WINTER CREDENCE

"Higher Elsa! Higher!" screamed Anna in pure joy. Elsa kept firing the blasts of snow; this was getting more and more dangerous by the second. As Anna leaped up from snow mound to snow mound Elsa was having to blast out another make shift mesa for her younger sister to land on. One simple mistake could bury Anna in dangerous snow, cause her to fall or even push her into the palace walls.

"Anna, slow down! I can't go that fast!" Elsa was becoming panicked; she was losing control. She had been born with these ice powers but they were still very much a mystery to her. Like any natural born talent it still took practice to perfect and Elsa was not accustomed to the speed and precision this game of leapfrog was requiring from her.

Elsa shot up another blast of her ice but this time it struck Anna in the skull. Anna's body twisted and fell collapsing onto the hard ground below. Elsa ran over to her younger sister holding her delicate body in her arms "Don't worry Anna I've got you…I've got you…"

The trolls of course managed to fix Anna, but at a cost. Anna had forgotten all about Elsa's powers and now saw Elsa in a false lens; a loving sister who just cut her off out of pure arbitrary coldness. The years passed on and on as Anna continued to knock on her older sister's door and would excitedly and at times meekly ask "Do you wanna build a snowman?" And Elsa would either shoo her away or just not respond at all. It was a lonely life for the both of them, but as much pain as Elsa felt she knew in her heart that Anna was more hurt than anyone by her distance.

As Elsa and Anna aged the requests to come out and play became less and less frequent. Anna was slowly giving up on her, not willing to put her heart on the line for her absent sister anymore. It got so quiet sometimes Elsa felt the desire to go to Anna's door and knock on it, then Anna would come out and they'd go play, explore or just talk. She'd think about doing these things, but never would she do them.

Then one day her parents; the king and queen decided that they were going to go to their cousins' wedding. At first it was just to be them, but Anna begged to go. Anna was bored being in the castle basically alone and though her parents were hesitant they eventually had Anna go with them. It was a good opportunity for her to connect with people her age and see the world, and she'd only be gone from the kingdom for a couple of weeks.

But Anna, her mother and her father never came back. The sea took them, swallowing them up in a storm. They never even reached their destination. It was heartbreaking, it was devastating, it was finite. Elsa couldn't even bare to go to the funeral, and she had been so isolated that nobody even questioned her absence. She couldn't tell if that was a godsend or if it was just an indicator of how much control her anxiety held over her life.

Days turned into weeks, which turned to months, which turned to years and one day after coming out a fog of depression and royal duties she couldn't focus on she realized that it was to be her coronation day. She was going to have to face crowd, she was going to have to remain calm, be poised, possibly entertain a suitor, there was so much to do, so much pressure and so much fear.

Elsa had found herself making little snowmen, just rows and rows of miniature Olafs. They were cute little snowmen whom she had discovered became sentient and danced about her room. She would make it snow and the flakes would float down as she pretended that each Olaf was a friend coming inside her room to visit. They were chatty, personable and liked warm hugs. As she would do this she could hear Anna's simple request prancing through her mind like a deer with sharp hooves digging into her guilt and rupturing her memories. "Do you wanna build a snowman?" Anna would always ask, she would always ask. She never once tore down the door, she never forced herself, it was always a request. Elsa was grateful for that, but in this moment she wished that just once Anna had broken the rules so that they could have shared a special memory together. Now all Elsa could do was create false memories of her own.

Once Elsa imagined that Anna and her went to the beach and built sand castles and then they swam in the waters of the fjord until they were too tired to even walk back to the castle. Once she dreamed that they went down to the bakery early in the morning before the sun rose and they got warm and delicious bread. And once she imagined that Anna would come home with some rare chocolates that they would share as they talked about their day.

Elsa was interrupted from her day dreaming by a knock at her door it was Gerda "Your majesty, it's time." Elsa put on her gloves, the final detail of her coronation gown.

"I'm coming right now Gerda, give me a moment" said Elsa as she examined her reflection one was time in the frosted mirror of her chambers. She silently admitted to herself that she looked pretty but commanding. There was a knock on her door from Gerda; louder this time. Elsa sighed and exited her room.

The coronation was a test of will, as Elsa had to march perfectly to the altar to complete the ceremony with the priest. Forced to momentarily remove her gloves Elsa almost froze the gold scepter to pieces before finally handing them back to the befuddled priest who was unsure what had caused such grievance to his new queen.

The coronation ball was a haze, there were so many ambassadors and diplomats buzzing about her, asking her prying questions and gawking over her beauty. She wished Anna was there, only Kai offered her any sort of relief as he would calmly escort her to different parts of the room whenever she became swarmed.

Elsa was having difficulty handling so many different social questions. How was she supposed to answer: "Where have you traveled?" How about to the south hall? There were suitors from all over Europe, North Africa and even the Arabian Peninsula. They were handsome, charming, strong and some were quite funny but none of them really could capture her undivided attention for long. Elsa felt no connection to them, they were almost like apparitions who had come to offer her a better life, but the only person who could fill that void was her sister.

There was a prince from the Southern Isles his name was…Henry? Henrik? Harold? Hans?...Yes, it was Hans. Hans of the Southern Isles. He was tall, fair and had a lovely shade of red hair. He was calm and definitely a smooth talker. Elsa felt something was a bit off about him, but she couldn't place her finger on it. Perhaps it was his personality that seemed so malleable based on how she reacted to his advances; like he was trying too hard.

As the party wound down Elsa, Kai and Gerda said goodbye to the guests and royal servants ushered them out. Elsa was feeling a bit light headed; the champagne had gone to her head and made it a tad hard for her to walk in heels. She was led back to her room where she disrobed into a summer nightgown. It was a salmon color with baby blue trim across the v-neck and sash. As Gerda left her she began to lie down in her bed. She had hoped to read a bit , but her eyes were heavy with the activities of the day and she quickly drifted off to sleep.

There was a loud knock on her door which sprang the young queen awake. She lifted her head up and called out to the voice "Gerda? What is it?" There was no response. "Gerda?" asked Elsa pensively. Elsa let out a gasp as the window of her room burst open a cold breeze bellowed into her room. The gust was so strong Elsa had to plant her feet in order to close the door. Sighing in relief she took a moment to gather herself and then slipped back into her bed.

Just as Elsa was getting comfortable once again there was a knock at her door. "Gerda? Kai?...Whoever it is, it can wait until tomorrow. I am very tired, leave me be." There was another knock at the door and Elsa got up from her bed to yell at her tall door. Her protection from the outside world "That is a royal order! If the castle is not in flames I don't want to hear it!"

It was silent once again, Elsa heard no footsteps however so she knew whoever was behind the door was still there. Then she heard a voice that sucked the air out of her lungs "Elsa? Do you wanna build a snowman?" Elsa began to back away from the door, that couldn't be her sister. Could it?

"A-Anna?" whispered Elsa, keeping her distance from her bedroom door. There was no vocal response; it was just the light tapping on the wood. Elsa rushed to open the door. Taking a deep breath she opened the door, she didn't care how her sister had come back; she wasn't going to miss an opportunity to be a proper big sister.

Elsa could not see her own face but she imagined that it has twisted into some of mangled mess of emotions and pure fear. There in the door was Anna, but not her sister. No, it was a snowman, or snowwoman of some kind. She was shaped just as her sister would have been the age she died, but her large eyes had no pupils they were just black stones like a snowman would have. Her face was matted snow that had been shaped to resemble her. She had no clothes but there were thankfully no fine line details to her anatomy only the basics. She looked like a body mold that was made of ice and snow. She grinned at her revealing an unholy multitude of pebbles that vaguely resembled teeth.

"Oh Elsa! I knew you'd open the door one day! Let's go out and play! FOREVER!" Anna tried to grab Elsa by the arm, but Elsa pulled herself away ripping her nightgown in the process. Elsa scrambled and closed her door, locking it with all her might.

She began to pant as she stumbled away from the door that was being pounded on by the monster resembling her sister outside. Elsa cried out for help "Kai! Gerda! Help me!" There was nothing, just the banging of the door.

"Come out and play Elsa! I'm your sister don't you want to have some fun? Like we used to?" The pounding was getting stronger and stronger. Elsa backed herself up against her bed as she darted about looking to perhaps climb out the window.

"Elsa! Don't lock me out again! Please!" Anna sounded like a little girl crying but there was like another voice layered on top of it, it sounded almost demonic. The menacing voice echoed through the innocent voice of Anna begging her sister to let her in.

"You are not my sister! Go away!" ordered Elsa as she began to move towards the window. As she moved towards her escape she opened the window and realized she was much too high up to escape on her own. Thinking quickly she grabbed her bed sheets and began trying them together to make a rope to her safety.

"I am your sister! Just come outside and you'll see we can make angels in the snow and sled down slopes forever and ever!"

"No! No! You're not real! You're just snow and ice! I don't know where you came from but you need to go back!"

"I can't go back, there is nowhere to go back to! Now come out here and play with me!"

There was a loud crunching noise and then an icy arm ripped through the door to Elsa's room and began to feel around and almost instantly opened up the door. Elsa was out of time, she didn't have enough cloth to make it to the ground safely and now she was in this room with this mimic of Anna that seemed bent to do her harm.

"Anna! Please! Don't hurt me!"

"Why? You hurt me for all those years! When you shut me out! You never even told me why!"

"I was just trying to protect you! You don't understand! Please, let me explain!"

"I don't want to understand! I want to build a snowman! And you're coming with me!"

Anna lunged at Elsa who tried to run away but this snow creature was too fast and it grabbed Elsa and pulled her down violently. Elsa had hurt her hip and was trying to crawl away but Anna flipped Elsa onto her back and then sat on her arms pinning her down.

"Oh Elsa, it will be fun. You'll see! We'll build snowmen, slopes and even entire castles made of ice and snow. And we'll spend every moment with each other, as sisters should. And nobody will ever bother us, EVER!" It was at that moment that Anna's arms became sharp daggers as she aimed them at Elsa, ready to stab her at any moment. Elsa cried out for help, but still there was no answer.

"Anna! Please! I'm sorry! God, I am so sorry! Please forgive me! I was scared; I had hurt you when I was younger. It was my fault, and I knew it could easily happen again. That's why I locked myself away! I locked myself away because I could no longer control my powers. Don't you see? I did what I did to keep you safe!"

The creature did not even pause it just made the daggers longer and sharper and moved in closer towards Elsa's heart and her throat. "Where we're going your powers cannot harm me! I'm doing you a favor, this is for your own good!"

Elsa struggled but could not break free "No! NO! This is not for my own good! You can't do this! I'm not your real sister! The real Anna died a long time ago. She died and there was nothing I could do about it. All my life I wanted to protect her but none of it made any difference. I just ended up never having a real moment with her. I was so afraid of losing her that I pushed her away! I would do anything ANYTHING to have her back. To apologize to her, to hold her and tell her how much I love her. I'd do anything to see her once more, but you…you're not my sister! You're not real! You're nothing more than a memory….an apparition!"

Anna stopped for a moment, and Elsa looked up at her assailant. The black stone eyes were drooping down her face like melting chocolate chips on an ice cream cone. And Elsa could feel cold splashes of water on her face, at first she thought they were tears but slowly she realized that this snowwoman was melting.

Elsa could not move, she was in a trance watching as the snowwoman completely melted away in a flash dousing her in cold water. As she laid there Kai and Gerda came rushing in. "Elsa?! Elsa! Are you alright?" asked Kai as he tended to her.

Elsa was lifted to her feet, and nearly slipped in the puddle she had made. She looked at Gerda and Kai and weakly fell towards her bed. Kai helped her lie down and Gerda assisted in dressing her in dry clothes."Your majesty, are you alright? What happened?"

Elsa thought for a moment and then glanced down at the puddle on the floor. "I'm sorry, I had a bad dream." With that Elsa stretched out her hand and turned the puddle into a flurry of snowflakes that were pushed out the bedroom window into the night sky. "But it's over now." Elsa watched the Arendelle sky as one my one the snowflakes evaporated into the air. "No more building snowmen" she whispered to herself as the cold air soothed her back to sleep.

End

Author's Note: Hoped you liked it! Thought I'd do a quick "what if" kind of story. Please leave feedback, it's always appreciated.