Chapter 12: A White Lit Room

June 2015

Anna walked into Arendelle hospital one bright summer morning. For the past year, she had tried to visit her sister at least at every opportunity she had. The attack on her had left pretty much everyone in Arendelle satisfied, stating that she had finally got some decent justice. The inmates responsible had never been caught, although there had been strong suspicions on who it was- apparently the attack had happened in an area under construction so there were no security cameras. Anna had been livid and successfully sued the prison for negligence. Many in Arendelle had questioned this decision but most people left the issue to rest.

Anna walked through the familiar hallways, carrying a bouquet of flowers. She knew she was Elsa's only visitor. Nobody else cared about her. Not even Jack had flown over and visited, although he called more often now and casually asked about Elsa's condition. To Anna, that told her that he still did care about her, but was conflicted about that. Maybe there was still hope for him coming over to visit after all.

As she entered her sister's room, she emptied out the old flowers and placed new ones in there. Elsa still lay there, no change in her condition in over a year. Anna didn't dare think about what would happen if she continued this way. The doctors had started dropping hints about either placing her into a long-term care facility or maybe looking at end of life care. Neither one of them Anna was particularly thrilled about looking into.

Anna sat down in her usual chair and took out the paper and started reading stuff out loud to her sister. She knew Elsa couldn't hear her but she didn't care.

"Oh, so apparently it is supposed to be nice and sunny all week," Anna said, speaking above her paper. "Bet you ten bucks that it will rain. It usually does whenever they predict that. Let's see, bunch of sports games – I won't bore you with that – oh you always liked the business section. However, I don't understand a word of it." Anna laughed a little. "Let's check out the headlines. Oh, you remember that missing tourist? Apparently, she was found alive – thank god – in some creep's cabin. She managed to escape and get help. That is one tough lady."

Anna paused as her eyes continued to skim the front page. There wasn't really anything else in there. That was when she heard it. It was a strange noise, like someone was choking and it was coming from the direction of…

"Elsa!" Anna called out and rushed to her sister's side.

Weird flashes went through her mind; a woman lying in a grassy patch, a man lying unconscious in the street next to her, a woman in an alleyway with a scared expression on her face, a bloodied knife. Voices could be heard all around her. Some she didn't recognise but one she did. It was her sister…Anna. Must wake for her, she told herself. Anna needed her. Struggling to open her eyes, she forced them open and found herself staring at a brightly lit ceiling. A beeping sound was next to her and told her that she was in a hospital but why, she didn't know that.

Next to her, Anna was sitting reading the newspaper. Elsa tried to speak, but there was something obstructing her throat. Only a gargled sound could be heard. Anna probably heard her though, for she immediately rushed to her side, calling for a doctor. Soon a few people in white coats had burst into the room and removed a tube that was down her throat.

"What happened?" Elsa asked croakily. She looked around the room. She had no memory of what had happened or how she got here. In fact, she didn't know what the last thing she could remember was. As she pulled at her hands, she realised that they wouldn't come. As she looked down, she saw that she was handcuffed to the bed. She frowned at it. That was odd. Why was she handcuffed? "Why am I handcuffed?" she looked at her sister who looked bumfuzzled at what her sister was saying. "Anna, what is going on?"

Anna gave her a confused look and then broke into a disappointed expression.

"Okay, Elsa, drop the act," she said. "This whole 'amnesia' thing," she placed air quotes around the words, "is so cliché. Cut the crap Elsa. You know what you did."

Elsa was panicking now. "Anna, what happened? I am serious! What is going on?"

She had no idea what her sister was on about. The look that Anna was giving her was one she had never seen before. It was a mix of scepticism, complete with eye rolls, and disappointment. Elsa felt like there was something big she was missing here. Judging by the look on Anna's face, that something was huge.

A doctor was now getting up close and personal with her, shining a light into her eyes.

"Follow my pen," the doctor said, which Elsa obliged too. The doctor paused, giving Elsa an intense stare. "There could be some memory lost, she did suffer serious brain damage."

"Brain damage?" shrieked Elsa. "What the?!"

"Do you know your name?" the doctor asked.

"Elsa Winters."

"The year?

"Ummm, I really couldn't say… maybe 2003?" the looks on the doctor's face and Anna's told her that it wasn't that. "2004? 2005?"

"It's 2015 Elsa," Anna said, softly. "You've been in a coma for a year."

"What?" Elsa didn't know what to say or think. She had been a good ten years off the mark with her guess. "2015…what the…."

"Do you know where you are?" the doctor asked.

"I think this is Arendelle Hospital?" Elsa asked. "Although it looks different from what I remember, for starters, that statue outside is new." She gestured with her head to the window which had a perfect view of the entranceway.

"Hmm…" the doctor gave Elsa a quizzical look. "I want to run some tests."

"She's faking though," Anna sighed. "Do you really want to waste your time with tests?"

"Anna, what did I do? Please say something!"

Anna didn't say anything, but there was a hurt expression on her face which nearly broke Elsa in two. She had done something bad, really bad but whatever it was, Anna wouldn't tell her.

Dr Banke was sitting behind a computer in the MRI machine with a cup of coffee grasped firmly in her hand. Her patient, Elsa Winters was inside. There was something going on with Elsa, her Spidey senses were tingling. The way Elsa looked when she woke up looked genuine to her, as if she didn't know what was going on or who she was. Dr Banke had decided to try out a little idea she had; test the hypothesis she had going on in her head. Maybe it would prove something.

"Okay Elsa," Dr Banke said into the microphone. "I am going to show you pictures and see what your brain recognises. All you have to do is stay very still."

"Got it!" Elsa called back.

Dr Banke started showing pictures. She started easy with some pictures that she knew that Elsa would recognise; her sister, her parents, some school friends etc. They all came back positive that Elsa recognised them – her temporal lobe flared up on her screen, as did her frontal lobe and her parietal lobe which indicated that not only was she experiencing a memory associated with the picture but an emotional response. So far, so good.

The next pictures that came up were ones of her children which illicit the same responses. That was good. Now onto to see if she recognised events that had happened. She put pictures up of events that had happened over the last several decades; worldwide events like the twin towers, wars, natural disasters like Hurricane Karina and swine flu in Asia, local events such as elections in Arendelle, events that happened at her company and new technology that had been introduced such as iPhones, Facebook, YouTube etc. Many of these didn't elicit a response but some did. To Dr Banke, that told her that Elsa's memory was fragmented and disjointed. To her, that proved that Elsa was experiencing memory lost and wasn't faking it like her sister had accused her of.

However, there was one last test Dr Banke wanted to do.

"Okay, for this next one, I am going to show you some people, I just want you to tell me if you recognise anyone."

"Got it."

Dr Banke this time used pictures of well-known victims of the Arendelle Ripper – aka the patient in front of her. Next, she used crime scene photos taken at the scenes of her crimes. In Elsa's police interview, Dr Banke recalled how excited Elsa had been to relive her crimes. As she gazed at her screen, she spat out her coffee. The results were nothing like she had ever seen before.

"Whoa," she whispered as her eyes were glued to the brain scan in front of her.

Anna had been sitting in the waiting room of the hospital simply twiddling her thumbs for the past two hours. Sitting next to her, was Kristoff who was pretending to read a book. Both of them were anxious to find out the test results. Anna didn't know what she was hoping for; positive or negative.

If it was positive – which means yes, Elsa was suffering brain damage and memory lost – what did that mean? Did that mean she had forgotten the crimes she had committed? What did that mean for their relationship? Sure, Elsa may not have any memory of the incidents but that didn't mean they didn't happen. Arendelle was slowly healing from her reign of terror. Her victim's families were still hurt and broken, unable to move on with their lives. Anna would have to be the one to break it to her sister that this had happened. How would Elsa react to the news? If this accident had changed her, then surely, she would react with emotion? Right?!

However, a darker thought crossed her mind. If it was negative, that meant Elsa was indeed faking. That meant she was still trying to manipulate everyone around her just like she had done before her accident. Maybe it was all still a game to her and everyone was her pawns. She had done this with the police and the justice system but would she really do it with her own family? It was a scary thought; one she didn't want to think about.

She glanced over at her husband. Oh, what she wouldn't pay to know what he was thinking. Sure, he had been super supportive throughout this whole mess – he had been the one to push Anna into visiting her sister – but she knew that he hated how Elsa had treated their family and had caused the fear and terror in the streets of Arendelle. After the trial, he had been supportive in cutting out Elsa from their lives.

"What do we do?" Anna asked.

"If?" Kristoff replied.

"I don't know," Anna shrugged.

Kristoff put down his book. "I think we should find out what the tests show before we worry about anything."

Maybe Kristoff had a point. Worrying never did anyone any good. Anna tried to relax in her seat but it was useless, she was too nervous. There had to be something to distract her. Her phone didn't provide any help, scrolling through Facebook didn't do anything either. The magazines next to her were filled with stupid articles that she didn't want to read. However, she found a gardening one that she forced herself to look through. Gardening may not be a real hobby of hers but at least it was more interesting than the latest celebrity gossip that Anna knew the magazine writers were making up.

"Mr and Mrs Bjorgman?" the voice of Dr Banke had alerted Anna that they were no longer alone.

"Yes, hi," Anna and Kristoff leapt to their feet. "Tell us doc, what is going on? What did the tests show?"

"The attack on your sister did tremendous damage," Dr Banke said. "To be honest, I am surprised that some of her functions – such as speech and mobility – are still intact. However," she paused at the word, "there was a significant amount of damage done to her frontal lobe."

"What does that mean?" Anna was puzzled as was Kristoff who was sitting next to her.

"Well, the tests did confirm that Elsa does have memory lost," Dr Banke said. "Significant memory lost. She knows some things – such as who she is, who her family is, where she lives etc. but she can't remember other things such as the year, what has been happening in the world. When I showed pictures of her family, it took her a few moments to register her own children."

A wave of relief came over Anna. Even though she had been the one to accuse Elsa of faking the memory lost, she was glad she was proven wrong. This meant that Elsa had been telling the truth and that this wasn't some game. It was real.

"There is something else," Dr Banke took in a deep breath. "I showed Elsa pictures of her victims, her crime scenes to see what kind of response they would give. There was a lack of response from these photos, she didn't recognise her victims which made me believe that Elsa wasn't lying about not knowing why she was handcuffed to the bed. I believe she may have forgotten all of that time of her life."

There was another pause as Anna took this in. Did that mean what Anna thought that meant? It was only a few moments after that did the doctor spoke again.

"Based on my professional medical opinion, I believe the part of Elsa that wanted to kill, maim, hurt people, gained sexual desire from torture and from killing is now gone."

A/N: Whoaaaa that cliffy right? Stay tuned for more!

Reviews:

Collington: Glad you loved it. Well I feel like Anna's logic is that Jack should know ASAP but yeah I see what you mean. That would be spoilers! But no, we don't.