Warning: VERY depressing/sad chapter ahead!

"Young man!" a woman's voice rang out, full of concern.

Aðalbjörn turned to see a small, middle-aged woman with light brown hair jogging toward him and away from the house next door.

When she reached him, she asked, "Are you the son of Jakob Sæmund Ólafursson and Ágústa Halla Lárusdóttir?"

"Yes, I'm Aðalbjörn," he confirmed, immediately taking note of the woman's kind but anxious face, feeling even more scared. "Do you know where my parents are?"

At this, the woman's face crumpled as if she might be about to cry. She said, "Come inside my house with me, honey. You may want to sit down for this."

Aðalbjörn had never felt fear as intense as he was feeling at the moment, not even when he had first discovered he had fire powers. Speaking of which, he hoped he could keep those under control when the woman told him her news. He knew right away it wouldn't be good.

The woman led him inside her house and they sat down in her living room. She looked solemnly into the boy's anxious eyes and said, "Aðalbjörn, I'm afraid I must share some very difficult news with you."

"Just tell me and get it over with," he said, his voice heavy with dread.

"The night you first moved in, the whole neighborhood was going to have a welcome party for you guys at my house," the woman began. "But neither you nor your parents ever showed up. I had known you might not come, since Ágústa had come over earlier to let me know that she and Jakob were going shopping and to ask to watch for you when you came back. But they never came back that night. The next morning I was informed that they had been hit and killed by a drunk driver. I'm so sorry, dear."

Aðalbjörn seemed to shrink into his chair. He clasped his hands together in a death grip to avoid striking the innocent messenger of the horrible news. As it was, searing sparks began to flame between his tightly clasped hands, unbeknownst to the woman. But the pain the woman would have felt from the fire, even if it had struck her directly in the heart, didn't even begin to come close to the pain Aðalbjörn felt as his vulnerable heart was ripped in two, as half of his world and the world as he knew it met an abrupt death. His mother and father were dead!

The tears came slowly. First it was just one silent tear, then two more, then four more not-so-silent ones, and then Aðalbjörn was sobbing.

For a very long time, he cried uncontrollably, harder than he ever had in his life. The woman came over and embraced his trembling figure, and when he was sure he wouldn't set anything he touched on fire, he clutched tightly onto her shoulders, the way he had done to his mother while she comforted him after their dog died. He had been only eight when this happened.

When his sobs had subsided enough that he could choke out a few words in between them, he turned to the woman with streaming, bloodshot eyes and said to her, "They never knew I had gone missing for nine months. But I waited the same amount of time to return to them, only to find out that they died the first night! And my mom never even got to start her new job! I WILL KILL THAT DRUNK IDIOT MYSELF FOR KILLING MY INNOCENT PARENTS!"

He started sobbing into the woman's shoulder again. The whole long wait had been for nothing. He would never see his parents again.

Never again would his father drag him along on one of his winter sport excursions, clap him (rather painfully) on the back whenever he was proud of him, or ruffle his strawberry blond hair and remark that at least it wasn't nearly as red as his own.

And never again would his mother, his loving, sweet mother, tenderly embrace him whenever he had a bad day, take long walks by the glaciers with him as they talked for hours, or turn her cheek up for him to kiss each night before he went to bed.

And never again would he go on elf hunts with them. He would never even get to tell them about the spirit world, about the elf spirit customers, about Elsa.

The thought made him cry harder, if that was even possible. The woman tightened her grip on him. Seeing no other option, he did the same to her.

Aðalbjörn finally managed to stop crying. It seemed like he had cried for hours, which was very possibly true. But the woman had been most kind; she had embraced him and rubbed his back the whole time, just trying to comfort him. She didn't use words. She knew they wouldn't help with this kind of pain.

Just like his mother would have known.

Aðalbjörn pushed this thought to the side for the moment so he could pull himself together (he knew he would cry again later tonight though) and thank the woman for letting him know what had happened and for being so kind.

"Thank you for letting me know and for being so kind to me," he said sincerely, raising his head to look into the woman's sympathetic eyes. For once, the sympathy didn't bother him.

The woman stood up and responded, "Absolutely. By the way, my name is Lisa. I will take you in for tonight, since the real estate company put your house up for sale six months ago."

"They what?" Aðalbjörn should have been outraged, but instead he felt nothing. His grief-broken voice was no more than a monotone.

Lisa grimaced. "I tried to tell them no, that the deceased owners had a teenage son that I had a feeling would come back some day, but all they cared about was getting the money for the house."

"I know so many people like that," Aðalbjörn said, his mind immediately going to Hans. "It's ridiculous. But thank you for doing that."

"Of course," said Lisa. "Anyway, you are welcome to stay with us for as long as you need. My husband Karl will be home from work soon, and my daughter Sadie is at a friend's house for a play date. It's about time for me to pick her up. Would you like to come with me, or would you prefer to stay here? Either one is fine."

Aðalbjörn quickly made the choice. "I'll come along," he said. He didn't want to be alone. If he was alone, he would start crying again, and probably wouldn't stop for hours, maybe even days. He would just have to let it all out later at night, when no one would interrupt him.

"All right," said Lisa. "I'll start the car."

"So how old is Sadie? And what do you and your husband do for a living?" Aðalbjörn asked Lisa, who kept her eyes on the road as she drove. He felt totally numb inside, but he wanted to find out more about this woman who had been so kind to go out of her way and help him in this time of need.

Lisa responded, "Sadie is six years old, and she's very sweet, but sometimes she gets a little inconsiderate of other people's space. Don't be surprised if she tries to hug you when you meet her. I'm a part time kindergarten sub, and Karl chops ice for a living. Legend has it some of that ice goes to a kingdom called Arendelle. Have you ever been?"

Aðalbjörn nodded. "Yeah, once when I was three," he said, choosing not to go into full details. He didn't want Lisa to think he was going crazy from his grief over his parents' deaths.

Lisa said, "Arendelle is a wonderful place. But have you heard? It's been frozen in an eternal winter for nearly three years now! I wonder why?"

For the first time since learning that his parents had died, Aðalbjörn felt his first real emotion other than crushing grief. And it was a terrible sinking feeling.

"Um, Lisa?" He had no idea how best to explain this, how much information to give. She seemed like a very trustworthy person and all, but how best to explain this….

"Yes?"

Aðalbjörn finally said, "I can never thank you enough for putting me up for the night and helping me in this great time of need, but I think I will have to be on my way tomorrow."

"Oh, okay!" said Lisa. But she looked a bit perplexed. She asked, "But where will you go? Will you have a place to stay?"

Aðalbjörn nodded. "Yeah, I'm just going to stay with a good friend," he said. He'd go find Elsa in the spirit world tomorrow and ask her if she knew anything about Arendelle being frozen in a three year long winter.

"Okay, and you can always come back," said Lisa. "Just make sure to write or something to let me know that you're safe."

"I will. I'll write," promised Aðalbjörn. Grand Pabbie should know how to send a letter from the spirit world to the human world.

"Thank you," Lisa said. She turned off into a driveway.

"Well, we're here," she said cheerfully. "Let me go and grab Sadie, and we'll be on our way back home in just a moment."