/1. Shut/
Anna shudders awake with a gasp, and wipes away the icy sheen lining her forehead.
I had the strangest dream, she thinks, Elsa hit me in the face with a snowball. Daddy whisked me away to the forest and an olive-skinned man with a huge nose told me about the fun of winter.
Failing to notice the single lock of blonde hair bobbing against her eyelids, her little feet make thud-thud-thud noises on the teak floorboards as she scampers to Elsa's room.
Like she usually does, Anna tries the handle. But for the first time in her life, it's locked.
/2. Snivel/
"Please, Elsa," Anna pleads, slumping to her knees before the door, "we don't even have to play – or do anything. I-I j-just need to-, I mean, I just want to s-see you."
"No!" Elsa whimpers. Even behind the door, Anna can hear the strain in her voice. "I can't! You don't understand, please, just g-go away!"
With her fingers still hanging from the handle, Anna presses her head against the wood and sighs. She looks up when she hears a snivel. But her trembling fingers come away with moisture from her cheeks, and she wonders if it was really herself.
/3. Shatter/
"El-sa!" Anna sings, "I made something for you!"
Hearing a flutter beneath the door, Elsa bolts from her chair and stumbles across the rug. By the time she picks up the painting, she's heaving with excitement.
A smile spreads across her face when she sees the portrait of two girls playing in the snow.
"Anna," Elsa gasps, hoping she's still around to hear, "it's beautiful!"
Her heart clenches when she examines the cheery expressions on their faces, and frost crackles from her fingertips.
She shrieks in horror; the painting slips from her hands and shatters into tiny shards of ice
/4. Blanket/
A throbbing in her head rouses her awake from the floor. She rubs her temples and stares at the purple door; it's amazing how such a flimsy wooden contraption could cause so much hurt.
Anna's eyes widen as she paws at the blanket covering her body. Pink wool, blue flowers. Like the one from her room, or one of Elsa's?
She hammers her fist at the door and hollers, "Elsa!"
Nothing.
Anna spends the rest of the day flitting from servant to servant, waving the blanket in their faces and daring to hope there's a heart behind that purple door.
/5. Silence/
Anna's knuckles stretch towards the door, before she notices a vertical trail of faded paint in the lilac motif. The discoloration starts three feet off the ground and gets less faded with each year of unanswered knocks as Anna grows taller.
It's no point, she thinks, and slowly allows her fingers to slide back between the folds of her dress.
Pressed up against the floor, Elsa bites her fingers as she sees her sister's feet slip away in silence. No knocks, not even a sigh.
It's never happened before, but her tears blossom into snowflakes before they reach the floor.
/6. Pain/
Hearing footsteps, Elsa leans against the door and waits. She smiles when a note appears.
I can hear your breaths when I hold mine. Sometimes I pretend it's enough.
Elsa balls up her fists and tears her gaze away. Ice crystals form on each breath she takes.
"Anna?" she calls out, but her sister is already a dozen paces down the corridor with reddened eyes.
With a sigh, Elsa pulls on three pairs of gloves and turns the paper over before slipping it carefully into a leather-bound journal with the others.
She fails miserably at tying the overflowing book shut.
/7. Mourn/
Anna pulls the black shawl from her shoulders and hesitates, staring at the floor. The carpet turns damp by the time she musters the courage to knock and it robs whatever's left inside her. She crumbles to the ground, burying her face in her hands. For once, Elsa speaks first.
"They're gone aren't they?"
"H-h-how'd you know?"
"I saw the carriages."
With heads tucked between their knees, the sisters weep against the door; their grief accentuated knowing they've never done anything else together for years.
A freezing draft forces Anna to shift, but she's forgotten it's the middle of summer.
/8. Resolute/
"I'm prying open your door."
"What? No!"
"I've had enough, Elsa! You can't keep doing this to yourself, or me!"
Elsa stumbles on the sheet of ice forming beneath her footsteps as she slips across her room, "No, please Anna – you can't! It's dangero-"
But Anna's downstairs struggling to lift a Halberd from an armor-suit. Her chest heaves as she drags the weapon up the stairs. She aims the tip at the door and leans back. But before she can swing, the door creaks open, and her pike clatters to the floor.
A single, perfect snowflake floats through the gap.
/9. Haunt/
A gasp escapes Anna's lips as she eases the door open. Tendrils of ice have frozen over the entire room. It takes a moment for her to register the source of the bitter frost still crackling through the wood: a blonde girl curled up against the bed, bearing a haunted grimace on her face.
"Elsa?"
Elsa's shuddering from something; Anna knows it's not the cold. There're tears on her face, but even those are frozen solid.
Anna reaches into her pockets with trembling fingers, and retrieves something.
Their eyes meet, and she extends the bar of chocolate towards her sister.
/10. Resolution/
"I'm calling the guards."
Elsa's words send a chill into her heart, and she knows it's not the frost.
"Please, we just-. How could you call-, when I-"
"Guar-"
In a fit of panic, Anna lurches from the ice and flings herself into Elsa's arms. She crushes her lips into her sister's, not just to shut her up, but to make up for every moment they've been apart.
Anna slips on the ice and drags Elsa on top of her. Their hands go limp when they kiss again.
Water trickles from the ceiling, but Elsa doesn't bother wiping her face.