[TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains references to thoughts of suicide and thoughts of self-harm, as well as dark and scary themes.]
Chapter Six: The Shadow of the Prince
Theme Song: You Are My Sunshine by Elizabeth Mitchell
Later that night, both sisters sat in the bedroom that they were sharing once more.
Elsa had the servants move everything from her former room back into the one that she used to share with Anna a long time ago. The staff were all too happy to do this for her because they all cared deeply for the two royal sisters who were their employers, and were overjoyed that they were reunited.
The young queen was relieved that she wouldn't have to sleep in the room that had been her prison for thirteen years anymore. That room brought her too many sad memories.
The princess was also relieved that the large empty space in her heart—and her room—was finally being filled again after thirteen years of being alone. Anna was currently laying on her bed in her green nightgown with her legs dangling over the side. She gently kicked the side of her bed with her sock covered heels while she fanned her arms as if she were making snow angels in the blankets. "I'm so excited that we're sharing our old room again!" she squealed in delight.
Elsa chuckled warmly at her little sister's excitement. "I'm excited, too," she stated from her seat on the edge of the bed before gently poking her sister in the side, causing Anna to giggle. Rolling onto her side, Anna took Elsa's hand in both of hers; her hand felt cool to the touch, but not cold. She suddenly grew more serious as she quietly murmured, "I've really missed you, Elsa."
"I've missed you, too, Sunshine," the Snow Queen replied before giving her sister's hand a squeeze. "Did you have fun building snowmen today?" she asked with a smile.
"Mhm," Anna hummed with a nod. "It was so much fun. I've really missed building snowmen with you."
"I have, too."
"Haha! Did you see Kristoff's face every time you made something out of ice? It. Was. Hilarious!" Anna laughed at the thought of the Master Ice Harvester and Deliverer tearing up and murmuring, "Now that's ice!" every so often.
"I caught a glimpse of him looking a bit misty-eyed once or twice," Elsa confirmed. "I must admit, it is a relief that there are other members of the human race who don't see my powers as evil." Suddenly, a smirk grace her lips. "But speaking of Kris-… uh, Kristian…? Kristoffer?-"
"Kristoff."
"Yes, Kristoff. Thank you. Speaking of Kristoff, quite a lot of people caught more than a glimpse of you and our Master Ice Harvester being rather… affectionate while you were giving him his new sled yesterday."
Anna blushed as she suddenly found the blankets so much more interesting and glued her eyes there rather that looking her sister in the eye. "Oh, really?" she nonchalantly inquired, trying to sound as inconspicuous as possible.
"Why, yes," the Snow Queen continued casually. "In fact, I would even go as far as to say that the two of you were being quite romantic, from what I hear."
Letting go of Elsa's hand, Anna rolled over so that her blushing cheeks were out of sight. "And where did you hear that from?"
Laying on the bed next to her little sister, Elsa let a purely evil grin claim her features since Anna wouldn't be able to see it. "From none other than Olaf, of course," she replied. "Judging by what he said, it sounded like you two had, oh, I don't know… kissed." For a benevolent character, Elsa had the evil smirk of a villain—like Scar from The Lion King. "I can see it now," she stated began before continuing in her best imitation of her sister, "'Oh, Kristoff, you're such a strong and handsome gentleman, unlike Prince Hans, who was just a complete and utter jerk,'" she placed the back of her hand against her forehead in a mock sigh.
"Shut up," Anna shyly retorted before reaching for a pillow and blindly smacking behind herself, hoping that it would hit her teasing older sister.
Giggling, Elsa caught it before it could hit her and continued in her best imitation of the Ice Harvester, "'Oh, Anna, you are so beautiful. Any man who doesn't love you is a fool!'"
"Shut up!" the blushing princess barked again as she tried to yank the pillow out of the Snow Queen's grasp.
Enjoying tormenting her sister like this, Elsa let the pillow go, but sat up on her knees as she started to tickle the princess's sides while continuing in her best Kristoff voice, "'Do not worry, Princess Anna! For I, Kristoff, the Master Ice Harvester and Deliverer, shall save you!'"
Anna squealed at the tickling and wriggled about as she tried to escape the childish form of torture. "Haha! Sto-Stop it, E-Elsa! Hahaha!" she begged in the midst of laughter.
"Never!"
"P-Please—ha!—st-stop!"
"The use of the magic word changes nothing!"
Trying to grab Elsa's arms in an attempt to fight back, Anna continued to squirm and laugh, while the Snow Queen giggled at how ridiculous her little sister looked as she continued to tickle her.
Eventually, Anna's hysterical cries of "Stop!" and "Mercy!" were acknowledged when the door to the room burst open. "Princess Anna! Is everything alright?!" The queen paused her tickle torture, and the two giggling sisters met the gaze of the concerned head housemaid. Upon seeing that the princess wasn't being murdered, the older woman smiled fondly. It had been far too long since there had been any laughter in the castle, let alone since the two sisters had played together as sisters should. "As you were, your Majesties," she stated with a chuckle before closing the door again.
"No! Gerda! Please, don't leave! Help me!" Anna pleaded when she saw her sister wiggle her fingers tauntingly at her, threatening to tickle her again.
"You're on your own!" the housemaid good-naturedly called back as she continued on back downstairs. Normally, in that culture and time-period, a servant wouldn't dare respond to their employers in such a joking and familiar way. However, Gerda, as well as Kai, had been serving the royal family for so long, and had known the two sisters for so long, that they were almost like extended family. Almost like an aunt and uncle to them.
When it seemed that all hope of getting help from Gerda to end the tickle war was lost, Anna held up her hands in a "T" shape and asked, "Can we please take a break; I'm all tickled out."
Elsa considered this before replying, "Okay, I'll stop, it's about time we started winding down for bed anyway."
"Thank you!" the princess breathed out in a sigh of relief.
"But just so you know," the queen added as she turned down the blankets of her bed, "I don't even want to hear talk of you marrying Kristoff until you've courted him for at least a year. Okay?"
"Don't worry, Elsa," the redhead replied while fluffing her pillows, "I've learned my lesson… but… I can't guarantee that there won't be talk… of marriage, that is. I mean, you don't court someone just because you feel like it, do you? There has to be a purpose to the courtship or else it's just a waste of time, right? 'Cause, I would like courting Kristoff to eventually lead to marriage someday—If that's alright with you! I'm not going to get engaged, let alone married to a man without your blessing, I mean… last time I tried that, it didn't turn out so well—"
"Anna," Elsa interrupted, snapping her sister out of her runaway-train-like statement. The princess thought that she was in trouble for a moment before Elsa's next statement proved her wrong: "I'm glad that you want to take things slowly with Kristoff, I was just trying to emphasize that. Alright?"
"Alright," the younger sister replied with a smile and a nod to show that she understood. "Thanks, Elsie."
"Whatever for?" the Snow Queen asked as she went over to the bookshelves to get something to read.
Joining her older sibling in front of the bookcase, Anna shyly answered with a shrug, "For wanting to keep me safe."
Turning her head to smile at her precious baby sister, Elsa warmly replied, "You are most welcome, Anna." She just couldn't quite believe that the little girl with bright red pigtails, the same little girl who would run around the castle causing havoc and fun at every turn, play in the mud with no shame, and crawl into bed with her whenever she was scared, was now a grown woman. It just about broke her heart. She had missed out on so much. Anna probably had many fun adventures—well, as fun as one locked in a castle could have—while she was growing up… and Elsa had missed all of them. Anna was all grown up now. She had missed it, and why? Because she wanted to keep her sister safe, and was dumb enough to not see that the solution to controlling her dangerous powers was knocking on her door almost every single day. If she had only opened the door the first time Anna had knocked, she probably would've spared them both so much pain. Yet despite all of that pain, Anna was still thanking her. For "keeping her safe"? For loving her? Her doubt and her reason fought over which one it was.
She turned her head back to the rows of books to hide the tears that were stinging the corners of her eyes.
She was such a horrible sister.
Remembering Anna's words from that morning, she shook her head slightly, as if to shake the negative thoughts from her mind, and quickly stopped any snowflakes from dusting more than just the top of the bookshelves.
Not finding any of the books interesting, and not noticing the sudden chill in her cozy nightgown, Anna sighed tiredly before casually asking, "Sooo… what did you do this afternoon besides play with me?"
"Well," Elsa began, "since Mama and Papa had to dismiss most of the staff to hide my powers after I accidentally hurt you, I've decided that I'm going to hire some more servants to take some of the work off of Kai and Gerda's plates."
"Hm, that sounds like a good idea," the princess commented.
"Yes. I scoured the newspapers earlier today, and I found something that looks rather promising."
Abandoning the project of trying to find a book to read, Elsa took a folded newspaper clipping from her nightstand and handed it to her sister.
"'Ove Trygve,'" Anna read aloud. "'Experienced footman for hire,' hm."
"Does talking about my work bore you?" Elsa asked with a small smile, noticing that her sister wasn't really that interested.
"No! Well, kinda, sorta… okay, yes, it kinda does," Anna confessed. "But, I do admit, it would be nice to actually have a castle with… a lot of people who live in it…" Elsa arched an eyebrow in curiosity, "for lack of better way to say what I'm trying to get across…"
The older sister rolled her eyes as she shook her head lovingly before enveloping the younger girl in a hug. "Oh, Anna," she chuckled, "don't ever change."
"Okay," the princess answered, "just so long as you don't change, either."
"What if I were to change for the better?" the queen inquired. Anna didn't know it, but the answer to this question would mean quite a lot to the older sister.
"Then you'd have to let me change for the better, too," Anna replied in a determined tone. She gave a good answer.
Elsa smiled, albeit only a small one. "Okay." Another good answer.
After a moment, the older sister pulled away from the hug, but rested her hands on Anna's shoulders. "Let's get to bed," she suggested. "It's starting to get late."
Looking at the clock, Anna saw that her sister was right. It was ten thirty-eight-ish. "Okay," she agreed. "Night-night, Elsie," she murmured with a smile.
"Goodnight, Sunshine," Elsa replied before giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"Are you going to be okay?" the younger sibling asked in a suddenly serious, but loving tone as she took her sister's hands in both of hers.
Knowing what she was referring to, Elsa smiled and nodded. "As long as you are with me, I know I will be."
"Okay. I love you," Anna stated with her own smile, albeit a serious one.
"I love you, too."
Climbing into their respected beds, Elsa sent a short burst of icy air toward the candle on her nightstand to put out the light. With the light of the moon casting its soft rays through the window, the two sisters snuggled down underneath their blankets.
There was silence for a few moments, before a hushed voice made itself known.
"Elsa?"
"Yes, Anna?" came the whispered reply.
"Just checking."
Satisfied that her big sister was indeed here, and here to stay, Anna rolled over with a smile and finally relaxed.
As the two sisters began to slowly doze off, the rays of the moon quickly yet fondly caressed them before dark wooly blankets put the sky to bed as well, and a few drops of rain began to gently tap a song on the window to lull the two girls to sleep.
Opening her eyes, Anna found that she was unable to move. Upon looking at her hands where they laid spread out on either side of her, she found that they were tied to a white wall. The wall in question was covered from top to bottom in crisscrossing white threads, completely covering it, and allowing the rope which held her in place to be nearly camouflaged.
Understandably, she stared to panic, especially when a multitude of spiders started to crawl up her legs and all over her body. Looking up, she tried to cry for help, but was unable to, and saw that she was trapped inside what appeared to be a box made of transparent ice.
Through the ice, she saw a much larger room that was pitch black, and her sister standing with her head bowed.
She tried to call out to her, but she still couldn't get any sound to come forth.
Suddenly, she heard Elsa speak. "Kill me."
What? No! Why would she say that?
"Please… kill me…"
Struggling to free herself, the princess kept trying and trying to call out to her sister, but to no avail. The spiders crawled all over her and bit her while a tall, dark figure approached the sister standing outside the box of ice.
"Please…" the Snow Queen pleaded in hopelessness while looking her little sister straight in the eye. "I don't want to live anymore."
"What would you have me do?" the figure asked from its place behind her.
There was a pause before she answered, "Kill me."
Drawing a long sword from an invisible sheath, the stranger raised it and answered, "As you wish… your Majesty!" At that jeering hiss, the sword swung down and cut off her head.
The head magically rolled through the ice wall and rested face up at Anna's feet, causing her to stare mouth open and eyes wide in shock.
Slowly walking through the ice wall, the stranger approached her.
She recognized him.
Hans!
Chuckling darkly, the evil prince grinned at her, his needle-like teeth covered in blood—the blood of her sister—and his black eyes piercing her own. Slowly tilting his head to the side, he peered at her; long, black, spindly legs coming out of his back as he approached her. "Oh, Anna," he chuckled, "if only there was someone out there who loved you."
Something caused her to look back down upon the head of her sister, and as she did so, she finally managed to whimper, "No… Elsa… No…"
Holding the point of the sword against her throat, the shadowy prince rasped, "Your sister can't hear you anymore."
Eyes quickly opening, Anna woke up; the rain pelted against the window as she stared into the darkness with fear. Occasionally, the room was temporarily lit up by a flash of lightning before being followed closely behind by a loud crash of thunder.
Great. Just what she needed.
Anna wasn't afraid of storms per say, but ever since news reached Arendelle of her parents drowning in a sea storm, storms had always made her very sad.
When she was little—around ten years old—she used to love storms because then the sky would seem to portray how hurt she was inside, and she often wondered if it was God crying because He understood that she was hurting and was.
With the images from her nightmare cycling through her head, Anna reached for her pillow and hugged it tightly to her chest as she tried not to cry.
Big girls don't cry. Princesses don't cry. Big girls don't cry. Princesses don't cry. Big girls don't cry… she chanted in her head—much like Elsa's "Conceal. Don't feel,"—as she sniffled. I wish Elsa was here… wait… Elsa! Bolting upright, Anna looked across the room, and sure enough, Elsa was fast asleep in her bed.
After thinking for a moment, she quietly slipped out from under the blankets and crept over to Elsa's bed. She hadn't done this for thirteen years, yet she worked up the courage to whisper, "Elsa?... Elsa?... Elsa?"
Groaning tiredly, the older sister rolled over towards her and brushed her blonde hair out of her face. For a moment, she forgot that she and her sister were sharing a room once more, and quickly sat up in a groggy panic with a small burst of snowflakes before remembering how to control her powers and calming down. "Anna? What is it?"
"Can…" she began in a murmur while shuffling her feet, "Can I sleep with you?... Please?... I had a nightmare."
"Of course you can, Anna," the older sister sleepily replied before scooting over, pulling back the blankets, and patting the space beside her.
"Thanks, Elsa," Anna whispered as she gladly slid in and huddled underneath the blankets. Since Elsa's powers involved ice and snow, one would think that her skin would be cold to the touch, as well anything that was in contact with her skin for long periods of time, but no; when Anna got underneath the blankets… they were warm.
"Do you want to talk about your nightmare?" the older sister asked.
There was a pause before the princess replied, "Yes."
"Okay then, tell me all about it."
"Can you hug me while I tell you?" Anna timidly asked.
"Of course, Sunshine," Elsa replied with an understanding smile while opening her arms wide, inviting her to come closer. Her baby sister smiled as she snuggled close and rested her head underneath her big sister's chin. One arm braced close to herself, and the other around Elsa's waist, Anna snuggled down and took comfort from feeling her sister wrap her arms lovingly around her. "So, what happened in your dream?" the elder sister asked once more.
"I was trapped in a spider web that was in a box made of ice," Anna quietly began. "You were outside the box of ice, and so was Hans. Before he came, you were asking for someone to kill you," she gulped. "You asked Hans to kill you and he…" she held her sister more tightly, "he cut off your head." Elsa's eyes widened.
"Your head rolled over to my feet and I finally recognized Hans. He had piranha teeth, black eyes, and spider legs coming out of his back…
"He said, 'Oh, Anna, if only there was someone out there who loved you.'
"The whole time, I tried to call out to you, but it was like my throat wasn't working for some reason, but after he said that, I finally started crying and saying your name. Hans just pointed his sword at my throat and said, 'Your sister can't hear you anymore,' and then I woke up."
Though Anna couldn't see it, Elsa was frowning; at Hans for deliberately saying and doing such hurtful things to her little sister in real life, at herself for accidentally hurting her sister and possibly causing her this post-traumatic stress, and at the demon that gave Anna the nightmare.
A few snowflakes were floating down onto the bed as Anna added, "Remember when I told you about how Kristoff, Olaf, and I went to see you in your ice palace?"
Elsa nodded.
Anna began to repeat the story that she had told the day before to her sister. "After that, we went to see the rock trolls—remember? Kristoff's family—and…" she paused, knowing that this was a delicate subject for her sister, "they told me that I had ice in my heart and that only an Act of True Love could save me. So I thought, 'A True Love's Kiss, of course! Duh!' and we sped back to the castle so that Hans could kiss me. However, just as he was about to kiss me, he stopped and said, 'Oh, Anna, if only there was someone out there who loved you.' Then he put out the fire in the fireplace and told me his evil plan to kill you and take the throne before he locked me in the library to freeze…"
"Well, you don't ever have to worry about him ever again," Elsa promised. "Earlier today, I sent a letter to the King of the Southern Isles explaining what Hans did, and that if he is ever found in our kingdom again, he will be sent back to his home immediately."
"Thank you, Elsa," the princess whispered gratefully.
"You're welcome, Anna," the queen quietly replied. "If anyone ever dares to say such awful things to you again, you come and tell me and I will take care of them. Okay?"
"Okay, Elsa."
"Good girl."
"Elsa?"
"Yes?"
"Before I froze…" Anna timidly began, "I heard Hans draw his sword… did you hear it, too?"
Taking a deep breath as more snowflakes fell, Elsa nervously nodded.
Brow furrowing in confusion, the younger sister then inquired, "Why didn't you defend yourself?"
Holding Anna more tightly, Elsa honestly answered, "Because Hans had just told me that you were dead and that it was all my fault… His exact words were, 'Your sister is dead because of you.' Since I had caused you to suffer, I knew that I didn't deserve to live.
"I once read that 'No reason to stay is a good reason to go,' and I loved you—and still love you—so much, that with you gone, I had nothing left to live for; I had no reason to stay.
"I love you so much, that the thought of having to continue life without you is worse than death itself. So, long story short, I was letting Hans kill me because it was my fault and I deserved it, and because… I love you. Being separated from you by a door hurt me so much, but being separated from you by death… that pain is indescribable." She paused for a moment before adding, "You're my little sister… as your big sister I am your keeper and I'm supposed to take care of you and keep you safe, and yet… you had died because of me… just like when Cain killed Abel."
She waited for a response from her sister, but Anna said nothing. She just trembled and shook in Elsa's arms. "Anna," she began, "are you alright?"
Pulling back enough to look her older sister in the eye, Anna glared at Elsa through her tears. "Elsa… you…" the princess began in a sob, "Cain murdered Abel. You didn't murder me; it was an accident! How dare you not try to defend yourself and then accuse yourself of murder? How dare you? Don't you ever do anything like that again, do you hear me? Don't you ever dare," she ordered in a whimper.
Oh, no! No, no, no! Elsa did it again! She made her sister cry! Again! When would she ever stop causing Anna pain?!
"Living without you would be too much for me to bear, either," the princess added. "I just-… How could-… Why-…" The woman couldn't finish a sentence she was so upset. Giving up on trying to speak, she just shook her head and pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead as she sobbed.
Seeing her baby sister crying like this broke Elsa's heart, and the salt on the wound was the fact that she was the one who made her cry. Not knowing what else to do, the queen pulled her little sister back into a hug and held her tightly, letting the younger girl cry into her shoulder as she murmured, "Shh, it's okay, Anna. It's okay. I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to stay right here with you. I'm never going to pull a stunt like that again."
"Promise?" the princess whimpered.
"I promise."
"Cross your heart and hope to—I-I mean cross your heart?"
"Cross my heart and hope to live to see old age."
"…Okay."
Anna had so many questions going through her mind. Was that the first time that Elsa wanted to die? Was it only the most recent? Had she ever tried to take her own life? Had she ever wanted to just hurt herself? Had she ever gone through with hurting herself? If she did, did she have any scars? Where were they if she did? What if her nightmare would come true?
"Hey, Anna, you know what?" Elsa asked, distracting the younger sister from her scared thoughts as the snow began to slowly melt.
"What?" Anna asked.
"One day," the older sister began fondly as she rested her chin on Anna's head and gently stroked her messy red hair, "I crawled up onto Mama and Papa's bed where Mama laid holding something that I wanted—and was trying—to see. Mama looked at me and smiled and said, 'Elsa… would you like to meet your little sister?' I sat down and nodded, then she put you in my lap and as I held you in my arms, you looked up at me… and promptly began to cry." Elsa smiled fondly at the memory while Anna blushed with the embarrassment that comes with hearing a story about one's self as an infant. Surprisingly, all of the snow from earlier was gone at this point, without Elsa even thinking about it.
"When you cried, you sounded like an angry cat," Elsa continued with a chuckle, "and now that I think about it, that's both adorable and funny, but I was so terrified that I had scared or hurt you, so I started to quietly sing to you. I sang You Are My Sunshine to you and you calmed down.
"Mama and Papa started talking about what they were going to name you after that. Mama suggested Victoria, and Papa suggesting something else that I can't remember, but I piped up and said, 'No. Her name is Anna.' They didn't agree at first, but I finally annoyed them into agreeing, and from that day forward, your name was Anna, and You Are My Sunshine was your special song." Elsa's smile widened. "Sometimes when you cried in the middle of the night, I would climb into your crib with you and cuddle with you either until you fell asleep again, or until either Mama, Papa, or Nanny came to feed you or change your diaper. They would scold me, saying that I was too old to be sleeping in a crib, and put me back in my bed on the other side of the room. But do you know what?"
"What?"
"As soon as they left, I would climb right back into your crib again because I didn't want to be away from you. You even managed to climb out of your crib a couple times and crawled over to my bed, and when I noticed you were there you would look up at me and hold out your arms, silently asking me to pick you up. Then I would get out of bed and put you back in your crib, climb in with you, and cuddle with you.
"If you woke up crying again, I would sing you your song, or if that didn't work, then I would use my powers in some way to try and calm you. One time I even made a teddy bear for you out of snow."
"I… don't think I remember that bear," Anna commented.
"Well, I'm not surprised, you were very little at the time and the Grand Pabbie altered all of your memories of my powers."
There was a pause before Anna asked, "What was the bear's name again?"
Elsa smiled. "His name was Snowy Bear."
There was another pause before the queen continued on her original train of thought, "It was very important that I got you to stop crying before anyone could hear you and separate us again because you would be lonely and would cry and then I would be lonely and wouldn't be able to get to sleep." She paused. "You know what else?"
"What else?" Anna asked with a tired yawn.
"When I was locked in my room all those years, I would sing your song when I missed you and felt lonely, and I would sometimes add a new verse to make it longer." Elsa paused as she went through the lyrics in her head.
"Elsa?"
"Yes, Anna?"
"Could… Could you please sing it to me?" the younger sister timidly asked.
The older sister lovingly smiled. "I would love to." Elsa then began to quietly sing Anna's special song as she continued to gently brush her cool fingers through Anna's long, beautiful hair.
"You are my Sunshine
My only Sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear
How much I love you
Please, don't take my Sunshine away.
"The other night, dear
As I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms.
When I awoke, dear
I was mistaken
So I hung my head and cried.
"When you were small, dear
While we were playing
I accidentally hurt you.
To keep you safe, I
Had to hide from you
It hurt me as much as you.
"After I hurt you
I rushed to your side
And then I held you in my arms.
A streak of white hair
Showed I was guilty
So I held you tight and cried.
"You are my sister
My only sister
I stay locked away to keep you safe.
You'll never know, dear
How much I love you
Please, don't take my sister away.
"The other day, dear
Out on the fjord
I held you frozen in my arms.
I wanted my life
To quickly end there
As I hung my head and cried.
"Out on the ice, dear
As I stood weeping
I felt you thawing in my arms.
When I looked up, I
Wasn't mistaken
Then I held you close and cried.
"Late last night, dear
While I was hurting
I was tempted to self-harm
When you walked in, dear
I couldn't do it
Instead you held me and we cried.
"Late tonight, dear
While you were sleeping
You dreamt that I was cruelly killed.
When you woke up, dear
You were mistaken
So please, my dear, don't cry.
"I promise you, dear
I'll never leave you
I'll never try to take my life.
So please don't worry
My precious Anna
Oh, please, Sunshine, don't cry.
"You are my Sunshine
My only Sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear
How much I love you
Please, don't take my Sunshine away.
Please, don't take my Sunshine away." Anna's eyelids were so heavy by the time Elsa had quietly finished the song that she was nearly asleep, but her mind was still active. "I was tempted to self-harm," she repeated in her head. So Elsa has either self-harmed before or has at least thought about it. That wasn't good. She would have to confront her sister about that the next morning. She gave her sister a squeeze, hoping it would somehow express her sympathy and understanding.
"I promise… I'll never try to take my life," she better not. I'm holding her to that promise.
Her train of thought was cut off as she felt a pair of warm lips temporarily press against her forehead, and heard a soft shuffling sound as she felt the blankets being pulled further up to cover her shoulders. "Goodnight, Sunshine," Elsa quietly whispered as Anna's messy red bangs moved slightly with every warm breath she took.
"Night…" Anna softly murmured in reply.
"I love you."
"Love you, too."
Anna soon fell asleep again to the pitter-patter of rain, and this time… she wasn't scared.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Okay, I can explain.
A while back, I was looking through some headcanons that some Frozen fans on Tumblr had (no, I don't have an account), and I remember reading one that basically said (I'm putting it in my own words here), "When Elsa collapsed after Hans told her that Anna was dead, the storm quieted down and Anna could hear Hans draw his sword. If Anna could hear him drawing his sword, then Elsa must have heard it, too, since she was closer to Hans than Anna was. Why didn't she defend herself? Answer: She felt that she needed to be punished for not protecting Anna and she felt that she didn't belong there anymore now that the thirteen years spent in isolation have been wasted *insert more heartbreaking explanations here.*" And I read that, and my reaction was: O_O *deep breath* "YES! I'm going to refer to this headcanon in my fanfiction!" So whoever posted that headcanon, I give them the credit for that idea (I regret to say that I can't remember their username… still, not my idea, their idea.)
So long story short, don't worry, Mom, I'm not suicidal.
(Yeah, my Mom reads my fanfictions…)
I would also like to say thanks to everyone who's reviewed this story so far. You have no idea how happy I get when I see that someone has reviewed; it means the world to me and fills me with so much joy. :-)
Please tell me what y'all thought of this chapter in the review box below.
God bless you and your day.
Sincerely, The Professor.