Elsie's boots skidded across the wall. She caught herself with one hand, panting with adrenaline and courage, and trying to appear as small as possible.
The masked figure looked up at the sound. They stared at each other, their hands poised with a blue vial of liquid to put into the machine. A machine. It's been a year since Elsie had seen such advanced technology- it blinked green numbers and had silver buttons, and had two funnels as if it was trying to be half record player. She stared at the vial, the liquid singing to her, begging for her to save it. It was in danger.
Smoke rose from the other side of the wall. Elsie stood to her full height, looking over the wall from where they had entered what felt like minutes ago. The Beast titan kneeled on the other side, disintegrating without its host, and the reason for the death toll in the tunnel. Elsie drew her blades, the metal screeching against her ODM gear, and the masked figure stood rapidly.
They held out their hands. Elsie froze, not expecting this. She thought they would put the vial - her vial - in the machine and leap over the wall. The vial stayed in their tight fist but the other moved to remove the gas mask, revealing a bespectacled face that Elsie wasn't all too glad to see. The man was older and larger, full of muscle and training, and he held his hands out innocently to Elsie.
All that mattered was the liquid.
It was a trick.
She stayed in her spot, swords at her side, "Put it down."
"I can't believe this," The man said, breathless, in awe, his eyes widening when she'd spoken. "How did you end up all the way over here?"
Elsie stiffened, "Put it down." It's mine!
"We searched everywhere for three months, the ocean, the mountains, we thought you had appeared in horrible conditions," The man continued. The disbelief in his voice, his eyes watering at the sight of her, it was all too much. Elsie's throat closed and she felt sick again, just like earlier, the taste of death thick on her tongue. "Yet here you stand. Lob Freyja." The man looked at the sky, the vial still enclosed in his palm.
Elsie couldn't think. People screamed below. A rumble as a body fell. The vial in his hand. Elsie screeched, "Put it down!"
The man stared at the vial, as if just remembering he held it. He looked between Elsie's wild eyes and to the shimmering liquid, "Ah, this? I can't do that, my Lady. You'll understand once all is explained."
He turned and bent to put the liquid in the machine. No! Elsie's grapple hook struck an inch past his leg and dragged Elsie across the fifteen feet that separated them. Her swords swung out, slashing the back of his legs, and the man roared in astounding pain. He fell face forward, knocking the machine with him, and the vial rolled from his palm. Elsie scrambled to her feet, grabbing it and holding it in her palm.
It glowed and warmed, singing with elation that she'd finally touched it. She held it between her pointer finger and thumb, holding it to the rising sun, staring wide eyed at the baby blue liquid that swirled and danced in its container. So happy that it was returned. She would keep it safe, she promised, and her fingers clenched around it before tucking it into her breast pocket.
"Now it makes sense," The man coughed from behind. Elsie turned to watch him push himself up, grinning at her, smoke hazing from his cut legs. Even in pain he did not try to fight back. This was not the man she thought would control the Beast titan. "You're one of them."
A scream pierced the air with a loud crash, "Who are you?" Elsie asked, keeping her swords drawn.
She could think with the vial touching her. Levi, where was he? She scanned the horizon but no blurs of green could be identified as her soldier.
The man smiled, no concern for his situation or Elsie's glinting blades, "One of the men who summoned you."
The interior of Shiganshina is suddenly filled with orange, hot light. Elsie flies backward from the sudden transformation of a titan, loosing her footing and tripping over the side of the wall. She stops with the help of her ODM gear but the man tumbled and rolled over the edge. Elsie turned, watching as he fell, and he did not scream nor did he seem afraid. He only looked at Elsie, dirty blonde hair flying between his grey eyes, and she cursed.
Summoned.
Elsie fell from the wall and kept her body straight as if she was diving into a pool. She reached him and wrapped her legs around his waist, jerking them to the right and slamming into the wall. They both groan and take a moment to catch their breath, silent as they swing against the side of the concrete. On the other side she could hear the roars of titans fighting, Eren's own titan screaming louder than no other, shaking the wall and making Elsie quack in fear.
"So it is true," The man said, wrapping his arms around Elsie's waist to keep stable. He grinned wide. "The Anchor is in Paradis."
To hear the words spoken out loud made Elsie jerk in surprise. She needs to decide what to do with him. Either lower and leave him on this side of the wall- less chance of a titan getting him- or take him in hopes of finding a squad leader who knew what to do with a foreign enemy.
"No matter," The man continued to speak, carefree as if a war wasn't raging on the other side. As if Elsie's lover didn't fight for his life on the other side. "As long as Paradis doesn't have the Anchor and the Seer, right?"
Elsie looked down at his words. Too fast for her to see he swiped his blade over her head and cut the chords of her gear. The blade must've been made of metal that she'd never heard of because it easily snapped the wires in half and allowed Elsie and the man to free fall to the bottom. She screamed with the fear of knowing there was nothing to catch them from their fifty foot odd drop, and clenched her eyes shut. She saw Levi, black hair shining beneath the sun as they race over green hills.
And suddenly her feet hit solid and her knees snap at the sudden impact. She catches herself with her hands, gasping and swallowing air as if she had never tasted it, and digging her fingers into the grass to fully accept the concept that she'd survived her fall. Except she didn't find grass, only the cushion of the large saddle of a titan.
A titan running from Shiganshina.
Elsie didn't think. She heaved herself to her bruised and wobbly knees and threw herself to the side. Her hip hits the edge of the saddle and she falls over the edge, finally hitting the grass she always wanted. She doesn't stop. She shoves to her feet and runs, limping from a pain in her left knee. She hears the titan's thumping slaps against the floor stop before beginning once more; this time louder and shaking the ground in her direction.
Elsie's arms thrusted at her side as she ran with all her life, her satchel thuping heavily against her back. She bolted straight, could see the wall only a mile away, could see the closed tunnel and hear Eren's titan screaming. She screamed, she screamed at her lungs for wanting to take a break, she screamed at her knees not putting their all in, and she screamed when she felt the ground shake and crack as a shadow suddenly jumped above her.
She fell to the floor, covering her head and curling into a ball. Impact never came. Elsie opened her eyes, shaking, disbelieving, still alive. The shadow covered her, a heaving pant above, and Elsie shakily looked up to see the a long snout nosed titan staring down at her. It walked like a dog, with a saddle along its back for passengers, and the wounded man stayed on the back as he and the titan watched her.
"What will you do, Seer?" The man called, suddenly not as carefree as he'd been on the wall. "We will kill you if you choose to support Paradis."
Elsie shivered from the proximity of a real titan. Summoned. Seer. What was Elsie? Was there an actual reason for her being here? Had this always been a part of something bigger? She gasped, "I'll go with you!"
She couldn't die like this. She'd seen it, and she knew this wasn't how she was going to die. She knew yet she still shivered and feared that the man would tell the titan to eat her anyway. She stared at the wall, smoke and titan heads visible, and up at the titan with a slobbering mouth waiting for her.
She won't die here. She promised Levi.
Elsie pushed herself to her feet and the titan stepped back to lay down. Elsie clambered up its side, sticking to the corner across from the man. The titan shifted and groaned when it stood and Elsie grabbed the edges of the saddle, sick and despaired. She turned to catch a last glimpse of the wall, smoky and screaming in agony, as the titan ran in the opposite direction that the Scout Regiment had came.
She bowed her head. Barely a minute into Shiganshina and the whole mission failed. All she could do now was pray that Levi and the others made it out unscathed.
The man never stopped smiling. In the beginning of her kidnapping, Elsie had tried to maintain his strange eye contact and act as indifferent as Levi would. It slowly dissolved to panic when she realized that the titan showed no signs of stopping and there were no more trees. In fact, she could see the green vastness ahead of them come to a sudden stop and open to waves of red sand.
Elsie gasped and leaned on the side of the saddle, watching as meadows turned to desert. She suddenly left Canada and was tossed into Egypt. Slopes of sand disfigured the layout and Else officially lost all hope of returning. This was true, this was real.
She'd fallen right into the trap. Damn it. The man said they'd all thought her dead, whoever it was in Marley that summoned her, and they would've kept on believing it if she hadn't flown up the wall. She would've been another secret in Paradis.
She wanted to know exactly who summoned her and why. She wanted to know everything, desperately, but she kept her lips pursed shut and stared at the grainy sand instead of the man's never ceasing smile. He took pleasure in knowing more than her.
He may know more than her but she held the vial of blue liquid. It sang and warmed her breast pocket. It was happy and that made Elsie feel a tad better.
Elsie turned back. She could see only the expanse of dirt that the titan has travelled. No more smoke in the air, no more screams echoing as they ran. They were truly alone, Elsie stranded with these strangers, and her knuckles turned white against the rail of the saddle.
She was terrified without Levi.
Another wall appeared eventually. One long wall that didn't seem to end. As they drew closer Elsie raised her nose, gasping at the salty smell of ocean. Seagulls flew above, cooing in their weird way that Elsie never thought she'd miss hearing, and the sound of waves crashing made Elsie yearn for California.
The titan stopped for the first time at the base of the wall. The man's legs had healed during their trip, a record time Elsie would say, and he easily leaped over the saddle and into the soft sand. He looked up, using his hand to block the sun, and gestured for Elsie to follow. She hesitated, debating if she could take him physically, but at this point there was no way she would make it back alive.
She truly screwed herself over.
Elsie fell beside the man and ignored his out stretched hand. She walked to the wall, placing her hand on it and knowing it was made the same as the ones blocking Paradis. A sizzle came from behind and Elsie turned, watching as a body broke free from the titan's back she'd rode. The woman shakes her wild black mane and meets Elsie's eyes, a steel blue that held the promise of danger if Elsie dared to fight back like she had with the man. Lines much like Eren's mark the woman's face after her transition but she does not lack the coordination to get herself from the titan. She easily slides off the back and walked towards Elsie and the man, frowning at the saddle.
"He won't be happy that we went through another one." The woman said with a shockingly deep, throaty voice. She walked with confidence and power, dwarfing Elsie once she joined their group.
The man smiled at Elsie, "I doubt he'll be too upset. Come on, we want to get out of here before the sun sets. There's nothing creepy like sailing at night."
Elsie is held between her captors. They lead her further down the sandy wall before a stair case reveals itself, a straight steep one that led to the top. She's jerked between their grips but they needn't worry. Once Elsie catches sight of the ocean, never ending water that so beautifully glistened beneath the sun, she is lost in its glamorous beauty. She'd taken for granted something that she'd grown up knowing was there and able to access. Now, it was a legend to the people she'd left behind, and she could only hope that they saw this breath taking view like she had.
A boat is tied to a small pier on the other side of the wall. The woman takes the steps down first and unties the knotted rope, slinging it onto the small sail boat while the man leads Elsie onto the deck. She stood stock still as the man, with the same knife as before, cut a piece of rope to tightly bound her wrists.
"She doesn't speak much, does she?" The woman said when she leaped onto the boat. She used one long leg to push from the pier and the boat was free from Paradis, gliding away from all that Elsie knew. She peered at Elsie with feigned indifference yet kept a side eye on her, waiting, expecting.
The man pushed Elsie to sit on the floor before turning to the woman, "I'm sure she'll open up. I heard the last one could speak her wants into truth," The man glanced briefly at Elsie, quiet and head bowed. "Guess she can't do that."
"Catharina is going to lose her mind." The woman snorted, and she didn't expect an answer for the man gave none. He stared into the empty sea and the woman moved along the deck, gathering things and shifting the wheel every once in a while.
Elsie stared at the unmoving ocean line. Her heart raced with fear. The vial sang its comfort from her breast pocket.
No, she was not alone.
The boat ride lasted two days.
The man, called Zeke, tried to feed Elsie bread. She turned her head and ignored his pleas until he finally got the hint and left her alone. Pieck, the terrifying she-titan, was not so gentle and would grab tuffs of Elsie's ruined braid, dragging her head back so that she would have no choice but to open her mouth and swallow the fresh water Pieck had in her flask. She choked and gagged but water got into her mouth, that's all that mattered, Pieck grumbled after releasing Elsie.
She wished she'd starved to death when suddenly another boat passed their own. It was a sailing boat for luxury, she recognized, and the people abroad were laughing and having a swell time encouraged by sparkling drinks. They cheered and saluted when they recognized Zeke's boat. He waved in pride, Pieck rolling her eyes and taking over steering.
Pieck flawlessly brings the boat into the pier. She busied herself with tying knots while Zeke leveraged Elsie to her feet. She felt sea sick the moment she stepped off the boat, swaying at the sudden stability in gravity, and Zeke helped the sea-legged woman off the pier and onto the hustling side street it opened to. A few wooden benches were splattered for ocean watchers and Zeke allowed her to sit, standing at attention as she rubbed her legs back into feeling.
Pieck approached, "Old man Logan is getting a carriage, shouldn't be too long now."
Shouldn't be too long. Where were they taking Elsie? How did they even know she was the one they summoned? Elsie sat up and looked around, eyes widening as she took in the industrialized civilization. Cars that were from the 1920s roared down the street, black exhaust fumes popping, women in ruffled dresses and umbrellas crossing the paved cross walk. Buildings that reminded Elsie of London's close nit apartments towered behind her, housing more humans than Paradis could ever dream of supporting.
"Where are we?" Elsie asked, amazed, horrified, wanting to go home to Levi.
Pieck whistled, "So she can talk. We're in the capital of Marley."
Zeke cannot stop smiling, "Welcome to Liberio."
A carriage is a car. Elsie runs her hands over the leather seats once she's sat in the back of a strange car, taking in the lining of the ceiling and the windows. Pieck sits beside Elsie in the back and Zeke takes the passenger seat, the door slamming so familiarly and normally that Elsie blinked and thought she was in 2018.
The driver pulled off to merge with traffic. Elsie holds the window pane, feeling the rumble of the engine and the smell of gas, and she sighed. Her heart ached for it all to be her real home. To really be in 2018 with her own Fords and Chevys. If she were going to be dragged from Levi in any situation she'd much rather prefer her own world. Not Marley.
Not Zeke and Pieck.
They grow anxious as the driver turns left onto a gravel drive way. They ride down the path, trees looming and bushes blooming, and Elsie watched as Pieck and Zeke exchanged worried looks. A manor suddenly appears, white and flamboyant amongst the nature, and Elsie feels the dread settle again.
She pats her breast pocket where the vial sits safely. She pats her satchel, having been tied to her back and dragged unwillingly with her, and considers herself ready to face whoever waits on the other side of the door.
Whoever summoned her.
Pieck ushered Elsie out of the backseat. Elsie held tight to her satchel strap as the she-titan and Zeke once more flank either side and lead her up the marble steps. Grey stone Lion statues protect the manor, roaring with one paw raised in its majestic glory, and Elsie wanted nothing more for them to become real and eat her right up. Yet they do not move and Zeke opened the front door.
Fraud King Fritz would have a fit if he knew how the King of Marley was living. Spiraling staircases - as any rich person had to have them - white, lush carpets that must be hand scrubbed, tall marble tables used to house trophies and trinkets of worth gathered over the years. Zeke took lead beneath the staircases to open a sliding door. A library gushing with books, used and read, filled the staggering bookcases. The rectangular room housed a wall of windows that glistened in the afternoon light. It lead a path straight to a circular table, set with only two chairs, and one was occupied by a man with white hair and a smile to out-creep Zeke's.
"I can not believe it. You found her." The man ripped himself from his chair and stumbled to greet Elsie. He wrapped two strong hands over her one dainty and shook with the vigor to rattle her body.
"Rather she found me in Shiganshina." Zeke blustered.
The man's eyes flickered to Zeke's, "Shiganshina, yes. How did it go?" He sounded as if he'd forgotten.
"Half of Paradis' pathetic excuse of an army is feeding the banished," Zeke said without a care. Elsie tried not to flinch at his voice, the hard, factual way he updated this man about her friends life. "I never got around to performing the experiment. The Seer stopped me. She was with them."
The man's hands tightened painfully around her knuckles. Elsie clenched her teeth and met his wet, blue eyes, refusing to be rattled. The library wasn't so comforting and the sky began to darken with the mood, a cloud covering the sun.
"Oh? Lady Seer, we must talk about what has happened to you this past year," The man's grip slackened and he led her to the other rickety brown chair at the table. When he released her hand she quickly brought it to her lap, entwining her shaking fingers to hide how nervous she was. "Undoubtably you must be confused. Leave us."
Elsie didn't want Zeke and Pieck to leave her alone with this stranger. She couldn't lose face though. Elsie maintained her straight lips and narrowed eyes, trying to find her inner Levi, all the while wondering what he would do in this situation. Zeke nodded and pivoted on his heel, sharply walking out. Pieck eyed Elsie, as if not trusting her to be alone with the creep, before following her partner out of the room. The door clicked shut, finalizing that they were alone. A sense much like the one in Lord Mahil's office settled over Elsie's shoulders.
"Here, here, you must be thirsty," The man poured her what was left of his lukewarm tea. Elsie stared at the white mug, expensive in looks. "Your sudden appearance has left me quite flustered, sorry about that, my Lady. My name is William Tybur but you may call me Willy, as all that live in Tybur Manor do."
Elsie didn't know if she could speak after three days of silence. She dared a sip of the tea, hating the sugar that stuck to her tongue and the honey that sliced through cold green tea. Tch, did you get this out of the toilet? Levi would say. He would be calm and collected, he wouldn't let Willy get the best of him.
Elsie cleared her throat before saying, "My name is Elisabeth." Her full name sounded strong, brave, Seer-like. She could not handle this as Elsie, she needed to be someone else to survive.
Just like Levi had done to get Above ground. He'd joined the Scouts, and even though Farlan thought they were a cult and Levi wanted to leave, he pretended and he survived. Elsie could pretend. She could pretend until she made her way back to Levi.
"It is so fantastic to finally meet you, Elisabeth," Willy's smile grew, all gum and tooth. "They all said I was insane for summoning for you. I told them it would take time," His smile dimmed, angry. "Although an entire year is quite dramatic, don't you think Lady Seer?"
"What does that mean? Lady Seer?" Elsie asked. She hated that she sounded dumb, that she didn't know all the answers about herself. That there were answers to find. She'd accepted the fact that there was no reason to her being here other than Eren.
Willy sat back in his chair and sipped his disgusting tea before asking his own question, "What do you know about Marley's history?"
"That they were one nation with Paradis at one point. That is until a divide tore through the people, a revolution, and King Fritz created the walls." Tybur. The name suddenly broke through ice. It was the name of the man the first King had written to in Marley in the letters Ymir and Elsie had spent a day reading.
"Yes. King Fritz created the walls for his precious Eldian citizens," Willy spoke with smite and spite. His anger returned, his smile twisted and cruel, ghoulish. "He left a tarnished Marley for my great grandfather to clean up. Not just my great grandfather but yours as well."
Elsie stiffened, loosing her cold facade, "That's impossible. You said so yourself you had to summon me here."
"Yes, all thanks to Taryn Seherin, your great grandfather. You see, we're old money, me and you, my Lady, and we've got quite the backstory. My family, the Tybur's, has always considered the financial stability of Marley and taken on the hardships of the people. Your family, the Seherin's, strived to send our nation into the New Age. Your family lays claim to the creation of our carriages, of elevators, the machines that seamstresses use in factories. Taryn Seherin saw a future for Marley but he did not see his family in it. No one knows exactly how the old genius did it but he used the Founding Titan's blood and some of his techno-magic to create a machine that would take him to a better place, for all we know of it."
Her stomach growled from the lack of food in the past three days and Elsie gripped the edge of the table to stabilize herself. Impossible. It was all impossible. She was not a part of this world, it was a show and just a show. A delusion. She's grown up with this show. There was nothing Willy could say to change her mind.
"Your fairy tale is very fascinating but I think you got the wrong girl. I'm not a Seherin and I'm definitely not a Lady Seer." Elsie said curtly, meeting his penetrating gaze.
Willy laughed, "I am quite positive you are her, Elisabeth. Please, let me finish the story with a bit of illustration. I'm quite sure that will clear this whole matter up."
Elsie followed him numbly out of the library. Zeke and Pieck stood at attention when the door slid open, weary eyes checking to see if Willy was perfectly hole. That made her feel better, knowing that these titan shifters were worried about her doing something. Little Elsie who cried over everything and needed Levi to guide the way. Elsie Fraser.
Willy went right and left, a winding hallway that glistened and bustled with workers. People to paint, to clean, to fix the faux plants in large vases. They kept their heads down and ignored Willy, as he said they liked to call him, to a door at the far end of the last confusing hall.
He opened it and said, "Taryn was a very suspicious man. After King Fritz abandoned Marley he thought that spies were being sent to take his blue prints for the New Age. My grandfather said that he went truly crazy his last month here. It was only because of his wife, Leonie, that my grandfather passed down the story of the Seherin's. She told him that Taryn was cursed with the sight of the future and it wrecked havoc on his mind, that the sickness would slowly ease away over time in this other land Taryn wished to move them to. Her heart would forever be for the Kingdom and said when the time rose for help to call on her."
The room is dark and Willy took his time to light the candle holder. He lifts the three flames high in the room, standing in the center, and Elsie gasped in the tight room. A portrait glew on the wall, tall and illuminating, enrapturing and beautiful. Elsie stepped closer, her fingers running over the fine fabric of Florence Fraser's ruby red gown.
"When Grisha Yeager led the revolution eighteen years ago my father called for a Seherin. Yeager had control of the army and our weapons, and Willy Sr. couldn't make enough to hold them down. The internment camps were growing restless, a revolution on the horizon, and my father remembered what Leonie Seherin had told his grandfather. My father was quite set on having a Seherin on his side, whispered to have the gift of clairvoyance and technological knowledge, and summoned for one on April 23, 832."
On the night of April 23, 2000, Florence had tucked Elsie and Tucker into bed. She'd given them their nightly sleep-tights and pulled the covers to their little chins, and she'd gone down the hall to kiss her husband good night. She'd fallen into bed, much like Elsie had on the first of December in 2018, and woken in a strange world.
"Florence Fraser did not have the engineering ability that my father hoped for, nor did she have the gift of clairvoyance. But her words, by Freyja, when she spoke everyone became quite transfixed and would do whatever she said. She had the gift of charm, my father said, and she soothed the tensions in Marley. It was her that had smuggled Grisha Yeager out of the prison, however, and sadly she faced an untimely end."
Her tears fell silent against her cheeks. She stared at the portrait of her mother, fair blonde hair in a pristine bun at the top of her head, glistening green eyes staring down at Elsie as if to tell her everything was okay. That she didn't blame Elsie, and Tucker, and dad for hating her all these years. For not knowing. Her fingers trembled on the golden frame.
"Why did she die for him?" Elsie asked, raspy and emotional.
Willy tutted, the flames flickering as he pulled the candles from the portrait. There was no doubt how they knew Elsie was Lady Seer, she was a spitting image of her mother, and it hurt when the shadows covered her mother's lilting red lips and Elsie could no longer compare the slant of the eyes or the slope in noses.
"Yeager wanted what all the poor want - money and safety without putting the work in for it. I'm sorry to say that the last Lady Seer fell to Yeager's charms," Willy tutted, the candle holder clanking on the dusty drawer he set it on. He gestured for Elsie to follow him out of the room as her fingers curled over the frame. She wanted to stay with her mother but instead wiped her cheeks and followed him once more into the glistening hallways. "She did anything he said, no matter if it were to kill or steal. My father said that Yeager performed horrible experiments on her and she was so far gone that she thought it was all out of love. Poor thing, they did quite right by putting her out of her misery. It is said she was as insane as Taryn Seherin had been near the end, screaming curses and accusing every guard for setting her up."
Elsie couldn't come to grips to her mother killing and stealing. But then again would Florence have said the same thing about Elsie? Elsie felt the sickness return, the same one from Shiganshina, and she'd never felt further from home then now.
"I can tell that this is quite a lot of information for you, Elisabeth," Willy suddenly said with a tender tone. He looked down at her with soft eyes and a smile that wasn't so creepy. "Let's get you a room for you to wind down in. We will discuss more tomorrow morning over breakfast."
Elsie did not sleep.
She stared out the window of her bedroom. It was glorious, a king sized bed, a tub and shower, a running toilet even, and all was swell. She wrapped her arms around her chest and bowed her head, her chin hitting her chest and feeling her heart break.
Elsie dumped the contents of her satchel onto the pastel purple duvet. They clunked pathetically against the fabric. Five objects to remind her of home. She gripped the pale green mug, rubbing her thumb over the handle as she picked up her unused flare gun and tucked it beneath the left pillow. The last thing she had to remind her Paradis was her water canteen, a brown leather pouch that gurgled when she grabbed it. She poured the water into her mug for the night.
She looked up again. The ocean still laid across the horizon. The moon hung high. She'd never felt so far from Levi, not until she realized that an entire ocean separated them. And she laughed, a little snotty, teary one. Levi can't even swim. She laughed some more because she couldn't stop and the sadness became hysteria. She laughed until she couldn't breathe and she heaved for air, bracing her hands on the window pane and watching her own breath fog the window in one large circle before disappearing only to return again. Then the tears came, consistent and body jerking, and Elsie sobbed harder the longer she looked at the ocean.