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Sins of the Past

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Chapter Four

I'd like to note that this story will not be predominantly horror themed. My apologizes if I led you to believe otherwise.

I screamed muffled curses into Elsa's grip, kicking and struggling. She flinched with every blow I dealt her, before finally snapping "Anna, stop! You're hurting your own mother!"

That got me listening. What was I doing? Beating up my own mom?

I ceased my assault, slightly horrified by my actions.

A brief period of awkward silence ensued, after which Elsa released her hold upon me. I jumped at the chance to distance myself as far away from Elsa-in-Mom's body as possible. Mom's embrace felt sickeningly foreign, what with a different entity controlling her and all.

"Okay." I hissed, switching my method of combat from physical to verbal. "Start talking. What did you do to my mom?!"

Elsa wrung her —Mom's— wrists. "I'm.. borrowing her, so to speak."

"Borrowing her?" I echoed in disbelief.

"I wasn't able to think of a better term."

"Borrowing implies that you'll give her back."

"Hence why I picked that particular phrase."

"Do you want to explain what the hell's going on?"

"I.. yes. Would you like to sit down? Your cocoa is getting cold.."

I thought about that for a moment. Hot chocolate certainly was tempting..

"Fine. But stay away from me."

So I sat, at the far end of the still-dirty-but-significantly-less-so kitchen counter, sipping my now lukewarm hot chocolate. Mom, or Elsa rather, was standing by the opposite end, wiping down the surface with an old rag. I was tense and on full alert, watching for any further signs of aggression.

None came.

The hot chocolate's helping with my migraine, I think. I didn't know if it held any medicinal value that's supposed to, but the pain's been reduced to a minor annoyance. It could just be the medication finally kicking in though.

"Well." Elsa began, looking up from her cloth.

"Well." I repeated, staring her in the eye.

"Well Anna, I imagine that you have some questions to ask of me." Elsa left to rinse the rag in the sink. "Fire away, though I do recommend that you pick your questions carefully, as I can't stick around for long."

She transitioned into scrubbing the stove, clearing off stubborn grease stains Mom and I had hardly been able to dent the night before.

"Let's start there." I asserted. "How long do you have? And why are we short on time?" I first needed to know how long I'd be able to speak with Elsa, and also how long I'd have to wait until I could check on Mom's wellbeing.

"I'd estimate 15 minutes at most. Why the time constraint..?" Elsa bit her lip. "That's quite the complicated matter to explain, but the gist is that your mother is still technically asleep at the moment, and keeping her that way is very taxing on my strength, hence the time limit."

Huh?

"Hold the phone. What are you talking about? What do you mean by you're keeping my mother asleep? You're not hurting her, are you?"

Mom had better get out of this in one piece, or I swear to Jesus Almighty..

"I am not directly causing her harm." Elsa replied. "Though she may experience slight head pains upon waking as a side effect of my presence. If so, however, they should be minor and manageable—"

"Woah, woah, woah." I interrupted, "I do not appreciate you 'borrowing' my mom if it causes her pain."

Unperturbed, Elsa quickly continued, speaking diplomatically.

"Very well then. I will refrain from doing so in the future. I can leave now if you so wish, but know that the severity of her discomfort is not proportional to my time spent inhabiting her body. You will only be robbing yourself of the opportunity to sate your curiosity, and to no benefit of your mother, should I release her now."

She really knows how to pull my strings. Stupid ghost.

"Fine. Explain what you meant about my mom still being asleep, then. Convince me that you're trustworthy."

Elsa ran a hand through her —Mom's— hair.

"I have no intention in harming you or your family, but I have only my word to offer as assurance. As for what I meant by your mother being asleep, I meant exactly what I said. She is asleep. Her mind is away, and is not actively controlling her body."

I almost didn't believe what I was hearing.

"And I assume that you are the one who is?"

Or saying, for that matter.

"Correct. I can control your mother's body so long as her mind remains away. However, as a sleeping body is normally inert and at rest, which it clearly is not at the moment, I must actively prevent your mother from awakening, lest her body realize that I am not its rightful owner and forcibly exorcise me. Pacifying a human mind is draining on my strength, hence why I cannot stay for extended periods of time."

Elsa paused to wipe a bead of sweat from her —Mom's— brow, and continued.

"While being forcibly removed from a body is unpleasant, to say the least, I fear more for your mother's mental health, should she awaken before I can return her to her bed."

I nodded, despite the fact that Elsa had her back turned to me. I was slowly, but gradually, beginning to understand all this nonsense.

"Does this have anything to do with why you wanted me to be quiet? And why you weren't exactly thrilled when I started punching you?"

Elsa stepped over to the sink to wash Mom's hands. The stove was spotless.

"Precisely. It is difficult enough to keep a mind placated while performing ordinary housework. Therefore, I believe you can imagine how dangerously close your mother came to waking during your assault on her person. I'm sure you understand that there would not be happy times for any of us, had she inexplicably woke to find herself in the kitchen, with you struggling under her grasp no less."

I hadn't thought of that. Mom would probably throw herself into an asylum willingly had that happened.. and I'm not sure what I'd do without her.

I guess we really dodged a bullet there.

I still had a million questions raging about in my head, but while we were on topic the topic of body snatching..

"Are you only able to possess people while they are asleep?"

Elsa leaned back onto the sink, tapping Mom's chin with her finger.

"No. I can enter any body whose mind is absent or weakened, if only for small periods of time.

I theorize that I can enter those who've succumbed to madness, but I haven't the opportunity to try thus far. I do recall a time where I've entered the body of someone who was quite thoroughly inebriated a few years ago, though."

She paused, as if deep in thought, and scowled.

"I clearly remember that it was a teenaged male, not unlike you in appearance. He drunkenly broke into my house to test my 'Bloody Elsa' myth, as I hear it, and was very disrespectful in the process. The only proper response of course was to make him soil himself as punishment."

I chuckled quietly. Also, that explains what Elsa meant when she wrote that I had "asked for it" earlier. Note to self, don't piss off Elsa.

Wait. The note had said something else.. something about my headache..

I shuddered as I finally put 2 and 2 together.

"You said earlier that my mother would have slight head pains when she woke up, and that it was basically a side effect of borrowing someone's body. Earlier still, you also said that you hoped my headache wasn't too bad."

I gulped.

"Did you.. have you entered my body recently?

Elsa sighed.

"Yes. Did you not wonder where the note came from?"

I could already feel the screaming heebie-jeebies even before she answered, but knowing that someone else has been walking around wearing my skin.. I shuddered uncontrollably for an instant.

"On that note, Anna, I have something to say." Elsa walked over and sat in the stool across from me, steepling Mom's fingers. "When I entered your body last night to write that note, I could instantly tell that there is something very, very different about you."

"Different?"

What could be so special about me?

"Yes. Different."

"Different how? What happened?"

"Nothing."

...Gee, thanks for the informative reply. Stupid ghost.

Elsa sighed.

"I can see the annoyed look on your face, Anna. Have you not listened to a word I've said? I normally have to fight to stay in someone's body, but when I entered yours last night, nothing happened. I didn't have to actively try to keep you asleep, I didn't have to wrestle with your subconscious, I didn't have to do any of those silly shenanigans. This has never happened before, Anna. You are quite an anomaly."

I finished my drink while Elsa contemplated her next words, and took the time to absorb all this information.

Under normal circumstances, I'd probably laugh myself unconscious had someone told me that I'm some paranormal special snowflake, but in light of everything that's happened recently.. I'd say that these circumstances have been anything but.

I opened my mouth to speak when, all of a sudden, Elsa began to quiver. She rose to her feet, quietly trembling.

"I'm afraid that I've overstayed my welcome, and will regrettably have to cut our conversation short."

Her voice then grew timid, uncertain..

..and hopeful?

She opened her mouth to speak.

"I daresay that I have not scared you away? Would you.. would you be interested in meeting again sometime in the near future?"

"Y-yeah. Sure. I'd love to." I spluttered, without even thinking. Stupid heart.

Relieved, Elsa's face beamed with unmasked joy. "Thank you. It's been far too long since I've had regular, genuine, human contact. We may have to figure out a different means of communication if your mother is to remain inaccessible, but I'm sure we'll think of something."

Dear gosh, what have I just gotten myself into?

Elsa turned and ascended the stairs, turning midflight to face me.

"Goodnight Anna, and thank you. Rest well." She waved goodbye, and disappeared into Mom's room.

I blinked a couple times, stupefied, as I listened to Mom's bedroom door click shut. Did all that really just happen?

My empty mug of chocolate indicated as much.

Huh.

Then I suppose that I've just made my first friend here in Arendelle.

Originally, Elsa had the ability to possess anyone she liked, for as long as she liked, and Anna was unique in that she was the only one Elsa had to "fight back against." I planned to have the headache I established in Chapter 3 be the result of the two clashing against one another.

This idea had the unfortunate side effect, which I realized while writing Chapter 4, of introducing a large inconsistency with what I had planned in the future.I needed to make possession of other people an impractical method of communication between the two, which with my current idea was not, so I rewrote the story such that it was the other way around. Now, Elsa had to fight everyone except Anna.

But how would I explain Anna's inexplicable head pains, now that the struggle that I planned to happen, didn't?

I didn't want to just write it off as a red herring and hope people would forget about it, because that was the easy way out and would definitely be reason to be ashamed of my work. I wanted instead to incorporate it into my story, and instead create a reason to be proud of it.

So after a few days of brainstorming, I eventually came up with the idea that everyone Elsa visits gets head pains. This conveniently reinforced the solution to my "make possession of other people impractical" problem.

I managed to turn a mistake into a plot point, so even if this chapter is poorly received because it has too much talk or not enough action or whatever other valid reason you guys can point out (of which I encourage), I still think it's one of my best chapters written to date.

Side note. The town Anna and her mother moved to is Arendelle. I could've sworn I had Rapunzel mention that in Chapter 2, but apparently I didn't. D'oh.