Honor To The Fallen - An HTTYD Short Story

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== Intro ==
Honor To The Fallen is a short story I've created to help bring awareness to gun violence. As of the moment, it's a work in progress. It's set in the universe of HTTYD, because that's the world I know best. However, I might adapt it to a real-world situation once I've finished it. The main goal of this story is to bring awareness to what a horrible and traumatic experience it is to kids who have experienced school shootings, and survived, while their friends didn't. Because of that, there is going to be mentions of blood, gore, and other sensitive topics within this story. Please keep that in mind when reading, and if any of those are triggering to you, I advise against reading this. 
== Chapter 1 ==
It started out as a normal day. There was nothing wrong with it, and no one thought that there was going to be anything wrong with it. We were approaching the end of the school year, and all the students at the academy - myself included - were having a grand time. Everyone had fun projects to finish up, enjoyable things to do with their dragons. We were all excited for the end of the year, and kept on making plans to see our friends over the summer. There were lots of games, too. It was just a generally happy day. And for most people, that stayed the same. But not my class. Our day was different. So, very, very different.
We were in History class. Normally, that was always found to be boring, but this time, we had an enjoyable project. Our assignment was to re-create a historic battle of our choosing, in groups that we had also chosen. It was great. My friends Ray, Claire, and I were working on re-creating the fight where Toothless challenged Drago's Bewilderbeast. Since we needed so much space, we had gotten permission to work outside, along with a few other groups. "Ray, do you have your costume finished?" I called out, putting some finishing touches on mine. We were going all-out with this presentation.
"Of course I have it finished, Alyssa - what do you think I am, a slacker?" The words might have seemed spiteful at first, but there was a joking-ness behind them. Despite myself, a smile formed on my face.
"Well, mine's finished," Claire said, holding up hers. She was going to play Drago. As she opened her mouth to say something more, something elsewhere caught her eye. "What's that?" She said, pointing.
I turned, and there was a Terrible Terror, frantically flying our way. "It looks like a Terror. What it's doing here, I have no id-" A crossbow bolt whizzed through the air, striking the Terror. It fell to the ground, dead. My friends and I quickly traded looks of panic - and then we ran. Ran for the door of the building, ran to safety. "Attacker!" Ray called out, sending everyone else into a panic. We all knew what an attacker meant, what we were supposed to do. Get into the building. Lock the doors. Hide. Pray that we'd live.
It was a rush, a mad race to safety. The few seconds that it took us to make it to the door felt like an eternity. I reached it first, my superior speed staying true even now. As I grabbed the handle, something whizzed by the side of my face. Instinctively, I ducked away, pulling the door open even faster. No one had to look to know that there was a crossbow bolt embedded in the door - one that had almost killed me. "Everyone, get inside!" Claire called, herding people in. I stayed where I was, holding the door. While it was dangerous, I wasn't going to abandon anyone yet.
Everyone was almost in, except for Arvid. He had never been the fastest person, and he lagged a bit behind in the mad rush to the door. "Come on, come on," I muttered, mainly to myself. He'd make it. He had to make it. Running faster, he was getting closer to the door. And he was almost at it, when a bolt came flying at him from behind. "Look out!" I shouted, knowing I was too late even as I spoke. But the bolt hit him, ripping through flesh, hitting his heart, killing him. Arvid fell to the ground with a sickening crunch.
Hastily, I closed the door, my fingers fumbling with the lock. "Everyone hide!" Ray hissed, making sure everyone crawled under tables, some getting up against the walls. I stood there, still in shock about what had just happened. Arvid. Dead. Thankfully, Ray saw me just in time. He grabbed my arm, yanking me down under the table with him. Not even a second after he did so, another bolt whizzed through the air. I heard the sound of metal hitting flesh, and turned away. This wasn't the time to watch.
The bolts were flying swifter and more precise - meaning the attackers were getting closer. But where was the teacher? He should be here by now. Unless something happened... I wouldn't put it past the attackers to do something like that. Why, I had no idea, but then again, why were they even attacking in the first place? As I was thinking, I knew the thoughts didn't matter. But I needed to do something, anything, to prevent my mind from thinking about the horrible reality of the situation I was currently in.
Then, the door was violently kicked down. Instincts reacted before the fear in my mind could, and I dropped and rolled out of the way, avoiding the bolt that was aimed for my heart. Instead, it hit my leg, and I stumbled and tripped because of the pain. As I looked back at the door, it seemed like there was only one attacker: A tall Viking, about six feet, who wore a long, hooded cloak and mask. He - was it a he? - held the crossbow threateningly. "Stand down and this will be quick and painless," His voice was low and rough, like it hadn't been used in a long time. "Fight back, and it will be slow and painful."
It was at that moment when the fear finally set in. There was a stranger, here in the building. He was armed. He was trying to kill us. He had already killed one of us. We were all going to die. There was nothing we could do. Nothing at all. So now we had to make the choice of how we were going to get killed. Killed. We were all going to die. The thoughts rattled around in my head, starting a frantic loop of them that I just couldn't break. I was going to die. Die, die, die.
My classmates had a variety of mixed reactions. Some raised their hands in surrender, shaking as they did so, tears streaming down their face. I could feel tears welling up in mine, but they wouldn't fall. Others, however, took a different path. Calder and Colby drew their daggers and charged, trying to preform what was a fruitless endeavour. A few of my other classmates joined them. The attacker couldn't get a clear shot at all of them, which bought us some time. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Brenna go and sneak to the Terror post. For a second, I almost hoped that we'd live through all of this. That we'd get out safely.
But then, three more cloaked figures entered through the door, all armed with crossbows. "Shoot anything that moves," One of them barked. Chaos ensued. Bolts were fired everywhere, striking into everything. Ray and I were at the back of the room, away from most of it. I knew we weren't going to make it, but I was going to try. As soon as the attention of the cloaked figures were on my other classmates, I grabbed Ray's hand and bolted for the door to the landing strip, desperately hoping we'd make it, even though we both knew our fate was sealed. Claire followed after us. Thoughts kept circling in the back of my mind, forming a desperate chant. Die, die, die.
Ray pushed open the door, and we were almost through. I could see the end of the landing strip, over what looked like a sudden drop. I knew that there was a rope hanging of the end, one we could use to get down and escape. Hopefully, our presuers didn't. But I never even got the chance. Footsteps sounded behind us, and three bolts whizzed through the air lightning fast - one for each of us.
We didn't have time to react. They hit Ray and Claire right in the back, blood gurgling from the wound. At the last moment, Ray shoved me to the side, and the bolt didn't hit in a critical spot. It still hit, and pain flew through my body. Without looking, I knew that blood was gushing from the wound. Already hampered by the bolt in my leg, and off-balance because of Ray, I fell to the ground. Instinct screamed at me to move, to run, to do something. But I stayed put. Eventually, the footsteps went back to the other room.
Knowing I didn't have much time, I rolled over to where Claire and Ray were, with their bloody wounds. Swallowing hard, I reached out and smeared their blood on my hands. They didn't deserve this. But it was what I had to do. Then, I started spreading it all over me, making it look like I'd bled to death. My wound wasn't bad enough to cause that, but hopefully, they'd think that it and the bolt in my leg had caused it.
I made my way back to where I had fallen, and lay still. Moving would mean death right now. So I sat there, waiting. Waiting for help. And in part, waiting for them to come back and kill me. Like they'd killed Ray and Claire. Oh Thor. Up until now, the full weight of what was happening hadn't settled in. But now... Ray and Claire were dead. Dead, like the rest of my class. Dead, like the teacher. Dead, like I was going to be. Dead, dead, dead. Sadness overtook me, and I felt like crying. This shouldn't be happening. It couldn't be happening. Yet it was. I felt ready to break.
Surprisingly, it turned out I still had a bit of steel left within me. I was able to prevent any tears from coming into my eyes. That would have meant death. After what seemed like ages, the men returned - all four of them, this time. I held my breath, afraid to move, afraid to do anything that might tell them I was still alive. "Well, these ones are dead for sure," One of them said.
"This one looks like sh' bled t' deth," Another said, kicking me in the side. Pain flared, and I wanted to cry out. But I kept my mouth shut. "Must 'ave hit an artery or som'thin'" He had a gruff accent. Maybe an Outcast? Deep down, I knew that I was just thinking of these things as a way to distract myself. But that was welcome, so very welcome, compared to the other things I could be thinking about.
"Well, let's get out of here. Don't want to get caught," The one who had given the order to kill everyone spoke again, and then started walking away. Probably to the edge of the landing, to call dragons. Sure enough, I heard whisles, and the flapping of wings. After a few minutes, everything was still. I couldn't bring myself to believe it. Was it over?
Not sure it was, I laid there for a few minutes. I didn't want to die. But eventually, I had to get moving. Groaning, I shakily got to my feet, feeling light headed. Maybe I had lost more blood than I thought. Placing my hand on the wall, I began to limp back into the classroom. As I was approaching the door, it opened. I thought the attackers were back, that they were going to kill me, but it was just Ms. Ellis, a teacher a way's down the hall. When she saw the carnage in the room, her eyes widened with terror and surprise. Even more came when she turned to me. I knew that I must look terrible. Covered in my friend's blood, limping, multiple bolts sticking out of me. It was like I was almost dead. Only I wasn't. "Alyssa... Alyssa, what happened?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
When I spoke to answer, my voice was scratchy and hoarse. "They're dead. All of them. Dead."
== Chapter 2: ==
I slowly opened my eyes, groaning as I do so. My side hurts, as does my leg. That’s not all the pain, though. Everywhere else feels sore, and I have a pounding headache. But… why? I don’t remember anything that could have caused this. I was just at school, working on my History project with Claire and Ray… All of a sudden, images flash through my vision. A falling Terrible Terror, shot down with a crossbow bolt. The classroom, full of bodies. Claire and Ray, dead on the floor next to me as I lay covered in their blood. 
I gasped, bolting upright as all the horrible, terrible, frightening memories flood back in and threaten to overwhelm me. The masked shooters, barging into the classroom. My friends and classmates, fighting back but getting killed. Arvid, standing at the door, barely making it but getting shot right as he was about to come in. Everything starts piling up, my mind forcing me to go back and relive the horrors of the hours past. 
I was so stuck in the horrors of my mind, I wasn’t paying attention to myself. My breathing speeds up, my heart starts beating faster. It’s happening again, I think. They’re coming for me. By now, I’m hyperventilating, and getting dizzy. Every small movement I make feels like I’m floating, or at least wobbly. Blackness clouds at the edge of my vision, but I don’t notice. All I can see is Claire and Ray, dead as I lay beside them, faking my own death to live, but at the same time wanting to act alive, so they’ll kill me. 
Someone grabs me by the shoulders, and forces me to lay back down. “You need rest,” a voice says. It’s unfamiliar, and I don’t think I know who it belongs to, but I can’t be sure. The images are still there, at the edge of my vision. “Alyssa, I need your help here. I can’t help you if you don’t help me.” I’m still breathing fast, but it’s slowing down. 
“Let me help,” Another voice says. I recognize this one, this time. It’s Ms. Ellis, the teacher who found me after the shooters had left, with everyone dead. Oh Thor. They’re dead. All of them, dead except me. 
“They’re dead…” I mumble. “All of them… dead. And I’m there, with them, but I’m not dead… Not yet…” 
“Alyssa. I need you to listen to me.” Ms. Ellis speaks again, her voice firmer. “You are not there right now. You are not back in your classroom. Right now, you are in the island’s medical center. I’m here, and there is a nurse named Ailse.” 
Slowly, I started to calm down. Ms. Ellis kept talking, and even though the words themselves didn’t sink in, I could tell that they were meant to help me calm down. 
The nurse, Ailse, eventually spoke up again. “Can you drink this, Alyssa?” I can hear that she’s speaking, but the words themselves don’t register. 
There’s a sigh, and then someone presses a cup into my hand. “Drink this,” Ailse says again. Mentally numb, I slowly wrap my fingers around the cup and bring it to my lips. As I take a small sip of what tastes like water, I glance into the cup. With the lighting in the room, and the shadows, what I know should be water suddenly looks like blood. The blood of my friends, who lay dead while I’m not…
My breathing speeds up again, my hands start to shake. I hear worried voices coming from both Ms. Ellis and the nurse, but I don’t here them. “They’re dead…” I mumble again. “All of them… dead…” There’s more voices, mixed with the echos of screams that are ringing in my ears. 
Someone takes the cup away. Ms. Ellis, I think, from the way the nurse is protesting. “She needs to drink that if she doesn’t want to pass out,” Ailse says. 
“What she needs is to not go into shock again,” Ms. Ellis responds sternly. “Alyssa was improving before - something with the cup triggered a reaction.”
“But…” The nurse responds weakly. “It was just water…” 
“Blood…” I mumble. I’m still in a trance, not really picking up on their conversation. I hear their words, but it doesn’t register. “It’s blood, their blood, the blood I’m covered in…” And then I’m back there, laying down on the floor, arrows in my leg and side, face smeared with blood. Claire and Ray dead on the ground next to me… 
“Alyssa.” Ms. Ellis speaks again. “I don’t know where you are, but it is not happening. You are not back there again. You are here, in this room. What you are seeing is a memory, a flashback that was caused by a trigger. You hear me? It’s not real.” 
Those words give me something to latch onto. Not real. A memory. Triggered. The blood - no, water, in the cup. It was water. I need to remind myself of that. My breathing slowly starts to return to normal, and as I refocus on the world, I can see Ms. Ellis and the nurse letting out a sight of relief. 
“Okay, Alyssa, I need you to talk to me. Can you do that?” Ms. Ellis asks. For a moment, I panic. She can’t mean about… what happened, could she? “Not about what happened,” she says, as if sensing my panic. “About other things.” 
“O… Okay…” I say, slowly. “About what?” 
“Well, what’s your favorite color? Mine is teal…” Our conversation goes on for a while. Ms. Ellis asking me a question, giving her answer to it, and me not responding. I hear her words, but they’re drowned out by the screams that are echoing in my ears. Soon, I’m back to mumbling. “Dead… All of them, dead…” 
I don’t know how long Ms. Ellis carries on talking, but eventually, the nurse returns, walking at a slow pace. There are voices, but I can’t make them out until the nurse and whoever she’s speaking to come with. 
“She’s been like this for a bit,” Ailse says, speaking to someone else. Two other people, I think. 
“Is it because of the attack?” A familiar voice asks, filled with worry. It’s a voice I know well. 
“Mom?” I whisper, pulling a bit out of my trance. 
“Oh, Alyssa…” She says, coming over to sit on my cot. She pulls me into a hug, and I just sit there, still mentally numb by the horrors I witnessed. 
Meanwhile, I can her my father talking to the nurse. He sounds worried, and protective. I don’t hear the details, but I think he’s asking about my injuries. Oh Thor, my injuries… Until right now, I hadn’t realized how many wounds I had. I didn’t even know how bad they are. My father seems to be asking about what happened to me, but I can’t pay attention to it. The screams still echo in my ears, horrible memories flashing across my vision every other second. 
They talk for what feels like an eternity. At some point, my mom stops hugging me, and goes over to talk to the nurse with my father. I can tell that Ailse is trying to reassure them, and that it isn’t working. They keep getting more and more worried, and eventually voices get raised. My father, maybe? 
Ms. Ellis comes over to sit next to me, but talks to my parents and the nurse instead. I think she’s saying something about… me? I’m not sure. Whatever she says, it seems to help calm down everyone else. They go back to speaking in worried tones, and eventually, the nurse turns back to me. “Alyssa, you’re going to go home with your parents now, okay?” She asks. 
Numbly, I nod. The screams are echoing in my ears, so I don’t really pay attention as Ailse checks over my wounds one last time, and binds them with fresh bandages.  
“Alright, she’s good to go,” The nurse says, some lingering worry in her voice. “Well, physically. Not sure how… everything else is right now.” 
After making some sounds of agreement, my parents quietly came over to me and asked me to stand up, and go home with them. Quietly, I complied. My mind was still numb, but I was able to listen to and follow simple requests and such. Nothing that required too much thought. Because I couldn’t think, or the screams and memories would come. 	
---
The flight home was a silent one. I rode with my mom, who tried to talk to me a few times on the short journey back to our house. After I didn’t respond, she eventually gave up and traded worried looks with my father. Maybe they talked, I don’t know. The screams echoed in my ears, reality was constantly crashing down around me. At some point, I started shaking, my breathing speeding up and getting unsteady again. 
More worried now, my parents rush me into the house, saying that they’ll get me a glass of water. My mom escorts me over to a chair, and ‘helps’ me sit down. Shortly, my father returns with a cup of water. I take some sips of it this time, knowing to avoid looking at the water, lest it turn into - blood. 
As soon as the thought enters my mind, everything is flooding back. Ray pushing me out of the way, the crossbow bolts hitting him and Claire from behind, their blood splattering everywhere. I was already breathing fast, but I start taking sharp, quick breaths, my heartbeat speeding up and pounding in my ears. The screams of my classmates ring inside my head. I can’t go back. I can’t. 
“Alyssa, calm down.” My mom says, coming over to give me another hug. Frightened, I push her away. In my panic, it feels like I’m back there, where I was, hours before. Laying on the ground, covered in blood. Where being found, being touched, means death. 
“We’re right here, with you.” My father says. It’s supposed to be comforting, but to me, it sounds like he’s saying they're with me, laying on the ground. Except they’re dead, everyone is dead, everyone but me, even though I should be dead. 
“No…” I mumble. “They can’t find me. They won’t find me. They think I’m dead, they think we’re all dead, because everyone is dead, everyone but me…” 
“Alyssa, you can calm down now.” My mom says. “It’s alright. You’re safe here, with us.” 
“It’s not alright!” I exclaim, snapping out of my trance as my fear is replaced by anger. How dare she say it’s alright, hours after everyone died? How dare she! 
“Yes, it is.” My father says, in what’s meant to be a soothing manner. “You’re home now.” 
“That doesn’t make it safe!” I say, my words more driven by fear than anything else. 
“You’re alright.” My mom says. “Everything is going to be okay.”
That was it. The final straw. I couldn’t take it anymore. “No!” I screamed. “No no no! Nothing is going to be okay! My entire class is dead, all of my friends are dead, and I had to watch them die! I laid right next to their bodies, covered in their blood, so that I could stay alive! NOTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY ANYMORE!!” 
By now, tears are streaming down my face. I’m upset, frustrated, angry, confused, afraid, sad, numb, so many feelings that I don’t know what to think. So, with my jumbled-up emotions, I rise from my chair, my legs unsteady. That doesn’t stop me as I dash upstairs, throw open the door to my room, and collapse on my bed as the door swings shut behind me. Then, for the first time since the attack, I bury my face in my hands and cry.
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