CHAPTER NINE

The world was so lonely, so cold, so dark. So cruel, so mean, so unfair. Elsa walked sullenly down the street away from the funeral and remembered that Walter's trial was today. She was testifying against him. For some reason, she didn't feel like doing that. She wanted to spend some time alone, in a place that made her feel close to Billy. She turned her back on the direction of the courthouse and walked towards Billy's forest. Once there, she sat on the stump she had previously sat on, the day Billy had given her 'bread-pasta'. She saw a mockingbird who sang her a song. She heard the river close by. She smelled the leaves. Everything here was so calm, so quiet.

For once in her life, she felt peaceful. Here, she could forget her sorrows and calm her reeling thoughts. She heard a twig snap in half behind her. She whirled around. Walter. Elsa's eyes widened.

"So we meet again, little lying princess," Walter said cooly.

"Hello Walter," Elsa controlled her voice from shaking. "You should being at the courthouse..."

"Oh you know, I just used my big beefy hands on them people," Walter showed his fists. "And now I'm 'bout to use them on you."

He threw a punch at her. She ducked and screamed. Panting, she ran behind a tree and hid, summoning her strength.

"Well, well, look who's a scaredy-cat," Walter taunted.

She's the scaredy-cat?! She's the scaredy-cat? What a hypocrite! He must've ran away because he was too scared to face the trials. Coward. She could feel her blood run cold with anger. It was getting hard to breathe. She knew that she shouldn't be so ticked off by his one remark, but something inside of her just snapped; it might've been her sanity. She didn't know, she didn't care. She wanted Walter dead. She was turning into a cold-blooded killer. A mass murderer. She had ran away to find her book, and ended up the destroyer of lives. She was hyperventilating. Elsa, Elsa, calm down. Don't kill. You might want to, but you can't. You're not a murderer. She couldn't help herself. Her thoughts might've restrained her a little, but she was far too far away from sanity's shore. That shore was drifting, farther and farther away. Too far away for her thoughts to stop her.

"Walter, you should just die." She said through gritted teeth. "No one with a heart as cold-blooded as yours deserves to live."

"And who's going to kill me? You? You're just a kid, Elsa." He sneered.

"I'm nineteen. Brace yourself."

Walter rolled his eyes. "Kids like you shouldn't be playing around like that. It's dangerous, you know."

"Walter…" She said warningly.

"Elsa…" He mocked.

"I'm going to count to three. If you don't promise to change your ways, and actually bring good to the world, I'm going to be unmerciful."

"Ha, as if."

"One."

"Oh, you're actually doing it."

"Two."

"Pfft, am I going to give in? No."

"Three."

"Look, sweetheart. The world needs some evil in it. Without evil, there's no action. Got that? So no, I'm not going to change my ways. Deal with it, don't kill me, and move on."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Oh, is that really what you believe?"

Walter nodded firmly.

"Alright, then. By the way, the world should be ridded of evil." She got up, and began to walk away.

"I knew she was bluffing." She heard Walter mutter. She smirked.

Without warning, she snapped her fingers, making the air around Walter - and only Walter - lower a few hundred degrees. He turned towards her rigidly and narrowed his eyes, knowing that this was her doing. Even though he tried to look tough, Elsa wasn't intimidated. She could see right through his mask. He was in pain. Serious pain. He was probably finding it hard to breathe.

"Walter, the temperature you're in is colder than the poles. I'm actually quite surprised that you're still alive right now. You must have some serious willpower. Let me tell you this; you won't last long. Even as I speak, your blood is freezing into slush. You won't even be able to stand in a few seconds." Right after she said that, Walter fell to his knees, his legs no longer able to support his body weight. His skin was purple and blue. "Oh, Walters, you feeling alright?"

Walter glared, trying to look menacing. His skin was beginning to freeze off, curling up in some places. Elsa turned away. The sight was revolting. She heard Walter grunt.

"Who's...the...fiend...now?" He said with effort.

"Me." Elsa shrugged. "But I'm doing this to help you repay your sins."

"Why...you...little…" He wheezed, and dropped to the ground, landing to the ground with a heavy-sounding thud.

Elsa looked back at him, and almost threw up because of what she saw. His skin was an even darker shade of blue and purple now, and tinted gray. His skin had actually peeled off in some areas, revealing splotchy red stains on his body. His fingers were beginning to fall off; his flesh was freezing off. It left starch white bones visible. The chunks of flesh that had fallen off were laying on the ground like gray pieces of ice. He opened his eyes to look at her. His eyes were blood-shot, and his irises had begun bleeding, making his eyes pitch black.

"This...is...your...sin...Els-" He never finished. His eyes closed on their own accord and his head fell to the ground limply. Before his life flew out of him completely, he gave his last contributions to the world. By coughing up blood. He wheezed and hacked, until all the blood that was still in its liquid state flew out, and splattered onto the snow, dying it red. Blood red.

He was dead. Elsa felt a sickeningly sweet feeling of being the one who killed him. "The world shall no longer live in fear of what you can do, Walter." She told his body.

"Elsa, wow, I can't believe that you…" Elsa turned around to see Anders casually leaning on a tree.

"What are you doing here, Anders?!" Elsa exclaimed.

Anders looked awestruck. "You-you..."

Elsa bit her lip. She was afraid of what Anders was going to do. "How long have you been here?"

"All of it," Anders said. He didn't look scared, which left Elsa confused. Anders looked at the body then back at Elsa. He took a look at her hands. "Well, aren't we going to hide the body? I'll do it." Anders started digging a hole in the dirt.

Elsa couldn't believe what Anders just said to her. "Okay." And she couldn't believe what she just said back to him. Elsa kneeled beside him, scooping up earth from the ground. Once the hole was big enough, Elsa and Anders shoved Walter's cold, lifeless body inside. Elsa was disturbed to see a few fingers scattered of the ground.

Anders started pushing dirt back onto Walters body. It seemed like he had done this before.

"Can you dig up some bushes?" Anders asked.

"Why would I do that?"

"It would make the scene seem less suspicious, don't you think?" He reasoned. Elsa nodded and walked over to a thickly bushed area.

Elsa pried off some of the bushes' branches and brought them back to Anders.

"Thanks." He said, taking the branches from Elsa and laying them across the dirt, trying to make their formation as natural-seeming as possible.

Elsa watched him in silence. After a while, she asked the question that had been bugging her. "Are you going to turn me in?"

"I mean, I'll get a huge money reward..." He started.

Elsa's eyes widened.

"I'm kidding!" Anders laughed. Elsa wondered how he could be laughing after what he had just witnessed.

Anders studied Elsa's expression. He decided that she looked confused but relieved. Good. She suspects nothing.

"I can't thank you enough Anders," Elsa finally said.

Anders just smiled and said, "Let's take a walk in this forest," Elsa nodded.

Elsa couldn't help but being reminded by Billy, but she pushed the thought into the back of her head. Anders held out his hand, but Elsa denied it.

"I don't have my gloves, Anders, I-I could hurt you." Elsa said ashamed. "I'm so sorry."

Anders nodded understanding, "Then just walk by my side."

They walked together until the sun was starting to set. Fireflies were starting to come out of hiding, making the scene magical.

"Hey, Elsa?" Anders stared at Elsa. Elsa noticed something was clouding his eyes. Fear? No… It looks like something else… but I can't quite put my finger on it.

"Yeah, Anders?"

"Do you have a bandage?" OMG THE CHEESE

"Why, are you hurt?" Elsa was flummoxed. She didn't see any wounds on Anders body.

"No, actually… I just scraped my knee falling for you." Anders finally said and blushed. He looked away from Elsa's gaze. Elsa didn't know how to react. When Elsa didn't say anything, Anders quickly said, "I mean, it's okay if you don't like me, I just wanted you to know."

Elsa embraced Anders in a hug that seemed to last for days, though in reality it only lasted for a few seconds. "I like you back, Anders." She replied.

"Anders?" Elsa broke the silence.

"Hmm?"

"Just out of curiosity, how long have you… have you..."

"Since the moment I laid my eyes on you," Anders replied, as if he knew what Elsa was going to say.

"Oh."

"So, what now?" Anders asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Should I go get my gloves?" Elsa asked.

"I'll come with you," Anders nodded.

The shop was so empty. Bryce and Walter were never coming back.

"Store's probably going out of business now." Elsa informed Anders. "So, I guess you can take whatever you want before I close this place for good."

"Wait, but I don't have to take anything yet, because I'll be coming back, right?"

"True...how about...you erm…" Elsa tried to find a good way to phrase her words. "How about when you go home today, you pack up all your things. Then come over tomorrow, and bunk in here." She proposed, trying to keep her blush in check.

"Oh, um...that would be awesome." Anders accepted, blushing from head to toe.

"'Okay, so...bye, I guess. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Bye…" Anders said, leaving with an awkward wave. He closed the door behind him, leaving Elsa to be alone in her thoughts.

Elsa headed to her room, fastening on her gloves.

Elsa looked all around the store for her spell book. She couldn't get Bryce off of her mind, she wanted to bring him back to life. Elsa didn't know how to live without him. Elsa sighed and slumped to her room.

Once she got to her room, she shoved the door closed and trudged over to her bookshelf. She wanted to find a spell book on resurrection. Bryce had done so much for her. The least she could do was bring him back. A few minutes - maybe hours - later, she decided that searching her shelf was useless. She'd never find the book. Stressed out, Elsa laid on her icy cold bed until a thought came to mind. Maybe Bryce borrowed my book... or maybe the demon wanted to..

Elsa didn't finish her thoughts and rushed into Bryce's room. She stopped at the doorway and the dreadful memories came back to her head seeing this room.

Elsa remembered the day after the terrible accident, somebody had called the soldiers because they heard screaming. When the soldiers came, Elsa hid in the closet. She didn't want to be thought of as a murderer.

Even though that's what she really was. A murderer. Elsa found tears coming to her eyes as she looked around Bryce's empty room. There were bloodstains on the bed sheets, on the walls, almost everywhere. Elsa saw a shirt Bryce hung up on his closet door knob. It would have been the shirt he was going to wear the day after he was killed, but he never woke up to wear it. Without Bryce in his room, it looked so dull and gray. Gray and red. Blood was everywhere, spilled in his room. Because of her.

Now Bryce is in a Viewing, not being buried because Elsa doesn't have enough money for the funeral. Nobody would come, anyway. Barely anybody knew Bryce. He was just a nameless, faceless man to the public.

Elsa couldn't stop thinking of Bryce, so she decided to maybe take a walk in the forest to get her mind off things. She trudged outside through the snow-laden woods. She wanted, so desperately, to run away from what she'd done. She was a murderer. The word repeated in her head over and over again.

Murderer.

Murderer.

She couldn't take it anymore. She had to go see Anders. There was no way she would be able to live through this on her own. Elsa set off through the snow, never stopping until she finally paused in front of Anders's house, catching her breath from walking so far at such a brisk pace.

She knocked on the area of wood next to his family's cloth door. She heard a few footsteps sound from inside. A moment later, a graceful, slim hand pulled the cloth aside, revealing a relatively young lady with her hazel hair pulled back into a loose bun. The bun was held up with twine. Her green eyes glimmered with recognition. Anders' mom.

"Oh, hey, Elsa. Anders is in the back, in case you wanted some alone time." She winked knowingly.

"Erm, no, i-it's not like that!" Elsa blushed, realizing the hidden meaning behind her words.

"Ah, young love. So refreshing." Her face almost glowed with happiness. Almost. Underneath her facade was a sorrow that seemed deep enough to drown in. Billy…

"Thank you, Mrs. Oleson." Elsa dipped her head slightly in a sign of respect, and headed towards the back.

"Anders!" Elsa called. Their backyard wasn't much, just a few yards of dirt, some grass patches here and there.

"Elsa?" Anders sounded surprised to find her there. "What are you doing here this early?"

"I just wanted to see you." Didn't Anders want to see her, too? He was acting like he didn't.

"Oh, sure." Anders was prying bushes out of the ground.

"What are you doing with those bushes?" Elsa asked.

"Oh…" Anders looked at the scraggly bush he was holding, then back at Elsa. He seemed to hesitate before saying, "I was trying to pick off these berries." He gestured to a few blueberries dangling from the bush. "It's just that the area where they were growing was overcrowding with thorns, it was hard to reach them."

"Let me help," Elsa adjusted her snow proof gloves on her hands.

"No, no, I don't need any, and I think I'm just about finished now."

Elsa stared at Anders. He didn't usually act like this.

"Hey, Elsa, I have to go to the bathroom."

Elsa followed Anders inside of his beaten up house, greeting his mother with a smile. But her mother looked like she had her heart broken into two.

"What's wrong Mrs. Oleson?" Elsa asked.

"I got a letter from the palace. From Aaliyah." she said staring at the paper in her hand.

"What does it say?!" Elsa exclaimed.

Anders' mother handed her the letter:

Dear ,

This is Princess Leah from the palace. I just wanted to let you know how I was doing; the palace is amazing. They serve me hot meals, there are cozy rooms, I wear beautiful gowns. I think I'm much better off here than where I was before. This is an invitation inviting you, Billy, and Anders to live with me in the palace. My housekeeper said that they already have a room prepared for you. I'm sorry for not telling you this before, but you guys didn't find me on accident. I ran away from the palace many years ago, when I was just a young lady. I want you to understand that I was always the princess, and I just didn't know how good life was back then. I don't plan on ever running away again. Please accept my invitation and hopefully you will arrive here soon.

Yours truly,

Princess Leah

Elsa reread the note over again.

She couldn't believe what was written. Aaliyah is the princess? She looked at Mrs. Olsen in surprise. "Why are you sad? You should be happy!"

"No, you don't quite understand honey." she said. "Aaliyah is my daughter. Not the queen's. She's my baby. Not the queen's. She's not suppose to be there. Aaliyah is mine!"

Elsa said nothing and she continued, "And B-Billy… she doesn't know about Billy!"

Elsa heard the toilet flush and saw Anders coming out of the bathroom. He saw his mother crying and looked at Elsa.

"Hey, Mrs. Oleson, it's okay. You can go live with Princess Leah. You will still be around her at least."Elsa said.

"What about you, Anders?" she asked.

"I'm going to live with her." he said, grinning widely, motioning to Elsa.

His mother's eyes widened and she grinned wider than Anders' smile. She turned and began packing her belongings packed Anders' belongings. But in a separate cloth sack

She shoved the sack into Anders' hands and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "You guys have to promise me that you will watch out for each other."

"I promise," Anders replied reassuringly.

"I do too," added Elsa.

With a couple hugs and more kisses, everybody left. The whole house was now empty.

Anders left to go to the local market to buy bread. While he was doing so, Elsa thought it would be nice if she unpacked Anders' things for him. For some reason, his cloth bag seemed heavy, even though Elsa knew that Anders didn't own much. Out of Anders' bag she pulled out a big, heavy, 20,435 paged book. It smelled familiar like something she owned for years , and it looked familiar.

The title was, 'The Spells for the Elements Through the Ages'. Elsa gasped. Her book in Anders bag?! How could Anders have gotten hold of this? She went to her room and put it in her bag. Elsa made the decision to not to go outside of Bryce's shop as often as possible, for her safety. It's what Bryce would have wanted, and what Anders did want. He wanted her to be safe.

Aqua: So… that wraps up chapter nine! I did nothing… well, I did edit, but those guys are the experts. Speaking of "those guys", where are they? ROSE! NIKE! TINLIGHTS! PASTEL?

Rosegold: I'M RIGHT HERE! I think that this chappie is quite interesting...

Nike: I was here the whole time. Sheesh. Walter's death was very gory. I wrote that. Rose threw suggestions in while I wrote.

Rosegold: I can't believe we'll actually be on our last chapter now… I'll miss this story… Time flew by so fast… *cries*

TinLights: Wow I can't believe we are almost done :O DIS IS SO FUN.

Aqua: … I'm just gonna pretend that I was here all that time… ^^