(A/N: I do not own Flowers In The Attic. I have read Flowers in The Attic and have seen bits and pieces of the movie, but I would like you to know that I will not stay 100% true to the book or movie, I will take certain elements from them, but I will be adding many things myself. This story does not have Elsanna, and I am questioning whether to even bring romance into this story.)
Elsa shakily brought the pen down to the paper, tears burning in the corners of her eyes.
This is the story
Elsa quickly scratched that out, hating the way that sounded. This wasn't a story, this was real, and people should know the truth. She trashed the paper, and got a new one. She composed herself again.
Anna, my sister, she had never thought of us as prisoners in that attic. She liked to think that we were snowflakes, being preserved in the cold and dark, each one of us so different yet we always stayed together, always.
I thought of us more as flowers, slowly withering away with no sunlight or nurturing. Of course stubborn Anna had insisted that we were snowflakes. The more I think about it, I realize that she was right. Snowflakes slowly change and grow, they come unexpectedly and bring others happiness and joy.
Tears began to flow down Elsa's cheek.
Only to melt away, and be forgotten.
Ten Years Earlier
14 year old Elsa checked herself in the bathroom mirroe again, adjusting the white bow at the back of her ponytail. She smoothed out her blue cotton sundress, the one daddy liked so much, and donned her white cardigan. She straightened her gold locket.
She didn't have much time to admire herself before 11-year-old Anna and 5-year-old Rapunzel came stumbling in.
"Elsa!" Anna whined, holding on to the toddler. "She won't be still!"
Rapunzel was trying to escape the prison that was Anna's arms. She began beating her fists on her sister's arms, and Anna released her. She ran over to Elsa, holding on to her leg.
"No! No! No!" She screamed. "I don't wanna put the dress on!"
Elsa rolled her eyes skyward, and knelt to her little sister's eye level.
"Punzie, you know what today is?" She asked, using her soft voice.
Rapunzel shook her head, her mass of blonde curls flailing around her.
"Today is daddy's birthday, and you wanna look really good for him, right?"
She nodded her head. Elsa began untangling her curls, putting a purple velvet headband through her hair.
"That's right. You see, I'm dressed up, Anna's dressed up, and mommy's dressed up. You won't have to be dressed up for very long." She got the frilly purple dress from Anna and changed her sister.
Once she was pleased with Rapunzel, she moved on to Anna, checking over her appearance. She wore a green sundress much like Elsa's, with a black cardigan. Her hair was up in a bun with several green ribbons hanging down.
"You look beautiful." Elsa said, straightening Anna's silver locket. Upon closer inspection, she did find one flaw. "... What is that on your face? Chocolate, Anna? Really?" She wiped the chocolate off of her sister's face.
"Oh come on! Stop acting like mom!" Anna crossed her arms.
"I do not act like mom!" Elsa scrunched her nose.
"You're doing it right now!" Anna mimicked her sister and scrunched her nose.
The bathroom door opened and their mother, Lillian, rushed in.
"Where's Rapunzel?"
Said girl popped out from behind the shower curtain.
"Boo!" She laughed.
Lillian approached her and looked her over.
"Good job, Elsa." She picked Rapunzel up.
"Hey!" Anna yelled. "I wrangled her in here!" Elsa smiled triumphantly.
"Your father will be here any minute. Come wait in the living room." She ushered them out. Elsa admired everything about her mother. her long, dark hair, her light blue eyes, her fair skin, everything really.
They all followed suit into the living room, where all of their family friends sat, chatting excitedly about the birthday of one of the most loved men in the neighborhood.
A half hour passed, and no sight of Mr. Arendelle. Rapunzel was getting antsy, so Lillian allowed her to watch cartoons on the TV with Anna while time passed. Elsa sat unwavering, right by her mother's side, her legs crossed.
It was Friday, when their father always came home from his large business trips that he took often. He'd come home with gifts for his 'favorite girls' and their mother would make a large dinner, and often people from the neighborhood would join, it was when they all opened up their home and let love in. Today was an even bigger deal, it was his birthday! Elsa knew he just had to be running late, and he would come in when everybody least expected it, and greet everyone like the kind man he was.
Minutes turned into hours and the large array of food in the kitchen was now cold. People were shifting uncomfortably until they heard a car pull up. Elsa didn't care how childish she looked, she turned around and pushed back the curtains to look in the driveway. That wasn't their father's car, it was a police car.
"Um, mom?"
Lillian stood up at the knock on the door, and opened it to be face with a policeman.
"Are you Lillian Arendelle?" He asked. Two other policemen joined his side.
She nodded slowly. The police noticed the large amount of people in the living room.
"May we speak to you in private?"
"O-of course, officer." She led them into the kitchen.
Anna and Elsa shared a look, before standing up to follow their mother. Their mother's friend, Belle, stopped them however, shaking her head at them. Fifteen minutes passed and they finally let the girls go into the kitchen. Elsa saw her mother, her beautiful, strong mother, crying in her hands.
"It wasn't your husband's fault, Mrs. Arendelle. Another driver hit him head on, he didn't survive, either."
Elsa was smart enough to gather what they were talking about, and Anna could take a hint. Elsa pulled her sister close.
The police continued talking, but it didn't reach Elsa's ears. She was in shock. Her father, her kind, handsome father, was gone. Anna rushed over to hug her mother. Lillian stroked her hair. Rapunzel came bouncing in.
"What's going on?" Elsa shushed her and picked her up. She was too young to understand. Elsa wasn't completely sure if she understood herself. Death was for sick people, old people, not people who had so much love to give, people who had so much ahead of them.
A week later
Lillian sat at her husband's old desk, running her hand through her hair as she wrote.
Elsa peeked through the doorway, now Lillian sat still. Just staring at the paper.
"Mom?" Lillian's eyes flickered up.
"Yes, dear?" Her voice was hoarse.
"Aren't you hungry?"
"No, darling. You can make the girls something, can't you?"
"Yes, mother."
Elsa walked from the study into the kitchen, filled with flowers and letters. She opened the fridge, filled with casseroles and other homemade foods friends had given them.
The siblings ate their food in silence. This was the most silent they had ever been, since Elsa could remember.
Another week passed and Elsa was becoming aware of what was going on. They were short on money, and Lillian didn't work.
"Mommy, are you going to have to work like Mrs. Belle?" Anna had asked.
This had set their mother off in a sort of way, she got very emotional about how she wasn't groomed to work, that she was nothing but a pretty decoration meant to please a man.
Lillian gathered the girls one evening in the living room, to have a talk with them.
"Now, girls." She began. "Your father worked very hard to make sure that we had everything we could ever need, and more. Now that he is not here, we don't have those luxuries. And pretty soon, we won't be able to lie.
"What? You can't be serious!" Anna yelled. She loved the house they grew up in very much, she couldn't imagine someone else living here, or them living anywhere else.
"Anna." Elsa scolded quietly.
Lillian continued, kneeling in front of her daughters.
"But not to worry." She smiled. "You see, your grandparents, my parents, they are rich. Filthy rich! So rich they don't know what to do with themselves." She got a gleam in her eyes. "The second i earn my father's trust, and he sees what beautiful children I have," She stroked Rapunzel's hair. "He'll accept me back into the will just like that!"
Elsa was confused. Grandparents? Will? What had their mother done that was so terrible that she was disinherited from her family fortune?
"I'll tell you about it later. I promise. But for now, you need to trust me. They live in Virginia, in a mansion, hundreds of times bigger than this house. Surrounded by money and riches!" She smiled again.
Anna liked the sound of that. Being worth millions, or maybe even billions of dollars.
"Once I gain his trust, I'll introduce you to him, he won't be able to resist the charms of me and my beautiful children."
Elsa looked skeptical.
"Elsa," Lillian's tone changed. "He is old, very old. On his deathbed, really." Elsa was surprised about how she spoke of him with little care. "It won't take me long, and before you know it, we'll be rich! You guys are going to have to pack, but only a suitcase each, okay?"
"A suitcase each?" Anna did not like the sound of that.
"Yes. We're leaving tomorrow."
Elsa grew warm to the idea. It was exciting. It would be a whole new world for her to discover and explore.
She had no idea just how small that world would be.