"Where are you, damnit?", Kristoff wonders aloud.
He lifts up a dagger. A golden jewel embedded on the end reflects the street light into his eyes and across his mask. A sparkle of a reflection dances just behind the glare. He barely makes out an orange plus sign in the blinding radiance.
"Stupid thing…", he grumbles. He shakes the dagger and looks at it again like it's a stopped watch. Letting out a sigh, he shines the light into his face again. "I promised Elsa I'd find her first", he confesses to the blade.
The orange plus sign doesn't change. The entire situation frustrates him to no end.
I'm not magical, I'm not extrasensory, so I get that this will be harder than it would for most.
"But give me something to go on!", some of his anger slips past the surface causing him to shake the dagger violently in both hands.
He clears his throat harshly and twirls the dagger between his fingers. Letting loose another sigh, he looks around at the tall buildings surrounding him. The concentration it took to get the gem in his dagger to lead him this far disappeared when he entered the industrial part of the city. Something about this area just puts him on edge.
This sucks… I need to find the new orange before Mal does.
He flips his knife up and catches it, peering into the hilt. The plus sign changes to a black skull for no more than a second before turning back. His eyes fixate on the weapon, "what was that?"
Flashing red and blue lights pull him out of his daze as an ambulance whizzes around the corner. He jumps back into the shadows, completely concealing himself. After it flies by Kristoff emerges from the darkness and walks down the narrow alley he hid in.
After walking for a few minutes, darting between dark spots, whispers and whimpering float through the passage he is in. He tightens his grip on his weapon and peeks around the corner. Three figures stand huddled together, he can barely make out what they are saying.
"She just left it?", one mans voice asks.
A female answers him, "I don't get it… why would she take it one day and give it back the next?"
"But what about what happened before? We can't just pretend like we didn't see that guy…", the first man trails off.
The third man quietly wails, his voice sharper than Kristoff's blades.
Everything they mention gives Kristoff a bad feeling. He keeps listening in hoping to hear something of value.
"Shh! Someone will hear you!", snaps the woman.
"That is exactly what we are going to do!", continuing to the second man, "I am not about to go to the cops and tell them we saw a hulk of a man beating that person to death."
The second voice, almost in pain mutters, "there was so much blood, Shenzi…"
The third person begins to make small whining noises, like a dog in pain.
"Shut up Banzai! You're going to upset him again!", Shenzi spits. Her voice softens instantly, "shh, shh it's okay Ed. He's gone he's not going to bother us anymore."
Banzai's voice escalates, "maybe I want to talk about it! Maybe I don't want to ignore the fact that we just saw someone literally rip another person apart with his bare hands!"
A hush descends on the trio, all three seeming to let that sink in. Banzai continues, his voice tiny and aghast, "the look on his face when he turned around and saw us there. I've never seen anything so… so cold. His eyes were damn near all black, he was smiling… like he didn't even care, like he enjoyed it."
The silence wraps around them again. Kristoff leans his head out further to see where they are. It's too dark to see who is who but one sits, huddled in a corner, with another cradling them in their arms. The third person is heading towards Kristoff,
"I'm going to get out of this alley for a minute, I can't stay in the dark any longer", Banzai shouts back at the other two.
Kristoff backs his way behind a dumpster vanishing into the deeper darkness and watches Banzai pass. He follows him out to the street hiding from sight. Banzai turns out to the street, walks a few steps, and Kristoff taps him on the shoulder.
When he turns and notices Kristoff's mask he utters, "oh, for crying out loud."
Holding his dagger closely behind his back, Kristoff demands, "you are going to tell me everything I want to know."
"You know what?", Banzai starts, "fuck you!" Banzai turns to fully face Kristoff. His curt tone catches Kristoff off guard, "in the past two days I've gotten my ass kicked by some ice bitch who also robbed my sister, watched a behemoth turn another man into hamburger, had the same ice bitch turn up again just to give my sister back her money, and now you've come along."
Kristoff just stares, unsure of what to say.
Banzai rattles off a few more disturbing thoughts, "what are you going to do? Beat me? Go ahead I'm already broken. Rob me? I ain't got any money. Kill me? Do me the favor and get these images out of my fucking head."
Still in shock, Kristoff stands awkwardly. Banzai's eyes scream that he is serious, he's ready to die right here and now.
"That's what I fucking thought…", he scoffs as he turns to walk away.
Kristoff snaps out of it and asks this time, "where did you see this murder?"
Banzai quips back, "on the corner of go to hell and fuck yourself. You know right in front of the Denny's… Wait, it's not a Denny's anymore. It's a whore house now, pretty sure it's the one your mother works at."
Kristoff admits to him, "I am trying to stop people from dying to men like that, and that 'ice bitch', as you so delicately put it, is actually a friend of mine. She is helping me and I'm looking for someone so time isn't something I have a lot of."
Throwing his hands in the air, Banzai sarcastically spouts, "golly gee batman, maybe you should just get in your bat mobile and go ask Commissioner Gordon!" He starts walking away and under his breath spews, "this piece of shit town is beyond saving, asshole."
As he walks away, Kristoff turns his back on Banzai. Shenzi stands a few feet behind him. She doesn't look at him. After a long moment of silence, she tells him, "it was behind that shitty Italian place about ten blocks down and three over." Her eyes dart up to his face then away again. Ed peeks his head out from inside the alley, whimpering. Shenzi continues, "it's not easy in this town. We've mugged, stolen, and swindled people tons of times", she looks up at Kristoff, intensity in her eyes, "but we're not murderers!" Her eyes falter, Kristoff can almost see what she witnessed in them, "we've lived in this town our entire lives… Heard stories, read about it in headlines as we pass a newsstand, but we've never, ever seen anything like that." She covers her mouth, her face changing colors from getting sick just thinking about it. "He was just punching him, over and over. You ever hear the term, 'watching a train wreck'?"
Kristoff nods, "you don't want to but you can't look away."
She holds her stomach, "I've- we've never been so scared. Seeing it was bad enough, but the worst part was the sounds... When he swung the first few times there was cries and screams and blood… so much blood. Then after a few more swings it was just silent. The only sounds we heard were that… monster, hitting and hitting and hitting. It was so quiet, you could hear everything splattering it was-". She gags, covering her mouth again.
Letting his dagger slide back into its sheath, Kristoff explains, "there is something going on right now. Something huge! You might want to get out of here for a while." Kristoff reaches up and pulls down his mask.
Shenzi scoffs, "where do you propose we go? If you can't tell we're not exactly swimming in money here." Her fists tighten and she lets out a harsh laugh, "there's one way out of this life for us… and it sounds like my brother just asked you to help that along." She starts getting louder and more angry, "there's no salvaging this place. You live here till you die, that's all there is."
Stoic, Kristoff tries to reassure her, "I will make this man pay or die trying…"
"Whatever", Shenzi dismisses and lets out one more laugh before walking back into the alley with Ed.
Kristoff pulls out his dagger, the plus sign's changed again. It is a picture of an orange sun and an arrow. "Finally, something I can go o-", his phone vibrating in his pocket stops him mid sentence.
'Elsa', appears on his screen. He swipes the call and greets her, "Elsa it's been like three hours, what's up?"
"Oh my god! Kristoff!", Anna's voice rings through the phone.
Kristoff asked, "who is this? Is this Elsa's roommate?"
Anna frantically rambles, "Kristoff! It's Anna! Elsa's been in some sort of terrible… something! They don't know what happened to her. Some cops picked her up and she is in the hospital! They told me they found her on the ground and she was barely responsive! And she… And she-" Barely breathing, Anna's panic proves too much for her.
Using this time to talk, "slow down Anna! What happened?" Kristoff calmly pleaded.
"Elsa's hurt… They don't know how bad or what happened", Anna states, trying desperately to control herself.
Kristoff looks down one more time at his dagger with the sun and the arrow, "where are you?"
"Arendelle General Hospital", Anna strains to keep herself together.
"Stay calm, I'm not far…", Kristoff comforts her, "I'll be there soon."
Anna squeaks through the speaker, "hurry!"
He hangs up the phone, sheaths his dagger again, and runs towards the hospital.