Darkness. That's all I could see. Blackness. Nothing but obscurity. I opened my eyes. At least I thought I did. I felt my eyelids open but I could still see nothing.
What was going on? Why couldn't I see?
And then I remembered. It all came flooding back.
The fight. The magic. My sister.
We'd never argued like that. Even when Elsa was hiding her powers, she had never gotten as angry as she did just hours prior. I had felt the anger radiating off of her mixing in with my own.
And then we both lost control. I remembered Kristoff trying to calm me down. I remembered shrugging him off without a second thought. But that shouldn't mean I wasn't able to see.
I paused for a moment, thinking. Feeling. The anger was gone. Well, at least the reason that was there before. But it was replaced with something else. Panic.
'Hello?' I called. I sat up, hastily feeling around me. I felt a soft, plush object around me. A duvet? I felt around me and caught the edge of the object. It was my duvet alright. I was in bed.
Suddenly, I heard a door click open and rushed footsteps. Unexpectedly, someone cried, 'Anna!' It was Kristoff. I'd know my boyfriend's voice anywhere.
Suddenly I felt dizzy. I grabbed onto the bedsheets in the hope of steadying myself. I couldn't. I took short breaths. I felt nauseated. 'Anna!' I heard a rough voice call out. It was the same process. Short, sharp breaths. Dizziness. Hearing that voice. Chest tightened. Shaking body.
'Anna, try to listen to me,' a new voice said. 'Try to focus on my voice. Follow my breathing.' The person started breathing in and out lowly. I couldn't follow. 'Anna, breathe in and out slowly.'
Finally, I was able to slow down my breathing. In… and out… in… and out… in… and out…
'That's it. Good girl, sweetie.' The shaking in my body stopped; the pain in my chest eased little by little until I could no longer feel it; my head stopped spinning and I loosened my grip of the bedsheets.
But I still couldn't see. 'Kristoff?' I asked.
'I'm here, honey,' he replied. 'I'm standing beside you. It's OK.' I felt his arm slide around my shoulders and his free hand grip mine. I gave it a squeeze, just to make sure I was still there alive.
'Why can't I see?' I asked.
Silence. Literally nothing was heard in the room. What the heck? 'Kristoff?'
'Well...' he began. 'Elsa kind of shot you in the eyes with her ice magic after you and her... you know. What happened.'
What? Elsa... shot me? She blinded me?
'No, she didn't,' I said stubbornly.
I heard him sigh. 'Yes, Anna,' he replied sadly. 'She did.'
'No!' I refused to believe it. 'She'd never hurt me.'
'Yes.' Another voice. Elsa's voice. 'I did. And I don't regret it. At all.'
WHAT?! No, she did not. She did not say that. My mind clouded with thoughts of Elsa betraying me. I had been betrayed by my own sister. My previous anger returned. I thought our argument was just a one-off thing. I mean, we were both pretty tired, probably annoyed and not in the mood to take any nonsense. But she did it on purpose and doesn't regret it.
I sucked in a breath. 'Oh, you can count yourself lucky that I can't see,' I said in a low voice. 'If I could see you...' I shook my head, chuckling evilly.
'You'd cower away in fear, Anna. You wouldn't have the heart to fight back after what we went through before.' She laughed. 'And all over a celebration. Pathetic.'
I was trembling again, but this time it was out of anger. So what if I want to celebrate Christmas? 'Christmas is five months away. I don't know why we're arguing over it now,' I said.
I felt like I was just talking. I didn't know who I was talking to. Heck, Elsa could have even have left the room and I wouldn't have known. That was the most annoying thing.
'You brought it up. You got excited about it. I wasn't even going to talk about it.'
'And you got angry. You said outright that we're not celebrating.' I frowned. I didn't even know where Elsa was. If I was facing her or not.
Then, I felt someone's breath tickle my ear. 'Anna,' they whispered. Kristoff. 'Calm down. Block her out. Don't reply. Bite your tongue. Don't let her get you worked up.'
I did as he said. But what happened to I'm going to protect you? What happened to I would never hurt you?
'I guess I turned brutal. Heartless,' my sister's voice said. 'And it's all. Your. Fault.'
I said it out loud. Shit.
Don't reply, don't reply, don't reply, don't reply.
'Elsa, I think it would be best for you to leave the room. It'll give you both some time to calm down,' Kristoff said.
'Gladly.' And then Her Majesty left the room.
I gasped. What had just happened? Did Elsa and I just have another argument? I felt tears glazing my unseeing eyes. We'd only just restored our relationship. We'd only just become closer. We'd only just gotten over what our parents put us though.
And it was already... over...
I leaned back until I could feel the headboard of the bed against my back. The tears fell without my consent. I wiped them away, hoping that Kristoff hadn't seen. But I wouldn't know. Unless he reacted, I wouldn't know if he had seen them.
But then again, if he didn't react, then…
'Anna?' he said. Drat. He'd seen them. 'Anna, it's OK.' I felt the bed sag under his weight and I sat up.
'Kristoff… I can't see…' I whispered, my earlier panic returning. 'Will I ever see again?'
'Well…' He sighed again. I had a feeling I knew where this was going. 'I… don't think so, sweetheart.'
It hit me like a ton of bricks. I would never see. I would never see myself in a mirror. I would never see the outside world again. I would never see Kristoff…
The tears fell again and this time I didn't care if Kristoff saw them. I let them stream down my cheeks as I laid back down, facing away from him. He tried talking to me, but I didn't answer. Four words were constantly swimming around in my head: I won't ever see. Eventually, Kristoff gave up trying to get me to talk to him. He whispered, 'I'll come and check on you later, love. Hope you feel at least a little better soon.' He kissed my cheek and then straightened up. 'I love you,' was the last thing I heard from him before the door softly clicked shut.
I managed to smile slightly through my tears. I love you, too, Kris.
I opened my eyelids, just to make sure that this was real. I was met with black. It was real alright. My eyelids closed once again and after mercilessly wishing death on Elsa and wiping my eyes, I drifted slowly off into Dreamland.
I sighed as I tore my eyes away from the small window in the door. My girlfriend would never see. She wouldn't see the ring I proposed to her with. She wouldn't see herself in her wedding dress on our wedding day. She would never see how happy our family would be when she walked down the aisle.
But I would love her. I would always love her. And even though I wanted to get revenge on her sister for ruining our relationship, I knew I couldn't. I couldn't ever be stupid enough to lower myself down to my future sister-in-law's level.
Ever.