When the snowflakes had piled up on his face, Kristoff Bjorgman moaned. He brushed them away with a gloved hand.
"Hey Sven, remind me to add a roof to this thing sometime."
The reindeer looked back at his friend.
"But then it'd be a carriage, not a sleigh!" Kristoff squeaked. After being out in the cold all day, his reindeer voice wasn't at its usual pitch.
"Always with the jokes, huh? I'd be okay with a carriage, I'm a little hoarse myself."
Sven rolled his eyes and continued on his way, carrying his master and the sleigh down the foothills of the North Mountain, just as the beautiful kingdom of Arendelle came into view. Kristoff squinted, but could only barely make out the rooftops of people's homes, shrouded in darkness. Even most of the lights in the castle's windows were extinguished. He really was late.
"You think Anna will forgive me, Sven? I didn't even have the time to buy her flowers."
Sven just snorted. Kristoff sighed, trying not to think of the trouble he might be in with Anna. It was her insistence that they celebrate "Valentine's Day", some strange holiday from America. He had never heard of it before, but he liked the idea.
In the actual town now, the royal ice deliverer wondered why some of the chimneys of the houses weren't emitting any smoke, especially on such a cold night. On the same roofs, he imagined he saw tiny footprints in the fallen snow. It looked like Arendelle's squirrels and birds were looking for a place to get warm, to no avail.
Once Sven had finally passed the opened castle gates and pulled up to the main doors, Kristoff dismounted. The two guards that usually stood outside to let him in weren't there.
"Must be switching shifts..." he said.
Kristoff knocked on the double doors as loudly as he could. He waited a few seconds, but there was no answer.
Knock knock.
Nothing.
Knock knock.
Still nothing.
It was then that Kristoff happened to look down at his feet and see a bit of red seeping out from under the doors, collecting at his feet and staining the white snow. His heart skipped a beat.
"Oh my God. Oh my God..."
He turned and headed back to his sleigh, grabbing the pickaxe and still-burning lantern from it. He put his hand on his reindeer's head and looked into his eyes.
"Listen to me. There's always at least two other guards stationed over at the stables. I want you to get over there as fast as you can, do whatever you need to, to get them over here. Got it?"
Sven nodded. His master unhooked his harness, freeing him from the burden of the sleigh.
"Now go!"
The reindeer sprinted away as Kristoff returned to the castle doors. He took a moment to survey the texture of them: they were a heavy oak, very sturdy and durable. But they would break easily under steel.
The ice harvester brought his pickaxe down on a door, splintering the wood. He withdrew it, prying chips of the oak out, then swung it back down. After multiple attempts, he had finally broken through, creating a small hole right above a doorknob. He reached through it and fumbled around for a lock, and soon enough, felt it in his hand and turned it. He quickly pulled open the castle door.
Kristoff was used to the deaths of animals, having grown up around them. He already understood at an early age that they couldn't live forever, and were vulnerable to all sorts of sicknesses and violence. It was a part of nature. But he would never get used to the idea of human death, especially when it was staring him right in the face.
Both guards lay in pools of their blood, streaks of it lining the walls of the small entrance hall. One lay face-down, one lay face-up. The face-up guard's glassy eyes stared up at him and chilled him to the bone, far colder than the winter outside. With only a glance, Kristoff saw that the departed guard's chest had been torn wide open, the cavity exposed.
"Damn it, damn..."
Kristoff ran for the second set of doors at the end of the hallway, pulling at their handles. They too were locked. Frustrated, he repeated his process of breaking in, smashing the wood and turning the lock on the other side.
The expanse of the castle's main hall greeted him. He looked around, lighting up dark corners of the room with his lantern.
"Hello? Hello?! Someone, anyone! There's an intruder in the castle!"
Kristoff knew that technically, he too was an intruder. But there was no time to play semantics with himself. He raced up the front staircase, skipping two stairs at a time. He gripped his pickaxe in one hand and the lantern in the other, not wanting to lose either.
"Right or left? Which was it?" he wondered aloud, trying to figure out where the next set of guards usually were. He decided to go left, running down the hall and stealing glances at each door he passed. He made another left, then a right, another right, and a left again. Finally, he came to a door he recognized, one he knew would contain more of the royal guard inside. He wrenched it open, and saw that his memory was accurate; there were indeed guards inside, three more of them.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me."
Horrified, Kristoff shook his head, seeing the soldiers lying about amongst the papers, broken furniture and splashes of their own blood. Like their friends downstairs, their chests were ripped open. The coagulating stench was overbearing. Holding his nose, Kristoff ducked out of the room.
The mountain man stood in the hall for a moment, deciding whether or not to continue onwards or turn back. He wished he had spent more time learning the castle's layout. He felt like he was in a labyrinth.
Kai.
The name reminded Kristoff of where he could go next. He remembered Kai's quarters, not far from where he already was. He would find him and tell him what happened. He would know what to do.
The ice harvester headed back down the hallway, making a right turn now where he had previously made a left. Soon, he was at Kai's door. Without bothering to knock, he pushed it open.
"Kai! Kai, wake up!"
The butler groaned, rubbing his forehead when his snores were interrupted.
"Do you have any idea what hour it is? My job is difficult enough during the day, you better have a damn good reason for waking me."
"There's a killer loose in the castle!" Kristoff panted. He wasted no time in getting to the point.
Kai stared at him.
"If this is a joke, it isn't funny."
"It's not! Whoever it is, they've already murdered five of the royal guard!"
The servant got out of bed, pulling on his robe and lighting a lamp.
"Are you quite sure, Kristoff?"
"I'm sure of it!"
He indicated his boot, still stained with the blood of the soldiers at the entrance. Kai's eyes widened. It was all the proof he needed, to know something had gone horribly wrong.
"I'll go wake the servants, and find what guards I can. But I need you to be at Queen Elsa and Princess Anna's side. They will need to know about this, their safety is your immediate priority. Understand?"
"I got it."
"Good. We'll find who's behind this, and I'll see to it that they're punished. Severely. Now, away with you."
Kristoff rushed out of the room, retracing his steps all the way back to the main hall. He hurried past the staircase and into the right hallway he had ignored before. This section of the castle he knew like the back of his hand. He sprinted down halls and climbed steps that had become as familiar to him as his mountain routes.
Kristoff ran even faster when he heard Anna's shrieks echoing through the castle. From the light of his lantern, Kristoff saw the familiar green, yellow and purple flower patterns of Anna's bedroom door come into view.
"ANNA!" he shouted frantically. He kicked open the door.
Poised above Anna's bed, barely visible in the dim light from Kristoff's lantern, a mass of thin, spindly limbs held her down. It was hard to tell the creature's exact size, but it was certainly larger than a reindeer. The arms and legs were attached to an oblong thorax that looked like it was from the worst sort of horror story. What must have been its face, full of antennae and feelers, turned to look at Kristoff. It emitted a low noise, a cross between a hiss and a wheezing chuckle.
"Kristo...!"
Anna's voice was cut off when the creature covered her mouth with a pincered hand, muffling her voice. It reached two sharp, barbed limbs to her chest, and started to rip away the cloth of her nightgown.
"Get off her!"
Kristoff rushed towards the thing, raising his pickaxe. He jumped onto its back and struck at what he hoped was its head. Quicker than he could react, the monster let go of Anna and instead grabbed him, throwing him across the room. Kristoff yelled in pain as he smacked against the wall, hard.
The creature left its perch on Anna's bed and crawled towards him, its body moving erratically like a spider or crab from Hell. It reached for him, clamping down on his arms and legs and stifling his movements. Kristoff tried to scream, but a lengthy claw extended from its back and pushed itself onto his mouth.
The creature put four limbs to the mountain man's chest and tore open his sweater and shirt in one movement, then began digging into his skin.
The back of the thing lit on fire as Anna smashed Kristoff's lantern against it.
"SSKKKRRRRREEEE!"
The monster withdrew its arms from Kristoff, shrinking down to the size of a dog and jumping onto the ceiling. It rapidly clambered across the room, then dropped down and scuttled away, out the open door.
With a nasty realization, Kristoff thought back to the houses he had passed on his way into town, and the tiny footprints he saw on the rooftops. He now knew why the chimneys, with their unattended fireplaces, with their open spaces inviting anything to slip down them, didn't emit any smoke. He now knew that those footprints weren't from squirrels or birds.
"Kristoff! Kristoff, are you all right? What was that thing?"
Anna knelt down beside her fiancé, looking at his wounds with tears in her eyes.
"I have no idea. But I'm fine, it's just a few scratches."
He gave her a quick kiss and hugged her, then let her help him up to his feet.
"Listen, whatever that thing is, we need to get to Elsa. It might be heading for her."
"Okay, let's go."
Anna threw on a robe and picked up a lamp, lighting it and heading out of the room, Kristoff following closely behind her.
Outside Elsa's door, the thing paused. Reaching a cold tendril up to the handle, it played around with it. The barrier held steady, being locked tight and refusing to open. The appendage let go of the handle and began to morph, taking on the shape of a key. Carefully, deliberately, the creature put its shifted arm into the keyhole and slowly turned it.
Click.
It pushed the door open, then shut it behind itself and silently crept into the room toward Elsa's bed. Just as it grasped the end of the bed frame, a giant hand came from above and closed around it.
The creature found itself staring into the angry face of Marshmallow, the snowman and royal bodyguard. Having never seen anything like it before, he quietly growled at the thing, wondering what to do with it.
The monster shifted back to its original size, becoming almost as big as Marshmallow. It smacked him across the face with a large tentacle. The snowman grunted at the blow and fell to the floor with a loud boom.
Awoken by the commotion, Queen Elsa of Arendelle cast a snow flurry over the room, flooding it with pale blue light.
She jumped when she saw the weird beast that stood before her. Its milky-white skin was covered in black, bruise-like sores. Its limbs were a dark blue, sharp, like living icicles. It stood up on its seven back legs and raised its arms into the air, regarding her with multiple eyes.
It opened a mouth on one claw and, to Elsa's astonishment, began to speak.
"Mooothherrr..."
The thing had a grating voice, like nails on a blackboard. The mouth that was speaking twisted its lips, trying to form proper speech.
"Mother. Spent so long up on the mountain, waiting to come down."
Dismayed, Elsa rose to her feet, ice already spreading out from them. Cold air hovered around her hands; she was ready to use her magic if the creature made the slightest move towards her.
"Left me on the mountain. Remember? The ice palace, the pretty ice palace you made. You made it, you made me. Do you remember? I lived in the walls, didn't you see me there? You make such pretty things with your powers. The palace, me."
"Why are you here? What do you want?"
The crustaceous being ignored the queen's panicked question.
"The men in green, and the man with red hair. They followed you, they came to our home, they tried to hurt you. No one hurts mother. So I come down here, in safe winter. I kill them."
"Who? My...the guards? Did you-"
"Where is man with red hair? I can't find him."
"Do you mean Prince Hans? He's gone, back in the Southern Isles. He's in prison now, he can't hurt anyone."
"Where is southernile? I find Hans, kill him too. Tear head off, eat his skin. No one hurts mother."
Marshmallow had returned to his feet. With a yell, he sprouted sharp icicles from his body and hands, swiping at the monster with his claws. At an impressive speed, it dodged out of the way, backflipping behind the snowman and wrapping dozens of tentacles around him, ensnaring him and pinning him to the ground.
"Nasty brute. Big and clumsy. You might hurt mother too."
"Stop it! Let him go!"
Elsa raised her hand and shot a warning bolt of ice at the thing, but it simply shifted its body out of harm's way.
"I tear this one's head, then I find southernile. Tear his head, eat his skin."
The queen stared at the thing in disbelief. Her mind flashed back to her brief time spent on the North Mountain during Arendelle's untimely winter. She remembered the stress, her emotions that constantly threatened to go out of control. Did she somehow create this freakish behemoth alongside her ice palace?
The monster's barbed stinger-like tail hung in the air, then shot down towards Marshmallow's head.
"NO!"
Elsa made a pushing motion, and the thing released Marshmallow from its grip, crashing against the wall, then hovering in one spot, suspended in mid-air by its creator's influence.
"Why hurt me? Just want to protect. Men in green hated you."
"Those are my guards, it's their job to protect me. If you laid a hand on a single one of them, I swear..."
"No. Girdz no protect, only hurt. But I took their love from them after the kill. Kill, then love. Kill, then love."
"What the hell are you trying to say?!"
"The things they used to love others, I took them all, collected them from inside them and put them deep in me. Collect them, then give them to you. My mother. I take their love, give it to you. I love you."
Elsa's door flew open, revealing Kristoff and her sister, Anna.
"Don't come any closer!" Elsa warned. "Just...stay back! Marshmallow, get out of the way!"
The big snowman obeyed, getting up off the floor and heading over to Kristoff and Anna, protectively standing in front of them.
Hesitantly, Elsa spoke to the thing bound by her spell.
"I don't know what you're supposed to be or how you came about, but I'm not your mother. You're an evil monster, and you're a danger to me, my friends, my people, and this kingdom."
Elsa snapped her fingers, and the thing started to melt. This time the creature opened every single one of its mouths, emitting hair-raising howls from them as it died.
"WHHHYYYYY? WWWWHHHYYYYY MOTHER!"
With each mouth crying out in unison, the voices grew even more distorted than their "normal" state, degenerating into nearly unrecognizable shrieks.
"ILOVU MOTHER!"
With a final burst of strength, it lifted two claws to its degenerated thorax, and ripped it open. Black blood spurted from its gaping wound, soiling the fine carpet. With the black, smaller fleshy pieces of red meat fell to the ground.
Kristoff held Anna close as she covered her mouth with both hands, shocked. Elsa let her arms fall to her sides, not taking her eyes off the thing she had killed. Repulsed by the whole situation, she continued to look onward with disgust.
Kai came into the doorway, followed closely behind by a few servants, some guards, Sven, and Olaf.
"Your Majesty, there is-"
"There's an intruder? I don't think we'll have to worry about that anymore," she replied without looking at him.
Kai surveyed the scene, those behind him craning to try and get a closer look.
"Ma'am...what the devil happened here?"
The queen answered him with her own question.
"How many did it get?"
The butler made no effort to hide his utter revulsion and terror.
"...we have lost over half of the staff, and we have counted 29 guards so far among them. We have already even received reports from people in town about..."
Queen Elsa sat down on her bed, shut her eyes and put her face in her hands. She tried to suppress her tears, but they arrived all the same.
Everyone else looked on, mystified, as they watched what was left of the creature melt into a putrid, foul puddle of white ooze. But Elsa's tears did not melt away, and neither did the mashed, partially-liquefied mounds of human hearts that lay near the monster's remains.