, Hiccup studied the scene, his gaze probing the shadows and alleyways. Toothless, sensing his agitation, butted his head against Hiccup's cheek. "S'alright, bud," murmured Hiccup, absently petting him.

Several small pixies fluttered past, but Hiccup forced himself not to notice them. It was never a good idea to let the fair folk know you could see them. They disappeared in a gap between houses, leaving behind a trail of shine before that, too, vanished. For a long moment, the outside world was suspended in the moonlight, unmoving. Nothing - no one - appeared, no one watching him, no lonely figure. Hiccup relaxed, releasing the tension in his shoulders. Then he noticed a glimmer of light out of the corner of one eye. His breathing hitched. He jerked away from the window, but forced himself back. He needed to see.

The figure appeared, swooping over the rooftops, drifting along in the wind. He was alone, a luminous streak against the bleak night sky, tumbling and turning like an acrobat with each gust. The air carried him with a sort of fluid grace. He sailed along until he alighted on the top of a telephone pole across the street, perched there with bare feet, toes curled over the edges.

Hiccup stared. He held his breath, afraid to stir the stillness. The boy on the telephone pole was so close that Hiccup could see the way the moonlight glossed over the bright strands of his hair. So close, Hiccup felt that if he moved, the boy would hear him. His muscles cramped with the effort of staying motionless, but he was fixated. Setting dust motes swirling, he breathed out through his mouth in a soft, slow haaaaaaaaaaaaa, and edged forward, drawn closer until his breath fogged the glass.

The boy's silver head twisted toward him. The street lamps' light fell across his face, illuminating his glittering eyes, which fixed right on Hiccup's window, maybe right on Hiccup himself.

Hiccup gasped and snatched his hand away from the curtain. It fluttered down between them once more. He lurched backward, tripped over his own feet, and landed on his butt, eyes still fixed on the window. Toothless landed on the carpet on all fours with an alarmed "mow!"

"He saw," Hiccup panted, voice swallowed up in the silence. "He almost saw!" He was shaking. He lay there, frozen, not daring to move, breathing hard after holding his breath for so long. The fey boy might have seen him, might know what he was. His heart was racing, chills were running up and down his spine, and his limbs felt weak. He stayed like that for a long time, until Toothless finally mewled with impatience. Dazed, Hiccup shook his head. He crept forward to peer through the crack in the curtain once more, but the figure had gone. The telephone pole, the street, the sidewalks, the shadows and alleyways were all empty now, no pestiferous fair folk lingering to taunt him.

"He's gone…" Hiccup looked at Toothless, who sneezed at him. With a deep sigh, Hiccup retreated into bed and curled up under the covers, letting Toothless crawl in with him. Toothless bounded onto the bed and took his customary spot, curled up against Hiccup's side. Within a few minutes, Hiccup was deeply asleep, and even Toothless didn't hear the faint sound of feet tapping on the roof overhead.

He spent a night of fitful dreams - a dark shadow stalked him, flickering at the corners of his vision, hissing and whispering, but he could never turn around fast enough to face it. By the time he woke up, he felt more tired than he had been before he slept.

His phone was buzzing on his bedside table. He rolled over, fumbling for it, and discovered two missed calls and three texts from Astrid.

-goooood moooorning sunshine, the earth says hello!

-k i'm coming to get you for work. gonna be there soon.

-i'm here. where are u, u fucker.

She had sent the last one ten minutes ago. Hiccup squinted at it, rubbing his eyes at the screen brightness and the sunshine pouring through his window, aware only of the warm nest of his blankets and the early-morning silence. Then out in the driveway, Astrid honked her car horn. A car door opened and closed, and there were footsteps coming toward the house.

With an unpleasant jolt, he was wide awake.

"Oh no," he said ominously. He toppled out of bed, getting a foot stuck in his blankets, and stumbled around his room, pulling on clothing and shoving things into his bag. Toothless watched him in concern from the bed, twitching his ears as he settled into Hiccup's empty warm spot.

There was a tap on his door. "Hiccup," Stoick's voice called through it. "Are ye awake?"

"Yes!" He flung open the door, still trying to get one arm through the sleeve of his hoodie. "I'm coming." He fled past before Stoick could do anything beside look surprised, and tripped his way down the stairs.

Astrid was waiting for him at the front door. She greeted him with a very annoyed "Hiccup, what have you been doing?!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, I was asleep. Bye, dad!" He yelled the last part over his shoulder as he shooed Astrid out the door.

The coffee Astrid had brought him was still warm in the cup holder. He slumped into the passenger and cradled it between his palms as she started the car, and they pulled out of the driveway. The cup was comfortingly warm and solid. Hiccup rested his head against the passenger window as they drove into town, watching the scenery fly past. Astrid didn't say much for several minutes. Hiccup had the feeling that she was gearing up to spring something on him, but for the moment, he was content to zone out with his head pillowed against the cool glass.

"Your dad spoke to me this morning."

"Oh no." Hiccup tapped his forehead on the window and didn't look at her.

"Yep. He wants me to talk to you."

That was what Hiccup expected. He let out an exhausted sigh. "Why doesn't he just talk to me himself?"

"Uh…" Astrid's voice held all the notes of I-can't-believe-you-Hiccup. "Because you lie to him?"

Hiccup flinched at his memory of the night before. "Okay, granted, but can't he just…accept my decision to lie to him?" He sent a pleading look toward Astrid, who glanced away from the road for a second to give him a skeptical look back. "Okay, I guess not," he amended, deflating. "What did he say to you?"

Her eyebrows knit together. "He wants me to find out what's bothering you."

"Nothing!" Hiccup responded too quickly. He paused and let out a nervous chuckle. "N-Nothing is bothering me. Why does he think that something is?"

Astrid just gave him a look like she was embarrassed by how poor a liar he was. "Come on, Hiccup."

Hiccup tugged at his hair, anxious and feeling a thousand years old. The words he wanted to spill out closed up his throat until he couldn't speak. He turned to look out the window once more. They pulled into the library parking lot, passing three fair folk that were sitting on the curb. They were tossing pebbles at the cars that drove by. One pebble pinged off their tire. Hiccup's eyes slid straight past them with practiced ease, the same way they always did.

Generally speaking, faeries were a bit wild; they mostly spooked away from humans and lived on their own. Some of them picked on people, doing things like repeatedly blowing leaves in their face and laughing when the human couldn't figure it out, but more often than not, they simply weren't interested. Very few of the fair folk even came into town. The ones who did, usually were just passing through. Hiccup got used to ignoring them.

Astrid parked the car, shut if off, and turned toward him. "You've told me several times that you've been having trouble sleeping for a few weeks, and you've been really jumpy lately, too." She tilted her head at him, eyes narrowing. "I'm not stupid."

He hunched his shoulders up. "Did I say that? That I'm not sleeping?"

"Uuuuugh!" She growled in frustration at him and whacked the steering wheel. "Have you seen yourself? The circles under your eyes are so dark, you look dead!"

He had seen the circles - he'd caught a glance of them in the rearview mirror as he was leaning his forehead against the window. Absently, he touched one with the pad of his fingers. "Yeah, alright. I have to go in to work though." He started to open the door. "I'll let you in the back, and we can talk inside."

"Fine."

"Okay, meet you there then." Pinning his name badge onto his shirt, Hiccup headed into the library.

The library was something of a sanctuary for him. The fair folk that lived in the library were peaceful folk that kept to themselves and didn't bother humans. They preferred to lurk on top of the bookshelves or tuck themselves away in nook and crannies, content to flip through the pages of old paperbacks. Some of the smaller ones stayed hidden between the books themselves. There was something about the old, iron-sparse building - with its dust and brick walls and rickety wooden chairs - that seemed sacred to the fair folk. Or perhaps they respected the infinite stores housed within. Either way, Hiccup could breathe in peace when he was here.

He greeted the cranky librarian at the front desk. She grunted her hello without looking at him and pointed to the cart of unsorted books that people had dropped off. Hiccup dragged it to the back of the stacks so he could sneak Astrid in. She was waiting at the back door, impatient with one arm folded under the other. He opened it and she slipped in, carrying her coffee with her.

"Please tell me you won't spill that."

She made sure the door clicked softly behind her. "Of course I'm not going to spill it. When do I ever do that?"

"Uuuuh…" Hiccup resisted the urge to drag his hands down his face. "Just be careful." She dropped onto one of the little step stools while Hiccup began to go through the pile of books, relaxing into the familiar task of organizing.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Hiccup saw a willow-the-wisp slip out from behind a large tome and float away, but he kept his gaze on the volumes clutched in his hands. They smelt faintly musty. Woody. Like dust and the worn paper they were made of.

"So…" Hiccup almost jumped when Astrid cleared her throat behind him. "You were gonna talk?"

He couldn't say that he was stalling because he didn't know how to talk about it, didn't have the right words. "Yeah, I guess so." He put one book down without checking the title and picked up another, hardly aware of what he was doing. "Where should I start?" he wondered out loud.

"Where do you need to start?"

The vents came on with a soft shushing sound; Hiccup felt the cool air on his neck and chills raced up and down his spine. With a sigh, Hiccup rubbed at his arms. Maybe he could tell Astrid a part of the truth. He peered through the shelves on both sides to make sure the adjacent aisles were empty, glanced through the loose hardcovers for any lingering fey, and checked the rafters. "Someone's been following me," he confessed.

"What!" Astrid jerked. Her coffee almost toppled over but she caught it before any could spill out.

Hiccup flailed his hands at her. "Careful!" He waited for her to relax again and dumped his books back on the book cart in a haphazard stack. Instead he folded himself down onto the floor, sitting across from her, cross-legged. He arranged himself behind the cart so he would be hidden from any passers-by. "Not someone real," he muttered. "It's just a…hallucination."

She scooted closer and leaned in. "Tell me."

"There's a boy. He's been following me, on and off."

"Is he like the other things you see? A fairy?"

Hiccup's stomach lurched, but he knew that Astrid thought it was all just visions. "Yeah, he is." He picked at invisible threads on his jeans, not meeting her eyes.

Astrid took a deep, steadying breath. "What's he like?" she asked in hushed tones, and Hiccup could hear the effort she made to sound normal, not to sound excited. It made him uncomfortable, somehow, that her fascination mirrored his own, but for now, he was relieved. Voicing his anxiety felt like cleaning out a wound.

"Annoying," he scoffed. "He follows me almost everywhere. Into buildings. Into school, in the grocery store…"

"The library?"

Hiccup hesitated. "Yeah, when he's around. But he's not around right now."

"Into your house?"

"Thankfully, no, but he sits outside it and watches."

"Oh, that is creepy," said Astrid, and she shuddered.

"Yeah!" Hiccup agreed. "Ya think? And he was at my house last night. He was sitting on top of the electrical pole across the street."

"Well, at you're not seeing him all the time, right?"

"No," said Hiccup, "Not…exactly. Sometimes he-" Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of movement and froze, leaving off in the middle of his sentence. His heart pounded in his throat. Astrid gave him a quizzical look, but he shook his head at her, willing her not to ask. "So how's your english project coming along?" he changed the subject.

"Oh." Astrid still looked confused but she went along with the subject change, for which Hiccup was grateful. "Well, Fishlegs has all the sources, so-"

"ASTRID HOFFERSON!"

The librarian was standing at the end of the aisle, glaring at Astrid. Both Astrid and Hiccup jumped and whipped around to stare at her, and Astrid's cup of coffee went crashing to the floor. The lid popped off, and coffee splattered everywhere. Three pairs of eyes stared at the mess in horror as the froth soaked into the carpet. Hiccup heard someone begin snickering up on top of the bookcases, and his heart leapt into his throat, pounding so hard it was difficult to swallow. He knew that snicker. It had been following him for weeks.

"Oh god." Astrid's was flabbergasted, her mouth hanging open. She looked back and forth between her catastrophe on the floor and The Librarian of Certain Doom. "Oh no. I'm sor-"

"GET OUT OF MY LIBRARY." The librarian erupted. She seized the nearest object, which was a thick tome bearing the words ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANICA A-C on the cover, and began advancing on Astrid.

Astrid didn't waste any time. Abandoning her spilled coffee, she raced for the exit. The librarian darted after her. "I'll text you later!" Astrid called over her shoulder as she disappeared, pursued by the librarian, who was screeching "This. Is. The. Last. Time!"

"Bye," sighed Hiccup as an afterthought, even though she was already gone. His skin was prickling. He could hear the fey boy somewhere behind him, his laughter drifting through the air.

He grabbed a stack of paper towels out of the bathroom, and when he came back, the faery was crouched on Astrid's abandoned step stool. He spotted Hiccup and rose from his perch, his limbs stretching out as he hovered in midair.

"That was great," the faery cackled. His face split into a wide grin. "I thought that librarian's eyeballs were going to pop out."

Hiccup was so well-practiced at ignoring faeries that he only hesitated a moment before he knelt to sop up the coffee from the industrial carpeting. In an adjacent aisle, a patron slid books back onto the shelves with a thunk. They walked away, their footsteps receding into silence, and then Hiccup was alone, just him and a faery boy with bright eyes and a dangerous sense of humor in the library.

The faery leaned against the bookcase with a bored roll of his head. "Human are so uptight about the strangest things. She didn't even spill any on the books." Frost spread across the shelf, crackling as it froze the wood. "She wouldn't even have spilled it in the first place if that woman hadn't pounced on her like that."

Hiccup straightened up, shoving wet towels into the empty paper cup and setting it on the cart. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He glanced over his shoulder to check for anyone watching and pulled it out with a small smile. Of course it was from Astrid.

-i got away, haha! later gator! also, sorry that happened for the 8432th time.

The faery leaned over his shoulder, trying to read his screen, and Hiccup repressed a twitch. He shoved his phone back into his pocket before the librarian could come back and catch him texting when he was supposed to be working and began to shelve the books again, willing his hands not to shake.

The faery drifted around him while he worked, flicking things with his fingers, spreading frost over the shelves and cart. Hiccup stubbornly refused to flinch each time he did it. He just worked around the frost, like he knew a normal person would. It made it hard to focus. Several times he put books back in the wrong place, but he just left them there, unwilling to let on that he could see the faery by appearing distracted.

"You lead a very boring life," the faery said suddenly. "You're always hanging about by yourself. Why do you do that?" When Hiccup didn't answer, the fey boy wrinkled his nose thoughtfully and draped himself across the top of the cart. Several books tumbled off. They fell to the floor with a loud thud, and the faery waited to see what Hiccup would do, watching him with glittering eyes.

Hiccup retrieved the books and turned them over in his hands, pretending to be confused, then set them back on the cart with a shrug. As he turned away, the charade was worth it for a moment to catch a glimpse of the fey's disgruntled face. Hiccup had to suppress a snort.

He tried to go on with his shelving, but he had barely managed to tuck two more hardbacks into their spaces before the faery threw several more books onto the carpet. Hiccup turned around, more slowly this time, tamping down his impatience. He picked them up.

"Ha!" The faery, with a delighted bark of laughter, knocked them right back off. Hiccup snatched them up again, grinding his teeth now. The faery leapt into the air out of Hiccup's way as Hiccup slammed them onto the cart, and before Hiccup could even turn around, there were several more thuds behind him as the faery started pulling books from the shelves.

Hiccup thought he was being very patient. He turned around to fetch the books, feigning mild confusion despite the lump of anxiety in his throat, and the faery twitched two more books off the shelf. Hiccup picked one up and tucked it under his arm. He caught the second one in midair with a sharp glance upward, wishing he could tell the faery exactly where he could shove all these books.

"Nice catch," the faery commented, and Hiccup had to hide a pleased smirk in spite of himself. He set the books aside and looked around as if waiting for more to fall.

The faery, however, seemed to be finished. He drifted around and came to rest on Astrid's step stool. A morose atmosphere settled around him. Hiccup tried to ignore him as he went back to his work, but he felt the faery sigh heavily in a gust of frigid air.

"Uuuurgh," groaned the faery. "It's lonely, you know," he said quietly. "This job. Yours is, too, unless you like the company of books." The fey snorted quietly to himself. "I think you'd understand that. But…then again, you've got Astrid, and you can't even see me."

Hiccup paused, forgetting all about trying to find the right spot for Wild Birds of North America. He had never in his life wanted to break his own rule so badly. There were goosebumps on the back of his neck, crawling and creeping down his spine, that he nothing to do with the cold air radiating from the faerie, and everything to do with how up close the faery was getting. Something about the faery boy's behavior was changed; he was getting too close, he was speaking at Hiccup, and he was tampering with human things. Hiccup itched to get away from him. His behavior didn't fit with any other fey's, and Hiccup didn't know what to make of him.

"I'm stuck in between," said the faery miserably. Hiccup dared a glance over his shoulder and saw that the boy was gazing up at the bookshelves with a ferocious scowl on his face. "I need help. And all you pay attention to is — is — your papers—" He leapt to his feet, stamping angrily. A crack of ice swept over the floor. "And your BOOKS!" He knocked several books onto the floor.

"Are you serious right now?" Hiccup muttered, bending to pick the books up again. He had never seen the faery boy like this. He was angry, frustrated, almost frantic about something. He leapt from shelf to shelf, knocking books off in a slew, so that Hiccup couldn't keep up to gather them. He dodged a tome about poison plant life that almost indented his skull, and felt his sympathy morph into sharp irritation.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, okay, that's — ow—" A book hit him on the shoulder, and something inside him snapped. "That's enough! Will you please leave the books alone? I'm gonna have to reshelve all these! No, stop-" Furious, Hiccup seized the faery's arm as he flitted past and spun him around to face him. He wrapped both hands around his shoulders and stared him down. "Cut that out!"

The faery boy froze with a sharp intake of breath. His eyes widened; his lips parted in shock. "Are you — talking to me?" he whispered.

"Yeah," muttered Hiccup in a tone of complete obviousness. "Yeah, yes, I can…see you…and whatever."

"And…and you can hear…me?"

"Did I not just-" Hiccup gave up trying to be reasonable halfway through his sentence. He quieted his tone, remembering where they were. "Just…stop throwing things at me, alright?"

The boy barely even seemed to hear him — he was euphoric in a world of his own, in a way that left him blind and deaf to anything outside him. His eyes reflected Hiccup's gaze intensely, unwilling to look away. "You see me," he exhaled on a ghost of a whisper. Then he let out a thin afterthought of a laugh, then a much stronger whoop of triumph accompanied by a sunshine smile. "He sees me!" he crowed.

"Yes, I just — yiurgh?"

The fey boy, not listening to Hiccup, had seized Hiccup's face in his cold hands, and his expression when he looked at Hiccup was glowing. "I'm Jack."

"Jack, my face," said Hiccup through his slightly-squished face.

Jack still wasn't listening. "You see me…then…" His expression began to crinkle. "Wait. You've been able to see me THIS WHOLE TIME!?"

"Yesh."

Jack shook Hiccup's head slightly as he attempted to gesticulate without letting go. "THIS WHOLE TIME! I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING YOU AROUND FOR WEEKS!"

"I know!" Hiccup shoved the faery off and looked around for a way to escape.

"But- but-" Jack drifted in space for a moment, his mouth opening and closing. "Why didn't you ever say anything?" he asked in distress, brow furrowed.

"Because!" Hiccup shouted, turning on Jack. "You think I like being crazy?!" He was breathing hard.

Jack's mouth shut with a snap. He bumped into a bookcase, but he didn't seem to notice. "You're not crazy," he said, his voice gone low, shoulders sagging.

"I know that," said Hiccup, gesturing at himself, agitated. "But that's what everybody else in this town thinks, because I can see creatures — people, who aren't there." Hiccup stepped back, glaring defiantly at Jack. "That's what they think. That there's something wrong with me, like my mother…" His voice trailed off. He shifted and rubbed his arms, uncomfortable. For a second he swayed, light-headed and feeling like he was going to fall over. The realization of what he had done was just beginning to set in.

Jack let out a deep breath. "You're not, though," he began, his tone soft, patient. "That's…that's ridiculous." He paused, weighing the silence before he went on. "A while ago, people with like you were revered. They were considered sacred. Special."

Now it was Hiccup's turn to be stunned into silence. He blinked several times at Jack, feeling a prickling sensation building up in his eyes, and he turned away. Stalling for time and not knowing what else to do, he began to pick up the books once more, turning them over and over in his hands. They became an obsessively neat pile at his elbow while he struggled for words. His panic was rising, choking him.

"Nobody…" He swallowed. "…ever told me that."

"Well." Jack dropped onto the floor and stood at Hiccup's shoulder. "I just did." He pondered the situation for a moment while he stared at the floor. "Hiccup, this is a gift. You have a power no one else has! You have to use it."

"No, I don't." Steeling his resolve, Hiccup straightened up. "I can't talk to you," he announced, and he stalked away.

"Wait, no!" Jack darted after Hiccup and reached for his shoulder, but Hiccup pushed him off. "You can't do that, I need your help-"

"Leave me alone," Hiccup muttered through clenched teeth. He scurried past the main desk, calling out to the librarian, "Hey, I gotta go. There's been a, um…there's something. Something happened. I'll see you later!" He waved over his shoulder as he disappeared through the heavy double doors, leaving behind a perplexed librarian (and a cart full of unsorted books that she would now have to shelve).

"Hiccup, wait-" Jack barely managed to slip through the door before it closed with a thud as he tried to follow Hiccup.

Hiccup dug into his pockets. The phone shook in his hands as he tried to punch in a message to Astrid for rescue. She couldn't be that far away by now.

-I need you to turn around and come get me.

He was breathing too fast. He alarmed several bystanders as he fled down the sidewalk, following the same direction that Astrid had left in. Jack zipped after him and threw himself in front of Hiccup.

"Will you please listen to me?" he pleaded, but Hiccup kept right on walking with only a small twitch. Jack was shoved roughly out of the way. "Hey!"

Hiccup's mouth was pressed into a thin line of anxiety, and he kept rubbing his arms, his eyes darting this way and that. Frustrated, Jack put his feet down on the sidewalk and stared after Hiccup. The expression on his face crumpled.

Hiccup didn't look back. Astrid's car slid around the curb ahead and she pulled up beside him. He yanked open the passenger door and dumped himself into the seat, while a car behind them honked at Astrid for sticking out into the lane.

"I got your text. What happened?" asked Astrid as she gave the other car the finger.

Feeling better at the sight of her, Hiccup sunk into the seat with a tired sigh. Now, safe and locked away where the faery couldn't get at him, Hiccup chanced a look behind. "Nothing," he said, as his eyes found the figure standing alone on the sidewalk, hands dangling at his sides. "I don't know. I don't want to talk about it."

Astrid didn't press him for answers, but she frowned out at the road ahead as she drove. Hiccup kept his eyes turned away toward the window, watching the outside world flow past his reflection, the cars and buildings and people and the lurking creatures, and wished that he could fall asleep for a thousand years.