.

Sins of the Past

-:-

Chapter Fourteen

I glanced over at my bedside alarm clock for the time, and groaned at the prospect of getting ready for class.

"Hey Elsa?"

"Yes?"

"Can you take over again? I don't want to get out of bed."

"Really, Anna?"

"So... is that a yes?" I asked, hopefully.

Elsa let out an exasperated sigh. "Anna, would it really be wise for me to 'take over' for such a trivial reason? Does it not cause you discomfort?"

I shrugged. "Eh, it's not that bad to be honest."

Elsa gave me a look of disbelief, before refusing. "You require rest, not further trauma."

"No, seriously—" I began to protest, before being cut off by my bedroom door suddenly opening. Mom's head made an appearance in the doorway crack.

"Anna, sweetie? Are you awake?" She cautiously made her way into my room upon confirming that I was.

"Hey Mom." I greeted, sitting up in bed as she approached. "What's up?"

Mom shook her head with a rueful smile at those words. "I think I should be the one asking that. How're you feeling right now?"

"Kinda crappy to be honest, but a lot better than before." I wrung my still somewhat sore wrists.

"Do you feel like talking about what happened yesterday?" Mom asked, gently.

"I..." I shuddered as for an instant I relived the terrors of Hans' assault on my person. "Not yet. Maybe later?"

"Of course, whenever you're ready." Mom put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Take today off, if you want. You deserve a long weekend after what happened. Is there anything I can do for you right now though?"

I was about to shake my head no when my stomach suddenly growled. I smiled sheepishly.

"Well, uh. Sounds like some breakfast would be nice."

"Gotcha." Mom laughed. "Chocolate pancakes'll be waiting for you downstairs. Your favourite."

Mom got up and made for the door, turning at the last second to add. "Oh, and Anna? I noticed you wandering around this morning before the sun was even up. I'm sure you've got your reasons and all, but just know that I'll be here if there's anything you want to get off your chest, okay?"

...? Wait, what? Before the sun was even up? What's she talking about?

The door quietly clicked shut before I could question Mom further, signalling her departure. I turned toward Elsa, who'd been quietly milling about the foot of my bed this entire time.

"Wandering around...?" I asked inquisitively.

"What of it?" she replied.

"That was you, wasn't it?"

"You would be correct."

"What in the world would you be doing with my body that early?"

The ghost quietly shut her eyes, sighing deeply before answering. "I was... reminiscing. Of what it is like to have the world respond to your touch. Incorporeality becomes incredibly tiresome over the decades."

"Oh." I can see how not being able to touch anything would suck a whole lot. "Do you want to swap places, then?"

The ghost opened her mouth to argue, but I cut her off.

"No, seriously Elsa. The headpains really aren't that bad. Not as much as before, at least. Besides, I need some kind of distraction to get Hans off my mind."

Elsa sighed. "Very well then, if you so insist."

My vision blurred, and I found myself standing by the foot of my bed when I next opened my eyes. A quick glance downwards revealed myself to have returned to my pale and translucent form, as to be expected after a "swap."

I watched as my physical body climbed out of bed of its own free will, and then as it turned to face my direction. I shook my head when I made eye contact with my physical form.

"Man, I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing myself from the outside. Especially with blue eyes." I laughed. "Thanks, though. It'd probably take me, like what, another hour or two before I'd be able to get out of bed on my own?"

Elsa, in my body, chuckled quietly before replying. "Would you like for me to go through the rest of your morning routine as well, your highness?"

I perked up at that.

"Could you? I'm really not looking forward to combing my hair."

I winced as Elsa violently tore through a knot in my hair. She glanced over to where I stood by the bathroom door.

"My apologies."

I instinctively went to rub my head, remembering too late that my hand would phase straight through.

"You felt that too?" I asked in surprise.

"Very slightly." Elsa replied, before returning the hairbrush to its place on the bathroom countertop. "I temporarily regain my lost senses of taste, touch, and smell whenever I inhabit a body, though any incoming stimuli is... muted, as though I perpetually am wearing gloves."

"Really? Same here, kind of. As in my senses feel dulled when I'm like... this." Here I gestured at my ghostly self. "Basically I can still feel things when you're in my body, just not as well as before."

Elsa rubbed her chin. "Perhaps the dynamic works as though we literally share this body, then? It seems as though that what one person would normally experience all for themselves, is now shared between two different entities."

I shrugged. Hell if I understood how this stuff worked.

"I'm just saying that it's really freaking weird. Like, we're taking about sharing my body here."

"Well, it seems to be the case. for as far as I can tell." Elsa turned back to the sink. "Will you allow me to brush your teeth as well? I admit that the prospect of caring after oneself excites me, as I haven't the opportunity to perform such tasks in decades."

I cocked my head at such an absurd request, only to receive a pleading stare in response.

"Well, fine. Since you put it that way." I acquiesced, before crossing my arms. "Be gentle, okay? I don't want my gums to be bleeding at the end of this."

Elsa clasped her hands together in joy, before moving to squeeze some paste onto my toothbrush.

This is an incredibly strange situation I've gotten myself into.

I let Elsa run around in my body for little while longer after she finished washing up, which seemed to make her really happy. She practically skipped down the stairs when we left for the kitchen.

Mom was standing by the stove when we arrived, frying something kind of meat in a skillet. It smelled like... bacon? Or maybe it was ham? Hard to tell, considering all this body sharing business.

Mom spoke up as Elsa leapt off the staircase in lieu of taking the final 3 steps, though she didn't turn away from the stove. "Took you long enough, honey. Your pancakes are getting cold."

She pointed behind herself in the general direction of the kitchen countertop, where a plate of chocolate sauce drizzled pancakes indeed lay waiting.

I couldn't see Elsa's face from where I stood on the staircase, but I sure as hell didn't need to to know what she must've been thinking by the way she gingerly approached the stack of flapjacks.

"Go ahead." I said simply.

Elsa grabbed the plate and eagerly ran back up the stairs to my room, before proceeding to devour its contents. I watched as she licked the plate clean of its chocolate sauce, savouring every last drop.

...Y'know, all I've ever seen of Elsa up until this point was that of a formal and articulate, if a little world weary, adult, but just this morning alone has allowed me a rare glimpse of the inner playful child side to her, if the look of pure unadulterated happiness on her face meant anything.

Well, technically it's my face, since she's in my body. Semantics.

Hope it's not too hard to follow along, and that I'm not contradicting things I've established in previous chapters.

I've spent most of the winter break contemplating where I'm going to go with the story. I think I've gotten the major events that I want to see happen now, although I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to connect them together. I'll figure that out later.

A consequence of the above, though, is that I've ended up scrapping several ideas I've had at story creation. For example, I don't think I'll be able to deliver on that "Anna risks her life to help Elsa" thing in the summary, since that's one of the many ideas that ended up being scrapped. So, sorry about that guys, but I'm probably gonna have to edit the summary. Hope that doesn't upset anyone.

(That particular plot thread was made impossible since the beginning of Chapter 12. I might talk about the scrapped ideas later if people are curious).

Happy New Years.