Warning: high use of language in this chapter.

Chapter 7: Desperation

The rest of the year passed with the same sort of style as the rest of the year had. Elsa's test results all came through – all of them had an A+ stamped at the top of them. Her father was at least pleased with those results. Elsa kept her head down and continued working as hard as she possibility could. Her father seemed to like this. She kept out of his way and did what she was told to do – this limited the amount of suffering she had to endure. It was a strategy that she had formed over the years. At least she didn't have to go to the ER as much when she implemented this strategy.

Nothing interesting happened over the rest of the year which Elsa was thankful for. Nothing unexpected jumped out at her which Elsa hated – that was the whole trouble with Hans, Anna behaved in a way that Elsa didn't expect at the time. But now that she thought about it, Anna did behave in a way that a lovesick teenage girl would behave. Rapunzel and Flynn continued to date over the years. Due to this, Elsa had to deal with a love struck friend but she didn't mind a single bit – in fact she loved it immensely. At least her friend was having the time of her life which was something that Elsa didn't know. Rapunzel wasn't the only one who was love struck. Kristoff seemed to be sulking ever since Anna left to go back to school. Elsa had to stifle some laughs whenever she saw his sullen face. He seemed to have it bad. He asked Elsa about Anna a few times but Elsa didn't really have any answers for him. She and Anna didn't really talk a lot since they didn't have much of a relationship. Elsa didn't mind that – it kept Anna further away from Elsa's little secret.

Finals came and Elsa buried her head into her books. Her father made sure that she studied from dawn to dusk. He kept saying that he didn't want some slacker running his family business. Elsa seriously doubted that her father would let her run Winters Corporation. She was sure that he wanted Anna to take over the family business but Elsa got better grades than Anna. It wasn't that Anna wasn't smart; it was just that she got too distracted at school which meant her grades weren't the best. Also, as the oldest born, Elsa was entitled to inherit the company as that was the way the company was passed. But Elsa was sure that if her father had it his way, he would cut her out and leave everything to Anna. Sometimes that sounded so heartless but then Elsa would look at whatever injury she sustained that week and realised that maybe that was just how her father played this game called life.

The finals came and went – very quickly for some reason. Despite Elsa thinking that they were going by so quickly, everyone else didn't seem to share this thought; they all thought that they were stuck in time. Elsa often heard Rapunzel moaning about how long these exams seem to stretched on. However, unlike Rapunzel who wanted the finals to be over as soon as possible, Merida wanted them to never end. She was terrified about starting university. It just seemed a little too much pressure and responsibility for her liking. She had recently been accepted to the University of Arendelle under a sporting scholarship – Merida was an archery champion and was probably heading to the Olympics in a few years' time. That was something that Merida was looking forward to very much so. It had been her dream for many years to represent either her home country, Scotland or Norway. Merida was born in Scotland and lived there for many years until her father decided to send her to Arendelle to have a better education. Rapunzel was applying for a Fine Arts degree – a degree that focused solely on someone wanting to work in the art world such as a painter or a sculptor, that kind of thing. Rapunzel's dream was to teach art at their school which mean she was also doing an Education degree before she was going to apply to Teacher's College – where you go to get certified to become a teacher.

"Where are you off to Elsa?" Rapunzel asked as she slammed her locker door.

They were standing by their lockers. Elsa had just finished her Chemistry exam and was preparing to go home so that she could study for her final exam the next day. It was Maths and Elsa was looking forward in getting it over and done with. She was glad that school was over. It could mean that she could potentially get out of Arendelle.

"Well dad wants me to go to Oxford where he went to," Elsa shrugged. "I may end up going to the University of Arendelle like you guys but I really want to travel and see a new country and go to university there. What dad wants and what I want could end up being two different wants."

"Stay here with us," whined Rapunzel. "If you go to England, we would never see you."

Elsa smiled. "I'm sure that won't happen."

Elsa's heart sank. The truth be told, if she did carry through with her plan, she would probably never see her friends again as she would be cutting all ties with Arendelle in an effort to get away from her father. That was not a friendly thought. Could she give them up so that she could escape her father? Well they would probably be better off without her – Elsa secretly hoped not but that was probably the reality. Rapunzel would spend all her time with her new boyfriend and Merida would be too busy practicing so that she could go to the Olympics. So Elsa sighed heavily in her head. Well, that was what she imagined happening anyway. Thereby, she couldn't stay. She didn't know if she could survive if she did. So could she leave? Well, it wasn't a question of whether she could; it was more of a she had to.

"But maybe do what you want to do Elsa," Merida said, bringing her out of her thoughts.

Elsa shrugged. "I don't know. Dad wants me to run our company and I would like to carry on that honour."

That wasn't a complete lie. If the world had turned a different way and Elsa hadn't ended up with an abuser for a father, then maybe she would end up running Winters' Corporation and she may have ended up loving it. She wouldn't want to live out her dream. She would have carried on her family tradition as that could have ended up being her dream. It would have been an honour to lead such a great and powerful company. Elsa slammed her locker door and headed out of school followed by Rapunzel and Merida. They had both finished for the day; Rapunzel had her French exam at the same time of Elsa's exam and Merida had no exams; she had come into school so that she could study and be away from her three brothers who just interrupted her constant desire for quiet.

Elsa's last exam came and went. When she walked out of her last exam, she had a mixed feeling of emotions. She was glad that she had finished her exams but at the same time, she was feeling scared to enter the new stage of her life. What was to come next all rested on what she could do; whether or not she could pull off leaving Arendelle. That was in the hands of fate.

Elsa spent the next several weeks pacing up and down her bedroom. She was nervous about her grades. She knew she had a spot at the University of Arendelle or Oxford if she wanted that. But she needed good grades to get out of Arendelle. She wasn't studying hard because her father wanted someone with an impressive academic record to run his company; she was studying so other universities would want her. Elsa constantly checked her account on the school's website practically every thirty seconds to check her grades. She also checked her text messages or texting everyone she knew to see if anyone else got their grades so the minute they knew that grades were up, she would know too.

Finally on a sunny day in early August, she finally knew. She had slept in a little later than she planned, so when she woke up and saw the time; she instantly raced to her laptop to open it up to check her grades. That was what she did every morning. The first thing she did was to see if her grades had been posted. Elsa was impatient as her laptop turned on and even more impatient to get the website loaded. Finally she managed to get the page loaded and logged in to the site. She clicked on the link that said 'exam results' and clicked on the year in question. Her heart was hammering as she did this. That was when she saw it. She saw that they had been updated.

Elsa took a deep breath in and looked at her grades. It had taken a few moments of courage to get Elsa to look at them. This was the moment she had been waiting for and now it had come. Nerves set in. Her heart was hammering even harder. She thought that her heart would explode out of her chest. Elsa had closed her eyes to avoid looking at the grades straight away. Eventually, she opened her eyes and stared at the screen. Every single one of them had an A+ next to them. Elsa stared at them. She really had passed? With nearly full marks on each of them too? How was that possible? How? She found the exams okay but she didn't think that they had been a walk in the park. Somehow she had done it. Elsa ran her fingers through her hair as she took deep breaths. She had done it. She had passed. Elsa had to keep pinching herself to make sure that this wasn't a dream. She had the grades to get into any university she desired. Her plan was coming together. She didn't think that was at all possible but somehow it had been so.

She instantly texted everyone one she could and she all got replies back. They all seemed pretty happy with their marks too. Rapunzel had the grades she wanted in the subjects she wanted as did Merida. They had done it. They had finished school in the way that they wanted it to be finished. This was amazing. Her bedroom door opened and her father walked in.

"Well?" he had been asking about her grades every single day. Elsa nodded and he came to look at her screen. A small smile came over his face. "That's what I want to see Elsa. Good, glad you didn't fuck this one up. I'm going to go call the Dean of Oxford and the Dean at the University of Arendelle. You have a place at either, I'll double check you do. I want you to decide by the end of next week where you want to go. Got it?"

Elsa could only nod. Her father left the room shortly after that. He was going to get her a place at a university where he could continue to torment her. She was never going to get his iron grip off her shoulder. In fact it was growing tighter and tighter every day. She was trapped and there was nothing she could do about it.

Elsa woke the next day with despair still running through her. The high of getting the marks that she had desired had disappeared the minute her father had come into the room rubbing his plans for her in her face. Elsa rolled over onto her side and looked out her bedroom window. There was a bird sitting on the tree that was just outside her window. The bird was singing which brought a smile to her face. The bird seemed so happy which just seemed to somehow fill her with even more unhappiness. But the way that the bird was singing and hopping along the branch got rid of that. Happiness soon filled Elsa's insides. The bird then took off from the branch it was standing on in one swift movement. The moment it did that, Elsa felt the smile disappear from her face and the unhappiness from before, sunk in again. She wished she was as free as that bird. It could simply fly away the moment it sensed danger. Elsa sighed before throwing the covers off her. It was time to collect the mail anyway as she did every morning.

She walked barefoot out of her room and to the front door. She opened it and headed out to the letterbox. There were a lot of letters today; the usual newspaper delivery, some bills for her father to pay and….a letter for Elsa? Elsa stared at it. It was from the University of Burgess which was in the States. So far every letter she had received from universities had declined her acceptance as they weren't accepting a lot of students this year and some said that Elsa had missed the cut off date. Elsa had been a late sending out applicants as she had to do it when she wouldn't get caught so therefore Elsa fell at the bottom of the list.

Elsa felt the letter in her fingertips. It felt so smooth. Could it really have what she wanted inside? Elsa was nervous to open it. This was the university she really wanted to go. It had the courses she wanted plus it was on the other side of the globe – away from her father and everything bad in this world. Elsa headed back inside her house and sat down at the kitchen table. She threw the bills and the newspaper in front of her father's seat at the table before she sat down at her seat. She turned the letter over hands a few more times. Flashes of what could be her life went through her head. She would for the first time not have some overbearing figure staring down at her. The iron grip on her shoulder would finally be loosened. She would be doing the things that she wanted to do in life and not the things that her father wanted her to do. It all seemed like a pipe dream to her but could it turn into something more…real?

Elsa heard sounds coming from upstairs. She quickly stuffed the letter into her pyjamas to hide it from her father. If he saw it, she would face his wrath which was something she didn't want. She had hidden it just time. Her father's feet appeared on the stairs and soon the rest of him came into sight. He sat down at his seat at table and started to open up the bills.

"No breakfast?" her father asked her.

"I thought you were going out for breakfast with that friend you play golf with," Elsa said nervously. She was panicking that she had gotten the dates wrong.

"Good, glad you can remember something," her father said.

Elsa internally sighed. It was just a test – thank god. Elsa pushed herself away from the table and headed up to her room to get away from her father so that she could open the letter in private. Once Elsa shut the door carefully, she sat down at her desk. She looked at the letter grasped in her trembling hands.

Okay Elsa, she told herself, just open it and read it. But she just sat there for several minutes without even moving. She was just too nervous to even blink or take a breath. The thought that she might not have gotten in still haunted her. Eventually after several long tedious minutes, Elsa decided that it was time to open the envelope. She took a deep breath before she opened the letter.

"Dear Miss Winters," Elsa read out loud, "we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted." Elsa finished at that word. She ran her fingers through her hair. She had been accepted. She had been accepted! Elsa skimmed read over the rest of the page. It was just informing her of important dates such as ordination week, start of semester, that kind of thing. There was also important information such as her student ID information – which allowed her to access the university's website so that she could enrol and would be necessary for handing in assignments, tests and exams – and a password to go along with it. Enclosed was also a map of the campus.

Elsa looked at the second page of the letter. She had applied to the universities halls and she hoped that she had gotten in as well. She didn't think she could make rent. Elsa carefully read the rest of the letter. She almost couldn't believe it when she read the words on the page. It said that she had gotten into the John Sparks dorm – who John Sparks was, she didn't care, maybe he was some important student or someone who had invested a lot of money to the university. But that didn't matter to her at all. She didn't know anything about the John Sparks dorm but she loved it already. She checked the map. It told her that the John Sparks dorm was right next to the law building which was good for her. She had applied for a law degree majoring in family law and a science degree majoring in child psychology. She had told people that she wanted to do law but she never told people why. She wanted to help children who are victims of child abuse – like her. She wanted to make sure that another child didn't go through the same thing she is going through. Doing family law would allow this. Elsa had seen a lot of courses that dealt with family abuse when she looked through the courses on the website. She was planning on taking all of them. But first, she had to go through and taste the other parts of law first. The same was true about psychology. But she would get to where she wanted to be soon enough.

Elsa had to read through the letter several more times. This didn't feel real somehow. She stared out her window as her brain tried to accept that she did get into the university that she really wanted to get into and that she got a dorm room there. Elsa looked back at the letter. The letter told her to accept her position online Elsa quickly opened her laptop and pulled up the university's website. She logged in and started writing her profile. After a few minutes, she decided to start enrolling. She spent the next three hours deciding what courses she should take. She eventually decided on what she wanted to do and enrolled in those courses. She had forgotten not only about breakfast but lunch too. Somehow eating didn't seem like a necessary at this moment. She was too excited to eat anyway.

Elsa pulled back from her desk with a big grin on her face. She was going to the University of Burgess. She was going to get out of here. The next step was booking her flights and making sure that everything was ready to go. Elsa was about to open up some travel websites when she heard her father yelling for her. Elsa didn't want to go but she decided it was for the best. She didn't want to have a beating tonight. She got up from her seat and headed in the direction of where her father was yelling; his study. Elsa knocked and entered the room. She found him sitting behind his desk with a smug look on his face.

"It's all set up," he said.

"What is?" Elsa asked.

"Your university degree," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "A thank you would be nice. You know when I was going to university; I didn't have a nice caring father to do this for me. So a little thanks would be the right thing to say."

"Oh right," Elsa said. "Thanks dad, you're one hundred percent right. Thank you for helping me out."

"That's better," he glared at her for a few moments before he went back to his smug expression. "Anyway, back to what I was saying. I have gotten you into the courses that I believe you should be doing. Since you will be running a business company, I have enrolled you in a commerce degree and since you like the idea of law – which I also like as it will be useful to have a lawyer running the business as if any legal action happens to take place, you will be able to deal with that."

"Oh," Elsa said. She didn't know what to say. She didn't like the idea of her father choosing her pathway for her. Well at least there were worst options he could have picked for her. She didn't exactly want to go into her father's business. She wanted to help people who have gone through what she has been going through. If she couldn't pull off her plan, then what her father wanted will rule her life. "Thank you, that sounds perfect."

"I know," her father said, smugly. "That's why I chose it. Now, you have been accepted into both Oxford and the University of Arendelle, so like I said, you have until the end of next week to decide."

"Yes father," Elsa nodded.

"Now go," he said. "You have chores to do."

Elsa quickly left her father's office and headed to the laundry to do the washing. Elsa didn't mind doing the chores. It gave her an excuse to be away from her father and doing them had slowly become ingrained in her routine. She had a smile on her face as she brought in the washing, ironed it, folded it and put away. Her father could plan her future all he wants but she had her own plans and they were going to be put into place. He wasn't going to stop her now. She was leaving and there was nothing he could do about it.

Well that's what she thought. Little did she realise how wrong she could be.

One week later, Elsa was still looking for flights. She wanted to go when her father was away on business. Since her father asks her to clean his office for her, she took the opportunity to look through his planner. She didn't get a chance until a couple of days ago. He had told her he was going out and he needed his office tidy by the time he got home. Elsa obliged. As she was tidying, she searched for his planner. He usually kept it on his desk but he must have moved it as it wasn't there when she looked. Her heart was hammering as she searched the office. She even made it messier during her search which was not good. She didn't know how much time she had. She didn't dare disobey her father.

Elsa had eventually found his planner and discovered that he was leaving in a couple of weeks for Germany – apparently he needed to sort out a takeover there. After a few moments of searching through it, she realised that she needed to do what her father had asked her to do. Elsa quickly tided her father's office so that it looked brand new. She had done it just in time. Literally five minutes later, her father came home. She was luckily not still in the office as he would have yelled "What are you still doing here" but he just went on with what he was doing.

So that is why Elsa was looking at flights during those two weeks. Flights would be expensive as they would be last minute flights. For two nights, Elsa couldn't find anything. This was making her nervous. If she couldn't find anything soon, she would be going to the University of Arendelle or Oxford and she didn't have a clue where she wanted to go. Oxford would get her away from Arendelle but she would still have someone breathing down her neck. The Dean went to university with her father and Elsa had a sinking feeling that he would work her just as hard as her father does. On the other hand, if she stayed in Arendelle, she would have her father looming over her for the rest of her life but she would be able to be with all her friends and be in familiar surroundings. So Oxford or Arendelle? Pros and cons for both but which one was better? Elsa didn't know.

On the second night, Elsa had been invited out to drinks with Rapunzel and Merida. They had wanted a night out to celebrate them being accepted into the University of Arendelle – they had found out only that day. So that night she made her way to The Drunken Scandinavian – Rapunzel's favourite bar – in order to meet Rapunzel and Merida. She walked into the bar and found them drinking shots by the bar.

"Come here Elsa," the both of them said when they saw her.

Elsa smiled at them and headed over to them. She ordered herself a red wine to drink. It came within a few minutes and Elsa sipped it happily.

"I can't believe in just a few months, we will be going to university," squealed Rapunzel.

"Yeah," Merida said as she sipped her cocktail, "it feels unreal somehow."

"Did you decide where you want to go Elsa?" Rapunzel said. "I know your dad is pressuring you to go to Oxford like he did."

"He either wants me to stay and go to university here or go to Oxford," Elsa said.

"That didn't answer my question Elsa," Rapunzel laughed.

"I know," Elsa laughed before she shrugged. "Truth be told, I don't know,"

"Please stay," Rapunzel said. "Don't go to Oxford, stay here with us."

Elsa laughed. "I don't know. Oxford is a good university. It would look good on the CV."

"It would," agreed Merida.

Elsa laughed again. The rest of the night passed with some more drinking and some dancing. About halfway through their evening, three boys came up to them asking if they wanted to dance.

"Of course," Rapunzel said.

"You have a boyfriend," Elsa said rolling her eyes.

"But we're single," Merida said smiling widely.

Two of the boys looked pleased to hear this. Elsa thought that maybe she should go home but she decided that one dance won't hurt anything. So she accepted the boy's offer for a dance. However, one dance turned into three and before Elsa knew it, she was an hour late for curfew. Elsa was panicking the entire drive home. She only had a couple of drinks over the night so she decided to drive home instead of waiting for the bus which could take ages to get to her stop. She was slightly breaking the speed limit on her way home but she needed to.

She almost burst through the front door in her panic but she managed to restrain herself. The first thing she saw when she entered was her father standing by the fireplace. He was standing with his hands held tightly behind his back. There was a look on his face that Elsa had seen way too often. It was a look of pure rage. He couldn't be mad about her being late, could he? She had asked if she could hang out and he was so smug about him managing to plan her future down to the very last detail so he said she could stay out to midnight. It was only twenty past midnight. So was he mad about that? Her father was quite firm on curfews. So that was why Elsa thought he was angry about her being late.

"Sorry I'm late," Elsa said. "I lost track of time."

"Get over here," he said simply.

Elsa felt like this was so much more than just being twenty minutes late. Elsa hesitantly stepped forward. She was starting to shake. What could he be mad about? With him, it could be a hundred different things.

"I needed your help with something tonight," her father started. "I knew you were out but it was quite late and I thought you were home so I decided to check to see if you were in your room. You obviously weren't but what I found instead astounded me even further." He picked up something that was on the coffee table. He flashed it front of her. Elsa felt her heart sink. The thing he was holding was her acceptance letter from The University of Burgess. He had found it. "Then I decided to check your laptop," her father continued. He placed the letter back onto the table. "I had found that you had enrolled in courses there as well applied in a residency hall. Then I dug a little deeper and discovered that you had started looking at flights."

His voice was steady but it was full of rage. Elsa took a step backwards. He was walking towards her. He had found out the truth about everything. How could she have been so stupid? Why didn't she tuck it away out of sight? Her father would have just walked in, taken a look around before leaving. He would never have found the letter or the flight plans or her plans to move over there. Her plan was self-destructing in front of her right now.

"Say something!" her father yelled at her. "I want an explanation now."

"Er," Elsa replied. What could she say? She wanted out because she wanted to not be his daughter – yeah she couldn't say that.

"You fucking bitch," he yelled at her while whipping his hand across her face. The force of it caused her to fall to the ground. She fell down hard. "How dare you do this? I am the one who decides where you are going – not you! You are going to run our family's business. You are not jet set across the globe going after some stupid dream."

Elsa didn't dare to speak. She was afraid that she was going to say the wrong thing – with her father, anything could be the wrong thing. Elsa could feel fear settle within her. It was a fear she had never experienced before. There was something different about her father tonight. This rage was beyond all rage she had seen before. Elsa felt like her life could be in danger tonight.

"Well aren't you going to fucking say anything?" he screamed at her. He picked her up and held her tightly at her upper arms. "No, fuck that. Don't you dare say anything. You don't deserve the life I have provided for you. I have given you every fucking single advantage in life and you throw it away. First there was the whole thing with Hans and now this. I fucking taught you better you cunt."

He grabbed her by the neck and started to squeeze hard. Elsa felt tears come to her eyes. She couldn't breathe – she was chocking for air. Her vison was starting to go dark. Elsa's fear was getting worse now. It was consuming her. Somewhere deep inside of her, Elsa eventually managed to find some strength and she used it to kick her father – hard – in his groin. He let out a gasp of pain and his hands released Elsa. She fell to the ground and she struggled to get to her feet. She needed to get out of here before he did something to her – before it was too late.

"You fucking bitch," he shouted.

Elsa raced to the door. She didn't even look behind her – she knew he was there; chasing her. She had to get out of her house. She had to run and never look back. If he stayed then she could be nothing but a body on the ground with her father standing over it. Elsa struggled with the front door. Come on, she thought. Somehow her fingers weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing. Panic was making it hard for her to think straight and to focus. She was trying to open it quickly but it was of no use. Just as she managed to hear the click of the door opening, her father grabbed her from behind. Her fingers stretched out for the door handle but her arms weren't long enough. Her father threw her to the ground and her head smashed against the couch. Thankfully the couch was soft and not hard but it still hurt. Elsa felt tears come to her eyes and her vison went a bit blurry. She blinked several times hoping to clear it.

She watched as her father picked up a letter opener on the coffee table. Was this it? Had her moment finally come? He stepped over her so that he would be blocking the front door. He didn't want her escaping. He wanted to deal with her here and now.

"You," he said wheezing slightly – he was still recovering from that blow that Elsa had given him – as he pointed the letter opener at her. Elsa's eyes fell to the point of the letter opener. It was sharp. "How dare you. I did everything for you and this is how you repay me? Well I am going to show you that nobody makes a mockery of Agdar Winters."

He slashed at her with the letter opener. Elsa dodged just it in time. The blade went down the couch – creating a tear as it did – and caught her shirt which caused it to rip slightly. It didn't find its way to her skin and so no blood could be seen. Elsa quickly got to her feet and ran in the direction of the stairs with her father right behind her. If this was the end for her, she wanted it to be on her terms instead of on his. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of being the one to do it. She had wanted to do this for a very long time now. The thought that she wasn't going escape her tortuous life was enough for her to see that she wanted to reach the light on the other side instead of being stuck in the darkness on earth. Elsa's feet soon found the stairs and she clambered up them.

"Elsa!" she heard her father yell at her. She could hear her father right behind her – he was just a few seconds behind. He would soon catch up with her if she wasn't quick enough and she didn't want that happening.

Elsa's long blonde hair – out of its usual braid – was whipping along behind her as she ran. She soon found her father's bedroom and quickly opened the door, shutting it behind. She placed a chair in front of it as to barricade herself into the room. She would need some time to do what she needed to do. She found her father's safe and quickly opened it. She had known the combination for years now and her father never knew that she knew. Once she heard a click, she swiftly opened it. Inside was a .22 semi-automatic pistol.

Elsa's fingers trembled as she picked it up. The razor would be too slow for her. There was time for her father to finish what he had started. The pistol would end things instantly. The door handled then turned several times in hurried motion as her father was attempting to get into the room. She looked up to the door. If she was going to do this she needed to do this now. Elsa shakenly held the gun up to her temple. It was always kept fully loaded. Her father feared any intruder.

"Elsa!" her father yelled. "What are you doing in there?"

She felt a thud echoed around the room as her father tackled the door.

"Elsa!" he screamed.

She looked away from the door. The last thing she was going to see was not going to be her father trying to break into the room. The last thing she wanted to see was something other than her father's torment.

"Sorry Anna," Elsa whispered as tears streamed down her face. She wished that there was another way but there wasn't. Anna would find out the truth – she was bound to anyway. Best it be when Elsa couldn't see the hurt expression on her face. She had tried to survive for Anna but she couldn't. She just couldn't do this anymore. Anna deserved a life free from her. She didn't need her older sister's troubled pain in it.

Elsa closed her eyes and her fingers tightened on the trigger as her fear set in even deeper. However, something about it being the end at last somehow calmed her and let the fear escape her. She was about to press down with her finger when the door burst open. The gun dropped to her side as she saw her father come into the room. Elsa didn't know what it was – whether it was instinct or not – but she pointed the gun at her father. Elsa could feel the blood pounding in her ears. What was she doing? She wasn't supposed to be pointing it at him but if she didn't, he would do it himself and she did not want that. One of them was not going to see the next day. Her fear returned when she saw him.

The moment he saw the gun in her hand, he sneered at it. It was almost as if he was daring her to do it. Elsa's hands were shaking. She steadied them. All she had to do was focus on her goal.

"What are you going to do Elsa?" he scoffed at her.

"Get back," for the first time that night, Elsa felt her voice strengthened. There was a cold gaze in her eyes. Her hands tightened around the handle. She needed to protect herself from him and if threatening him with a gun did that, then so be it. Maybe it would give her some time to rebuild up her courage to point the gun back at her and end it all for her.

"What are you going to do?" he said. "Kill your own father?" he took a step towards her. The sneer never left his face. "You haven't got the guts you little whore."

Elsa didn't know what it was. Something just exploded in her. All the years of his torment and abuse just took over her in that one moment. It was him or her and she didn't want him to have the satisfaction of it being her. All the fear from before somehow turned to strength in this one moment and it was enough fear for her to face her demons and stare them down to destroy them. Elsa's fingers tightened around the trigger – and she pulled. There was a bang as a bullet exploded from the barrel of the gun. She had fired at her father.

Everything in that one moment seemed to go in slow motion; from the firing of the bullet to the bullet hitting her father. The bullet travelled through the air and made its way to her father. His eyes bulged as the bullet entered his chest. A dark red stain started to make its way across his shirt as blood protruded from the open wound in his chest. He looked down at in shock. Maybe he thought that she wouldn't do it but she had caught him by surprise. He collapsed down to his knees. He looked up at her. There was something in his eyes – was it fear?

"You little bitch," he whispered before he finally collapsed onto his bedroom floor. Blood poured out from his chest and it drenched the floor all around him.

He was dead.

A/N: First off, Elsa's father is now dead. What will happen now with Elsa? Will she make it to Burgess? Or will she face another set of demons? So this chapter was supposed to be a part of the previous but I cut them due to length wise which is why this is updated very quickly. There may not be another chapter for a while due my workload being stupid. So sorry about that. I will update when I can but the next story I will want to update next will be Thirst so this story will have wait for updates. Anyway, I hope that everyone enjoyed this update. Please review =)

Reviews:

Guest (Banana): I have explained in previous A/Ns that Jack will come probably in a couple of chapters. There is just a lot of things I needed to have done before he could make an appearance. I know that everyone is eager for him to arrive and so am I. It will just take some doing beforehand.

ZERO-xxx: For Jack, I do have a intro planned (I was always going to introduce him in this way - it's going to be based off a small Friends moment) but yeah, you're right. Do what feels natural and don't force yourself to do what others want. Sometimes if it fits, I will preform requests in my story. Oh I am not rushing with Jack - in fact the opposite. When I planned this story, he was supposed to be in by chapter 3 or 4 but it looks like he won't be until chapter 9 as I ended up stretching this story out. I am not going to cave to reader's pressure - I just had a lot of stuff I need to get done first like the end of this chapter but yeah, it's hard not to just combine things and get Jack into the story, I do really want him in the story soon. But Jack is going to wait. Anyway, thanks! I probably will end up taking my time. I do want this story to be good.

Serenity'sAdvocate: Thanks so much! Also, I wouldn't say that Elsa is very hopeful.

sanaa11: Thanks! I thought it was - just the darkness and tone of the story made my head think it could be taken the other way. Jack is a little bit away but he will be Elsa's saving grace.

Hot Damn: Thanks so much! Also Jack's going to be a little bit longer - hold on please! Thanks, I need all the luck I can get with my university work.

ElsaTheSnowQueen2: Thanks! Hmm, I don't think Anna does know. Besides it would be a bit of a jump to go to abuse as Anna has never seen any evidence of it.

Guest (MixyBell): No problem for updating - it's my pleasure really. You're allowed to skip your final exams? That is not fair. I have to take my final exams if I want an A. I can't wait for Jack either - just a little bit more, please hold on!