Chapter 4: The Office

Everyone has a phobia. Some people hate clowns, others hate the dentist. I never really had to deal with those, so I don't really get it. But in the end, everyone has something that they're afraid of. Even I have things that I just won't do and places I refuse to go into. Today I was being forced to confront my fears, and march forward with all my strength.

"Nope, sorry I'm not going in. I'll see you outside." I say brimming with courage as I turn to get out of there.

Elsa had other plans and quickly linked my arm with her. "Anna, you told me that we needed to go here."

"B-but, I." I stammered out. The fear mixed with the emotional rush of Elsa touching me. The result left me slack jawed and my eyes wide enough to fall out of their sockets.

"You told me yourself Anna, no buts. We need to go here to start our investigation." She said being right as usual. "Besides, it's only your guild office, how bad could it be?" she asked while pushing me into the doorframe.

"Look, Elsa it's not the office that's bad, it's th-"

"Ah, Anna! It has been far too long!" A painfully loud voice called from across the room. The office was set as plain as you could imagine it. Comfy sofas in the waiting room, a table with outdated magazines on them. Potted plants that are probably as old as I am. All of this led to the grand table at the back that sat with an even grander chair, both in front of a set of incredibly large and full bookshelves. Anyone who entered this room would be inclined to think that the owner was a very small man who was desperately trying to compensate for it. They would be right.

"Ah, Weaselton. It's a pleasure." I say with my biggest most totally sincere smile.

"Ah, ah. It's Weselton. Really now, you'd think you would remember by now." He said practically jumping out of his chair to greet us.

"Ha ha, my mistake. I'll try to get it next right next time." He walked towards us with his chest puffed out and his toupee falling off. He was wearing his old army uniform, 'from the great war where I earned my purple heart!' It was a point of contention amongst demon hunters as to whether or not he actually went to the army, and if he actually got injured enough to earn a purple heart. I tend to be on the side that believes him, as a war wound is the only explanation I can find for his unique style of 'dance'.

"Ah, no problem my dear, no problem. I must say, you are back earlier than your normal bi-monthly visits. Care for another lesson in the Frolicking Mongoose I assume?"

That isn't a dance move, that's a sad call for help. I thought to myself as he broke into one of his patented dance routines. I stole a glance at Elsa who was smiling. She seemed to be following him along as he spasmed, and I swore I could see her elbows start to move.

"Okay, no no. Weselton, I'm actually here on business this time. So we can save the….lesson" I choked on that last word, "for later."

"Ah, yes." He immediately straightened up and nodded his head. "Business first pleasure later, right? I also must say you have brought the most exquisite companion today."

Elsa held out her hand and said "My name is Elsa, Mr. Weselton."

He took it and gave it a firm shake before turning back towards the library. "A pleasure to meet you Ms. Elsa. Anna surely always brings the finest of company, so I assume you must be no different. Now, come." He sat in his chair and pulled out a large book with glowing edges. Flipping it open, he traced his finger along the words on the page. "I assume you're here to turn in a large bounty, yes?"

I reached into my pocket it and pulled out a small white card that resembled a hotel keycard. He took the card with a nod of his head and held it over the book. Soft glowing particles began to flow from the card. The sparkles glistened down like stars until they rested on the book.

"Is this your first time seeing this, Ms. Elsa?" He asked with a pleasant smile.

Elsa blushed and nodded. "H-how did you know?" She said stuttering in the way that made my heart swoon.

Chuckling, Weselton continue to tap the card as sparkles fell from it. "It's because you have the same stars in your eyes as when Anna saw this for the first time." I turned my head to hide my blush as he continued talking. "It's a standard issue for every active demon hunter. You see, in order to manifest themselves in our world, supernatural beings must create for themselves a physical body that is capable of interacting with the mortal world. When we vanquish them, their bodies disintegrate into aether, the energy used to perform any and all feats of magic and the supernatural."

Yeah, I should probably stop him before he gets into a longer rant. I thought before I patted him on the back a bit roughly. "Yeah, and these things," I tap on the still sparkling card, "trap all that aether and he's transferring it over to that book. The book records how much gets dumped in and I get paid. Easy enough, right?"

Weselton, still shaking from my playful smack, cleared his throat and continue. "Yes, that is correct. It appears that this time, you've made quite the impressive bounty." He fixed his glasses and looked closer. "I say, this is more than five hundred kills within the last week? My god, you certainly have been working extra hard."

I chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, you know me. Addicted to the job." I need to make sure to buy Elsa her own pizza for this. Maybe her own wardrobe while I'm at it. Elsa herself was just quietly nodding, most likely happy for me that I was about to be paid for her efforts.

After a few minutes of writing, sparkle dust and check signing, Weselton finally closed the book and handed me a check. "Well, that is that. Is there anything else I may be of assistance with, or did you simply drop in to collect your bounty?"

"Yeah, I've got something I needed your opinion on." I said, walking over to the bookshelf. There were books on every known subject regarding magic and the supernatural. I idly tapped the books as I looked over them. "If I wanted to tear open a portal to Hell, how would I go about doing that?"

Even though I had braced myself for his reaction, I still winced when I heard him practically choke on air. "Again with this? Anna, I have known you for years, but I have done nothing but warn you about such sordid affairs. First you attempt to break into Heaven, and having failed that you set your eyes upon Hell?"

"Woah, woah. I didn't say that!" I turned to face him and found him standing on the tips of his does, dagger nose pointed dangerously at my chest. His eyes were fixed on me in a glare that could peel the paint off a car. "I'm just saying; how would one do that if they really wanted to?"

He eyed me dangerously before slowly lowering himself to the ground. "And you do not intend to do it yourself." He said in a slow controlled voice. After I nodded he just looked at me for a moment before walking to the book shelves. He rifled through books until he pulled out a fat red book. Laid on the table, the book was embroidered with dark gold borders and had an impressive lock on it. "I never trust anyone else to look over this book. To this day I still do not know who discovered it, but humanity is truly capable of horrific things when they put their mind to it."

As he said that he pulled out a key from his coat pocket, small golden with the slightest rust marks. He placed it in the lock and turned. The lock snapped off and the air changed. I looked to Elsa, and she was already preparing a fighting stance. Weselton wasn't perturbed as he calmly leafed through the book. "This book is one of the few that we didn't write. It was found in the ruins of a parking garage of all things that had been cracked open more than a dozen meters underground during the first assault. Ever since then this book and this key have been passed to the head of the demon slaying guild. The last thing we need is a rogue warlock or witch getting their hands on this."

He stopped for a moment when he reached a certain page. Nodding he turned the book so Elsa and I could get a better look. "This is the closest passage I could find. It details the process of summoning a demon and bidding it under your command."

I read over the instructions. Instantly I wished I hadn't. Elsa had a similar reaction as she tore her gaze from the book. "How could someone even consider that? That is... dear God."

"It's based off the principles of making a person." I started tracing my finger along the page. Skipping the fluff at the beginning, I began to read the instructions. "Every person consists of a mind, a body and a soul. To summon a demon, you must offer it those same parts and in enough quantity for the power of the one you are summoning. It is important to balance the parts out, for these shall be broken down to form the mortal form. Begin with the mind." I shook my head and stepped back. "Okay, so that is seriously messed up."

Weselton nodded in agreement before closing the book shut. "Sadly that is all that I have. Further down the text say that 'in the moment of genesis, open the portal to the demon realm, and the spirit shall flow into the vessel once prepared.' Apparently, a portal is necessary for the process, but there are no specific instructions. Just if, for whatever reason, something is trying to open a portal, my guess would be that this would be at the heart of the cause."

The three of us stood there in silence for a moment. I patted Weselton on the back. "Thanks Weaselton. I think you gave me a place to start."

"Any time my lady." He said with a nod. "And I do await your next visit. It is rare that I have the chance to exhibit my mastery of the foxtrot."

"Sure thing." I said with a wave of my hand as I walked towards the door. "Take care of yourself."

"And you too. I honestly hope that you know what you're doing this time Anna." I heard him mumble as I closed the door behind us.

The gears in my head were still spinning as I came out of the ice cream parlor. The big guy behind the counter must have noticed since he gave me an extra scoop on my Sunday. The black haired kid also threw some sprinkles and candy bits on Elsa's cone, so I made sure to give an extra tip today. Cone in one hand and sundae in the other, I made my way through the crowd towards the park on the other side of the street where I had left Elsa.

When I had arrived Elsa wasn't at the meeting spot. Panicking internally I started to scan the area for her. "Elsa!" I called out, picking up my pace. "Elsa?!" I almost started to run until I saw what had to be the cutest sight of my life.

"Please hold still for just a second!" Elsa cried out as she ran down the sidewalk. Keeping a fair pace in front of her was a small group of ducklings and their mothers. "I just need you to wait a moment." She pleaded to the fowls. "Things will go much more smoothly if you just…" she slowed down as she saw me. Eyes widened and crimson spread over her cheeks. "Um… oh. Hi." She said, smiling at me to what I could only imagine was the goofiest grin I've ever had.

It took about ten minutes before she could stop looking at the ground. For that time we just sat in embarrassed silence, eating our ice creams. "Thish isf weally good!" She said with her mouth full of vanilla ice cream. I snorted as she looked up at me, face covered in white cream.

"Hey, at least try to taste it first." I said as I wiped her face with my sleeve. She squirmed for a bit but let me clean her face. Once I finished she went back to eating. "I was worried that you wouldn't like ice cream, but I guess I was wrong." I went back to eating my sundae as she devoured that poor ice cream cone. "So, mind explaining to me what you were doing with the ducks?" I asked with a small smile.

She swallowed the remainder of her cone abruptly and started to cough. After some patting on the back and a clearer throat she bit her lip. "I thought you seemed a bit distracted today, after going back to the office and such. And I thought you could use something to cheer you up. You always had a fondness for animal spirits and…stuff…"

As she tapered off at the end she looked away, squirming like a little kid. I just sat there stunned, eyes somewhere between her and the sky. "You really remembered that?" I asked slowly, holding the sundae close to my chest. My fingers were turning pink from the coldness, but I couldn't care less at the moment.

"Of course I did, Anna." Elsa said with a small smile. She looked up at me and her gaze made my heart practically burst from my chest. "How could I possibly forget anything about you?"

My sundae must have melted from my embarrassment. My eyes flitted between her and the ice cream before I reached my arm out and pulled her in to a side hug. She yelped at first, but quickly settled into my shoulder. "Thanks. Just seeing you chase those ducks made me feel way better." Elsa just nodded and we sat there together. "You're not going to ask?" She shook her head. "You can ask if you want, about the stuff Weselton said about me. I mean, you deserve to kno-"

"I trust you." She said, cutting me off with a gentle voice. "You must have your reasons, and you'll tell me when you're ready."

How the hell do you respond to that? With just that she leaned back into me and I got another face full of blonde hair and winter mint smell. Maybe she did deserve to know. She wouldn't be happy to know that you almost broke into Heaven to see her again. My internal voice butted in. I bit my lip and decided to nod back at her. We sat in silence, only listening to the sounds of ducks quacking and children making similar noises.

A crackling in my ear broke up my resting time. "Anna, you hear me?" Kristoff's voice echoed into my ear drum.

"Brilliant timing Kristoff, I was worried you had forgotten about me." I said into my earpiece. Elsa adjusted herself as she heard me talking. "So, did you look into what I asked?"

"Well, it wasn't a particularly broad subject," He said with a groan, "but I did manage to find something. There's always missing person reports every day, but over the past few months I did manage to track down a higher population of them around the beginning and end of the week."

"Saturday and Sunday? That's an incredibly specific time for large quantities of people to go missing. Maybe they all carpool together."

"Very funny, fiestypants." He said with an audible eyeroll. "But these aren't like, mass quatities of missing people. It's just a small group, maybe a dozen at most. But the weird thing is that they're consistent. You just don't see people go missing twice a week, every week for the past three months and not consider that something is wrong."

I nodded and recapped this to Elsa. "Kristoff, if what you say is true." She said towards my ear which gave me the weird kind of shivers, "Why have there been no authorities investigating these disappearances?" She sidled up next to me and pressed her ear over my ear. I wanted to tell her that headsets did not work that way, but I couldn't complain.

"The dozen I mentioned was a onetime deal and police did check it out. They couldn't find any reason that they would have all gone missing, and they were too afraid to go check where the victims were last seen."

I tapped my head and hummed. "So, where exactly were the victims last seen?"

"Outside the main gates to the North Mountain district. Kinda makes sense why we haven't seen any trace of them, doesn't it?"

I sighed and scratched at my head. Everything always leads back to there, greeaaat. "Well, I guess I know where I'm going next. Is there anywhere else in this city that bad things happen? You've never seen any living dead in the theater district."

"That's because you hardly see any regular living in the theater district, but that can be attributed to our city's bad taste in culture. Anyway, get moving and make sure to take Elsa with you."

I coughed and shook my head, accidentally pushing Elsa to the side. "Wait wait wait, I did not agree to this."

"What, you thought she was just going to stay home or something?"

"No, well. Maybe. Kristoff you know I work alone." I whispered frantically into my earpiece.

"Well, I guess you don't anymore. And I don't think I'm the one you need to have this conversation with, so good luck." He said while I started to flail my arms around. I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off by an audible click. Groaning, I leaned back, palms against the curb where I sat.

"I'm coming with you." A voice from my side said. I turned and saw Elsa, pouting with her arms crossed over her chest.

"It's too dangerous Elsa," I said. I could feel the air around me chill as Elsa's expression hardened. "You don't know what it's like in there, even I don't know how bad it can get in there!"

"All the more reason for me to come with you! You know I can handle myself." She had started to lean in closer to me, teal eyes fixed onto mine.

"I wasn't saying you couldn't-"

"And you know I won't just let you run out and get yourself killed by yourself!" Her face was almost touching mine.

"I know, but…" I bit my lip harder as my pulse thundered in my ears.

"But what then?"

"I don't want to see you get hurt!" I gasped out before finally averting my gaze. "I don't want to see you get hurt. I don't want to see anything happen to you." I shook my head and squeezed the pavement. "I can't see you get hurt, not while I'm there."

Elsa's expression softened and she leaned over to place a hand on my shoulder. "This is why you make Kristoff stay behind at the computer, isn't it?" A nod was my only answer. "Anna, look at me." I hesitated and she gently cupped my face. "Come on." Slowly I turned and our pupils met once again. "You can trust me. Just like I trust you. You're my partner, right?"

My heart was hammering in my ears again as she just looked at me. She was looking at me with a weird mix of tenderness and hope. I took a deep breath and placed my own hand over hers. "Okay. I trust you."

She smiled and stood up, offering me her hand. I took it and we both stood there, taking in the warmth of the sun together. "Well, let's go." I said, stretching out the kinks in my shoulders.

"Of course." Elsa said, mimicking my motions. "After you the-"

"Um, excuse me." A young voice chimed in from the side. Elsa and I turned to the source to find a girl, probably a late teenager, with bright green eyes and a wide smile looking at us. She was wearing a white hoodie and in her hands were a dozen pamphlets which she clutched to her chest. "I'm sorry to bother you, but do you have a moment?"

I really wanted to say no, but I ended up nodding my head anyway. Elsa did so too, but in a more enthusiastic fashion. It was kinda cute, and looking at the kid's eyes, I couldn't say no to her. She stopped for a moment, and she sputtered. We must be the first ones to actually listen to her.

"Well, my name is Marielle, and I'm here representing my congregation. We're here as a support group, a community, but most of all we're here to celebrate our faith together." She started, looking up every so often as she stumbled along her words. Maybe now would be a good time to mention that Elsa and I aren't exactly looking for a new religion. I turned to my partner, but she was politely listening, nodding her head when appropriate and not breaking eye contact.

"The family has meetings every week." She continued, "Where we talk about life, the hardships and struggles…. Oh and love! We talk a lot about love."

"Love?" Elsa asked with a polite smile.

"Yes, love!" the girl, Marielle, exclaimed with a bright smile. "We believe that love is the greatest force in the world! True love can overcome anything, and all you need to do is believe in it and everything will be okay."

I could help but smile a bit at how the girl was gushing. It was naïve to hear, but also kind of refreshing as she went on and on about the wondrous and life-saving effects of love. You could see the sparkle in her eye as she spoke about how much love and everything have changed her life for the better.

Eventually I had to cut the kid off. "Okay, sorry to interrupt but we have to go." I nod to Elsa who gives me a slightly disappointed pout. We exchange some glances, glares and pouting before she nodded at the girl with me. "Thanks for telling us though, it was fun."

She nodded at us and smiled like we just gave her a brand new car. "Thank you so much for listening. Oh, and good luck on your adventure. I couldn't help but overhear that the two of you are going somewhere dangerous?"

I shrugged. "Well, it's a little risky, but we're professionals, right?" I said with a smirk.

"Ah, then may you have protection on your journey until you find where you need to be. Also here." She handed Elsa and I a pair of fliers. "Whenever you have time, the congregation could always use more people. We're even going to have a barbeque in a few weeks."

Deciding not to try and explain barbeques to Elsa at the moment, I nodded and started to walk. "Take care then kid. Good luck recruiting." Elsa smiled and said something similar to me.

"Good luck you two! Make sure to come visit us. Remember, love is an open door!"

A/N: School's started for me so yaaaaay. After two weeks of packing, moving airplanes being sick and classes, I return. Sorry for the wait. I was going to jump faster into the plot, but then cute things happened and here I am.

Thank you all for your suggestions regarding the picture. Unfortunately at the moment I am broke and talentless at drawing, so I tried making an Anna avatar using Rinmaru.

Well, I'll see you guys next chapter. Thanks for reading and review if you liked something, didn't or just want to say hi. Thank you!