Silent Nights

It all began on a silent night.
When the world was drenched in twilight, bathing in its darkness like any other evening. When the outlying valley spreading within the borderline of Arendelle was sketched in the shades of dusk. When the sky was wide awake with the sparkle of stars sprinkled across its canvas slathered of navy. Not one soul stirred in their slumber. Not a rustle to be heard beneath the sheets. Not an eyelid to bat. Not a breath to bleed from one's lips. And yet, somewhere within the walls of the kingdom's mighty castle of cobblestone courtyards and stone walls, the soft sound of children's collective laughter could be heard echoing throughout the palace.

Deep in the heart of the palace, right in the very center of the throne room, a spell of midnight fun was cast as the young princesses danced and frolicked amidst the glistening white powder that littered the floor like frosting upon a cake. They celebrated the beauty and entertainment of the snow in multiple forms of fun. From the piles they shaped a body, building men out of snow. They swept up the remaining snowflake dust and molded them into snowballs, which they tossed to and fro at one another from opposite ends of the room, attempting to strike each other in the heat of the night. They folded in upon themselves, trying to tuck and imagine themselves as small as possible as they tumbled down the mounds of snow, racing each other to the bottom but stopping every now and then to grasp their stomachs in a fit of laughter. Their faces pink and their lungs finding it difficult to search for air in between the gasps. All weight in their limbs and sand in their eyes from sleep had dissolved into the banter and merriment of the night.

But it all quickly melted into the silence that the evening was soon plunged into.
In their bewildered state of rapturous joy, something went terribly wrong. And Princess Elsa, the elder of the two, could feel it in her fingertips before she even saw the fateful moment unraveling into time before the cerulean blue floating in her irises. Tragedy struck, leaving the young Princess Anna rendered to lie in an unconscious heap in her sister's arms. Her body was limp and her skin was cool to the touch, as cold as ice. Her eyelids were drawn over the blue of her eyes as easily as if she were sleeping.

A heavy silence that sweltered of heat befell the kingdom and draped itself across Elsa's shoulders. The weight was a burden wearing her down and anchoring her where she sat and cradled her sister tenderly in her arms, stroking her round little face and running her fingers through her hair, where a silvery streak of white now began to manifest itself into her tendrils of auburn. Not even Elsa's cries of anguish and sobs of dispaire could be heard over the silence. Nothing could break its spell.

And what had begun as a silent night, ended with only a shattered childhood.

It began with a knock. It was not necessary for Elsa to unlock the door to discover that it was Anna tapping with her knuckles on the other side. Her feet twisting inward at the floor. Her fingers and toes furling and unfurling. Her eyes staring intently at the brass handle with the hope that it may be twisted open and her taps may be answered.

It was a simple action, one everyone has engaged in before, but Anna had a certain way with her knocks. It had as much to do with the amount of force she applied to it, to the number of times she tapped, to the rhythm she knocked in tune to. She had a way of making the sound of a tap her own, a way that Elsa could easily distinguish without considering a thought. And her every tap felt like a fist of ice enclosing upon Elsa's heart one finger at a time until it was completely frozen. Until she was completely frozen. Nothing but ice was left of her. Nothing but the storm brewing beneath her pale skin remained.

She was frozen in that moment. That moment when the silence descends from the sky. From the grey clouds and blank canvas. That moment when you couldn't determine whether it would rain or shine. Except Elsa was waiting for the storm. The storm and whatever else came after. And what came after was the broken taps of her sister left unanswered and hanging between them.

She called her name. First came the tap. Her tap. Then came her voice. The sound of Elsa's name rolling off her tongue, slowly, hesitantly. Sticky, hot, and thick. As if it were an unfamiliar word to her tongue and she didn't quite yet know how to speak it. And it pained Elsa to hear her speak it in such a way, when she had known it so well only last Christmas.

But she felt that if she attempted to remind Anna of how well they had once had each other memorized, she wouldn't even hear her anymore. The gap between them was too wide. The distance too great. Too difficult to cross. They were like East and West, opposite ends of the earth that were so far from each other they couldn't even be scrawled on the same parchment of map anymore.

Elsa could only imagine all the presents St. Nicholas had left for Anna. All of which she would have to unwrap alone when the first flames of dawn burned across the sky in the morning. And she could just summon to mind the image of her family sitting down to dine for the turkey feast. Stuffing, mashed potatos creamy of butter, cranberry sauce that melted upon your tongue, and all the flavors Elsa loved about the holidays. Everything on the table tasting like Christmas served to you on a platter. But it was for the second consecutive year that one chair out of the four would remain vacant for the feast. Vacant and forgotten, filled only with the ghost of emptiness.

"Elsa?"

The next visit Anna paid her sister, she had tapped and called her name so many times that they had lost their meaning long ago. But that never prevented Elsa from listening. And now, now she heard the words she could never forget to slip from her sister's lips.

Of all things. Out of everythijng she could ask her sister. Perhaps, the reason she is hiding behind a closed door. Or why she doesn't speak. Why she avoids her the way she does. Why she refuses to emerge from her chambers. Why she will not answer her years worth of pleas, all of which have failed to breach the wall standing between them. She asked Elsa the one question she couldn't bear to hear anymore. Anna's words sent the storm spiraling out from under the skin and erupting from Elsa's fingertips.

Everything she touched was coated in a layer of frost, leaving her entire bed chambers frozen along with the her. The walls splattered in frost, the glass too foggy to even peer through, the icicles dangling from the ceiling chiming with the vibrations reverberating throughout the castle. Even the tears cascading down her pale cheeks froze with the contact of her skin in little droplets. She was so cold, so numb, that she couldn't even feel it anymore. Not even the pain of Anna's words could reach her now.

"Elsa, do you want to build a snowman?"

It hurt when the knocks came pounding on the wall everyday. Every Christmas. Every time the kingdom was buried in the white powder of snowflakes rained down and sprinkled the world from the heavens above. It hurt when her voice spoke her muffled pleas through the wall, begging for her heavy words that had long since emptied of their hope to be met with an answer. Even if they were only to be rejected. It hurt when her footsteps could be heard padding down the corridor and approaching her chambers, only to be sent away in the other direction.

It was worse when it all stopped. When the knocking had ceased. When her voice had faded into the silence her words were always met with. When her footsteps steered the other way without the need to propel them. It hurt so much more when she gave up on her. When she too, surrendered to the silence before the storm.

These were dark times. Days that washed over the kingdom of Arendelle in a disorienting blur. Its citizens clad and sketched in shades of grey and black. Their faces struck with grief and contorted into expressions of sorrow. Their cheeks hollow, the lines etched and hanging low in their sunken faces, their eyes red and bulging of shed tears. The castle courtyards were littered with the blossoms of early spring as old things became new with the change of seasons. Subjects from all across the land gathered in the royal gardens and stood in a blotch of black and grey that stained the damp grass under the soles of their polished grey footwear. And it was there that the final respects and farewells were paid to the last resting place of the king and queen of Arendelle.

All had attended from far and wide. All but one. And only the ghost of her absence lingered, noticed only by the one person who hadn't yet forgotten her.
The taps pounded from the other side of the wall, the sound endeavoring to penetrate the fortress of ice that caged her and prevented the storm from seeping out through the sliver of a crqck in the under the locked door. It was a sister's last attempt and reconciliation. Though for what reason they had to rekindle their bond she did not know. Or rather, remember. But what she did know was that she needed her sister. Now more then ever. It was only the two of them now. Left alone in the world. They were all that was left of a broken family. And they couldn't stand alone at their opposite corners of the map mending the pieces on their own.

Her voice spoke. Softly. Gently. As fragile as glass. As if she spoke too loudly, she would shatter all together. Her words bled from her lips, begging, pleading, desperate. Her voice just as sad and as stained with grey as the clouds that hovered above the kingdom were, which had seeped their way onto the pale canvas and stayed there, refusing to be budged by the wind. Each syllable wavered with the sobs she suppressed and swallowed down her throat where she buried them deep in her stomach, only to feel the ache of her sorrow twisting her inside out from there. Her blue eyes stung with the oncoming tears but she blinked them back anyway, refusing to cry before her sister.

She sunk down against the door between them, and Elsa could just feel the heat radiating from Anna's back over the ache of her heart, which withered away in her chest little by little along with Anna's voice. She couldn't contain it. She couldn't control it. She couldn't conceal it. She couldn't keep it at bay. Not under the gloves that sheathed her hands. It was a demon living inside her. A living force trying to break free of it's shackles. She was no longer Elsa. But the storm that thrashed inside. She had been taken, and she was helpless to stop it.

They fell. Long and hard. Little by little they sunk deeper into their own chasms of darkness. And little by little the distance grew. The doors became thicker. The words fewer. The silence heavier. And when their hands could no longer grasp the edge of the abyss, they fell from their opposite corners of the earth. Falling apart piece by piece.

"Elsa. Please, I know you're in there.

People have been asking where you've been.

They say 'have courage' and I'm trying to.

I'm right out here for you. Just let me in.

We only have each other. It's just you and me.

What are we going to do?

Do you want to build a snowman?"

Grey faded into white. Black dissolved into blue. Blossoms bloomed in the thick of winter, their petals flushed of a rosy pink and thriving of life. New wilted into old. Old sprouted into new. The long winter had melted away just as a new sprinkle began to fleck and descend from the blue painting the sky. The powder coated Arendelle in a blanket glowing of frost. Gay merriment ensued as the holiday affairs were celebrated all across the plains of the kingdom. And what little distance remained between the sisters melted away as they hands clasped one another's their palms slipping into a bond intertwined of fingers as they mended the pieces together.

A gust of wind was summoned, which carried with it a flurry of glistening snowflakes. The gust waltzed at their skirts and swept of the golden ornament of a star, which was then planted atop the pine tree that was nestled away in the foyer. Its limbs flourished of a rich green were adorned and dangled with festive ornaments of red, gold, green and white. Tinsel wrapped around its body, hugging the tree's bark.

The sisters enveloped one another in an embrace. The storm had dissipated. The ice long since melted. Doors were knocked down. Words were exchanged. The burden fell from their shoulders. And the silence dissolved into the laughter that spilled from their lips. Blissful elation spread in their lips and washed over the kingdom, as all of Arendelle fell into peace at long last as the seasons came and went with the passing years. And at her sister's words, Elsa's eyelids drew swiftly over the blue coloring her irises as softy as if she were drifting into sleep.

"Make a wish Elsa."

Just a little something I was inspired to write in honor of sisterhood and in the spirit of the holidays.
If you wonderful readers are interested, I also write Frozen and Rise of The Guardians crossovers so I hope you guys can take a look at them, pretty please? It would mean a lot:)
Hope you enjoyed and please leave reviews because they make me smile:)

Thanks for reading!

-birdywings