So, I made a second chapter after all. One warning I will give you, reader. I cant promise consistency in these updates. I am, unfortunately, a serial procrastinator. But I like this quaint story and I want to run as far as I can with it. Thank you for reading
And I don't own the characters so, yeah.
The handle turned with a profound groan
Without warning, Elsa suddenly felt intensely afraid. Of what was not yet clear. Is this it? In three seconds her mind contorted to all kinds of conclusions, her brain being driven wild with speculation and fear. With a gust of warm air preceding him, her Father emerged.
Papa, wise papa.
"Elsa, have you been using your powers over today?"
The question baffled the 9 year old as the concept of day had by now become equal to that of a candle, a light source. Well yes, why would you put me here unless…
"What do you mean, Papa?"
With an abrupt start the temperature unceremoniously dropped, almost with a thud. Anna.
"Papa. Did I hurt anyone? Did I hurt Anna?" Her mind had begun to swirl and ooze with panic.
"No no, Elsa, calm down"
"Did I? Answer me Papa"
Her eyes grew heavy with water and She had a horrible realisation of what was to come. Don't shake. Don't let it out. Don't. She swooned left and ran for her cabinet where her gloves were located, all the while fighting back the thought to weep. She thimbled through the cabinet and gruffly placed the padded gloves around her hands. At the same instance, her father began to notice his daughters' alarm.
With the gloves on, Her father thought the room had became warmer. Elsa however saw it more accurately as being a little less cold. Ok, breathe. Talk to Papa. He knows better. Breathe. Above, Elsa felt a strange and deceptive calm while underneath her thoughts were threatening to drown her. What her father said next gave them cause to capsize her clarity of thought.
"Elsa, the hallway outside is practically frosty." He gestured to the hallway, his back to the door, which was now fully open. "Anna noticed it and she was worried about you"
Elsa was almost catatonic with guilt and refused to look to the hallway. What if Anna had slipped? What if she got ill because of me? How could you? Her feet felt bloodlessly numb now. Her father then somewhat sheepishly turned to look at Elsa's side of the door, that only she saw.
No Papa. Walk away. Stay away. The door. Papa, get away! The Door!
His eyes fell on the door. A pause ensued as he took in its grooves and damage. He turned to his young. He was trying to hide it, he really was, but for 9, Elsa was clever. Too clever, she often concluded. She could see it. It was fear. It has me; it has my storm and now its convinced father too…
"Elsa"
Her legs were useless as her thoughts drowned her. Get out. Stop it. Stop looking at him. Stop it! The door was silent, as it always became when it was open. But she knew better. She knew what it, what she was capable of.
Shaking like Mad, Elsa scraped together all her untarnished emotion to find her father's eyes through her minds water and lie to him. Tell him it was alright. No. It's not ok. It can't be, why would I be doing this, hurting people? I just want Anna. Dear Anna. Tell Papa, say the words. Come on.
But her Father recovered first.
"Elsa, you have to wear the gloves from now on. We made them to keep you safe. To keep your sister safe"
Elsa sniffled at mention of Anna. How little, she thought, it showed of her true drowning. The room was now palpably freezing.
"Papa" But the words failed her once, more. She had drowned. Despair consumed her as she thought once more of Anna, of this power, of her danger. You can't hurt her again. I need her but she needs to stay away. What could you do, if she were near? Then Elsa had what she felt was a moment of Clarity while her lungs dried to a husk. "The Door. The door made her like this, made her hurt. The door forced her to destroy and preserve such destruction.
All these thoughts existed outwith her father, who know knelt beside her and took her hand.
"Elsa, I want you to repeat after me"
She nodded absently, her mind a furnace of snow. Even through the icy floor and her bloodless legs, still she stared at the door.
"Conceal it. Don't feel it"
"Conceal it. Don't feel it" She repeated.
"Don't let it show"
Her father waited as she stopped. Quickly she became weak. Her ice cold breath became lukewarm. She repeated.
"Don't let it show"
It had been a year since the door had overseen her. A year since that terror of a day. Today surely matched it, like none before it had done. Her father left, retaining the vertical swiftly, and bid her goodnight.
Dejected and heavy with sadness, as well as solitude, she straggled to her bed, only to see a faint line of crimson through the window. The light, it will not find me. She shuddered to look towards the now closed door. Her enemy. Her protector. But was it Annas protector? When she could just turn the knob and defeat it. Or will it defeat me? Tired and wet from the partly melted snow on her skin, she dropped herself to a peaceless sleep.
The power of words.