Serendipity (Hiccup x reader)

Chapter 23

eldritch

(adj.) eerie; weird; spooky

Silence.

There was this deafening silence where nobody dared to utter a word.

Everyone seemed to be hypnotized, not moving nor blinking, they looked like sitting statues.

"Here's my hero, right here!" Erland joked, pulling you into a side hug, he desperately tried to lighten up the mood, but everybody was too static to react. Doubt was starting to build inside of you, perhaps telling them this part of your life was not really necessary.

"Yeah, uh," Erland gave an awkward laugh, resting his hands on the table and twiddling his thumbs. "If it wasn't for her I might've really been dead." He was quiet, but in this room, it sounded like a shout.

"So you forgot about him? Just like that?" Astrid finally broke the ice with her unnerving question, her face was expressionless, though that didn't mean she didn't care. In fact, while you were telling your story she was the most compassionate you've ever seen her before. At the sound of Astrid's voice the gang all relaxed and seemingly came back to life. You on the other hand, shifted in your seat, feeling all of those watchful eyes now concentrated on you.

Not once did you glance at Erland whilst you talked. "I didn't know better. I-I thought that if I had not done that, I would've hated myself for the rest of my life. I had this mindset that if I pretend none of that happened, then I would forget, and I did..." You knew that whatever response you give will end up hurting Erland no matter what, you can't imagine how bad it sounds to hear your friend simply forgot about you.

Your hands instantly covered your face as you felt the tears forming. "That's so harsh to hear, I'm sorry." You couldn't stop shaking your head after that, feeling how the guilt slowly sunk in your skin. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Oh gods, I-"

You inhaled and wiped away the hot tears from your cheeks. You had to pull yourself together. "But then, when I saw him again. That was just... I felt like the gods have given me a second chance. It was unexplainable."

Silence spread again, but this time it was bearable, this time everyone had a moment of thinking and just collecting their thoughts.

"When I woke up, I was a coughing mess." Erland started speaking and everybody averted their attention towards him. "But before that, it was only darkness and this sort of relief, I don't know how to explain it, like my body was finally at peace."

Erland inhaled a shaky breath. "After I woke up, I heard the screams of the people in the distance. It was just so crushing to hear them and not being able to move and help them."

"That's so courageous." Ruffnut whispered slowly, she was looking at Erland as if Thor himself was sitting next to her, her eyes widened and lips parted. Your eyes trailed on Erland's figure, he didn't comment anything about your reasoning and it worried you if he never forgave you about what you did.

Suddenly, the door creaked open and everyone looked at it. Snotlout walked inside like usual, but stopped midway when he noticed another presence other than the usual. He scrunched up his eyebrows in bewilderment.

"Who's the new guy?" Snotlout joked, taking a seat directly in front of Erland and staring him up and down.

"He's my friend." You replied calmly and to that Snotlout only snorted.

"Friend? I thought you didn't had friends besides us." The way Snotlout put it sounded so sad, though it was nothing but the truth. If something similar like Mariah happened, you would lose everyone, well except Crystal of course.