Frozen Hearts
By- An Unknown Foreign Beauty
Chapter 29- Love will thaw
Suddenly there were people- a lot of people. People in green scrubs and life saving equipments, people in black uniforms and guns. They gathered around Anna, they gathered around Hans, they gathered around Weselton's body.
Doctors cut off Anna's clothes, exposing her battered body in the cold night. Blood was still seeping slowly from the hole in her chest as they kept trying to resuscitate her. They were saying dark phases that Elsa could not fully comprehend. Hans didn't fight as the police handcuffed him. They took the gun from his hand as evidence. Weselton's body was packed and loaded in an ambulance, so was Anna's. Only difference was that she was hurried into the emergency bundled in various machines while Duke was wheeled into the morgue.
And then all of them were gone like they never existed.
Elsa clutched Eugene's hand for support. Rapunzel held her before she hit the ground. Only Kristoff stood at the elevator gate, staring blankly into the space. It took two paramedics to coax him and make him to follow them.
As the small ground of people made their way downstairs, another group of people with cameras and microphones began to cross the boundary set by the police and doctors, and they clawed their way to them, pushing their microphones into their face and blinding them with their white camera flashes.
"Leave me alone!" Elsa screamed. Because they were asking her if she planned to kill her sister along with her ex-fiancé. Truth was, it was true that SHE brought whatever that happened to both of them. Her sister sacrificed herself for her and the man she ever loved became a murderer to save her life. Nothing like this would have happened to any of them if she hadn't returned from her exile. Anna would be happily married to Hans, and maybe Duke would be the president of Arendelle. It was not the future she wanted for her beloved sister and her Arendelle. But it would keep Anna alive.
Again the prediction about her proved right.
She was a bad omen. Her presence destroyed everything.
"Please, let me go." She begged as she tried to run and hide, but again she was surrounded by another bunch of journalists seeking for more juicy details of the events. As she was overwhelmed by the savageness of curiosity, she was rescued by another group of people, the law enforcers. They grabbed her arm and snatched her away from the crowd of hungry journalists.
"Miss Kingsley." One of them said, "Can we talk about Mr. Westergard?"
"Mr. Westergard?" Elsa replied in horror, assuming where they might take her. She was already dreading the consequences of the deeds Hans did for her. She followed them to the police car where he stood, handcuffed, surrounded by police. A sad smile laced his lips when their eyes met.
"We found him beside Mr. Weselton's body. We are suspecting that he shot him." The policeman informed her.
"I don't think he shot him." she lied. Hans' eyes widened, he didn't expected her to lie for him. But Elsa didn't want to lose another person she loved most after Anna. She already lost her. Maybe for once, she hoped, the lie will set him free.
She was wrong.
"But we found him with this." Another man in uniform showed her a gun. Elsa immediately recognized the gun he was carrying earlier that night. An undeniable proof. There was no escaping from this.
"But it doesn't prove anything." She cried looking at Hans, "I'm the only witness of the whole event. I'm saying that he didn't kill that man." She desperately hoped Hans would make some witty comment to deny the charge against him. But she was surprised when he remained as silent as before.
"Sorry Miss Kingsley, but the bullet wound in Mr. Weselton's body matched the caliber of the bullet of this gun. Besides Mr. Westergard is the prime suspect of Sofia Westergard murder case. Mr. Weselton was one of witnesses." The policeman confirmed her. "He has enough alibis to kill him."
In a second, Elsa knew that Hans' life had ended with Anna's. "But…" She tried to say, making a failed attempt to save Hans, "He was only trying to save me. He did not kill Sofia." She knew no one would pay any attention to her defense. Her words didn't prove anything, nothing about his intentions. The burden of his past crimes was so heavy. He had no evidence to prove that he shot Weselton only to save her.
Why did you do that, Hans? She wanted to ask. It was the most selfless act he ever did and it almost destroyed his life. She raised her eyes to look at him, but he smiled in return.
"I love you, Elsa." She heard him saying before being escorted into the law enforcer's vehicle. He was handcuffed, but he had no resistance to offer.
Elsa stood there for a moment, stunned. It was the confession she never expected to hear. Not when she was losing him. Not when her sister was dying. Not when their lives became a mess. Tears began to flow freely from her eyes. She could not stop them.
Someone told her there were five stages of grief. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. Where was she? Denial? Yes, she was angry at herself. Blaming herself for this mess, blaming him even to ever meet her. She blamed Anna for sacrificing herself for her.
Depression? If there is deeper sadness than this, she wouldn't know. She had accepted their final separation when they took Hans away. She accepted when Anna collapsed at her feet.
"Elsa…" Someone spoke behind her. It was Rapunzel. She was accompanied by Dr. Peebie. The defeated expression in his face said it all. "Miss Kingsley," He stepped forward, "I'm sorry..."
He did not have to tell, because Elsa knew it was over. Doctor tried to resuscitate Anna for almost an hour. And Elsa knew it failed. She knew from the moment her sister collapsed at her feet. Anna was gone, gone forever. Nothing in this world could bring her back.
"Elsa…" Rapunzel offered her hand, but Elsa declined her with a nod. She did not need anything, anyone. She had been enough through this.
She was finally in the stage of acceptance. She leaned to let go.
She had just said goodbye to Hans.
She could even say goodbye to Anna too.
.
.
.
.
When she stepped into the emergency corridor she found Grandma Bulda curled into Eugene's arms. Kristoff was sitting in the chair beside her. "Miss Kingsley." He rose to his feet and rushed near her. His eyes were red from crying. He looked tired from crying so long.
"They did everything to save her. But she didn't wake up. They told that she will never wake up." He said, his voice breaking with every word he spoke. Tears began rolling from his eyes, as he gripped Elsa's hands tightly. He choked on the final words "She is in deep coma. She will feel no pain, I promise you, Miss Kingsley. She will just slip away quietly."
It was hard to see an adult man breaking like this. He fell to his knees; his body was shaking horribly with the cry he was trying to resist. Elsa only stared vacantly for a moment, and then she released her hand from Kristoff's as she walked swiftly into Anna's cabin.
White fluorescent light shined bright above the hospital bed, and Anna lay as still and white as death upon the white pillows, surrounded by various machines, her breathing so shallow it was almost imperceptible.
Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Elsa sat in the chair beside her bed and gazed down upon her beloved face, wanting to memorize every line of it. She had such smooth skin, she thought achingly, and such incredibly long eyelashes—they lay like lush, dark fans against her cheeks…
Elsa thought she could let go Anna so easily, but no she could not.
And finally she broke.
"No, don't die!" she cried hoarsely as she grabbed her limp hand, frantically feeling for a pulse. "Don't die!" She found a pulse—thready and faint but still there—and suddenly she was the fourteen year old girl crying over her dying sister. This was the grown up version.
"Don't leave me, Anna," she pleaded, holding her tightly. "God, don't leave me!" Elsa begged urgently, somehow convinced that she would stay alive if she understood how much she meant to her. "I promise I will never shut you out. Hans is gone, Anna. He murdered Duke for me. I could not save him. Now how can I live if you go away too? Anna, please, please don't leave me alone."
She sounded so selfish. But if it could bring Anna back, she would love to be selfish.
Earlier she was thinking about the stages of grief. She thought she was in the stage of acceptance.
She thought she learned to let it go. But no, she did not.
She was not ready to face this. Her nightmare was returning, and she was again becoming like the fourteen year old girl driven by fear. Hans was taken by police, Anna was dying in her arms. What would she do alone in this big world?
Why did everyone step between her and doom? Hans and bullets, Anna and a fall. Why did the universe want her alive so badly? What did she offer, why was she chosen to live in the place of those who deserved life more than she?
I've given so much, you owe me just this one thing. Bring them back….
Tears choked her voice and made it a tormented whisper. "I love you Anna, and if you die I'll never be able to tell you that."
The minutes became an hour, and then another, and still Elsa was holding Anna's limp body in her arms. The sobs continued for what could have been hours though only moments passed. She felt lightheaded; her arms began to ache. She was slipping in her grip from Anna's body. And it looked almost like Anna was moving, in her blurred vision she saw Anna's color retuned, she saw her begin to move.
Elsa's breath stopped and she jerked her head back, her eyes frantically searching her face as she gently lowered her against the pillows.
"Anna?" she implored achingly, bending over her, and just when she thought she'd imagined the faint flutter of her eyelids, her pale lips parted, trying to form a word.
"Tell me, sister," she said desperately, leaning close to her. "Say something, please."
Anna swallowed, and when she spoke, her words were so faint they were nearly inaudible. "What?" she pleaded urgently, not certain what she was saying.
Again she whispered, and this time Elsa's eyes widened as she finally understood. She stared at her hands held tightly in her and then her eyes began widening. Anna just said not to shut her out. She looked into her sister's eyes to confirm her thought, but Anna smiled in return.
"But why?" Elsa was still wondering. How could Anna forgive the man who ruined her life?
"Because…." Anna's lips moved again, and Elsa had to lean closer to hear her words. Anna took a deep breath and smiled. She was so tired that her eyelids began to flutter close again. But she struggled to keep them open while she said, "I love you."
"Oh Anna!" Elsa could not hold back her tears anymore. She bent down and kissed Anna's forehead. Holding her she finally let out the sob that she was trying to hold back. It started as a low moan, then exploded in great gusty shouts of cry that rang out along the corridor and brought Kristoff, Peebie, Rapunzel and Eugene running into the room in the obvious misapprehension that Elsa's grief had destroyed her mind. When they entered, they could only gasp in surprise because the girl they assumed dead was now holding her crying sister's face in her arms. Elsa could hear Dr. Peebie murmuring something about miracles. But she knew there was no miracle in this.
It was love.
Love saved Anna. Love changed Hans.
Love took away the man she loved. Again love gave her back her sister.
Review? Faves? Follows?
This was an extremely long chapter. So I split it in three parts. Here is the first 1/3.
Errors are all mine. Plz consider them nicely.
