Blizzard
Chapter 2
Saturday
5th December, 2015.
8am.
And Anna had set her alarm on by accident. Again.
The shrill piercing noise forcefully jabbed her eardrums, like a spear driven straight into her auditory systems, signed with a message to "WAKE UP". Irritation mixed with irrationality from exhaustion got the better of her, and she forcefully slammed her hand upon her bedside table, missing the alarm completely. As pain shot though her now clenched fist Anna outstretched her other hand in an attempt to shut off the annoying sound.
This time it worked. The alarm stopped.
"Well that certainly woke me up," she muttered, yawning sleepily as she rubbed the vestiges of slumber from her pupils. Something had happened yesterday, she thought to herself. What was it—
—snow. Deep snow. Heavy winds. Four men. Armed. Hostage. Glaive. White figure. In one flashback the events of yesterday night came rushing back to Anna.
That mask...
And those eyes, those deep, piercing blue eyes…
She shook the thought out of her head. As much as her angel of intervention was scary, she was… decent, at the very least. She'd been nice to Anna, or at least to Anna's mind, things could have gone a lot worse. But she respected the fact that she was willing to save her, despite having no prerogative to do so. It had been her fault that she had gone out in the night, having forgotten to restock up on her room's medication.
Anna got up from her bed, brushing away loose curls of her reddish-brown ginger hair; her hair at this point was still a mess. For her, that was a level one priority emergency.
She wasn't hungry.
That made it a tiny bit of a problem: it left her with nothing left to do. Anna supposed she could head over to the campus Starbucks, a few minutes' walk away from her apartment. Which reminded her: her roommate was due to arrive today. She had worked out something with someone she had met online who said she studied in the same university as she did; upon further consideration AFTER she had agreed did she realize it was a particularly dangerous arrangement, for she could have easily been tricked. But she was too kind. Anna would always give people the benefit of the doubt.
The bag she carried contained only her laptop – she had an essay to rush before school opened on Monday again. Her iPhone beeped; without hesitation she drew the device from the depths of her jeans' pocket and checked the message. It was Kristoff. -How are you? Everything good at school?-
She smiled. Even after 10 years of knowing her, Kristoff still cared about her. She fired off a reply. -I'm all good. How was your shift last night?-
-Had a strange encounter after someone decided to leave us a present of four armed men in a manufactory.-
Anna frowned as she descended the stairs of her apartment. That sounded familiar. -Yeah, ran into those people.-
-WHAT? They tried to target you?-
-Yeah, but someone dressed in pure white just appeared out of nowhere and saved me.-
-Dressed in white? That sounds like Blizzard.-
Blizzard? Anna's curiosity was piqued. It was probably classified information that Kristoff had decided to reveal to her about APD's operations. This kind of things usually never got out to the general public, but Anna had the benefit of insider information. -That what you guys calling her?-
-It's a "her"?-
-That's what it seemed.-
Anna closed her phone after no more messages came forth from Kristoff's end. She was already at the Starbucks on campus; she ordered a coffee, sat down and got to work, plugging in her earphones as she hit her playlist on Spotify. For her, it was a normal day on campus, save the lack of lessons, and as usual, her workload wasn't something easily eased.
Everything was normal.
Then she walked in.
It had been about an hour since Anna had started work on her essay, when she felt a tap on her shoulder, and she instinctively took down her earphones. "Mind if I sit here?" a cool voice floated into her ears. She looked up.
At possibly the most beautiful girl she had ever seen.
Her platinum blonde locks streamed down her left shoulder, gleaming in the sunlight that cut through the large windows of the coffee outlet. Her dress was stunning; deep shades of blue and white mixed in with variations in the colors themselves, and she carried a coffee in her other hand. That point was redundant, Anna noted, but she couldn't help take in everything she was seeing. It was as if she had attained enlightenment upon setting her sights on the miracle before her.
Then she realized she was staring. "I – I mean, sure, of course!" she practically beamed.
The girl smiled gently in return. "I hope I'm not intruding. It's just that the rest of the seats are taken." Anna looked up to see the store quickly filling up with people, for some reason. Then she looked outside. While the sun still shone decently brightly outside, the wind had begun to pick up, indicating a chance for another snowstorm to hit. "No, it's fine," Anna replied, looking over her laptop, then half-ducking behind it so it didn't look to obvious that she was staring.
God she's beautiful. The way she talks, and the way she smiles…
"What you working on? Sorry, I – I just have a habit of asking people that," her new companion quickly added that last line back in. Anna could see a tinge of embarrassment cross her face—it made her look even cuter. Anna loved it. "Art project."
"Oooh. You some famous artist yet?"
Anna laughed. "Nowhere close."
"Come on, you can't be that bad either. Your drawings must be pretty damn good." Her smile made Anna's heart practically melt, combined with the praise she was showering her with. Anna usually took praise with a pinch of salt, but for some reason, she felt on top of the world with this girl around.
"Wait till you see them, then tell me what you think."
"Bring them along another time, I might see you around here." Now that's a prospect I would genuinely be interested in. Oh my god, she is SO amazing.
"What's your name?" Anna tentatively ventured to ask.
"It's Elsa. Yours?"
"Anna."
"Pleasure to meet you," Elsa said, outstretching her hand to shake hers. But their contact. Oh, how Anna loved it when their hands touched, her warm skin glossing over Elsa's cool hand, she almost didn't want to let go. What is going on with me? Am I falling in love with her already?
"You staying round here?"
"Yeah," Anna said. "My roommate's supposed to move in in the next few hours, I think."
"Where d'you stay? I want to go over to look at those sketches of yours."
"The block over there," Anna pointed. "Fourth floor, unit number 2."
She watched as a small smile crept over Elsa's divine features, before it turned into a bigger smile, then a small giggle. Finally Elsa broke out laughing. A skeptical and confused look must have crossed her face, because Elsa attempted to regain her composure after a while. Shit, I wanted to see her laugh some mo—
"Anna. I just moved in there," a huge smile crossed Elsa's face. "I am your roommate."
Shock penetrated Anna as the full implications of Elsa's words sank in. "WHAT?!"
"Yeah, this is awkward isn't it," Elsa said before breaking out into laughter again. Anna couldn't help but laugh along.
At the same time, she was worried. SHIT! I'm falling in love with this girl and now she's my roommate? Oh no, this can't be good. I am SO gonna end up hot and bothered, and she'll know. What if she hates me if she finds out? Ugh, Anna! Get it together, you can't just hit on this girl that you just met! But she's so wonderful… Anna resisted the urge for her mind to give rise to the dirty thoughts pressing at the back of her head, but wasn't sure if she was going to be able to maintain that self-control once they really started living with each other. But she couldn't stop her eyes roaming over Elsa's slender figure, her shoulders, her hips, her legs.
Her breasts—
"You okay?" Elsa's voice was a slap back to reality for her. She almost choked on the coffee she hadn't realized she'd been sipping on.
"Y-yeah, sure. I'm good, just a little overwhelmed at the coincidental nature of these events." Elsa smiled again. "So you literally moved in 1 hour ago?" Anna went on, nervous that Elsa's impression of her would radically change should she be caught staring.
"You weren't in. But I saw the rest of your stuff. No drawings though." Elsa half-pouted, causing Anna to laugh. "I should warn you though, I have strange habit of staying out really, really late at night. There will be times where I'll come back in the morning."
"Why's that?" Anna asked. She'd heard of weird roommates before, but this was new to her. "Are you like some party freak?"
Elsa laughed. "Nah, just like to stay out to clear my head sometimes. It helps."
"For that long? I'm starting to get the feeling you don't like me," Anna teased, drawing a laugh from her new companion. Now that's music to my ears.
"It's fine," Elsa said after she stopped laughing. "I'm sure we'll get along." Her award winning smile melted Anna's heart yet again.
This was not good.
But then again, she predicted this. Her preliminary analysis of Anna was that of intense curiosity, though it appeared that she had underestimated that aspect of her. Her double identity was bound to be compromised.
But what choice did she have? She most certainly couldn't move out—that would look far too suspicious. She almost had nowhere else to go; amidst what appeared to be a growing manhunt for the elusive vigilante from both gangs, corrupt officers, mercenaries and still loyal police members, at some point she was going to be overwhelmed. Even the greatest of men had allies; she was but one girl, with a decent amount of funds to support her "campaign", but nothing more. How was she to hold her own? She most certainly couldn't go back to her ancestral home; that got destroyed when someone tracked her there.
She was tempted to accept the inevitability that she would be found out.
By a girl she barely even knew.
But would it be that bad? Her double life was a burden that she had to shoulder, alone, from the time she had gotten off the streets to reclaim inheritance stolen from her, when she promised no other person would ever exploit someone again, as long as she could do something about it. Her reclamation of her lost inheritance was a miracle, and she was determined to spread miracles. It would be nice, so alluringly nice, to have someone know, to get this stupid, bloody burden off her chest—
No. It will be a cold night in hell before this ever happens. I will never, never burden anybody with the knowledge of my identity, and threaten their livelihoods with one glance upon my face. My secrets are hidden in the snowstorm: unseen, unheard, untouched.
Conceal.
Don't feel.
"You okay?" Anna's voice pierced her thoughts. Alarmed, her head shot up. How long had she been engrossed in her own thougths? "You look kinda tired," Anna went on. "Wanna go back and get some rest?"
"Sure."
There was something about this girl, Elsa realized, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Was it the way she talked? The way she smiled? Her cheery attitude? Elsa almost gravitated to her, but she didn't know why.
She's too perfect. I can't let her know. She deserves better.
