ONE WEEK LATER
Hannah opened her eyes delicately as her nose met the smell of many different succulent flavors of soups, salads, meats, and cakes alike.
The sun streamed through the beautiful curtains that flew up delicately as a morning breeze lifted them. Although, there was a kind of hazy drafty feeling in the air, as if a brewing storm was on the horizon.
It had been a week since Hannah and the others had arrived back in Arendelle, and the imbalance continued to become more and more intense, the closer to the alignment it became with every passing day.
With the uncertainty of the natural disasters, the entire kingdom was required to come seek shelter in the castle. Rows and rows of cots had been set up in the great hall, as the chefs prepared breakfast for the masses of people who had come to stay.
Hannah sat up in her bed, her brow furrowing as she took notice of Jess's absence from her own bed across the room.
She slipped on the new dress that had been given to her by some castle maids.
She was relieved to finally have changed out of her old tattered outfit that she had been wearing for five days straight.
It was a simple yet elegant bodice of deep blue, with a white skirt that had faded over the years. Of course Anna and Elsa had offered up their old gowns for the girls to wear, but being much smaller in stature than Hannah and Jess, the dresses didn't fit right.
The castle halls were quite vast and similar, so it was easy for one to get lost. After about three days Hannah had memorized how to get from her bedroom to the spiral staircase, which led to most everywhere else in the castle that she needed to go.
Jess on the other hand, still struggled to find her way around. She would always turn left at the end of the hallway instead of right, and would end up at Elsa's bedroom door, having to embarrassingly knock and ask for directions.
Hannah ran her hand playfully down the banister of the spiral staircase, as she made her way down to the great hall.
She thankfully hadn't experienced anymore nightmares about Garth since the first night back, but her mind kept drifting back to her previous suspicions about it.
She'd had nightmares in the past sure, but none as real as that. She could see his face inches from hers, as if in her dreamful state, her eyes were wide open.
Hannah could even at times feel her neck ache with a soreness that only a choke hold could of caused. She had chalked this up to her own traumatized imagination, though.
When she reached the bottom of the staircase, Jess was there to greet her.
"Hey I was wondering when you were gonna wake up, it's nearly noon ya know." Jess said gesturing toward the grandfather clock that stood a few feet away.
"Haha, yeah sorry I guess I slept in today. By the way, why were you up so early, I usually wake up before you?" Hannah replied as she lead the way to the great hall.
"I don't know I heard a noise or something, no biggie." She stated blankly, pushing black curls out of her face.
"It wasn't a nightmare was it?!" Hannah inquired, an immediate rush of terror seizing her.
"No no nothing like that, it was really nothing." Jess smiled up at Hannah, who nodded, calming down.
"Hey guys!" An enthusiastic voice called out from behind them.
Olaf waddled up between the girls, taking their hands excitedly. "Come on, there's so many fun characters in the great hall! They're all so interesting to talk to! Do you like talking to new people Hannah?" The little snowman smiled up at her obnoxiously.
Hannah was deeply caught off guard by the question, and hesitated for a moment. She obviously knew the answer was "absolutely not", but she pondered on how she would present that information outside of her own head.
"I mean, it's ok, I'm not very good at talking to strangers." She said, self consciously fixing her hair as the three came to the doors of the room containing many guests.
Jess laughed off Hannah's awkwardness for her, and reached for the door knob. "I like meeting new people, just not when they're rude." She interjected.
"Well who does?" Hannah quipped back, following her into the great hall.
"Ok, no need to get snippy, anti-socialite." Jess muttered.
Hannah chuckled in response. "Anti-socialite, I like that."
The atmosphere around them immediately transformed as they entered the grand room. Hundreds of families swarmed this way and that, placing belongings on beds, getting children settled down, lining up for assorted pastries being served.
"Hannah!" Anna said reaching out to grab her wrist, drawing attention to herself from her sitting position on a cot.
"Anna, morning— uh or afternoon." Hannah said, relieved to see a familiar face amongst all the villagers.
"Morning—or afternoon to you too." She snickered. "I was helping Mr. and Mrs. Olsen unpack." She said pulling one last item out of a bag, and placing it on the bed, before joining the others.
"How is everyone settling in?" Hannah asked politely. It wasn't beyond her awareness who was causing these people to be driven out of their homes.
"Oh wonderful. Everyone seems to be in high spirits, which is good." Anna replied clasping her hands together.
Elsa stood listing the last of the preparations for the temporary refugees to the head butler. He listened intently to the queen as she gestured to various items on a tattered scroll.
Evidently, she caught sight of her sister speaking with the girls, and broke away from Kai to join them.
Anna practically lit up upon seeing her sister arrive.
"Hey Els, do we have enough food stored for the next week?" She asked.
"I think just enough to last us until the alignment; a week and two days— which I'm sure is plenty." Elsa replied hopefully.
The pair continued to talk, as Hannah and Jess broke away to take a look off the balcony.
The waves of the ocean around the town were visible from this standpoint, and were becoming more and more violent. They crashed up against the surrounding rocks, their white foam sloshing into the streets of Arendelle.
Many of the once strong and beautiful buildings were damaged from viscous hurricane type winds, and hail storms that had passed through only days ago.
Jess leaned forward on the railing of the balcony in deep thought. "At this rate, we'll be dodging fire balls the day before the alignment, mate."
Hannah laughed, but it had a nervous edge to it. "Honestly. Or like, hail the size of our heads."
An eerie silence fell upon the balcony.
"Do you think it'll work?" Jess muttered, suddenly turning serious. "On the day of the alignment, do you think the whole fandom wishing for us to come home will work?" She said in a more articulated question.
"I... I don't know—" Hannah answered softly.
She was only able to offer up a minuscule response, but Jess's comment had sparked a magnitude of thoughts that sliced around in her mind; what if it didn't work? What if it did? How would she cope with leaving here? What if the universe collapsed, killing everyone? What if Garth got to them first?
Hannah nearly doubled over with an overwhelming fervor, as she had all of these uncertainties hit her simultaneously.
A violent shaking of the castle walls immediately broke Hannah from her thoughts.
"AVALANCHE!" A man belted as he pointed out a large glass-paned window, at the impending boulders collapsing down the mountain side.
Jess seized Hannah's wrist and bolted back into the room.
The great hall had erupted into a mad panic, and the masses of people were darting around trying to find any safety they could. The children who had been separated from their mothers in the chaos screamed out.
Somehow in the heat of it all, Hannah became separated from Jess, and it was impossible to see any familiar faces within the mass exodus of the people.
A young boy of about five, sat under a bed with his knees pulled to his chest sobbing. Hannah knelt down to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. It was the only comfort to him she could provide at the moment, since it was too loud to speak and there was no chance of finding his family in all this.
The child's face looked up at her and his features hardened. He yelled something up to her, so she leaned in close to hear it.
"Sorry, what sweetie?" She said in his ear.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU DID THIS! YOUR A MONSTER AND NOW WE'RE GONNA DIE!" The boy sobbed violently and pushed her face away.
Hannah sat back on her heels, eyes wide, and heart broken. He was right after all. Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them away as she heard the voice of Anna screaming over the crowd.
"ELSA NO IT'S TOO DANGEROUS!" She yelled towards her sister as Elsa turned to go.
"I CAN USE MY POWERS TO STOP THE AVALANCHE ANNA! I CAN SAVE US." The queen pleaded.
Anna looked at her for a second longer, then released her sister's wrist. "PLEASE BE CAREFUL." She warned.
"I WILL." She smiled lovingly.
The screaming and running was becoming too overwhelming for Hannah and she began to become disoriented. The stampede of men, women, and children fled in all directions. Hannah screamed out for help, but it got lost in the air of panic.
She dodged refugees as she darted towards the crowded exit doors. The top of her boot caught a loose floor board and she was sent flying forward onto the ground. Her head begun getting kicked this way and that, by the legs and feet of the stampede.
No one noticed her, and if someone did, they didn't give her a second thought.
A particularly strong steel-toed work boot nailed her in the temple, leaving her nauseous with blurry vision.
In one last attempt to stay conscious, Hannah lifted her head. A few cots away from her, to her astonishment, stood Garth of Cattarri, completely still, smiling at her. A viscous, disgusting smile that emphasized the scar the ran down the side of his face.
The room's chaos became quiet all of sudden as Hannah faded out. The voices around her were wispy and echoed as she continued her unbroken eye contact with Garth.
"The queen has saved us! Her powers stopped the boulders!" She heard the faint cheers of the people and looked over at them.
When her gaze returned to the previous spot of Garth, he was gone.
And once again, Hannah's mind fell completely into darkness.